Today, we woke to our usual breakfast of cereal, toast, and tea. We are dragging a little bit because we are pretty tired. We try to get in bed earlier and earlier each night but I think that the jet lag is setting in. After breakfast, we were off for school. When we arrived at school, we were greeted warmly by the staff again, and we were off to our classes. Melea had been asked the afternoon before if she wanted to go on a field trip with Year 1 to the city park. She was very excited about this opportunity so she worked with Mr. Baker’s class for about an hour and then it was off to the City Park. It was a walking field trip so they set off for a 30 minute walk to the city park. They were required to have 1 adult/teacher per 4 children. Melea said that she was amazed by how well the children were while walking down the streets and how well they behaved. They saw a few different farm animals. She has shared her pictures with me so I will add those when we return to Gloucester/home in England.
While Melea was away at the city farm, I helped with Mrs. Smith and Miss Bobat’s Pancake Day party. I was working with Mrs. Smith’s class when Miss Bobat asked me to come help her with a project. I was excited to help out with anything they needed. When I went out into the bay/hall. I found a microwave with 2 electric burners on top. I was amazed they had this available for them to use. I assessed the situation and realized that she wanted me to help cook pancakes. Well, there wouldn’t have been hesitation in my voice if I had been in an American classroom but English pancakes are much different than our pancakes. Our pancakes are think and fairly small while their pancakes are large and very thin. The pancake batter is very very thin and runny and quite difficult to use. I told her that I was a little worried about cooking these for the children because they were supposed to taste good and be a special treat and if I was the one cooking them, I wasn’t sure how “special” they would be! She assured me that I would be fine so I set out on the journey of cooking 70+ pancakes! She, herself, did not know how to make them so she couldn’t show me the proper English way of making a pancake so I started doing them to the best of my ability. Mrs. Smith came out a little later and saw how mine were looking and said that she wanted to show me the proper way of making one so I kindly moved to the side so that she could show me. After seeing her make them, I felt much more comfortable making them. I continued to make them and the children seemed to really like them! They thought that it was really special because an American was making them! The traditional way of topping them is to sprinkle lemon juice and regular sugar on them. I was a little worried about how this was going to taste but I tasted it and it actually tasted quite good!
Oh, I almost forgot. Before I began cooking pancakes, I had quite a special moment with one of the students in Mrs. Smith’s classroom. The student’s name is Ilhan and he is what we would consider to be a “behavior child”. He is always in trouble and has a hard time paying attention in class. When I arrived in Mrs. Smith’s class at the beginning of the day, he was having a difficult time with his morning work. The class was working on forces and gravity and he needed to complete a worksheet showing what gravity does to a ball when tossed from one student to another. Mr. Campbell (his one-on-one teacher) was asking him if he wanted to go outside and toss a ball so that he could see how the ball would look. Ilhan was not interested in going with him and was putting up a fight. I saw these happening so I thought, “Well I am visitor and somebody viewed almost as a celebrity in the school, why don’t I see if he would like to go outside with me”. I approached Mr. Campbell and asked him if it was okay if I tried to convince him to go outside and he said that would be fine. I bent down to his level and asked me what his name was and introduced myself. I told him that I was having a hard time understanding how gravity helped a ball stay in the air and how gravity worked and would he mind showing me outside with Mr. Campbell. He immediately said that he would like to and grabbed my hand to lead me outside. I was secretly thinking about how this was going to “go down” and was he going to stay on task. When we got outside (Mr. Campbell, Ilhan, and myself) we began talking about gravity and how it works on a ball when it is thrown from one person to another person. He opened up and began talking and explaining and showing me all different ways that gravity works. It was one of those moments where, as a teacher, you think to yourself, this is why I teach! We stayed outside for about 10-15 minutes and then went back into the room to look at the worksheet that he needed to complete. He immediately grabbed his pencil and worksheet and began working on it and had no complaints or problems. He even wrote a couple of sentences about what was happening in the picture. Mrs. Smith complimented him on how well he had completed his work and he was in a much better mood. She also complimented me on how well I helped with the situation. I left the room very proud of what I had done and was excited to have started “Teaching in England” on such a great note!
After lunch, it was outside for PE with Debbie. Ok, let me start by saying that Monica had told Melea and I that we would need our “trainers” for school on Tuesday. We nodded and said okay but secretly we had no idea what she was talking about. After getting to school and heading to Debbie’s office (she is the Deputy Head-”Assistant Principal) we understood what trainers were...gym clothes and tennis shoes! Well, Melea and I did not have those but we were ready to battle whatever the conditions were and just run around in a dress! We got outside to the field and found out that we would be playing rugby for the next 2 hours! WOW! We were with the Year 2 students, who were very rambunctious. We had a lot of fun...for about 10 minutes and then we were FREEZING because the wind was blowing so hard. We toughed it out for about 45 minutes and then asked if it would be okay for us to travel to the Reception classes (preschool) for their Pancake Races. Debbie said that would be fine.
Melea and I traveled to the reception classes where they were competing in the pancakes races in celebration of Pancake Day. Each child was outside, nicely bundled, and ready to run. There would be 4-6 children at one time lined up on the starting line where they would receive a frying pan with a pancake in it. They would then be given the sound to start and they would run down to a hoop, flip their pancake, and run back. There were lots of parents who came out to watch as well. It was so funny and so much fun.
After the pancake races, Melea and I were asked to go to the front lobby to help with all the children going home. We said goodbye to everyone as they were leaving and watched as all the parents came and picked up their children to walk them home. Monica also had a meeting after school to work on the Widden 25 Celebration which will be the day before the Royal Wedding and it is to celebrate the 25 years that the new location of Widden has been open. There will be a street party with all the children for lunch (a BBQ will be provided) and then later in the afternoon, past pupils/students and parents will come to tour the school and see what all is going on at the school. The meeting lasted until about 4:30 and then we were off to home.
After getting home, we decided to go town to the cathedral and walk around a little bit. We found McDonald’s so we stopped to have some fries and a coke. They were quite delicious. We had a lot of fun just looking around the town and riding the bus back to the house. This was mine and Melea’s first trip on the bus and it was a lot different than I had imagined.
When we got home, since it was Pancake Day, we began cooking tons and tons of pancakes and we cleaned out the fridge with all types of toppings or fillings. We had Nutella which is a hazelnut chocolate spread, cream cheese, tomatoes, salsa, guacamole, shredded cheese, sugar, and lemon juice. We tried all different types of combinations and they were delicious. We each had about 5 pancakes. We were quite stuffed when we left the dinner table.
I was VERY tired so I headed to bed at 8:30pm and slept through the night and never moved! It was quite relaxing!
Love from England,
Miss Dodd
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