Teachers are always sharing their individual excitement about personal experiences with their students.  My first year of teaching was a challenge, a learning curve, and an experience to remember.  My student teaching internship in Southern Illinois (DuQuoin) was very different from my first year of teaching in the greater Los Angeles area.  My family went from the Midwest to Van Nuys, California was a huge change not only for me but for my students. 

Writing to Express Change

I found myself writing to my students and sharing my experiences monthly through letters and videos.The year was 2001, my boyfriend (now husband) and I were excited about the change  to a new city but my students in the Midwest were more interested in Hollywood.  Everyone wanted to visit so I used my video camera and started recording unique, daily occurrences, within the school day.  Funny; now looking back; we had several instances where pigeons confiscated food off of student trays.  When students watched the videos that I sent them over the period of two months they couldn't seem to get over the concepts listed below:

1. Lunch was outside- Students were not able to eat out side in the Midwest due to the weather and in Los Angeles it rarely rained so eating outside was normal.

2. Classrooms were not in a building- Many of the elementary classrooms were located in trailers.

3. Our school was a year-around school- Students in DuQuoin had a very hard time understanding how students could go to schools all year.

4. Morning Meeting was outside on the yard- In Illinois, every event was located in the gym and not outside.

5. Everyone Spoke Spanish- Language was not an option but affluent parents in Illinois could access tutors. Most of my students were bilingual which added depth to my teaching and my learning curve was vertical.

A New Beginning

I really enjoyed my time in Van Nuys!  The parents, teachers, and staff really welcomed me to the school as a new teacher.  My mentor; is one I still talk to this day.  She really encouraged me to dive into this new culture and experience the community.  I started taking courses on SDAIE (Specifically Designed Academic Instruction in English) in which prepared me to work with English Learners.  This was not only an experience for me but I was able to take both sets of students; the one from Illinois and the other from Los Angeles... on a journey through my experience in a new place.