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 :)