Meeting MMU colleagues

On Monday, March 21 I I flew to Manchester to meet our colleagues at MMU and on Tuesday that week, went to Didsbury CE Primary school to meet with Matt Whitehead. The photo here is of our MMU colleagues Drs. Archana Hinduja, Martin Needham and Sam Wilkinson on campus in Manchester.

Tuesday night, after a wonderful lunch at The Didsbury, I flew to Dublin to meet our international student teachers and colleagues at Marino Institute.

Home for the Holidays

After giving myself a few days to recollect and settle in, I am finally home and writing my last blog about this adventure. One thing is for sure, jet lag is real. I have been falling asleep at 8 o’clock every night and waking up at 6 every morning. I hope this ends soon lol. I’ve had a lot of time to sit back and reflect on my experience and the time that I had in England, which I would love to share some thoughts here. First, I loved it and I already wish I could go back. Sure there were ups and downs of getting homesick or having to adjust but all in all, I loved it. I would absolutely say that if I didn’t have my roommate Sarah there with me, it would have been a million times harder. Sarah, if you’re reading this, I miss you already :(.

The biggest take away I have from my student teaching experience is that I love how we teach in America. My time in the classroom was much different than my time in the States. My teacher was a fantastic teacher who knew her classroom very well and how to work with each child, but it was very fast-paced. At home, the set up is big and the students have their space and all work together. In my U.K. room, the classroom was set up for the students to be very independent; the pace was fast. That’s how they work, and it works for them! it took me a bit to get used (the classroom) but I have learned so much from my teaching experience.

I miss England and all the students I grew to love! To those going next semester, have a great time! The advice I will leave you with is to hold your hand out for the bus, bring comfortable shoes and an umbrella that can stand strong in the wind!

Final Week in Manchester

Hello all!

What a bittersweet feeling it is to be finishing up my last week at West Didsbury Church of England Primary School (that was a mouthful). I really can’t believe that come this Friday I’ll be flying back to the states. This experience has been absolutely incredible and I’ve learned so much about education in England, but even more about myself. Navigating different cities each weekend, commuting to and from school on the bus each day, and adapting to new surroundings has been a truly amazing experience. I’ve made connections with students and other faculty in school that I will really miss. I’ve never attended or worked in a religious school, so being in a church of England school around Christmas has been awesome. Being in England in general during the Holiday Season has been magical – they go hard here. It’s wonderful to see all religions and traditions being celebrated, it’s not something I’m familiar with in school. I’m going to miss the accents dearly, but I can’t wait to get out of the rain! Hopefully the student teachers coming next semester will enjoy a little more sunshine than we had while here in the fall/winter time. I’ve had so much fun exploring the UK and I’m already planning more trips. 🙂 Here’s to our final week teaching abroad!

Cheers!

Sarah 🙂

10 days left, Manchester

Hello from Manchester! The last time I wrote was the beginning of my trip, and now it’s coming to an end. I cannot believe that we have less than two weeks left in this amazing program. I have learned so much about the English culture, their school culture, and about myself. In Manchester, we are only in the classroom 3 days out of the week, but it really does wear you out. Their school days feel so much longer and their curriculum seems much more intense. In my school, it is a high-performance school, so the teachers are put under a great amount of stress to keep their student’s scores up and that their school is still ranked higher than the others. Their behavior management is also something that is very different from ours, which is something that takes getting used to. My placement in the states, we used a clap-clap-5 strategy that the students would repeat, but here they just tell the students to quiet down. I still find myself clapping occasionally! I’ve done lots of guided reading with the students and individual work with struggling students. I am very happy I was able to do this work and really get to know the students as well as their curriculum. I look forward to my last few days in the class and cannot wait to share my final thoughts next week! Until next time! Cheers!

Forest School in England

Hello all!

I hope everyone is getting adjusted in their new placements. I have been having so much fun working with “year 4” (equivalent 3rd grade) students in England. One of the most exciting aspects of this school is their “forest school.” I had my first experience Wednesday afternoon from 1:15-3:10 (the entire afternoon) when I basically got to play in the mud for two hours. It was so much fun. In forest school, the teacher (who must’ve been a boy scout or something), shows the students three different things that they can do during their time. There is a little lot of land in the back of the school where this “school” resides. While I was there, the students could make bird-feeders out of an apple (mine came out amazing), work with a partner to create a braid using long rope, or practice sawing wood with Mr. Briggs (the teacher). There were also shovels and gardening tools to work with, clay to create things, and mud/leaves to just play with! It was such a refreshing experience. The school that I am in is new, so there is definitely a lot of technology involved in the classroom. So seeing that they give students an opportunity to get dirty and be kids all while learning amazing skills was just such an awesome experience. It was a great opportunity for me to get to know my students in a not so academic setting. I saw many different personalities come out, who are closer friends, and who doesn’t like the outdoors lol. They were so impressed with my bird-feeder-making skills but I don’t think they knew the genuine fun I was having. I wish I could bring forest school home to America! Maybe some day… 🙂

Y’all Right?!

Hello! Greetings from Manchester! I am absolutely loving it here in England. I am living with two other students from Bridgewater named Sarah, and Kaeleigh. Sarah and I arrived last Monday so we slowly adjusted and got our bearings and Kaeleigh joined us Friday. We are all very eager and excited to be here. While we are in Manchester, by law, we have to attend a class at a University to achieve our visa status. So, yesterday we met without the Manchester Metropolitan University supervisor and she gave us our course assignments and showed us around the school. She was fantastic and will be a great resource to have as the rest of the semester goes on. Today, we started our placement in schools. Already the schools are very different from the public schools are at home. My classroom is very regimented and standard structured. Their schedule has less subjects than ours and the times that they spend on some subjects are very different from my first placement which is very interesting! I am excited to continue to see how they teach and learn in the UK and look forward to sharing it with you!

P.S- Instead of saying, “Hi! How are you?” the people of Manchester say, “Y’all right!?” Pretty neat!

Hello from Manchester!

I can’t believe it’s been a little over a week since I’ve landed in England! I’ve been having such a wonderful time so far, and despite the time difference, adjusting has been easier than expected. The city of Manchester is not much different from the city of Boston – other than the double-decker buses and the British accents of course. It has been fun exploring the city during my first week, and I’m lucky to have two other BSU friends here with me. 🙂 Today was our first day at our placements, as they were on “holiday” during our first week here. Michaela and Kaeleigh are at one school, and I’m on my lonesome in the other. However, the teacher I’m working with actually studied abroad at BSU so there is definitely not a lack of bears during my day. The students are absolutely adorable, and I was so impressed at how well my teacher was able to differentiate every single lesson during the day. I have four pages of notes in my notebook on how to differentiate each subject because everything she was doing was so wonderful to see! I am really looking forward to getting back into the classroom tomorrow, and hopefully working on getting comfortable in a new room this week. It has been a change, and I am not used to students giggling at my accent! It’s kind of exciting to have an “accent.” Anywho, ta ta for now.