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!