Hello! As always Friday went very well last week. I had a busy week and was very glad for some time to relax and regroup during the weekend. On Friday I was able to finish my food pyramid lesson that I worked on with my class on Thursday for the observation. I was very happy after I reviewed with the students because they were able to tell me a lot about what they had learned during the previous session. This made me realize that the way I presented the lesson and the activities I did worked for them and they really learned something! The students were able to tell me a lot about the information they had gained through the lesson as well as add some connections they had made when leaving school and talking with their families. I was very happy to hear their stories! In addition to review of the food pyramid I started the second half of the lesson which involved creating a food menu. The students were to use the knowledge they gained about healthy food choices and amounts and apply it to a restaurant menu. This activity involved working in groups of 2 and coming up with healthy food combinations. Not only did I want the students to experience more group work, I also wanted to work on their presentation skills and talking in front of their peers. After the menus were made, the students were to present their healthy food choices to the class and explain why they choose the particular food items that they did. In doing this I was able to assess the knowledge gained through the food pyramid because if the students could not easily explain their reasoning, I knew they did not successfully learn about the food groups. Overall I was very happy with this lesson and will definitely keep it for the future.
Friday evening I went to a community games competition in Tralee which is a town located just 30 minutes outside of Listowel. I have mentioned in my previous blogs that I had been working on a games around the world project with some students. Friday was when the competition for this project was held and the students were able to show and display all of the work and new knowledge they had gained from research. The girls were very excited and nervous to go to the competition but knew they had tried their best. The group of girls that were picked to attend had presented to the class and could easily talk fluently about their information. The group included two girls who have come from Poland to live in Ireland, so it was interesting to watch them adapt to school in Ireland and the different learning and teaching styles that they are used to. The students were in the under 11 age group and competed against three other teams. In the end the girls got 4Th out of 4 teams and were very disappointed. They had given it their all and that is all we could ask for. All we can do is take what we learned from this experience and move forward for next year's competition.
This week has started out great and is my second to last week. There is so much I still would love to do in the classroom at Convent Primary. My time here has gone very fast and I will miss it very much! I was able to teach my English lesson today. It involved a piece of writing that the students had been working through. Today we were only able to get through some of the lesson and I will continue with it tomorrow. The students have been great and very enthusiastic while participating in the lessons lately. This is great to see. As usual I am listening to readers everyday and constantly switching books. I also taught a history and geography lesson on tourism. This was a fun lesson to teach because the students and I could learn together. We both learned new things about Ireland that we did not know before. This was also a fun lesson to make connections to. Whether you have traveled somewhere else or not it is always nice to talk about where you would one day like to visit. I have had a great week so far and hope everyone at home feels the same! I will write again soon, until then Slan!
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