Time for some positivity

Since my last post, I have received many texts, messages, and emails from my friends, teachers, and followers/readers. They encouraged me to stay positive and to continue to prepare myself to be a strong teacher. All of the experiences, feelings, and relationships I have while student teaching will allow me to grow into the teacher I want to become. I am really appreciative of the support and encouragement I receive on a daily basis! It’s a great feeling to know that people are following my journey and are helping me get through it in one piece! J

This week was pretty eventful! We had a day off on Monday due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so Gabe and I decided to take advantage of it and went exploring! I had my first experience going on the ‘L’ train which took us toward all the museums downtown. Since we’re (student) teachers, we get free admission to many museums, cultural centers, and other attractions! Gabe and I went to the Field Museum and spent around 3 hours learning about dinosaurs, Native American culture, Egyptians and mummies, genetics, and plants and animals (alive and extinct). We both learned a lot of new things and were so fascinated by the amount of living things that existed and still exist in the world!

Teaching this week went a lot better than last week. I introduced the topic of reflection on coordinate planes, and the students seemed to enjoy it! It was something they had never been exposed to, so since it was different, they paid more attention to it and stayed engaged. They also thought it was challenging, but we spent a full week working on it, making sure they understood it completely. On Friday, I was able to do a fun activity where I created a life-size coordinate plane and had the students plot points by walking along the plane. They were resistant at first because they don’t like changes in their routine, but after the first round of plotting, they had higher spirits! I have spent two weeks teaching plotting, translating (moving), and reflecting points, so next week I will be testing them on this information. It’ll be my first experience creating a test that shows me how much they have actually retained and if they are able to perform these tasks on their own.

On Thursday, we had our first JUSTICE session. If you don’t remember what that is from one of my earlier blog posts, JUSTICE stands for “Joining Urban Student Teachers to Integrate Community Experiences.” These are sessions that the six of us in the Urban Program participate in to discuss our experiences in our placements, as well as to learn more about urban education. This week’s topic was “First Impressions and Assets and Deficits.” We shared our impressions of Albany Park and the schools we are teaching in and discussed any stereotypes we were able to get rid of after spending three weeks here. Our discussion was awesome because the six of us teach in three schools with different populations of students and different types of classrooms, so we all had something new to bring to the conversation.

At the end of the week, Gabe, Alexis, and I went to Bellona’s Pizza, a small, family-owned pizza place that specializes in Chicago-style pizza. It was so good! We agree that “hole-in-the-wall” places in our neighborhood serve the best kind of food. The prices are reasonable and the food is tasty, so we enjoy exploring different places around us!

Today, Alexis, Gabe, Bekah, and I spent our time at the Adler Planetarium! Again, we were able to get in for free because we’re teachers… oh, the perks of being an educator! ;) Our goal is to visit one museum or cultural center every weekend. Chicago has some awesome resources, so why not take advantage of them while we’re here!?

Overcoming challenges

I’ve heard from practicing teachers that the semester or year-long student teaching experience we all have to go through is one of the toughest years of teaching. With only two weeks of student teaching completed, I shouldn’t be able to agree with this… but I agree. This past week was a challenge for me, emotionally and physically. In my last post, I mentioned that I would be teaching my first math lesson on coordinate points. My teacher had me plan lessons for three days, Wednesday-Friday, encouraging me to keep everything flexible. This is how each day went:

Day 1: Introduction to Coordinate Points

I was pretty excited going into this lesson. My teacher gave me a general idea of what the students knew about coordinate points: They’ve touched the topic before. They’ll tell me they know it and will ask for something harder, but really, they don’t know what to do. Going in with this mindset, I planned my lesson around creating a “Quadrant Foldable,” a visual aid containing all the basic information about plotting coordinate points that the students could use as a study guide or reference.

As soon as I began the lesson, the students began complaining, “We’ve learned this already, this is so boring.” My teacher warned me about this, so I was a little prepared for their reactions. I knew that this lesson was important, and I had to make sure they actually understood what they were doing. When I asked them to plot a point, maybe two of the nine students could do it correctly. We started working on the foldable and one of the girls asked, “Do we really have to do this? This is stupid.” It was really upsetting to hear that because I thought that creating the foldable would be something new and different from what they’re used to. Their motivation was low, but they went along with it and finished their foldables. By the end of the lesson, the students still needed assistance with plotting points. When my teacher told me to be flexible with my lessons, he really meant it, because even after spending 50 minutes teaching them to plot, I had to modify my second lesson to review plotting and then move onto the next topic.

Day 2: Review and Movement of Points

We began the lesson by reviewing plotting with a warm-up worksheet. The students complained a lot more than the previous day. One girl told me to my face that she hated me. Another girl said she wanted her math teacher from last year to teach her. A boy said he thought this stuff was stupid. All of this happened within the first ten minutes of class. I was so thrown-off, that I didn’t know how to respond. That’s when my teacher had to step in and yell at the students, telling them that they needed to treat me with respect and treat me like a real teacher. At that point, I was losing my confidence in taking over the class. My teacher took one of the students outside of the classroom to discuss her behavior… this gave two other students the perfect opportunity to start a fight. Both students were yelling and swearing at each other. Another student teacher and I had to break it up and separate them.

That entire class period, I felt like nothing was going right. I lost control of the class, the students were talking back, and I almost didn’t get the lesson finished. My teacher debriefed my lesson with me and told me not to be disheartened. He said that the students were trying to test me the past couple of days to see how far they could push me before I gave into them. He explained to me that I had to be tougher, and I couldn’t be afraid to raise my voice at them. I couldn’t show them that they were getting to me, because once I did that, I would lose the class for the rest of my time with them.

I left school that day feeling so defeated. I was stressed and disappointed in myself for not being able to manage the class. I was so grateful for my family and Alexis that night because they helped me to stay positive and gave me ideas on how to react in different situations that came up in the classroom. They motivated me to think about the positive experiences I had with the students from last week and the progress I had already made outside of the classroom.

Day 3: Movement of Points and Creating Shapes

My teacher took the day off, so I was put to the test right away! I put my “teacher-face” on as soon as I stepped into the classroom. Surprisingly, the students worked really well together, and we went through the entire period without anyone disrespecting me. One of the students tried to get me to cut class short so that he could study for a science quiz, but I stood my ground and said that I wouldn’t do that since my lesson required the full 50 minutes and that studying was meant to be done outside of class. He definitely didn’t like that, but I could see that he knew I was right. It’s safe to say that I walked out of that period smiling because it went a lot better than the previous day.

Remember Sarah from a couple posts ago? She didn’t like me very much from the beginning… Sarah told me in front of everyone in the class that she actually liked me! I was speechless for a few seconds, but I couldn’t help myself, so I said, “Are you kidding me?! You hated me from the minute I walked in!” Sarah shrugged, and said, “You’ve grown on me. I don’t mind you anymore.” We had a moment there, and we both ended up laughing. She even came to me at the end of the day and asked me to sit with her during her advisory period (which is usually my prep period), so I agreed! I’m taking any chance I get to connect with my students!

The end of this day went really well. Gabe and I helped to judge the school-wide spelling bee with one of the other student teachers! I’m really feeling like I’m part of the school community, and I can’t wait to see what other opportunities I have to get involved at Belding!

This past week was a challenge, but I know that these experiences will help me to become a stronger teacher. In my sister’s words: “If you can survive teaching 8^th graders at CPS, you can survive teaching any other grade.” I’m continuing this experience with an open mind and want to see how I can make myself a better, more effective teacher. I’m hoping that this week goes smoothly, but I’m taking it one day at a time. 

Busy, busy, busy!

We’ve been playing “catch-up” these past two days with social studies and science, due to testing last week. Both mornings, we began with two hours of social studies followed by two hours of science. You would think that the students would be bored listening to their teachers talk for so long… they weren’t! The social studies and science teachers made both days so much fun! In social studies, the students began learning about World War I. The 8^th graders at Belding have a wonderful social studies teacher; she kept them engaged and made the topic enjoyable by incorporating videos and visuals. I was reminded of my 8^th grade social studies class with Mr. Bonk, one of the most intense and memorable classes I have ever had in my entire time in school. I’ve been so grateful for Mr. Bonk these past two days because everything I learned about WWI in his class came back to me, which made it so much easier for me to work with my students individually.

In science, the students have been doing tons of hands-on activities. They are currently learning about different types of energy and how energy transfers from different objects. On Monday, the students worked on building water wheels that could lift different amounts of weight. It was really cool to watch the students apply the concepts they learned from their textbooks to what they were experiencing with their water wheels. I’ve been learning a lot from the science teacher, about science and about how to interact with students. She has been giving me advice about how to work with certain students, which has really helped me to keep them on-task and focused.

Food!

Last night, Alexis, Gabe, Bekah, and I decided to eat dinner at a local BBQ place called Pitchfork. We had a great time updating each other about our placements. We’re all being exposed to different grade levels, cultures, teaching strategies, and most importantly, students. We’ve already shared funny stories that have happened to us in class, as well as stories about things that have shocked us since our arrival. We love our placements and students and are soaking in this experience the best we can.

What have I been up to?

Today, things began picking up for me. I led two discussions with my students during social studies about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and how that was “the straw that broke the camel’s back” and marked the start of WWI. Update: Because of the conversations I had with my girls last week, they’ve been more responsive to me. They participated in the activities today and enjoyed sharing their ideas. I’m really glad I took the time to listen to them last week, because it has definitely helped me get through to them and gain their respect. Besides leading discussions in social studies, I created a reading guide for a few students to use to prepare for their reading quiz tomorrow. The rest of my prep period was spent preparing for my math lesson on Coordinate Points tomorrow. I’ll be teaching the math lessons for the next three days, so I’m pretty excited about that! I’m starting to feel a little less nervous to teach tomorrow because I’m beginning to get along with most of the students and they feel comfortable with me. My teacher is supporting me with all the decisions I am making with this lesson and will be there to help me tomorrow if I get stuck. I’m looking forward to flying solo! 

Building Rapport

**Disclaimer: This is a long post, but it has some awesome stories!**

Yesterday was my first day back to school after having TWO snow days! What a great start to student teaching! The temperatures were so low on Wednesday and Thursday that it would have been difficult to stand outside or walk anywhere, so I was grateful for the days off. Many students decided not to come to school on Friday because it was still cold outside. Only five of the nine students I work with showed up to first period. My teacher hurt his back so he was unable to come to work which meant that I was in charge of the 8^th graders all by myself! I’m grateful for the support system I have at Belding already. The four 8^th grade team teachers talked with me in the morning to help me navigate through the students’ schedules and to make sure I showed up to the right classrooms. They were testing again today, so the schedule was a little different than the beginning of the week. One of the team teachers had to leave school early, so I became her substitute for one class. At first, I was nervous because I didn’t have anything prepared, and I still didn’t know the students very well. The teachers were very supportive, though, and worked with me throughout the day.

Testing for my students took about 2 hours in the morning. Once they were done, they were allowed to read silently or play games. The four girls decided to sit by me in the reading corner. Here’s some background information on these girls. I'm using pseudonyms to maintain the privacy of my students. One girl, we’ll call her Sarah, has an extreme attitude problem… I was warned about her my first day. She hasn’t liked me since I walked into the classroom. The teachers told me not to take any offense to that because she doesn’t like many authority figures. Another girl, we’ll call her Janice, is the girl that I work with in Reading, so she has been talking to me since the first day of school. I’d like to think she likes to talk to me because we have one really big thing in common: we both love to read. Sarah and Janice are both African American and live in a group/residential home with around ten other girls.  There were two other girls who were sitting with us, we’ll call them Alicia and Nancy. Both Alicia and Nancy are Hispanic and very lively.

Sarah and Janice didn’t seem to mind that I was sitting next to them, listening to their conversation. Sometime after the first five minutes, they included me into the conversation, which definitely surprised me because I didn’t think they’d want to talk with a teacher. We all talked for about two hours. Let me say that this was probably one of the most eye-opening conversations I have had with 13-14 year-olds. They described what their lives were like in the group home, who they lived with, and what their family situations were. Convo number 1: We ended up on the topic of having kids because a girl they know is pregnant… and she’s 15. Sarah began talking about how she can’t wait to have kids and how she already has names picked out. She and Janice plan to have a family before the age of 20. Shocked, I told them that I was 20 and couldn’t even imagine having a child right now, and I asked them why they were thinking about this so early. They looked at me and laughed and said,

“We’re women. We need to have kids or else we’re not serving our purpose on Earth. We have kids young so we can enjoy them and spend time with them. You’ll have a kid at 50, and your baby will be 3 years old. You’ll be too old to even play with him. If you wait too long, you won’t have any kids. Then what? Then there’s no one to be there at your memorial and talk about your legacy. No one can keep your memory alive.”

I was speechless. It took me so long to process what they had just told me. They’re 13 and 14 years old and they have all of this going on in their minds. The teacher in me tried advocating for them to wait until they were at least done with high school and to think about themselves first before thinking about supporting a child. I asked them, “How do you think you’ll support a child at 15? You haven’t finished school, you don’t have a job.” 

Sarah’s response:

“There’s a thing called ‘unemployment checks’ and food stamps. I’ll stand in line and wait for those and support my child. Anything else?”

This was probably the most in-depth conversation I have had with these girls, and I’ve only been there for three days. Throughout the 2 hour conversation, I mostly sat and listened to the girls talk with each other to figure out how I could relate to them and to just get some insight into their lives. Convo number 2: I happened to mention that I watched America’s Next Top Model and loved Tyra Banks, and the girls flipped out because they watched it as well! We talked about who we liked on the show and who we thought deserved to win. Sarah had been quiet until I said that I was glad Keith won. Keith is black. She spoke up and looked so surprised and said, “You like black people?” I looked at her and said, “What makes you think I wouldn’t like black people? You've never even talked with me.” Her response: “You’re boojie, from the upper-class, you look stuck-up because you dress all nice. Of course you wouldn’t like black people.” That’s when Alicia stuck up for me and said,

“Hey, we don’t even know her. She’s been here two days. You can’t judge her like that. It’s like judging a book by its cover. Look at me, I’m Mexican, you might think I crossed the border. Did I? No. Look at Janice, she’s black. You might think she steals. Does she? No. So don’t judge Ms. L because you don’t know her.”

I was so grateful at that moment for Alicia for standing up for me even before I got to talk for myself.

There were other topics we discussed in those 2 hours, but these were the two conversations that stuck out to me the most. When preparing for this student teaching experience, I was aware that the way I grew up would be a lot different than the way many of my students are growing up in Chicago. Our priorities are different, our resources are different, our environments are different. I was glad to have these conversations with the girls because I built rapport with them. They feel comfortable talking with me, and, hopefully, I have helped to get rid of their stereotypes of me. Sarah is more receptive to me and doesn’t hate me as much. Janice, Alicia, and Nancy have a better idea of who I am. I’m hoping that these relationships that I have created will help me throughout my time teaching in the special education classroom. I was glad to learn more about my students and their backgrounds because it helps me to see what their lives are like outside of school. I have to be a culturally-responsive teacher and make sure that I take everything into consideration about my students, both inside and outside of the classroom.

Testing... 1, 2, 3..

Well I hope you can guess what I did today from the title of this blog. The students took NWEA tests for the majority of this morning. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I walked around and read questions aloud for the students who needed that accommodation. Otherwise, they were on their own to complete the test. The tests are completely computerized, which is a change from when I was growing up (obviously) and the tests required us to fill in the little bubbles.

Logistical issues with computerized testing that I learned about:

1. If Belding decides to take the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) test this year, the entire school will need to take this test on computers. With a limited number of computer/laptop resources, it would take weeks to get each grade to complete the test. By doing so, instruction time is being taken away, putting the emphasis on tests rather than actually learning new material.
2. With PARCC tests, students need to be trained on how to navigate through the test. Since it’s all computerized, students will be entering equations into the program, meaning they need to know how to include an exponent or a square root sign into a given problem. This can be extremely time consuming a) to teach the students how to work the program and b) for the kids to actually use these functions during the test. If students already have test anxiety, they’ll be even more anxious if they have to enter in numbers instead of simply clicking buttons.
3. Technology has its pros and cons. Pro: Results come back quickly so teachers are able to see growth or decline from previous test results and take action quickly. Con: Computers can do funky things. For example, if the student takes too long on a problem, the computer automatically logs him or her out of the test and requires the teacher to approve the student to start the test again. It happened twice today and was quite a hassle to work with. Pro: Computerized tests save paper and other resources! Con: If a school doesn’t have enough computer resources, it takes a longer time to complete school-wide testing.

Testing continues throughout the week, but I promise not to bore you with anymore test-talk in my next post!

On a happier note! School is cancelled for tomorrow due to severe weather conditions! And because of that, Alexis and I decided to go home and stay warm with our families for a night. It’ll be a nice break to be in the comfort of our homes… even though it has only been a few days since we’ve been here!

Looking ahead: I hope to help my teacher teach a lesson on coordinate points next week. I have some really cool ideas for a lesson that will be hands-on and engaging, so here’s to hoping it gets approved and that I can teach and implement some of it! This depends on how much the students already know about coordinate points and graphing – if they understand it, then the lesson will last a day, but if they don’t understand it, then we’ll plan to teach it for a week which gives more opportunities for my activities to come into play!

HAPPY SNOW DAY! J

I Survived!

I can say that I officially survived my first day of student teaching. My day started when I woke up at 5:45 am, and ended when I came home from school at 3:30 pm. Whoever said teachers have it easy is totally wrong. Commuting, then standing on their feet for the full school day, and dealing with students’ behaviors… it’s a lot of work! After eating breakfast, Gabe and I caught the 6:45 am bus and then walked from the blue line stop to our school (in 5 degree weather).

What I learned: Invest in a nice pair of hat and gloves and wear two layers of pants in the morning. We get to do this for the next four months, so I’ll be a pro by the end of it all!

My first impressions of Belding:

1) As soon as we walked in, everyone was so friendly. Every single person who walked into the office either said “Good morning” or “Happy New Year” to me and Gabe. I felt so welcomed that I almost forgot I was nervous to be there!

2) My teacher’s office is in the school library, so while I waited for him, I browsed some books (what else would I do… I love books!). I was shocked to see the types of books I saw: There was an entire bookshelf dedicated to books in different languages. Common books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the Harry Potter series were in Arabic and Spanish. Along with the books in different languages, there were some that talked about different religions. Belding is a very diverse school, so it makes sense to have a variety of books. It made me really happy to see all of this in a public school library.

3) I like how Belding is so accepting of its students’ backgrounds. Something that surprised me today was that all the students from grades K-8 learn Arabic. ARABIC. Forget about Spanish or French… but Arabic! I still can’t wrap my head around it if you couldn’t tell.

4) The teachers that I worked with today made me feel so welcome and comfortable in my new environment. They were willing to let me work with students and find a place in each classroom. Each of the teachers was really easy to talk to, and they all included me in everything they did as a team.

So what am I actually teaching?

Surprise! I’ll be teaching 8^th grade special education! Well, mostly 8^th grade. I was nervous at first because I was expecting to work with a variety of middle grade students, but 8^th grade will be a new and different experience! This is what my schedule will look like for the next 8 weeks:

7:50 – 8:50	8th Grade Math (Resource Room)
8:50 – 9:50	8th Grade Reading (Inclusion)
9:50 – 10:50	8th Grade Social Studies (Inclusion/Pull-out)
10:50 – 11:50	8th Grade Science (Inclusion)
11:50 – 12:30	RtI/Writing (Inclusion)
12:30 – 1:15	Lunch
1:15 – 1:45	6th Grade Social Studies/Science (Inclusion/Pull-out)
1:45 – 2:45	Prep period

I will mainly focus on teaching lessons for 8^th grade math. I’ll have 8-9 students for the full hour in the resource room, a place where the special education students are pulled out to learn math. Inclusion means that those students are included in the classroom with their peers without disabilities. When the students are in the inclusion classroom, I will work with them during class time and will modify and accommodate their tests, homework, and study materials to work with the goals listed in their Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). When the students are pulled-out, I will be teaching them a modified version of whatever their peers are learning in that specific subject. My supervising teacher will slowly ease me into actually taking over the full caseload. I’ll start off with small-group, pull-out work and then transition to teaching the full day.

What did the students learn today:

Math: PEMDAS – that’s the Order of Operations (Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiply, Divide, Add, Subtract)

Science: Potential and Kinetic Energy

Language Arts: Vocabulary (I learned the word capacious today! Don’t know what it means, look it up!)

Science: Convection Currents in the Earth’s mantle

Heard in class:

“You know, 20 years ago or something like that, they didn’t make kids take all these tests [NWEA and PARCC tests]. They’re putting too much pressure on us.”

This was definitely something that got my attention because it was the special education student who said this in her general education Language Arts class. We discussed standardized tests in my college classes and the effects they have on teachers and students, but it was great to hear first-hand how a student felt about them. I grew up taking the ISATs, but those didn’t seem to be a HUGE deal back then. Now, these high-stakes tests determine what high school most of these students will be able to go to. The local public high schools are not as good as some of the other city schools like Lane Tech College Prep or Whitney Young Magnet High School. One of the teachers told me that of the 19,000 kids from the Chicago area who are allowed to apply to these good schools, only 2,000 of them get in. “Allowed” means that they have the grades, test scores, and extra-curricular activities to even get them an application to these schools. Students have to apply to get into HIGH SCHOOL… and I was worried about college applications. A girl that I was working with today told me, “I’m not going to high school. I’m not smart enough.” It’s heartbreaking to hear that coming from an 8^th grader. Usually kids are excited to graduate junior high and move onto high school, but this girl definitely does not have those same emotions.

This week is NWEA testing week so the schedule will be a little different. Tomorrow, I will help to administer some tests by reading questions aloud, an accommodation that many of my students have on their IEPs. Today went by extremely fast, so I have no doubt that tomorrow and the rest of the week will also fly by!

Roommate picture after our first day of teaching!

New Beginnings

After two days of living in the apartment, we finally have access to internet! This post will probably be long because I have tons of updates from my time here…

But first, here are some peopel I’ll be referring to in my blogs: Alexis (peer from IU and my roommate), Gabe (a peer from IU and fellow student teacher at Belding Elementary School), Bekah (a peer from IU and roommates with Gabe), Teddi (a peer from IU and roommates with Gabe and Bekah), and Karen (a peer from IU). The six of us are part of the Urban Program through the Global Gateway for Teachers cultural immersion program at IU. We decided to spend our 16 weeks of student teaching in Chicago Public Schools to have the opportunity to learn about and teach in an urban school setting.

Let’s start with Friday: MOVE-IN DAY! After living in a dorm for 3 ½ years in college, I didn’t realize how much stuff I had… or how much stuff I needed to live on my own. My parents and sister helped to move me into my apartment in Albany Park, which I will share with my roommate, Alexis. Alexis and I have known each other since freshman year of college and lived across from each other last semester, so I’d like to think we’ll get along just fine as roommates this semester. J Move-in went smoothly because there were so many people involved in helping me unpack and get organized. (Shout-out to Salima for color-coordinating my closet!) It took us about two hours to get everything set-up which gave us enough time to attend Chicago Jamatkhana to say Friday prayers. After that, my parents decided to treat me to dinner at Annapurna on Devon Avenue, one of the best places, I think, to get South Indian food! Yum!

Saturday was quite eventful and a day full of new experiences. New experience #1: Alexis and I started off our day trying to be grown-ups, setting up accounts for internet, cable, gas, and electricity. We made a pretty good team and managed to get most of our accounts set-up in a couple hours! The afternoon was reserved for our orientation and an introduction to our JUSTICE sessions, which stands for “Joining Urban Student Teachers to Integrate Community Experiences.” We will be having these sessions twice a month along with student teaching to help us engage in conversation about various issues and concerns related to urban education. During orientation, we learned about the city of Chicago and how it was built on a grid system. Fun fact: Madison St. and State St. make up the (0,0) point on the grid and serve as our reference point. I’m hoping to become a little less directionally challenged while I live in Albany Park, so I look forward to using what I learned to explore the city!

Speaking of exploring the city, guess who will be using public transportation for four months? ME! New experience #2: I bought a Ventra pass to help me get around the city. Gabe and I will be teaching at Belding Elementary School, which is about 2 miles from our apartment, so we invested in Ventra passes to be able to take the bus to and from school. I haven’t taken the bus to school since 8^th grade, so relying on public transportation will be something I’ll definitely need to get used to.

One of the main purposes of living in Albany Park while student teaching is to immerse ourselves in the culture and neighborhood of the students we will be teaching. That night, Alexis, Gabe, Bekah, and I decided to eat at a local Mexican restaurant called C-Manny’s. We walked 0.7 miles to get to the restaurant, observing our surroundings and trying to look like locals. New experience #3: I tried Enchiladas Verde, which is not my usual order of tacos or quesadillas, so I was pretty proud of myself for eating something different! The food was delicious, and we were all stuffed by the end of dinner. I’m looking forward to eating at more local restaurants and trying different foods throughout my time here!

Today, I woke up to a surprise: snow. For those of you who know me, I’m not a big fan of snow. I like when it’s falling to the ground, and I can watch it from my window, but walking in it… that’s another story. Gabe and I decided to familiarize ourselves with the route to school today – a route consisting of a 10 minute bus-ride and a 10-minute walk from the bus stop to the school. New experience #4: I successfully used my Ventra pass, rode on public transportation, and got to my destination and back, all without getting lost! Because of the commute, Gabe and I have to be out of our apartments by 6:30 am to make sure we get to school well before 7:45 am, which is when school starts.

Tomorrow, I will begin my first day of student teaching at Belding Elementary. I’m feeling a mix of emotions: nervous, excited, anxious. I don’t know what to expect on my first day, but I do know that I’ve been looking forward to it since I started classes at IU. Here’s to hoping for a great semester with great students and a wonderful experience in the classroom!