New Blog

For those of you that are interested in following my travels around the UK post student teaching... here is the address Adventures in "Backpacking". Check it out, here is a preview of my first adventure.

Last Few Days at Hogwarts

This week has been very good as far as student teaching goes. Jen and I received many cards, sweets and goodies from our students. Many of them have expressed how much they will miss us and thanked us for teaching them. My year 7 girls wrote me a card, and got me a beautiful necklace and bag. With them I did a fraction activity using gummies, which they loved and was a review of what we have been learning over the last few weeks. Even the kindies and middles, whom I don't officially teach, have been saying they will miss me and running to give me hugs. I didn't cry until we were sitting in prep school staff briefing and Miss Hodgson was thanking Jen and I, telling us how there will be era hole when we leave and thanking us for all we have done, and my eyes filled, I looked over at Gill and she was starting to tear up, and then they fell. Only a few, but still. I don't think it has quite hit me yet because I am not leaving straight away, and I will still stay at the flat, so I'll be close by. I will miss the school so much; I have become so fond of everyone and feel like I could fit at this school. Hopefully I can find something just as fitting in the states.

Now all I have to do for the next 5 weeks is relax and plan my trips! Ahhhh!

The Final Countdown...and a little Surprise!

I wrote this a few days ago:

"I can't believe there are only 17 days left. Seventeen days left in this country, at Howells, living with Jen, hanging out with my new good friends Dafydd, Peter, Dave, Martyn, and Brighid, having pints at the pub, talking walks to the castle, helping at the boarding house, teaching lessons, being a college student, looking at the beautiful view, drinking white tea, listening to the Welsh accent, learning Welsh, watching Rugby, watching Manchester United, playing pool, playing darts, playing with Niamh and Lucy, being "mum" to Niamh and Lucy 2 nights a week, eating pudding everyday, hanging out in the staff room, wearing a coat and scarf everyday, enjoying the cold weather, waking up to the sound of seagulls squawking, having crappy internet, eating unhealthy meals everyday, eating beetroot at every meal, running between prep school and senior school about 50 times a day, going to morning assemblies, being at "Hogwarts", eating at the chippy (at the top and bottom of town), seeing Mrs. Scott, Diana, Gill, Sarah, Sioned, and Gwenville, the girls dressed all smart in their uniforms, playing wii at the boarding house, having dance parties with Niamh and Lucy, having Texas Club, being called Ms. R, waking up at 7 am to read and have a cup of tea, going to Ether gigs, the snow and the rain, playing songs on the jukebox, hanging wet clothes on the radiator, being within walking distance of most things important, teaching a ridiculous amount of classes and grade-levels. Basically, I will miss it ALL, the good and the not-so-good."

And now for the surprise....since British Airways is threatening to strike on the day of my flight back to Texas, I changed my return flight to May 1st. Just in time for graduation, Dad's birthday, and Paul & Bree's wedding! See you all soon!

Final Evaluation

Today was my final evaluation for student teaching, by the head. We were meant to do dividing fractions, which I quite enjoy but can be difficult to teach at times. But I planned my lesson out with the help of a textbook from methods, and was feeling pretty confident with it. I got to class early, wrote my examples on the board, showed Miss Hodgson my lesson plan, and the girls started to trickle in. We started with a story problem: My mum told me I had 1 1/2 hours to wash the dog, clean my room, and take out the trash, how long did I have to perform each task? We figured it out by changing 1 1/2 to an improper fraction, the focus of our lesson yesterday, which is 3/2. then I asked how many 1/2 in 3/2? The obvious answer was 3. They all seemed to understand, so I moved on to the next example: I have 2 1/2 grams of Easter sweets, and I want to put them into 1/4 gram bags, how many bags do I need? So, we thought about it logically. How many quarters are in 2? 8. And how many quarters in a half? 2. So, 8+2=10, I will need 10 bags. Great, on a roll. So, then I introduce the procedure, which is where things get a little tricky. You change 2 1/2 to an improper fraction, 5/2, and then find the reciprocal of 1/4, which is 4/1 and then multiply the two fractions together (5/2 x 4/1 = 20/2 = 10/1 = 10). Then they asked WHY does that work?!? In response, I said, there are 4 quarters in a whole so 2 times 4, and then how many quarters in a half? What i should have said was what is half of 4. But that is beside the point now. Most of them understood. We then completed two more examples as a class. They began working on the class exercise. Obviously, there were questions and girls wanted confirmation that they were doing it correctly, and mind you I am in the room alone, and Miss Hodgson is sitting in the back; I don't have Mrs. Scott in there to help me answer questions. One girl cried, one girl came in late but caught on quickly, and a few forgot to find the reciprocal, but in the end it went really really well. And when Miss Hodgson left the room, I received a STANDING OVATION!!! It was one of the best feelings in the world. A few of them said, "Wow, you could be a real teacher!" I was on cloud 9! I feel really good about my lesson and observation, so we will wait to hear what Miss Hodgson says about it later on today in our meeting.

Chemistry Lesson Reflections

The day started out like any other, wake up early, take some time to myself, have a tea, read my book, eat some toast. And, then came time for me to teach my chemistry lesson, first thing in the morning. I was in the lab beginning to set things up and I was tripping all over the place, knocking things over and such. Then I hip-checked a gas valve sticking out of one of the lab tables. Even still, I was replacing some stoppers on the delivery tubes, which are glass, and cut my finger…all of this before the lesson even started.

We started the lesson by reviewing the fire triangle and the elements need for a fire to even take place (oxygen, fuel, and heat) and by taking one of those away is how to put out the fire. We then discussed some of the fire extinguishers they had researched for homework. I then demonstrated how a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher works and that from the reaction, the carbon dioxide will displace water from a tube. The groups then carried out their practical, which was testing how the reaction changed when different amounts of the reactants were added. In the mean time, we had a test tube break, a conical flask break, and a girl spill a huge tub of water down her front.

Even with all the mishaps, and some really wonky results, it went well. I met with Miss Hughes, who's class I taught to discuss things she observed. There were some good things that she pointed out, for instance in the UK when you see 0.2 they say "not point two", where as in the states I would say, and did say, "two-tenths". She also said to make sure that all the students are recording results, and that I could ask questions as I'm walking around to check for understanding, and to make sure I have their full attention before trying to sum up the lesson. She said that she liked how I started the lesson, and that referring to their homework helped make a connection between the last lesson and the one I was teaching. I was very pleased and exceeded the expectations I had for myself. I also know that I have much to learn in the way of teaching science. More to come.

Half Term Holiday

Early Saturday morning we set out to catch the bus to Rhyl to then catch a train to Manchester and then finally our flight to Dublin (and, yes, using all three modes was MUCH cheaper than taking the ferry from Holyhead). We arrived in the Dublin airport at about 16:00, and Janet was there waiting for us! By the way, Janet is awesome, and Jen loved he within 5 minutes of meeting her. We went back to her place to grab some grub and catch the first half of the Ireland Rugby game and then met up with some of her mates to catch the rest of the game. After making new friends and a good evening out, we headed back to the house to prepare for our first full day in Dublin. Over the next three days we saw things like Trinity College, almost all of the free museums Dublin has to offer, the Hop-on Hope-off Bus Tour, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, the Guinness

Factory (my personal favorite), the Gravity Bar at the top of the Guinness Factory with one of the best views of Dublin, St. Stephen's Green, Phoenix Park, Temple Bar (Bar meaning Street) area, etc. We topped our time in Dublin off with a pub dinner, where I got to pour my own Guinness and watch my beloved Manchester United beat AC Milan (who had David Beckham) and we WON!!! It was so good!

Wednesday morning, even earlier this time, we caught a cab at 4:30 (yes, AM) to the airport and landed at Paris Beauvais at 9 AM, caught the bus into Paris.

We had lunch at this little cafe where no one spoke a lick of English, so I decided to try and order chips (fries) and instead of chips, I got steak! It was comical. After a nice lunch , we set out to find Sylvie's apartment. That afternoon we spent a few hours at the Louvre. It was like nothing I have ever seen in my life. At some points like in front of the sculpture Aphrodite, Jen and I had to take a moment to just soak it in. We couldn't believe we were in Paris at the Louvre looking at the World famous Aphrodite! Needless to say, it was AWESOME!! I

can't even explain to you how great it was, although, all the signs and stuff were in just about every language but English (this was a theme while in Paris, obviously because they speak French, which frustrated me more than I had expected). Over the next two days we saw the Eiffel Tower, which was Jen's favorite and we spent a lot of time there, the Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Elysses, Notre Dame Cathedral, Montmarte and the surrounding area has sidewalk artists and delicious food (and was breathtakingly beautiful), the Opera House were Phantom of the Opera is based. and many other things. Surprisingly, Paris was my least favorite of all the places we went, it was dirty and stinky, the subways were scary and apparently the hot spot for couples to snog, and just overall not everything that everyone makes it out to be.

Friday evening, we caught the bus back to Paris Beauvais Airport and headed for Glasgow, Scotland. It was more beautiful than I expected. We got there really late at night, almost 1 AM, so we headed straight to the hostel. The next morning, we woke up slowly and took a walk around the city. We walked down the River Clyde to Glasgow Green, which is a huge park with monuments. There is an arch, a few statues and a huge pillar called Trafalgar (like in London). We then found the biggest terra-cotta fountain in the world outside the People's Palace Museum and Winter Gardens. The fountain depicted the four colonies of Britain: Canada, South Africa, Australia, and India. We then went and had a cup of tea in the Winter

Gardens, and walked around the People's Palace. It was a really interesting museum talking about the dark history of Glasgow, where they are now, and how they have accomplished the successful improvement to the city and the people. There were still people living in pre-fab houses from after the war up until 1990!! But in 1990, Glasgow was the City of Culture, so they have come a long way. We then went to the pub to get a late lunch and watch Manchester United lose to Everton; I was gutted!!! Everton was at the bottom of the rankings and we were number 2!!! Ugh! Such is life! We then took the long walk to Glasgow Cathedral, and it was beautiful!!! It was dark when we went so it was lit up and very mysterious. At some point during the night we got food from a chippy and when we were eating in our room, some yahoo pulled the fire alarm; firetrucks came and we had to evacuate. We decided to call it an early night since we had a long day of train and bus rides back to Wales!

We left at 10:30 am the next morning, and after like 4 train rides and 2 really long bus rides we made it back to Rhyl (15 minutes from Denbigh) and two of our friends were there waiting to pick us up! It was nice to see familiar faces, hear familiar accents, and most of all be back in my own bed at my own flat.

Jen and I compiled a few funny blogs about our trip, so you should check those out at her blog site. We had so much fun, and surprisingly, after being together 24/7 for 8 days straight, we still like each other! Thankfully Jen and I get along great!! Good trip, with a good friend!

Approaching Half-Term

Wow! I can't believe there are only 4 days until half term! It is going by so fast! But as most of you know I really LOVE it here! Would probably stay if I got the opportunity. I taught 2 double Maths lessons today, they both went pretty well, wish we were moving a little quicker through the curriculum, but that happens. I have the last lesson in our "Gases" unit for year 5 tomorrow. They are presenting their fact files on their choice of topic under the gases umbrella. One of my students already turned hers in and it is BRILLIANT! 10 points for Gryffindor! No, but really they get merit points that go towards house points, and I have the authority to give them out! Professor McGonagall, at your service :) She used scrap-booking and science to create here file discussing "Air" and what elements make up the air we breathe and uses for each one! I am thoroughly impressed! Next we start a unit on Space, which is absolutely my favorite science subject! but that is after half-term.

We went to London this weekend and had a nice relaxing weekend watching Rugby and visiting

friends. We had to watch our dear Welsh team loose to England in London, with our Welsh jerseys on and caught many dirty looks, but it was very fun; some playful banter going on.

We are heading to Dublin on Saturday. But not before we have a dinner party Friday evening. Chili and queso are the menu, courtesy of Mamaw, Papaw, and Jen's mom! Thanks!!!

Fun Days at Hogwarts aka Howells

Today was an exciting day. I taught my first lesson in senior school, year 7 maths. I was introducing fractions to them, and as I know all of you are cringing, fear not because my girls did too. They started off very confident, and then by the end of the lesson they were hopelessly lost. Although, Mrs. Scott, my mentor teacher, complimented me on my boardwork and class involvement, saying they were "brilliant"! How exciting! Maths is definitely my comfort zone!

Then off the the prep school for double maths with the year 5 girls. We were discovering mental math short-cuts for multiplying. For example if you have 14x35, you can halve 14 to make 2x7x35 and then double 35 to make 7x70, which is much easier to calculate in your head. Took them a little while to catch on but in the long run, they will be better off, because those are practical math skills, that I feel we miss out on a lot in the states. We focus so much on methodology and application, that we miss out on the practicality of math.

Then off to year 6 science. The girls were completing circuits and testing metals to see if they would conduct electricity. One of the materials they wanted to test was gold, well, there wasn't a sample readily available (don't freak out Mom and Dad) so I let them use my Aggie ring! It was so cool though. So of course I had to document it, and my students loved looking at my ring.

Only 2 more days until London!!!!

One Month In

I was able to be "Ms. Roberts" for 3 days last week! What an experience! I was able to try out and practice my classroom management skills, practice making the flow of the class smooth, dealing with discipline issues, and following through on discipline, etc.

Ms. Hodgson gave me some good pointers after her evaluation of my teaching practice over gases. Like I mentioned in my earlier blog, I know my weakness is leading class discussions; Ms. Hodgson suggested tone inflection, walking around the classroom instead of being stationary, and make a clear and definitive end to each activity or topic.

She complimented me on my student's use of vocabulary and scientific terminology, saying that I must have been doing a good job with them thus far because they have a deeper understanding. She commented I had good activities and demonstrations as well. She said I seemed a little nervous, which was very true because it was the first time I had a stranger (not in the classroom on a normal basis) in the room doing a formal assessment of my teaching. I think it went well, and Rachael complimented and thanked Jen and I for all we do and how we do it.

I will start teaching 2 more lessons a week, year 7 maths. I am excited about this because the girls are enthusiastic and they seem to respond well to me already, since I am in their maths lesson and chemistry lesson.

On a totally different note, it snowed again last night, but we have decided to continue our tradition of walking around Denbigh. This time though, we will have a guest, Rosie, the yellow labrador. She belongs Ms. White, who is in charge of boarding. Should be a nice day.

Weaknesses

I was observed yesterday by Rachael, the head of the school. I think the lesson went mostly well. We were exploring gases, so we talked about the uses of gases, such as inflation, flotation, to create heat to cook, etc. I also brought a fizzy drink so we could talk about carbonation, and the girls love the sparkling raspberry! I also bobbed across the street to the printers and asked the nice man gave me a helium balloon for FREE! We also built our own monorails out of towel rolls, balloons, and string, and discussed how the release of the blown up balloon propels the towel roll, and how different modes of transportation use propeller to move. All of this sounds fine and dandy, but I am really awkward at leading discussions! Oh my word! Its really quite atrocious! I guess realizing it is half the battle. So I will talk to Gill and Rachael and ask for pointers. BUT, all in all, I think the girls enjoyed the lesson and it at least got them thinking a little more about gases.

After my first lesson in Gill Platt's class, I took over Sarah's class again for the rest of the day, which I am happy to do. Luckily, they had math and science yesterday, and I just talked about "is", "are", "were", "was" aka the "being" verbs. So nothing too complicated, and maths and science are my comfort zone. I think the girls are responding well to me being the only teacher in the classroom as well. There is a chance I will get to be Sarah again! Holla!

Surprise!!!

I went to school this morning, like every other morning, thinking it would be a normal day. Well, it wasn't. One of the prep school teachers was out today, unexpectedly. So since I was already scheduled to be in the prep school half of the day, and my year 11 student is out skiing this week, I just cleared it with Mrs. Scott (my mentor, whose class I was to be in later today) and took Sarah's class for the day. I taught maths, science, and RE (religious education) Luckily, in maths and science they were covering similar topics to what I have been teaching in my other classes. Things went fairly well, the only thing was the girls acted like they had no brains sometimes. They would say, "I'm stuck," or "I'm confused," before they even looked at anything on the page. I then told them they were not allowed to say either of those phrases for the rest of the day, and things went a little better. I think it was a good learning experience, because I had full responsibility of the class for most of the day, and things went fairly smoothly.

Miss Hodgson is coming to observe me tomorrow, so I better finalize my lesson plans....

Denbigh Mornings

One of my favorite things to do is to wake up at 7 (before the sun comes up) come into the kitchen and sit by the window. I either do schoolwork, mark papers, email etc. and wait for the sun to come up as I sip on tea (another one of my favorite things) all before anyone else is stirring. I can hear birds chirping this morning, that means that it isn't raining outside; maybe the sun will peak out today!

We have a full house now. There are 2 equestrian girls, who, you guessed it, take care of the horses and stables, and the 2 housemistresses from George's who only sleep here on their 2 nights off a week. It has been a challenge to be receptive of their moving in here, and loosing the privacy and quiet that Jennifer and I so much enjoyed. Its nice to come home to a quiet empty house after a long day, but that usually isn't the case anymore.

We are going to Manchester with the boarders tomorrow, but since it is an exeat weekend, we don't have any prep girls to take care of! Thank goodness! So we get to explore and do what we like, rather than go to Build-A-Bear, which is a nightmare! Especially when the are having a birthday party on the first weekend of the year where there wasn't snow on the ground so everyone and their dogs where out.

Today should be a little less hectic than yesterday. I just felt tossed about, trying to follow my schedule, and a little unwanted/in the way of a few of the senior school staff. So needless to say I was very irritable by the end of the day. Today should be better.

No more teaching practice until Monday.

Second Day of Teaching

Today was a learning experience indeed. I know full well what the meaning of being a flexible teacher means. I started an experiment in my year 5 class, noticed it was taking longer than I had hoped, and that there was really no point to weighing the air displacement in sand when you poured water into it; what was more important was that they made the correct observations about what was happening. Things went very smoothly and the girls made some very insightful observations! I was so proud of them!!

My next lesson was a continuation over 100 pairs with my year 6 class. They didn't quite get it like I had hoped and worked much slower than they should have. Guess I'll have to assign some review work for them next week. The show must go on though!

I also received the scheme for my year 9 Biology class, so I suppose she wants me to start teaching soon! Oh goodness! Guess I'll really have to do my homework on that one. Classroom management will be key for this group, they are very disrespectful and she is constantly telling them to stop talking. Note to self, it's not a popularity contest so I don't necessarily have to be nice. Seat changes may be in order!

First 2 Lessons

I taught my first 2 full blown lessons today! I think they went really well. The first one I taught to year 5 over sequencing, and counting by a certain increment, and to year 6 I taught adding to make 1, 10, and 100. I do believe it is a little easier here than in the states, because the students at this school know they are here because their parents pay for them to be here, so they are better behaved. One thing I observed my mentor in the senior school do, is she doesn't have students raise their hand, she just calls on students. This way the students are more attentive because they know they could be called on at any moment. Luckily for me the 2 teachers whose classes I taught in have effective classroom management strategies in play. I did however make one student cry today!! I know, what an awful, mean teacher Miss Rothrock is! Some of the year 5 girls were fighting over these blocks that they wanted to keep on their desk, and I just didn't want to deal with it so I told all of them to just put them back in the bin, and we weren't using them at all therefore there was no need to have them. Two of the girls were arguing about putting them back in the bin, and so I told the girl who had them on her desk to put it away. I watched her walk to the back and put them away, so I turned around to begin my lesson. The next thing I know, she is bawling!! Ms. Platt had to take her out in the hallway to ask her what was wrong, but was sent back to her seat straight away. Oh boy! What a way to start the day!

Other than that, I think everything went pretty well, I think smoothness of delivery comes with practice, so that is something to work on. I was marking their work this afternoon and most of them did really well; of course there are always a few that just rush through their work and make careless mistakes.

I am teaching a science lesson tomorrow and continuing the lesson in one of the maths classes, so I have to go to school a little early to set up the experiment. Should be a fun day!

Lazy Sundays in Denbigh

Well, Jen and I gave going to church in Denbigh another go. We set out for St. Mary's Anglican Church, and of course arrived during the Welch service, fail number 1. So, we then decided to go to Morrison's (a supermarket) to put up a few things and then we would go back to St. Mary's for the 11 o'clock service; Morrison's wasn't open yet, fail number 2. After wasting about an hour walking around Denbigh, it was finally time to head to St. Mary's, which was much better than St. Tomas', but still not my favorite. I'm glad we will be traveling most weekends.

We then decided to take another walk up the hill to Denbigh Castle, which we love going to, and brought Brighid, the gap-year student, along for the walk since she hasn't been yet. We walked around, speculating what things were we could see in the distance and at the castle. We all then just sort of plopped down on the remains of some walls (well I was sitting IN the wall) and Jennifer and I took little catnaps atop the hill in the ruins of Denbigh castle! What a wonderful lazy Sunday!

PS I am teaching 2 double maths lessons today so I'll blog later about how those went!

Now that I have my timetable sorted...

Just to give you a little background on the education system in the UK, grade levels in the states are only one off from the grade levels here. So, if i say I'm in a year 6 lesson, that is the equivalent of 5th grade. Up to year 6 is in the preparatory school and 7 through 11 is in the senior school. After that they call it 6th form which is like being a junior and/or senior in high school, but they get to choose the classes they want to "specialize" in so it is really preparing them for college.

SO, with all that said, this is sort of what I have going on.

Mondays: double maths with year 5, then double maths with year 6 (in which I have full responsibility to teach them the "numbers" section of their maths lessons, Mrs. Lowe teaches the "Shapes, Data, and Measures" portion), then I go over to the senior school to have lessons with my sweet year 11 student, then double maths with year 10 (I really enjoy this class)

Tuesdays: double science with year 5 (which I am now responsible for the next 4 sections of a unit on gasses) double maths again with year 6, 2 planning periods (I love the UK because they think teachers should have almost a full days worth of planning periods through out the week) and lunch, then year 9 biology, another planning period and then for enrichment Jen and I have started a Texas Club where we will teach them about Texas of course!

Wednesdays: year 7 chemistry, year 7 maths, double maths with year 5 (this means back to the prep school), double science with year 6, planning period, back up to senior school for a period of year 9 maths and then during enrichment time, a lesson of year 10 maths.

Thursdays: year 7 maths, year 10 maths, year 9 biology, 2 planning periods and lunch, year 8 maths , a planning period, one lesson of year 11 maths (only observing, took this on only out of pure interest in maybe getting a secondary certification) and then nothing for enrichment time!!

Fridays: late morning!! only joking, I have 2 planning periods to start the day then double science with year 6, 2 planning periods and lunch, year 7 chemistry, year 9 maths, and then during enrichment I will go watch the prep girls play netball because I hear it is great fun!

I am still looking to observe a physics class, no teaching, because if you can't tell, even with all the planning periods, I am going to be a very busy girl. I am very much looking forward to it though. I am teaching 2 lessons on Monday, 2 double maths lessons to my year 5 and 6 classes! Hopefully I don't choke! :)

Extra Curricular Activities

Here is just a taste of what there is to do here in Denbigh (Den-bee). The first day we arrived at Howells, there wasn't much for us to do, so the PA of the head suggested we go explore Denbigh. We thought, what the heck? So we set off the to Vale St, the main road just one block from our Park Street flat, and headed left (sorry Papaw, I don't know if it was NSEorW?). There were shops, including a Co-op (a fair-trade food distributer that is pretty common in the UK, sort of small) a few chemists of pharmacies, a chocolate shop, a Welsh store we have yet to find, two butchers, a farmers mart, and about 10 pubs (typical). But as good teachers do, we had done our research and knew there were castle ruins to be found. We hiked up a few steep roads and finally found it! It was absolutely beautiful!!! The grass was still very green and the walls were sort of mysterious, so we tromped around naming what we thought the rooms were (of course we talked about being princesses), pretended to visit Hagrid, and in honor of Matthew I had to climb something (of course it was the wall that said it probably wasn't a good idea to but that was obviously the one I wanted to climb). So, walking around the town took all of 20 to 30 minutes but Jen and I had a blast at the castle for at least an hour and a half.

Wednesday this evening we went to visit an American teacher from the school, Mrs. Patty Jones (I think she could be a Dunham, G you have a long lost sister I don't know about?). She is the Pshycology teacher in the senior school and told us she had an open door that whenever we wanted to just to pop over, so we did.

Thursday night this week, we were encouraged to visit the quiz night at the local pub, we are learning that all things social revolve around the pub. So Jen and I and an Australian gap student who is working at Howells, all went down to the Hope & Anchor for quiz night and met up with one of the prep school teachers (don't worry we are all caught up on our lesson plans and have 2 planning periods first thing Friday morning). Needless to say, with a 22 year old, a 21 year old, and an 18 year old, we were not the most stacked team, and we were all rookies to the game; not to mention we were at least half the age of 90% of the people there. The quizmaster we found out is the head of a primary school just down the road, so we recruited him for our team next time when he will no longer be the quizmaster. PS he gave us a 20 point bonus for our handicap :) but we were still behind by about 15 points! We all really enjoyed it and plan to go back next week.

Needless to say, there aren't a whole lot of things to do in Denbigh...

What We Eat

As you might guess, the food (names and options) are a little different here. For instance:

Chips = Fries

Crisps = Chips

Pudding = Any Sort of Dessert

Biscuits = Cookies

Just to name a few. Some of the things Jennifer and I have enjoyed eating are: custard (really really tasty, my favorite thing), lots of potatoes, hot cross buns (they are real, not just from the song, to the right), lots of tea, crumble (which is sort of like cobbler, and goes very nice with custard), roasted lamb, broccoli and cauliflower with loads of cheese, rice pudding (also very tasty), veggie patties (here they call vegetarians veggies), and yogurt (not the really sweet kind we are used to, just plain lo' yogurt, and they pronounce it yah-gut). They have also served my personal favorite, PIZZA, which I have very much appreciated. They also serve this item called a flapjack (which we would think oh, a stack of pancakes) which is really a nutty, honey-y granola bar that is very tasty, served with custard!!! Mmmmmm!!

Tony, on of the chefs, was an army cook for about 15 or 20 years. Jennifer and I were thinking, before we got here, that surely Howells would serve really healthy, light meals since it is an all girls boarding school. On the contrary, it is all very heavy and filling. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but I guess I'll have to give up now on my new year's resolution if I want to continue to eat yummy, FREE food.

It has been really exciting trying new foods and we have become friends with the chefs and kitchen staff which makes going to dinner (lunch) and tea (dinner/supper) fun indeed.

Week 1 Reflections

Although the snow has proved to be problematic for continuing classes, and the boarders have been bored and feel trapped in the house, Jennifer and I have had the opportunity to get to know everyone better than we would have, had it not snowed; for that, I am thankful. Wednesday and Thursday last week, we spent the day in St. George's House, and played in the snow with the girls. We also had some time to sit with Ms. Chris, a secretary for the preparatory school, supervising in the house, so we had some time to just chat. Everyone has been so helpful and inviting. Many people have invited us over either to just have a change of scenery or what-not, and given us their phone numbers in case we should need anything.

We had a meeting with the Head, Ms. Hodgson, on Friday to discuss how things are going, if we are settling in fine, and to see if we had any questions. Jennifer has her time table figured out already but since I will be floating between the preparatory school and the senior school, it is taking a little more time and effort to figure out. I will have the opportunity to work with a student one-on-one for two math lessons every monday. She is behind; she is an 11th year student (10th grade) and is completing 7th year requirements (6th grade). I think this will be a very good experience for both of us.

On Sunday, we decided to check out a local church, St. Thomas Presbyterian Church, which is literally 2 blocks from our flat. It was very traditional, they sung hymns, had a short sermon, and everyone gathered for tea and biscuits (cookies) afterward. I think we will check out St. Mary's next week.

In case you are interested to know, Howells was actually in the running to be Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies. They were in the top 3 and then the producers chose to use a few churches instead. But how cool is that?!?! It really is Hogwarts!!

Jennifer and I will also be working in St. George's House 2 nights a week. We will be putting the prep boarders to bed. Those 3 little girls are so adorable and they are such a handful as well, so we have decided that a tag team method would work best rather than each doing one night solo. One of the prep boarders was at dinner tonight when we were discussing with Ms. White about helping and she was so excited that we would be coming in every week! That just gives you a good feeling!

another snow day

....which means still no internet in the flat! the next time the technician is scheduled to come to school is Friday, so say a prayer and cross your fingers and toes, maybe we will finally get lucky!

I have almost got my timetable sorted out. I have picked up a year 10 maths class (which will be like a freshman math class) which I am really excited about!! I also now have a year 7 chemistry class and a year 9 biology class, still working on getting a physics lesson. should know by tomorrow. Since this is a 150 year old school, they are still using lots of pen and paper for keeping records which slows the process of making my timetable.

week 2 day 2

I am working on filling out my timetable (schedule). I have maths and science in the preparatory school and chemistry, biology, and maths in the senior school. I still have a few periods to work out, but it is coming together quite nicely. I have one on one lessons with a student who is working below her levels, but is a pleasure to work with. I will start teaching Monday morning maths and science lessons in the preparatory school.

We are supposed to have a technician come tomorrow during the day so we should have internet by the time we get out of school, as long as it doesn't snow this evening. I have blogs waiting to be posted on my computer at home, and since I am in the junior library at the moment, can't be posted immediately.

More to be posted in the days to come!

First week at Hogwart...I mean Howells

Disclaimer: I won't be able to write too much just yet, as most of you know, we do not have internet at the flat, and I don't have my notes with me. There will be pictures and more details to come.

We arrived on Monday, met some important people, got provisions from the kitchen, and settled into our flat. We explored Denbigh (pronounced Din-bee) a little. The town is very small, and we spent more time at the castle ruins than anywhere else, but let me just say...it is BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL here! Jennifer and I keep saying, "is this really our life?" It is so fantastic!

Day 2, Tuesday: We met with the head, Rachael Hodgson, to go over logistics and assignments. We spent the rest of the morning in the preparatory school. After lunch, the bagan to send students home because it was a blizzard outside (not really, but I've never seen anything like it); I believe there was 4 or 5 inches of snow, but apparently it doesn't snow in Denbigh often, so people sort of freaked. We had 29 extra students that couldn't get home and a few parents that were stranded as well.

Day 3-4: Jennifer and I have spent these 2 days helping out in St. George's Boarding House, where most of the girls are. Mostly we have been with the 3 preparatory boarders (age 7, 8, and 9), and boy, are they a handful! It is really great though because we get to see the girls outside of school and get to know them. Although, most of the girls who attend Howells do not board, at least we get to know the ones that do.

We should be getting internet tomorrow at the flat, so I can load pictures and Skype. More to come soon!

Last Day in London

We started out the day going to East Hill Baptist Church; the church Jennifer's brother attended when he lived here. Following the service, we had tea and cake. One thing I learned about tea, you have to ask for it without milk or you get it with milk. I like mine straight; no milk or sugar. I'm weird!

We then took the bus down to all the attractions again to get some daylight photos. We stopped to grab lunch at this place called Pret. I got a Swedish meatball wrap

and some sweet potato crisps. It was very delicious! So we ate as we walked along St James Park to Buckingham Palace (me at the gates to the left) and then to Westminster Abbey; the photo to the right. It is a very beautiful building, you have to just stand in awe of it for a minute. We hit up most of the same p

laces we did on day 2 to get pictures during the daylight.

The sun started to go down and it became bitterly cold so we decided to come back to the flat and start packing our things because we catch a train from Euston Station to Rhyl Station (in Wales, close to Denbigh) at 8:10 in the morning, but first we have to get to Euston Station from where we are now. We plan on leaving the flat at 6:30 in the morning. We are both becoming anxious and excited to get to Howells, maybe not necessarily to start teaching, we are enjoying playing and exploring far too much!

Day 3 in London was my Favorite!!

In case you haven't deduced it yet...Jennifer and I are trying every avenue we know to get to Hogwarts!! I guess they really don't like muggles right now or something. We searched all over King's Cross Station, and finally found Platform 9 and three quarters!! We decided we would have to settle for our own "Hogwarts" aka Howells.

But at any rate, I'll start from the beginning of the day. We went to this really neat little fair trade bistro called The Pantry. We drank tea with actual lumps of sugar (see facebook for a picture), I always thought they meant spoonfuls, but they are actual lumps. I had toasted foccacia and sausage with onion marmalade, and it was delicious! We then attempted to go to Notting Hill to go to Market Day (if you've seen Notting Hill, you know what I'm talking about. We boarded the correct numbered bus going in the wrong direction, so we literally rode around a corner and hopped off. Then we got on the right bus, and I couldn't find my Oyster Card (transit pass) to get on, so the bus driver just said to get on and I could swipe it when I found it. Well, I couldn't find it, and freaked out because my train ticket to Wales was with it, so we jumped off and started walking back to retrace our steps and then I found it in my purse. Attempt number 3 to Notting Hill was successful. We wondered

around Market Day and Notting Hill for a few hours. It was very very busy.

We then headed to the other side of London to have lunch with my Grandfather's friend, Chuck, from the doctorate program who now lives in London with his wife, Susan. She made shepard's pie, and it was delicious! My uncle Chris would have loved it! We had tea and apple pie afterward and relaxed before heading off to our next thing, which was the search for Platform 9 and three quarters.

We then headed over to Bakers Street to find 221b; Sherlock Holmes' house. We made it too late to go to the museum, but we weren't too bummed. We wanted to go see a show after that, but everything was sold out.

We then decided we were hungry, so we went to the Fish Club (where Jennifer used to work) and the manager gave us free dinner. So we had a shrimp and charizo skewer as an appetizer, and battered fish and sweet chips (sweet potato fries) for dinner and he brought out a brownie with buttered pecan ice cream; that was the best ice cream I have ever had in my life!!! Thanks Harry!

All in all it was a great day: Harry Potter attractions, 2 free meals, spending another day in London...it was great!

Day 2 Adventures

Well, jet lag set in a little this morning, so we had a late start. We took the train into London and saw Big Ben, House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the Eye of London, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, Hyde Park Corner, and what we think was the St Peter's Gate. We are getting good at riding the buses and not getting lost, although we were looking for this fish & chips joint last night and ended up walking about a 3 mile circle, needless to say we woke up a little sore after all the walking we did yesterday. I am already used to riding the bus on the "wrong" side of the road. I think it will be weird coming back to the states and driving on the right side of the road!

Next to me in the picture to the left is a phone booth (which I haven't seen one person use) but it's like the one in Harry Potter that is the visitor's entrance to the Ministry of Magic! So cool! We are hoping to make it to King's Cross Station so we can visit Platform 9 and three quarters, I've seen a picture where they have a trolley going into the pillar, and I really want to get a picture! I know, I'm nerdy!

In the picture to the right is of a statue outside Buckingham Palace! It was awesome! There is so much art everywhere and love it! Everything is visually stimulating, and its like that all over London.

London is a really interesting place, and there is so much history here, but it is stinkin' cold and very polluted (it turns your boogers black!) We are staying in zone 2 in a town called Wandsworth (Harry Potter themed, it was meant to be!!) and it is sort of the up and coming young business professionals area, or thats what I have inferred. We have lots of plans for tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll post again tomorrow.

Happy New Year!