Week three has been quite the interesting week! I have had many new experiences through the course of this week…
Monday: I came to school and there were horses out in the field where the students usually play. I overheard some students saying the horses were there to eat the grass, rather than having someone cut it. That was definitely something we would never see in Wisconsin! Then to make the day a little more interesting, when Morgan and I went up for dinner my host sister Charleen told us that we all had to dress up because she was taking us to an event at Bay Gardens. She wouldn’t tell us what it was for, and all we knew was that we had to dress up. We all dressed up and got in her car, and she drove us to the surprise event. However it was all a trick, she ended up taking us to church with her. She said that tricking everyone was the only way we would all go. It was definitely not what we had expected!
Tuesday: The grade six students took an all day field trip to visit secondary schools, because when they take their Common Entrance Exam they also have to rank their choices of schools they would like to attend the teachers wanted them to actually get to see some of the schools. At 9:00 the students were supposed to leave for this trip, but one of the "buses" didn’t show up until 9:30. I say "buses" because these were not buses I am used to in the states. When we go on a field trip at home a big yellow school bus comes to pick us up. Here the students took two, small 15 passenger vans. It was a very different experience. Visiting the schools was very interesting. They basically have what would be the equivalent to our grades 7-11 all in one school. When a student is in secondary school here they are in forms 1-5. The setup of classes is very similar to what we have in the states. There are both core classes as well as technical classes like mechanics and cooking. The three schools we toured are some of the most popular schools students want to be able to attend. This trip, of course, did not end on time. We were supposed to return to school by 1:30, but we did not get back until 2:30! Staying on time here is not as strictly enforced as I am used to.
Wednesday: The day was pretty normal until, at the end of the one of my student’s brothers came into our class with something cupped in his hands. I asked him what is was, so he showed me. He had a little egg. It was very small and I was wondering what kind of bird it could be. He told me that it is a lizard egg! That is one thing we don’t commonly find in Wisconsin. One of his friends gave it to him for his birthday, and now he is going to bring it home to hatch it. We will see how that goes!
Thursday: The lizard stories continued on Thursday too. As I was working on writing lesson plans I looked on the wall and a lizard, about 3-4 inches long, ran across the wall! He went into the curtains and I never saw him again! So right now there may be a lizard living somewhere in our house. I could have a small reptile exhibit with all of the frogs and lizards that have been in our house! I am getting used to all of these animals though. We even have a glass that sits on our counter to trap the frogs and let them outside. Capturing frogs and putting them back outside is becoming a regular routine in my day.
Friday: We took the students to the Bay Walk Mall to visit the St. Lucia/ Taiwan Trade Partnership Exhibition. There were people from Taiwan there with different goods that they were displaying. The students enjoyed learning about some of the new technology! Of course though nothing was on time. We left about thirty minutes after we planned on leaving (because the bus was late again), and when we got to the mall we had to wait for another 30 minutes because the opening presentations was still going on. Once we were able to go inside the students enjoyed looking at all of the new technology and buying some of the little toys they were selling. The students roamed around taking samples of almost everything! We were supposed to return to school by 11:00, but we didn’t get back until just after 12:00. I am still working on adjusting to not sticking to a schedule.
Monday: I came to school and there were horses out in the field where the students usually play. I overheard some students saying the horses were there to eat the grass, rather than having someone cut it. That was definitely something we would never see in Wisconsin! Then to make the day a little more interesting, when Morgan and I went up for dinner my host sister Charleen told us that we all had to dress up because she was taking us to an event at Bay Gardens. She wouldn’t tell us what it was for, and all we knew was that we had to dress up. We all dressed up and got in her car, and she drove us to the surprise event. However it was all a trick, she ended up taking us to church with her. She said that tricking everyone was the only way we would all go. It was definitely not what we had expected!
Tuesday: The grade six students took an all day field trip to visit secondary schools, because when they take their Common Entrance Exam they also have to rank their choices of schools they would like to attend the teachers wanted them to actually get to see some of the schools. At 9:00 the students were supposed to leave for this trip, but one of the "buses" didn’t show up until 9:30. I say "buses" because these were not buses I am used to in the states. When we go on a field trip at home a big yellow school bus comes to pick us up. Here the students took two, small 15 passenger vans. It was a very different experience. Visiting the schools was very interesting. They basically have what would be the equivalent to our grades 7-11 all in one school. When a student is in secondary school here they are in forms 1-5. The setup of classes is very similar to what we have in the states. There are both core classes as well as technical classes like mechanics and cooking. The three schools we toured are some of the most popular schools students want to be able to attend. This trip, of course, did not end on time. We were supposed to return to school by 1:30, but we did not get back until 2:30! Staying on time here is not as strictly enforced as I am used to.
Wednesday: The day was pretty normal until, at the end of the one of my student’s brothers came into our class with something cupped in his hands. I asked him what is was, so he showed me. He had a little egg. It was very small and I was wondering what kind of bird it could be. He told me that it is a lizard egg! That is one thing we don’t commonly find in Wisconsin. One of his friends gave it to him for his birthday, and now he is going to bring it home to hatch it. We will see how that goes!
Thursday: The lizard stories continued on Thursday too. As I was working on writing lesson plans I looked on the wall and a lizard, about 3-4 inches long, ran across the wall! He went into the curtains and I never saw him again! So right now there may be a lizard living somewhere in our house. I could have a small reptile exhibit with all of the frogs and lizards that have been in our house! I am getting used to all of these animals though. We even have a glass that sits on our counter to trap the frogs and let them outside. Capturing frogs and putting them back outside is becoming a regular routine in my day.
Friday: We took the students to the Bay Walk Mall to visit the St. Lucia/ Taiwan Trade Partnership Exhibition. There were people from Taiwan there with different goods that they were displaying. The students enjoyed learning about some of the new technology! Of course though nothing was on time. We left about thirty minutes after we planned on leaving (because the bus was late again), and when we got to the mall we had to wait for another 30 minutes because the opening presentations was still going on. Once we were able to go inside the students enjoyed looking at all of the new technology and buying some of the little toys they were selling. The students roamed around taking samples of almost everything! We were supposed to return to school by 11:00, but we didn’t get back until just after 12:00. I am still working on adjusting to not sticking to a schedule.