The Episode Where I Move into a New HOUSE!

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted. I've now been teaching for 5 weeks, and I can say that I finally LOVE my job, as opposed to just barely making it from one day to the next. Getting to know the kids has been so much fun.

Big news for this post: my new house! I started moving in last night, and I'm loving it! It is about 12 minutes from my school (my other apt was 45-50 min). Haha, I had a little too much fun with Photobooth... the quality of the pics is not too great, but you'll get the idea!

Living room. God is so good, the whole thing came fully furnished!

My "office". Ha.

My bedroom. Sue (the owner) has a friend who does interior design. My room's theme is shoes and shopping. Hahaha, doesn't quite fit me (if you don't know, I pretty much hate shopping, and shoe shopping is the worst when you are size 11 wide).

My room has a little window seat area. :D

Other side of the living room. I am so obviously not good at this photography thing, the room looks way better than this.

Ta Da! I will bake you something yummy if you come visit!

My bathroom has a shell-shaped shink! ;)

Master bath, with two shell-shaped shinks!

Master bedroom. Once again, this picture doesn't do it justice.

And yes, it DOES have a pool in the back yard, thank you very much.

Time to start uploading!

The end! Hope you enjoyed the tour! Now, come visit and I'll give you a real one! :)

Episode 6: A Job

It's true. I am gainfully employed at Littleton Elementary School in Avondale, AZ as their K-8th grade General Music teacher. At the last minute, this music position turned up (orchestrated by God, of course), and since my science certification was still pretty iffy, this offer was great! I am very excited to have a job, and to be able to start right away. Right away, in other words, I was offered the job at 8am this morning, and jumped in my car to head to the school so I could jump into teacher in-service right away! School starts next Monday, so there's no time to waste!

After I started cleaning up and organizing my classroom, I realized I should take some "before" pictures of Room #82... so this is more "during" the clean-up process. All these pictures are a mirror image of the real thing. Photo Booth is weird like that, but you get the idea.

My classroom was a 4th grade classroom last year, so I was graciously gifted with mounds of 4th grade textbooks and supplies... hopefully someone comes to claim them soon!

Nice boom box included, and you can just barely see, to the left of the cart, a small black speck which is Cockroach #1 in the classroom! This little guy hardly counts though, he was already mostly dead before I got to him. Of course, as we all have learned from the Princess Bride, "mostly dead" is also partly alive.

Day #2 of being a teacher starts tomorrow bright and early, so more updates will have to come later! Thanks for all your prayers and support through this process! God surely has me in the palm of His hand.

New Address

Oops, forgot. Here is my new apartment's address:

6480 N 82nd St. Apt. #224

Scottsdale, AZ 85250

Episode 5: Switch!

God has a way of working things out to always always be better!! Examples?

Apartment: it just didn't work out with the other Teach for America people I had planned to live with. But I did run into Stephanie at church; a super sweet gal who was looking for a roommate in her 2 bedroom 2 bath apt. near a park in Scottsdale. I am just finishing moving in to the cozy little spot! Got my bed today! :) Hopefully some pics will come soon! Extra perk: Stephanie's fiance who lives across town owns a nice little Casio weighted keyboard which now resides in our living room.

Science fiasco: as some have called it- turning out to be very exciting: I'm in the process of switching to an elementary certification to be able to teach K-8th grade with an additional qualification in middle school science. So I don't have to take another science exam, and might possibly be teaching younger grades, which is what I really wanted to do in the first place!

Job: My prayer right now is for the right teaching job to come along at the right time. My certification is still up in the air with me needing one more test in August to be highly qualified to teach.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! It's obvious how powerful prayer really is, when all these awesome things fall in place!

Episode 4: Life Uncertainties

One week of institute left! What a whirlwind of teacher-ness this has been! With this phase coming to a close, the next leg of the journey is close behind, bringing its own challenges!

I found out last Monday that I didn't pass that crazy chemistry certification test I took in June. What that means is that I won't be able to get a full teacher's certification until September after I've retaken and passed the test. Most schools in Arizona can't/won't hire teachers if they don't have that certification. And school here starts the first or second week of August. So it is a possibility that I'm not actually going to be able to get a teaching job for the start of the school year. I might be able to get a substitute certificate, but I guess that isn't a very good option this year with the budget problems.

Further complications in that I've been waiting on finding housing and signing a lease on an apartment until I have a job. That may not be an option anymore, so I'm praying for the right situation to open up for me to live somewhere in the meantime until my certification and job stuff goes through.

So lots of waiting on the Lord right now! Starting next Saturday, I need a place to live, so that is the biggest prayer request.

Some exciting news as well- last weekend I got connected with a young adult's group from a non-denominational church here in Phoenix, and met some incredible Christian brothers and sisters. It was awesome to be in fellowship and get to worship with them. I'm excited to get further plugged in to the group! :)

Episode 3: Getting in the Groove

Hey all, and Happy Independence Day to our country! What could be more patriotic than writing a blog? Hmm.... don't answer that. Anyway, I have somehow made it to the 60% mark through Institute, and only have 2 weeks left! Craziness, I know!

I am really connecting with the kids, and will definitely be sad to leave them in 2 weeks. It seems like we are FINALLY getting somewhere with their learning and investment in the material. We definitely still have some issues with kids being invested in their learning (as opposed to their social lives), but we are making progress!

I have a tentative job for the fall... at a Junior High teaching 9th grade science. Right now, the placement is kind of hanging on the certification test scores which I get back on Monday... *bites nails nervously* So I am really praying that I passed that chemistry test so this school will actually hire me!!

Life has basically been nonstop work, but we are occasionally blessed by a break, like yesterday, which we got off, giving me a chance to catch up on sleep, laundry, cleaning the room, and of course, lesson planning!

Just in case you didn't believe me. :)

Love you all, thanks for any and all prayers! They are greatly appreciated!

~Sarah

Episode 2: Summer School... dun dun dun

This week I started getting the first true test of what being a teacher is truly like- when the kids first traipse through the door and demand the highest level of your patience, knowledge, and, of course, coolness (we are talking middle-schoolers, you know).  I was assigned to teach language arts to 6th graders this week, which really meant kids going into 7th and 8th grade, but performing between a 3rd and 8th grade level in reading.  

I really love these kids already- there is just something incredibly real about their social awkwardness, their raw honestly, and their need for personal affirmation.

Highlight: A half-hour discussion we had with the class this morning about college.  One big thing we are trying to do at summer school is invest the students in their own education, amongst a population that frequently doesn't graduate from high school, much less go on to college.  These 12 and 13-year-olds' penetrating questions about scholarships and loans (or if you can go to college to play on the soccer team even if your grades are bad) makes me excited for these kids.

Lowlight: Calling Roberto's mom (who only speaks Spanish) to report on his repeated misbehavior in class today.  Such a huge amount of potential in this kid if he will allow himself to think so!

Prayer Request: For my collaborative group- as Corps Members we teach the summer school kids in groups of four, and my group has had some trouble getting on the same page for things that need to be consistent for the sake of the kids.  Pray for me to have grace, but know when to speak truth into the situation.

Thanks for the communication from those who have written me!  I hope to hear from others of you soon!

Episode 1: Induction

Hello, hello!  I didn't feel like doing homework... so why not start a blog, which I will have a total of 0:00 to update over the next 2 years?  So here it is!  I'm five weeks out from graduation from Whitworth, and in the mean time, have traveled through Argentina and Uruguay with the Whitworth Choir, gone home for 2 days to unpack/repack, and driven down to Phoenix, Arizona, to join the Teach for America movement in providing high quality education to kids in under-performing, high-needs schools.  A whirlwind summer, and I'm excited to see what God has planned next.

The first week was Induction- yes, like joining a cult.  Except without the Kool-Aid...  It was our introduction into the Teach for America program- why we're here, what our goals are for the next two years, etc.  As well as plenty of social activities, both planned (Diamondbacks baseball game!) and unplanned (....)- more or less an adult version of Traditiation, or College Orientation.

Then last weekend we moved to the ASU dorms to relive some of college life, while we go through Institute.  Basically, Institute is teacher boot camp.  Schedule:

5am (became 5:30 as the week went on): Alarm, don teacher attire, breakfast

6:15am: board bus for elementary school.

7am: begin training classes on lesson planning, classroom management, investment strategies, and my personal favorite: an entire 90-minute class on being assertive.

4:30pm: head back to ASU.  

Evening: sometimes more classes, sometimes just tons of homework writing lesson plans, etc.

On Monday, we add summer school to that schedule- I'll be teach 6th grade Math and Reading with a team of 3 other TFAers.  I'm excited to get to know the kids and put some perspective on why I'm here.  

Socially, it has been pretty tough situation.  Being in a full-blown secular environment, I have realized just how sheltered I've been up until now.  God is giving me a lot to think about, and I think these years are going to be full of a lot of growth and maturity for me!  I am grateful to have already found an awesome bilingual church in downtown Phoenix!  So glad to have the opportunity to connect there!

I am going to head to bed, but I would love to hear from anyone and everyone of you!  I have a mailing address just for during Institute if you want to send me some love ;)

Sarah Bratton

711 E. Lemon St.

#3691 HAV

Tempe, AZ 85281

OR sarah.lynn.bratton@gmail.com

With hope and love,

Sarah