What a Week!

The day after my birthday!! :)

Well let’s just say I will never forget my 24^th birthday.

The first week of school has already been amazing.  The school is so nice and the staff is even better.  I have not felt more welcome since I have arrived since going to school and also moving. Minor detail… For circumstances that I was unhappy with I moved out of the flats and into a home of a grade one teacher who’s classroom is next to the one I am in a guest in. She is wonderful and I have seen more and done more since my move last night on my birthday! She has a daughter my age who is also studying to be a teacher, a husband and three dogs. Her eldest daughter is married and lives in Cape Town.  My cooperating teacher or the teacher’s room who I am a guest in is also great.  I will truly get a great experience out of this.

My new room

I have met a wonderful first-year teacher (Marvine) in the pre-primary grade (kindergarten) and her and her friend Janine who is also completing her studies in education have just shown me a wonderful time here.  After they helped me fetch my luggage from my old host family’s place they took me out to eat to a restaurant basically on the ocean, in front are also public pools. We then went out shopping and I got to see a lot of Port Elizabeth and a better understanding of the area. It was great! I hope to do more with them as my stay continues.

These pictures are from the restaurant the girls took me to for my birthday!

On my birthday I received flowers, balloons, cupcakes and gifts from the staff.  Then all twenty-seven of my students sang me Happy Birthday in two languages, English and Afrikaans. Truly amazingly bright girls.  I also wore a birthday crown in class all day as the girls insisted. Birthday Princess :)

Flowers on my birthday :)

Grade 1 with me and my birthday crown

My girls are so well behaved and polite.  They have what I can best describe to you as British accents and always say, “Good morning, Miss Godmar” or “Afternoon, Miss Godmar”.  On my first day they asked a lot of questions about America and about myself as well.  They think I sound like a movie star and one girl even told me, "your voice is so lovely I could listen to you talk all day"…haha

   I am still getting in to the groove of things and how the schedule works but so far I have been helping wherever I can and doing small reading groups with the girls.  It reminds me of Mrs. Bassett’s class and baggy books or Mrs. Muller’s room with book basket books! 

   Oh, but we still have chalk boards! The girls will even bang the erasers to get the excess chalk off, not as a punishment, voluntarily.  Everyday we draw names for a student to take the class teddy bear home, Wilbur.  He even has a travel bag with accessories.  The girls get to spend a night with him and then can write a short letter about all they did together.  This letter is then placed in a class book.  No student gets to take him home during the weekend, but the girls have offered him to me, perhaps I will be lucky enough to take him home this weekend! 

   Today, we built bird-houses because we just finished learning about birds! They made them with one piece of wood, a ring, four little eyelet screws and two pieces of string. Then they are to put a piece of bread on it with peanut butter and seeds and see which birds come to their home.

Building a Birdhouse!

Finished Bird-homes

    The girls are also practicing for a school talent show and performing a class dance divided in to two groups per class assigned with two different countries; we are France (we are doing the can-can) and Ghana (dancing to waka-waka)! So cute and the costumes are even cuter!

I bought some Collegiate Junior clothes today to wear to school.  On days the girls have “sport” teachers can wear that outfit, not only does it match the girls but it’s comfy to wear.  I got a pair of sweats, a polo and a pullover warm-up, pictures to follow another day!

Tomorrow is Friday.  I am going to do a little lesson on Halloween and talk about trick-or-treating.  No one will dress up or anything but the teachers thought it would be nice for me to show them something we do, haha.  I bought some Kit-Kats and Snickers bars at the grocery today and will hand those out as well as a pumpkin worksheet. We shall see!

Gosh I feel like I am forgetting something, but this is good for now, at least it is an update!

I miss everyone and it is not the easiest thing to be so far away from home but thankful for the love and support! :)

Love,

Miss G.