Ballybunion, Dingle and Killarney!

This past week, since I last blogged, has been filled with lots of things!
After school on Thursday, JP asked if Erin and I wanted to go to Ballybunion beach. Not really knowing where it was or anything, I said yes! It was so beautiful there, you could see the Atlantic Ocean and County Claire in the distance. We walked around the top of these cliffs, which were beautiful. Our time got cut short because Abigail and Lisa had to get back for music lessons, but JP said we would come back soon!
On Friday we had a very crazy day at school! It was 'People in Need Day,' everyone raised money for people in Kerry who need extra help. There were many activities, like if they reached 1,400 euro two of the male teachers would wax their legs. That was big excitement. And there was a raffle with great prizes, iPod, Kerry jersey with all the signatures, etc... The day was crazy and almost all of the teachers said they did not get anything done in their classrooms, I ended up not going to any of my classes because they were cancelled because of different activities at the same time. But at the end, we were all on a week long holiday!
On Saturday, JP and Fidelma took us to Dingle Peninsula! The only problem was it was so cloudy that we could not see much! The town was very cute though and we got to see a beach with VERY big waves! I had fun even though we could not see some of the sights.
Yesterday, Erin and I decided to go to Killarney. We had a lot of fun! Did some shopping, went on a jaunty ride through parts of Killarney National Park and saw Ross Castle. I have pictures but I have not put them on my computer yet, when I do i will for sure post them! I had a wonderful time in Killarney and it was sort of a trip down memory lane from the last time I was there!
Today my mom comes and I am so excited to see her and show her all over Ireland!

My First Few Days in Ireland!

WOW these past few days have been crazy, exciting and a whirl wind! Erin (one of my classmates) and I arrived in Shannon Airport early Saturday morning. The flight was fine, long, but I was able to sleep so that was good. When we had found our bags we walked out into pick-up area, that is when we realized we were not sure who we were looking for, oops. We knew we were looking for the Walsh family but we did not know what they looked liked. Luckily, JP came up to us, we must have looked a little lost.

Here is Erin and I right after we got off the flight. Don't we look great?

The drive to Listowel was very nice and scenic but I ended up falling asleep for part of the way, I was just so tired! We also picked up Chris, who is the middle child in the Walsh family, in Limerick. (The Walsh's have 5 children).

When we got to the Walsh's house we were greeted by Fidelma, my host mother, and Abigail, the fourth child in the family. It was so nice to arrive and they were so welcoming! The showed up to our rooms, where I just put my suitcase down, and then went for a cup of tea and chatting. After a little bit I was getting very tired so I went back to my room and slept a long time! Saturday was a very relaxing day.

This is the Walsh's House.

And this is my room. I even have my own bathroom!!!
Sunday and Monday we did a little touring around Listowel by foot. It is a very nice little town with great backgrounds!

We have been having some very good weather so that help make these past few day wonderful. There has only been one really horrible day and we made it through. They say the rain is coming but that's Ireland for you!

On Tuesday we started teaching! Oh my goodness I was so nervous, excited and just curious. When I got my timetable I saw it was packed with all different levels of Maths and I was very happy about that. All of the teachers are so kind and helpful. I think this will be a wonderful experience. But there are a lot of things that are different that I have to get use to, like the teachers not having desks in the classrooms, but lockers in the teachers lounge. Presentation Secondary School has been great so far and I cannot wait to continue!

This is a picture of Presentation Secondary School.

Cultural Development Objective

Ever since I was a freshman here at St. Norbert College I have wanted to student teach in Ireland! Now that I am almost going it's a little surreal. When I am over there I hope to learn a lot about the culture and educational system. I hope to take care I learn and be able to implement it into my classroom in some way. While I was in Australia I was able to go into some schools and learn about their education system. Their system has some differences, like instead of doing daily homework they only have big end projects. This is an interesting concept and I would like to see if I could implement it in my classroom. While in Ireland I will compare and contrast the American system to the Irish and Australia and hopefully use different traits to help make a well rounded classroom. I am very excited to leave and dive into this wonderful experience.