Primary School Adventures

Hi there! 

So today I turned in my first real assignment of the semester.  I had been working constantly on the essay for the last few days (hence the lack of posts to this page) and it was such a good feeling to finally turn it in.  The workload here isn't too bad, but there is so much I want to do and see outside of academics that it does feel overwhelming at times.  Thankfully, my next major assignment is not for about two weeks so I have a little bit of time to relax and then plenty of time to study! 

Anyways, I thought I'd write a little bit about my first two experiences at Merrylee Primary School, where I'm doing my student teaching for the semester.  The school is a little bit of hike from where I live in the West End, but is relatively easy to get to.  I have to get up really early and take a bus to Glasgow Central Station in the city center.  From there, I hop on a train, which sort of feels like a cross between taking the subway and the commuter rail, heading south of the city. Once I get off it's only a short walk from the train stop to the school. 

The school itself is absolutely gorgeous!  The building is only a few years old and the football pitch that you can see in the photo above is incredible.  The experience of working in a Scottish school is definitely a learning process, the way the school and classrooms are run is a lot different than what I've seen in the U.S.  So far I've worked in a Primary 1 classroom, this is equivalent to American preschool where the students are 4 and 5 years old.  Seeing students of such a young age in a relatively structured classroom is so interesting.  I really liked working with the P1 class, but it was a long and tiring first day. On my second visit I worked primarily in a Primary 6 and 7 classroom, the students in this class were 9 and 10 years old.  They were a really awesome group of kids and the teacher was very open and receptive to my help.  The classroom felt a lot more like an American elementary school than the other one I worked in.

Overall, I'm really glad I'm getting the opportunity to do some work experience while I'm over here.  The school and teachers are really welcoming, they always offer to make me tea during their mid-morning breaks and everyone is excited to talk to me about my courses and life in Boston.  I'm looking forward to continuing my placement and I'll be sure to post the links on this blog to the series of blogs I'll be writing about my experience for BC.  Thanks for reading!

- Sarah