So, the promised PE story: Put On Your Pants!

The kids change out of their uniforms into PE kit in the classroom. The first time they all walked back into the room and started stripping down to change startled me greatly, but everyone finds it normal, so I'm trying. Part of this trying include helping the kids who get stuck with their shirts caught on their heads or getting their pants turned right ways round to put back on, because, well, they're 5 and not everyone's mastered those skills.

Last week, a little guy who doesn't talk much (he's in the Speech and Language Program) brought me his polo shirt to unbutton so he could put it on after PE. After we got it on him (his head size to collar size ratio was not in his favor), I told him that he needed to go put on his pants. He looked down and pointed at his underwear. I thought that he was showing me that he wasn't wearing pants, so I told him again that, yes, he needed to go put on pants. He walked over to his seat, looked around, and returned with his jumper (sweatshirt). Not what I was expecting, but whatever. After we got the jumper on (it was tough- the kid must have a big head), I repeated my request that he put his pants on. At this point a TA looked over to help, rather alarmed. "Trousers!" she said. "He needs to put on his trousers." Finally, I remembered that I had read that in British English, pants are underwear and trousers are pants. No wonder he was confused, and the teacher concerned, when I asked him to put on his pants...

We had our first meetings with the "tutor," the faculty member who is running our program over here. It went really well- our teachers apparently spoke highly of us and the tutor was pleased with the progress we've made on assembling our professional portfolios and completing performance tasks. Seems like we are off to a good start academically.

Compare/Contrast

We all survived the first week in the school! We've started to figure out some of the differences between the schools we are familiar with and the ones we will be teaching in. One of my favorite differences, but a difficult one to adjust to, is how my Grade 1 students learn letters, or rather, don't learn them. Instead of learning the names of all the letters, they learn them by sounds. If presented with a d, most will say "duh" instead of "dee." Of course, a few will say "buh," but that's no different from American Kindergarteners! It's very phonics based, obviously, and it works well for a lot of the kids. There's one group (10 kids in grades 1-4) that it doesn't work with, which isn't good, but for those who it does work with, it works really well. A five year old read me a book about teeth, and successfully sounded out "incisor!"

They have compulsory religious education (RE. Like PE, but not.). According to the government, 51% of morning assemblies should be corporate worship, even though the school I'm in isn't religiously affiliated. The other half of the girls in the program are at a Catholic school (but it's a state-funded school- different, huh?) so they obviously have mass and RE, but all the students are Catholic. Our school is so diverse (also unexpected), so there are Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, Hindus (?), and many non-religious. We met with the Head Teacher (sort of like principal), and he explained that he doesn't think the kids should be forced to practice the state-sanctioned Protestant religion, so he does the very minimum. They stress the citizenship aspects- being a good person, etc. and the vicar comes once a fortnight.

Look for posts about a funny story from PE on Thursday and my trip to London in the next few days. It's bedtime now!

Festivals

Last Saturday, we went to two different local festivals, one near the school where I am, and one in the city center at Parker's Piece. I finally uploaded the pictures, and here's some of my favorites.

There was a parade (on the sidewalk) to the first festival. See the little scouts, Daddy? I like the fairy, myself.

This guy was just chilling in his tent, wearing a medieval costume and playing some sort of wind instrument.

The whole entrance was surrounded with old military vehicles and a ROTC-like young people dressed in military uniforms fundraising for a charity.

The second festival was much bigger, with lots of merchant booths.

There were plenty of games with typical carnival prizes. This particular picture's for Casey.

Liz and I enjoyed the food tent- there were lots of samples. I bought some amazing homemade honey roasted cashews, not from this guy, but one of his neighbors. They were sweeter than the regular machine made ones, with a delicious, thick, carmel-y coating. They're all long gone by now!

There was a team? group? collection of people? playing cricket. We stopped to watch, but even among the four of us, we couldn't really figure it out. We decided that we'll just have to go to a pub during a match? game? and ask lots of questions, during commercials, of course.

First Day

Today was our first day in the schools, and it happened to fall on a field trip day for Years 1 and 2, so Hilary and I spent most of our day at the Botanic Gardens with 50 some 5-7 year olds. Unfortunately, my camera battery was dead, so I don't have pictures to post yet. We took pictures with the school camera, so if any of those turn out to be amazing, I'll share them.

It was very weird to see familiar flowers, like impatiens, in the Plants of the World greenhouse! I hadn't realized how dry the air is here until we walked into the rain forest section of the greenhouses and breathed in the thick, humid air. It was surprisingly pleasant...

Ms. Mitchell is good. She seems to have command of her class, though it's hard to tell on a field trip. The kids are, well, kids! They are much more diverse than I was expecting, with many coming from other countries and speaking other languages. Because we were on a trip, they were excited and acting up a bit, and just like back home, you can immediately tell who has to be redirected more often. When I was asking a child not to throw stones at the ducks in the pond, he called me out on my pronunciation of the word water. He informed me that it's not "wadder," as I say, but "wa-ta." Oops! Ms. Mitchell gave me Green Eggs and Ham to read tomorrow, because "if it's Dr. Seuss, you can just tell them it is supposed to sound like that." I think I'm going to like her!

Tourist-y Things

Since we've had this week off, we've done a lot more exploring. When we got tired of that, we bought bus passes (excellent purchase) and wandered even more. We found the schools we will be teaching at, the college that we are associated with, lots of bus stops, useful stores (Poundland- it's like the dollar store, but in pounds), good pubs, and good food, both at the pubs and at other restaurants. Since our program doesn't really start until tomorrow, we've had to find our own food, and since we don't have access to any kitchen stuff or refrigeration, this has resulted in lots of eating out. Fortunately, Britain's reputation of horrible food is not completely deserved. We've found some decent "filled baguettes," which are basically mini sub sandwiches, delicious pizza (Liz's favorite) and little cafes with a variety of options. Keenan would love it here- there's Chinese takeout places everywhere!

We've also done some "quintessential Cambridge" things (that's from an advertising flyer we saw). On Friday, we went punting- basically a boat tour in a little boat

that is pushed along the bottom of the river with a long pole. You can either self-hire to try it yourself or go on a guided tour. After seeing some people doing self-hires, we were very glad that we weren't doing it ourselves! One guy floating by in the other direction called out to our guide, who was very good, to ask if he had any tips. He didn't, but I thought he might have more luck if he turned the boat around so that is was facing the right direction...

Anyway, we saw lots of interesting and famous places.

Here's the Cam Bridge. Kind of important, since they named the city after it.

This building has the most Virginia Creeper growing on it of any building in Britain. An odd honor.

Kings College Chapel (and dorms?)

The Mathematical Bridge. It's made entirely of straight pieces of wood, and according to our tour guide, if you took out all of the bolts holding it together, it would still stand. I'm not sure if I believe

this, because if it's true, why'd they use the bolts?

The Bridge of Sighs. There are several around the world. The three I remember are the original, in Venice (or somewhere in Italy), which prisoners would walk over on their way to be executed, and so would sigh; this one, which students cross from dorms to where they take exams; and one in Oxford, over which the guide says they sigh and wish they were studying at Cambridge!

I've gotten pretty much moved in- it's easier when there's a limited amount of stuff. Today we went into the actual city to look around and do some shopping. We're a very short bus ride or a pretty long walk to the actual city center. We're definitely going to be renting bikes- it really is the most common way to get around. All of us had things we hadn't brought, either forgotten or purposefully didn't bring because they didn't fit, like tissues and hangers. We left at about 9:30 this morning and didn't get back 'til after 4. We found most of the things we were looking for, but not being familiar with the chain stores makes it harder to find things. For lunch we had Cornish pasties, which are a bit like Hot Pockets in structure, but not microwaved and much better. They were traditional to send as lunches for the men working in the field, because they were self contained and could be eaten even with dirty hands and no utensils.

Here's some pictures of my room.

From the door. It's a long and skinny room.

Yep, there's guitars on the curtains and a tea set on the dresser.

And the opposite wall... desk area.

An entire extra set of shelves.

The wardrobe behind the door.

Well, it's only 10:15, but after walking around all day, it's bedtime for me! Good Night!

We made it!

We here early this afternoon after an uneventful flight. We're staying in a small guest house/bed and breakfast owned by a friendly guy named Pete. We all have our own rooms with bathrooms, which is quite nice. The room that I am in is a very bright lime green color. It was overwhelming at first, but if the weather stays like it is today, I will appreciate it! It's about 60, so not too cold, but sort of rainy.

We went out exploring after a brief nap, mostly in search of food. After a few tries, we found a nice pub not very far from the guest house that had great food. I have a feeling we will be going back there! We also went to a phone store to get sim cards, but the phone that I had won't accept the UK ones. We're going back over that way tomorrow, so I'll see if they can help me out.

Well, it's been a long day, or maybe a short two days, I'm not really sure, but either way, I'm tired. I'll post more later!

Leaving on a jet plane...

After weeks of paperwork and packing, we leave tomorrow! Three months in Cambridge (England, not Massachusetts) for student teaching, or teaching practice, to use the British phrase. I found out late last week that I will be in Grade 1 with Ms. Mitchell. That's younger than I had hoped for, but they'll be fun!

I'll post more once we actually get to the UK.