Soo much has happened since last I blogged, I don't know where to begin!
As the St. Patrick's Day festivities began, more and more tourists begin to enter Ireland. Also, I was informed that many of the Irish Countryfolk come into Dublin for the festivities as well. The festivals are celebrated much more often by foreigners than Dublin locals.
On Wednesday, I hopped on the Luis (a train) and took it into St. Steven's Green, Dublin. The weather was lovely and the energy was even better. Upon exiting the train I met up with some friends, only to see a huge stage setup in the middle of the street. For the next four hours professional dancers and musicians performed as people danced in the streets of Ireland. This Irish dancing event is known as a ceili and was some of the most fun I have had, thus far.
The following day I woke up early and traveled into Dublin to see the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Swarms of green tourists stretched as far as the eye could see. Initially, I met a group of people outside of Trinity College (beautiful architecture!!), but later we decided to move to a more vacant location. We were thrilled to find that a friend had a studio which overlooked the Leffy River and the Parade, so after pushing our ways through the masses we settle to watch the parade from there. The parade, itself, was a little random at first. It was themed Brilliance, but it really didn't seem too extravagant. There were a lot of people on stilts, dressed up as strange creatures and a giant black dog. I was a little disappointed, until I found out that the parade was supposed to represent each chapter of the Roddy Doyle children's story, Brilliance. It was also supposed to embody the hard time that everyone is facing currently in Ireland. This little fact made the parade a little more interesting. Overall, Ireland on St. Patrick's Day reminded me a lot of Americans and the Superbowl. The people here are just extremely passionate about there culture and excited to celebrate with friends and family.
Other Places I have visited:
The coast at Bray is just lovely. This cute little town, while expensive, runs along the water and is very pretty. The beaches here are comprised of small, smooth stones. I have yet to see sand on any of them. If you look off in the distance you can see rolling hills, small towns and a cross, high up on a hill. This town was also host to a carnival. It reminded me very much of the portable games and rides seen in a traditional carnival in PA.
Enniskerry, County Wicklow, Ireland is another lovely town. I came to this location to see the gardens at Powerscourt, which were absolutely beautiful!! http://www.powerscourt.ie/gardens I was fortunate enough to have excellent weather for this day trip and had a wonderful day simply exploring the estate. I was also interested to find that a lot of films are made at this location. Following the gardens, we went into town to get a bite to eat. Poppy's was a delicious eatery in town. While the town is very small, the food and people were extremely homey and welcoming. This is an excellent location to get traditional Irish food, and one of the best I've experienced so far. My lunch consisted of soup (broccoli and cauliflower) and a scone, which was actually very filling and delicious. They also had a lot of hearty pastries, hearty pies and a whole slew of desserts.
DunDrum Shopping Centre- When here, I feel like I am back in the states. This location is essentially a gigantic mall. They have a store called Penney's, but do not be fooled, it is not J.C. Penny's. It does however, have fantastic deals, but be careful, the quality is not always too great. Other stores in this mall include Urban Outfitters and Forever21, along with a supermarket, hair salons, and a while mess of designer stores. A cinema is also attached to the mall. Essentially, if you need something, you can get it at this location.
The Cinema- While similar in many ways to our movie theaters, when you are buying your ticket here, you buy them where you buy your food and drink. I would imagine that this would allow the theater to make more money. Also, there is an ice cream stand in the theater! Ben and Jerry's is very popular here. There is also an area where you can mix and match any candy you want, and pay by the pound. If you've ever seen this in a supermarket before, it is essentially the same thing (I think this is a brilliant idea). I have yet to actually go to the movies, but I have been told that a ticket is approximately 8 euros.
The Upstairs of the Mall- Johnny Rocket's, Pizza Hut, KFC... I was shocked... apparently American food influences all corners of the world
Update on School- School is going really well! Friday we took a field trip to a poetry festival and then went toe the swimming pool, which is done every friday. Furthermore, we had an open house in the middle of the week which had an excellent turn out, 88 people showed up! It was a LOT of hard work to prepare for, but it paid off in the end. Next week I will still be bouncing around classrooms a bit, but I will be teaching a few lessons as well. Wish me luck! Hope the weather is nice in the states!
Note:
-If you want a beautiful scenic ride to your destination, take the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transport). It runs along the Irish Sea
-tipping is not customary
-if you see a sign that looks like V in the street, that is not an arrow...it is a yield sign. You are still driving in the right direction!
-bikes get stolen a lot
-buses don't give change, but you can get a receipt and get change elsewhere
-rain all the time is a misconception here in Ireland, it rains a LOT during winter months, but since I have been here it has only rained once, it has been chilly tho
-fox run around all the time (I have seen 3)
-wild goats cross the street and climb mountains
Anxiously Anticipating Ireland
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Cotton buds, Fortnights and Mat (first two days of school)
Hop a bus, walk down an Ave, take a left at the pub, a right at the stoplight and you'll see it on the corner. A quant little building with a stone wall. Welcome my little Irish school :), one of the last schools under the Church of Ireland. Essentially, it caters to all denominations; however, Irish Church members get priority when applying.
Let me just say that its adorable and so far I love it! So, there are three classrooms total, and each grade is referred to as a class... let's see if I can explain this without confusing you and myself, for that matter. Okay, so the first class includes Junior and Senior Infants (4, 5 and some 6 year olds~ 12 kiddos total), the second class includes first, second and third class (6, 7, 8 and 9 year olds~30 kids total) and the last class includes fourth, fifth and sixth class (10, 11 and 12 year olds ~ 13 kids total). My day began with what else but a cup of tea. I was introduced to all 4 staff members and 2 helpers and a spanish gentleman who was also doing some student teaching there. He's a bit older than I, but it's interesting to see how teaching cultures/techniques vary.
After tea and introductions I joined the older students for the first portion of the day. The day began with group sharing. Students sat at the front of the room and shared any big news that happened to them over the weekend. Reminded me very much of a morning meeting type routine. Next, we jumped right into bible study. Personally, I don't know very much about religion, but I must say that the lessons taught are really applicable to any denomination. The lesson was about forgiveness and being kind to one another. It didnt harp on god or jesus, it essentially just reinforced good morals and how to approach life challenges that everyone faces at one time or another.
The second lesson of the day is Irish. The language of Ireland. Many people refer to this as Gaelic, but in my school it is referred to as Irish. Students listened and watched a story in Gaelic on PROMETHEAN BOARDS!!! :) As of 2 years ago, all the classrooms have and use them. I was extremely excited to see this, walking into the building. After watching the story, one student was selected to play a game on the story on the board, his score was put on a white board. More short stories and games were played, at the end the student with the highest score on the board received a ticket. At the end of the month all tickets go into a pot and are drawn. Winners receive prizes out of a basket.
After Irish was a math lesson followed by a 10 minute tea break. You may be wondering how one teacher teachers a class of varying age groups... it typically goes like this: the instructor gives two of the three groups problems to work on (practicing a current concept), meanwhile she is teaching one group of students a new concept. The groups rotate through doing independent work and getting taught new lessons. Using this system, it is extremely important to establish exactly what is expected of students during independent work periods. After a group is taught a new concept, they too begin working on practice problems. As they are working, the teacher checks answers and gives a "tick" aka checkmark for correct answers and a dot for incorrect answers. Students must correct incorrect answers before they move on. Math concepts such as addition, subtraction and long division are taught slightly differently in Ireland, as well. However, I have seen some really cool manipulatives that i would love to look into! One was a simply beads on a shoe lace (10 yellow, 10 blue) alternating the whole way up the string. Students simply slide the beads down to help with addition, subtraction, multiplication etc.
The rest of the day consists of lunch/recess (children bring their lunches outside and eat and play simultaneously) literacy, science, history and art. Each of the three groups of children get extra outside time for PE once a week. There is also a special needs worker who alternates between two schools and comes to help struggling students two times a week. I have been informed that Fridays are pool days. The entire school goes to an indoor swimming pool down the street! Should be fun.
Classroom Management: I must say... this is emphasized MUCH more in the United States. Seriously, we should all be proud to be Penn State students because there are sooo many times that I thought, "wow the kids are kind of crazy, I know what to do in this situation." I was speaking to another student teacher from Indiana, in a school down the road and she was saying that her school has classroom management difficulties as well. We have both noticed that the most common attempt to quiet children is the "shush." Which we all know does not work.
But I must say 2 of the three teachers in my school do use the echo clap method, which seems to be effective in many cases. I have also seen a sign with "race to space" on it. There are 4 rocket ships moving up a line. I have yet to inquire about how that works, but it looks like large group incentive. With the junior and senior infants their are two areas on the board. One lists all the students names within a star. If they do "good" things throughout the day they get a star next to their name. If they have stars at the end of the week they get a prize. Students also get their names on the board for inappropriate behavior. Name up is a warning, once check is the second warning, two checks is missing about 2 to 3 minutes of outside time. I was explaining the stoplight method that was implemented in my student teaching in PA, she seemed really excited about it and is looking forward to implement it! Exciting :). I also shared many of the emergency lesson plans acquired in PA as well. She was sooo excited and photocopied them all, hope thats okay! Another classroom management technique that I'm seeing is a point system. When students earn a certain number of points they get a ticket. At the end of the month, tickets are put in a lottery and if you are pulled you get to pick a prize, kind of like a raffle.
Furthermore, I would have to say that PA classroom management expectations are much stricter than Spain's, as well. Or perhaps we are just better informed of techniques to implement them? I'm not sure which it is, but I was watching the Spanish student teacher give his lesson and I wished I could have lended him a hand... but I didnt want to interrupt his lesson. It was a really cool lesson, but here are somethings I reflected on and probably would have done differently...
1. Have a hook instead of just saying "okay we're going to learn about magnets, this is a ___ magnet, this is a ____ magnet. Do you know what magnets stick to?"
1. Explain directions and expectations BEFORE handing out materials
2. Demonstrate exactly what you want students to do with the materials, show them!
3. Get students attentions before talking, instead of trying to yell over them
4. Try other quieting techniques besides "shhhh"
5. Give each child a paper to record the strength of each magnet, rather than one paper per group
6. Set high expectations for students, don't accept screaming and carrying on
7. Help summarize the lesson at the end rather than ending abruptly
8. Give some form of assessment! Did they learn anything???
I don't mean to be critical... these were just some of the things I considered as he was teaching... we should be proud that our system in the states covers many of these aspects of teaching!
How do standardized tests compare?
The Junior and Senior Infant Test is called the M.I.S.T. This test is given at the end of each year and essentially tests logic skills, handwriting, listening, reading and identifying. For instance, the test will give three pictures and ask the student to point to the picture of a tree falling down. This test is administered in all Irish schools at the end of Senior Infant year.
First class through sixth class take the Sigma-t Exam every November. This is a math exam and it is administered for the benefit of the INDIVIDUAL SCHOOL. In Ireland, the state or government does not base funding off of the scores of these tests. These tests are more for the benefit of each particular school, to gauge where teaching should begin. A similar english test, called the Micra-t is also administered to classes 1-6. Another varieties of this test seen in Ireland is the Ducomdra Test, which tests for English Comprehension. While Ireland does not use standardized testing to submit to the government, England is using tests more and more to compare schools. Some Irish teachers feel that this idea may seep into Ireland as well.
Tests are also administered at the end of secondary school. These exams are much more critical and do effect placement into further education programs.
On Tuesday, all the children dressed up for St. Patrick's Day and we paraded around the courtyard. It was adorable! Apparently they do this every year. The little ones made St. Patrick's Day kites and flew them around. No school Wed, Thurs, Friday for St. Patrick's Day. I look forward to the long weekend and next week in the schools. I spoke to the principle and I will probably spend about two weeks in each of the three classrooms. I mentioned I used to play the clarinet so I will probably do a lesson on the recorder (for music) and teach the kids a song. I will also likely teach many lessons on the science topic of sound (to ages 10-12), the united states (10-12) and possibly art within the next few weeks. If anyone has any cool resources, activities or suggestions let me know! Also, any suggestions for awesome American PE games, I'll probably teach them some of those as well. :)
Tonight I plan on going to Bray with another girl who is in a similar program, Kaitlyn. Yesterday we saw the East Pier in Dun Laoghaire. It was beautiful! The longest, flattest pier in the world. We also did some shopping and eating at this Italian place... with an American name... this is where the local Irish men sent us! Delicious food though. Also I got a card converter! So I will hopefully post pictures shortly. That's all for now! Talk soon!
<3
BTW
cottonbuds- Qtips
rubbers- erasers
fortnight-2 weeks (this was actually used in a sentence in regular conversation!!! i was so excited! :))
mat- Math (good luck teaching the /th/ blend in Ireland, it simply does not exist)
wedges- potatoes
More Irish vocabulary to come soon
Let me just say that its adorable and so far I love it! So, there are three classrooms total, and each grade is referred to as a class... let's see if I can explain this without confusing you and myself, for that matter. Okay, so the first class includes Junior and Senior Infants (4, 5 and some 6 year olds~ 12 kiddos total), the second class includes first, second and third class (6, 7, 8 and 9 year olds~30 kids total) and the last class includes fourth, fifth and sixth class (10, 11 and 12 year olds ~ 13 kids total). My day began with what else but a cup of tea. I was introduced to all 4 staff members and 2 helpers and a spanish gentleman who was also doing some student teaching there. He's a bit older than I, but it's interesting to see how teaching cultures/techniques vary.
After tea and introductions I joined the older students for the first portion of the day. The day began with group sharing. Students sat at the front of the room and shared any big news that happened to them over the weekend. Reminded me very much of a morning meeting type routine. Next, we jumped right into bible study. Personally, I don't know very much about religion, but I must say that the lessons taught are really applicable to any denomination. The lesson was about forgiveness and being kind to one another. It didnt harp on god or jesus, it essentially just reinforced good morals and how to approach life challenges that everyone faces at one time or another.
The second lesson of the day is Irish. The language of Ireland. Many people refer to this as Gaelic, but in my school it is referred to as Irish. Students listened and watched a story in Gaelic on PROMETHEAN BOARDS!!! :) As of 2 years ago, all the classrooms have and use them. I was extremely excited to see this, walking into the building. After watching the story, one student was selected to play a game on the story on the board, his score was put on a white board. More short stories and games were played, at the end the student with the highest score on the board received a ticket. At the end of the month all tickets go into a pot and are drawn. Winners receive prizes out of a basket.
After Irish was a math lesson followed by a 10 minute tea break. You may be wondering how one teacher teachers a class of varying age groups... it typically goes like this: the instructor gives two of the three groups problems to work on (practicing a current concept), meanwhile she is teaching one group of students a new concept. The groups rotate through doing independent work and getting taught new lessons. Using this system, it is extremely important to establish exactly what is expected of students during independent work periods. After a group is taught a new concept, they too begin working on practice problems. As they are working, the teacher checks answers and gives a "tick" aka checkmark for correct answers and a dot for incorrect answers. Students must correct incorrect answers before they move on. Math concepts such as addition, subtraction and long division are taught slightly differently in Ireland, as well. However, I have seen some really cool manipulatives that i would love to look into! One was a simply beads on a shoe lace (10 yellow, 10 blue) alternating the whole way up the string. Students simply slide the beads down to help with addition, subtraction, multiplication etc.
The rest of the day consists of lunch/recess (children bring their lunches outside and eat and play simultaneously) literacy, science, history and art. Each of the three groups of children get extra outside time for PE once a week. There is also a special needs worker who alternates between two schools and comes to help struggling students two times a week. I have been informed that Fridays are pool days. The entire school goes to an indoor swimming pool down the street! Should be fun.
Classroom Management: I must say... this is emphasized MUCH more in the United States. Seriously, we should all be proud to be Penn State students because there are sooo many times that I thought, "wow the kids are kind of crazy, I know what to do in this situation." I was speaking to another student teacher from Indiana, in a school down the road and she was saying that her school has classroom management difficulties as well. We have both noticed that the most common attempt to quiet children is the "shush." Which we all know does not work.
But I must say 2 of the three teachers in my school do use the echo clap method, which seems to be effective in many cases. I have also seen a sign with "race to space" on it. There are 4 rocket ships moving up a line. I have yet to inquire about how that works, but it looks like large group incentive. With the junior and senior infants their are two areas on the board. One lists all the students names within a star. If they do "good" things throughout the day they get a star next to their name. If they have stars at the end of the week they get a prize. Students also get their names on the board for inappropriate behavior. Name up is a warning, once check is the second warning, two checks is missing about 2 to 3 minutes of outside time. I was explaining the stoplight method that was implemented in my student teaching in PA, she seemed really excited about it and is looking forward to implement it! Exciting :). I also shared many of the emergency lesson plans acquired in PA as well. She was sooo excited and photocopied them all, hope thats okay! Another classroom management technique that I'm seeing is a point system. When students earn a certain number of points they get a ticket. At the end of the month, tickets are put in a lottery and if you are pulled you get to pick a prize, kind of like a raffle.
Furthermore, I would have to say that PA classroom management expectations are much stricter than Spain's, as well. Or perhaps we are just better informed of techniques to implement them? I'm not sure which it is, but I was watching the Spanish student teacher give his lesson and I wished I could have lended him a hand... but I didnt want to interrupt his lesson. It was a really cool lesson, but here are somethings I reflected on and probably would have done differently...
1. Have a hook instead of just saying "okay we're going to learn about magnets, this is a ___ magnet, this is a ____ magnet. Do you know what magnets stick to?"
1. Explain directions and expectations BEFORE handing out materials
2. Demonstrate exactly what you want students to do with the materials, show them!
3. Get students attentions before talking, instead of trying to yell over them
4. Try other quieting techniques besides "shhhh"
5. Give each child a paper to record the strength of each magnet, rather than one paper per group
6. Set high expectations for students, don't accept screaming and carrying on
7. Help summarize the lesson at the end rather than ending abruptly
8. Give some form of assessment! Did they learn anything???
I don't mean to be critical... these were just some of the things I considered as he was teaching... we should be proud that our system in the states covers many of these aspects of teaching!
How do standardized tests compare?
The Junior and Senior Infant Test is called the M.I.S.T. This test is given at the end of each year and essentially tests logic skills, handwriting, listening, reading and identifying. For instance, the test will give three pictures and ask the student to point to the picture of a tree falling down. This test is administered in all Irish schools at the end of Senior Infant year.
First class through sixth class take the Sigma-t Exam every November. This is a math exam and it is administered for the benefit of the INDIVIDUAL SCHOOL. In Ireland, the state or government does not base funding off of the scores of these tests. These tests are more for the benefit of each particular school, to gauge where teaching should begin. A similar english test, called the Micra-t is also administered to classes 1-6. Another varieties of this test seen in Ireland is the Ducomdra Test, which tests for English Comprehension. While Ireland does not use standardized testing to submit to the government, England is using tests more and more to compare schools. Some Irish teachers feel that this idea may seep into Ireland as well.
Tests are also administered at the end of secondary school. These exams are much more critical and do effect placement into further education programs.
On Tuesday, all the children dressed up for St. Patrick's Day and we paraded around the courtyard. It was adorable! Apparently they do this every year. The little ones made St. Patrick's Day kites and flew them around. No school Wed, Thurs, Friday for St. Patrick's Day. I look forward to the long weekend and next week in the schools. I spoke to the principle and I will probably spend about two weeks in each of the three classrooms. I mentioned I used to play the clarinet so I will probably do a lesson on the recorder (for music) and teach the kids a song. I will also likely teach many lessons on the science topic of sound (to ages 10-12), the united states (10-12) and possibly art within the next few weeks. If anyone has any cool resources, activities or suggestions let me know! Also, any suggestions for awesome American PE games, I'll probably teach them some of those as well. :)
Tonight I plan on going to Bray with another girl who is in a similar program, Kaitlyn. Yesterday we saw the East Pier in Dun Laoghaire. It was beautiful! The longest, flattest pier in the world. We also did some shopping and eating at this Italian place... with an American name... this is where the local Irish men sent us! Delicious food though. Also I got a card converter! So I will hopefully post pictures shortly. That's all for now! Talk soon!
<3
BTW
cottonbuds- Qtips
rubbers- erasers
fortnight-2 weeks (this was actually used in a sentence in regular conversation!!! i was so excited! :))
mat- Math (good luck teaching the /th/ blend in Ireland, it simply does not exist)
wedges- potatoes
More Irish vocabulary to come soon
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Minor Speed Bumps Along the Way
First, there were mechanical problems with the plane so it was delayed for a couple of hours. Then... wait for it....the pilot and copilot literally locked themselves out of the cockpit! That took a long time to resolve as they informed the passengers that, "these doors are not easy to get into once locked." I was a little hesitant when i realized these were the men that would be flying me across an ocean... lol. Buuut I made it! The flight was very long and my neck was quite sore after, but on the plus side I started talking to the woman next to me on the plane and found out something very interesting. She asked why I was going to Ireland and I told her for student teaching. Turns out she was the principal of a school in Ontario, Canada :).
What I learned:
-standardized testing does not effect school budgets nearly as significantly as it does in the states. Little to none, unless you're in a bad area
-when a student decides to go to University, he/she is selected based solely on his/her performance senior year, regardless of performances other years.
-schools select students based on the high schools they attended (better Universities are more likely to select students from better high schools)
-SATs do not exist in Canada
-everything/everyone is much more laid back!
Finally, I arrived in Ireland. Cloudy skies, 0 degrees C. Had a little trouble getting through customs due to the length of my stay, but I finally got through and got my luggage. Exited the building and bought my bus ticket. When the bus came I was pleasantly surprised to see my bus driver wearing a Philadelphia Eagles cap :). The drive through the city to the hotel where i was meeting my host family was so very pretty.
Things I noticed:
-every other person in Ireland has 2 little dogs
-the street signs have both english and Gaelic on them
-the crosswalk signs for people have very detailed walking people on them to show when to go/slow down/stop
-there are an uncountable number of eateries and pubs
-every so often a palm tree adorns a small front yard
-the architecture is a mix of both modern and old beautiful buildings, very lovely
The rest of my day consisted of settling in, getting to know my host family, watching rugby games and going to a birthday party (very fun, great food, fun people). Finally, at around 8pm we went to a night service for Lent. It was very informal and a "new" service they were trying out. It was only 30 minutes and was mostly songs, readings and stories. After the service wedges and sausages were served (potatoes and sausage). I was too full to eat anything, but it looked pretty good. Thats all for now. Busy day tomorrow at my new school. Will upload pics as soon as i get a card adaptor. ttfn!
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Attention all Passengers...
Flight 722 has been delayed. So, apparently something went quirky with my originally scheduled plane, so another plane was brought in which must be cleaned and checked before departure. The announcer suspects this will take 30 minutes... and an hour later... we're still waiting :). OhH well I suppose that gives me more time to figure out what to change my watch to... so I move it ahead for daylight savings, but Ireland is already 6 hours ahead... so I move it ahead 7 hours? Does Ireland even recognize Daylight savings.... hmmm. Lol.
And We're Off
It's 6:47p.m. here at the airport in Philly, PA. Warm weather and clear skies. My bag is packed with rainboots, Euros and Lucky Charms, at the request of my host family. Apparently they are a small fortune in Ireland. I can't wait to leave. If all goes to plan I will be on a plane to Dublin, Ireland in less than 2 hours. Wish me luck! :)
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