A Very Busy Week!

What a crazy week! Monday I had quite a bit of work to do to get ready for the week. Tuesday and Wednesday Neville was here observing me. Thursday was Thanksgiving and Friday my cooperating teacher was in London, so I had the whole class to myself all day, quite the experience! On Friday night I was invited out to dinner with the principal and Neville; just a busy week! My travel plans to go to Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland didn’t work out, so I took the weekend off to relax a bit, I’ve been on the go and travelling every single weekend since I’ve been here. Te time to relax was mush needed and felt great!
Thanksgiving was this week. It was very difficult to be away from my family, but the kids at St. Ultan’s and my host family did an excellent job in celebrating Thanksgiving with me. All of the teachers at school wanted me to come in and do a short lesson on Thanksgiving. It was really fun to do projects with the little kids, and the older students were really interested in the holiday and we had great discussions about it. I now have a stack of about 45 cards on my desk from the students at school wishing me a Happy Thanksgiving. At night my host family made me huge dinner complete with turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce, I made a pumpkin pie to finish off the meal. Even though I wasn’t at home for the day, it was an experience I’ll never forget.
With the end of this week, Monday will be the start of me teaching full time; I will then have full days until I leave. This has two implications for me. I will have a lot more responsibility, and a lot less time to plan between lessons. Also it means that the end is almost near. I just cannot believe that there are only three and a half weeks left in this journey. I cannot tell where the time has gone.
During my first student teaching placement in the States I had a kindergarten class. In teaching these very young children I didn’t do much in the way of formal assessment. In Ireland I am in a second, third grade mix. Here I do quite a large amount of assessment. This is one thing that I feel I lave improved the most on; successfully and appropriately assessing students, their work, and their work ethics. It has been a challenge, but my cooperating teacher has been great in taking time to help me and explain how to properly assess each student. I am truly grateful to her for this, as it is a skill that will be essential in my future career.
Our Christmas play is getting nearer and nearer, only two weeks away. The students are ridiculously excited about it. This whole week we are going to be working on getting our props and background scenes ready. Most of them already know all of their lines, and will eagerly spout them off to you if you let them. I just love their enthusiasm over the play. I am really excited for the big night!!
This weekend I am off to London. I am meeting up with Erin and Maggie. We have quite a full few days ahead of us. We plan to tour the city of London and have tea at Harrods on Saturday, and then up early on Sunday to get back home in time for school on Monday morning. It should be another adventurous weekend!

Thanksgiving/Scotland

Scotland/Thanksgiving

I’d like to start this entry off by discussing my weekend in Scotland. It was just amazing! It is truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited, anywhere in the world. I travelled to Edinburgh and met up with Maggie George, a friend from school. We stayed in a place which was directly across the street from Edinburgh castle. We took a day trip up through the Highlands and to Loch Ness. Both were just unbelievable. We took pictures of Loch Ness, but there was no Sign of Nessie. It was a very wet and rainy weekend, but that didn’t dampen the trip or our spirits at all. Edinburgh is a very beautiful city. The Royal Mile and Old Town were among my favourite places there. This was truly a great trip and experience!
Back at St. Ultan’s things are going very well. The Christmas play that I am ding with second class is coming along, much better than I could have ever hoped for. The student’s have most of their lines memorized already, and are extremely excited about their big night. This week we will be making props for our scenes. While it is a great deal of fun planning the play, facilitating practices is a very difficult thing to do. They are all so excited about it, and they sometimes get a little too carried away and silly. I usually don’t mind this; I’d rather have them really excited about it than dreading it.
I only have one more week of teaching part time, then I will be the fulltime teacher, except for Irish in the morning., I am really looking forward to this. I find that when I am in control of the class for the whole day, things go so much smother, and I cam able to stay in my “teaching groove” much better.
One thing I have started this week is visiting other classrooms. I go into other teacher rooms in the morning during the time my class has Irish lessons. I observe the teachers and help out. I really enjoy this time. It gives me a chance to meet the other students and to observe and get ideas on different teaching styles and strategies for classroom flow and management.
Thanksgiving is in only two days! I just cannot believe how fast the time has been going. I have been recruited by each teacher in the school, they all want me to come in and give a small lesson on Thanksgiving. I am really excited about this. Thanksgiving is my all time favourite holiday, and I am really looking forward to sharing and discussing this with the wh9ewl school! Travel pans for this weekend will be going up to Northern Ireland to see Giants Causeway! Another exciting trip!

Week 4

To start this weeks entry off, I have to go back to last Saturday. I took the bus into Dublin city and spent the day there. I had an absolutely amazing time. Highlights of the day included shopping on O’ Connell street. Visiting Trinity College and seeing the Long Room, and the Book of Kells. I also visited St. Stephen’s Green, one of my favourite places so far, Graphton St., Henry St., both for shopping. I ended my day with visits to the famed Temple Bar, Hard Rock Café, and The Guinness Brewery. All in all, it was another amazing experience here!
Monday was back to school. I was very excited for this week to begin as I will be starting my Christmas play with the second-class students. The very first day I arrived at St. Ultan’s I was told that I could be in charge of writing/finding, casting, setting up and producing the second classes Christmas play. I spent most of last week writing and organizing the play, and now on Wednesday, I will finally get to cast the characters and begin reading lines. The students are extremely excited about this, they have been asking me about it all week. I hope everything goes, well and we have a success in the end!
Next week will be a very busy one for me. On Tuesday and Wednesday I will be observed by Neville. Also later in the week on Thursday it is Thanksgiving. I brought along pumpkin pies ingredients, so I have to make my pies to share. Also, each teacher in the school has expressed interest in me coming into their classrooms and giving a small lesson on what Thanksgiving is. So I have to work the rest of this week on planning these lessons/visits out. I’m very excited to do this, Thanksgiving is my all time favourite holiday.
Now that I have been in the classroom for several weeks now, I am finally hitting a comfortable groove. I feel I have also developed a great rapore with the staff and the students. I really enjoy being in the classroom with my cooperating teacher; but there are definite differences in the way we teacher and instruct in the classroom. This is fine though. It helps to open me up to new teaching styles and methods for classroom control.
One thing that my cooperating teacher has started doing with me in the classroom is observing me and keeping a journal of all the things that she feels I did well and all the things she feels I could improve on. At first I thought that this would make me a little nervous and uncomfortable, but after a few times, I have come to really like it. It’s a great way for me to get instant and concrete feedback from a seasoned teacher. We have discussed it and we will continue to use the journal idea for the duration of my time. Another busy weekend for me. I am off to Scotland with Maggie. High hopes for another great weekend!

Week Three

Week Three:
After my big week of travels last week, on Monday morning it was time again to get back into the swing of teaching. It was another rough transition. After only being at St. Ultan’s for a week, and then having a week off, getting used to the whole routine again was a bit difficult. Yet now at the close of the week, I feel very comfortable in being back in the classroom.
Being that I didn’t have a classroom placement until a few days before I left the States, I didn’t really have time to prepare myself for teaching a classroom of 30 students. A surprise this week brought another student to our classroom. Not only has teaching 30 students a handful and a big adjustment for me, the classroom is also a second and third grade classroom together. This means that I am to prepare lessons for both second and third classes, and manage them while they are all in the same room at the same time. These two things have been my biggest teaching challenge thus far. In the beginning of the week, I was almost overwhelmed by the sheer amount of planning, management and bodies in the room all seeming to need my assistance at the same time. But even now at the outset of the week, I already feel much better about the classroom situation.
One large project that I will be working on now is the writing, casting, organizing and production of the second class’s Christmas play. Initially I was a little overwhelmed by this too, but now that I have an idea of where this play will be going and who will be doing what, I feel like what was a short time ago chaos, is now just a little “disorganized”.
One interesting classroom aspect that I have never encountered before is having a family member in my classroom. One of my host family’s daughters is I my second class. It is interesting to see her in the classroom and then watch her reactions to her school day and her homework at home. I think this will be a good thing because I can see how my teaching carries over in a child’s day from school to home. It will be very interesting to see how this will workout throughout the rest of my time here.
Well, even after my long week of travels, I will be hitting the road again this weekend. I plan on going into Dublin City to tour the town. I hope the weather is nice and the traffic too.

Week 2

What a week!! I am coming off a weeks break from school, and I chose to travel for all of it. Seeing Ireland was an absolute dream come true. I began my travels Fridy night. I took the bus from Navan to Dublin and then to Waterford city. I stayed overnight at a B&B and then got up early to see the city. Waterford is a very old Viking port town. I walked down the main quay to see Reginald's Tower, and two other churches in town. Then I did a bit of shopping in the square before heading to the crystal factory. The factory and show room were both amazing. I spent a while looking at the displays and then decided to purchase a small vase; small vase, big price tag. Next I caught a bus to Midleton where I stayed in a hostel for the night. Midleton is a small town outside of Cork. The Guinness Jazz Festival was in Cork, so all of the hotels were booked. In Midleton there was a whiskey distillery, so I decided to tour that; very interesting. Sunday morning I caught the bus from Midleton to Cork to Blarney. I toured the Blarney Castle and made my way to the top to kiss the stone; just amazing!! After the castle I did some shopping and then took the bus back to Cork. Back in the city I took a bus tour and then caught another bus to the town of Kinsale. This was one of my most favorite towns. It reminded me a great deal of Door County. The streets were lined with quaint shops and pubs. I ate some fish and chips in the harbour park and listenend to a bagpipe group play, just wonderful. Caught the bus again back to Midleton for another night in the hostel. Woke up very early on Monday mornig to catch the bus to Kilarney. Arrived in town a little before noon. Did some shopping and then took a cab to the outskirts of town where I went horse back riding through Kilarney National Park. Another one of my most favorite afternoons. The views were amazing. Took another cab back to town and went to bed early at my B&B. Up early again to see the town of Kilarney. I visited St. Brennan's University. It's no SNC but still a very nice school. Then I caught the bus to Adare. It was a ritzy little town, with an old friary, thatched roof cottages, and great shopping. After seeing the town I caught another bus to Limerick. Once in Iimerick I caught yet another bus to Buntratty Castle. This was just amazing. Its a perfectly perserved medieval castle that you can tour throughout. There is also a folk park beside it that you can walk through and see what life was like back then; another one of my favorite days. After a night in Limericak I caught the bus to the Cliffsof Mohr the next day. These were simply breathtaking. They were immense! I toured these and then caught the afternoon bus to Galway. Once in the city I booked a trip to the Aran Islands for the next day and then went to bed early. Another early morning. I took the bus to Rosseval and then took the ferry to nishmore, one of the Aran Islands. Here I took a van tour of the entire island. This was also amazing. During the tour we could get out and walk to a stone fort and see the cliffs. I also had some time to shop, there was a great little thatched roof store that sold only hand made items, really neat stuff here. Back to Galway for the night. Slept in a little this morning. I toured the city until noon and then took the bus back to Navan. It was quite the long trip, total, it took 5 and a half hours to go across the country. I had a huge backache after this trip. Saturday I planned to just take it easy after all of my travels. However, my host family asked if I would like to visit Newgrange, an ancient burial ground and calendrical sight. Of course I said yes. This was an extremely interesting place to visit. After Newgrange, we also drove by Slane Castle and Abbey, both are now ruins, but still amazing to see. Sunday was yet another day of traveling. I went with my host family to Trim town and caslte. Another ruin, but still wonderful to see and tour. After all of this traveling I was extremely tired, and so was my credit card. Even though I wanted to take a nap I spent the afternoon and evening planning next week's lessons for English adn maths. I am a litle nervous about teaching a combination class, but I'm sure once I get used to it I will be fine. In the end, I know it can only make me a stronger teacher. So another ewweek of teaching adn then I plan to see Dubin thie Saturday.

Week 1

After years of planning and anticipation, last Saturday afternoon I finally packed my bags and headed off to Ireland. Saying goodbye to family and friends was much more difficult than I had thought, but once on the plane it was smooth sailing. I arrived in Dublin at about 1:00 in the morning American central time, and 5:00 in the morning Irish time. I was "collected" at the airport by Fergal Fitzpatrick, the principal at my new school. He took me to my host family's home, the Fosters, just outside of the town of Navan. After brief introductions, I fell fast asleep. After sleeping off the jet lag, I left my room to get a better look at my surroundings. There home is very nice, newly redone and very comfortable. The family is wonderful too. John works nights as a truck driver, I don't see much of him. Andrea is a stay at home mom, with three children to care for. Sarah is the oldest, she is in fifth class. Rebecca is in second class, in my room. Johnathan is the youngest and in play school, kindergarten. Outside the family hound Flash has a very comfortable kennel.One thing that has surprised me about Ireland thus far is how much it reminds me of home. The Foster's live in a home outside of town, so do my parents. The weather here is currently about the same as it is at home. The rural surroundings are also very similar to what I have at home. At first I found this a little errie, but now it is more comforting than anything. I have been placed at a primary school in rural Bohermeen town, St. Utans. It is a typical Irish primary school. There are ten classes there ranging from junior infant to eighth class. For this many grades there is a low student enrollment and there is a staff of only about 15; quite different from Westwood. My cooperating teacher Ms. Anne Marie Purcell is great to work with. I admire her a great deal. She has 31 students in her classroom and she teachers both second and third class in the same room at the same time. For being in charge of so many students she handles it remarkably well. There is a great deal I can learn from her about classroom management. This first week I have already done quite a bit. I observed my first day and on the second day I taught three lessons, one of myself, one on Wisconsin and the USA, and one on the students themselves. All three went very well. The students were extremely interested in me and where I come from. On Wednesday I did a read a loud at the end of the day. Thursday and Friday I taught second class math on telling time to the nearest hour, half hour, quarter hour and three quarter hour. I have done quite a bit of observing this week. While it is not the most engaging thing to do, I feel that it is critical for me to learn how Ms. Purcell handles the class, what routines she uses, her classroom management, and any other things I can soak up in order to make my transition into the fulltime teacher a success. Next week I will begin teaching math aand english fulltime. I am quite nervous about this (two classes at once) but it can only make me a better teacher, as it will force me to multitask to the extreme. Next week the students have all week off for Halloween and midterm break. I have quite a lot of travel plans. I hope they all go well and I am safe while traveling.