March 30

Tomorrow will be a big day of firsts for me.  It is the first day I will teach every period.  So far I have taught Geography and Religion.  Tomorrow, I also teach Language Arts.  Tomorrow, I also begin my extracurricular activity.  I am going to be leading a volleyball clinic for girls currently in 4th through 7th grade.  This will be exciting because I completely planned and will lead it on my own.  My coop, who is so helpful, is also going to be there but as my assistant.  I will have to let you know how tomorrow goes. 

This week has just zipped by.  I have learned that sometimes, no matter how much you don't want to, you just got to give a student a blue slip.  A blue slip is part of Salem's disciplinary proceedure.  Although, we practiced in Dr. Fisher's class, and we talked about it often, discipline in real life is stressful.  It is a delicate balance of picking your fights and keeping the class under control.  Beyond these experiences, school has gone great.  I even got to experience a Commissioners meeting, which is Salem's board of directors.  That was definitely an experience.  I received a taste of the inside workings of a school the duties of a school board.

The Final Four is coming to Houston this weekend, so needless to say, we won't be doing much sightseeing this weekend.  Last weekend we went to Galveston to visit the beach and we went to a Germanfest, which was fantastic.  I also was able to send out all my wedding invitations which has been a great relief.

March 22

My first official day of teaching! 

I am learning more and more each day.  It is so interesting to me to observe and interact with students.  They are all so different.  I have two 6th grade classes and they couldn't be more different from each other.  One class is chatty but getting them to talk in a discussion is like pulling teeth!  The other class just love to talk...period!  I am also learning the delicate balance between not minding noise and chatter and to much noise and chatter. 

I taught for my first day today.  We learned about Cortes conquering the Aztec Empire and the social structure the Spanish developed.  Tomorrow we are doing a web search on Ipads!  Salem just purchased them and we will be the first class to use them, which is pretty cool.  In Religion we talked about how the Pharisees wanted Jesus to perform a sign to prove he was the Savior but Jesus refused and said they already had a sign in Jonah.  The students told me how they knew Jesus was our Savior.  Salem continues to welcome me into the fold of their school and the staff is so friendly and nice that I feel very comfortable with them.  Although someone called me a red-head today which I was a little confused about because I have had red hair as far as I know :)

My First Post

Hi everybody!  I think I did it.  I think I tackled technology and am posting on my own blog for the 1st time!  I am student teaching this semester in Houston, TX.  Well Tomball, TX to be completely accurate.  For the next 6 weeks now, I will be at Salem Lutheran School.  I will try to catch you up on the highlights of the past two weeks. 

Week One:
1. I came during Lutheran Schools Week. (Not a normal week of school for Salem!!)
Monday-My first day, everyone was in their P.J's even the principal!
Tuesday-School shirt day and movie day.
Wednesday-Bless the animals day.  Students were able to bring their pet to school around 2:00 and the whole school was able to go outside and visit all the animals.  Talk about CHAOS!  There were horses, dogs, cats, bunnies, even a turtle like you see in the zoo.
Thursday-Rehersal day for the Grandparents Day celebration on Friday.
Friday-The day before Spring Break and Grandparents Day.

I was able to see the 6th grade students I will be working with at their very best and at their very worst. I was able to go with the 8th grade class on a field trip to the University of Houston to watch a troupe perform.  I did however find it difficult to observe and learn the class routines.  I only observed maybe one or two "normal" classes throughout the week.  I do think I got to meet and learn about the students in a very different way.  The staff at Salem is very friendly and welcoming.  Salem hasn't had many student teachers in its history, so I am definitely exciting and new. 

Week Two:
SPRING BREAK!!!
One week of school, one week off...can't get much better than that! 
I am blessed to be living with Jon's brother Matt, his sister-in-law Kim, and his little nephew Ian.  We have a list of all the site-seeing places I want to visit while I'm in Houston.  Kim, Ian, and I decided to tackle a couple of the closer ones on Saturday.  We went to Allen's Landing, which was supposed to be the place where two brothers named Allen first landed in Houston.  It was a little sad and disappointing.  We saw where many homeless people stashed their stuff and some very ugly pigeons.  So we didn't stay long and instead went to nearby Discovery Green.  This park is awesome!  It is like a young child's dream.  It has fountains, a field to play in, and a park.  For us older people, it's a great place to people watch.  Kim and I really enjoyed watching the free street salsa lessons while we ate some lunch.  On our way back to the car, we saw a St. Patrick's Day parade down the street.  Ian loved it.  He saw some firetrucks, got a lollipop (his favorite memory), saw a stretch hummer, and received lots and lots of beads:)
On Wednesday morning, the family packed up and took a trip to San Antonio.  I stayed behind.  The weather was beautiful, so I did a lot of reading outside.  I also got a TON of wedding plans done.  That felt so good:)  It was a very low key week but I was able to get so much accomplished and was even able to watch some basketball!

I am super excited to see what Week Three has in store for me.  I am excited to start teaching and building more of a relationship with my 6th graders!  Next week I am teaching two classes of religion and two classes of world geography.

Jon helped me drive to Houston because it was Concordia's spring break.

After visiting Allen's Landing

Street Salsa!!

Parade! Don't forget the lollipop :)

One of Ian's favorite past times



Wedding stuff!