It's Friday!

Last night we had dinner with a gentleman who is a Dean at a school in Iowa. He is interested in setting up student teaching in Dublin and wanted to talk to us about our program. He is good friends with our Dean who set up the meeting. We met for close to three hours and had an excellent dinner and good conversation.

Today we walked to Trinity College again to pick up bus 15B. I wish I would have brought a pedometer because I know I am far exceeding the recommended 10,000 steps a day! We started our visits at Scoil St. Joseph’s National Boys School. I observed one of the student teachers teaching math to junior infants. There were 28 four year olds learning how to write the number 1 and 2 and also connecting pictures of items to the correct number. Their day started with some class warm-ups in Irish, lead by both the class room teacher and a student. It was pretty cool.

We hopped back on bus 15B and went to Scoil St. Pius to visit two more student teachers. We saw a girls PE class playing Camogie and asked if I could take a picture. I definitely would have played camogie! Unfortunately neither of our students were teaching today (testing, specials and parent teacher conferences) so after we connected with them to make sure everything was going well we hiked back to the bus stop to catch one of the four bus options to bring us back to city center. We had a late lunch at the Hairy Lemon and are now back at the flat checking email and being very glad it is Friday! It’s very wearing to be out in the cold so much, hiking to bus stops and schools, and it’s also stressful to find the right bus heading in the right direction. I can’t wait until I have to do this by myself. It will be a challenge.

This weekend is the first since the students arrived in late October that there is no trip planned. Ten of the students are flying to Paris and the rest are staying local. We have a big four day Thanksgiving trip next week and a few students have friends and family coming for the week. We will travel to the other side of Ireland and I am excited to see what is beyond the city of Dublin.

I think I need a nap...