A Relaxing Weekend

This past weekend Erin and I took it easy and just stayed at home. It was very nice to be able to sleep in and hang out with the Walsh's. Plus I was coming down with a head cold, so this weekend was perfect to just just rest. But it was a little disappointing that we did not have the Internet. Do not worry we survived!

Chris and Phillip (and his girlfriend) came this weekend. It was a nice full house! It was very nice to see them again and get to know them better. The two of them are so funny and make everything very entertaining!

Erin and I walked into town on Saturday to look around at some shops. We did not buy anything, except some books at the book store, but we had a very nice lunch at a small cafe in town. It was nice being able to enjoy Listowel and just walk around during the day. I am usually to tired by the end of the school day or things are closed. Then Saturday night, Chris, Abigail, Lisa, Erin and myself went to see the movie "August Rush." What an amazing movie!!!! I loved it and Erin and I ended up going again on Sunday, HAHA.

On Sunday, we went to the Christian Fellowship Center with the Walsh's. This was like mass. I was very glad we were able to go with them to see how they praise God, because it is different than going to mass at a Catholic Church. We were very welcomed there and it was a very nice morning and early afternoon.

Now its back to teaching! Including this week I only have 3 more weeks left! I cannot believe it. I am having a great time with this group of 1st, 2nd and 5th years. They are very good students and I find myself coming up with activities that I created that still follow along with the book. At the end of the week I am having my 1st Years make their own math problems out of what they find in the paper or a magazine. I really hope they enjoy it because I am excited about it.

Thanksgiving in Ireland!

Last week was Thanksgiving! It was definitely an interesting day. After seeing all the messages from my friends saying "Going Home, to celebrate Thanksgiving with the family" made me sad. It was very different celebrating the holiday in a different country.

I had to work on Thanksgiving :( But I offered to my principal to give lessons to any class that wanted one on Thanksgiving. I made up a very informative lesson and most of the classes really enjoyed it but I was very tired at the end of the day.

Erin and I were invited to have dinner with an American family that lived in town and was friends with the Walsh's. I was very happy to have the traditional meal. Jim barbecued the turkey and then Toni Lynn made stuffing, green bean casserole, corn, yams, bread and pumpkin pie. The meal was great! After dinner we went to the sitting room and watched a football game!!! I felt like I was back at home, it was so much fun!

I did miss my family a lot but when I got back home I was able to talk to them on the phone! It was great being able to talk to everyone, even though it was a short time. But hearing all their voiced put a smile on my face! It was very hard being away from them but this experience has been amazing and I still have 3 more weeks! Then I will be home for Christmas.

I also had my inspector, Neville, come and observe me teach yesterday and today. I was a bit nervous but it went very well! He saw my Thanksgiving lesson yesterday and a 5th year math lesson today. Both lessons we good and very different. He gave me some very nice comments and made me feel like I was doing a very good job here. I still cannot believe how quickly the time has gone! After today I am only in the school for 15 more days, that crazy! Teaching here has been challenging at times but everything is going so well that I will be sad to leave. I am really enjoying working with the students and faculty. These next few weeks will go fast but I am going to make the best of it!

Scotland

Two weekends ago, Nov. 16th - 18th, Jenna and I went to Scotland! OMG, it was absolutely amazing! Edinburgh was a beautiful city, I really enjoyed walking around the city. But it was a lot of up and down hills. Edinburgh Castle was on top of a hill and the hostel we were staying at was right across the street from the Castle. So when I got off the bus and turned to start walking to the hostel and saw the hill I had to walk up. Lets just say that I got my exercise walking around the city. But it was awesome!

On Saturday we went on a tour of Scotland. It was BEAUTIFUL! Unfortunately, it rained most of Saturday but I did not care, I was outside the tour bus taking pictures and enjoying the scenery. Our first stop was at the Highland Cow, Hamish. I never realized how a cow could be such a big tourist attraction.

We drove up to the highland and saw the most beautiful sights. The part of the tour I was the most excited for was to see Nessie!!!! But I never did see the Lock Ness Monster :( But I really enjoyed going to Lock Ness.

I had an amazing time last weekend and I even got some STARBUCKS!!!!

A Weekend in Cork

This past weekend Erin, her grandma and myself went to Cork. I had a lovely time!

When we first got there we got a little turned around but it gave us a chance to see the city center, but we had some heavy bags that I wish we could have put down. It was all good thought! Once we got to our B&B, which was on a hill(!) over looking the city center, we all just wanted to sit down and rest.
On Saturday we took the train to Cobh. This is a very historical place, it is where all the emigrants left Ireland to go to the Americas and the Titanic was last seen at this port. We when through a museum about all the different time periods and what types of ships left from Cobh (or Cove or Queenstown) at that time. It was very interesting. But after seeing the Titanic and Lusitania information, I am not sure how comfortable I would feel going on a luxury liner leaving from Cobh. There is also a statue of Annie Moore, the first emigrant to go to Ellis Island. After the museum we walked around the town. We could not have picked a better day to go around town, the sun was shining and everything was beautiful! We saw the Lusitania Monument and the Titanic Memorial. Then we got lunch and just sat by the harbor. We had a great time in Cobh, but there is not much to do in the small town so we headed back to Cork for the afternoon.

When we were back in Cork, Erin and I decided to check out the city so we went shopping! Little did we know that the whole town of Cork also goes shopping on Saturday! It was a bit crazy but I still had fun. I wish I could have bought something, but nothing was fitting :(. Once we had shopped all of St. Patrick's Street we went back to the B&B to get ready for dinner and the theater.

Saturday night we went to go see the play "An Inspector Calls" and had dinner at the Mint Restaurant. It was a good package deal. Dinner was very good, Erin and I both got a meal and them ate half and then swapped, everything tasted wonderful, especially the wine! "An Inspector Calls" was a mystery about this family who all have a relationship with this girl who died. It was a very interesting and enjoyable play.

I had a great time in Cork! It was nice to be in a big city (well when you compare it to Chicago its not really a big city but you get the idea) for a little bit! Now I really want to go to Dublin!

Teaching on Fridays!

This past Friday ended the first full week of teaching I had!
With my Transition Year class I am doing a short unit on patterns. I have put a lot of work into make examples for them and trying to help them have fun with it. On Friday they started to make there own pattern, and when I showed them my example they were very impressed, which made me feel very confident that theirs will turn out wonderful! I will get to see them on Monday the 19th. They were working so hard on Friday, those patterns will be great to see. With the Transition Years, my cooperating teacher and I split the class in half, she took one half and I took the other half and then we switched after a week. So yesterday, Monday, I started with the second group. I am excited to see what happens with this group because the other one really enjoyed and understood patterns.
In my First Year class we are doing fractions. This is going fine but I am having trouble trying to figure out how to make this topic more interesting. I sort of feel like I am just teaching from the book. Maybe I could talk about cutting up a cake or cookies and bringing it into the class. But for the most part the students are understanding the work.
I am teaching circles in my Second Year class. This has been a very interesting experience. These Second Years are the lowest so they are put in this class to go over math a little slower than the other classes. I was excited when I got this class because this is the level when you really want to excite the students. When I choose to teach circles I thought the students would really understand it and I had come up with a project that would be a very good summery of the whole unit. Then on Friday I really had my eyes opened. I had these second years at the last class of Friday and they were very hard to teach. Everyone was talking to each other and yelling at each other, and they were telling me I was going to fast. It was hard because one student was having trouble with one thing and the others were understanding it. So finally I decided I had to stop my lesson and just do a review. At the end of the class and the end of the day I felt like that class got out of control and I got a little upset over it. I thought about it all weekend and decided I had to rearrange next weeks lessons because I could not move on just because it was in my plans. So over the weekend I came up with a review worksheet (almost like a test) of problems from the homework. I gave this to them yesterday and it was the best class I had had! They did a great job and this helped me see that they are understanding the information.
This experience really showed me a lot! First, its hard to teach the last class on a Friday. And second, lesson plans are not set in stone, they are changeable and should be changed if the students are not understanding something.
I would have to say my first week teaching was a success! It started off a little nerve raking and ended a little crazy but after a weekend off to reflect, I think everything went well. These next 5 weeks (I cannot believe that all that's left!) are going to be a great learning experience.

Back to Teaching

After that nice long break, its back to the reason why I am in Ireland... Teaching! Yesterday (Monday), was my first day of full time teaching. I am teaching 1st years, 2nd years and transition years. In the states that would be 7th grade, 8th grade and 10th grade. In a few weeks I will be getting 5th years (11th grade) instead of transition years.
I was a little nervous when I first got up front but it all went well. It was weird because I am so use to teaching first graders, it is a bit of an adjustment. Two of my cooperating teachers just gave me the book and asked me to plan a unit from the book, so I am teaching fractions to my 1st years and circles to my 2nd years. My other cooperating teacher showed me a website and asked me if I make a lesson from one of the examples. I was really excited about that because I got to do what I was mostly interested in. My unit is on symmetry and patterns, by the end of the unit I want the students to come up with a pattern and draw it on a sheet of paper. With all three classes I am planning some creative projects, I hope everything works out and the students enjoy themselves.
So far teaching is not much different from America and I am excited for what is to come.

Exploring Ireland with Mom!

This past week has been GREAT! Mom arrived on Tuesday and I was so excited to see her. I got a call around 12:30 from this man who wanted me to go on national television (remind me to tell you the whole story later), but the real reason he called was to tell me that Mom had gotten a flat tire, jeez what a way to start off her trip. Luckily everything got better after that! I got her to her B&B where she got settled and took a little nap. Then we went out to eat and I was just so excited she was there. We planned everything that night!
On Wednesday we set off to Blarney to kiss the Blarney Stone! The weather was wonderful and we had a great time walking up about a million stairs to the top, haha. But it was truly beautiful. We all (my friend Erin, my mom and myself) kissed the stone, so now we all have the gift of gab. Then we went for a nice walk around the grounds and Rock Close. After all the scenery was taken in we of course went shopping!!! The Blarney Woolen Mills was having a sale, it was great!




Later that day we were even able to Killarney and see Muckross House and the Torc Waterfall. Unfortunately we miss the last tour out Muckross House but we did take a jaunty ride out to the waterfall. It was a little dark but some of the pictures really came out nice.

Thursday was another busy day! We decided to do the Ring of Kerry and we drove it ourselves. This was very nice because we got to choose where were wanted to stop and how long we wanted to stop for. I really enjoyed it but I sort of felt bad from Mom, the roads were a bit narrow at points and she could enjoy the scenery. But she told me she had a wonderful time. The weather again was wonderful so we really got some amazing pictures. At the end of the day we were all a bit tired.

Because we were so tired from Thursday it was nice to have a relaxing Friday. Mom and I went into town on Friday morning, so I showed her all around Listowel. We stopped by Lawler's Confectionery and St. Mary's Church. Friday was All Souls Day so we stopped in St. Mary's and lit a couple candles in memory of Dad. I really felt like he was with us!

After a tour around town we headed up to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. I had been here before the last time I was in Ireland and thought that Mom and Erin would really enjoy it. Bunratty Castle is beautiful but I forgot how many stairs there are! I remember going through the Folk Park but we had a lot less time so I saw a lot more of the park, which was very interesting. We got to see many different historic homes and lifestyles from all over Ireland in one location.

Later that night we picked up Erin's grandmother from the Airport. She is now going to be here for 2 weeks.

On Saturday we had to get an early start from the B&B because we needed to get up to the Aran Islands. I was very excited about this because I had been to the smallest island, Inisheer, and spent the night. But this time we were going to the biggest island, Inishmore, and we were spending the whole day. We took a ferry over to the islands, which was so much fun and we got to see some gorgeous sights! Right when we got off the ferry we were greeted by many tour guides wanting to take us on a tour of the island. We got on one, he took us all over and it was beautiful. The major attraction was Dun Aonghasa, a stone fort up against the Atlantic Ocean. It was a good walk up to it, on rocky paths and uphill, but it was all worth it. There were breath taking cliffs on both sides. I even lyed down and crawled to the edge and looked down, it was a bit scary! We finished off the tour by taking the coast road back to Kilronan. Then we did some more shopping! I now have my very own hand knit Aran sweater, it is wonderful! We had a wonderful day on the Island, it was just beautiful!

That night we went out to eat in Galway. We were looking for a good place the had a burger (yeah we went all the way to Ireland to have a burger), and we found one, The Cellar. Erin and I ordered a burger, when it came out we were in shock!
That is what my burger looked like when I got it and then once I was finished, it was HUGE!!!! Dad would have LOVED it!
On Sunday we got up early again because we wanted to get more sights in. We left Galway and headed for the Cliffs of Moher on the coast road. I, again, had already seen the cliffs but they are a sight that you always can go back to see again and again! They are simply breath taking, pictures do not do them justice. They have done a lot of remodeling around the cliffs, it has much more information and better paths than I remember. It all made it even better to enjoy the gorgeous view!












On our way back to Listowel we took a ferry to get from County Clare to County Kerry. I really enjoyed myself. The Shannon River is beautiful and I really think they should have a regatta on it!










Last night (Sunday) was the last night I had with Mom :( so we wanted to go out to eat together. While Mom packed her bags I looked online for a place to go, I found O'Sullivan's Thatch Restaurant and Bar. So we went to town in seach of it... but it was not there. We were about to settle for another restaurant but Mom asked someone if they had ever heard of this place. She knew of it and gave us directions to it. Let me just say I am so glad that we did not settle for the other place. O'Sullivan's was AMAZING!!! The food was excellent and I was glad that was Mom and my last meal in Ireland.
It was hard to say goodbye to Mom, I really wanted her to stay, but we had an amazing time discovering Ireland! She did a wonderful job driving on the crazy roads and it was great to spend time with her. My holiday was jam packed and I had TONS of fun, now it is back to the real world (well sort of, I am still in Ireland) and work.