Week 9...already?

Personal & Cultural

This was a fantastic week, especially with jetting off to Rome but that’s later…

As I mentioned last week we had all decided to take part in an Erasmus Come Dine with Me Special which was exciting. In Vossenveld we have 3 floors for international students with 9 people living on each. Each floor had 4 groups of 3 and we made sure all groups were mixed up so groups of friends were not working together. I was teamed with Mikayla from England and Caroline from Sweden. It was good that we had 3 in each group as it meant that each person was assigned a course and my luck I was assigned the main! What should I cook was the question on my lips for a long time, even up to 2 hours before kick off! Caroline made a Caesurae salad for our starter and Mikayla made a Banoffee pie for desert. I had changed my mind many times but eventually settled to make chicken with garlic, peppers, onion and a Tomato sauce on rice. It actually all turned out to be really delicious and the group done themselves proud, however when our challengers cooked on Tuesday, from entering the room we knew from the effort they had put in that we were beat and true to the feeling, we fell at the first hurdle!

As the weather was really nice last week the group were making the most of it so on Wednesday afternoon a few of us went into town for drinks in the sun and done a little shopping while there. It was a nice relaxing afternoon and reminded me on being at home with my friends during the summer months!

On Thursday afternoon 5 of us went to Rome for 3 nights. We arrived at our hostel in Rome around 9pm so we didn’t have time to do much on Thursday so we went for a traditional Italian pizza and it was really good. It is true what they say; you don’t taste good pasta or pizza until you try it on Italy! We were in a room of six and it was a relief to find out that the other person in the room was also from London and we all got on well with her. She was 19 and travelling on her own which shocked many of us as we couldn’t imagine doing it on our own, sharing a room with 5 strangers.

We set off early on Friday morning to make the most of our time in the city. It was very difficult to order breakfast and because we were speaking English it was clear that the Italians got very frustrated and annoyed with us when we were ordering food. We managed to get a good deal for a tour bus for the 2 days that we were there so we set off on the red bus to see the sights. We started with the Coliseum which was a lot smaller than I had imagined especially when you went inside it. We walked around the whole Coliseum taking it in that I was actually in Rome. There were so many people and school groups there, especially American, I think I seen more Americans in Rome than I did Italians. It was unbelievably warm while we were there so it made the trip even better, some of us even got sunburnt. We walked through the old ruins that were behind the Coliseum and sat in the sun for a break before we caught the bus to go to the Vatican.

The Vatican and St Peters square were also smaller than I had thought but it was funny thinking back to ‘Euro Trip’ and ‘Angels and Demons’, two movies that I last seen the Vatican and St Peters square in. There we thousands of people in the square and the queue to get inside the Vatican was huge but it didn’t take that long to get inside so we waited. It was definitely worth waiting to see; although I am not Catholic it was breath taking inside. We walked around the Chapel part of the Vatican and went to see the Pope’s graves in the basement. There was a large crowd gathered around Pope John Paul’s grave and many were crying or throwing letters on top of his grave which showed to this day how he has touched or is continuing to touch people’s lives.

Saturday was another early enough start and this time Bryony, the other English girl, joined us. We hopped back onto the bus and travelled around the city again and we stopped off for a late breakfast and the staff in this restaurant were so nice and welcoming to the group and it was surprisingly cheap. We walked up to the Spanish Steps, were there were so many people again sitting on them in the sun but it was difficult to enjoy as many street merchants were hassling everyone. We wanted to go to the Trevi Fountain and whilst walking there we went down a street that was lined with designer stores that we could only dream of shopping in but it made us laugh.

The Trevi Fountain was also smaller than you would imagine but it was really nice with so many people surrounding it, sitting in the sun. We all decided to follow the myth and throw money in over our heads and make a wish; it was funny to see that everyone that was there was doing this. We went for Italian Ice Cream which was amazing and we sat in the sun for hours enjoying our time in Rome. It was so sad to leave Rome and the sunshine behind in Italy to return to the Netherlands on Sunday evening but this is an experience I will never forget. Through talks with people, we couldn’t believe that we were in a room together in Rome with people we only met 2 months ago having such a good time together.

Professional Development

This was our last week on school placement which was quite sad as even though we were only there for 4 short weeks, I felt as if I had built a rapport with the pupils and teacher in the class. On Tuesday I taught my first ever music lesson with a song I learnt in our own music class at PABO, The Food Rap. There was a parent in watching this lesson which actually made me quite nervous but I also feel it gave me more confidence to conduct the lesson. This lesson was fantastic to carry out and the students were extremely enthusiastic as they liked to be active and sing. It started with them repeating each line after me and then they were divided into groups with each group being assigned a line of the rap. To bring in rhythm and speed which was the objective of the lesson, each group had to create an action or sound that went along with the rhythm and speed of their line. It was interesting to see their ideas being but into action, especially group 1 as they had such a unique idea for their line. After this the whole group rapped altogether doing all the actions and it worked well, even the teacher and parent tried to join in.

Wednesday was our final day together and I conducted a lesson which I called ‘Tour of London’ which also had another parent observing, however she was more active and worked along with the groups taking part in the lesson. Each table was a famous sight in London like Buckingham Palace or the London Eye and it had a suitcase with trigger cards. There were 5 groups and they all had an individual map to follow to get around the room. Whilst at each destination they had to choose 5 things they wanted to take with them, according to the time of year they had decided to visit like Union Jack, passport or camera to mention but a few. The aim of the lesson was to build confidence of pupils with their peers as they would have to argue there reasons for wanting to take certain items with them and in the end they would need to explain their reasons for their choices. This lesson worked really well and they were very enthusiastic to explain their answers or tell stories of their time in London. In the end they packed a case for me coming to the Netherlands for 4 months and their ideas were fantastic as they took into consideration I would be here between winter, spring and summer for clothing, I would have work to do so I would need a laptop and the fact that I needed to communicate so I would have a phone.

After the lesson was over, a member of the class thanked me on behalf of the class and presented me with typically Dutch flowers, Tulips which was such a nice gesture as I didn’t expect anything and it made me feel so appreciated within the class and school. I continued to observe the class as they had a group presentation on Turkey, which was a project they had been working on. 2 pupils presented a PP and one of their parents made a Turkish salad for everyone which was actually really nice as I am quite a fussy eater at times. I have learnt that parents are very involved in their child’s school life and are all very keen to come into the school to help out or do things for their child’s classmates. Watching the parents in the room it was evident there was a lot of this as the pupils would approach and carryon with the parents which I don’t see much evidence of in NI.

Before the end of the day I said thank you to everyone and gave them a card of thanks and chocolate for the whole class. Before each child left the room they shook my hand and individually said thank you for teaching them, coming in everyday and teaching them more English. The parent also thanked me and stated that she was actually shocked at how well the children responded to me and how much they were able to understand me when I spoke which is something that took time.

I have learnt form this experience to be a lot more patient, especially because I was in the minority and it was very difficult to stand at the front talking with 25 Dutch children trying to understand me. I have also learnt to control the speed at which I talk which is something I can take home with me also as I often find that during SBW I can talk very fast at times. As I study secondary education I found it difficult to drop the level of my lessons to a primary level but I think I dealt with this well and again I can take this home with me for junior classes or perhaps a future in a primary level setting. It was nice to leave on a high and I plan to return to the class in the future before I return home to NI.