First day of School!

Today was the first day of school and students were adorable in their uniforms! I'll have to get a picture of my class soon to post on here. At home, we don't wear uniforms with the idea of helping to express ourselves through clothing. Here, one reason they wear uniforms is to express themselves regardless. In other words, "what's behind the badge?" Students were very surprised to have another teacher in the classroom! All but one who I had met two days prior and was holding his head high to be the only one in on the secret. They were all very quiet in the morning...either on their best behavior or a slow start to the first day back! I simply got a lot of stares before being introduced and starting to talk with them about their break and what not. My first impressions about the students were very high! Each one of them come inside (have already hung their coat and backpack up in the hallway), sit in their seat, and begin drawing or reading. Attendance is taken on the computer and Mrs. Shaw says, "Good morning, Emily" while Emily responds either in German or in English, "Good morning, Mrs. Shaw". If there is no response then the student is absent! After attendance, Claire (my classroom teacher) and I had decided that I would put name tags on them for the first day so that I could quickly learn their names. In putting the name tags on them, I asked them a few questions....what is your favorite food, what did you do over break, siblings, pets, favorite subject...etc. When asking about siblings and break I kind of got stared at like I have no idea what you're talking about. They don't know what a sibling is, so I had to say brothers and sisters; and break is simply holiday. But they are smart and polite children who ask, "pardon?" when they don't understand! There were some interesting answers from students! We have identical twins in the classroom and I asked them both if they like being a twin. One said, "yes because I don't have to look in the mirror to see myself". Another girl told me about her baby lamb being born during the night. Another said that she went to Dubai for holiday and she can speak three languages already - peruvian being one because her mom is from dubai. After this, I introduced myself and showed pictures that I brought from home. I told them to raise their hand if something looked or was different than what they were used to (which was helpful for me as well!). Students were most fascinated by the mailboxes and how you put your outgoing mail straight in the mailbox and put a flag up. Also, the crosswalk and how some crosswalks have blinking lights or a flag to use when crossing. And it's not called a crosswalk in Scotland....it's a zebra crossing (black and white lines). After this, it was time for music, which I accompanied them to. At the start of music, the teacher asks four students for a piece of news because it seems as though everyone has something exciting to say when they come into the classroom! But they are NOT allowed to tell about their wobbly teeth...because at that age, all the news would be about wobbly teeth! :) After coming back from music we started doing math (which is actually "maths" not math). Instruction is very fast paced and it is quite a big deal if the schedule for the day is not followed (perhaps because it is a private school?). Warm up for math: write all the number facts that add up to ten (1+9 = 10); Write all the number facts that add up to 20; then do 20 take-away. Claire would then write 3 numbers on the board (say 7, 3, and 10) and students have to write 2 addition equations and 2 take-away equations for the numbers. Then a pair of students stand up and practice counting by 2's up to twenty (alternating), then by 5's to 50, then by 10's to 100....and then backwards. After a bit of reading and writing, the half day was about over. On the way out, the word got out to parents that I was new in the classroom by the twins. The parent came to me and said, "well she just ran to me and said Ms. Beck is the best teacher ever!" That made my day! The past couple of days have been full of meeting. A foreign language to me because of how different the standards and assessment system is! But I've been getting through it and my teacher is very open to me teaching anything on any schedule that I wish. I am going to be doing a unit on America with the kids. We will start with geography and do a wee bit of mapping. Then we'll do important symbols in America where they will then make their own symbols. Then famous/important people. We'll then go briefly into independence day and thanksgiving to finish it off! I'm very excited to get started! It's a full day tomorrow so I'm going to be quite tired! The wee ones wear me out!