First Day of School :-)

January 27, 2011


This morning was my first day of school at Eagles Nest National School. When I arrived at 11:00am, the students were on their first break of the day. The playgrounds here are crazy, the kids run all over the place playing tag and soccer. As soon as I walked out onto the playground one of the little boys ran up to me and asked me if I would play tag with them. The kids are so nice and welcoming and all ran up to me and asked me what my name was and if I would play with them. The school is about a 40min walk from Tully Cross and the view from the playground is spectacular! Behind the school there are mountains and then from the front of the school you can see the ocean in the distance. After the break, I went into my classroom and the students resumed their class work for the day. The students in my class range in age from junior infants to second year (5-8 years old). They are all adorable and if I could I would take them home with me. Their accents are so adorable and they all wanted me to sit next to them during class. The younger students went to gym for about thirty minutes while the first and second years worked on math, which in Ireland is called Maths. All of the binders and books the students and the teachers have say Maths on them. While the older kids were finishing up math, the infants came back from gym and worked on coloring a clock and filling in the numbers on the clock. 


Around 12:30, the students said a quick prayer and then had lunch. After the students eat lunch they have another 15 minutes for recess out on the playground. During recess I played hopscotch with a few of the younger girls in my class. The playground for the most part is blacktop because the grass here is always muddy and the students would come back from recess dirty and muddy. After recess, the students begged the teacher to let me read them a story and so I read the class two stories from their "special book" which the teacher only reads to them on special occasions. I was told to read slower than usual because my accent might be hard for the students to understand at first. When I finished reading a page, I showed the illustrations to the students. When I finished the first page and was showing the pictures to the students, one of the little junior infants looked at me and said in his cute little Irish accent: "Aww...isn't that loovely!" It was the cutest thing ever! After story time the class split up and the junior/senior infants worked on their handwriting while the older students practiced Irish. Their words for the day were items from the kitchen and they were able to talk to their teacher in full sentences about the items of the kitchen, it was very cool to listen to. I asked the teacher if it is hard to plan lessons when she has such as wide range of grades and ages in her class and she said for the most part it is very challenging but what she tries to do is start the lessons so that everyone can participate and then has the lesson split off. She mentioned that even though the younger students do not do the Irish worksheets by listening as the older kids practice, they pick up on the words at a young age. 


At 2:00 the younger students left for the day and the older kids then switched and worked on their reading and worksheets. I worked with a girl who had been sick for the past few days on her reading. She was struggling with her b's and d's so I helped her differentiate the two. It is such a different experience working with students this young, but I am really enjoying it. The kids are all so adorable and I love listening to them say my name and talk in general. The school is very informal and the kids call me Maggie and the teachers by the first name or they call them teacher. 


I won't be able to go to the school for a few weeks, but I cannot wait to get back!