My First Day of School

I officially had my first day of school today and it was fabulous! Jordan, Stephenie, and I took the bus to our school, Wilberforce Primary School, and got there about 8:30. We checked in, met some administration, and got our placements. I was placed in a 5th year classroom with a teacher named Emily (teachers are called by their first names). She seems very nice and her class seems to like her a lot.

The day started with an assembly for the entire school. The headteacher (principal), Angela, conducted the assembly. She did some recognition for students and made a point to mention the new American visitors to the school. All day long I felt like such a celebrity because all the kids would look at me, smile, or ask if we were from America. It was so cool!

The absolute coolest part of my day, though, was the fact that the day was so irregular. The kids are learning Shakespeare, specifically The Tempest. They are going to perform a slightly altered version in a few weeks. I found this incredibly wonderful because I studied that same play just a month ago in my Shakespeare class! The drama teacher also found this cool and made a point to share the fact with the class. All day long I got to sing with the students and act with them, too.

All in all, I mostly observed but what I saw was great. I think one of my favorite parts was that the children all do this call and response at the school. The teacher goes "Good morning/afternoon, students" and they respond "Good morning, Emily. Good morning, everyone." I was so excited when Emily put my name in the call and response. I felt so special =) I also loved at the end of the day when this girl asked me about a million questions about the solar system. I couldn't answer everything perfectly, but I tried my best.

Side note: my class is incredibly, incredibly diverse. The school itself has a huge majority of students who speak Arabic and come from many Middle Eastern countries. It is so cool! I love being among diverse students, again. It is so neat learning all their histories.

Other side note: the singer, Seal's, brother used to go to Wilberforce! One of the substitute teachers (called a spare teacher here) said he knew him and was once invited to a party hosted by Heidi Klum. How fun!

Ah, today was just a wonderful day! I'm sure I missed a bunch of stuff. I also know this entry is jumbled, so I will do a brief re-cap: I had a wonderful day with my new 5th year students at Wilberforce Primary School. The students were diverse and creative and we got to do Shakespeare! I can't wait to go back next week!