TGIF

Today I woke up to a very quiet flat, since everyone except Casey and me are away on break. I decided to have a productive day and go spend another day in practicum. It was actually a really great day, so I'm extremely glad I went.

So the first thing that happened this morning was that Emily's full-time assistant wasn't there. It was kind of a blessing in disguise for me because I got to do some of the tasks she usually did. I spent the first part of the morning cutting paper on the "guillotine" (aka large paper cutter). Then, during maths, I got to help a lot of different students. I worked with a kid who has autism and more advanced level students, in addition to my usual little group. It was great comparing what each of the students did and what helped them learn or not learn. After maths, was break. I spent the break talking to one of my students about her hamster. It was very cute. After that, I got to witness a history lesson. Today, the class learned about Ancient Greek ampitheatres. I again got to work with a bunch of different students. It made me happy that the students felt comfortable asking for my help. History was shortened today to allow time for the students to make mother's day cards. Some of them got extremely creative with their cards - I was quite impressed.

Following card making was lunch, where I talked to a different student a bit about his card and how mother's day is celebrated in May in America. He thought it was the craziest thing! Then, I went downstairs and talked to a couple more students from my class about The Tempest and things in America. They really only wanted to know about celebrities and how close I lived to Obama. They were quite sweet. One girl even got disappointed that I wasn't staying to teach at Wilberforce. She thought I was coming to the school to train and then work there. How nice!

After lunch was P.E. Students have to walk to a nearby recreation center to do P.E. and today's lesson was absolutely great. They learned a bit about rugby and every child in the class had a smile on their face. It made me so happy! I spend the P.E. time talking to a classroom assistant (she was very friendly) and watching the kids. Unfortunately, I witnessed lots of fighting on the walk back to school and lots of poor behavior (with lots of cussing).

The day finished with an afternoon assembly. Each teacher in Key Stage 2 (grades 3-6) picked a couple students to recognize with Gold Awards. The teacher would go to the front of the assembly room, talk a bit about the student, and the students would be recognized. I didn't realize how connected I was to my class until a couple students got gold awards. I was so proud!

Now, I am in for evening. I'm going to do some work and maybe something fun? Tomorrow I get to see Katherine, which is very exciting!!