As with any experience such as this one there are bound to be victorious moments where life is good...
This past week there were several such moments...
Successfully completing a full unit of study on Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, with the first group of Year 11 students to pass through my British classroom, was one of those moments. Albeit a relatively "short" unit of study, when compared to a similar unit I might teach at home on the same novel. My job, in this case, was to guide students to a basic understanding of plot,character, theme, setting, language, style, and historical context. The context study,, providing for some of the most interesting discussions during class time, focused on the Great Depression, the post war era in the United States, migration west to seek jobs...every good English teacher is a great historian also, so lucky for me I was trained in both academic areas. Discussions focused on theme also proved fruitful, as we concentrated on the concept of the American Dream and immigrant workers, as well as migrant workers. These students will return to their study on this novel in the third term, with specific focus on GCSE test preparation, where they will write answers to practice questions and refresh their knowledge on this particular novel, as their focus questions on the exam are about this pieces of literature.
Overall, it was a pleasure to work with these students, and while many of them have remained in my second group of Year 11 students, 11 Esceley, as we progress to the study of poetry by Heaney, Clarke and pre-1914 war poets - just as many have moved on and it saddens me that I have not been able to get to know them better and establish a full year relationship with them, as happens back home, since, in America our students are our students for the full year, there is no switching from teacher to teacher. This rotating only happens in the upper school, not in the lower school, so relationships with the students can be fully developed in those year groups from year to year.
My second successful experience, and in some ways quite refreshing and a reminder of home, was my cover lesson with a group of young men who are in a "functional skills" class. My colleagues at home will recognise this as the equivalent to our PAVE program. During my planning period on Friday, I was assigned to cover for these boys in the absence of their regular teacher. Their lesson was focused on learning about charities, as they are in the process of choosing a charity and planning a fundraiser to benefit this charity during the school's annual charity week. I had been warned that I may find this group of young men a challenge, when actually I found them quite pleasant. As we progressed through the lesson they peppered me with questions and comparisons about charities and the like in the United States. Along the way they managed to ask a few questions about life in Northbridge and other things. I learned a lot from them too - about the numerous charities in the UK, ones that specifically benefit farming families and also about farming and livestock and also about various animals, including cows, sheep and chickens. I learned scads about daily life in the village of Peterchurch. They guffawed occasionally over my funny accent and my colloquialisms. I hope that these boys will run a pancake breakfast for their fundraiser...as I promised to attend/participate in whatever they put together for their charity.
Third successful venture - I made my U14 Girl's football soccer coaching debut and am currently carrying a winning record of 3-1-1! (Not really - since these girls are pretty much self-coached and don't need anyone to "coach" them...but it sounds good!) I got to leave school a bit early yesterday to accompany Ellie Hope to a round-robin tournament for both the U16 and U14 girls football teams at Fairfield. Micaela experienced her first competitive football play in "uniform" on this day also. It was an interesting experience and one which offers a fair amount of commentary on the differences of sport and athletics in the culture of the two schools.
Coming from a high school where students practice their sport daily, sometimes 2-3 hours per day directly after school, even on Saturday's and possibly Sundays, and a culture where it is "illegal" for town sport - or club sport - to take precedence over school sports- the organization of sport here at Fairfield is in stark contrast to that of Northbridge High School.
Fall sport at Fairfield consists of hockey, (aka field hockey), girl's and boy's football (aka soccer), netball, rugby, (I think) and even basketball. Students attend "training" (aka practice) once a week for about 1 1/2 hours per week. If they have other things that are taking precedence on that day, they may not attend. (Micaela actually only attended one training session prior to playing yesterday, due to illness and other things taking place for me where she could not stay after school for training.) As a result, the majority of these girls have never played together in a full practice prior to yesterday's round robin of 15 minute "games." We took both teams, each short one girl, as the U16 play 11 per side, and the U14 girls play 10 per side, into the Hereford Leisure Center; a very impressive athletic complex to be sure. They were scheduled to play these games against a several other area high school teams, some of whom had enough girls to field two teams in each age group. At the last minute some girls from Fairfield, who had originally committed to playing, could not attend for various reasons. The U16 girls did not win any of their "games." The U14 girls won three, tied one, and lost one- not too bad! They were very good players. Since it was my task to "supervise" these girls, I did not see too much of Micaela and the U16 girls, but I saw a few bits of the first and last game.
The style of play is also in contrast to that which happens in Northbridge, as teams play two games per week, in addition to their practice time, and these games generally are full one hour games. Each team in Northbridge has a paid coach, or several, in the case of real "American" football, and these coaches take their competitions extremely seriously, as do the students who take their participation in sport very seriously. Generally the physical education teachers are the "coaches" for just about every organized sport team at Fairfield and they do not receive extra money for supervising these teams and taking them to competitions beyond school time. Fairfield teams would be the equivalent of American intramural sport teams or school club sports; where the level of commitment may not be as high as with varsity or junior varsity sports.
Athletic participation at the club level here in the United Kingdom is where serious levels of competition take place. Most students who play on the school team probably have been involved in premiere club football from the time they were young, and these teams are the teams that take precedence, as it would not be unusual for a child to leave a tournament, such as the one held yesterday, to go to club soccer practice; an action that would have an American student sanctioned from their school team as a punishment.
Opportunities for receiving athletic scholarship money, such as some of the money Zachary receives to attend Assumption College, in exchange for playing football, is not part of the culture of higher learning financial assistance in the United Kingdom. Many students in the U.S. will strive to excel at their high school sports team in an effort to make them more marketable to colleges of their choice. The more talents they can bring to these colleges, over and above their academic achievements, the more chances they have of being accepted. This is true of any extracurricular activity that an American high school student may participate in, including dance, drama, student government and the like.
Just the same, this was my first real opportunity to interact with some of my students outside of the classroom, something I diligently do at home with my students regularly, and also offered me the chance to get to see these girls play a sport, also something I find rather enjoyable. Even though we arrived back in Gilwern rather late, at about 8 p.m., it was worth it. I look forward to attending again next week!
This past week there were several such moments...
Successfully completing a full unit of study on Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, with the first group of Year 11 students to pass through my British classroom, was one of those moments. Albeit a relatively "short" unit of study, when compared to a similar unit I might teach at home on the same novel. My job, in this case, was to guide students to a basic understanding of plot,character, theme, setting, language, style, and historical context. The context study,, providing for some of the most interesting discussions during class time, focused on the Great Depression, the post war era in the United States, migration west to seek jobs...every good English teacher is a great historian also, so lucky for me I was trained in both academic areas. Discussions focused on theme also proved fruitful, as we concentrated on the concept of the American Dream and immigrant workers, as well as migrant workers. These students will return to their study on this novel in the third term, with specific focus on GCSE test preparation, where they will write answers to practice questions and refresh their knowledge on this particular novel, as their focus questions on the exam are about this pieces of literature.
Overall, it was a pleasure to work with these students, and while many of them have remained in my second group of Year 11 students, 11 Esceley, as we progress to the study of poetry by Heaney, Clarke and pre-1914 war poets - just as many have moved on and it saddens me that I have not been able to get to know them better and establish a full year relationship with them, as happens back home, since, in America our students are our students for the full year, there is no switching from teacher to teacher. This rotating only happens in the upper school, not in the lower school, so relationships with the students can be fully developed in those year groups from year to year.
My second successful experience, and in some ways quite refreshing and a reminder of home, was my cover lesson with a group of young men who are in a "functional skills" class. My colleagues at home will recognise this as the equivalent to our PAVE program. During my planning period on Friday, I was assigned to cover for these boys in the absence of their regular teacher. Their lesson was focused on learning about charities, as they are in the process of choosing a charity and planning a fundraiser to benefit this charity during the school's annual charity week. I had been warned that I may find this group of young men a challenge, when actually I found them quite pleasant. As we progressed through the lesson they peppered me with questions and comparisons about charities and the like in the United States. Along the way they managed to ask a few questions about life in Northbridge and other things. I learned a lot from them too - about the numerous charities in the UK, ones that specifically benefit farming families and also about farming and livestock and also about various animals, including cows, sheep and chickens. I learned scads about daily life in the village of Peterchurch. They guffawed occasionally over my funny accent and my colloquialisms. I hope that these boys will run a pancake breakfast for their fundraiser...as I promised to attend/participate in whatever they put together for their charity.
Third successful venture - I made my U14 Girl's football soccer coaching debut and am currently carrying a winning record of 3-1-1! (Not really - since these girls are pretty much self-coached and don't need anyone to "coach" them...but it sounds good!) I got to leave school a bit early yesterday to accompany Ellie Hope to a round-robin tournament for both the U16 and U14 girls football teams at Fairfield. Micaela experienced her first competitive football play in "uniform" on this day also. It was an interesting experience and one which offers a fair amount of commentary on the differences of sport and athletics in the culture of the two schools.
Coming from a high school where students practice their sport daily, sometimes 2-3 hours per day directly after school, even on Saturday's and possibly Sundays, and a culture where it is "illegal" for town sport - or club sport - to take precedence over school sports- the organization of sport here at Fairfield is in stark contrast to that of Northbridge High School.
Fall sport at Fairfield consists of hockey, (aka field hockey), girl's and boy's football (aka soccer), netball, rugby, (I think) and even basketball. Students attend "training" (aka practice) once a week for about 1 1/2 hours per week. If they have other things that are taking precedence on that day, they may not attend. (Micaela actually only attended one training session prior to playing yesterday, due to illness and other things taking place for me where she could not stay after school for training.) As a result, the majority of these girls have never played together in a full practice prior to yesterday's round robin of 15 minute "games." We took both teams, each short one girl, as the U16 play 11 per side, and the U14 girls play 10 per side, into the Hereford Leisure Center; a very impressive athletic complex to be sure. They were scheduled to play these games against a several other area high school teams, some of whom had enough girls to field two teams in each age group. At the last minute some girls from Fairfield, who had originally committed to playing, could not attend for various reasons. The U16 girls did not win any of their "games." The U14 girls won three, tied one, and lost one- not too bad! They were very good players. Since it was my task to "supervise" these girls, I did not see too much of Micaela and the U16 girls, but I saw a few bits of the first and last game.
The style of play is also in contrast to that which happens in Northbridge, as teams play two games per week, in addition to their practice time, and these games generally are full one hour games. Each team in Northbridge has a paid coach, or several, in the case of real "American" football, and these coaches take their competitions extremely seriously, as do the students who take their participation in sport very seriously. Generally the physical education teachers are the "coaches" for just about every organized sport team at Fairfield and they do not receive extra money for supervising these teams and taking them to competitions beyond school time. Fairfield teams would be the equivalent of American intramural sport teams or school club sports; where the level of commitment may not be as high as with varsity or junior varsity sports.
Athletic participation at the club level here in the United Kingdom is where serious levels of competition take place. Most students who play on the school team probably have been involved in premiere club football from the time they were young, and these teams are the teams that take precedence, as it would not be unusual for a child to leave a tournament, such as the one held yesterday, to go to club soccer practice; an action that would have an American student sanctioned from their school team as a punishment.
Opportunities for receiving athletic scholarship money, such as some of the money Zachary receives to attend Assumption College, in exchange for playing football, is not part of the culture of higher learning financial assistance in the United Kingdom. Many students in the U.S. will strive to excel at their high school sports team in an effort to make them more marketable to colleges of their choice. The more talents they can bring to these colleges, over and above their academic achievements, the more chances they have of being accepted. This is true of any extracurricular activity that an American high school student may participate in, including dance, drama, student government and the like.
Just the same, this was my first real opportunity to interact with some of my students outside of the classroom, something I diligently do at home with my students regularly, and also offered me the chance to get to see these girls play a sport, also something I find rather enjoyable. Even though we arrived back in Gilwern rather late, at about 8 p.m., it was worth it. I look forward to attending again next week!
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