Last two days of Cambridge :(

I had my last day in school on Wednesday and the kids were very sweet. They made me a book with all of their good byes and what they really enjoyed that I taught them. Many of the students loved the new sports I taught them- Kickball, American Football ( I would say that rather than just football so it wasn't confused with football) and four square which they forgot the name of and called it 4 in a box. Haha. The two classes I had been teaching my internship all gathered in one room and they first gave me the presents they had for me. Of course I was thrown off because I didn't think they had made anything for me since I was with them every day all day. Little did I know when they sent me off to year 2 to observe a lesson on Esperanza they had plenty of time to take class pictures and write me letters. They put together a book of some of the funny things or phrases I learned and the students letters in a book with two fun pictures of each class. They also gave me the class pictures that were taken at the beginning of the year. And of course a huge bar of Cadbury dairy milk! yum yum! Before I showed them the candy I had brought for them one of the students asked " did you bring us dairy milk?" and I replied to the class that American can't compete with Cadbury so I brought something different and showed them the starbursts and airheads. They were really excited to try it. However, the school I was at has a strict no candy or soda policy so my teacher explained the students were to take it home and it was up to their parents if they were allowed to try it. As I was handing the candy out at the door as they were leaving a few of the kids would go running out yelling "We got candy from AMERICA!" Haha. Then I had also given my interning teacher and the other year 4 teacher thank you cards as well as the head teacher.

Back to my observation on year 2 of Esperanza- It was very interesting because these are 1st graders learning a new language which is designed to help them learn other languages in the future. What I gathered from it was that it was a mixture of many languages that formed the base for others. The students really seemed to enjoy the lesson and language.

Thursday morning we woke up and had our last full English breakfast, what a sad sad morning :( We headed out to do a little shopping around and a few of us went to Wren Library in Trinity College which had a display case of  a few of Isacc Newtons belongings-walking cane, lock of hair, pocket watch as well as a a copy of a first edition copy of Principia Mathematica. There was also a display case with the manuscript of Winnie the Pooh. It was pretty awesome to see in a library filled with books dating back to the 13th Century. Afterwards we went and grabbed a crepe for lunch, mine was chicken, brie, cranberry and delicious! I had not been on a guided punting tour and Kimmy was willing to go along with me so we bargained down to paying 10 pounds each and were rewarded with seeing "the backs" or the backs of the colleges. It was definitely an interesting punting tour. Of course we ran by the market afterwards and grabbed a desert crepe because we simply couldn't resist. Another wonderful choice- sugar cinnamon and butter. When we were waiting in line for the first one I was listening to what a lot of the locals were ordering and this one seemed popular. I had been looking for a popular children's book whilst in Cambridge because I noticed "The Gruffalo" was extremely popular with the kids and in stores. I even found it quite entertaining so picked one up for my future classroom and as a gift for little Liam Piam.

Thursday night all the interns, teachers and head teacher were invited to a farewell dinner at the Free Press Pub. I knew my teacher probably wouldn't come because the other two teachers from our school would not be able to make it and it is a bit of a drive by yourself from the area of our school. In all only two teachers showed up but we are a fun group of students and had a lot of fun for one of our last meetings as a group. They brought out a delicious desert and the name I will have to find out again but it was like a chocolate cake with a butterscotch pudding over it.

Friday morning Kimmy, Brittany, Grace and I had a taxi pick us up and drive us all the way to Gatwick- best decision over! It costs the same as it would have to take a bus and was much easier. Luckily we arrived at the airport early because we had packed and planned all wrong. You can take more luggage over than you can brig back. So when I planned to take on a carry on suitcase as a well as a back pack I was wrong. You can only take on one carry on and a small bag. So I had to stuff the contents of my back pack in my luggage and a few things from my carry on into me luggage because that was over the limit as well and pay 30 pounds. At that point I didn't care what I had to pay as long as I got home. Of course on the plane we were all split up again but Kimmy had the seat right behind me and no one ever sat next to her so I went and got Brittany so we all sat in the same row :)

It took forever to get through customs but luckily we made it through! It was so nice to see my family but it still seems so unreal that I even went to the U.K. for 5 weeks. This weekend will be the giving away all of the souvenirs that I bought! It really has been nice writing this blog and I think it will help me remember everything that I did a few years down the road :)

Prague and last few days of school

This weekend I had fun in Prague! Brittany and I walked our buts off, up and down hills and around areas several times but always found our way. We saw Prague Castle, Charles Bridge, Town Square and the Astronomical clock. Everything was so interesting and appeared so different from England. Much older, I had read it was one of the few cities untouched by war all of these years. Prague Castle was absolutely amazing with St. Vitus Cathedral and its dark Gothic appearance. 

Here are also several views from the castle overlooking the city. It absolutely gorgeous up there.

 Sorry, it doesnt matter what I do to these pictures one of them always comes out weird but this was the astronomical clock in Old Town Square.

Brittany and I also managed to go amazing race style yet again this weekend! Our flight back from Prague was delayed about a half hour and in turn put us on a time crunch to make it to the bus we had already paid for getting back to Cambridge. Once we landed we had half an hour to get through customs, and talk our way through it because we had forgotten our university letter, run was felt like forever to get to where the buses were with everything on our backs and made it on the bus with 5 minutes to spare!

This week is my last few days in the classroom and a few of the students still ask me the questions of how I feel about leaving. I explain that it is bittersweet because while I love seeing everything here and experiencing the culture, I miss my family very much. A few of them thought my family even came with me. How funny. On Monday I taught the students how to play kickball, yes kickball, none of the students had heard of the game nor had the teachers. So upsetting. haha. But they loved it! In turn the students showed me to play a playground game called canton ball- you slam a ball against the ground and the other team has to catch the ball before it bounces again. Most of the students were eager for me to play and the students are very considerate of others in making sure that I got a turn to bounce the ball.

My teacher also lined up for me to observe a year 2 class (1st grade) because they were having a language lesson on Esperata. I learned it is a language designed to help students learn other languages later on and has a mix of many languages in it. The teacher kept referring to it as the world language. I was able to spot a few sounds and words that I associate with different languages.

Tomorrow for the last day I am taking in candy- Starbursts and Airheads. However, my school is a candy and soda free school so I have to explain to the students that I am entrusting them with candy in which their parents decide whether or not they are allowed to have it and are not allowed to eat it on school grounds. I have no problem in doing this, just thought it would be fun for the students to try something new. However, after I got here I realized they have starburst, but not  airheads!

I have Thursday to wander about and then the teachers and head teachers are invited to a get together at the Free Press Thursday night. I plan on visiting the market and picking up a few last souvenirs before then. Then we head for London on Friday to come home!

Prague this weekend :)

I taught a lesson this past Wednesday that focused on independence day. I began with an intro giving all the students about 25 pounds each in increments of 5 and designated one side of the class English and the other side American. I tell the students I am the king and I tax everyone 5 pounds for having sugar at lunch. Then I ask the English what we should tax for next, showing I am on their side. This got the American side aroused. We kept it going and discussed why it was or wasn't fair for a few minutes. Then I began telling the students the history part of Independence Day, why England would want to keep American, going through the French and Indian war, Stamp and Sugar Act, Townshed Act, Quartering Act, Boston Tea Party and Continental Congress. All of this lesson was debate style with the students discussing what would be fair and what wouldn't have been. They really enjoyed it and learning about what we do for the 4th of July.

The next day my teacher was away from school and I taught the  same lesson twice in the morning before lunch because we team teach so the students switch classrooms. Every time I teach one lesson after the other I do better for the second one, which is expected. For most of this internship I have mostly taught literacy except for the lesson on American football I created for P.E. and the fourth of July lesson. It has definitely been enjoyable though. The entire experience has been wonderful.

Another interesting thing I discovered in the school I am placed at is the openness to talk about things. For instance on Thursday they had an hour lesson planned to talk about people that have moved on in their life, whether they have moved away, or passed away. It was tough helping some of the kids through it because I am such an emotional person and I saw several students having a hard time with it.

Brittany and I leave tomorrow morning at 4 in the morning to catch a bus to the airport to Prague. Im expecting to see beautiful architecture and castles; however I am weary of making it through the weekend. I am past the euphoria phase of culture shock and am into the homesick phase. I am thinking that because I only have a few days left I will be too sad about leaving soon to be depressed about getting home and missing my family.

Next week I intern Monday through Wednesday and have already began to tell the students when my last day will be. A few of them are upset but I explained England isn't my home and like them I live with my family and miss them. That helps them understand it a bit.

I learned  several new words this week but will have to get back on that because I cant exactly remember the translation. Look for a post beginning of next week!

These days are flying by...

July 2, 2012

Last Friday, I went to my friends school with her to see what her class was like. Let me say it was completely different from my class. Her teacher was thrown into the position two weeks ahead of time because the previous teacher went into labor. This new teacher had no idea where anything was or a lot about the kids. Kimmy had described her class as being chaotic but I thought I mean really how chaotic could a classroom be. It was nuts! Kids everywhere, artwork all over the walls, desks, tables and anywhere it would fit and absolutely no structure to the class. I simply tried to help out the best I could however am not sure of how much use I was with only one day and not knowing any names of the students or their abilities. I was able to help with the simple stuff though! In all it was a wonderful experience. We will have an interesting conversation after she is able to observe my class this coming Friday. 

Friday for dinner we had heard that there was a local restaurant by Jamie Oliver so decided to try that out. It was delicious and I took a few photos that amused me. 

Friday night we (Kimmy, Grace, Brittany and I) decided to go out to a pub and have a few drinks. We ended up meeting with 7 other girls from out program and had a fun time. I only had a cider but believe me that was plenty for me!

Saturday we began with a long wonderful walk to a tea garden, The Orchard. Just the walk to here was beautiful. We walked all along a river and through fields. The Orchard was absolutely beautiful and I enjoyed trying “Victorian Cake”. It was “quite good”, how I described it as I was eating it and has stuck ever since. 

We enjoyed spending our time in this wonderful area but were anxious to begin our Cambridge shopping. Many of us had been holding off on buying souvenirs until this weekend! I found some adorable souvenirs at John Lewis, which reminds me of a Macys but bigger. Kimmy and I actually got the last of the plain canvas bags with London pictures at the bottom. Also I have been getting one keychain from everyplace that I have gone. I am at 3 now and will be getting my last one in Prague.

Once we reached the market we were amazed even though we had been here before we knew what we wanted! For lunch we stopped and had delicious Belgian waffles. This is on my list to go back and have the Thursday before I leave. It was topped with nutella and strawberries.

We also went into a Cath Kidston store which we compare to a Vera Bradley store. It is very popular here, expensive and florally. However, it is a different type of floral, more vintage and not my style.

I also bought my nephew the cutest outfit from a sports store for just 3 pounds!

I think we all turned in early that night from exhaustion.

Then on Sunday we woke up early and there was a relay for life marathon going on for the later part of the morning, beginning at Parkers Piece. The area was packed! We weren’t sure if the market would be open but we risked it and took the leisurely stroll to find it was booming. There were completely different vendors from Saturday and a lot of them were home made.

We found an awesome crepe place however it was not open and decided to come back later. The crepe place wasn’t an actual place but more like a cart; however, it was well worth the trek back. When we came back for lunch I decided to try the ham and cheese crepe. It was absolutely delicious! Crunchy cheese on top and so melted in the middle. The only unfortunate thing was the cheese was almost too rich and too much for our taste buds (Brittany and Kimmy agreed). Another food item I will need to have on that Thursday before I leave! However, that time I think I will try a desert one.

At 2:00 we had a scheduled walking tour :) We followed the guide to Kings college and found out so much information about the chapel. How they had to lower the ground because of a donated painting, during wars they took out the beautiful stain glass windows in fear of being bombed, what period of time they think parts were made based on architecture and initials of King Henry VIII and Ann Bolyn in the wood, along with their symbol of a raven I think it was, or some sort of bird. We were also able to see the courtyard and take a few pictures.

Next we saw another college, St. Katherines. This was a college with only three sides because it was once believed in the courtyard we enclose with 4 sides that it blocked the flow of air and increased illness.

Finally we saw Queens College which was founded by two different queens at two different periods of time. We were able to the dining hall, which we were able to see being set up for a wedding but learned it looks very similar other than the color of the dishes and glasses for the students. We also walked across the mathematical bridge, made of straight lines and originally without bolts or screws.

Today, Monday I taught a lesson on American football. It got awfully confusing because when I would say football the students would think soccer and if I said soccer the students would say football. However, the students seemed genuinely interested in how it is played and how many fans the teams have. I even had a few students thank me afterwards for telling them about the sport. I learned from the students a bit about rugby because many of them would relate what I talked about football to that sport.

The students also surprised me today because I have always had great classroom management and the classrooms from what I have noticed are extremely chaotic and not much respect is given to the teacher. Enough to get the job done, but I think classroom management can be a bit poor. So I began something new to try to gain the students attention quicker and more effectively. All the classes in the school are named after gems, my class is moonstone. I told the students when I say moonstone you say rocks. A student instantly raised his hand and had seen the irony in the phrase. He said it was funny because a moonstone was a rock. They’re so clever :) Anyways, on Wednesday  I teach a lesson on the 4^th of July and am planning on most of the lesson to be discussion/ role playing with plenty of history thrown in there.

Helpful tip: Bring a proper umbrella! One thing that I have learned from being here for a few weeks now is to have a strong umbrella, one with the double layer that can blow right through it. I have already gone through two.

Scotland and my first whole group lesson!

June 22-26, 2012

Hello Scotland! And sadly goodbye the next day :(

Brittany and I headed off for Scotland Friday night. We took an overnight bus and arrived in Edinburgh at about 7:50 a.m. and then had our Rabbies Highland lochs and castle day tour at 8:15. Let me tell you Brittany and I now feel like we could run the amazing race. We came out of the bus station asked someone if they knew where the place was but all they were able to do was point us in the general direction. So we ran in that direction and then asked another person who was able to give us awesome directions! We literally ran down the road, over a small bridge, made a right where she told us and found it in plenty of time to go to Starbucks for a quick breakfast. (Mind you, we were doing all of this with our weekend back packs on our backs, definitely amazing race style.) We had an amazing tour guide Shelby and only about 12 people total on the tour. Shelby was hilarious and would play us Scottish music that was appropriate to the mood of the tour. It was quite funny because she explained she was driver, tour guide and dj. She frequently had Brittany and me on the edge of our seats when telling us the stories of the history of Scotland. We first began our adventure in Stirling, where we saw Stirling Castle and the William Wallace monument; however, we only saw them and did not get to actually go in them. However, we were able to make a quick picture stop on the way back :) This is where William Wallace defeated the English in 1297. Pretty awesome. (we were jumping out of the way of a bus, haha we just wanted the picture!)

Our next stop was Doune Castle :) (This castle was featured in Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

We then went to Callander, which is a little town just before we get into the highlands. We really just went into a few shops and some of the others on the tour tried the food in this area. 

Then, Kilchurn Castle which is in ruins and in the middle of Lock Awe; however, we were able to wander about. It was a long wet trek out there but well worth it. If you go to Scotland take your wellies and rainproofs because it is very wet. Luckily I did. We were able to climb some narrow stairs to the very top of the castle and over look a part of the loch. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Afterwards, we headed towards another little town in the highlands, Inverary. They had a few cute little restaurants, shops, and another castle. Brittany and I chose to not go into this castle because we wouldn’t have enough time to fully explore everything we wanted. Fun fact: The Campbell clan still occupies this residence. A common Scottish soup is called cullen skink (like a clam chowder with fish instead of clams). I tried some of Brittanys and it wasn’t bad. 

Somehow Brittany and I lost track of time or had the wrong time on our clocks and were a few minutes late getting back to our bus. Shelby decided to come looking for us when we were searching for the bus where we had seen it. Well we quickly became frantic and spotted the bus through the trees and took off sprinting again to flag down the bus. Luckily they weren’t leaving us like we thought but searching for us. Here are some photos of this area...

                                   

The road the tour normally takes was closed so we had to take this lovely detour with the gorgeous view of Loch Lomond outside of our window the entire time, what a shame. We stopped at what I thought was sort of a rest stop with a few shops and a wonderful view of part of the loch (lake). I found some pretty cute souvenir books for a few special kids I know and bought tablet. Shelby described tablet as something that the Scottish make for dessert or a treat and she actually bought all of us some to try. It is quite delicious and melts in your mouth. This time Brittany and I were back to the bus extra early because we did not want to be the late ones again.

We then had about a two hour ride back to Edinburgh and let me tell you, I have never seen so many sheep! Sheep are to Scotland as lizards are to Tampa. That’s the only thing I could think of that are there all the time and not too bothersome. Anyways I couldn’t get a non-blurry picture of sheep but I may have a few blurry ones. 

Shelby also recommended a few places to eat and I tried “A wee bit of haggis”! It was sheep, potatoes and turnips. I wasn’t a huge fan but it had flavor and I could see why people liked to eat it. Afterwards we decided to call it a day and take a cab to where we were staying, which was actually a dorm. It reminded me of a typical dorm I would see at USF, not the best but not the worst either. We also were surprised to hear that we had free breakfast in the morning! A few things I have noticed a lot at breakfast are tomatoes, mushrooms, and bacon (ham).

For Sunday we decided to see Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile and anything extra we were able to see was a bonus. Edinburgh Castle was beautiful. We were greeted in the morning with the playing of the bagpipes and I bought myself a book on Edinburgh Castle describing a lot of the areas inside so I would have something to look back at. Brittany and I were able to look all throughout the Castle and saw the crown jewels of Scotland. Fun fact: these crown jewels are actually older than England’s crown jewels from what I have read. 

Pictures in front of Edinburgh Castle...  

This is a picture with metal replicas of the crown jewels

And then this is the guy who was playing the bagpipes as we were walking up and we later found him posing for pictures :)

We then walked down the royal mile and went in several shops and walked past several market stands. I treated myself and bought this and love it for its uniqueness :) One of the swirly rings on the top

Unfortunately we were unable to go into the cathedral because it was Sunday and there was Sunday mass. Eventually we decided to start looking for the train station just in case and somehow stumbled upon it on accident, I honestly thought it was a mall. It took us about 5 hours to travel by train back to Cambridge but it wasn’t that bad, I just took plenty of naps.

Today I taught my first whole group lesson. I thought it went pretty well, of course I found things I could improve on but received nothing but positive feedback from my teacher. I also felt that students met their goals and that they learned from the lesson. My teacher actually modeled the lesson for me with the previous class and then I was able to really observe exactly what I needed to do. I will also be doing the same thing (my teacher models and then I teach) a few more times this week. I was extremely nervous for this lesson because I was afraid the students wouldn’t see me in a teacher role and that their behavior would be poor; however, the students really surprised me and were very respectful. I only hope it lasts! I told my teacher my goal for this program is to be ready for my level 3 of fully teaching all day and writing most of my own lessons. However, I am worried that I will not be able to reach this goal because as of tomorrow I have 11 days left in the classroom and that does not seem like enough! Of course I was very proud of myself for making it through the lesson even though I did need to pause a few times to gather my thoughts or make sure I was staying on track and give myself a pat on the back for today :)

Off to Scotland for the weekend!

Well Brittany and I are going to Scotland this weekend! I am stoked! Check out my wellies (rainboots) that I am taking... if you come here you need to bring these, they are a must! Sorry, I tried 4 times turning the picture and just gave up.

Anyways we will arrive in Edinburgh tomorrow  morning and we are going on a tour within the hour we arrive to the west highlands and seeing a few castles and then spending Sunday in Edinburgh. We will hopefully see the castle and the royal mile are at the top of our list.

Anyways check back late Sunday night for an update! Have a great weekend!

June 18-20, 2012

Monday, June 18^th, 2012

Back to school!

Today I taught a small group lesson (about 8 kids) about using commas and how we take a sentence and then use the commas to add more information either in the beginning, middle, or end. The great thing about the class I teach in is I have a chance to do everything twice! I can try out the lesson on the first group of students and find out what works and doesn’t work or if I need to word things differently, and then try to teach the lesson even better with the next class. So the first time around most of my students got it and they were even having fun making the parts of the sentences rhyme but I was trying to keep them focused on adding in details. Meanwhile many of them were writing sentences like “Maisy, maisy, with a face like a daisy, but she is so lazy!” Something like that I can’t quite remember. However, we were trying to teacher them that without the extra details surrounded by the commas the sentence should still make sense. That’s when their rhyming sentences would fall apart.

The teacher also teaches P.E. and they divide the two classes (60 kids) into three different ability groups each learning about a different sport. I watched the students learn to bowl. Not like bowling but bowl for cricket which I think of as pitching in baseball, except the ball bounces once and is aimed towards three tubes close together. Another group was practicing hitting a cricket ball with a cricket bat and the last group was balancing and bouncing tennis balls with a racket. Of course I really loved helping out in this part because it is what I do most days at home, except we more play games rather than develop the techniques. I think we should start though.

This is the day we also found an express bus from Cambourne to Cambridge! We get back to our house in about 45 minutes rather than the hour fifteen and it drops us off right at the top of our street!!!

That night we ate at revolution because it was half off everything! YUM! However, I wasn’t feeling well and have been missing some vegetables so I just had a salad but it was still delicious. I’m thinking this will become out Monday night tradition while were here because the prices are decent. 

Tuesday, June 19^th, 2012

Mini Olympics!

First of all let me start off by saying I was so excited for this day, we all know how sportsy I am :) but my bus was late! (Don’t worry I made it) You should see how these bus drivers are, first of all the citi bus is a double decker, so it’s huge and the bicyclists are crazy here! They will run you right over and the buses will run them right over! Every time we are on the bus we are cringing because the bicyclist are literally inches away from the bus on the street, I would never ride a bike here. Anyways I made it to the school just before out bus was about to leave and was able to gave have this amazing experience.

There were over 1,000 year 4 students in attendance to this event. I have to say it was very well organized for the amount of people there. The students had about 10 minutes to try on many different sports: football (soccer), hockey, golf, tennis, problem solving, hurdles, long jump, Olympic dance, tug o’ war, shot put, relay race and there may be a few more I am forgetting about. Also, it was students about 14 years old who were teaching our kids how to do these different sports. But because I have worked in recreation for several years I kept telling my teacher how the students teaching kids should have done things and little tips. My teacher loved this and said I should start helping her plan and teach P.E. as she is not all that into sports. I am very excited to do this because my kids have never played kickball, foursquare, a game of basketball, and baseball. There are just so many games I could teach them!

Anyways we were outside at the Olympics from 10-2 and I, even though I have lived in Florida all my life, come to England and get sun burnt! <<< That is the type of sentence they should have been writing on Monday and many of them did.

Mom you will love these- we found this great burger place, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, and they make the best onion rings! You know I don’t even like onion rings but they are big and so crispy. I am sure I will have them again before I leave and will show a picture. They are absolutely delicious! Also, they have a pound store here, like a dollar store, except you can get a lot more for a pound. A six pack of canned sodas and more…

And a kid and I were talking about cars and he was telling me his favorite was some type of Lamborghini and then asked me if I had a car. I responded yes and he said is it a Lamborghini? I laughed and said no it’s a Toyota and he made an odd face and said he didn’t know what that was. I thought this was hilarious because kids never understand the cost of items, but one day kid…. One day.

So these are a few words I can think of at the moment that are different between the two cultures:

Suncream- sunscreen

Shattered- exhausted

Waterproofs- raingear

Trainers- sneakers

Tiddly- tiny (this is one I heard from the kids so I'm not sure if it is just slang)

Rubber- eraser

Toilet- bathroom

Biscuits- cookies

And they also spell a lot of words differently like: visualise, analyse, colour…

Also, a bunch of the college students around here (11^th and 12^th grade) are passing there exams and graduating so there has been a ball every night including fireworks, almost as good as Disney’s except nothing will ever match that. But my friends and I were having a good ole time watching the fireworks and laughing and giggling about it. 

Wednesday June 20^th, 2012

Uhg, its only Wednesday… :(

I am so ready for this weekend so we can go see Scotland, the Highlands and castles! But today at school went pretty well. I taught another small group lesson on informational text features and of course the students tried to get away with things that they normally wouldn’t with their teachers. However, I thought both times I taught the lesson were successful. I am hoping that I am asking enough higher order thinking questions because my teacher doesn’t like to ask yes or no questions. She likes the students to have a reason for every answer.

Education here is so interesting because the students are expected to achieve and think at a much higher level, but I don’t see a lot of teaching going on in the classroom. Today the schedule was literacy for about an hour, math and science together for about an hour and then they drew self portraits for an hour which they do every year, and art for an hour. The rest of the time there was a break for twenty minutes, lunch for twenty minutes, assembly (every day) for about 30 minutes. I am not sure but somehow that fills up the whole day.

Anyways, tomorrow my teacher is modeling a lesson for me to the whole group and then I am teaching the same lesson afterwards to the students. But I am turning in early tonight as I am exhausted and want to stay healthy. Night!

and on the river in Cambridge (take by Kimmy, at least taken off her Facebook page :))

 

Paris :) and more

Wednesday June 13, 2012

First official day of school

Today was my first official day of school! We leave the house at 8 and arrive at our school around 9:00-9:10. The school is a religious school so the students are in assembly every morning until around 9:30. When they are released the students walk through the halls to their classes without any teacher observation and are not required to walk in a line. We did science all day. I found this odd because they did not have a set time for reading, writing and the other subjects. Well apparently the teachers chose to do a thematic unit of science for a few days because they did not want the students to forget the information over multiple days. I went outside for the students 20 minute play break and the teacher tea break in which students of all ages are playing together anywhere. I asked my teacher about this because in the states they do not play like this at all. Instead there are the separate playgrounds for separate age groups. Also most of the playground equipment they use is deemed unsafe. The teachers also get an hour lunch break. Another fact I found out about the school is that the lunch meals are made fresh daily using the ingredients from their garden and a snack is provided for a student and is normally an apple. A few of the unique names of the students that I have learned are Poppy, Eleanor, and Oliver.

We also had a meet and greet at a local college (well it took us about 30 minutes to walk there). My teacher attended and it was really more of a meet and greet for our instructors and interning teachers. I was hoping for some hot food but that didn’t happen!

Friday, June 15, 2012

Headed off to Paris!

Today at school the students were busy busy busy! They began with a science lesson on habitats and discussed how different organisms live in habitats and what not. Then we were off to swimming! The students more learn how to build up stamina and swim safely. As soon as we got back to the school we had about 25 minutes left for lunch. After lunch the school had organized an end or beginning version of the Olympic ceremony where the students went out front and three students from each year ran a relay and passed hand-made torches to each other. Then everyone gathered around the new flag pole as they watched a new flag raised by the principal. This was all scheduled last minute and all of the teachers just dropped what they were doing. As you can tell there was not a lot of teaching going on in my classroom.

The students also have golden time which is part of the discipline system in which the whole school participates in. This is when my teacher and I were able to sit down and plan a bit. I will be teaching two small group lessons and co-teaching a lesson with my teacher next week. Hopefully I will also be able to do a bit more but that is just what we have scheduled.

Well we found a decent deal to get to Paris and back. It leaves in about 40 minutes, luckily its leaving from a bus stop literally a 2 minute walk away. Somehow the boat goes over the channel and to Paris by tomorrow morning around 7. Then we will be taking the chunnel back Sunday night! Can you say busy!?!

Anyways you can read all about it Monday night-ish :)

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Oh Paris...

What an interesting city Paris was. Our transportation over was um... odd? We took a bus to a bus station in London, I think it was Victoria station where we lost track of time (like always) and ran to get our actual tickets and somehow got on the bus in time. Then we had to get off the bus at like midnight to go through customs, then back on the bus to drive onto the ferry, then off the bus to board the ferry, where we slept with ours heads on tables and bags close by. We somehow made it to Paris by bus the next morning and bought two day metro passes for 15 euros. We were also met with the lovely urine smell upon entering the metro of Paris and that made frequent visits throughout our trip. We immediately headed off to find our hotel, going to two wrong ones before finding ours. After throwing our stuff down we headed off to see the Eiffel Tower! This is when I first saw it, the view from our hotel balcony/window. 

And then when we were close and rounded a corner and it was so big!

I honestly was not up to going up it, all the stairs here in Europe are not fairing well with my knees and none of the other people seemed to be interested in going up so we just enjoyed taking pictures of it.

We then wandered because we were trying to find Notre Dame or the metro I think and came across the Pont Alexandre III

After walking across this and taking tons of photos we saw a few museums and made our way by the hidden metro to Notre Dame!

It was gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous and so gothic looking. This is my favorite part of visiting all of these places, the architecture. We also saw a bride and groom taking pictures outside of the Notre Dame.

While we were searching for a Metro to take back to our hotel I spotted a bookstore Brittany had been looking for the entire time, Shakespeare and Company. They were also having a live reading.

So we went back to our hotel to nap because 4 cranky girls in a city that speaks little English is not a good mix. We woke up around 9 and decided to go out and look at the Eiffel Tower lit up! It was gorgeous and we ate dinner where we could see it sparkle (which it does every hour for 5 minutes).

By the way, I ate crepes for breakfast, dinner and breakfast. I also shared a ham and cheese sandwich on a bagette with a friend :)

This morning we had to wake up early and check out and go to the Gare Du Nord because somehow we ended up with tickets going from London to Paris and needed tickets from Paris to London. Luckily they were nice enough to refund us our money and book us new ones. Therefore we only had 3 hours to explore the rest of Paris. We ate again and I tried my friends french onion soup which I thought was really good, surprisingly! Then wandered our way over to the Louvre but didn’t have enough time to go in :(

I am a little disappointed in our Paris trip because I wasn’t able to do anywhere near the amount of things I wanted to do in basically the day and a half we had. This obviously makes me nervous about my next two weekend trips but hopefully we will be able to organize/ plan these much better now that we have a general idea of our traveling abilities.

Here are a bunch of pictures and I need to go over a few lessons that I will be teaching this upcoming week! Wish me luck :)