January 30

It's the beginning of the fourth week and I'm wondering where the first three weeks have gone. Things are continuing to go great. We've received our pen pal letters so there has been quite the buzz about that in the classroom. This morning I did a review grammar lesson because I thought they needed a little review before writing their second letters. I introduced them to D.O.L (Daily Oral Language) which was used in many of the schools that I observed back at home and it was something that I did all through grade school. What I did was I put four sentences on the board and had them read them, decide if they were correct, and then write them correctly. I then asked for volunteers to come up and correct each sentence. The students really enjoyed this and were all willing to participate. I then used the sentences as references and talked about the various parts of speech, synonyms, homophones, and punctuation. They did very well and asked a lot of questions. We then did a lot of R.E. work where we talked about respect. We played a game in which the students picked groups of 4 or 5 and then were read about 10 different occupations and they were to rank them from 1 to 10 as to how valuable they thought they were in the community. The group was then given a game board and told that whenever they landed on a specific occupation they were to take the amount of counters out that they had ranked the occupation. The person with the most counters was the winner. We then discussed each occupation and it was interesting that many of the groups had ranked a garbage collector as a 1 or 2 but after talking it through we found them to be quite valuable and someone who we need to give more respect to. The students seemed to get a lot out of it which is very important, especially in this class because they have had problems with getting along with others. After lunch I handed out the pen pal letters and they were able to have a little bit to read them over with their partner. They were so excited and couldn't wait to share their letter with everyone. I then had them write their replies in their notebooks. Once finished they had to find another group to switch with and peer review each others. It worked out very well and many of them kept in mind what we had talked about in the morning. While they were working on writing their letters, I took pictures of each group and we are going to attach these pictures to our letters. Tomorrow is going to be an out of the ordinary day. The students have swimming in the morning, maths, and then in the afternoon someone will be coming in to talk about violence and theft. On Thursday we will have the opportunity to type up our pen pal letters. I will also be doing an imaginative writing lesson with the students. The students have been doing a great job with their imaginative writing and have written some awesome pieces. Each student will be able to choose one piece of writing and we will be putting it on one of our bulletin boards.

This last weekend, Kim and I travelled to Kelso and got to see the Floors Castle. It was amazing! A duke lives there, I guess he's somehow related to the queen. We weren't able to go inside but since Kim's host family runs one of their farms we were able to get pretty close to the castle. We have also finalized our London/Paris trip and we will be leaving next week during the school's long break. We are really looking forward to this!

January 26

I can't believe how fast this week has gone by! I got a chance to do a lot of observing and helping out in classrooms. It was nice because I was able to see different teaching styles and techniques, but also just being in a different level and seeing the type of things that are done in each of these levels. On Wednesday Kim and I took a tour of the high school. I really enjoyed it. It was nice for me because the level I'm working with now will be going to high school next year and I was able to get a feeling for what they needed to know and how it will be like for them. In our classroom, we have continued to do a little bit of Shakespeare, however, we've begun to put more emphasis on Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales. Yesterday I taught a lesson on the Canterbury Tales. It was quite the challenge for me because I had never read them before. I enjoyed it, however, and I think the kids enjoyed it as well. Last week I had read them one story from Canterbury Tales so they could get a little bit of exposure to it. Yesterday I then reviewed why Chaucer wrote the Tales and the story that I had read last week. We then talked about modernizing stories and how directors or authors do this. Because they've been working a lot with Shakespeare I gave the example of A Midsummer Night's Dream and how the modern version of that was done in the movie Ten Things I Hate About You. The students were also able to come up with many more examples. We came to the conclusion that many of Shakespeare and Chaucer's writings and story lines have carried on in modern movies and books. I then let the students choose a group they wanted to work with and gave them one of Chaucer's stories from the Canterbury Tales. They were to read the stories with their groups and then try to modernize it. They haven't finished them yet but a lot of them have come up with great ideas. Many of the groups are using famous people as their present day characters. I'm excited to read them when they are done. Yesterday afternoon I joined the P4 and 5's for a Burns Dinner. Because it was Robert Burns Day these classes celebrated by putting on a traditional Burns dinner, complete with haggis and turnips. I tried a little bit of the haggis. It wasn't too bad but it definitely won't become one of my favorite foods. Today we continued writing our stories, had math, and this afternoon the students are watching the movie A Midsummer Night's Dream. The students were given an assignment last week to write out 10 questions and answers on Wisconsin and then we play a game with it. However, even though they were given it last week and they've been reminded throughout the week about this assignment more than half of them forgot to do it or just didn't do it. This really bothered me because at this age they need to start taking some responsibility for their homework. Because of this, we are not going to play the game today and instead the ones that didn't finish or didn't do it won't be able to watch the movie. Instead during this time they will have to come up with their questions and answers. I talked this over with my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Higson, and she completely agreed with me. She said that many of them always refuse to do homework and they need to start growing up a bit. The students may be mad at me for this, but it is their responsibility.

Last night, Kim and I joined many of the teachers and went to a movie. It was a lot of fun and it was great getting to know many of them better. This weekend is going to be pretty laid back. Tomorrow we will be travelling to Kelso to go to the castle and go shopping and then Sunday we may head to Edinburgh for a while and then just work on lessons and relax the rest of the day.

January 23

I can’t believe I’m already starting my third week here! It’s been going by so quickly. This week will be kind of out of the ordinary because I will be observing and helping out in many of the other classrooms for parts of the day. Yesterday I was with the Primary 1 class (4-5 year olds). I really enjoyed it and was surprised by how much these children were doing on their own already. Many of them could read at a level much higher than their grade and most could write out complete sentences by themselves. It was a lot of fun. Once back with the P7's we had maths in which we are slowly moving into working with angles and measuring angles. I also got 3 more students in my maths group. I think angles will definitely be a challenge but I’m confident that they will pick up on it. Yesterday we also finished our Wisconsin interesting facts and had a United States scavenger hunt on the Internet. The students loved this! I’ve never seen this class work so hard and have so much fun. This is also a great introduction to their Environmental Studies lessons in which we play a game in which the students come up with 10 questions and they other team needs to try and answer them. This week they are working on questions about Wisconsin and next week they will be doing the United States. We have also finished writing our first pen pal letters and are anxiously awaiting replies. Today I will be observing and helping out in 2 classrooms, a Primary 4/5 (2nd and 3rd grade) and Primary 5 (3rd grade). We will also talk a little bit more about Shakespeare and if there's time we are going to watch a kid's version of Romeo and Juliet. This week I’m continuing to prepare lessons, especially concentrating on Grammar and Chaucer. Chaucer will definitely be a challenge for me. The students are also finishing up their Shakespeare plays and will be performing them at the end of next week. I’m excited because this is something I will be taping and bringing back with me.

On Saturday, Kim and I traveled to Edinburgh with my host family for a couple hours. We walked the royal mile and up to the castle, however didn’t go in on this trip. We will next time we go. This Thursday night, Kim and I and most of the teachers are all going to see the movie “Holiday.” I think this will be a lot of fun and a great way to get to know the teachers better.

Friday January 19

Well, it’s the end of the second week and things are going good. These last couple of days have been kind of crazy at the school because we’ve gotten snow in Duns, which doesn’t happen too often. Yesterday, many of the kids weren’t able to make it into school because of this weather. However, things carried on. The P7's continued to work on their Shakespeare projects. For language, they have been heavily focusing on creative writing and what elements make a good creative piece. On Wednesday they worked on character development. We had the students watch short clips of movies and focus on the characters and what characteristics they possess. We also have been practicing writing good beginnings that draw a reader to the piece of writing. I was surprised at many of the students’ writing. It was amazing. Yesterday we began talking a little about Chaucer and read a shortened version of one of his stories. On Wednesday we started our pen pal project. We first reviewed what goes into a friendly letter and then brain-stormed some ideas to write about. Because the school we’re writing to only has 17 students and we have 30 we had to partner up. This was a challenge because this class has a lot of trouble working with each other. Once partnered up they had to write their letters and then show me or Mrs. Higson, just to check for punctuation and grammar. Yesterday, we then went to the computer suite and began typing up our letters. We didn’t get very far, however, because as I was walking around looking at various emails, most of the students resorted back to run-on sentences, no punctuation, and not capitalizing the first letter of a sentence or proper nouns. This was definitely something that I didn’t think we would have a problem with because we had gone over correcting grammar and punctuation the day before. I also assumed since they were in P7 they would know to do these things. I didn’t think it was right to send these emails with all these mistakes so we will be going over them again in the next couple of days. Along with this, we’ve been continuing to learn about Wisconsin and I was very impressed at how much the students were interested and how much they actually researched on their own. It was great to see this. We have also been continuing with maths. We’re slowing down again a little because I found out this week that many of them have difficulties multiplying and dividing, and they are still struggling with telling time. These are things that I feel that when they go to High School next year they will have to know so I don’t want to move along too quickly until they are confident with it. A couple of the students truly do not understand, while the others I fee just do not want to put in the time.
This week has definitely been a very interesting and eye-opening one, but has taught me a lot. It gives me the opportunity to deal with problems that happen in every school. It also gives me the opportunity to develop better lessons in which to fit the needs of the students. I feel that next week will be a very challenging but very educational week for myself.
On Saturday, Kim and I will be traveling to Edinburgh for the day. We plan on climbing up to the castle since we weren’t able to on the last trip. Sunday I plan to go to church and plan for the upcoming week!

Tuesday, January 16

It’s the beginning of the second week of school and things are going very well. Yesterday I started a small unit on Wisconsin. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. For the first day we went to the computer suite and just did a lot of searches. I had them first find Wisconsin on a United States map, then Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, and then finally Grafton. Many of them were even ambitious enough to find my street on a city map. Today we continued in the computer suite and I had them find some interesting facts about Wisconsin and then they had to find a picture of the fact that they liked the most and write a short summary of it. We are then going to make a Wisconsin bulletin board and post these on that. I also brought in a bunch of pictures of my family, friends, and other various activities that I have participated in. They just loved this and of course had a ton of questions. In the next couple of days we are going to start writing to pen pals from my old grade school. They are also very excited about this and have already come up with a ton of questions to ask them. On top of this all, the P7 class is continuing to work on Shakespeare and we’re going to be starting Chaucer in the next few days. I’m still working with my math group as well. Yesterday we continued to work on the time. I had some of the students be the “teacher” and come up with some problems to ask the rest of the group. They really liked this and I thought it was important because many students do learn best when hearing it from their peers. I also had the opportunity this morning to go and observe and help out in the nursery (4 year olds). It was a lot of fun and I found many similarities to the Preschool back on St. Norbert campus.
I’m really enjoying my time here and have already gained so much from this experience. I am getting a little homesick but I’ve kept in contact through phone calls and emails. Kim and I went to Glasgow this last weekend. It was a lot of fun except the weather didn’t want to cooperate. It rained all weekend, but I guess it’s what we expected. We’re continuing to work on our London trip and hope to get that all worked out this week.

January 12th

I can’t believe I’m already ending my first week here. It’s gone by so fast. I’m really enjoying the school. The staff is so amazing and helpful. They know how to make learning fun and enjoyable. Not only do they teach the material but they also make it relevant to the students’ everyday lives, making it more meaningful. In class we’re continuing to work on Shakespeare. Right now the students are in groups reading various Shakespeare plays which they will then perform for the rest of the class. They are in charge of making scrips, puppets, costumes, backgrounds, and whatever else is relevant to their particular play. They’ve been given a lot of independence in the direction their presentation will go. I’m excited to see them, and since this class loves videotaping and editing I thought it would be the perfect artifact for me to bring back. Along with working on this, many of the students have taken over creating the Globe Theater in the back of the classroom, along with creating a Shakespeare Dream Team bulletin board. I’ve also been given a struggling math group that I will stay with for the rest of my time here. Right now we are continuing to go over telling time on a clock and adding and subtracting minutes and hours to various times. They’re gradually improving with each day. We’ve been using a lot of visuals and real-life examples which seems to help them a lot. Yesterday I also taught a handwriting lesson on cursive writing. After seeing a lot of cursive writing in many of the Shakespeare books and then asking me if I knew how to do it, they have just been fascinated by it. It’s very “posh” to them. They aren’t taught this in their schools and since all of the students have been asking me to write their names for them I thought it would be the perfect lesson for the class. After, they said it was a fun lesson and told me I needed to teach a lot more because I was so fun! :)
Tonight Kim and I leave for Glasgow for the weekend. We’ve been talking to a lot of teachers and have been told some great places for us to visit and see. We’ve also been working on our London trip for the February break. It should be a great time!

January 9th

Scotland is such a beautiful country!! I had no problems arriving here, and so far I have liked all the food (I haven’t had to try the haggis yet…) The weather is much like home, except it rains a lot more and is very windy. My host family, Mike, Kath, Lizzie (11) and Mikey (4) are also very nice. The Thursday I arrived involved much sleep and getting settled in. On Friday, my host family took me into Berwick for some things I had forgotten when packing. Saturday Kim and I travelled to Edinburgh, which is the capitol of Scotland. It is a gorgeous city, very historic and full of culture. We did a lot of shopping, took lots of pictures, did a bus tour, and found some familiar McDonalds food. J Sunday I went to church and just relaxed and prepared for the first day of school.
This is now the second day of school and I really like it. I walk about 1 mile to school each day. School starts at 9:00am and ends at 3:15pm. I am in a P7 class, which consists of 11 and 12 year olds. These first couple of day have just flown by. Yesterday was kind of a day for the students to just get settled back in and be introduced to the new units and topics for this term. The students also had a lot of questions for me. Shakespeare is one of the big units that we will be covering this term. The students did a little bit of brainstorming and finding out facts about Shakespeare and his life. They also drew pictures of him and things that they thought represented him. I was surprised at how much the students already knew. We also read a shortened version of the Twelfth Night and tried to act it out. It was very fun and it kept the students very involved. Today the students were put into groups and were able to pick a Shakespeare play that they would like to perform for the class. They were to read a short version of the play, design and create puppets and costumes, and create a script. The students are just loving this!! We will be doing this for a few more days. We are even transforming the back of our classroom into the Globe Theatre and have a giant sized drawing of Shakespeare on our wall. It’s amazing how enthused they are about this. It’s going to be a very fun unit. These last 2 days the students have also done a bit of comprehension and math (or as they call it here maths ). Yesterday I worked with a group of 6 students on the reading comprehension of a short story they were reading. I was also able to listen to a couple of the students read independently to me. For math, the 2 P7 classes split to a high math and a low math. I stayed with the lower math and helped them work on time, mainly story problems dealing with the addition and subtraction of it. It was fun because I was used as the main example because of the time difference between here and home. This also spurred many more questions about myself. The kids also had gym today, where they played badminton and they have swimming lessons tomorrow morning. I was surprised to here that they gave swimming lessons during the school day but I think it’s a great idea!
My cooperating teacher, Mrs. Higson is wonderful! She is so full of energy and makes the learning fun for the students. I like that everything that is done is all hands on work and engages the students. She has a great personality, and the students really look up to her. I’m very excited to have the opportunity to be in her class!