Today marked the second day of teaching in the regular Irish classroom at Sancta Maria College. Today was also the day that I was going to be observed by my advisor during one of the classes to give feedback.
The schedule today involved three classes: the two from yesterday, First Years and Second Years, and also now a Fourth Year class or Transition Year students in Rachael's classroom. I taught Second Year students first at 8.30 in the morning. The class was continuing the study of currency and the exchange rate. Since I did not assign homework the previous day, the students were given example problems to work on during the class. After having volunteers to come up to the board and complete each problem, I then assigned homework problems for the students to complete for the next day.
The next period I taught was at 9.50. Dr. Lehman, our advisor for studying abroad, greeted me in the teacher's room or the staff room. We then started to talk about the classes that I had started the previous day and the upcoming events to occur during this weekend. Before I knew it, 9.50 rolled around I was taking Dr. Lehman to the designated classroom. Jenny's classroom is located outside of the building in its own separate building (this was due to the fact that the school was being renovated and being added onto for the start of next year). As the students came walking in, I was greeted with "Hi Brad" from most of the students. After sitting down and getting ready for the class, I had the students take out their copy book to copy down today's lesson: HCF and LCM. This is one of the differences between the states and Ireland - instead of GCF or greatest, Ireland teachings highest or HCF; instead of LCM as in least, Ireland schools teach lowest. Although the notation or wording is different, the process or meaning is the same.
During this time I had an example for both HCF and LCM while also giving different representations of both processes. Finally before the end of the period, I assigned problems for the students to begin working on. Whatever they had not finished during the class period was part of their homework. I also added two parts to each question to help motivate students for the upcoming lesson. When the period was over, Dr. Lehman gave me his feedback sheet and talked to me for a couple of minutes. He said everything went fairly well and the students seemed engaged with the lesson.
After the period was over, I had a break until right before lunch. The final period started at 12.05. The class involved Fourth Year Students or students who were going through their transition year - fourth year does not really count towards grades or assessment in Irish school, so the class is more of a transition to topics and content they will see in the near future.
I started the class by giving the students note cards to write down their names as well as their questions they had for me to answer. Afterwards, we began the lesson on probability. This involved the Fundamental Principle of Counting as well as the discover of factorials. The students really loved the idea of factorials - the whole new concept of having factorials replacing having to count every example made things a lot easier for the students to get answers and make meaning of the results. Finally, I had the students try a couple examples of each process before letting them go.
At 12.45, I was finished with teaching for the day. During the lunch period, an announcement came over the intercom saying that there was GAA practice down at the pitch (or the football field). I decided to go down there and hopefully work with some students during this time.
I met up with Denise who was teaching the lesson or session. Seven total students showed up which was perfect! We were able to play 3-on-3 hurling while also having one designated goalie for the session. The students were basically playing keep-away while the other team was trying to score on net. After a couple minutes went by, Denis then had the students rotate and change their positioning to have time both on defense and on offense. I was giving a hurling stick and played part of the boundaries - any time a ball came my way I was supposed to use GAA technique to get the ball back into the middle of the pitch. After 45 minutes of playing, the period had come to an end. We collected all the equipment, including helmets, the balls for play, and the hurling stick.
Afterwards I met up with my roommate John and were able to leave early from school. This gave us perfect time to head into Rathmines and see the movie Spectre with one of our friends Sarah.
After meeting up with Sarah in Rathmines, we then ventured to a couple different places - a sports shop that had almost every sport you can think of including an amazing chess set (This one is for my brother - the chess set was a handcrafted set of Lord of the Rings characters from the 1994 (???) animation rendition - I actually think this version is more scary - the only downfall is that they wanted 440 euro for the set). We then went to a local book store that had millions of books! So many good books and games were sold there. The owner also had brought their dog for the day so we were able to meet Molly.
We then continued farther into Rathmines and walked past different restaurants, shops, and even a mall. 17.30 had finally showed up and the start of the movie was about to begin. Before heading into the movie theater, we decided to get drinks and popcorn from the shop. After getting the food, we then took the lift up to the second floor to the movie theaters. We were in movie screen room 2 where there was a few people there. As always, I had reserved the seats directly in the middle of the theater. The seats were hands-down the most comfortable seats to sit in. By the way, the ticket for the movie was only 5 euro for students!!! The movie finally came on and the adventures of James Bond had commenced.
After the movie ended, we then went back out into the streets of Rathmines looking for dinner. Prior to the movies, we came across a place called Portobello. This was a great pub to get food and sit-down dinners while also getting great deals on drinks. I had ordered Mexican beef chili with rice and chips on the side. I also had one of their famous lagers to drink. While sitting down, they also had an HD projector and speakers broadcasting one of the UEFA Championship soccer games in the background (Arsenal was playing). Finally after finishing dinner, we then decided to call it a night and head for home.
After Sarah had caught the 15 Bus, the 15B Bus finally showed and we were on our way home. After entering the house, we were greeted by Ron playing his guitar in front of a "sleepy audience" - both Catherine and Ozzie were asleep while he ways playing! Too cute. Ron asked us about the movie and plot line (I responded that it seemed rushed at times but ended fairly okay) as well as the outlook for this weekend's trip. Tomorrow I have only two classes, both in the morning. Hopefully we will be able to finish the topics and where we had left off. I am getting real excited for the trip to Galway - personally I enjoyed Galway city a lot to the point where I wish we were able to stay longer three years ago. But here's to a great day and a great evening with friends!!!
