Welcome to Student Teaching - Fall 2010
Hi everyone…that’s Kellen Benard, Cammie Dunn, Amanda Fischer, Kelsey Gannon, Meghan Jacobs, Laura Kinion, Anabel Muro and Amber Putra,
Welcome to the beginning of your student teaching and we hope, the time of your life!!!!
This is the blog we've told you about, and we will expect you to check in here weekly, let us know how things are going, and watch for specific prompts from us.
Plan on journaling a "week in review" for us each week. I'll get a prompt up here towards the end of the week, and we expect a response from you by Tuesday of the following week.
We know that you arrived safely (we know about everyone except Kellen but we think we would have heard if he wasn’t there), and hope that you are getting settled into the base and setting up your classrooms.
So for this week, the first week in review, please tell us how the transition is going: jet lag, adjustment to the time change, life on base, how your school and classrooms are set up, and your initial thoughts about your mentors. We hope you are sleeping through the night and getting to know your surroundings on base. Maybe this weekend you can do a little exploring of Heidelberg and Bamberg but be sure you are bright eyed and bushy tailed, early to school and ready to begin on Monday!
We will look forward to the first posting from you early next week.
Chris and Heidi

27 Comments:
My first week in Germany has been an overall great experience. Just the excitement of being here and not really knowing what to expect is a thrill in itself. One thing that has been pretty difficult has been adjusting to the time. The first night was sort of a blur. I was just so tired that I’m not sure what time I went to sleep, but I do remember waking up around three and not being able to go back to sleep. The next couple of nights I tried to go to sleep early, but I would wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to go back to sleep. I got pretty sick before I left for Germany; include jetlag and the big time difference has made it pretty hard for me to get adjusted. I finally felt a bit better on Friday.
Living on base has surprisingly been pretty easy to get used to. Amber has lived on base before so I have been asking her questions about things that I feel that are different from the states. The hardest part about living on base was probably the first day, where we were really tired and we had to get all these cards for the base. The other part is the recycling of everything. They have different garbage cans for everything and can be quite confusing. The bus system seems to also be pretty easy once getting the times right.
The people that I have met have been nothing but nice. Everyone is so friendly and the people here are so welcoming I don’t feel uncomfortable asking questions about the base and school. The people at Mark Twain Elementary have welcomed Kelsey, Amber, and me with open arms. One thing that stood out to me was how every single person at the school was genuinely happy to be there and graciously open there doors to us. I feel very grateful to be in such a joyous environment, especially with the school closing at the end of the year, the teachers and staff are happy to be there.
Mark Twain Elementary is a really small school with only six teachers, two of which teach in the third grade. I was surprise d by the amount of technology they have in their classrooms. In all the classrooms and in the library they have a smartboard, which is very interesting. My cooperating teacher has been the most helpful. She has helped us with everything, from helping us get our cards to taking us to the commissary. I am very lucky to have her as my cooperating teacher. As what I have observed she will be an amazing teacher to be with. She has a lot of experience and I will definitely be able to learn a lot from her. We set up the classroom this week and met some of the students and their parents. I can’t wait for Monday for the first day of school.
The student teachers from Mark Twain Elementary have yet to visit the Heidelberg so we will be doing that this weekend. It is going to be a great semester!
My first week in Germany was an eye opening and overwhelming experience. After a few days of confusion, things are starting to come together! On the flight over, Laura and I missed a connection in Frankfurt and ended up arriving much later than expected, and our bags did not make it until the next evening. We were extremely lucky to have my principal's husband, who is German, pick us up at the airport and help us out for the first few days. I was able to stay awake until about 10:30 that first night so I adjusted to the time change pretty quickly.
Living on base has been a very different experience than I had anticipated. I have found the "hurry up and wait" mentality concerning privilege cards and other services difficult to get used to. Another thing I have noticed about living on post is that many of the services are not open late, so you really need to plan ahead if there are errands you need to run after school!
I feel so lucky to have my placement at Bamberg Elementary School. Every staff member I have met has been nothing but friendly and helpful. They have made my first few days very comfortable, and I know they will be amazing to work with for the rest of the semester. I was surprised with how big the school is. There are about 580 students at the school, and there are four third-grade classes.
I am very excited to be working with my cooperating teacher. So far, I can tell that she is a dedicated, creative, and hardworking teacher. She places a strong emphasis on "Human Kindness" and community involvement in her classroom, which I think is very important skills for students to learn at a young age. Most of the academic work is done in "developmental learning centers", which are student directed and organized by ability level. The students also do science experiments and cooking activities each week. I really look forward to working with my cooperating teacher and exploring this alternative way of teaching. I feel like I will get to take on a big role in the classroom early on, which I am both excited and nervous about.
As far as life off base is concerned, I was able to explore Bamberg this weekend with the other student teachers and it is SUCH a beautiful city! I can’t wait to learn more about the surrounding city and take the opportunity to do some traveling in Europe. Between traveling and being the best student teacher I can be, I can already tell it is going to be a busy but very fun and exciting semester!
My first week in Germany was an eye opening and overwhelming experience. After a few days of confusion, things are starting to come together! On the flight over, Laura and I missed a connection in Frankfurt and ended up arriving much later than expected, and our bags did not make it until the next evening. We were extremely lucky to have my principal's husband, who is German, pick us up at the airport and help us out for the first few days. I was able to stay awake until about 10:30 that first night so I adjusted to the time change pretty quickly.
Living on base has been a very different experience than I had anticipated. I have found the "hurry up and wait" mentality concerning privilege cards and other services difficult to get used to. Another thing I have noticed about living on post is that many of the services are not open late, so you really need to plan ahead if there are errands you need to run after school!
I feel so lucky to have my placement at Bamberg Elementary School. Every staff member I have met has been nothing but friendly and helpful. They have made my first few days very comfortable, and I know they will be amazing to work with for the rest of the semester. I was surprised with how big the school is. There are about 580 students at the school, and there are four third-grade classes.
I am very excited to be working with my cooperating teacher. So far, I can tell that she is a dedicated, creative, and hardworking teacher. She places a strong emphasis on "Human Kindness" and community involvement in her classroom, which I think is very important skills for students to learn at a young age. Most of the academic work is done in "developmental learning centers", which are student directed and organized by ability level. The students also do science experiments and cooking activities each week. I really look forward to working with my cooperating teacher and exploring this alternative way of teaching. I feel like I will get to take on a big role in the classroom early on, which I am both excited and nervous about.
As far as life off base is concerned, I was able to explore Bamberg this weekend with the other student teachers and it is SUCH a beautiful city! I can’t wait to learn more about the surrounding city and take the opportunity to do some traveling in Europe. Between traveling and being the best student teacher I can be, I can already tell it is going to be a busy but very fun and exciting semester!
Starting off the week was a bit stressful. Cammie and I had missed our connecting flight into Nuremburg and had lots of running around to do to get everything situated. We then didn't get our baggage for another day, but luckily we both had something in our carry-on baggage. Once on base there are about 30 different papers to fill out and you have to go to 50 different places to do it. Actually that is a bit over-exaggerated but we certainly did a lot of running around the base to get everything figured out. It was a nice way to familiarize ourselves.
Jet lag hasn't been that big of a problem for me. I have been sleeping through the night and have my eating schedule set to German time. I was having the "still on the plane" feeling for a few days but that has dispersed. I'm still getting used to the time difference in the sense of communicating with others in America.
As for life on base, it's pretty much what I expected except for the cars. I have a brother in the army and several friends/family in the military. I had a heads up of what to expect on the base. I have also visited a base a couple times before so I already had the initial "there are tanks here!" already out of my system before arriving. I do find it slightly odd that there are so many American cars here. I was expecting to see a lot of tiny German cars but there seems to be a lot of SUV's on base. When in town you can tell which drivers are American.
Speaking of town, it is beautiful! The shops and buildings are so fascinating to look out. I also like watching the Germans go about their business and trying to pick out the differences from Americans. There is a lot of smoking! Germans also tend to move slower and take their time. My mentor teacher has sent me on a mission to find cultural differences. He has been here for 30 years and says he doesn't pick up on a lot of them anymore. He did warn me that using your thumb means one and if you use your index finger, it means two. I guess when he first arrived he ordered a lot of things in pairs before he picked up on it.
As for my school, I absolutely love it already! The staff is very friendly and helpful. We've had a few teachers take us out on town and they are all very willing to help with anything we need. My mentor teacher is a blast and I am very fortunate to be in his classroom. He is very outgoing and has so many great ideas for teaching. I know I am going to come back with lots of amazing things I can use in my classroom as well. After the first day of meeting my teacher and the rest of the staff, I knew it was going to be a great semester. I am already highly thinking about a future career with DoDDS.
My first week in Germany has been a blur partly because I have been so busy but also so exhausted from the jetlag.
At the middle school, my mentor teacher is Ms. Mag Mcginley who has been teaching in Heidelberg for more than 30 years. I am excited to have a teacher with so much experience as well as someone who is actively involved within the community and faculty. All of the staff and faculty I have met at the school have been nothing short of helpful and accepting. The middle school itself is a nice facility with great resources. For physical education, the equipment room is filled with a ton of new equipment which I have found is often rare for a school to have a large fund for their PE program.
On Wednesday we reported to the school and started our series of staff meetings for the week. I have been able to meet all of the staff in the department (and start to actually remember names!) and learn about the core values and expectations of the school. I had the opportunity to sit alongside my mentor teacher in an IEP meeting for a new student at the school. It was interesting to finally see all the information that I had learned in the Block II Special Ed course come to fruition.
I would consider myself someone who has experience living and working abroad. However, life on base is something that I am going to have to grow used to. It was a bit stressful trying to run around base to get my installation pass and privilege card, as it took almost two days to get completed. As expected, it was a bit eerie at first flying nearly 14 hours to a foreign country to only walk into a burger king and an American grocery store. It has been nice to get off base and see downtown Heidelberg as it is only a short bus ride away. I am excited for what the semester holds, in both my practical teaching experience and traveling abroad.
My first week in Germany has been amazing. I never want to leave! The jet lag was a little tricky for the first 4 or so days. My first night here I was exhausted and fell into bed at 11, but woke up at 2:30 am wide awake. I wasn’t the only one and my new roommate and I both found ourselves curled up on the 20 comforters stacked in the living room.
I feel blessed to have get to spend the next 4 months with these 13 ‘student interns’ as were have been dubbed. Luckily we are a chill and fun bunch and we feel like we are all back in the dorms, leaving our doors open and running between each other’s apartments.
Base Life is interesting and the hardest part is getting used to all the acronyms abbreviations that everyone uses. Also all the apartments look the same, so it took awhile to really get my bearings on base.
I love my teacher and I think the match up was great. She is bubbly and outgoing. She has been teaching overseas since ’85 so she has so much knowledge and is going to be a great mentor for me. We have been setting up the classroom all week. We have centers set up in our classroom, library centers, math, science, play and carpet space where our smart board is set up. We are still working on setting up and organizing since this week is home visits for kindergarten.
We went into Heidelberg this weekend and it was a blast. The food is yummy and the scenery beautiful. I am loving the people and given the chance I think I would stay forever!
The first week in Germany has definitely felt more like three weeks between the long hours of traveling, the crazy jetlag, everything that needed to be done once arriving, and the overwhelming fact that I was in foreign country for the next four months! And not only is there the German culture to experience, but also American military base lifestyle. Between military abbreviations on post and German language off post, along with being new to bus and school systems, you definitely feel out of the loop sometimes. Packing and preparing for Germany and for a semester of student teaching was a job in and of itself as well, as I didn’t know my curriculum yet and didn’t know what resources, literature books, or other helpful information to bring with me. But with a little flexibility and adaptability, everything has settled into place.
Once arriving here, and running around for two days trying to get all my paperwork, identification cards, and our apartments set up, it felt like everything was coming together—especially once I was finally able to get over to the high school and meet my teacher. With some more last minute changes, I was placed with a wonderful high school English/ Language Arts teacher and have able to jump right into being involved in her freshman and junior classes. The first day of school was full of nerves and excitement, but ended up going extremely well. So far I have been able to plan an introductory activity and will be starting on grammar mini-lessons next. The students are great and I am excited to work with them for the rest of this semester.
Living with all the other student teachers is like having a built in support system, on top of having a very supportive mentor teacher, English department, and Teacher Learning Community at the high school. I am excited to work and learn from them all over the next four months, and continue to develop my teaching skills—along with do some amazing traveling in Europe!
My first week in Germany has been tiring and exciting. Our plane in Iceland got delayed for 3 hours because of tech. difficulties. Once we got into Germany we were all running on about an hour of sleep so that was fun. Jet lag took me a couple of days to get through.
Since my father is military I have already experienced moving to another country and going through the proper paper work and id's needed. None the less it was still extremly stressful and tiring. Mark Twain though has some amazing teachers. One in particular, Ms. Mease, took us all around and made sure we had everything we needed on day two so that on Wednesday we could just start work without any worries.
Being on base has felt like living back home. I had a hard time the first week being here because I didn't feel like I left the states. However, once we visited down town Heidelberg I have been in awe. All I can say now is that I love being here!!:)
Setting up the classroom went really well and my teacher is amazing. I never really realized how much planning and prep-work goes into getting ready for the first week of class. I feel very lucky that I got to see how teachers set-up their classrooms and classroom management.
First Week..
The first week is going very well. Everyone at Mark Twain Elementary has been more than accomadating. They made us feel like we are apart of the community and literally I feel like its a family here. Teachers have gone above and beyond to make us feel home. I feel very fortunate to be here.
The school is closing so we have met the super-attendent for the schools in Heidelberg several times, and he has been very nice as well.
For jet leg it took awhile to get into the swing of things but the teachers are very understanding. Heidelberg is a beautiful city and I had fun exploring it on Saturday will all the other student teacher interns. There is a lot of shopping down town so I am pretty happy about that :)
My teacher is very project base and it will be a great learning expereince. He has a lot of energy and loves singing and making plays for his students. I have jumped right into the classroom and feel like I am just one of the teachers.
So all is good in Germany.
Kelsey Gannon
Hi to all of you and thanks for the very informative and reflective postings. I feel like I am right there with you!
I hope that you will take the time to read what each of you has written and respond to each other. As we begin to give you topics, you will learn by sharing and building on each others’ ideas.
What I gleamed from your posts is that arriving and settling in was easier for some than others. You are probably over the hump now but I have always found if you can make yourself stay awake and try to get your body on the German time you will transition faster than going to bed early and waking up in the middle of the night awake and ready to get up. Believe me, I have had several trips like that. Probably too late now but you know for next time!
Many of you also commented on the availability of resources and supplies. This is one area that will spoil you because it is an area that public schools in the states have felt the budget cuts so enjoy!
Being a part of preparing to start school is invaluable. You have participated in faculty meetings, helped set up your classrooms and commented on how much prep work goes into getting ready for the first day including a management plan. Priceless.
Most of all, I have gotten a sense that you are all with knowledgeable teachers who have varying years of experience and will be great mentors. This is in addition to the comments about how friendly, supportive and accepting the entire staff and administrators have been as you settle into the school and community. What a tremendous experience each one of you has ahead. Get to know your students and work hard alongside your mentors.
I am curious to know besides you all which other universities have student teacher in Heidelberg and Bamberg? What content and grade levels? This will help me as I think about placements for the spring.
I am impressed with your first blog postings. Cammie even posted twice Have a great Labor Day weekend. As you make your plans, remember that you are representing WSU and all Americans. How’s that for making you think about how you behave. That’s the mom in me! Have fun and be ready for next Tuesday.
Hugs to each of you.
At Bamberg there is a total of 5 student teachers. Besides Cammie and I, there are three students from Truman University. I understand that they send quite a few students from Truman to the secondary school in Bamberg. They also have about three I believe in the elementary school in Schweinfurt at the moment. The three students in Bamberg teach social studies (2) and english.
This last week was really interesting. Kindergarten does not start school with all of the other students, instead we did homevisits. I loved being able to meet the kids in their home environments, as well as the parents. It was also great because not everyone lives on post, so I was able to get off base and see some of the beautiful surrounding towns.
When we were not going out on home visits, we spent time in the classroom continuing to set everything up. One thing that I learned from Cyndi, is labeling with-in the classroom. I swear we made hundreds of differnt labels with the students picture and name on them. Also making sure there are no "runways", by breaking up the centers and spaces in the classroom so kids can't run around too much. I never would have thought about that when setting up a kindergarten classroom.
Labor day weekend five of us stayed in Heidelberg so we could go to the lighting of the castle and explore downtown a little more. Alyssa birthday was this weekend, so her teacher had a get together on the Mark Twain Village. That was really festive and fun.
This coming week I am going to be working as an Aide in one of the other Kindergarten classrooms, since they still havn't been able to hire for the position (long story). It will nice to observe another classroom dynamic and learn from another teacher for a week.
My first week in the classroom went really well. I only observed the classroom and mostly got acquainted with the students. The students in the class are a very lively bunch they seem extremely happy to be at school and to see all their friends. The boy girl ratio is probably the most interesting. There are 12 boys and six girls, so that will probably be the most challenging thing for classroom management. I talked to my cooperating teacher beforehand and what she wanted to do was for me to just observe for the first two days and then was going have me gradually have me do different tasks so I could get adjusted and feel comfortable teaching later on. This is will be very useful for me and the students in the classroom so they can get familiar with me.
I feel that especially in a first grade classroom the teacher needs to set rules for classroom management to go smoothly. I feel for first grade especially, classroom management is one of the most important things for a successful classroom.
My cooperating teacher definitely has teaching strategies that I know I can learn from. I can already tell she is a great teacher. She uses a lot of music in her classroom and movement, which is great for first graders. By Wednesday, she had me read aloud to the students so I wasn’t just the person that sat in the corner, and by Thursday, I was teaching the students the months of the year in Spanish. I was a perfect first week. Next week I will take over calendar time, and we will be doing a lot more co teaching things in the near future.
Labor Day weekend was very relaxing, four of us from WSU stayed in Heidelberg to see the castle illumination. I thought it was the perfect weekend to stay to see what the locals see every year. I also went to a Renaissance fair. The costumes that people wore and the food we ate was very impressive. All in all a very relaxing weekend.
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My first week in the classroom has been a transition period for both students and myself. I have been getting a feel of the daily schedule, which is ran in blocks. MWF are known as advisory days with T/TH being seminar days. During advisory, my mentor teacher is in charge of the intramural program for the 6th graders. During this time students compete against other advisory classes in a variety of sports. Because it is such a large group of several classes, I get the opportunity to take half of the group on my own while my mentor teacher takes the other. I am new to the block scheduling but like the fact that the students have 90 minute periods in PE. This gives them an opportunity to do a number of conditioning and fitness activities along with large group activities.
The first few days have been a bit busy getting students situated into lockers and running through guidelines and expectations. One thing I have noticed is the drastic difference between 6th graders and 8th graders in regards to maturity and responsibility. The 6th graders are more than willing to participate in all activities with a high level of interest, but still are getting used to the higher level of expectations and responsibility such as having lockers and different classrooms. The 8th graders have their routines figured out by may show more negative attitudes toward activities. As a whole, I feel that the students in the school are extremely well behaved. However, I may feel differently about this come December!
Because I am only in the middle school for about 8 weeks, I have already started to co-teach alongside my mentor teacher. Next week, I will be teaching two lessons for both track and field and flag football. I am glad to have a supportive teacher, where we can meet after each day and chat about how it went.
During my weekend, I went with some of the other interns to view the castle illumination show on the Neckar river. The fireworks show was amazing. On Sunday, one of the middle school math teachers was nice enough to take some of us to a renaissance fest in a town nearby. I was happy to stay in Heidelberg this past weekend and catch up on some sleep.
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The first week went really well. On the first day I was already getting up in front of the class. I am helping out in two 8th grade classes and three 7th grade classes. My mentor teacher would teach one section then ask me what part I wanted to teach. During the beginning of the week we mostly went over school and class rules. My teacher would throw in different stories or jokes to help keep the kids interested. I was told to make up or steal his stories to tell the class when I was teaching! I've never actually seen classroom management this way but it works wonderfully! The students all love the teacher and respect him very much. Past students are always stopping by to say hi.
The material as of yet is a little review mixed with new topics. The students are picking things up really well. We haven't had a lot of time-consuming homework so far either to help ease the students into the school year. My mentor teacher paces the class and material being covered really well. Students are also given two minute breaks during class which they enjoy and helps them to be more productive.
For Labor Day weekend the five interns from Bamberg went to Berlin. We headed out early Saturday morning and came back Monday afternoon. The city was amazing! There was so much history and beautiful architecture everywhere. We all learned more about history and had a great time hanging out and bonding. One of the most favorite parts of the trip may have been the Berlin Bears. They are painted statues that are all over the town (like the bears in Spokane). We had a lot of fun finding bears and taking random pictures with them.
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I have been busy with setting up the classroom and getting ready for the first day. It was long and hard work. I did not realize how much planning, organizing, and designing it took to get the year ready! The first week has been an overall success, only two kids cried. And they have cried everyday since....Amongst the crying kids we have 22 students (the largest class in the school) In general they are amazing. Many are very smart and since it is a military school most of them can speak more than one langauge. My teacher is pretty unorthadox. His classroom is like a stage and he is the crazy actor who is always putting a show on for the kids. He wants the kids to keep moving around. We sing/dance/read/write/ and most of important thing we do is creating a hands on science muesum with the kids. They are the most excited about that because they get to plan how make it and what goes in it
Last Saturday I traveled around Heidelberg. It is such a beautiful town. The center of the town is called Bismark Plaza and it is a road that stretches for miles that has shops, resturaunts, and more shops. Im in heaven because they have H&M! I will try not to spend all my money there! We did the tourist thing and visited some very old churches and checked out the Heidelberg Castle. All amazing. Im learning the transit system slowely....needless to say I missed the stop for our home and had to walk a quarter mile in farmland/highway.
All is good in Germany!
My first week in the classroom went very well! I am happy and nervous at the same time that I was put in front of the class starting from day 1. My cooperating teacher had me introduce rules and routines to the students, which is a big responsibility. Also, I have to take over for half an hour each day, as well as run small groups during learning centers. I have already been in the classroom on Sunday of both weekends I have been here for additional planning. I am getting more and more confident each day and adore my students already. They range from kindergarten to sixth grade levels academically, so I really enjoy watching my cooperating teacher differentiate her instruction so that all of the students grow. I really love how she doesn't let the higher level kids get comfortable there, but pushes them just as hard as the kids who can't read yet. I can already tell she has so much to teach me! :)
This weekend, Laura and I went to Berlin with the three other student teachers from Truman University. We had a great time touring historical sights and checking out local restaraunts, shops, etc.
The first week of school was exhausting, overwhelming, and very exciting!! I never really understood how much work goes into setting up classroom management and routines. It made things that we learned in school come to life. The kids are all really sweet and eager to learn. I have really enjoyed working with them and helping them learn routines and various other second grade things.
Over the past weekend Kelsey and I went to Amsterdam. It was absolutely amazing and a gorgeous city. While there we embraced ourselves in the culture. Ate lots and lots of food, visited various museums and churches, and walked immensely throughout the city. The Anne Frank Huse was by far my favorite thing about Amsterdam. Although it was a very emotional experience it was also a tremendous learning and eye-opening experience!
The first week of school was a success and I look forward to 14 more weeks!
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After using the first week in Germany to make a lot of adjustments and to get settled into life here, the second week went very smoothly! The first day of school was much less overwhelming than anticipated, and was followed by a good rest of the first week of school. I have three periods of English 9 and one period of English 11. The students are great, and it has been both very busy and fun settling into the class routines and school year in general. After giving the students some reading, writing, and grammar diagnostic assignments in the forms of short stories and response prompts, we started off on our first grammar mini-lesson: simple, compound, and complex sentences. As the semester goes on, I am very excited to teach more and more lessons, but right now am having fun working with the students and their grammar. Today we started our first novel units, Animal Farm, with the freshmen and so far we have had some pretty good class discussions.
The 3-day Labor Day weekend was a much needed time to catch up on sleep and to spend some time really exploring Heidelberg and the surrounding area. Saturday was spent doing some shopping and wandering the beautiful streets of downtown Heidelberg, followed by a boat tour down the Neckar River to watch the “Lighting of the Castle” ceremony. On Sunday, a group of us visited a nearby town where they were holding a Renaissance Fair, and Monday was a relaxing day to enjoy Heidelberg, enjoy some sunshine, and catch up and get ahead on the week.
I am looking forward to this short week and starting to work with the students on our novels. I am also going to start observing and getting involved in one of the other English classrooms during my planning periods, to get more experience and observations. After a couple days of school, we’re off to Amsterdam!
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