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