This was more a month for doing things with friends. On the 3rd, Julie, our head teacher, invited us up for a day in Oxford to show me around. Miri, Sharon, and I went up to hang out. We walked around Christ's Church College, one of the colleges of Oxford University. We went out for lunch and then met back up with Julie. We walked around some more, shopping along the way. They took me by this enclosed bridge that was built in a Viennese style. The bridge was by a special library that you have to sign in to enter, use gloves, and see REALLY OLD books. Then we went by a book store that looked small and cute from the front, but was enormous once you got inside. We ended the day by having a fantastic home-cooked dinner at Julie's house. She is a fab cook! Had my 1st sticky toffee pudding (dessert)...YUM!!!!!
Thurs. 10th Jan...now known as Black Thursday. Needless to say there was a big incident at school, followed by a night at Emma's house in Bath without calling home..., followed by being met by the police when I got home Saturday morning as I was officially identified as a "missing person". It's humorous now...not so much at the time. The police work fast over here...mostly I'm sure due to a few major cases of murdered women from Nov. 5th (Guy Fawkes Day) to a week before the 10th. Oh, well.
I went to Kay's house for dinner and an Open House party on the 12th. She was finally back into her home after a year of repairing it from a house fire.
The 15th saw me having dinner with David and Cherry in Corsham. What a cute village! I can't wait to take Mom there. I had an eventful drive there, as it had been raining a ton! I saw 2 cars off to the side of the road and figured they here having car problems or an accident. They must have been locals because they knew that the road was flooded there!! Not figuring it out in time, I had to power through it...at one point I couldn't even go through the shallow part because there was a huge lorry coming at me! Phew! I was sooooooooooooo glad to have made it through!
I went to Pershore to spend the weekend with Susan at her flat. Pershore was a cute little town, but my favorite part was the "Elderly People" crossing sign. No, I am not making it up! It even had a picture of 2 hunched over people at the top! LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!! On the Saturday, we went into Birmingham to go to the Birmingham vs. Chelsea football match (that's soccer for you Yanks!). Chelsea won, of course, 2 - 1.
The school has just adopted a phonics program. It followed shortly after a report that 1 in 5 primary aged kids leave school reading below standard. Interestingly enough, if you trained to teach at the junior level (2nd -5th grade), you only get trained in lit. units. Likewise, the infant teachers (pre-k to 1st) only get trained in beginning reading strategy. Consequently, the junior teachers are a little freaked out about teaching phonics when they haven't really been trained in it. This is where I come in...I told Emma I would help her and word got out. I started having mini phonic lessons and sharing ideas that I've done back in Caly. Now I have 3 other teachers bought in and we are grouping our kids and running phonics sets. I have the really low kids...most of these struggle between letter and sound, and which letter says what sound. The high group is doing prefix/suffix/root work on meanings, etc. It's really exciting! My group is really coming along. We are doing flashcards (the SIPPs way) and making words. The other teachers and I are noticing the kids really using their new knowledge all day long. One of my kids (the one that can't even put the alphabet in order), is reading better, using sounds, and talking about the sounds she hears in words. Very cool!
24th - I went to another panto. This one was in Miri's village of Broad Hinton. It was cute, but I wasn't feeling well again...got a bit lightheaded during the longer 2nd half. But was much better but the 26th, when I went to Bath to go out clubbing with Emma, Becky, and Eleanor. Quite a fun night...saw a guy climbing a wall like Spiderman and then talked to 2 Italian guys while eating a kabab.
I ended the month teaching a writing lesson with Julie. We had a writing training the night before. I LOVE this style of teaching writing! Even my really low writers are finding success and aren't overwhelmed when faced with a blank paper. It's not as overwhelming for me either. Love it!!!!
2 comments:
Hello to you Miss Howder! We miss seeing you. Hope all is well and your healthy. More pics plz. Take care. Elle loves to look at pictures of everyone in these blogs
Dear Miss Howder,
It's me, Emily Mark, your student from 2 (almost 3) years ago. Now I'm in 5th grade (almost 6th). My teacher Mr. Barrieau has tried to pull off a play called The American Revolution. We started learning our lines January and performed today. We did very well, and this is the first time we did it START to FINISH. (We didn't officially plan it that way) Two people were sick and one was a main character. Two students, one was J-bob (Koeberlain), got a new parts THIS MORNING, and they did veryvery well! Mr. Barrrieau said he couldn't have pulled it off without my mom helping, and both are glad it's finished. (But both were very pleased with the results) He's going to do another one next year. (Wonder who's going to help him THAT time)Anyway, it's not the same without you here. By the way, are you returning next year? If you are, we hope my brother, Matthew, gets in your class. We have another math whizz on our hands!
Sincerely,
Emily Mark
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