Happy Holidays!

    As you all can see,  Jacey and  I are back in America! We have been back for a week now and have been very busy readjusting to being home.   The 5 hour time difference has been difficult.

    On Friday I graduated from the University of North Florida with a degree in Early Childhood Education!! Here are some pictures of the big day!!!

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I want to send a huge thank you out to Mrs.Maxwell and the entire 1st grade class for making my experience at Abess Park Elementary so amazing! You all have taught me more than I ever thought possible!  I can’t wait to come in on Wednesday to see you all!

12/2/09

On the way to school today, Shree and I got off at different stop to go into a shop to get thank you cards for our directing teachers. They have been amazing. I got Shree’s teacher a baby outfit and I am getting Ms. Bryant flowers.

Ms. Bryant’s Car:

 

Right when the students came in and the attendance was taken, I pulled three students at a time to work in a small group with me. Last week they built their houses out of boxes and put tissue paper to represent the fire of London that they are learning about. Today they were making a simple electrical circuit in order to make a light bulb light up to put inside their house. This makes it look as if the house is on fire. All of the students except three of them completed the task with no problem. Then they had to explain what they did to make it work. If it didn’t work they had to explain why and try to fix it. Check out the pictures of the children hard at work.

 

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In math they were working on dividing by grouping and finding remainders. One of the students at my table was struggling but everyone else picked up on it quickly.

For lunch today I decided to eat a school dinner. I ordered roast and potatoes.  The best thing I have eaten all week for sure! 

 

Sorry I haven’t updated in a few days! As you can see we have been very busy! Can’t wait to come home and see everyone :)

12/1/09

Headline: Temperatures are set to plummet to well below zero in parts of northern England over the coming two days with freezing weather following a weekend of flooding and storms. Forecasters warned night- time temperatures could fall as low as -5c on high ground over the next two days, with snow expected to hit England later in the week.

Frost on the way to the bus stop:

Ahhhh!!! Its freezing. My jacket is working over time along with my boots. For the first two hours of the school day, all of the year 2 children went into the hall for play practice. They all did a wonderful job singing and speaking. Ms.Bryant works so hard on everything she puts together.

After lunch, Ms. Bryant had a supply teacher (substitute) so that she could take the school choir to a nursing home. We took 39 students. It was amazing to me that the school allows teachers to take people on trips like these and walk 2 miles to get there. For other trips, parents, volunteer and drive the students personally in their cars. This is unheard of in the states. It was quite a long walk but it gave me a chance to talk to the older kids and answer their questions about America.

The school choir sounded wonderful. The people at the nursing home absolutely loved the performance. During one of the songs, a girl fainted. It was shocking when it first happened. I was actually filming the choir so the incident ended up on the camera. She was fine after she sat down and got some water. It was pretty hot with all of those bodies being in such a small room. On the walk back to the school it was raining so by the time we got back we were dripping.

 

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Ms. Bryant picked me up at Marjon at 6:45 pm to go to our teaching assistant, Hailey’s birthday. The restaurant we went to was called Fish Bone. There were 20 people at the dinner all of whom work at our school. It was nice to get to interact with the faculty members that I see everyday but never get a chance to talk to. The food was alright but not the best. It was a pretty posh restaurant. Ms. Bryant dropped me back off at Marjon around 9:00. She has been more than helpful while I have been here in her classroom.

 

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