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.