Sorry I have not updated the blog in a few days. We have been extremely busy. Plymouth is beautiful.
This morning began bright and early in our house. We had to leave the house around 7:45 in order to catch the bus. After about a ten minute walk we made it onto the bus. This was a brand new experience for me. Shree and I are student teaching in the same school, Widey Court Primary. Thank goodness someone on the bus was nice and gave us directions to the school from the bus stop.
Once we got to the school, the woman working at the reception desk walked us around the school on a tour and introduced us to our directing teachers. I am in a year 2 room which is first grade in America. My directing teacher's name is Sarah Byrant. There are 30 students in the room. Their accents are adorable.
The morning started with the children coming in to unpack and wait quietly on the rug. Ms. Byrant then took attendance. They then went straight into instruction of connectives(however, whereas, as well as, because, although,furthermore, whilst, therefore, also , but, and, so) This was whole group instruction. After about 30 minutes they began Numeracy Learning which we call Math. Right now they are working on times using clocks. Each student was given their own mini clock to work with during work time as a manipulative. Based on what the individual student needs to work on, Ms. Byrant gave each student a worksheet that was then glued into their numeracy journals.
While they completed their work they could bring it to a teacher to have it checked. If they got it wrong the teacher puts a star next to it so the student can go back to fix it.
Next came break time. The teacher's aide takes the class outside while the main teacher gets stuff ready for the next lesson. Another teacher comes to the classroom twice a week to lead the class with phonics instruction while Ms. Byrant gets to pull children to work with one on one.
At lunch time, children that bring their lunch eat inside of the classroom. Students eating hot lunches go to the lunch room. Lunch is an hour long! All the teachers and faculty eat lunch together in the staff room. I sat next to two students who attend Plymouth University. We got to chat about the differences in schools here and those in America. We also talked about things to do around Plymouth. The girls suggested that we visit Cornwall at some point during our stay. They were super nice and very helpful.
After lunch, Ms. Byrant had all the year 2 students (90 in all ) come in to practice songs for the Christmas program. I found it interesting that they can sing about Jesus and Christmas in their schools and we can not. The other two classes left after about 30 minutes of practice.
Towards the end of the day, Ms. Byrant had me read the book Jacksonville from A to Z to the students and talk about where I am from. I showed the students on a globe and then proceeded to share a book that I made about my students in America. I also told them about Jacey the Jaguar and her journey with me to England. They loved Jacey and were all asking me to take her home.
I can't wait to see what else is different at my school here in Plymouth and my school in America. So far it has been an amazing experience. I had absolutely no idea how different the two would be! I love it! Ms. Byrant has been teaching for 7 years and I know that I will learn tons in the next three weeks thanks to her.
Noticing from today:
- erasers are called "rubbers"
-Students share the same bathrooms both girls and boys and they change together for PE which I found very odd.
- All the students wear uniforms at the school
-There is a National curriculum
- In England, there must be a Cathedral for an area to be considered a city. It is not based on the size or number of people.
