Week 1 of Teaching

    First I want to state that I did not realize how exhausting teaching is.  I love it and I am happy with my choice for a career, but I have been completely drained all week.  The first day or two I observed and just talked with Dr. Mills about teaching and what all I needed to do.  I got up in front of all of the classes and told them a little bit about myself and then had them all stand up and tell me their names and where all they had lived.  Many of the kids have lived in numerous countries and states.  It is funny how literal middle schoolers are because when i was telling them I drive a 76' Monte Carlo, and it is a boat I think some of them literally thought I drove a boat haha.  The kids are great so far and very gracious.  I know I am going to love them all and be sad by the time I leave.
    On Wednesday and Thursday I taught my mini-lesson over the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.  You definitely learn more teaching something 4 different times and having to research it.  It went well for my first time out and Dr. Mills even left me by myself with the class for 30-40 min and everything went ok.  I am learning a lot from Dr. Mills and he is more worried about me becoming a great teacher and not so much about my content.  The content I need to learn on my own and he is teaching me how to teach.  He has had about 20 student teachers so there is no one better to learn from.  Although I still need to earn the kids respect and love I feel like we are already headed in the right direction.
  On Tuesday i got to help out with the volleyball club and had a blast! The girls are so cute!  What I love the most is their desire to learn and grow.  Poor girls some of them are so confused because they have never seen a real game of volleyball played in their life.  Wednesday I played volleyball with the teachers and had so much fun!  They are all so welcoming and it is a nice stress reliever.  So that is a rundown of my first week of student teaching.  I still have a long ways to go but it was a good start.

P.S. sorry if there are grammatical errors I don't have too much time to edit everything :)  

                                 Here is the sign a couple of the students made for me on the first day :)

London Day 2- January 30th

   London day two!  The second day in London we rode the same bus from the base to the middle of London.  We had decided to go ahead and ride the hop on hop off bus again so we wouldn't have to pay for another mode of transportation.  However as we get to the bus stop Kayln realized she had lost her key to open her purse haha.  Several of the girls are rightly worried that they will get pick pocketed so they got some locks to made it harder for people to steal from them.  However, this ended up being a problem because Kayln's bus pass and all her money were in her purse locked up.  So me and Gwyn go back with her to retrace our steps in an attempt to locate the key.  Like in most cases we were not successful.  Gwyn ended up breaking into her purse for here with not too much damage.  Then we start walking back to the bus stop and after about 30 min Kayln starts laughing.  It just so happened that she had put the key between her tights and her jeans so after walking for awhile it had worked its way down into her boot!  Needless to say we laughed for a good 5 minutes.
  After that fiasco we climbed up the London Tower bridge and got to walk across the top and look out over the river.  The rest of the day we spent trying to make it to the English museum, which was a must on my list because I wanted to see the Rosetta Stone!  We went ahead and got a day pass for the Underground and got out at Kings Cross train station really quick to see the Harry Potter 9 3/4 platform. It was a little bit of a disappointment because it was under construction but we are in Europe so that is going to happen.  Then we finally reached the museum and had time to see all the highlights.  The museum was beautiful in itself but it also had some great works of art and we needed an entire day to see it all.      
   Later Gwyn, Kayln, and I headed back to meet up with the other girls.  All of us met up a a cute pub called the King's head.  It was a quaint English pub with a nice place to sit and eat.  We got to eat some good food then headed back to the tour bus.  That was the festivities for our first weekend in London !

London Day 1 - Jan 29th

Yesterday we went to London for our first day trip of many I am sure.  We signed up for the trip through the base travel agency which made it a lot cheaper.  Since we are not allowed to drive we had to take a taxi to the Lakenheath base to catch the bus to London.  We left at 8am for London and arrived about two hours later.  Our first stop for the day was the Tower of London.  The Tower of London is a fortress with 20 different towers located by the London Tower Bridge.  The royalty of England lived in the Tower of London for 500 years, and it is full of wonderful history and drama.  Also the breathtakingly huge crown jewels are stored and protected in this fortress.  There is the biggest diamond in the world kept there in one of the collection pieces.  We all took a tour with the Yeoman Warder men better known in England as the Beefeaters.  After that we looked around on our own and saw the torture chambers, royal armorers, and prisoner towers.  It was a really cold day so we were all ready to get inside somewhere to warm up.  Then we all met up at the Starbucks and got some hot chocolate before starting off again.  Since we were tired and we wanted to make sure to see all of the city we got tickets for the big hop on hop off tour buses.  We rode the bus around for a couple of hours and saw most of the main attractions of London.  The London Eye, Big Ben and parliament, Westminster Abby, Hyde Park, and others I am sure.  Although we did not get to drive by Buckingham Palace due to student riots.  The college students of England have been rioting due to the large increase in college tuitions so the police were out in full force everywhere.  Students were all over town protesting I thought it was a fun to witness.  I think some of the girls were getting a little nervous but it never got out of hand.  Plus we were watching history in the making since I am sure it was on the news that night.  When we finished the bus ride and headed back to our meeting place we stopped in for some food at a cute pub.  I got my first fish and chips in England haha..... although I could not understand the lady when she was asking if I wanted peas or mashed peas.  I asked her twice what she was saying only to end in saying I would take whatever she recommended, only to find out later that probably sounded ridiculous since they were both peas. So I quickly found out that they always serve peas with fish and chips don't ask me why.  After dinner we rode the bus back and all slept on the way home.

Friday January 28th...

Today all the student teachers from the middle school including me reported to our schools at 8:00a.m to meet with our teachers once again.  It was a teacher work day today so it was really relaxed and a time to talk with our cooperating teachers.  Since it was a work day we could wear casual clothes, so we wore our awesome new school tee shirts.  Also I now have my school ID and lanyard so I feel pretty "legit."  Our school colors are black and gold and we are the Lakenheath Leopards.  Also I got my keys to the school today so I can now go to the school and work anytime I want to which will be nice if I ever need to work late.  Plus our school is so close I can walk back home in a couple minutes.  Dr. Mills and I had some more good talks today and I am feeling better and better about my student teaching, but still a little inadequate.  I just hope by the end of this I can look back on how much I have learned and what an amazing experience it was.  Gwyn's teacher Mrs. Green took the girls from the middle school to the BX (base exchange) and the commissary (grocery store) today.  She has a pretty little car and I don't think she realized we hadn't really had a chance to do much shopping yet.  Therefore, we stocked up and the car was packed down with our groceries and other odds and ins we had not had a chance to get.  I also got a cute plant because our rooms were so bare I needed a little life in it.  Afterwards I went back to the school and Dr. Mills invited me out with some of the other teachers.  So I got to go back to Lakenheath to Liberty Lodge and hang out with the teachers outside of school.  It was a lot of fun to hang out with them in a none work environment.  They are all so welcoming and helpful it is easy to adjust.  We had dinner there and I played my first slot machine haha.  Dr. Mills thought it was funny that I had never played one so we had a go.  I actually won 20 dollars that we split so I came back 10 dollars richer.  Afterwards he drove me around Lakenheath base and showed me where everything was and let me get my barrings a little better.  Once we got back the girls and I hung out in the lounge and had some good laughs.  Now everyone is getting things ready for tomorrows trip to London.  We are taking a trip Saturday and Sunday through the base travel agency to the Tower of London, and then we get the rest of the day to explore.  Although it will probably be a little chilly I know we are going to have a lot of fun!! That is it for tonight hopefully after tomorrow I can add some more fun adventures! Night :)

First Couple of Days....

All eight of us finally arrived in England and are so excited to begin our adventure!  Amazingly no ones luggage got lost and all of the flights were on time.  When we caught our first glimpse of London it was a stereotypical gloomy, overcast day.  After waiting for a couple of hours and overcoming some minor bumps in the road we finally got to board the Air Force bus that would take us to the base.  At first we were all loud and excited but after about 15 minutes the fatigue set in and we were all out like a light.  When we woke up we had to go through several checkpoints to make sure we were allowed to enter the base.  The Entire base consists of three separate bases.  There are Lakenheath, Feltwell, and Mildenhall all located within 15 min. of one another.  All of the food and shops are located at Lakenheath.  The middle school I am teaching at and our dorms are located on Feltwell.  After arriving on base we got to look around some of the shops and rest for awhile.  Next, we were issued our base IDs that we must have on us at all times.  You do not exist without a base ID here, which is good for security reasons.  Next, we had about 15 min to run around like crazy people and try to get all of our groceries and necessary items  for the next couple of days.  Needless to say everyone ended up with some pretty interesting food combinations :).  Finally we were taken to our dorm rooms and got all of our luggage moved upstairs.  We each get a small dorm room with a bed, dresser, chair, and closet dresser.  The rooms are pretty small but big enough for one person.  Each room has one room connected with a door so you can keep the door open or closed.  My room is connected to Sarah's which is perfect because we are both at the middle school.  So, a lot of the time we will just keep our door open, which is more fun anyways!  Then we have communal bathrooms, kitchen, and lounge.  Today (Thursday Jan 27) we got to go to our schools and finally meet our cooperating teachers.  We were met by the secretaries and assistant principal.  They gave us a tour around the school and were all very welcoming and helpful.  The school I am working at is called LMS Lakenheath Middle School, and it is only four years old with about 500 students in it.  The grades are all separated into different hallways and given team names, my team is Hammersmith.  Dr. Mills is my teacher and I have heard only great things about him.  He has had a lot of experience which makes me nervous but also excited to learn from the best.  The school is almost eerily quit because the students are so well behaved.  My first impression of the students was very good they all seem very respectful and ready to learn.  A couple of the girls even made me a cute sign that says "Welcome to LMS, Good Luck," it was really cute and I wasn't expecting to be welcomed so quickly.  Overall I am ready to get started but still feel like I have so much to learn.  I do not think I could have asked for a better teacher to learn from or students to teach.  Tomorrow (Jan 28) is a teacher work day so we get to take it easy and meet with our teachers.  Then this weekend we are taking a trip to LONDON!! We are doing a tour of the tower of London and then just exploring the town.  Well that is all for now, don't know how good I will be at blogging but I will attempt to keep people updated.  Lots of Love !