Sunday & the First Day of School!

Sunday we spent most of the day wondering around Cambridge. We had a brief class seminar in the morning and then Dr. King (our other adviser) drove us to our schools so we can learn the area. I was paired with Mechelle at Icknield Primary school in Sawston, England. It is about a half hour drive from our house, so we estimated at least a 40 minute bus ride each way during the week.


The rest of the day we just prepared for Monday and hung around the house. Tiffany let me borrow her Mac computer to Ichat with Megan. It was great to see her and Lilah while we talked and I even got to say hello to Megan's mom, Judi.

Monday morning I woke up about 6:45 and got ready for my first day. I went downstairs and had my English breakfast that is included with our stay. It is so delicious and the food is cooked to order and not from a buffet or anything of that sort.

Mechelle and I decided to leave for the bus together around 7:30, but the bus didn't arrive at our stop until about 8. The estimated 40 minute bus ride turned into a 2 hour expedition to another county north of our school. The one minor factor that we missed on Sunday when we went to our school was where the closest bus stop to our school was. We also took a different route on the bus than we did when we drove out there the day prior, so nothing looked familiar. It also may have had something to do with our bus stop being over ONE MILE away from our school!

We finally made our way to the school after we rode the bus back down the route and got off at a stop I thought was near where we were suppose to go (knowing that we had already called Dr. King and he was on his way to find us). We walked for over a mile to get to our school and arrived a little after 10am, one hour and five minutes after school started and one hour an twenty five minutes after we are suppose to be there. Everyone understood what happened and it turns out that only 2 out of the 20 of us on the trip got to school on time (some were almost 3 hours late!).



As soon as we got to the school, we were greeted by the head teacher (principal) at Icknield who was very excited to have us at her school. She showed us around the grounds and advised me that I was the only male adult in the whole school. This included not only teachers, but lunch staff and teacher's aids... She also informed me that because of this, there were no Men's rooms. Therefore, I had to share the regular bathroom with the students, which thankfully is a single toilet restroom and has regular sized appliances...

I was then introduced to my class and one of my teachers who I will be teaching with, Mrs. Setchel. She was such a burst of energy and I could tell from the moment I met her she was a seasoned veteran. The class has 22 students, with a mix of 3rd & 4th year students who have adorable British accents. I think I was an immediate hit with the students and the rest of the teachers in the school!

The British schools are much different from American schools. They don't use any text books, don't rely on standardized tests, and have a ton of free/play/exercise times. There are a lot of other differences, that I won't elaborate on at the moment.

Within the first hour, I was already teaching the students about electricity and helping them build circuits with light bulbs, buzzers and switches. I showed the students my introduction video that I made on Megan's computer back in April, which I took a lot of pride in. They loved it and then got to ask me all of the questions they wanted to get to know me, it was a lot of fun!

I did my best to get acclimated to my new class, teachers and school throughout the rest of the day. The staff took advantage of every break and we had tea breaks three or four times throughout the day with the rest of the teachers while the students played outside. It was great.

At the end of the day, Mrs. Setchel felt bad about how far our bus stop was away from the school and she gave Mechelle and I a ride to our stop. My teacher is very outgoing and I feel like she is going to be a great influence on my teaching skills and a great role model for me throughout this experience.

I got home around 4:45 and went to our class seminar. Tiffany, McKara, Alan and I went out for dinner at a local pub. Alan is the only other boy on the trip with me and the pubs are the only places open after 5 in Cambridge.

We were all kind of tired, so I came home to update my blog. After that I went up to bed and fell asleep watching an American movie on BBC.