Easter Service Chills

Dear June, 

All of Mary Deans participated in an Easter service play. Of course, this is really strange for a public school in Florida. It would be pushing the limits to even have an Easter party in your classroom. At Mary Deans, each class performed a little skit about the true meaning of Easter. They sang a few songs and acted out a few scenes from the Bible. Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays. Mainly because my mother would fill my Easter basket with cute bikinis for the upcoming spring break. As sad as it is, this little Easter play made me tear up. The cute little boy with the solo belting out "Jesus has risen!" brought full on crying. I was so impressed with the bravery from all the students at Mary Deans. There was no stage fright or quiet speaking voices. They all got up there and screamed their lines for everyone to hear. The message of the play was really great too. I know this play is definitely something that I couldn't bring home to my school but I do think I want to put on a play in my class. 

Missing you,

Susannah 

Clay Pots

Dear June,

The school days are just flying past. So much happens during the day that isn't possible for me to write everything down. In our classroom, we are making clay pots for Mother's Day (which is in March). Mary Dean's does not have an art teacher so the general education teachers are required to intergrate art into their lesson plans. I was thinking about the mobs of angry teachers that would go running down the streets if Florida teachers were required to teach art. I feel that most of them just wouldn't do it or they would do silly crafts during the art periods. This is not the case at Mary Deans. They first learned the skill of working with clay and then were given the task to create a pot with a 3-D daffodil. The teacher gave them the whole morning before lunch to create the clay pots. 

After they finished constructing the pots, they let them sit for the rest of the week to dry. 

I ventured into the other year 5 class at Mary Dean's to see how their pots turned out. They didn't make flower pots. This class had been learning about volcanoes and the teacher wanted them to make clay volcanoes. Personally, I thought the volcanoes turned out WAY more interesting. 

Today in the classroom, we white washed the pots and painted them.

I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the finished project. I'll try to sneak one tomorrow. 

Xoxo,

Susannah 

Cotehele Tudor House

Dear June,

I am still trying to get you caught up on my last week but I have done so much stuff that I am having to break it into several posts. In order to finish recapping last weekend I have to tell you about the Cotehele (pronounced Coat Heel) tudor house that we visited in Cornwall. The Cotehele house is a National Trust building. I am guessing that means that it is now maintained and ran by the British government. The Cotehele was the home of the Edgcumbe family since 1353. They used it as their showcase home to store all of the furniture and knicks knacks that went out of style. This house contained several bedrooms, a chapel, formal dinning rooms and kitchens. It took about an hour to explore the whole house.  I seem to have a ton of pictures of the windows in the Cotehele house. I think I might have been a little obsessed with them. For me, the best part of the house was the chapel. When I walked into the room, it was automatic chills. I am a very spiritual person and I could feel positive vibes throughout the room. I also learned the very important lesson of "don't sit on anything in a very old house". A cranky old women had to remind me that the bench I was sitting on was from the 15th century. WHOOPS. 

I was told this weapon was used by African Women so they could fight for their lives. 

Once again, the best part of Cotehele was the grounds and gardens surrounding the house. You could explore the garden for hours. The house was set high up in the hills so the view was spectacular. I  then took a secret tunnel into the woods to explore a cute chapel set in the woods and a nearby mill. 

The tunnel

My weekend was packed FULL of adventures that the University of Marjon set up for us. I was really impressed with the two trips that they picked for us. They were both experiences that I don't think I could compare anything to in the states. After my weekend of exploring I was ready to be back in the classroom. 

Night June,

Susannah 

Eden Project

Dear June,

I am so sorry for my absence. I have been scheduled every second of the day for the past week. The moment I get home I flop into my bed. The cold rain really takes all of my energy. Let's rewind a full week. I started my weekend by having a proper English supper at the local pub. The whole group suited up for the cold for the "short" walk to the Jack Rabbit. We find it really funny when locals tell us, "it's just a short walk" because it always turns out to be a few miles. The Jack Rabbit was worth the walk. The menu consisted of typical English meals; lots of roasts and meat pies. I filled my belly with Chicken and Lentil pie. My classmate, Naddy, made the mistake of asking what black pudding consisted of. It turns out that it's all the bits of a pig that isn't used combined with blood. I had to struggle to keep my pie down. After dinner, the group decided to have an early night because Saturday we were scheduled to leave for the Eden Project at 9 AM and not be home until 5PM. If I'm being honest, I didn't understand why we needed a full day to explore the Eden Project. It was explained to me as bubbles with plants. I couldn't picture it being anything that I wanted to spend a full day exploring. When we arrived at the Eden Project, I was blown away. They were not bubbles. It was HUGE domes. Eden Project is the largest conservatory in the world. We found out that the founders of the Eden Project turned an old china clay pit into a beautiful garden and EVERYTHING is ran with the planet in mind. We were able to explore two different climates. The first dome we entered was the rain forest. I went from cold rainy England to steamy hot Costa Rica in a few steps. I had to keep removing layers of clothing until at one point I had sweat dripping down my back. The rain forest dome included waterfalls, sugar cane, bamboo, baobab, banana plants, mangos and a canopy walk. Just so you can picture how huge this dome was it took us over an hour to see everything in the rain forest dome. The rain forest dome had different levels and the higher you got in the dome the more clothes you had to take off. It was really funny to see people with their shirts tied up because they were so sweaty. 

After the rain forest, we stopped for a tasty lunch. This was my meal. 

It included lots of fresh vegetables which is really nice when you are traveling. I never seem to have a healthy meal. 

The second dome was a Mediterranean climate. The first thing I noticed about this dome was the smell. It had a truly unexplainable smell. If someone asked me to try really really hard to explain it. I would say the ocean mixed with fresh flowers and olive oil. We all agreed that the Eden Project should bottle that smell up and sell air freshners at the gift shop. The Mediterranean dome was much smaller than the rain forest and it only took about 30 minutes to see everything. Somehow the Eden Project managed to have a light cool breeze in the dome so you felt like the ocean might be right outside the door. The Mediterranean dome had bright beautiful blooming flowers in rows. The man power they need to keep those gardens nice must be insane. 

Even though I enjoyed the domes, the best part of the Eden Project was the gardens surrending the domes. My classmate explained it as her very own secret garden. It was filled with magical statues, mirrors and secret doors. The gardens also had informational boards so you could read about the flowers or were the artist got the inspiration for the statues. We spent most of our time at the Eden Project exploring the gardens and taking pictures. We felt like the ultimate tourists because we had to get a picture with every statue. Of course, we had to stop in the gift shop before our time was over. Naddy went a little spending crazy and had serious buyers remorse afterwards. She blamed the smell of the Mediterranean dome. She was still a little intoxicated. 

The Eden Project was an experience that I don't think I will ever forget. I would 100% fly my family over to England just so they could experience it with me. I promise that I will get you completely caught up on my week June! 

Missing you,

Susannah 

Lots of work and a little shopping.

Dear June,

The amount of information that I am learning each day in the classroom is blowing my mind. I can't keep up. I feel like I have so much to share and then I sit down to write and don't even know where to start. Today we got to the school only one hour late. The bus system in Plymouth makes absolutely no sense. The time schedules aren't accurate, different buses go to some stops and not others and sometimes they will just take different routes if the drivers feel like it. It's extremely frustrating. Anyways, when we arrived at Mary Deans my class was working on Math. For every lesson, the teacher gives the students a very specific focus. It's a lot like an essential question but it's more specific and it changes with every subject, every day. This particular math lesson had four focuses. 

1. I can tell you whether we would use ml or L to measure the capacity of various objects.

2. I can accurately estimate the capacity of various objects.

3. I can accurately measure the capacity of various groups.

4. I can convert fraction and decimal L to ML mad vice versa.

My teacher opened here lesson by planning a game teaching multiplying/dividing by 10, 100, and 1000. She gave four students random single digit numbers on a big sheet of paper and had them stand up and form a number. She then picked a student to be the "function machine". That student pulled a piece of paper out of a shoe box that said "divide by 100" or "multiply by 10". The students would then change the number that they formed to perform that function. They soon found out that they needed a decimal point so the teacher assigned a student to be the decimal point. They played this game for about 10 minutes. 

The class was broken up into group based on the four focuses. The goal is to reach the fourth focus. The lower students were put in a group with an assignment to practice the skills in the first focus. The middle low group was given an assignment to match the second focus and so on. I was working with the middle high group practing the 2nd and 3rd focus. They were given the following worksheet. 

Students were told to estimate 200 ML of water. The students poured water into a cup until the reached approximately 200 ML. The cup was not marked with the measurements so they had to do their best to estimate. They then would pour their estimate into a jug that was marked with the measurements. They would see how close their estimate was then cut the jugs out from the worksheet. Glue them into the science notebook and label them with their estimate and the difference between their estimate and how much it should have been. I unfortunately didn't get to see what the other groups had for assignments. I do have the worksheets for focus four.

My teacher ended the lesson by asking a few questions. She asked, "why is this an useful skill" And "in terms of YOU why is it useful?" She also asked the question, "do you feel that you have completed your focus and do you think you can move up to the next level?" 

I thought many things about this lesson were fantastic. I like breaking the class into groups based on the focuses. I do think that this can only be accomplished if you had help in your classroom. This classroom had the main teacher, the teaching assistant, me and a ESE teacher. I don't think I've been interned in a classroom that received that much help. 

I am also uploading some pictures of my classroom. I hope you enjoy June! 

Missing you,

Susannah 

Photo of the spinners I talked about in yesterday's blog. 

 

First Day at Mary Deans

Dear June,

The past three days have been a blur. I have so much information and news to get you caught up on my trip so far. I have finally arrived in Plymouth. It took two trains, two buses and a taxi to get me here but it was well worth the trip. Plymouth is an absolutely beautiful town. It's much bigger than I expected. It has two universities, Marjon (mine) and University of Plymouth, so the crowd is young and fun! Plymouth is on the coast of England so the sights aren't so bad either. Once I met up with my group in London, we all started on the 7 hour adventure to Plymouth. It took all day Sunday to get to Plymouth so I mainly caught up on a novel I've been reading (Alleigant). We arrived at Marjon at around 11pm and they quickly showed us to our dorms so we could get some sleep. The dorms are definitely not five star hotels. You can tell that they are old and well lived in. I have one dorm mate. We have our own rooms and bathroom. We only share a kitchen. I can't complain. After a GREAT night of sleep, we had to be up and ready for our first meeting with the university at 9am. Our first day consisted of a tour of the university, a safety meeting, instructions on how to use the library and computer systems and lunch with our head teachers. I was placed at Mary Deans Primary School. It's located in a tiny village called Tamaltion Foelet. Our head teacher explained that the school originally opened in 1720 and he has original copies of a behavior book from when the school first opened. I haven't seen it yet but he promised to show me a copy. The school isn't in its original building but it's still a really old tiny building. Mary Deans only has thirteen teachers for preschool through grade 6 (evaluate to our 5th grade). The day flew past. A few of the students invited us to watch a rugby game that night. It was the big rivarly game between Marjon and University of Plymouth. Everyone assured that it would be a good time and I was not let down. The crowd was wild and the game was intense. It was my first experience at a rugby game and afterwards I really wished it was more popular in the states. The game even included a few steakers at half time. We thought it was crazy that they didn't get arrested for public nudity but the cops just seemed to laugh. We headed home as winners! The next morning we woke up and headed to Mary Deans on the 8:30 bus. Little did we know we would be taking a two hour tour of Plymouth. We got ourselves so lost and we were incredibly late for our first day. Luckily, the head teacher was very understanding and laughed about our wacky bus experience. We didn't begin working in our classroom until 10:30. When I arrived my class was working on mathematics. They were making something called "spinners". The directions were to trace an octagon. Use a protractor to measure it at 42 degrees into eight equal pieces and then color each section and label it with shapes. They then used this spinners to write probability questions. So they would say "what is the probability  of me landing on a red circle?" They kept all of this work in a math notebook. At the end of the lesson the teacher asked the students to either put a smiley face, straight face or sad face on the top of their page. She uses this to check understanding and see who thinks they need extra help. I looked through the math notebooks and I noticed that the teachers leaves notes for the students in their notebooks. The notes ranged from "let's work through this together" to "you need to write more clearly". Then something realllllly strange happened. The whole school had a 15 minute tea break. The kids played outside and one staff member watches them and all the teachers go get tea and have a mental break. After tea break we worked on geography. The students also had a geography notebook that they had all kinds of resources stapled in it. They were working on mountain formations and map skills. After another hour we break for an hour lunch. In this time the students could eat at anytime within the hour and also use it as a recess time. The school has "lunch ladies" come and supervise this hour break so the teachers can use that time to plan or grade or just relax. I noticed that many of the teachers used it for school clubs or play rehearsal. Once a week the school gives the teacher the rest of the day after lunch to plan and that was today for my teacher. Once she left the kids went to French class and Religon. I was blown away by the amount of time the teachers were given for planning and classroom grading. I assumed that Mary Deans was private Christian school because of the religion class and they also pray during school hours but that's not the case. It is a public state school. Combining religion In schools is a very normal thing here. As you can tell June, I've had a very busy two days and I'm still exhausted and jet lagged. I am going to head to bed now. I'll post again tomorrow. 

Xoxo, 

Susannah

Rugby Game! 

Plymouth has wild ponies!

The Plymouth steps!

Smelly flights and long layovers

Dear June,

Today is the big travel day! I am heading to England. I am scheduled to arrive in Plymouth at 8pm on Sunday. By the time I arrive, I will have been traveling for 48 hours. I stayed the night in Orlando last night so I could wake up refreshed and ready for my 11AM flight to New York today. I dragged my HUGE suitcase to check in for my flight and nice airline man told me that my bag was 10 pounds overweight. My airline was nice enough to give me a gray trash bag to fill up and take some weight out of my suitcase. I spread my suitcase open in the middle of the airport and started ripping it apart. Once my suitcase was 50.8 pounds, I was able to check in and wait at my terminal. Sitting at the terminal gave my mind time to wander. I started to get really anxious and nervous. I have never traveled alone before. I had two flights, a bus and two different trains to catch to arrive in Plymouth. I'm just nervous that I am going to miss one or go to the complete wrong place. The worst part of traveling alone? I had no one to ask to watch my bags while I went to the restroom. I had to squeeze into a tiny stall with my carry on bag and my trash bag. I would rather wait and go on the plane. That's sad. My flight from Orlando to JFK was smooth sailing. I sat next to a friendly Canadian that had awful body odor. I gave myself a mini bath in the restrooms once I landed because I felt like his smell was all over me. Ahhhh, the joys of travel. I am currently sitting at JFK waiting for my six hour flight to London. I decided to write your letter now because I have a FIVE HOUR LAYOVER. I've just been shopping around and eating. I had Chinese food for lunch (I hope I don't regret that) and I bought a really nice rose hand cream. 

Do you think I'm starting a new trend with this bag?

Xoxo,

Susannah