Places in Eastbourne and other Towns I Visited Nearby!!

I have done quite a bit of walking around lately trying to get to know the town I will be living in for eight weeks, Eastbourne, and other towns that we have visited recently. Below there are some cool pictures that I have labeled for each place I saw in Eastbourne and other towns.

 Pier on the coast of Eastbourne, lined with massive and beautiful hotels along the boardwalk!

 De Walden Court, an old mansion in Eastbourne, it is so beautiful inside and people live in it like it's no big deal, and the back yard has a huge garden! 

 Hollington Croft Bed and Breakfast Place in Hastings, walked past it and it looked so cute!

 Small cottage on the corner of a neighborhood in Hastings, such a cute little place!

A small narrow road in Hastings, most roads in England are lined with brick walls like the one in this picture.

 First Methodist Church in Hastings

 St Patrick's Church in Hastings, walked by it today but hope to get a better picture sometime again.

 View of the upper neighborhood in Hastings.

 The Thai House in Hastings, very old building with very detailed decor on the frames and walls of the outside building.

 Church in Hastings, right across the street from the train station. Beautiful detail to the building!

 Old School House in Eastbourne, cute little building actually now used as a house!

 Meads Institute, another old school house on the block towards my neighborhood in Eastbourne!, I get to walk past buildings like these that look so beautiful and amazingly historic every day!

 Neighborhood down the street from my host house in Eastbourne!

 Old House in Eastbourne, Has a very creepy look to it, very old and also a house I walk past ever day going to downtown Eastbourne!

Pevensey grave yard in the church yard in Pevensey.

 Pevensey Church (above and below), very beautiful Parish Church that is over 500 hundred years old.

Trail into Pevensey Church!

 Back door to a house in Hastings, thought it was interesting it stands alone with an arch of bricks around, but is not attached to a wall or anything! A wonderful art piece and historic item!

 Cathedral in Hastings, only a block from the coast(can see in above photo)

 Cathedral in Hastings

Neighborhood view in Hastings, reminds me of San Fransisco, California from the look of the houses. their colors, and how they sit on the hill!

First Day at Brighton University/ Placement School

My first few days at the University of Brighton and going to my school was very exciting! When I went to Brighton, I got to tour the campus, learn about secondary education schools in Brighton, and get an introduction into what kind of curriculum I would be learning to work with in UK schools. As I said, I would take a lot of pictures so below is some beautiful views from Brighton University!

 I'm showing off the beautiful view of the town of Brighton! :)

It was also a day of a lot of information on the kind of curriculum and standards in UK schools that I would encounter in my new placement!

The UK schools have a National New Curriculum, which has just been implemented into schools this last September, and is very similar to our curriculum and teaching strategies in the US, in that we are requiring students to think critically, analyze information, debate and inquire problems, ask questions, and apply knowledge to familiar experiences. A big difference in the curriculum implemented in UK schools is that teacher teach Art, Music, and Physical Education, as well as most schools are Christian-based, so they teacher Religious Education too. In the school that I am going to student teach in, it was a religious-based school, but has not had a decline of religious inclusion in the school. They still support it, but do not teach Religious Education within the school. It is interesting to find out that many schools in the UK are different from another, based on achievement of standards and assessment targets, curriculum, and other areas of education. I have talked to other students in my study abroad group who ave admitted they are in schools that teach Religious Education, and I am interested in hearing future comments on how this may support student's well-being, social development, and emotional development.

I;m also excited to see how Art, Music, and Physical Education is taught by the teacher. I had a few minutes today to discuss with her how she incorporates Music and Art into her classroom and curriculum, and she admitted that a lot of the subjects certain to the literature and history that children are learning as well. I was happy to hear tat UK schools are integrating the subjects in their curriculum to provide whole instruction and support subjects like Music and Art, whereas in some of our US schools these subjects are becoming less important than other areas of education. I feel very excited to see how I can integrate these subjects, as well as learn to teach Physical Education! I  have had some experience teaching early years some Physical Education, more working with fine motor skills in writing, hold small items, and strength and balance in fluency of small movements. but I also have done some large motor activities like riding bikes, playing sports, and balance and movement of the whole body and parts. So I think that taking some of that experience and knowing how to teach activities that will influence children's skills in both fine motor and large motor movements and encourage knowledge of health and fitness is what is most important in teaching Physical Education in the UK schools. 

I am exited to say I am teaching at a wonderful primary school in Hastings, that has a beautiful campus, wonderfully laid out that provides each year level with outdoor activities, common rooms, and advanced technology. The students wear uniforms, which are so adorable! And the school has students from ages Reception (3-4yrs old) to Year 6 (10-11yrs old). So it is what America would call an elementary school, except for the fact that pre-school is also included. The school also has a nursery center on campus so parents can have their younger children in daycare while their other children are right next door in the school. The school is also blessed with an indoor swimming pool, which most the headteacher(principal) admitted most schools are not fortunate enough to have. I took a few pictures of the school, which are below.

Street view of Hastings, town where my school is.

The school also had the most amazing library that I have ever seen in a school. I was based on a rain forest, everything around had color and detail, and the reading club house was spectular!!

 Reading Club House below

It was great to finally meet my students and my cooperating teacher! The kids had a lot of questions and will definitely have more about where I am from and what my home is like! I am so excited to start November 3rd and get to know my students and my cooperating teacher more! 

For now I have a week or so off, because the schools are on half-term next week, which is like a fall break, so I will be making the trip to London tomorrow and hopefully to Germany and some other places during the week! Next Wednesday, I am going to Lewes to see the lighting of the bonfires, which is in memory of the extremist who tried to burn down the Houses of Parliament. It is a very exciting event that is mostly celebrated in Lewes, and I am excited to see people's interactions based on the event. My host family says it is a huge event that people celebrate everywhere, but its most exciting to see people light the huge bonfires in Lewes. 

Arriving In England!

Hello All!

It is great to finally be in England and be able to start my second part of student teaching!! I have been here for a whole day and have already seen a lot just inside the town where I am staying with my host family and roommates from America, in Eastbourne. We also have three people from China staying with us and just before I arrived there were two Italian girls that were staying here and one Swiss girl that I got to meet for a night! It has been great to get all different cultures to gather at a table for dinner to have conversations of our home life and our hopes for staying in England. So far, it has been such a good experience, I am learning about the history of the town, getting to know more about England, and starting to plan trips for the weekends! My hopes is that I can plan each weekend and now that I can budget all the trips I want to take. Wish me luck! Tomorrow I go see Brighton campus and find my placement for student teaching and this weekend we are going to London and maybe even Hever Castle, which was owned by King Henry XIII and has beautiful gardens!! 

These are my roommates that I am staying with and have ventured from America with to study abroad!! 

The Eastbourne pier! So beautiful and magnificent, and all along the coast there are some great looking hotels and really nice restaurants!

Our group that is in England studying abroad! Really great people to travel with and excited to start this awesome experience!!

I will keep you updated on my trip plans and will keep posting pictures! Enjoy! 

Cheers! :)

Student Teaching- Prep for Kindergarten

I am excited to say that my first eight weeks, for student teaching, I will be in a Kindergarten class! I am very excited to teach in this grade because I have not had the chance to work in this setting before. I have been doing a little research on how to prep students for kindergarten and what school will be like for them. I have been looking at some of the things that I would need to prepare in the classroom, and I found a great tool that can be used at Parent Night or Welcome Week, or be sent for parents and kids to watch at home before the first day of school. The link below, to Brain Pop Jr., includes a video on introducing and showing students how to prepare for kindergarten.


Link-Kindergarten Prep


Scholastic also provides parents and teachers with tips and strategies to helping children get ready for Kindergarten, and where children should be in development for their age. The link below gives a great article on the seven important parts of a child's development that they should be at when entering Kindergarten. This article helped me to see how I might assess my students at the beginning of the year and what I need to be looking for in their strengths and abilities in the classroom. This will help me to find a starting point and see what kind of support or accommodations I must make to help guide these students in developing Kindergarten-level skills and abilities. The link below provides the full article.

Link- Ready for Kindergarten?


I also started following another teacher's blog that focuses a lot of her information on Kindergarten and primary grades. I found her article, "How to Survive Kindergarten" heartwarming and encouraging. She gave many helpful pointers on how to "survive" Kindergarten and how to teach without losing all management in the classroom. She also provides other teachers with materials she has used and gives support to other teachers who have helped her along the way. I really encourage any teacher to read her article on Kindergarten, it is helpful and supportive for first year and seasoned teachers.

Link- "How to Survive Kindergarten"


I hope some of these tools you find creative and helpful for starting Kindergarten! Keep following all summer long and I will continue to dig deeper into learning more about Kindergarten level and what to include in my plans for teaching and classroom management.

Swtiching Over-Student Teaching/England

As some of you may know, this blog has been used in my last semester to blog on my experiences during my clinical setting. I will be shifting my blog to talk about my student teaching experience which starts after this summer. I will not be blogging much until that starts in August, but I will be using the blog to talk about my student teaching experiences, and to blog about my trip to England in the fall. I will not be doing much blogging until student teaching starts, but please feel free and I encourage you to continue to follow my blog to read and connect with me about my students teaching experiences and keep in touch with me while I am in England. There will be a lot of good pictures and reflection on my trip and the work I am doing, so don't miss out! Stay connected and have a great summer!

Chantal

Saying Goodbye...

After this semester, I had grown so close to my students, working with them and teaching multiple lessons in the classroom helped me to see ho much effect I have on my students. Saying goodbye is never easy, but this year my students gave me so many great gifts in return and I wanted to share them with everyone. Here are some of the things they gave me: 

 I will definitely miss this great group of students I worked with and have learned so much from! Have a great summer everyone!

Looking Back...

From reviewing my goals at the beginning of this semester, I feel that I made a lot of progress in teaching in my clinical placement. I feel that throughout my time during my placement, I was able to use the knowledge and experiences from my past clinicals and what we were learning in classes to use in my clinicals. I felt I got to practice some of the things that I will be doing in student teaching, like assessments, planning a curriculum, and working with parents and staff. I felt that this semester I kept looking back on what I did in past clinicals, past lesson implementations, and working with children before and how I could incorporate what I knew to establish new knowledge and ideas. I think that throughout this clinical placement, I really got to learn more about what I already knew, like Guided Reading, Close Reading, and Math Workshops, but I felt that I also got to learn about new ideas and strategies like teaching Mind Missions for Social Studies, teaching science in different ways, and using what I learned in my classes for my clinical placement lessons. I really enjoyed being able to teach a Science lesson and a Social Studies lesson in this placement, and I felt that it prepared me to see how I would collect materials, organize my lesson, and teach vocabulary and content. Also, I felt that doing these lessons led to discussion and support for improvement from my CT, which I felt was so beneficial for my future teaching. Having science and social studies classes this semester helped me learn how to incorporate the subjects into classes and I am glad I got to use information that I was learning in my classes in my placement this semester. My CT was very helpful and supportive when I taught lessons, asked her questions about teaching and planning, and classroom management. Being with a seasoned teacher for this semester was a lot of fun because I got to talk with her about what I was learning, what I knew and what I was confused about, she gave me a lot of good information and tools that I can use for the future.

My second goal was to organize and prepare myself for the future and for student teaching. I felt that this semester was very beneficial for my preparation for student teaching. I am working in the district I will be at for student teaching, I got to practice a lot of things I didn’t do in past semesters, and I have made a lot of progress in teaching and learning content. I think that I really prepared myself by always looking for more resources, always trying new things and becoming more familiar with new ideas. One thing I felt was beneficial was being able to tutor kids after school with my CT. She let me tutor third graders in math and reading. I got practice in focusing on student’s needs to benefit what they are learning in class and knowing how to challenge students but allowing them to have fun in the process. I really think that in my first or second year I will try to set up tutoring for kids like my CT has.

I also felt that I made a lot of progress in showing my professionalism through my work and my abilities and strengths in my teaching and clinicals. I made it a goal all semester to work hard within my clinicals and exceed in my work through my lessons and my motivation as a teacher in clinicals. I felt that staying after to help tutor, meeting with the literacy coach and going to professional development meetings each month allowed me to show my professionalism, build professional relationships and become more connected within the school. I really enjoyed going to the professional development meetings, talking with staff and working with my CT before and after school, and meeting the literacy coach for the district. Doing these activities for me taught me a lot about the district I will be in for students teaching, gave me the opportunity to work with other teachers and staff, and learn about job opportunities that I could have a future in, like being a literacy coach. I was so excited the first day of clinicals when I met the literacy coach and she suggested to me that anytime I could meet with her because I am getting a reading endorsement so I can possibly work in a position like that. My CT and I have talked with the literacy coach many times and I enjoy and find it very interesting to listen and have a discussion with her because I realize that I understand the work and the teaching techniques she is suggesting using in the classroom. I enjoy having an educated conversation with her because it helps me learn what I could be doing in this position in the future. I also learned this semester that being able to know more people throughout the school and know more about the district helped me feel more comfortable throughout my clinical placement and I felt that it helped me practice building professional relationships.

In moving forward this semester, I feel I will continue to try to incorporate what I have learned in the past to try and help me for student teaching, because I feel I learned a lot of new and helpful knowledge that will benefit me in student teaching. Also, I want to try to continue studying science and social studies content and how I can teach it in my classroom, because this information was so new to us this semester, I felt that I learned a lot but still want to practice this knowledge and build on what I learned this semester.

Overall, I really loved this clinical placement. I loved the grade level and would now love to teach second or third grade, but still love kindergarten and first grade too! I felt that working with these students challenged me to know my content and helped me to see how I could challenge myself as a teacher and support these students at this level. I really liked that I got the chance to do tutoring and that I got to go to the professional development meetings every month. I also felt that each lesson I did I became stronger in my teaching skills, in using classroom management tools, and in knowing how to assess children throughout and after my lesson. Lastly, I felt that this semester’s classes incorporated what I was learning and doing in my clinicals very well and I felt that I got to use a lot of what I was learning in classes and that it made me more confident and prepared for the future.

For the end of the year, I decided to write cards for each student in my clinical class. I found a couple ideas on Pinterest for gift ideas for students and for my CT to show appreciation:

 Card to students: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/217932069438649312/ 

Gift for students:  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/449585975271476285/

Appreciation gift for CT:  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/410038741045852352/