11-23-09

      This morning has been awful. It was pouring rain and freezing cold outside. By the time we walked to the bus, my shoes, socks, and pants were dripping wet. Hopefully I wont get sick sitting around wet all day. From now on, I am bringing an extra change of clothes and a pair of shoes to school with me.

   First thing this morning, once the school day started we had literacy.  Since the country has a national curriculum and they don’t use textbooks, the teachers have much more freedom and leniency in the classroom.  They are able to come up with their own ways to teach the objective.   Right now she is using James and the Giant Peach to teach literacy.  I really like how they can use their own lessons to cover objectives.  They don’t have a script from a textbook to follow like many of our teachers in America tend to do.

      The students are really encouraged to use their voices and think out loud.   They are constantly told to turn and talk to their neighbor about the topic they are learning.

    Ms. Byrant is always making charts during whole group instruction.  This is something that I need to do more in my teaching.  It is important for the students to have a visual to look back on.  

    During work time, I worked with a small group creating sentences using speech marks which we call quotation marks.  Ms. Byrant used a really cool website called Educationcity to get extra practice with the students during the closing meeting.  She put it up on the smart board so that the students could come up and move the marks where they belonged.   This interaction and movement is great for the students, and Ms. Byrant could see if they students understood the topic or not.

      For fruit time today the students were supplied apples.   I think it is wonderful that they don’t have to bring their own snack.  When two of the girls went to throw their trash away I noticed that they had eaten the entire apple including the seeds leaving only the stem.  I couldn’t help but laugh.  I guess that is how they eat apples here.

      Jessica is back for the first time today.   She is the young girl who broke her collar bone last week.   I let her have snack with Jacey since she had not met her yet.

        This afternoon the students worked on their All About Me book for my students in America.  It is turning out really cute!

      Keith Jones, our supervisor in England, came over to debrief with us at 5:45 this evening.  He is going to set up a doctors appointment for me!