Slan pobal na hÉireann!! (Goodbye to the people of Ireland)

Today is a sad but happy day as I sit down to write my last blog. I have endured so much over the past 2 and a half months that the reality has not yet sunk in that I must return to the United States and on to my second placement. I have really come to see Ireland as my home for the past 11 weeks and have made some amazing friendships! The atmosphere of the school this week has been one of eagerness and anticipation for the long Easter Holiday. I have had so many thoughts running through my mind because I do not want to leave the school nor Ireland for that matter without making sure that I have thanked everyone that has made my experience one I will never forget!
This week I have tried the most to look at myself in the classroom and try to dissect what I have learned from watching the teachers in Convent Primary and what I have adapted to my own teaching styles. I have realized first off that I have adapted my vocabulary to much of what is used throughout the school. Students no longer look at me and say I am from America. After 11 weeks I am seen not only by the teachers, but by the students as an equal. I also have seen my relationship with the students transform from someone who nobody listened to or saw as a teacher. This was a very hard image to break and once I got through to the students I was able to really bond with them. We began to grow together in learning new concepts and building relationships among each other. I was able to learn about the different needs of the students and was able to adapt my lessons in order to reach all learning abilities and styles. I was able to learn to trust myself and my abilities. In my past teaching practices I feel as through I never really thought of myself as an actual true teacher and gave myself the credit and affirmation of doing a good job. Through this experience I have really reflected and been able to say to myself that I did a great job teaching a lesson. I am the hardest on myself and up until this teaching experience have never fully given myself the satisfaction of doing a good job despite what other teachers may think. I also think that through this experience I have become very independent in my decision making processes as a teacher. I have learned all I can from my classes at St. Norbert College and am now doing my best to take what I have learned and apply it to the real thing. I feel that being at Convent Primary and away from everything I have known, has really taught me to think for myself and use my best judgment. There is no other way I would have wanted to learn this skill!
This experience has also taught me about what it means to work in a team and have a relationship with other colleagues. The staff at Convent Primary is absolutely wonderful. I have felt like an equal my entire stay in Ireland. My ideas, thoughts, and opinions have been equally acknowledged and I feel that I was very well respected by not only the teachers but students as well. The staff is so welcoming and genuinely interested in your life in and out of the school. I feel so blessed that I was able to meet these amazing women and begin a friendship that I hope lasts even when I have left Ireland.
I truly feel that I have had the chance to meet some of the nicest people in Ireland. I feel that with the laid back lifestyle and relaxed atmosphere all throughout Ireland, people are more likely to lend a hand and share a friendly gesture. I have done some traveling throughout Ireland and have felt more than welcome everywhere I have ventured. The people of Ireland are so genuine and charismatic. This statement is more than true when talking about my host family. They are the nicest family. I have always felt at home and will miss them very much!
I am looking forward to my second placement and being able to make connections and reflections based on what I have experienced in Ireland to the class I work with in Green Bay. I know that I will love both groups of students equally, but will have different experiences with both. I feel very lucky and fortunate to have been able to make my dreams of traveling abroad a reality through the teach abroad program. Despite the roller coaster of emotions I have felt during my 11 weeks in Ireland, I have seen myself grow and adapt to the person I want to be for the future.
I hope that through my many blog entries I was able to create a picture for everyone so that you could see the many memories I have been creating while being here. I will never forget this experience and I know that it is just the beginning to a wonder career filled with growth, change, and lifelong learning! I could not be happier that it was able to begin in the small town of Listowel, Ireland! In saying that I leave you to finish one journey and begin another. Slan!

The home stretch...

Hello everyone! This is my last week of student teaching in Ireland and I can not believe it is coming to an end! On Friday I listened to more readers and worked again with sound and letter recognition. The students each have their own white board that uses erasable markers, and I have found this to be a really great tool to use when teaching spelling or penmanship. It is also a great way for the teacher to do a quick check to see if the student is succeeding at the task. I also taught a short math lesson. It was a basic review and the students did very well responding to the questions. I have found myself almost speaking now with a little Irish accent! I have been told this by some of the teachers but when I really think about it, it is very easy to pick up on the popular phrases and words used here. I have also found myself needing to clarify my directions less often. I am very pleased with this realization because that means that I have improved my language usage and am now able to be comprehended in a way that reaches the children's understanding. This was one of my main goals while being here and it is great to see that I have improved! I stayed in Listowel for the weekend and was able to spend some time with some of the teachers from school. I can not express how kind and caring the they have all been and it was great to be able to all get together and have a sort of goodbye gathering. It was very informal and laid back but I was able to really see how many people I have gotten to know and developed relationships with. It has truly been a blessing!
There has been talk about taxes, pensions, and leavies throughout my entire stay here in Ireland with the recession at hand. This past Monday the teachers were supposed to be on strike with their union because of the unfair taxing that is going on affecting the many types of jobs throughout the country of Ireland. There was a vote cast in order to see if the strike would take place and in the end it did not go through. Many of the teachers were glad to continue with school because there is so much to get done this week before the Easter holdiay break which consists of 2 weeks off. Every teacher is creating wonderful art projects to celebrate Easter. There is also another Friday mass this week for the first Friday in April. Due to this there is a lot of preparation going on in Fourth class since they are the class that will be performing the mass. Religion studies about Easter are also in full swing due to the holiday being 2 weeks away. Every class is learning and reviewing about Easter Sunday and the reasoning behind it. It is very interesting to see how religion is taught in a public school system. I have recently discovered that 97% of all schools in Ireland are Catholic schools including the specific Gealic schools. Participation at Convent Primary School in religious sacraments are optional however there are weekly assignments given in the religion workbook that all students receive. I am continuing my teaching of science and will teach a lesson tomorrow on animal homes and habitats. I am very interested to see how the students respond to the information because there are some hard vocabulary terms that not only the students are learning but myself as well that Ireland specifically uses. This has been an adjustment that I have had to make in teaching several different subjects here in Ireland. Phrases and words that I use are obviously not going to be standard here in Ireland as compared to the United States. I have had to quickly learn the new terminology and use it correctly so that the students are learning the appropriate material. I have made a point to add in what is used in the United States as well so that I am always making the subject matter relevant and practical. My power point for the Student Teaching Abroad presentation is coming along nicely and I am putting all the pieces together to give a great perspective of what I have learned and come away with from teaching and living in Ireland. I must now get back to my lessons and preparations, I will write again soon Slan!

Sunshine on a cloudy day

Hello everyone! School is going very well this week considering all the teachers have so much they want to get in before Easter holiday which is next Friday. For the past two days I have been working again with the food pyramid and machine handouts I created. I have been very pleased with how much the student's have retained about the food groups and healthy food choices. I went ahead and taught the linkage lesson for the food pyramid and through that activity was able to again review with the students about their knowledge of the food groups. It impressed me to hear the students using the new terminology and vocabulary in the correct form while talking about the food groups. I now have a clear understanding that they have successfuly learned about the food groups. I think another lesson I could do would be to talk further about sub categories of the food groups for instance starches and fats. I wanted to keep my original food pyramid basic and general so that I could build a strong foundation for all of their knowledge about the food groups. Taking the original food pyramid a step further would really allow the students to have a basis for healthy food education and choices. The other lesson I taught as a linkage lesson was the lesson on machines that corresponded with the book the class was reading. This was a great lesson because it allowed the students to make connections to what they read in the story to their own lives. The students were able to visualize with their imagination what their new machine would look like having all of the components of the machine and having to create the picture. I think this was a good lesson on gradual release of responsibility because even though there was a guide sheet, it allowed the students to still make choices within the choices already given. There was still room for creativity and imagination. Students were writing and illustrating so that aspect covered additional multiple intelligences. In addition the students were able to present their new machine at the end. Students were then focusing on speaking clearly and confidently in front of their peers. Yet again another multiple intelligence was used. I could see that the students do not normally get a chance to present their work to the entire class by the reaction I received when informing the students. I was thrilled with their enthusiasim and will try my best to incorporate more presentation and public speaking in the class.
Today was a good day as well. With Easter coming up there is a lot of preparation for the first Friday mass next week as well as teaching about Christ after lent. So needless to say religion is a big factor in the next coming week. I am not sure If I commented before on the school's resources and technology because it is not much at all. I just wanted to add that I have noticed how creative the teachers are with what they have. In no way does this prohibit learning and experiences. The teacher's have found great alternatives for everyday simple items. For the maths lessons that I teach the students each have a bag of popsicle stick with rubber bands that they use for their tables of adding units and sums. This is not a fancy learning tool but it is neccessary to use manipulatives when teaching students how to add using a table. IT is very effective in the classroom as well as cost effective. I have discovered many ways that I can incorporate more everyday simple materials into my lessons so that students also need a purpose for materials and a use for them.
The weekend is soon approaching and being it my last one I am trying to make the most of it! I hope that everyone finds enjoyment and relaxation in the weekend and I will write again soon, Slan!

So much to do so little time...

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!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Hello everyone! I have not written in a week so I have a lot to catch you up on. Last Friday was a very nice day at school. I was able to teach a maths lesson on measurement. I found this lesson a little bit challenging because I had to try to connect with the students and adapt to the standard unit of measurement here in Ireland which is of course millimetres, centimetres, metres, and kilometres. I was always making sure to remind myself of the units before I spoke so that I did not confuse the students and give wrong information. The lesson went fairly well and was quite simple. I wish I would have had more time for the lesson because I would have liked to bring a more hands on experience to the students. I wanted them to use measurement in the lesson in the more practical sense so that they could connect the importance of measurement to their everyday lives and understand how crucial it is to have a standard unit of measure. Hopefully I will have a chance to do a follow up lesson on this unit and incorporate some uses of measurement that I think the students will find useful and interesting. I was also able to incorporate some spring time activities into the day by creating origami art. Some of the students had never heard of the art of origami before and I had a lot of fun sharing with them where origami originates and all the things that could be made from paper folding. I was also very pleased with this lesson because there was a visual way to assess my teaching as well as the success of the students' participation in the activity by viewing their final product. I was clearly able to see which students were able to follow oral instructions and able to complete the paper folding exercise. Both the students and myself had a great time creating origami!
I had a great weekend. I headed off to London for two days and had an amazing time sightseeing. I got some great pictures which I will hopefully be able to upload and post. The weather was absolutely amazing and great for the open top bus tours. I have always wanted to ride on one and got to fulfill my dream this past weekend! It also happened to be my birthday on Sunday so it was great to be out and about enjoying the scenery and making wonderful memories I will cherish forever! As you know, Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day and I was fortunate enough to travel to Dublin for the festivities. It was amazing to be in Dublin for the parade and see all of the different floats. There were people everywhere and from as far away as you could see. This was actually quite overwhelming at times but great all the same to be able to be in the atmosphere and take it all in. The streets remained crowded hours after the parade was finished so you can imagine I did a lot of people watching. There were tons of vendors selling everything green including hats, scarves, beads, whistles, and feathers. It was great! I am extremely lucky and proud to say I was able to experience St. Patrick's Day in Dublin Ireland and I will always remember this unique opportunity!
Since there was a break in the week due to having Tuesday off for St. Patrick's Day, the students have been a bit more energetic and wild. This could also be due to the fantastic weather we have had. I have never seen the sky so blue and the sun shinning so brightly as I have this past week. It was amazing to see and I hope it continues! The flowers are in full bloom and everywhere you look it is like tiny yellow smiles glowing back at you as you see all of the daffodils line the streets and gardens!
In addition to the craziness this week has entailed, I was formally observed for the second time today. I think the lesson went great and the students were outstanding. I taught a science lesson on the food pyramid. I was very pleased with all of the enthusiasm and participation given by the students. They had some great ideas and were great listeners throughout my description of the food pyramid. I was able to get the students involved by helping me fill in the blank food pyramid that I had created in the front of the classroom. The students found the content material very interesting and as I was able to create opportunities for the students to make connections from what they knew about healthy foods to the new information they were receiving about the various food groups. I was also able to assess the student knowledge gained by viewing the individual food pyramids that each student created. It was plain to see if the students grasped the concept behind my lesson by observing throughout the several discussions as well as through their individual food pyramids. I was given very helpful areas of improvement that I will strive to meet as I complete my last few weeks of teaching practice in Ireland. I am very happy with the progression I have seen in myself as well as in my teaching ability. I feel that I have been able to make the most of my teaching experiences at Convent Primary and will continue to do so as I finish out my placement. I have been very blessed to have had this opportunity to grow and learn in not only teaching but in life experiences as well! Until next time Slan!

You will never know unless you try

Hello to all!! I am happy to report tomorrow is Friday and the weekend is near! This week has been especially hectic because I have been getting a lot of things prepared for lessons I have been asked to teach. Yesterday there was an inservice at school so the students were able to go home at 12:30. There was a sports presentation for the staff of the school where we learned about ways to incorporate new methods as well as ways to teach sports. The school receive new equipment in addition to the presentation. This was a great opportunity that the school could not pass up. Each class does receive a physical education session on Wednesdays, however, I have observed that many teachers take it upon themselves to teach the students physical education on other days of the week as well. I think if the teacher can fit it in and also apply it to the other areas of study it is a great opportunity for the children to get up and move around. The students at Convent Primary do receive Irish dancing on Mondays as well. This has been great to watch and participate in. I have picked up a few steps and enjoy the laughs and cheers I get when I do join in with the girls.
For the past couple of days I have been working with the students on letter recognition and sounds. This has helped the students with not only reading but writing as well. They are really picking up on this concept and I am very pleased with their progress. I have also noticed that I am really concentrating on how I say things before I say them when instructing a class or small group. This has also helped my lessons to go more smoothly. I am noticing that if I am able to relate to students by using terminology they understand and give connections to what they know, they are more interested in the material. Each student has so much potential! I feel very confident now to let the children know when I think they can do better. I want them to know I care about their success and by pushing them to do better, they are making themselves better learners. I am not only learning what my students are capable of, but what I am capable of as a teacher as well!
Today I taught a lesson on the American Revolution because the student's will be learning about the French Revolution next week. I did a lot of preparation for this lesson this week because I wanted to make sure that I had all of my facts correct and could give a proper overview and summary of this important event in our nation's history. I found it particularly difficult because there was no textbook as a guideline for information and specific topics to cover. So I decided for myself what the best aspects and most important concepts were from the American Revolution and how I might best convey this to my class. I will admit after reflecting on my teaching, that there were a few rough spots during the hour. I was not very clear and stumbled in my thoughts during various spots. Instead of getting very nervous and changing what I was trying to say, I stopped and collected my thoughts while also thinking of how I could better phrase what I was trying to explain. There were also a lot of facts and dates to incorporate so instead of lecturing the full period, I tried to incorporate posters and symbols to post on the board while I was talking so that the students could follow along and make sense of the time period I was trying to cover. Some of the girls were particularly interested in the information because they had relatives from America while others have actually been there. After I had completed the lesson I was proud of the way I handled myself while teaching. Before coming to Ireland or student teaching at all I would have been extremely nervous to teach a concept without a textbook or guideline. When I agreed to take on this lesson I knew that I had to do plenty of research and review the topic. I did my very best and was very happy with the way the lesson turned out. I think that being in Ireland has not only taught me to be flexible, but to really put my whole self into all that I do so that I have no regrets in the end. I really think that my teaching is evolving and that I am finding myself more level headed in high pressure situations. I am learning the real "Irish" way of life which is to go with the flow and that everything will work out. I can not tell you how many times I have repeated this to myself in and out of the classroom! Tomorrow is another day and I have many more activities planned. Until next time, Slan!

We must learn from our mistakes

Hello! Last Friday was a bit of a mix up day. We had the Friday mass as usual in the hall. It was done by third class and they did a great job. It is always so great to watch the hard work and preparation from the classes pay off. Everything went as planned. The mass is usually about 45 minutes by the time everyone is finally settled in the hall and by the time everyone leaves. This Friday was particularly different because on Saturday there was an Irish speaking competition at the local community college where the local primary age children could come and participate. Most children picked a poem or a short skit to perform. These performances were practiced in the hall on Friday in front of the whole school. Not everyone had to participate in the competition, but each class performed something in Irish for the school to see. This Irish speaking competition was created as a way to celebrate the Irish culture and the unique language that is still spoken and taught in school. The students performed beautifully and as you might of imagined I did not know much of what was being said, though I still enjoyed it very much! The remainder of the morning the classes picked up where they left off.
Friday I was able to help some students with their presentation skills, particularly the groups that were working on the games around the world project. The girls have worked so hard on their projects and the class has decided as a whole who will be going to the competition next Friday in Tralee. It was a very hard decision to make but I picked the students who could talk most freely about their country and what they had researched. Each of the groups were to present their projects to the rest of the class. I was the interviewer and the students had to respond to my questions the best they could. It was from these interviews that I based my decision for picking who would compete next Friday. Once the final group was chosen, I took the small group aside and helped them prepare their speeches and go through the parts of their presentation that they needed to work on. While I was helping this group I really tried to focus on the real life application of what it was they were doing. They seemed very interested in what I had to say about applying public speaking to their lives and how much they will use in the future. I will continue to work with this group a few more times this week in order to help them get ready for the competition.
I also taught a lesson about positive and negative space in art. I noticed during this lesson I had a hard time trying to simplify these terms in addition to showing examples. I think I could have done a better job explaining the terms by using a variety of materials. Once I displayed what the students would be making, they seemed to catch on quite well. This lesson utilized mathematics as well because the students needed to create a grid in order to begin the activity. It was very interesting to see what students responded to oral directions and what students needed a visual to comprehend the directions. I was very happy with the lesson I chose to teach because I could see that it was challenging for most students in the class and used a lot of independent thinking as well.
Today I came up with a comprehension activity or game based on a story the students had just finished reading. I picked out the difficult vocabulary and had the students practice their dictionary skills. We discussed the words and I had them use the words in a sentence to ensure that they understood the meanings. The students read in pairs the assigned number of pages. There are review questions at the end of the reading and I wanted to try to make them more interesting. I decided to go through the first bunch with the girls so that I made sure they were understanding the questions. I had created a puzzle to go along with the theme of the story. I cut up the puzzle into 5 pieces for the 5 different questions the pairs had to answer. The students were to read the question, write down the answer, and check it with me before they would receive a puzzle piece. The first group to create their puzzle correctly would win the competition. I realized not even half way through the competition that I had been giving the students the wrong pieces of the puzzle. The puzzles were not labeled and each puzzle had different shapes however each puzzle had the same final image. I was so upset that I had made this mistake. I had to stop the game and get each group to hand up their puzzle pieces because none of them would have fit properly anyways. In the end we went through the questions as planned orally and I will have to find another way to make up of the puzzle pieces later this week. I learned that I must be more organized when doing any sort of game or activity so that this will not happen again. It was enough to see their sad and disappointed faces when I had to call up all of the puzzle pieces. I do know that by seeing how upset they were, I had captured all of their attention and each student was very motivated and interested in getting the correct answers to the chapter review questions. I will use this information for some of my future lessons. In the case of the mixed up puzzle pieces, I have learned from my planning mistake! Until Thursday, Slan!