Little-Known Facts about British Schools

Here are a few things that I have learned about British schools in my time here that make them different from Canadian schools.

1) Peanut butter is A-OK in Britain. No one's life is about to be jeopardized if anyone brings anything with nuts to school--there are no nut allergies here.

2) The schools I've been in typically have an assembly for fifteen minutes every morning. This assembly is intended to pump school spirit by regularly honouring students or classes who have achieved commendable things (e.g. best attendance, best effort at keeping math notebooks neat, this morning it was the Year 6--who are the oldest group in the school--Prefects who had been chosen to take on a responsible role on the playground being given badges and notebooks, and whatever other criterion the head teachers--e.g. principals--decide upon). Sometimes classes will be responsible to present something they've been learning to the rest of the school, and sometimes head teachers will expound upon some character development theme, such as how to be a good friend.

3) In several schools, these assemblies opened and closed with classical music to bring everyone in and send them out. I heard Schubert's string quartet, The Trout one morning, and a Haydn symphony another morning.

4) Children as old as eight and nine years old (I'm not sure about the 11-year olds since I haven't taught the oldest two years yet) change in the classroom en mass for P.E. Boys and girls change beside each other without thinking about it.

5) Teachers are not responsible to supervise children who are eating their lunch. The "lunch ladies" who serve a hot meal to those who wish for it supervise the children inside the lunch hall.

6) The Brits prefer the "horseshoe" model for classroom layout. The teacher's desk is in the front corner (left or right) and the children's desks (or rather, tables) are set up in a semi-circle facing the front. Each classroom is equipped with a computer, data projector and visualizer. For the uninitiated, a visualizer is like a digital version of an overhead projector that can be easily zoomed in and out without getting blurry, and you can do other things like use the "mirrror" function to flip and image. This also allows teachers to easily show video clips off the internet in a way that would be the envy of most Canadian teachers at this point. Smartboards (or interactive white boards) have been rejected by the education system here because the visualizer is easier for the teacher to use and still be looking at the children.

Electrical Plugs

Just thought I should let you see what a British plug looks like. Notice the switches for each one. the orange showing on the left means power is flowing to this outlet, while the white (pointing down) on the right means the power supply is cut off. So whereas North Americans just have current flowing through the wires all the time, the Brits can turn it on and off at will. If we're not using an appliance/laptop/the TV/whatever, we try to keep our outlets all turned off.

Two Churches in One Day

Greetings:

I have had a good weekend here. On Friday night, I, together with two housemates walked to The County Pub in Newbury Park (about a 75-min. walk from Barking) for a social with other TimePlan teachers. I got to meet some more people, in particular Funmi (pronounced FOO-mee), a young woman from Oyo State in Nigeria. She was delighted to learn that I had spent three years of my childhood in Plateau State. She will be moving into Barking soon with her husband and two young children, and we are hoping to get together for walks sometimes.

Saturday was a quiet day around home, doing a few errands like grocery shopping and going to the library to take out a few books on behaviour management (written by British authors) as that is something that I have found to be a major challenge in coming to Britain. I'm currently reading "Getting the Buggers to Behave," and it is full of practical tips and suggestions for teachers.

Sunday I went to Barking Baptist in the morning, where there was a real harvest/Thanksgiving theme. I was challenged to be a more consciously grateful person all the time, a struggle at times when one is busy or stressed out, but particularly important then. I have found the times in my life when I remembered to be grateful to be the most joy-filled and purposeful times in my life. I want to reclaim the wonder and joy of a thankful heart.

In the afternoon, I headed into central London to the Woodgreen Mennonite Church. This church is connected with the London Mennonite Centre and is a congregation of about 25 or 30 members who meet in a local Baptist church at 3 pm on Sunday afternoons. Unlike the morning service with the Baptists, which is highly interactive ( "Amen!" and "Oh, yes..." and "Hallelujah, brother!") from the people in the pews during prayers, this service was quieter and more like services I am used to. I was glad to see the blue hymnal the moment I walked in the door, and found out they use the Sing the Journey book as well as two other supplemental books I wasn't familiar with. Vic Thiessen (the current director of the London Mennonite Centre) gave a very stirring sermon questioning how we can follow in the way of Jesus today with integrity, pointing to the young people who are turned off Christianity by the appalling atrocities that Christians have committed in Christ's name in the past and continuing today. He challenged us to be willing to apologize for the wrongs past Christians have committed, and being willing to repent of current injustices in which we are complicit. His most radical point was that we need to be willing to re-examine our own esteemed traditions and the Bible, not counting either one as infallible. Nelson Kraybill (until very recently the president of AMBS) and his wife (Ellen?) were visiting, who had been the directors of the London Mennonite Centre back in the early-mid 1990's, so there was a warm welcome of them--Ellen jumped in and played piano since they were down a few musicians that day--and they gave an update to the congregation at the end of the service. There was also time for other introductions, so I introduced myself, and a few CPTers were introduced as well. Then they ended with tea for everyone. It is a church that truly is family to each other, and I will definitely be back, though when it takes almost 90 minutes and three trains to get there, it likely won't be next week.

I currently have 1-1/2 days of work lined up for this week so far. I'm going back to the same school I spent a week at before for this afternoon and all day tomorrow. It's good to be going back to a school I know.

Have a good week, everyone.

Julie

Errands week...

Hello again:

It's been a few days since I posted because there hasn't been much of interest to report. On Monday, I got called into a school to cover a teacher who usually takes kids out of the class on an individual basis to do enrichment work or for remedial help. I ended up sitting in on four different classes for the day, in one case doing some reading with individual children and the rest of the time just being another adult in the room to monitor kids doing their math/computers/whatever. That was a very easy day, and it was nice to see some other teachers doing their thing. I feel like I'm getting some sense for what routines are fairly standard across schools in the borough of Barking and Dagenham anyway.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week I have had no work. This has been good in the sense that I have been needing to get some financial work done. I needed to bring my passport and proof of address to Lloyd's for instance, in order to set up phone banking on my international account so I can transfer student loan money back to Canada, and I also needed to give my employer and my landlord my newly acquired bank account info so that I can get paid (by direct deposit), and pay my rent (a preauthorized debit off my account). As well, I now have a membership at the local library.

Yesterday I got a call for work today, but then it was cancelled later last evening. Then I got a second call about the same school this morning, but it was again cancelled about half-an-hour later. I ended up using my free time today to clean the kitchen from top to bottom. It was due for a good housecleaning to get rid of all the greasy deposits on all the shelves.

I've been thinking lately about where I'd like to go once I have some time off and money in my pocket, and I think--apart from short jaunts within the UK itself--I'd really like to visit Austria. Salzburg, Vienna, Linz, and Innsbruck--all of these appeal to me for their historical, cultural (particularly musical) and aesthetic appeal. I took out a book from the library and am copying down notes about what to see and how to get around. I'm hoping to find someone who would be willing to go with me...my housemates a) have already visited Austria and have other destinations they'd like to see; b) aren't classical music fans and probably wouldn't care to visit the Musikverein with me and c) already have plans made with boyfriends or established friends and I'd be a tag-along/third wheel--the last thing I ever want to be! I'm hoping I will find someone as I get to know more people here...otherwise, if any of you reading this blog are interested, do let me know!

Ciao. JKN

Kensington Palace and Gardens

This is me standing just inside the kitchen modelling my new trenchcoat purchased at H & M's for 35 pounds on Friday night while shopping with my housemates.

So on Saturday, I decided to take advantage of the Open House that was happening all over London, from downtown out to the boroughs like Barking. This was an event in which all kinds of architecturally significant buildings were opened to the public for free for the weekend. I got on the c2c train since the tube doesn't run here on the weekends. Transportation for London has taken on a massive project of updating the entire tube system--trains, tracks, signals, everything--over the next ten years, and the project is in high gear now in preparation for the 2012 Olympics. This means that every weekend 4-5 subway lines within the system are partially shut down for two days during which time there is a replacement bus service which lengthens the journey to about double tube time. Luckily I live in Barking which also has good train service via the c2c into London, so I opt to pay a bit extra and take that rather than spend upwards of two hours on a bus each way.

Staying on the theme of infrastructure maintenance, I have been impressed by the efficiency of the Brits in repairing roads. Because they do not have the luxury of four-lane roads and/or relatively little traffic as many Canadian communities do, they complete all of their roadwork at night. You'll see 5 or 6 machines working together at 11 pm (as my housemates and I did on our way home from our night out on Friday) to complete a stretch of road 100-200 metres in length. The next night they move down the street and do the next 200 metres.

OK, back to my story. So I took the c2c to Fenchurch station where I transferred without difficulty this time (see last weekend's post for my previous confusion) to the tube at Tower Hill. From there I took the Central line to High Street Kensington. I found the most wonderful

foodie's paradise when I got above ground again, called the Whole Foods Market. It had the most tantalizing smells emanating of freshly baked bread, roasted vegetables and herbs and many other nice things. I got inside and found the highest quality fruits and vegetables, many lovely baked goods, a good variety of exotic chocolates, an impressive cheese display and a gigantic wine selection from all over the world. There was a restaurant on-site and many take-out type options, prepared foods (by which I do not mean fast food, but nutritious, scrumptious- looking entrees and salads) that you could scoop into a box to eat immediately or to take home to the fridge. Much emphasis on organic and local as well as vegetarian. I didn't have money to spend there yesterday, but I have made a mental note to return in the future.

I got to Kensington and wandered around the gardens before getting to the palace. There were gorgeously manicured gardens bordered by short shrubs. Upon entering, I was told that in fact it was only free if you were there with the tour group which left a

t 2 and 4 (I had arrived at 2:40). I decided I didn't want to stay until 4, nor was I interested in paying 12.50 when I had not intended to stay longer than an hour. I continued my walk through the gardens which turned into Hyde Park. There were lawn chairs available for the public to use so I saw many people there with books and magazines, camped out for the afternoon there. I've included some pictures here.

One of several carefully tended gardens around Kensington Palace.

a statue of Queen Victoria

A statue of William of Orange on the east side of Kensington Palace.

These are some of the buildings on High Street just outside of Kensington Gardens. This Pizza Hut has a bit fancier building than usual...

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...