And so it Begins...

I am going to be student teaching tomorrow.

As I type that sentence, my brain is looking at it saying "What? No you are not! You still have years til that, what are you talking about?" But no, its not years or months from now. It's here, now! I have been preparing for what seems like forever for this, but at the same time I feel that I am not yet ready.  Where have these last 3 1/2 years of college gone? Wasn't I getting ready for prom just last week? It just doesn't seem like a reality to me.

But it is a reality. Tomorrow morning, I will be walking into a first grade classroom as their student teacher for the next 7 weeks. And boy what a crazy 7 weeks it will be: Learning all of their names and traits, slowly teaching all of the lessons, making plans, putting up bulletin boards, grading homeworks and tests.

It's not fear that I am feeling; I feel prepared from my classes and I will know how to teach these kids.  I have worked in a classroom before, many times, but I guess it just wasn't under as much pressure as this is. Maybe it is just a mix of nervous and excitedness, finally being where I have been working towards for years now.  I am really not sure how I am going to feel walking in there, but I will walk in with confidence and ready to begin this semester!

Let me end this post with the beginnings of what will be my Student Teaching Shenanigans postings.  These will be the little stories I have from my time student teaching.  This first story is from the first grade room that I am beginning in tomorrow.


My first day in the classroom, I was standing in the classroom with the Paraprofessional waiting for the children to come in.  The teacher, Maria Natalie, was running late, so we were going to greet the children and have them unpack as we waited for her to arrive.

The students started coming in, including this adorable little curley-haired girl.  She stopped at the door and looked at me with a very puzzled face.  She then immediately walked to the para, Ms. Fio's desk and began to cry.

"I do not like substitute teachers" she said through tears.  My heart broke for the girl and Fio and I could only look at each other and laugh. She gave the girl a hug and assured her that I was not a substitute and that Ms. Natalie would be arriving soon. I walked over to her and bent down to say Hi and told her I was just visiting and that after Christmas, I would be helping Ms. Natalie teach so that I could learn to be a teacher like her. Once she heard this, she immediately calmed down and proceeded to be my shadow all day, wanting to hold my hand in the hallway and help me with anything that I needed. She even gave me a hug as I left the classroom that day.

Wasn't even in the classroom for five minutes, didn't even say a word and I made someone cry, that must be a Student Teaching record of some kind!  Well my little shadow will definitely be welcoming when I walk in tomorrow morning!

As often as I can, I will be posting stories about my experiences in the classroom, as well as keeping up on my Disney news.  With some good planning, I am hoping to keep on top of my updates and not fall in to the unorganized trap I have seen other student teachers fall into!


Send your Pixie Dust, this is the beginning of my entrance into the real world!!

My Thankful List 2010

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! This is a list of just some of the things I am thankful for this year

I am Thankful For....

-the love of my family

-the love and support from my boyfriend, Chris

-all of my great friends

-my good health the last year

-the food and shelter I am blessed with

-the education I am lucky enough to have

-the great student teaching placement and the wonderful experiences I am sure to have there

-Walt Disney and his amazing dreams

-Twitter, for I would never have known about the large Disney community, met so many amazing friends or found my prince charming without it

Please remember those who are not lucky enough to have some, if any, of the blessings we have this year.

What are you thankful for? Leave me a comment below about what you are thankful for this holiday season!

Wishing you and yours the happiest Thanksgiving!

The Student Teaching Journey Begins...

Going to step away from the Disney part of the blog for a moment and talk about a journey I am beginning in my educational/professional life. Yesterday, I got my official letter from my Senior Seminar class saying who my cooperating teachers would be for student teaching! I have received my first choice, which is Claymont Elementary School, a school that is about 5 minutes from my house and where I went from 4th through 6th grade.

My Official Letter!!

The principal there, Jim Grant, is the principal my mother worked under at Darley Road Elementary before the school closed down and my two cooperating teachers are women that I know and have worked with before from Darley as well! My regular education placement is with Maria Natalie in her first grade classroom where I will be from Jan 10th to the end of February.  My special education placement is with Rachel Goldwasser, a teacher in the Delaware Autistic Program and she teaches Kindergarten through 2nd grade.

I am really honored and excited that these teachers are going to let me become a part of their classroom family and I cannot wait to meet the students! Now that I know my placements, my next step is to go to the classrooms and spend at least 5 hours in each and write a paper on my experiences.  I am planning to go to Mrs. Natalie's classroom next Friday to visit and will see Ms. Goldwasser's room after Thanksgiving.

I am still deciding how I want to blog about my experiences. I know I will be updating with big events, but for smaller updates, I am possibly thinking of doing a video blog update.  Not sure yet though, I will have to see as they year continues. 

Reading Writing Thats the Rule

This time next week, I will be going to Neumann University, and beginning the classes that lead off my very final year of school.  Yes, my senior year of college begins next Tuesday, with an 8 am Classical Music class no less.

Being a senior year, there will obviously be harder classes as I come closer than ever to my major, but there will also be some extra challenges.  The first and hardest will be entering my last semester participating in Neumann Music.  This music program has been amazing and I have learned so much, I will dearly miss it.  And this last semester of Music comes directly after learning about the departure of a dear music teacher and friend.  Her family has to move to Morocco, so it will make the department at the University very different.

This first semester will have a very challenging class in it, Senior Sem, where I will be learning about everything I will be doing in the spring during Student Teaching.  I know I will be blogging about the crazy stuff I will have to do there, so look for those.  The other challenge for this semester will be working on my Honors paper.  These are usually written in the spring semester, but because of student teaching, I have to write the paper this fall.

It shall be an interesting 10 months, so look for the occasional update as to the status of my classes and the challenges I face with Student Teaching.