Happy Friday!

       Usually on the first day of school I have butterflies in my stomach and thoughts about what the semester might bring, or lately what the placement might be like. For my first day at Kingswood College I was excited, but had no idea what to expect, afterall I am in another country and at a private school. Jean (Prof. Baxen) drove us to school and April and I met with the Headmaster (so offical sounding) to introduce ourselves and get our placements. After discussing what grades we have had experience in, I was assigned Grade 3, which I am very pleased about! We then went up to the staff room where all the teachers congregate in the morning for coffee and tea and met a lot of the staff members. Grades 1-3 have Assembly together every Monday. All the students come into a hall where they sing a few songs, say the Lords Prayer, Happy Birthday's are sung, and announcements are given.

      Right now Grades 1-3 are rehearsing their play titled "Going Green," which is just the cutest little story about the Grey Gang trying to take over the planet, while the Green Gang made up of Re Cycle, Rene Wable, Con Servation and others,educate the audience about saving the planet and overtaking the Grey Gang. The play is in a week and  half and we have been practicing diligently everday. Oh and it's really cool because they sing a Michael Jackson song....and a song they played a lot during the world cup.

     My two teachers (two Grade 3's) are very nice and are great teachers. They are both busy with play preparations and are allowing me to jump right in and teach. One of the most exciting things is that I have a Smartboard in one of the classrooms! It looks pretty funny with a chalkboard behind it, but the students really like using it, and it is great practice for me!

    The school days are very different here compared to the United States. I leave for school at 7am, we have break at 10:30 when all the teachers head up to the staff room and have tea and grilled cheese and tomato sandwhiches. Then the day ends at 13:00, the students all stand next to their desks and after Mrs. Reynolds says "Good afternoon Grade 3's" they say in unison: "Good afternoon, Mrs. Reynolds and Ms. L"-it makes me crack a smile everytime, I sometimes feel like I'm in Dead Poets Society. Everyone heads home for lunch and then comes back for sport practice at 14:00. Today (Friday) I got to coach swim practice for a lot of my third graders. I had to think back to what the coaches did at Michelle's swim meets and tried to act like I have been coaching swimming for years. The pool is outside of course and because of the cold weather lately, the pool temperature was absolutely frigid. The little boys kept telling me that they couldn't even breathe it was so cold. I couldn't bare watching the kids shiver, so we practiced our strokes on some benches and did some dry land exercises instead.

  This weekend I am going to a school fundraiser at the Monument in Grahamstown, which is a piano performance called the Piano Man (I'm hoping he'll play some Billy Joel) and then tomorrow, myself and the other COST girls volunteered to help at a Swimming Gala (swim meet) in Port Elizabeth...we leave at 6am!!

Since pictures are hard to upload here, this is the website for the Monument:
http://www.foundation.org.za/monument/index.php
And this one is for Kingswood College:
http://www.kingswoodcollege.com/

Hope everyone at home is having a great Fall Friday and Halloween Weekend!
Go State!!