Life In Rehoboth

Hi Everyone,

So, I've been in Rehoboth for 2 weeks, and what an amazing 2 weeks it has been! I was so nervous to leave home and come down here. I had no idea what I was getting into! I mean, I knew I was going to student teach, and work with two teachers named Short and Suzanne, and that I would live in the dorms. But that was not enough information for me. I wanted to know everything...what would my kids be like, would I like my cooperating teachers, would the work be hard, would I be able to do it, would I be lonely, what would I do with my free time?

The past two week have answered a lot of these questions. I love this school! The staff is full of life, the kids are great, and the atmosphere is one of acceptance and love. Many of these students face terrible struggles in their home life, and Rehoboth works to be a safe haven for them. The community is very welcoming to outsiders (like me!). In the past two weeks that I have been here, I have met so many great people! Everyone is eager to make us feel at home. Evidence of this comes in the fact that since Laurissa and I have been here, we've only had to cook 4 meals for ourselves. 4 meals in over 2 weeks! The generosity illustrated in this statement overwhelms me.

Our first 3 days here were marked by lots of orientation activities, and getting introduced to our classrooms. We were introduced to our teachers, our students, our classrooms, the community of Rehoboth, and the bigger town of Gallup next door. A lot of our orientation focused on the differences between Navajo (Native) and Anglo (White) culture. We received a lot of tips on how to interact with the Native population and what was involved with teaching Native students. It was all helpful information, but a bit overwhelming!

Last week was our first full week. I dove right into teaching responsibilities, and loved it. I also learned that I need a lot more practice before this is going to become easy. In preschool, the majority of my time was spent observing. In the reading resource room, Short had be co-teaching almost from day 1. I got involved in some of the planning as well. By the end of my first week, I led some games for the 4th grade.

This week has been crazy! We haven't had a regular day yet this week! We had an in-service on Monday. We got to learn more about assessment, and a specific test that Rehoboth has adopted called the MAP test. Tuesday we had a late start for snow. I led story time for preschool, and then co-taught with Short in the afternoon. Wednesday we had another late start for snow, and I led story time for preschool and taught 2 lessons in the afternoon. I taught a 4th grade lesson on scorpions and a 3rd grade lesson introducing a unit I wrote about the theater! Thursday we had a snow day, and we have another snow day today. I never imagined I'd see this much snow in New Mexico!

I hope you all are enjoying this week (and staying less buried in snow than us!)

Meg