Week 5

Sorry for the delay, I wasn't feeling very well so I slept a lot the last couple of days and I forgot to update the blog. So now without any more delay, week 5:

Monday 

Today was a very hectic start of the week, because we celebrated another birthday. I don't know if it was because of the birthday or because it was a new week, but the children were very loud and did not really listen to us. This resulted in me being very tired and having a headache when I finally got back home. 

Tuesday

The day started with a little scare when I was cycling to the school. When I was almost at my destination a squirrel suddenly jumped out of the bushes and started to run next to me for a minute or so. As you probably can imagine the little fellow scared me at first but it also felt really special. It felt as a gift.

Before school started one of the children came to me with his mother to tell me that I could cycle very fast. Apparently I passed them when I was going up the hill. His mother then proceeded to tell me that her son had told her the other day that I was his favourite teacher. For two reasons, he liked the way I looked and he liked it that I had an Angry Birds app on my IPad. I felt honoured and it really touched me to hear that.

Today was a very special day, since we celebrated Michaelmas. It is a celebration in honour of the archangel Michael. We started the day with an obstacle parcour, that we set up the other day. The children started in the boat (sand pit) and had to climb over a mountain (a bench), crawl through a cave (couple of tables and a bush), jump over the dragons tail that moved (a piece of rope), walk over a narrow path (a couple of wooden planks on top of treestumps), jump to ring the alarm (a bell was hanging in the apple tree) and then walk back to the boat and start all over again. All the teachers, assistants and volunteers where divided over the obstacles to help when necessary. I found it quite interesting to see how the children reacted to the exercise. Some did the parcour as quickly as they could and wanted to do it over and over again, while others wanted to stop after they completed it once or twice. We also made dragons from bread dough and seeds. It was amazing to see what the children were making. Some were pretty scary while others looked very kind. 

After all the children were picked up Beate invited me to come to her place tonight to have some dinner as she had promised. She also invited the two other volunteers (17 and 18 years old). I went to her house by bike since it wasn't that far away and I cycled an amazing route through nature. The road even got blocked by some cows. I hadn't thought that could also happen in Cambridge. Beate her house was amazing, really big and spacious with a beautiful garden. We eat jacked potatoes with hummus, cheese, salad, butter and many more things. Our dessert was a lovely crumble with apple and plum. After dinner we played a game and then we all went home.

Wednesday 

Today was a really beautiful day so we spent most of it outside in the garden. I raked some leaves, picked some apples and did some other garden work. We made paper dragons with the children and that was about it.

Thursday 

Today was a lot like yesterday since it was a beautiful day again. We had Eurythmics again, as every Thursday, and did some painting. We also continued with the paper dragons for those who hadn't finished one and the rest of the day we were outside. During my break I had a lovely conversation with Beate over what kind of teacher I wanted to be and how you always have to evolve and see what the children need.

Friday 

Today I went into class 3/4. It was quite rowdy wich didn't really help with my headache but I managed to stay the entire day. I helped a girl during Literacy and numeracy since she wasn't really good with the timetables and Mark (the teacher) had to stay with the class 4 students who had a different assignment. Halfway through the morning  the receptionist asked me if I could help with the preparations for the open morning, so I did. I helped to make coffee and tea and put cookies on a plate. I also helped to bring it to buttercup where all the parents where gathered. I was then asked to show one couple the kindergarten since they were interested in that as well. So I showed them around Elderflower and explained what we did during the day. I felt very proud that I was able to answer all their questions while I haven't been an employee for that long. The rest of the day went on without any issues or something interesting.

Things I noticed:

- it is getting easier for me to understand both the adults and the children when there is a lot of noise. Even if the sentences are not in correct English.

- the route I take to school everyday is getting easier. I'm not getting out of breath that often anymore.

New words 

Emollient - having the quality of softening or soothing the skin

Pruritic -  itching of the skin without visible eruption