&i hear london calling my name

Time Flies

I can’t believe that we only have less than a week left in London! Pictures and videos to come! :)

Saturday morning in London

It is finally the weekend after our first crazy week at Queensmill. We are all really enjoying ourselves and learning so much about teaching students with Autism. It’s hard not to have a smile on my face when I’m around my class.
I am in a class of 6 students that are about 6 or 7 years old. They are pretty non-verbal, but make a lot of noises. There is 1 head teacher and 3 TA’s in the class. I am really enjoying myself, but I always end the day being very exhausted.
We were all very excited that we were able to sleep until 8 am today and had breakfast here at the bed & breakfast. We have a bunch that we want to do this weekend, we just need to figure out when and where.
WOOHOO IT’S THE WEEKEND!!! :)

Day Two

Haven’t had much time to write a real blog post, but WE ARE IN LONDON!! Arriving here really felt like coming home and I am so happy. We’ve been walking like crazy, just taking in the fact that we’re here in London.
Tomorrow, we start at Queensmill by going to a staff meeting and visiting the classrooms. We’ll start official student teaching on Tuesday.
Also, I blew my straightener. AND I used a converter. So this will be interesting. (RIP CHI)
I’ll be working on a video soon, so be on the lookout for that.

P.S. I am the luckiest girl in the world to have the supportive parents I do. Thank you, Mom and Dad. I love and miss you.

On the way to the airport!!!!

So excited :)

Hey, girl! Who are you and what are you doing here?

Hello, everyone!

I’ve decided to start a blog just for everything having to do with my upcoming trip to London. I am currently working on a introductory video that will be officially my first post of this blog.

Until then, allow me to give some background information about this amazing opportunity that I have been given. During May 2009, when I was a Freshman in college, I traveled to London with a small group of girls for a study abroad trip headed by the Special Education department chair of my university. During that trip, we were able to observe a couple days at Queensmill is the national center for excellence in autism education in the UK. My life was immediately changed by both the school and London itself. The teachers and their ability to work with the students amazed me and I thought it was great that the students were able to be surrounded by other children with the same disability.

I never dreamed that I would return at the end of that May, never again being the same person that I was before. In March of 2011, my mom and I went to London for Spring Break for my 21st birthday. I wanted to share my favorite place in the whole world with her, and we had the time of our lives. I was finally able to take her out of her comfort zone into a world of mine that she had never seen.

Now, over two years later, I am a Senior in college and am about to travel to London again to student teach at Queensmill full-time for three weeks. This time, there are just four of us going under the leadership of the same department chair. During my time there, I will be taking a bunch of pictures and making videos. I hope to learn more about the world, education, and Autism and I hope to share it all with you.

Stay tuned.