Thursday was a busy day at school! I taught two lessons to the kids, one over play scripts in the morning and in the afternoon I continued our lesson on Pearl Harbor in their book art! The morning lesson went really well. We opened with discussing all the different times and ways you would generally use a script. Also identifying key features in a script. This was partly review for the students, but they hadn't read from a script, so it was their first time applying what they learned. Unfortunately, the Internet was down (nothing unusual) so I couldn't play my YouTube clip examples that were quite humorous! The students all got a script about the British views on American Colonization. Although this wasn't one of my U.S. lessons, I still wanted to incorporate the U.S. somehow, and I felt a British view on American Colonization could not have been more appropriate! The students loved that it was a British view of an American event. Pretty much anything involving the United States gets the kids get really wound up! The kids needed a little bit more background knowledge on what colonists were at the start, but after explaining it, they grasped the concept really well. I had the kids read through the script once to become familiar with it before they read it in front of the class. To differentiate between high, medium, and low ability groups, I had the high performance kids read the script to themselves and underline the features of the script. For the Medium level students I had them read through the script with the other students at their table. Then for the low ability level, I read to the students and had them follow along and raise their hand every time we came across an unfamiliar word. Now that I am becoming more familiar with the students and their ability levels, it's quite challenging to adapt the work so that it is challenging each student at an appropriate level. There is just such a HUGE difference from the high to the low ability group. After working through some new words in the script and becoming familiar with the text, I chose 2 kids from each ability level to be a person in the script, giving the rolls with less lines to the students in the lower ability levels and the more challenging roles to the higher ability students. The students enjoyed reading the scripts to their peers and acting it out. Some of the students are certainly dramatic enough to take up a career in acting! My teacher said the lesson went really well and loved how into the acting the kids got. We both got quite a laugh out of it! I can tell its little moments like these that I'm going to miss the most about England. Sitting in the back of the classroom, watching them read their scripts, and laughing until I start crying. Working with these kids has had such an impact on my teaching career. Before this trip, I wasn't a big fan of dividing students by ability groups, but now that I have seen it in constant practice, I have notice how effective it can be. The students in the higher ability have poorer behavior when they're not placed with other high ability students and challenged. This is just one of the few things that seeing first hand has changed my opinion on using it in my own classroom. I'm still not sure how their schools are so much more advanced than ours, if it is just the little things here and there that are a little different in how the classes are taught and the schools are ran, but they clearly are doing something right. After this lesson, the other girl I have been co-teaching with did a math lesson. The teacher and I went out into the hall to do some work, which turned more into talking and enjoying some coffee and chocolate. This was the first time we really talked about things outside of school and it was nice! We had quite the laugh and he gave some good pointers for what to do in Liverpool this weekend. We spent all of lunch doing some grading and naming to Taylor Swift. I can turn just about anyone into a Taylor Swift fan and I'm starting to consider it a talent. After lunch I taught a lesson on Pearl Harbor. In England they spell a lot of words differently and Pearl Harbour is another example. I'm awful at spelling as it is, but remembering all of the words they spell differently has me questioning every word I put on the board. The students don't hesitate to point it out when I spell it the American way. I don't think I've ever spell checked my power points so many times in my life! The students weren't completely grasping how Pearl Harbor happened, so I played some video clips for them. They were in complete shock and had so many questions afterwards. I could tell the videos really helped make the connection. I was nervous to play such graphic things, but my teacher encouraged me to because he said it was all factual and all these things actually occurred. He said the students all needed to understand the devastation and significance of this event. The lesson was to write like you were someone who was effected by Pearl Harbor. This could be a person in the Navy, a civilian, or someone back home who heard the news breaking and could have had a family member there. Their writing went into their book art. I was impressed with the creativity the students had. Their vocabulary is quite impressive, so their descriptions seemed very surreal. I was nervous to teach this lesson with my other teacher because he is rather stuck in his ways. When he told me my lesson was outstanding, I could not have been more thrilled and relieved. This was a lesson that he had to officially observe for my coursework, so it was rather important. It was a great start to my weekend. After school, we worked out what lessons would be taught for our last week. It's so hard to believe that our trip is coming to an end. I'm definitely not ready for it to be over. I miss my family, don't get me wrong, but I am loving every minute of traveling and cannot get enough! Thursday night we went into city center. The Cavern was our first stop! This is where the Beatles played over 280 times, The Who, Rolling Stones, Oasis, and countless others who have changed the history of music. Inside, everyone leaves their mark by writing their name on the wall. No worries, I came prepared with a Sharpie! They had really good music in this quaint little venue. They ended the night with a Beatles cover band and it was standing room only at this point. There were people of all ages here and everyone was enjoying it! There was even a 70th birthday girl who was dancing on the table tops, and we got up onto the stage to dance. Historical little places like this are always enjoyable places to go to. We met up with some friends there and had a great night together!
0 Comments
After school on Wednesday we were feeling a little adventurous. We looked up all of the Beatles attractions and went off for some exploring! Naturally exploring comes with a few wrong turns and asking for directions more than once. Luckily though not far from campus was Penny Lane and Strawberry Field. Both of these were big songs for the Beatles and so naturally we had to listen to them while doing our sight seeing. We ended our walk with some Oreo ice cream and it hit the spot!
It was a nice break from working on lesson plans constantly. I'm so glad to have met new people on this trip! Rachel and I luckily have rooms at the end of the hall next to each other. Going from strangers to being the only night owls on the trip we have had quite a few memorable nights! Plus we share an interest in Ice Cream which also helps. Our late night munchies and 2am nights nights are one of my favorite parts of this trip, although we always regret it the next morning when our alarms go off at 6:30 for teaching. To start off the day, the students had hem practice. The school normally starts off the week with an assembly on Monday morning, with announcements and a little motivation to kick off their week. On Tuesdays they start off their day with hem practice. In the afternoon I taught another one of my USA lessons. This one was over popular states for geography in the USA. It was off to a rough start with the technology, but I was amazed how into the activity the students got! I started off the lesson by introducing popular states that are frequently visited, like Florida, California, and New York. I discussed where they are on a map and what the major cities are. You would be amazed how many of the kids have visited the U.S. and have been to several states.
From here, I broke them off into partners by ability groups and assigned them each a state. The students were supposed to find the state's capitol, if anything was invented in the state or any unique facts, the state's population, state flag, where the state is located on a map, and a few additional key items. The lesson went very well and the students loved learning about the various attractions in the states. I was excited with how the lesson went and was eager to start planning another USA lesson for the week! Our students are quite busy as they are finishing up their last term of the year before they move up to Year 6 (fifth grade). Both classrooms are in review mode now before they take their standardized tests in a few weeks. Although we didn't teach any lessons today, we did a lot of work helping kids with topics they're still struggling with, and for a majority of them that means fractions.
Our teachers let me look at the tests from last year and the standards for the test this year. They were incredibly ahead of the United States curriculum requirements for our 4th grade students. The students were finishing up ongoing projects. They're in a persuasion unit and created commercials to convince other students to buy their smoothies. They came up with really cute jingles and outfits for their advertisements. I was impressed. The winning team, Very Berry Smoothie, got to present their smoothie commercial to the principal; this is the kids' favorite treat. They love being able to go down to his office! Tuesday will be another one of our USA lessons over the geography of the states. I'm excited to see how it will turn out! We had a 6am flight back to Manchester, meaning that our gate closed at 5:30 and we had to be at the airport by 3:30... Not to mention the bus ride to get there! So this meant an all nighter, great times! When we got back to Liverpool there was a marathon going on through the town. It was much like the flying pig with live music at the mile markers and people dressed up in spunk outfits! I even got to see a leprechaun running in the race. After a night full of cat naps in the airport, on the 30 minute flight, and our train ride back to Liverpool you could say that I was a little tired! Once we got back I took a long and much needed nap. After working on some schoolwork (Yes dad I am actually doing homework on my trip.) I ventured into city center for the afternoon. City center is my favorite spot in Liverpool, you can always hear live music. Not to mention do some window shopping! I'm so glad to have Liverpool as our home base city, it's a wonderful place that has a lot to offer. There are very few stores here that you can find back in the states, and the style here is completely different. Getting groceries is always an surprise. A lot of the food here is similar, but have different names. Let's just say I haven't always ended up with what I was expecting! If you know me then you know my love for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches daily, and sometimes even twice a day! Well here the peanut butter is like sun butter back at home, but it's growing on me! The bus ride back to campus carrying all of your groceries like a pack mule definitely makes me glad I don't live in a big city and have to do this regularly. After city center Rachel and I went to 5 ways for dinner. We both tried the British beef and kidney stew, it was different. I wouldn't have kidney for a regular mean back in the states though we will say. We met some new friends though and stayed out way later that we had planed, but it was a great night! On Saturday morning we started off our day by going to the Educational Hand. This is a statue that is said to be good luck to any future educators. So it was a mandatory stop while visiting Ireland!
After the educational hand we went to the Guinness factory to have a tour and see how it is made! I had no idea that there was so much that goes into making beer. We went through 7 floors, each having a different step to the process. We also went to the Guinness academy to learn the proper manners for when having a Guinness. It was a rather humorous process! The last floor was called zero gravity. From here you have a 360 degree view from the highest point in the city. This was breathtaking. There was floor to ceiling windows with a view for miles. We spent quite awhile sitting up there just taking in the view. After awhile we all were getting rather hungry. We went to dinner at the first pub in all of Ireland, The Brazen Head dating back to 1198. We had Irish honey glazed ham with stew stew that was quite delicious! Another reason we choose to go here was because it was across the street from Ireland's futbol stadium. There was a futbol game going on against Scotland, their biggest rivals. The fans were intensely watching the game and it was such an interesting experience. People in Europe take futbol very seriously! The game ended in a tie, which means that both teams were celebrating. After dinner we went out to temple bar to experience the tied game with the fans. It was a great end to a long day of walking! I loved Dublin, it was a big city that was all within walking distance and such friendly locals! Today I did a three hour walking tour of Dublin. The tour covered a lot of sights like the spear, Trinity College, the Dublin Castle, Temple Bar, and the gothic region. At each of these stops you would learn extensively about the location and Dublin's history behind it. My favorite part was learning about Ireland's history and splitting off from the United Kingdom. This was something that I know to this day is still a hot topic. Ireland broke off from the United Kingdom in 1949. The first time the royal family went to Ireland since Ireland claimed its independence was just in 2011. For over 50 years they were not on good terms, and even today they're not completely over it. The UK still owns the 6 most northern regions of Ireland, and during wars Ireland has to allow the UK to use their ports. The same week the royal family visited Ireland in 2011, Barrack Obama visited as well.
Trinity college was the first university in Ireland, established during the 1100's. After completing your second year there, you can take a scholar exam. This exam has over a 90% fail rate, and only 3 people in history have ever gotten a 100%. So why volunteer to take such a strenuous test, right? Well, it most certainly comes with its perks. If you become a trinity scholar, you get all of your tuition paid for, they will pay for your living costs, or if you choose to live at home, they will pay you for however much your living costs would have been that year. Seems pretty average so far, right? Well, it only gets better... If you also own any sheep, you're allowed to bring them to college with you and let them graze in the courtyards, during any exam you could ask your test supervisor to bring you a pint of Guinness, and you were allowed to bring your own sold if you owned one to your exam and lay it across your desk. After that I thought my tour guide had to be messing with us, but there was a plaque in the courtyard discussing all of the benefits of being a Trinity Scholar, reaffirming everything he had told us. Dublin castle was massive and took up several city blocks. In the 90's, Ireland's economy really bottomed out and was in financial trouble, but within the past year has tremendously improved. It was like an insider's scoop having a tour guide whose family has been in Ireland for generations and was truly proud of his country. After the tour I walked to St. Patrick's cathedral. This is where St. Patrick is believed to have first gone for his travels in Ireland. I went back to the castle after this and walked through all of the gardens inside its courtyard. They seemed to just keep going and going. It was amazing to think of all the time and detail that must be put into the landscaping. After the castle, I was on my way to dinner near Temple Bar where I got my first Irish meal, Guinness Stew! It was delicious, and no surprise it came with potatoes! It was really tasty and filling. I am amazed at how many foreign foods I have liked considering I am a rather picky eater. We had to sacrifice ourselves and chase down dinner with some delicious gelato. It was rough, but we survived. Later that night I did a pub crawl through Temple Bar where I had a really good time and met a lot of new people! Ironically, halfway across the world, I spent my night with UC, NKU, and ND college students. It was a nice home away from home feeling. Throughout the weekend we were continuously told we chose a great weekend to be there because there was a fútbol match in Dublin between Ireland and Scotland. These two teams are big rivals, making the fans even more excited about the game. When we were at Temple Bar there wasn't a guy in sight that didn't have on a kilt, which was most certainly different from back home. Overall it was a long day, but I enjoyed learning so much about Ireland's history. Today I taught my first United States lesson. We started with some technical difficulties because the wifi wasn't working (like always). Once we got it all sorted out, though, it went wonderfully. My supervising teacher gave me some wonderful compliments and feedback. I am so excited to continue our unit now that I have started. The students learned a little background knowledge on the United States and the significance behind the American flag. After explaining how each piece of the US flag has important significance, I let the student create their own flags with the catch that they had to explain to me why they choose those symbols and colors. The teacher thought this was a wonderful way to open up and ease the students into our United States unit.
After school we took the bus directly to the train station to begin our journey to Ireland! Nothing throws off your plans more than the train to the Manchester Airport getting canceled. Once we figured out this dilemma and hopped on a few different trains, we finally made it to the airport! The joys of traveling through Europe are that every airport you go to has different polices. It's really a joy -- not! So, naturally, we had to go through security a few extra times. The extra trips through were increasingly entertaining each time. Although it turns out, when answering security questions, regardless of how ridiculous they are, laughing is highly frowned upon and I'm pretty sure the last time through security was just to be spiteful! Our flight took off, and we were in Ireland within 30 minutes! Crazy fast, right? I now know what people mean when they warned me about Ireland and not being able to understand them speaking, even though we are both speaking English. Wow, do they talk fast! I know that I can talk fast at times, but they kicked it up to a whole different level. I'm sure I am giving them the weirdest looks as I try to understand what they are saying. We had to take a bus from the airport to our hostel, and yes, they still drive on the wrong side of the rode in Ireland. It was nice to finally arrive at our hostel after a long day on the go. Our hostel is really nice and just like hotels back home; it's nice for a change. We're a stone's throw from the Spears Tower, which is really close to city center. We got some food and spent what was left of our night figuring out on a map our destinations for the weekend. I cannot wait to see what the weekend has in store for us! Hello Ireland 🍀 |