First Day of Teaching

I love them. They're amazing! So very cute and brilliant. Needless to say, I had a fabulous first day at the primary school I'm sudo-student-teaching at yesterday. The headmaster met me as I came into the school and explained to me all about the OFSTED inspection that the school had just been through. In England, they have a National Curriculum, so kids of the same age are learning the same exact things in every public school in the entire country. OFSTED is the government agency that makes sure that the National Curriculum is working the way it's supposed to and the schools go through ridiculously rigid inspections every few years. My school was inspected on Monday and Tuesday and I was there on Wednesday, so all the teachers were exhausted and anxious about the inspection and its results. I can't see how the inspector couldn't have just been completely mesmerized by all of the children and the wonderful things they're learning, though. There is no way that she couldn't love this little school as I did.

So, you know how in America we have Revolutionary and Civil War re-enactors? Well, in England they have re-enactors for their history... including Anglo-Saxen Re-enactors. One of the boys in the class has a dad who is really into it and so he came in yesterday dressed as an Anglo-Saxen warrior to teach the kids about that time period and its people. The picture is of me in an Anglo-Saxen helmet from like 1500 years ago, no joke. Everything here has a ridiculous amount of history behind it. Anyone who thinks AP US History was a pain, think about trying to take it for like ten thousand more years worth of history, it's crazy. Anyway, all the kids were really excited to touch all the artifacts and to try on the helmets and use the giant shield! They were also very excited to use my camera.... : ) The teacher of the morning was fantastic. She related to the kids really well and they clearly loved but respected her. It was really nice to see such effective teaching.

After lunch, the kids wrote about their favorite part of the morning and the best part of the dad coming in. They were adorable!!!!!! They are also sharp as tacks! I mean, they are only six or seven years old, but they were writing entire pages of work about the morning and all the materials that the helmets were made out of and what the symbols on the shield meant and why Anglo-Saxens burried all their favorite belongings with them when they died. The kids at one table in particular kept getting distracted by how funny my American accent sounds. They kept asking me to say "water" over and over and over again. I finally told them that I would only say in again when they had a half page of writing done, it was hilarious. They would also ask me to spell things (and you know how awful I am at spelling) just so that they could hear me repeat the word in my accent. So, throw in the fact that some random British-English words are spelled differently than American-English words and the fact that I can't even spell in American to save my life, and I'm sure their papers have miss-spelled words because of me. I must remember to work on my spelling!

At the end of the day, I gave them all the Valentine's Day cards that I brought with me from Target. You know how every little kid in America makes those really cheap printed Valentine's for their classmates on Valentine's Day? Well, they don't do that in England. They make real, homemade hearts and things that they fill with poetry or little love notes, and the kids don't really do that. So, they were all ecstatic by my "Disney Princess" and "Cars" Valentine's and all said "Thank you" in their adorable British accents as I handed them out! I love them all!

Then I took the bus back to my street... and I was feeling pretty good about myself. I put my iPod in and started blasting my own personal life soundtrack, lol. As I got off the bus and started walking towards my house I actually thought to myself... "I'm going to be a teacher." I know it doesn't sound like an epiphany, because I've already declared a major and made up my mind and all that, but I just suddenly felt like there were no longer any doubts in my mind about what I am supposed to do with my life. I'm going to be a teacher and I am going to be damn good at it!

Yeah, yesterday was a good day.