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!