BACK TO SCHOOL, BACK TO SCHOOL!

Tomorrow is the first day of school!  I will finally meet my 28 students (35 by the end of the day)!  I am so excited to meet all of these little friends, but I don't think I can tell you how nervous I am.  I think it is setting in how incredibly difficult it is to actually be a teacher.  The hypothetical thought of teaching is great, but the actual nuts and bolts of being a good teacher are so overwhelming!  I can't wait to dive into teaching and let God do the rest!

Prayers please!!!!!

Be the Change!
Sarah

IRENE!!!!

Come on Irene is right!  Come on Irene, stop ruining the first day of school!  This is the second time the first day of school has been postponed!  I already have my outfit picked out and everything!  Stupid Irene!  Check back in, hopefully Tuesday night, for another update!

Be the Change!
Sarah

Welcome to Ms.Dennstaedt's classroom!

In about 3 hours our classroom will be buzzing with a whole lot of little people! It's meet your teacher day!!!! I'm so excited to finally meet all of the little friends attached to the names I have been writing and rewriting and typing and retyping for the past week! I think it has finally set in that this is real, yesterday my name made it on the welcome sign! Pictures coming soon!

Classroom, classroom, classroom

Day two was fairly uneventful (except for the fact that a 5.8 earthquake shook our school for roughly 30 seconds). We spent the day in the classroom, making bulletin boards, writing and rewriting and rewriting one more time all 28 names on various objects. This really felt like being a real teacher! Stay tuned for more from day 3!

Hey there's free breakfast... yeah but it's quiche!

First day of student teaching was AMAZING!  I absolutely love my mentor teacher!  We immediately bonded over the fact that quiche (weird spelling right?!?!) is awful, no matter how much bacon you put in it.  She is a no nonsense kind of person with a really funny dry sense of humor.  I can tell we're going to get along just fine.  From 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM we sat in a school wide welcome back meeting in the non air conditioned cafeteria.  It was quite long, but Jen, another teacher Cathy, and I played with the games and puzzles the administration left on tables for everyone. So thanks to Spiderman, the Disney Princesses, and Mickey Mouse we made it through the long meeting unscathed.  Later Jen and I set up her classroom.  We hung posters, arranged the desks, made name tags for said desks (28 students and counting... seriously pray for us!), and much much more!

I've never felt so alive and yet my roommates can attest to the fact that I was worn out when I got home tonight.  I can't wait to go back tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day!  Praise God!

Be the change!
Sarah

Explanation and such!

Hello World!

I've decided that it is time to join the rest of my generation and create a blog.  No, I am not travel to a far off and exotic land, in fact I'm not even leaving Baltimore.  On Monday (tomorrow) I will start student teaching in a 3rd grade classroom in Baltimore County!  (Lets be real, it just might be like an exotic land, you never know with kids!)  That is the exact reason I've decided to create this blog!  I figured why keep all of the gems my students will say to myself, why not share it with the world and all of cyber-land!

I will be student teaching in the fall semester all day once a week (every Wednesday).  In the spring I will begin full-time student teaching, all day everyday (YIKES! Pray for me!).  I am hoping to update this blog after each week of student teaching during the fall and whenever I am not absolutely overloaded with lesson plans, portfolio creating, and general senior year of college events, etc in the spring!

To explain the name of the blog for all of you non El Ed minds, it's based on the children's book series about Amber Brown.  I'm sure you've heard of a few of the books, Amber Brown is not a Crayon, Amber Brown Goes Fourth, etc.

Disclaimer: For the sake of anonymity I will not say what school I was placed at, nor will I use actual names of students, teachers, or faculty I interact with.

I hope ya'll enjoy this year in blogs!  Please pray for me and my future students... we'll need it!

Be the Change!
Sarah