MY 22nd BIRTHDAY

Today was a good day indeed. The airport was hell on Earth (was in the check in queue for 2 hours!), my flight was delayed an hour and a half, my vegetarian meal was not on board and I was wedged into a window seat in a skirt because of my wishful thinking of being bumped to first class (... it was my Birthday!). But I did have some good chats with good friends whilst in the queue an got some pretty cool birthday cards and pressies too (pink pants and perfume!! - my buddies know me well!)

My biggest surprise was to come when I landed at the airport. I see a balloons floating in the distance when leaving customs. I look down and there is my "little" brother and Dad. Se the photos on Dad's blog.

When I got back to the house Laura had made me my favourite Betty Crocker Cake. I asked her about it and she denied the cake there was a cake. She was standing next to a sink full of unwashed cake pans and icing tubs!! They put 22 candles on it. Beautiful!!

MY NEW SCHOOL DISPLAY

The children came into to school today to see the new display I put up for them this week. After many hours this is the outcome. One boy said just imagine if we were small enough to walk across that bridge. Miss Large is pleased as the class were quiet in their amazement. She says it will never come off the wall!

FIELD TRIP TO HAMPTON COURT PALACE

So I'm a week and a half into my school placement in a Year 1 and today I have been sent on a misson to escort a Year 3 class to Hampton Court Palace, the former residence of King Henry VIII. I thought I would just get the children safely to the trains, watch as they were shown around the Palace and count heads every 10 minutes to make sure we hadn't lost any (whilst hoping we might!?).


How wrong was I? VERY... we were actually assigned to groups and asked to show them around the palace and tell them all about what they were seeing (why else would they have given us the information photocopies the night before right?). My group was predominately Polish speaking which made things interesting.


The funniest part of the trip was when we played a memory game. [You choose a painting. Give the children a minute to look at it turn then around and one by one ask them what they saw, going throught the class until they run out of ideas.] The first painting was a last super idea but the second, a wall painted in the Queen's Appartments (the entire room, even the ceiling, was painted), was perhaps not my best choice.

The problem with my painting choice was lots and lots and lots of naked people, many mermaids and cherubs but, a lot were just naked. But it never dawned on me that maybe I should have chosen another painting!?

(The gardens at Hampton Court Palace are like something out of Alice in Wonderland)

Not a total disaster though, as the children dealt with it very maturely (the first mature thing they had done all day!). Fortunately when I thought about art education lessons I remembered the teacher encouraging us to look at painting of naked people with the children and encouraging this maturity from a young age.

I praised the pupils for their mature attitudes and told them most children wouldn't have behaved so grown up... and then swiftly moved on!

SPRING HAS SPRUNG...


... a few weeks ago actually. We've had lots of sun this past week too. I'm finding it much easier to get out of bed at half 5 in the morning than I was around Christmas time. It's so nice to see London roads empty as they are when I get up.

MY NEW SCHOOL

This primary school in London (which will remain nameless because I don't think they want me to publish things about them!) is my new school placement. I have mixed feelings about the placement but so far so good.

(My classroom - Middle Floor)

The school was built in 1911 with the intention of having a boys' secondary school on the top floor, a girls' secondary school on the middle floor and a middle school on the bottom floor. As it was designed for three separate schools the layout is unusual. The stair on the top floor only go to the bottom floor, missing the middle floor out for example. So they have had to make a hole in one of the stairwells from the middle floor and add a little wooden staircase to join the top and middle floors. Also each floor has its own hall in the middle of all the classrooms. However only the bottom hall can be used for PE now as the middle floor has become an computer suite in part, study areas and play areas whilst still remaining very open. The top floor houses a stage.

(My Classroom)

I don't know what to make of the school yet. My class teacher seems very nice as do all the staff. My class are very young as they are Year 1, or Kindergarten as Canadians will know it. But unlike Kindergarten they are on full days. The entire school is very multicultural. Sixty-six percent of pupils use English as a second language. However in Year 1 it is more like 80% use English as an additional language. Most the children are Asian. There are only four white children in my class but that doesn't mean they are British! I am struggling with the children's names.


Now remember I was in a classroom before Christmas with an Interactive White Board. This is my class's black board and the teacher says it is so old you can't write on it or clean it so all I have available to me is paper about A3 size to write on. I think before the black boards are replaced the female staff are trying to get the head to invest in new toilet seats. The staff toilets are unisex and gross but I don't exactly live in at the Ritz so it doesn't bother me too much.

(My new Interactive White board - Paper in the corner)

The view from upstairs is amazing. You can see for miles! The school looks like a mountain in the neighbourhood. It's huge. Fortunately my commute should be alright it. Not the hour and a half the internet predicted. What a relief!

ESSAYS DONE!!!

Finally the essays are all handed in!!! We are all so tired but we still have over 3 weeks to go. I start school on the 19th and have my first visit on the 15th. I'm scared!! But I did return to York this past weekend to party hard and have some good fun with old maties.... It was great.

This is Christina and I wearing our red noses in preparation for Red Nose Day next week (national English charity day). We had a great time. I went to bars I had never been to before and we ended up at a house party on campus where we knew no one but it was great to dance to the cheese. And we both have the blisters to prove it!

LONG TIME NO BLOG

Sorry I disappeared for well over a month. The essays took over my life. Fortunately they are in. Now school experience is about to take over my life!