Teaching

Since I just posted about Bognor Regis, when is where I spent most of my time, I figured I would focus next on the reason I was over there, which was to teach. I spent my time teaching in a small village school in a town called West Dean. It was a beautiful little down about half an hour from Bognor, and on the way there we went through field after field of sheep, and beautiful rolling hills. There is a college in the area as well. The school I taught at is called West Dean Church of England Primary. The whole school consisted of 72 students and three classrooms. I taught years 2, 3, and 4, and I had 31 students in my class. It was much different from teaching over in the US. I had three lesson plans every day for every subject. They are very big on independent learning over there, as well as having a differentiated teaching style. The kids LOVED to hear me do "read alouds" because they thought that my accent was funny, and also because they thought it was funny to hear me ask what certain words meant as I read.

There were so many things that surprised me while I was over there. Things are much more laid back over there. One of the first things I had to help teach was woodworking class. Oh yes, my 6, 7, and 8 year old were using hand saws, power drills, screw drivers, and hammers, BY THEMSELVES! There were 2 teachers in the room during this time, me included while 31 students used these tools. I was terrified the first few days of my teaching that one od my kids was going to cut their fingers off, or drill right through their hands! The worst part was that there were probably 15 or so students drilling and sawing at once, I I cant be 15 places at once, so I had to learn that it was not America and it was ok to let these kids do this!

Another thing they thought was funny was when I would write on the smart board and spell words "wrong." For example I was there for Mother's day, and so I wrote different things on the board that they could write on a card such as "Happy Mothers Day Mom!" Well, they say Mum, so they all laughed because "Miss Becker couldn't even spell mum!" This was about the time I bought a pocket dictionary to carry with me. There were many words that were different, and a few are programme (program), neighbour, and colour.

It was a wonderful semester and I would go back and do it again in a heartbeat of I could!