A Group of 6th Graders on the 1st Day

School School School

Another year in another school. Oh boy! Yesterday was the official first day of school in Hopewell Valley Regional School District. Since then I have been on the go. Each day has had some sort of surprise for me and my cooperating teacher, from funky alarms to a fire in the 6th grade trailer. Somehow we have come through unscathed and just a little bit tired. The next 12 weeks, which make up the remainder of my time as a student teacher in the Teacher Preparation Program, are going to be jam packed. There's so much that I will be held accountable for from observations to teaching lessons to attending all school meetings and most events to staying on top of my seminar work. Throw in a bit of grad school application and you begin to have a picture of what I'll be up to while not trying to catch up on my sleep :p

Yet I have to say that the wide diversity of students in my classes is going to be a fantastic challenge. There is everything from absolute beginners through to AP German, and everyone from your average students to special needs children. Planning for all the demands of each period will certainly teach me lots of tricks and skills that will be highly useful down the road. At any rate, I am excited to be starting out in such a wonderful district. I love how dedicated they are not only to innovative, active learning but to supporting their faculty. It's highly motivating.

Pretty Gals Under a Tent

Overnight at Yale

It's official. I've been to my first ever "true blue" grad student mixer. Errr, I mean tent party. I spent last night at Yale catching up with Caroline, who is just getting started on a PhD (yay! you rock!) there. Just my luck, there was a big party for the grad students. Actually we had a lot of fun. The DJ got a lot of us out there dancing and we stayed till he had to stop! Then we hit up the nearby grad student bar, which Caroline had said resembled an upscale eating club. And it did. 'Twas much fun and I can't wait to check it out again.