Welcome!

¡Bienvenidos familia y amigos! 

Welcome to my student teaching abroad blog! 

I am only 13 days away from boarding a plane to Mexico to start a ten week student teaching experience in Cuernavaca! 

I am beyond excited to begin this adventure and to share it with you! 

Cuernavaca: The City of Eternal Spring

I am headed to Cuernavaca, the capitol city of the state of Morelos, Mexico. (Circled on the map above) I will be in Cuernavaca for ten weeks (August 21-November 2). I am traveling with two other student teachers from Edgewood, Lindsey and Halie. I am very happy to be going on this journey with these two lovely ladies! When I return, I will be finishing up my other eight weeks of student teaching at the Edgewood Campus School in second grade. 

Here's some background on Cuernavaca to give you an idea of where I am headed! Cuernavaca is located only 45 minutes away from Mexico City. It is known as the "City of Eternal Spring" because of its excellent climate and average temperature of 70 degrees. It has a population of 349,102 (as of 2005) however 40% of the houses in Cuernavaca are owned by residents of Mexico City. Cuernavaca is an extremely popular weekend/vacation destination for people in Mexico City. (I like to think it's similar to us in Wisconsin going "up north" for a weekend!) I have heard Cuernavaca referred to as the "Beverly Hills of Mexico" which I get quite a kick out of. I think this is due to the amount of dignitaries that own vacation properties there. From what I have learned so far, it looks like a quaint colonial town mixed with modern life. 

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Here is an overview of the timeline to give you an idea of what I will be doing:

August 20: 1st Day of School at at the Edgewood Campus School! 

Upon my return from Mexico, I will be finishing up my student teaching at ECS in second grade with my fabulous cooperating teacher, Gail Klein. So, today I will be meeting my second graders that I will be teaching when I get back. I am lucky enough to have met most of them while working in the first grade this past year. It turned out to be perfect timing so that I can meet them before I leave! 

August 21: Travel to Mexico, Arrive in Cuernavaca, & Meet My Host Family! 

We fly out of Chicago and have a direct flight to Mexico City. Our cooperating university will be picking us up from the airport to drive us to Cuernavaca.  Once in Cuernavaca, I will be meeting my host family for the first time! I will be staying in homestay during my time in Cuernavaca. I have a mom, dad, a brother and a sister! I can't wait to meet them! From what I've heard, the host families are always extremely nice and really want us to get the most out of the experience. I've also heard that our host moms are really involved and very protective of us- I was happy to hear that because I am used to having my own mom, Mama Linda, around all the time! 

August 25: Start Language Courses at UNINTER

We are enrolled in a two week intensive language class to review Spanish skills at Universidad Internacional. I am so thankful for this because I haven't had to use my conversational Spanish skills much here in the US and I haven't been abroad since I traveled to Peru in the summer of 2011. This university is used by many foreign travelers in order to be fully immersed in the Spanish language. 

September 8: Begin Student Teaching at Colegio Cuernavaca! 

We will be student teaching at Colegio Cuernavaca, a private bilingual school. I do not know what grade I will be teaching yet (scary, yet exciting!) I will be teaching Monday-Thursday and volunteering on Fridays. 

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Over the next 13 days I will continue to prepare for travel but also for my classroom and future students. It's a unique experience because I don't know what grade I will be teaching, my cooperating teacher, or any of the curriculum. I already bought a lot of random teacher supplies to have just in case- if you know me at all you know I am a crazy organizer and crafter so I will probably have a suitcase strictly for school supplies! 

I am so excited for this experience because not only am I traveling to a new country and experiencing a new culture, but I will be teaching in a new country, culture and classroom! I am so excited to start this blog because I think it will be a very interesting mix of travel tales, cultural observations, teaching techniques, classroom chronicles, student stories, food tastings and an overall adventure with lots of  humor of course! 

¡Hasta la próxima! 

(Until next time!)

Stephanie