Togas, Hoedown Throwdown, & the World Cup

Wednesday was such an amazing day at Woolton Primary! I had a blast with all of my students! I just love seeing their smiling faces every day, they have definitely been a blessing in many ways and I thank God for putting all of them in my life! Being at Woolton has really made a big impact on me and I know I will not leave there without positive change in my life. Even though I am there to teach the students I feel like I have learned so much more from them. I have learned to embrace life more and to just take life as it comes. Being with my students all day throughout the last couple weeks has been such a great encouragement!

On Wednesday England played against Slovania in the World Cup so the kids where pretty wound up. They were all allowed to wear their England sprit wear for the price of 1 pound. Most of the kids went all out even going as far as wearing England flags as capes and painting their face red and white. The atmosphere was pretty intense in the school all day. Although the kids where really excited about the game it didn't really take away from our lesson, which Andrea and I prepared for them. We taught on American Democracy and for motivation we dressed up in togas to represent the Ancient Greek where democracy started. The kids loved it and we definitely got their attention which was the plan. We then gave a brief explanation of democracy in the United States and how a bill becomes a law by showing a powerpoint and a video clip from good old "Schoolhouse Rock". We then broke the students into groups where they came up with ideas that they thought would be good laws. As a class they all voted on an idea to send to congress. We then broke the class into two new groups, one representing the House of Representatives and the other the Senate. We started the bill at the House where the students debated and then voted on the bill. If the majority voted yes the bill was sent to the Senate and the students did the same thing as before. If the senate also passed the bill then it went to the President, who was their teacher in this case, and she either signed or vetoed it. I was really pleased with how the lesson turned out. All the students where actively engaged in discussion and it was great!

After our lesson they had a short break outside and then came in for assembly which I helped lead with some other of the American teachers. We started out the assembly dancing to the Hoedown Throwdown and then we sang some camp songs with them that they loved! The day after the students where all still singing them and doing the motions. We ended the assembly with the song Wavin' Flag, which is the theme song for the World Cup this year. The kids where all singing and dancing to the song together in the hall and it was great! It was pretty warm on Wednesday so by the time the assembly ended we were all drenched in sweat.

The game started at 3:00 so the last fifteen minutes of the day the students where allowed to watch the game and they where even left out a little early to watch it with their families. The other American students and I hurried out as fast as we could so we could make it to a local pub in time to get some seats and watch it as well. After the game we all walked back to campus together had dinner together and then the rest of the night was spent planning for Thursday lessons.

Today was a pretty chill day at the schools. It started with a lot of laughter too which was a sign of a great day. The first thing in the morning one of our students came up to us and said, "Miss I'm scared." We asked her why she was scared and then she pointed at her legs and hands, they where as orange as they could be! She had used a whole bottle of Jergen's self tanner on herself! They had swimming today and she was scared it was going to streak in the water. She looked hilarious and it was all I could do to keep from laughing! Those kids definitely keep my life interesting for sure, there's never a dull moment!

In the morning the students went on a field trip to the healthy foods bus where they got to try fruit and play some games. In the afternoon they had swimming, a couple lessons, and then were sent home. Today was the last day of teaching this week and sadly we only have one more week with them. I can't believe how fast time has flown! It is going to be so hard to say goodbye to all of them next thursday! Many of them have already asked me if they could be my pen pal which is really sweet but if they all write me it's going to be hard to write 25 letters back. Maybe email might be a better route. I do want to keep in contact with them in some way though.

Well that's all for now. Tomorrow I'm off to Scotland for the day and then I'll be in Liverpool the rest of the weekend. It should be a pretty relaxing weekend and I'm hoping to get caught up on a lot of sleep that i've lost!

Cheerio! :)