Work...work...work...USA-the whole world...Brilliant...Easter nests...Big Bad Breakfast...Zoo!

This week the work load really went up a gear and so we spent most afternoons and evenings either in school, Willie Price, class, or in our dorm room working on assignments and projects. On Monday we were given our assignments for Willie Price which include a cookery project, making and reading our own big book, a science project and a reflective paper. These projects have to be completed within the next three weeks and so I began to put together the resources I need for getting these done and presented on time.

Our Special Education Class this week focused on strategies for working with pupils who have learning difficulties, these include the Content Enhancement Routine, LINCS, TOWER, The FRAME and the Multipass Strategy. Our professor continues to teach using practical examples and interacting with the class. I am learning a lot about how to specifically work with LD students within an inclusive environment and so this is a useful experience.

We had this week during our Effective Teaching Strategies class to pull together our lesson plans that we will teach within the next week. I was able to get my 3 day lesson plan completed around the topic of the lifecycle of the frog and I plan to teach this next week. Our planning was out of class but on Friday we came back together as Dr Chessin was in Greece for Spring Break with a group of students and then visiting Belfast to spend time at Stran with Dr Siberry. Ruth and I enjoyed her enthusiastic return to class, entering the classroom proclaiming her love for Belfast and how much she wants to go back! I've never heard anyone be quite so passionate about Belfast... normally people get excited about the Giant's Causeway or the South but Dr Chessin loved the city...She asked us if you can buy wheaten shortbread on the internet!

Planning for lessons is different over here, they split the lesson planning into three stages, 1. Identify desired results, 2. Planning Assessment, 3. Daily Learning Plans. Having prior knowledge of planning lessons helped me to get through my planning without much difficulty but there were aspects that I struggled with as I hadn't come across before, for example, what informal checks I would use during the lesson.

I spent time in school on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week and enjoyed the consistency of being in the classroom. The class are learning a lot about plants at the minute and so have planted sunflower seeds so they can make observations on these over the next few weeks. I continue to spend time chatting to the children and on Tuesday I had an interesting conversation with a couple of students around a children's encyclopedia, they were looking at a map of the USA and asked me to show them my country. I explained that we had to find a world map for me to be able to do that at which they told me, 'But Miss Lorna there is nothing else!' I still get surprised at how little these 7-8 year olds know of the world around them and how much is yet to discover when you live in the USA which I am finding incredibly insular.

On Wednesday we took a field trip outside to look at various plants surrounding the school, the children were allowed to bring things back to the classroom to share with their friends. I found it pretty amusing when two girls brought handfuls of green onions into the classroom and preceded to stink out the room over the course of the day! We also visited another class where they were studying sea life and something I really liked was the 48 feet whale they had made and was stuck up around their room, an idea I will steal for the future! On Thursday they did some Spring activities, they made flowers by dropping coloured water on kitchen roll and folding into a flower shape. They also made butterflies by crunching crepe paper and using pipe cleaners for the antenna.

I taught my cookery lesson on Wednesday in Willie Price and together we made Easter nests. This lesson went really well and the children were very responsive to my instruction. I still find it funny when the children don't know how to react to some words I use, for example I said 'Brilliant' in praise of how well they were working and one little girl shouts out 'Brilliant- a fancy way of saying great!'

On Friday night we spent time with some friends, eating lots of dessert and watching the movie the 'Princess Bride' which I really enjoyed. It was great to just hang out after such a hectic week.

On Saturday we headed to 'Big Bad Breakfast' but unfornately the whole of Oxford went for breakfast on Saturday morning and so we left and walked around an art exhibit on the square before returning and enjoying an awesome American breakfast...definately my favourite meal in America...belgian waffles and endless supplies of coffee!

After being fuelled up with breakfast we met up with friends to head to Memphis to visit the zoo there. This was a great day out being a lot bigger than our zoo in Belfast and having a lot more interactive areas. My favourite animals were definately the hippos, I had never seen those in real life before and we were really close to them which was exciting. They had a creepy night animal indoor exhibit which freaked me out, especially the huge aardvark which looked like it was right next to you as you rounded the corner in the dark! We got surprised by our friends in Missouri who joined us for the day out, was nice to catch up with them again! On Saturday night we headed to Buffalo wild wings, a sports restaurant which was underappreciated by a nominal sports fan like myself! I thought about how much my brother, Dad and other male friends would love it though!

On Sunday we enjoyed going to College Hill presbyterian and then resting in the afternoon so we could be refuelled for another busy week!

Still enjoying my time in the States but can't believe how much it is just flying by....