My Day at Chaucer Primary School

I was placed in another fifth year classroom today at Chaucer. Mrs. Norman, my host teacher, had the students writing questions down in order to prepare for an upcoming question and answer session with me. The students had great questions prepared for me, and as our conversation went on they thought of even more to spiral off of the previous questions. My favorite question was when I was asked if I had ever been on America's Got Talent. I was also asked about what types of holiday's we celebrate in the U.S. When I got to Thanksgiving none of the students knew what it was. I knew that they wouldn't celebrate the holiday but I was very surprised they were unaware even of its existence. I explained that the holiday has a lot to do with their own hometown of Plymouth, when the pilgrims left on the Mayflower and made their voyage to America, the Native Americans greeted them with a huge feast. I then told them that for our holiday of Thanksgiving in November, we have huge feasts with our families to remember this special time. The students thought it was very neat that our country celebrated a national holiday which had so much to do with Plymouth, England. The students were also interested in the weather in America, what types of animals we have, the school systems, our TV programs, and our food including sweets and chocolate. The students then broke into writing groups to work on writing letters to smokers in an effort to get them to quite smoking. During this time I was able to walk around and take photos of the students and answer some more of their questions.

When we got picked up in the cab, I was given a small gift from Kailey. She had a ruler and a note from Widey Court, the school I had been placed in the last two days. One student, Cody gave me her dolphin ruler because she learned that dolphins were my favorite animal. I also received a letter from my host teacher, Mr. Bower. I was unable to say goodbye to him on my last day because he was out of the room when I had to leave. He thanked me for helping in the classroom and offered to email pictures of his class. He also wished me good luck in my future teaching career. I was really touched by these two gestures, feeling like I had made a difference in this small British school in even just two days... Another reminder why I love children and teaching!