My Last Week

I am officially done with my first student teaching placement - wow that is weird to say. Although it was extremely bittersweet, I had an excellent last week with my students. My teacher asked me to plan a five day unit based around the book, A Very Hungry Caterpillar for my last week that is what my afternoons consisted of. I did a variety of different activities to help understand many different concepts; for example, sequencing, word recognition, math, and best of all ART. Besides the unit, my week was busy with all of the other things we accomplish during the school day. During the week, we had something called a Kaley - all of the girls gathered in the hall and performed Irish dancing. It was fun to see the girls show off what they knew, and I could tell everyone was having fun. I also did a little irish dancing :) Although the week was busy, I could not stop thinking about how sad I was going to be having to leave on Friday. The week was also busy with practicing for the St. Patrick's day parade. There was so much preparation put into the parade so we wanted the girls to practice what marching in a parade was going to be like. They did a great job :) Not only was Friday my last day at school, but it was also green day - aka the girls did not have to wear their uniforms and everyone in the school dressed in ALL green! Of course I didn't bring any green so my teacher took me to Tralee to buy some green. We both found loads of cute things so we were all set for green day. We also had a nice dinner together after shopping - I am really going to miss spending time with her! She is so lovely. Friday finally came, and I was a wreck. I did not think I would be as emotional as I was. I gave the kids some little gift bags and explained to them that I would not be coming back (which is a hard concept for junior's to understand). It was a really grand last day. Once the day was over I said my goodbyes to my host family, and the staff memebers. I am so thankful for all of their kindness throughout this entire process. I am really going to miss them all so much.

Overall, I had the greatest experiences for which I could have ever asked. I couldn't have dreamed up a better situation. Looking back on the goals that I set for my experience, I would say that I have fully accomplished those goals. It's amazing to see how much you grow in a short amount of time. I am so proud of myself for taking a leap and grasping this experience while I can. It has taught me so much, and while everyday wasn't the easiest I think I have truly grown from what I have learned throughout this process. I am so thankful for all the people in my life who have helped me get to this point. For my final blog I will leave you with some pictures of my last week :)

dancing 

dancing

dancing

green day

green day - my class!

green day

green day

green day

green day

Nearly There

This past week was very busy with a number of different things. Monday we worked on our mothers day booklets. Each page had a different things that their mommy does, for example; my mommy cooks, my mommy cleans, my mommy gardens. In the booklet the girls colored in the pages and also added a little message to each page. We sent those booklets home on Friday with the girls so each mom would have them for mothers day (which was sunday). That kept us pretty busy throughout the week. This past week the girls also performed at assembly - each class takes a turn every Monday preparing some sort of poem or song. This past Monday was our turn, so we performed the hokey pokey in Irish. I had some help from my cooperating teacher with that (considering I know little to no Irish). The girls did a great job with their performance! On Tuesday we carried on with our normal schedule. The rest of the week from that point on was pretty calm. Since it is a new month, we started a new oral language poster  - we are talking about home. I did a number of different lessons on this concept - it was a lot of fun hearing the kids talk about their homes and compare and contrast their home. The girls really enjoyed it. We also learned a few new songs. Since the girls don't have what we would call "specials" in America - we teach everything (art, music, Irish etc). So I taught a few new songs which they really enjoyed. The big topic in school is St. Patricks's day. I did a few different lessons on St. Patrick's day last week which got the girls excited about the parade. I will unfortunately not be able to be there with the kids when they walk in the parade, but last week and this week we have been preparing - with the kids and planning the entire thing with the staff as well. It is going to be absolutely gorgeous - I have been really busy with helping as much as I can! The other main talk in the school this past week was my teachers wedding!

In preparation for the wedding, one of the staff members took me to Tralee to help me find a dress. While I didn't find anything, we had a great time. We had a wonderful dinner, and it was just nice to relax outside of school. This weekend one of the teachers I have been working with got married! She invited the entire staff (including myself). It was an amazing time. I could not think of a better way to spending my last weekend in Listowel. My teacher looked absolutely amazing! It was also a blast just being able to spend time with the staff outside of school. I never thought coming to Ireland that I would get to experience a real Irish wedding. Overall. it was a great last weekend in town. I am very sad to be saying that this is my last week teaching in Listowel. I have become so close with so many different people (staff and students) I really do not want to have to say goodbye. I am sure I won't be thinking much about it this week because it is a really busy one! But the positive thing is that my mom will be arriving in Ireland come Friday :) I am so excited to see her!

at the wedding!

Only two weeks left

Why does time have to go by SO quickly! I am trying my very best to focus on this wonderful experience for what it is, but can't help and think about how I only have two weeks left. Everything is so natural now. I have formed such wonderful relationships with all of my students. I have formed wonderful relationships with the staff members. My host family has become like my real family. I feel like I have been living and working here for years. I absolutely love Ireland and all it has to offer. I think back to my first week of being here in Ireland and student teaching, and I am really proud of myself for how much I have grown, learned, experienced, etc. in the past ten weeks. I still have two weeks left, and I will be focusing on all the positive that is to come in those two weeks!
But for now, I will fill you in on what I did last week. One of the main goals I had for my students this week was not school related but rather health realted. Convent Primary school does something called "W.O.W" which means  walk on wednesday. This is a school wide thing, and it is pretty much a program that encourages the girls to walk to school every wednesday. The rules go like this: which ever class has the most students walking wins the "golden runner". The purpose of this is to get the girl out there, and to encourage them to be healthy and active - even if it is as simple as walking to school. This week I really encouraged my students to walk to school. I told them that we had to win the golden runner before I left! The results were great :) we had every girl in the class except one walking to school. Today at assembly we were awarded the golden runner. !!! I was so proud of the girls and they were really excited! Besides our golden runner award, the week was pretty calm (which never happens) Mothers day in Ireland is March 10th, and St. Patricks day is coming up so we have been working on a lot of themed activities and lessons! We made a beautiful mothers day art project that the girls will be taking home with them this week. Besides school, I decided to do a little traveling this weekend! I went to Cork and visited some of the friends I made in Killarney. They go to school in Cork so I had my very own personal tour of the city! I really enjoyed Cork. We spent almost the entire time outside walking around and taking in the sights. We had a beautiful weekend of weather :) My cooperating teacher is getting married this coming weekend and she asked me to the wedding! So while I was in Cork I did some shopping and found a dress for the wedding. I am really excited so be apart of her special day! Like I said so much to which I can look forward!

beautiful church in Cork

UCC

Cork

Time flies when you're having fun

 Sorry it has been a bit since I have last updated my blog! For the long weekend, I decided to spend my time in Galway. I absolutely loved it! I spent most of my time there just walking around and enjoying the city! I did a lot of shopping and just enjoyed myself. This past week was extremely busy (as it always is!). Monday the school hosted an open day, which is a day where parents can come in, tour the school, and decide if they want to send their children there. I helped out a lot with that. I set up a few of the rooms with different things that the school has to offer. For example one room we set up the interactive white board and opened a few games that we use for math and phonics lessons. I was also in charge of tea and coffee! The school ended up having a great turn out, and I really enjoyed getting to know some of the parents and their children. The rest of the week flew by as usual. We are always working on some sort of art during the week, and since we are learning about animals, I decided to do a frog project with the girls! They turned out so nice! (pictures below). We also finished up our spring bulletin board (pictures below). For the rest of the week we continued on with our usual schedule.  I did a lesson on manners, which was a lot of fun because we did a little acting! The girls really enjoyed it. I also taught them a few new songs for music! All the songs were about spring time. Everything feels so routine now I don't think much about what I am doing even though I am teaching full days! It was really nice being back in my class as opposed to filling in for someone else. I didn't realize how much I missed them until I came back! I can't imagine how I will feel in three weeks when I am done for good :(!!  I decided that for the weekend I would stay in Listowel. On friday night I went out with some of the teachers at school. There was a fundraiser put on by the school at a local pub, so we all attended that! It was a pub quiz which pretty much means that you form teams of four and someone asks questions. There were about seventeen tables so the school ended up making a lot of money! I was happy to be able to participate! On saturday, I went to my host brothers "gig" in a town near by! He was excellent, and I had a lot of fun! The week and weekend were wonderful, and I am trying to savor every moment I have for I know they will fly by from here on out! Only three weeks of student teaching left and only two weekends until my mom comes to Dublin! Crazy to think I have been here for almost two months!

Short Week

Hi Everyone! Sorry I haven't had the chance to update my blog in a while, so I am sure this will be a long one. Last week was as wonderful as ever. I often look back on my week and wonder what I did because I am so swamped, I can't remember, or because time is flying by so quicky. I don't know which it is, but I will do my best to remember what we did. We started the week with talking about the seasons. As spring time is approaching we are preparing the classroom. One major project that I am working on with the girls is the spring bulletin board. I wanted to create a spring bulletin board of which the girls could be apart. We all pitched in and made a beautiful board. Each student contributed a couple of things pieces of art. We also practiced a spring poem for our poetry study. This was something that was going on at different times during all week. We also did another valentines day project, in addition to our stain glass window hearts. Needless to say, all of the art work we did turned out beautifully. Beyond that, the week was busy with our usual studies. With it being my fifth week of teaching, I am finally in a routine, and my time management is point on. Everything is falling together perfectly. I am really happy with everything here and it keeps getting better. I wasn't feeling the greatest this weekend so I didn't do much but rest up and hang around the house.

A while back the principle of the school I am working at, asked me if I would fill in for the 2nd class teacher who was going to be out this week. I agreed, not really knowing what I was doing. Well this week was the week I filled in. It was a short week because the school has mid term break so we have Thursday and Friday off :) So Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I filled in for the teacher who was gone. I was SO nervous going in because I did not think I could handle an entirely new class all on my own for three days. I am happy to report I survived :) I had the greatest week this 2nd class. The girls were so wonderful and helpful! It was a crazy three days because we had so much going on. On Monday we had our regular studies, along with football, and a life size game of shoots and ladders (it focused on the benefits of walking to school rather than driving). Tuesday the girls had Irish dance, which was SO cool to watch! I wanted to join in so badly but I thought I would save myself from the embarassment. They also had Tin Whistle which is an instrument incase you did not know. Today(wednesday) they had gymnastics, first confession practice, and the Kerry life bus came to school! All of these different events kept the girls really busy and kept me in a dizzy trying to keep up! Beyond just those we accomplished a lot in the classroom. I was really honored that I was asked to fill in and I really enjoyed myself. I love that I now know 16 new faces in school! Although I had a great time in 2nd class I really missed my junior infants and look forward to going back on Monday.

With the long weekend I plan on taking advantage and doing some traveling. I plan on going to Galway on Friday! I am so happy about many different things in my life right now. I am trying not to focus on the fact that I only have one month left, and that I am starting my 7th week next week. Time is flying and I wish it would slow down, but since I know that won't happen I am cherishing every moment I have. So I will leave you with a quote and a few pictures!

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”

after being drenched from the rain walking home, a beautiful rainbow

working on our spring board 

shoots and ladders board game

again

Starting Week 5

Today is the start of my fifth week here in Ireland. Words can't describe how I am feeling at this point. It is hard to believe that my journey is almost half way over. With that, I wouldn't change anything in the past couple of weeks. I have learned so much in just a short amount of time, not only about myself but about Ireland / Irish culture. It is safe to say that I absolutely love this place. This week I noticed that I am completely comfortable with my day to day life. I have made wonderful relationships at school, with my students and staff members. I feel like I am an actual teacher there, and not just someone who will be leaving in five weeks. I look back on the first day I started, and I have made such progress. With that, let me tell you about my week. I am taking over more and more each week. I teach pretty much everything (except Irish - I am still working on understanding that). We had an extremely busy week with Grandparents day on Thursday. Prior to Thursday we spent a good chunk of each day finishing up art work, rehearsing songs, and setting up the gym for the big day. Beyond that we continued with our daily school work (everyday we work on letter writing, recognition, number writing, and recognition). We also did some art work for Valentine's Day. We made stain glass window hearts which turned out really nicely. I also did a lesson on the book, An Ugly Ducking, to help teach about inclusion and how to be a friend. The girls loved it. I completely took on math this week so I decided to break the girls into groups based on skill level and made games to help learn the numbers 7, 8, 9, and 10. Most of the junior infants can recognize these numbers based on their ability I made games to help teach them what they really need to focus on. That was the start of our week for the most part.( the weeks go by so quickly I forget what I do most of the time). On Thursday we had grandparents day! We had two different rehearsals that day so the girls felt comfortable. Grandparents day was for the junior infants, senior infants, first, second, and third class. The priest, Father Declan, was the one who lead the program. All of the girls memorized a number of different songs that were performed in-between different prayers and blessings. With the songs, each class had two girls come up and recite a prayer. The little girl who did the junior infant prayer performed it flawlessly (she even memorized it!). I was so proud of her after all her practice and hard work. The turn out for Grandparents day was about 150 people! During the program I served tea, coffee, and biscuts. It was such a pleasure meeting all the grandparents. I was introduced to a lot of the grandparents of the students in my class. It was so humbling hearing the grandparents talk about how they have heard all about "Miss Katie the American student".  It was safe to say that I was happy it was over on Thursday evening. I was so exhausted from all the work that we put into the program! On Friday we had morning mass. This was the first mass that I attended, and I really enjoyed it. Friday was St. Bridget's day, (one of Ireland's most important women saints) so it was really interesting learning about her. The mass was also put on by Third class - they performed a number of different songs and did a lot of the readings. It was a beautiful mass.

This week was truly exhausting, so I took it easy this weekend. I stayed in and relaxed Friday night (just what I needed). On Saturday, I went to Tralee, a bigger town about an hour away, to do some shopping. I took the bus, which I have mastered. I am not going to lie, it is really scary going to someplace you have never been, and trying to navigate your way around, ALONE. I eventually figured out the town (with the help of a map.) I did a little shopping and exploring. I had lunch at the cutest Cafe in town - I probably sat there for two hours. It's not very often that you can  just sit and enjoy something for that long - this is a moment that I know I will remember for a long a time. I don't know how many times I sat there and just said "wow I'm in Ireland" haha either was it was a wonderful day! I also found a park which was absolutely gorgeous. I strolled around there for an hour or so. Here are some pictures from on day trip on saturday - grandparents day pictures will come soon!

Working on the stain glass window hearts 

Working on the stain glass window hearts

Tralee

The Park

coffee 

Beautiful church in Tralee

Being Brave

It absolutely blows my mind that I am starting my fourth week of student teaching. The time is flying by and I am doing my best to savor every moment. My week last week was a bit of a challenge. I am teaching almost full time, which comes with a lot of responsibility and A LOT of classroom management. One of the most challenging parts of this experience is getting the students to see me as a teacher, rather than just someone who is there to help out. With that, the first part of the week was very challenging, but as the week went on I started to really gain control. I am feeling much more confident, and I think the students are starting to see me as one of their teachers. Beyond that it was a crazy week as we are preparing for grandparents days, (Thursday) and trying to accomplish the loads of other things. The students finished up all of their art work, and it is now displayed in the gym! We have also been practicing our grandparents day songs. The students are getting really excited; everything is coming together nicely. Everything at school is going really well so hopefully it continues. I am preparing some fun activities for this upcoming week to help reinforce major concepts (numbers, letters, writing etc.)
This weekend I decided to be brave and go on my first trip all by myself. I took the bus to Killarney and spent the night in a hostel. Other than missing my bus on the way there I made it there smoothly - just an hour later than I expected. My hope was that I would do the Ring of Kerry tour, BUT the weather did not allow. I did some shopping instead and enjoyed the town. I was extremely proud of myself for making it there and taking the first big step in traveling. Overall I am leaving this week feeling really confident. In teaching and life in general. I am challenging that positive energy into all aspects of my life! All smiles here :)

Pattern Game from last week

more grandparents day projects

my first hostel experience