New Lexicon

There's lots of new terminology to get used to here in London. The garbage can is the rubbish bin, recess is playtime, lunch is dinner. Baseball is rounders ball, soccer is football. Flashlights are called torches and kleenexes are tissues. The washroom is the toilet. Grade 2 is Year 3. Zucchinis are courgettes. Sweaters are called jumpers. Pants are called trousers and underwear are called pants. Buses are trams and the subway is the tube. Taking the attendance is called taking the register.

It's interesting to compare the sound of Canadian English to British (and New Zealand) English, and to realize that Canadians words are much more clipped than most other English-speaking nations. They elongate their vowels more, sometimes making dipthongs (or even triphthongs) out of words that we could speak as a single vowel, such as "tree," which they say more like "tray-ee." They are very sparing in their use of the a sound as in apple...most a's sound like father. Our long a sound often sounds like "ah-ee." And they drop "r" sounds in words most of the time, only to add random "r's" to the ends of other words, especially if a vowel ends one word and another vowel begins the next word. I've decided Canadian children have a much easier time with spelling, because we say words by and large much more phonetically than the British do.

It's fun to listen...and I find myself often having to change my instructions to the children..."No, I mean put the balls in the bucket, not the bin," when they look at me askance and I realize they think I want them to trash the tennis balls.

Class 3L

I've spent the first three days of this week supplying in a Year 3 classroom. I was working on my laptop on Monday morning, just thinking that I probably wasn't going to get called for the day, when the phone rang at 10 am. Apparently the teacher went home sick mid-way through the morning. I dashed out the door and, following TimePlan's directions, caught my bus and made it to the school for 10:45, just as the kids were coming in from recess. I didn't have more than two seconds to look at the math lesson that he left before they were coming in and needing to be taught...so I taught the lesson on the fly, looking at the plans regularly to see what we were supposed to be doing next. The rest of the day went like that, keeping half a step ahead of the students. Thankfully the TA was pretty available to me for most of that time--she splits her time between the three Year 3 classes--and she was a big help.

The kids in that class were a handful. Few of them are deliberately naughty, but they seem like a classful of ADHD students who can't sit still or be quiet for two seconds. I felt like I spent the entire afternoon yelling at them to shut up. I stayed until 4:45 marking papers Monday, which is expected of all supply teachers here.

Tuesday I got the call at 8 am that this same school/class needed me back again, so I made it for 8:55--just time to glance over the English plans before it was time to bring the kids in. After taking the registration (their word for the attendance), I took them down to the gym for assembly--which they have every morning--and then returned directly to the classroom to spend a few minutes going over the game plan for English with one of the other Year 3 teachers. During English I was just about tearing my hair out with this little freckled, red-headed imp named Lewis, and was very grateful when one of the other Year 3 teachers was willing to keep him in her class for the morning. At lunch Tuesday, I talked to 3L's previous teacher, who said it took her until Christmas last year to get them to listen to her. Tuesday afternoon went mildly better, I was starting to get the hang of this "lessons on the hop" thing, reading through the lesson and finding the necessary resources (or improvising) during recess for the next period.

Today, I got called at 7:45 and was able to make it to school with time to spare. I finally felt like I was starting to get the hang of the routines--how to mark down the dinner registration (these kids all have the option of buying a hot lunch every day), remembering to send the attendance down to the office and all the other little details. I also felt like I was finally remembering most of the kids names today, rather than just pointing: "Yeah, you." Since most of the kids had not returned their spelling lists from home today (or yesterday) despite repeated reminders to do so, I decided to do the spelling interactively today and just get the kids one-at-a-time to come up to the whiteboard and write down one of the spelling words. I had a great moment at that point, where I just felt like, "Yes! I am enjoying myself, the kids are engaged and learning...good times." Just before lunch, we had a really good discussion about respect, and the children were far quieter than I have seen them before, or since. After lunch, I taught R.E.--which stands for Religious Education--and the theme was on sin, and the bad things we do, connected to John the Baptist baptizing Jesus (baptism being a sign of us being made clean). Kind of a heavy--I was glad for my years of Sunday School background, or I think it would have been a rather difficult lesson to teach. It is impossible to imagine such a lesson being taught in a public school in Canada. To end off the day, I was to teach an ICT (Information and Communication Technology, for my friends/family who aren't techies) lesson on the important components of a card, involving using the computer to make a card. Not having had any time at all to get on the school computers and do any exploratory work beforehand, I was very grateful that I have had Microsoft Office on my laptop the last year and have done enough work with it to feel relatively comfortable. I took the kids into Publisher and got them started. Not having planned anything, nor having the capability of showing anything on a large screen in the lab, I just walked around and helped pairs of students figure out how to change the font, the picture, the layout and design of their card. We managed to get them all saved in the 3L folder and them organized in time for the 3:05 bell.

It's been a steep learning curve this week, but I have definitely learned some useful things from it. Hopefully for the kids's sake their teacher is back tomorrow. Cheerio...

Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Since my last blog, I have had my first day of actual supply teaching here and attended a comedy show (Friday), explored the south bank of the Thames for the Thames Festival (Saturday), and attended Barking Baptist Church (Sunday).

First, Friday. I got a call on Thursday evening for work Friday in Dagenham in a year 1 class--that's like our kindergarten. Friday morning, I took the tube to Dagenham Heathrow, and made the ten-minute walk to the school without issue. I met the teacher, who was to be in a workshop all day, and she gave me brief instructions what to do with the kids. Allison, the TA there was a good support to have, helping me to find the kids to bring them inside, and just helping me with kids names and classroom routines. In the morning we counted to 100 and played "I'm thinking of a number," and then I got them up and jumping and jiving to a song called "I Can Dance." After recess--"playtime" in the local lingo--we had a read-aloud, and then did some art--painting the letters for a Happy Birthday poster listing the birthdays of each student in the class. For lunch, they all went down to the dining hall, where a full-time staff served a hot lunch to those who either paid for it, or who were being offered a free lunch because of financial disadvantage. The children eating a hot lunch ate together, and the children eating packed lunches from home ate at another table. I was responsible to supervise for the first 15 minutes of lunch to ensure that the children were eating, and then the kitchen staff dismissed them for playtime when lunch was over. After lunch, we went down to an assembly in the dining hall, and following that the children were to be given "golden time" (e.g. free activity time) for their good behaviour earlier this week. After twenty minutes of very hyper children shouting at the top of their voices, in spite of repeated directions from both myself and the TA to tone it down, we chose to take them outside into a courtyard in the middle of the school and let them run off steam. I got through everything the teacher wanted except for a discussion about what they liked about year 1--in their condition, I decided it would be a vain attempt. Overall, I felt quite good about the day, but very concious that I know how an Ontario classroom functions and what the expectations are, but I really have no idea how a British classroom operates, or the implicit understandings there. I hope to get into someone's classroom this week just to observe for a day and see what some of the differences are, in order to make myself feel more confident when I step into a new classroom as the substitute teacher.

Friday evening, I travelled on the c2c and DLR trains from Barking to Greenwich for the Comedy Festival that was happening there. There were three acts, and I liked each one better than the last, particularly the Irishman who came out last. Unfortunately, as Melissa (my housemate) noted, the intervals between acts were almost as long as the acts themselves, an excuse for as much beer-drinking as possible.

Saturday I went into London with two of my housemates for the Thames Festival. Unfortunately, about half of the Tube system--or maybe it just seemed that much--was shut down this weekend, so we took a "rail replacement" bus into the downtown. On the plus side, it gave us a chance to see some of the communities that up until now have just been Tube stop names to us. There was much food there, and a variety of acts, from Korean dancing to a gymnastics event, to people in Swiss costumes performing several acts, and various bands at the Big Swing stage. I had a Ghanaian lunch, spicy rice with a sampling of chicken satay, a black-eyed bean stew, a beef stew, and a lentil dish. I picked up some "caramel clotted cream" fudge at one of the many fudge stalls at the venue, which covered the Thames from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge. On the way home, I parted company from my housemates because I was ready to go home and they wanted to stay a while longer. I got myself quite lost trying to transfer from the tube (a line that was partially in service) to the c2c line out to Barking. I didn't actually know what the c2c station was that I was looking for, and no one seemed able to help me when the initial directions the tube staff gave me failed to help. I finally went back to the tube and found out that while the tube station was called Tower Hill, the c2c station I needed was Fenchurch station. After wandering around for about 40 minutes, I finally found the station and got home about 8 pm.

This morning, I attended Barking Baptist Church, which is about an 8-minute walk from my house. It is about 80% black, and looks to be a congregation of about 100 or so. I was greeted by several people on my way in, including Vicky, who just moved here (with her husband) from Alabama last November. The singing was heart-felt, with a team of about 12 people on-stage (keyboard, guitar, and singers) leading the music, many of which I didn't know except for "Majesty" and "Come, Now is the Time to Worship." They had a greeting time early in the service, but unlike the Mennonites who will politely greet the people in their immediate vicinity, these people were moving out of their seats to greet everyone, 5 pews over or whatever. Then after the service, I met a couple who were pleasantly surprised to find I was a Canadian, and then thoroughly amazed to find that I was a Mennonite who had studied at CMU in Winnipeg. It turned out that they had lived in Steinbach while she was studying sociology at the University of Winnipeg. She gave me their address, and welcomed me--as did a dozen others--to come back next week. I hope you have had a good weekend as I have.

Sweet success...

For all of you who were sitting on the edges of your chairs wondering if I was going to get the baking ingredients I needed, I had a successful venture this afternoon into London. I went to a little place called The Spice Shop in the Portobello Road Market area and found all the flavourings/spices I was looking for. Here is some photgraphic evidence for your edification:

From back left: cinnamon, cloves, pomegranate(!) molasses, vanilla (the little vial in the middle), curry, ginger, and (almost hidden) sesame seeds.

On my way, I was able to enjoy the many shops along Portobello Road--organic and fair trade spots selling tea, coffee, chocolate etc, numerous little cafes and knick knack stores, a bead store, and more. No doubt it would be a whole other experience if I were to come on Saturday for market day. I shall keep it in mind for the future...

Shopping and other quirks of British culture...

Hello again. I have been thinking a lot lately about some of the differences between British and Canadian culture, particularly where it pertains to the things one finds available at one's local supermarket. To begin with, Barking--and insofar as I have travelled around, other places such as Ilford and Newbury Park--are peppered with tiny little ethnic markets selling fresh produce such as yams, plantains, tomatoes, apples, and oranges outside on the street, and lots of dried beans and rice and little cans of chili pastes and halal meats and such inside, and a grocery store such as you'd find in Canada at a No Frills is a rather rare thing. My mother suggested to me before I left home that I might find myself missing certain ingredients when I got here, and she was right. In particular, I find the Brits do not bake--virtually at all, if my survey of one or two dozen grocery-type places is any indication. It took me at least half-a-dozen stores to find baking powder and baking soda, and I still haven't seen brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, or vanilla. The largest quantity of flour I have seen yet was 1.5 kg, and sugar comes in 500 g bags, while the only way to buy chocolate chips is in 100 g bags. On the other hand, I have found ingredients I don't usually find in Canadian stores, such as marzipan and "essence of rose water." While the difference is most profound in baking, my sense is that the Brits don't cook very much, period, based on the quantity of processed foods vs. raw materials available. Nevertheless, their habit of just buying what they need now, and not buying massive bulk quantities ahead seems quite admirable.

I find the Brits a bit backward when it comes to traffic lights. The lights for the cars go red, yellow, green, such that the pedestrian light signal is still green when the car signal has changed from red to yellow. What's the implicit message there? "Proceed slowly forward into the pedestrian crossing in front of you..." Whether I'm jay-walking or crossing legally, I tend to jog across the road in my own self-interest, unless someone has specifically stopped for me, in which case I give a "thank-you" wave...though I have no idea whether they interpret it as a thank you or something else. :)

Adios amigos, J

St. Margaret's Church

This morning I chose to attend St. Margaret's Church, an Anglican church about a fifteen minute walk from my house. The church itself is a beautiful old stone building, situated among the ruins of the Barking Abbey, originally built in 666 AD. It's a lovely treed area with cemetary and a community centre.

Upon walking into the building, I found a good-sized (300-ish?) congregation that is clearly a microcosm of the community in which I'm living. I'd say about half the congregation was black, while another 40% was white, and the remaining 10% was predominantly Indian. They opened with a number of praise songs, most of which I was not familiar with, and then proceeded to follow a liturgy that felt relatively familiar to me. The "talk"--it wasn't called a sermon or a message--was based around the story of David and Goliath. The minister talked about facing our fears knowing God will bring us through them, and about being ourselves, and not trying to be someone we're not--in the context of David just taking his slingshot and stone, and choosing not to wear Saul's armour. They sang some hymns as well, though the music was not provided for the congregation.

I will try to visit a few more churches, but I probably won't find anything closer to home. They have an intergenerational choir, and they operate a fair-trade booth the first Sunday of every month, selling tea and coffee and a few other items. I was also very interested to see in their bulletin they had a notice advising parishioners that in the interests of preventing the spread of H1N1, the use of the chalice at Communion has been temporarily suspended, and strict hygiene methods are being observed by those administering it. They also recommended that everyone find a "flu friend" in case of being diagnosed with Swine flu. I had to hurry home at the end because my household is in a bit of uproar--several people have just moved out in the last 12 hours, and a few more were going to be moving in--so I didn't stop to chat, but I had a good feeling about this church community.

London Eye and St. Paul's Cathedral

Hello again. This morning I made a phone call to set up an international bank account with Lloyds to cut down on the cost of sending money back to Canada. (It's 25 pence per 100 pounds, rather than 30 pounds per transaction.) After arranging that, I set out to explore London again. For today, I thought I would check out the London Eye on the suggestion of my housemates. If you've never been on it, it is a gigantic ferris wheel which gives one a perfect birds-eye view of the landscape on either side of the Thames River. The wheel is continuously moving at a very slow pace, such that people just get on and off while it is moving (though they will occasionally stop it momentarily for the elderly or disabled). The movement is slow enough to allow for very clear pictures taken while in motion. Here are a few shots I took:

Big Ben and the Parliament buildings behind

This art display involved the trees all being festooned with this red-and-white polka dotted material, on which passersby were writing messages.

Then I headed towards St. Paul's Cathedral. When I arrived just after 4, I discovered that sightseeing hours had just ended for the day. I chose not to stay for the 5 pm service, much as that would have been very interesting, and save that for another day.

This actually isn't St Paul's. It's the "Royal Courts of Justice," with an appropriately imposing edifice...

This however, is St. Pauls. I shall have to return another day and see inside.

I then took a bus to London Bridge, where I got some good information for travelling about the southern end of London and environs. This final picture is a of the ubiquitous taxi--they are all this shape and make of car, though some of them are painted in fancier colours.