Ms. Christine Blvd: Guess Again!

It has been quite some time since my last educational blog post. I hope you all missed me because I’m back and have LOADS to share with you. We left off in the final days of my last clinical course. Now, fast forward a few months; I’m currently in my final weeks of student teaching. The magnificent experiences that I’ve gained and had the notion of sharing with my fellow bloggers left me quite unsuccessful. If you think being a new teacher, completing coursework and maintaining a social life and blog are easy, guess again my friend! I almost lost my mind in the mist of it all at one point until I remembered; it was still up there it just had me fried hard. However, I’m not new to this anymore, I’m true to this so don’t fret! I’ve documented my experiences thus far and have a ton of fun, catchy titles to go with.

Let me begin by sharing that I opted for an unconventional student teaching course. I was able to spend six weeks teaching in Bridgeview, Illinois (living back home for the free). The remainder of my semester I student taught abroad in the England while living with a host family and almost 10 other of student abroad students, some who also traveled abroad to study in the UK. This opportunity came with the responsibility of completing most all of my assignments in half a semester before I left for England. This along with prepping for 2 months away from America was no joke. I also didn’t anticipate the work that goes into teaching a full day of school from Monday to Friday, week after week. My throat couldn’t handle the stress of reaching 22 sets of ears on a daily; this led to yet another lesson learned. Nonetheless, this semester has given me so much insight and molded my pedagogy in ways that I never expected.

Be on the lookout each week for comparisons of curriculum in the UK versus America, ideas for your classroom and other exciting experiences from Ms. Allen. Meanwhile, check out some amazing photos of my lovely schools below.