Day 56: 25/2/13
I had a days work booked for today since last week. It was in the same school where the two young lads went fighting two weeks ago and it was year 7 so I was wondering what I was going to get! It ended up being year 5. I think the teachers haven't been updated to their new year levels on Tracer as this has happened a few times now.
When I got to the class there were lots of sheets of work but no instructions really, just a few notes written in the teachers own diary which seemed like notes for himself rather than for me. That was strange I thought as he obviously knew in advance he was going to be out. The teacher next store came in to see if there was work left and she made sense of the pile of stuff. She was giving me very clear instructions about giving them a settle down activity as soon as they come in to quietened them before they do any group work and another settle down activity straight after. I thought I was going to get an awful crowd of messers altogether, or else she thought I wouldn't know what to do!
The class anyway turned out to be lovely- probably one of the nicest classes I've had over here. There was noone misbehaving and they listened to everything I said!! They chatted a small bit when working but nothing compared to most classes! I told them how impressed I was and said I'd leave a note for the teacher and they said the sub teachers always say they are well behaved even if they are not!
They had spelling work to do in their spelling groups- sticking in their words and writing out the words. Then there were some punctuation activities- putting in commas and full stops. Then there were reading groups. They usually have adults that come in to help out with this so they were a little chatty working in groups without adults. There was a a History Cloze procedure left about Captain James Cook and colonisation- I was learning a bit too. The only Maths that was left were sheets for practicing tables and mental Maths finding pairs of numbers to make 100. Then they had to continue working on a rough draft they had started on his one of the characters in their novel Deltora Quest is depicted. I haven't read it so I was no help!! They had to wrote how the language used supports the authors depiction and his the plot, theme and setting supported it and how the moral and ethical dilemmas he faced had changed his character!! Sounds fierce complicated to me!! I think some of these kids probably have better literacy skills than I have!! Although their written work looks similar to what Irish kids would be able to write.
After that I got them to name things they wanted to know about Ireland and we answered them. Most classes pick the same kind of things- the weather, food, leprechauns, St Patrick, Niall Horan, famous places or buildings, why green, tv programmes, school, celebrations.
The weather was terrible today- it lashed rain all day. It was grey and miserable- just like home! I got soaked on the way to school. The kids were in all day so Id to stay with them. I got soaked on the way home! The worst thing over here is that you're not dressed for it. It was still quite hot so I had 3/4 length trousers on which any kind of shoes looked ridiculous with. Sandals in the rain are not good- I was sliding around the place! Looking around me there were lots of people in the same boat! I do have a raincoat which I wore but I was roasting in that!
I looked up some accommodation again this evening. I got really tired so I just saved anything half interesting and ill have to go through them tomorrow and contact anyone that sounds good. Bed early for me tonight- I don't know why I'm tired, even though it took me ages to go to sleep last night- that's probably what's wrong!