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!