Day 3

This morning we arrived at school with plenty of time to spare. This gave me some time to talk to Ms. Byrant and ask her questions. We talked about how different American schools and British schools are. When the students came in the classroom and were unpacking, they all said hi to Jacey the Jaguar. It was adorable watching how caring they are. One of the students wrote a note to Jacey and brought it in this morning.
Around 10 o'clock the students get to a have a fruit snack. The fruit and vegetables each day are provided by the school. I think it is awesome of the school to do this. In my American classroom we have a fruit and vegetable snack but the students must bring their own if they wish to participate. The problem I see with that is not all students bring one or have money to since they get free or reduced lunches. The method here makes it better for all economic classes.
I also found it extremely interesting that the students were learning cursive handwriting. Typically American students don't learn this until 3rd grade. Instruction is so different over here. I am still trying to figure out which approach is better.
At 11 we had a tea break. As a teacher, I love getting 20 minutes to sit down and catch up. What I don't like about this idea is that all 600+ kids in the school go play outside at the exact same time with only 3 adults to watch them. It seems scary to me and dangerous. One of the teachers each day is in charge of first aide and documenting injuries in a journal.
At lunch today, Shree and I sat with some of the University students from Plymouth and talked to them about things to do around here in our free time. Somehow we started talking about fruit because someone had Honeydew. It was a funny conversation because the girls had no idea what cantelope and Honeydew were. They call both "melons". We also asked them for directions to Primark, since we were meeting up with our group there after school.
The students had computers this afternoon. It was amazing to me how much the students were expected to do. They are brilliant.
The school has an incredibly small library. There are not very many books. I don't know if it is a budget issue or not but I feel they are lacking. Reading is so important therefore, I feel there should be an abundant supply throughout the school.
One thing I noticed about the school is that classroom management tends to be a problem. The fact that there are 30 students in each class does tend to make the atmosphere much different. I am used to a class size around 17 or 18 students. The children here have alot more freedom. They are not instructed to work quietly and even when walking throught the halls in line it is caotic.
After school we went to the mall with everyone in our group from America! We had a nice evening together!