Week 3!!

   Hello!!  It is already almost Wednesday of week 3!!  I am having such a wonderful time teaching at Convent Primary school in Listowel.  Everyday I come home from school thinking about how I have met some of the nicest teachers.  They continue to reach out to me day after day and offer helpful advice, friendship and I can't forget transportation arrangements!  Before I get into this weeks teaching experiences I want to give a quick recap of the weekend.

   I did my first bit of traveling this past weekend.  I went to County Cork which is about 2 and a half hours away from County Kerry which is where I am located.  I left early Saturday morning for Tralee where I caught my bus.  I got a ride from one of the teachers at school... so nice!!  The bus ride was absolutely breathtaking!  The views of the valleys and mountains was so beautiful and I wish I could have captured it all on my camera.  When I arrived at the Cork bus station my friend was there waiting for me.  We immediately hopped on another bus and headed off to Kinsale.  This was about 45 minutes away from Cork.  Kinsale is yet another beautiful city with friendly people and lots to see.  We first saw the harbor and then made our way to the notorious restaurant, "Fishy Fishy".  This restaurant is supposed to have the best seafood in Europe and it was indeed worth every penny.  Next we headed to Fort Charles and lucky for us we had about an hour left of sunlight so we were able to get gorgeous pictures of the fort with the sun setting.  After that adventure we made our way back to Cork where we walked around and then headed to our hostel.  The next day we went to Blarney Castle.  This was yet another breathtaking tourist attraction.  I got to kiss the Blarney stone and was able to get about 100 pictures of the great Castle and the grounds!!  After touring the castle I parted ways from my friend and got on a bus headed back to Listowel.  I had a fabulous weekend of sight seeing and was ready for a good nights rest before school on Monday!!

   This week is another week I am teaching art at school.  With Spring in mind, I was instructed to come up with an idea incorporating the newly arriving season.  I set up an activity to do with the girls involving painting and creating kites.  The neat thing is that the kites will be glued up and off the page to give a three dimensional effect.  I am very excited to see the end result.  As of now I am only taking small groups to complete the various steps of this project.  It is wonderful to see how excited the girls are to be working with me as well as doing art.  I can tell it is one of their favorite things to do and I am hoping to be able to teach it at least once a week. 

    I am continuing to read with the girls in small groups.  I have noticed how much the teacher appreciates this time I spend with the girls.  Literacy is not only of big importance in the States but also in Ireland.  I am glad I am able to help out in such a big way!  I am also helping the girls with their penmanship, specifically cursive writing.  I am still working on how I can better word my directions to the girls so that they understand what I mean.  There are some things that I say that are not very clear to the girls because there are various terms and words that they use and that I am not aware of quite yet.  The words are very simple but can create much confusion.  For example when I say use your eraser, they may not know what I am saying because to the children "rubber" is referred to as eraser.  Word usage and phrasing is what I specifically try to focus on while teaching because it is my main goal to have everyone understand what I ask of them.  I know this will get better with time, but I have called it to my attention in the mean time and will practice.  I am continuing to observe and pay close attention to the words and phrases the teacher uses in the hopes of picking up on the terminology so that I will be able to be more clear.  

   In addition I am continuing my work with the group of girls learning about culture through sports, specifically in America.  I am having a lot of fun working with the group and seeing how interested they are in learning about America.   I love watching them make connections between the games they know in Ireland to the games I describe from America.  It is as if I can see their growth in knowledge before my very eyes.  It is wonderful!  Other than those specific projects I am just aiding in the classroom wherever I can.  Later this week I plan on teaching a bit more.  I will write again soon to elaborate on those lessons.  Until next time, slan!