Winter in London

Winter in London is proving to be much like Victoria... lots of rain, but no snow to be seen since our freak snow fall just after my arrival. Although it's not cold like other parts of the world, a good winter jacket is a definite must. I bought a nice wool jacket a couple weeks ago and have not regretted it for a moment.

Teaching has fairly steady this week. I had three days of work, but I took Friday off sick as I lost my voice at the end of teaching on Thursday. I had a lovely class of year fives on Wednesday outside of central London. They were really nice and well behaved. I have to say, though, I'm often amazed at some student's lack of knowledge about Canada. Each morning when I introduce myself I say that I'm from Canada and tell them how long it took me to get to London on an airplane and answer any questions they have about me or where I'm from. Well, in this year 5 class (so, 10 year olds), after lunch the kids were working nicely on some writing when suddenly one boy puts up his hand. I figure he has a question about the work so I go over to help him. When I get to his table he puts his hand up to his ear (mimicking a phone) and looks puzzled as he asks, "Miss, so did they call you in Canada this morning and tell you you had to come all the way to London to teach us?" I honestly could not think of anything intelligent to say to that, so I just laughed. The TA started laughing, looked at her watch and said, "Well, you'd better getting going now, Miss, if you want to be home for dinner!" Same kid, about twenty minutes later asks, "Miss, if we're good would you read us a story in 'Canadian'?" After a brief explanation that 'Canadian' is not a language, and that we speak English in Canada just like in England, he then asks, "Well then Miss, could you read us a story with your accent on?" My response: "Sure, I guess I can turn my accent 'on' for you guys... but only if you're really good for the rest of the afternoon." Suffice it to say, we had story time and I read Robert Munsch... with my accent on.

Photo Update

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks. Enjoy!

Gordon Ramsay book signing at Selfridges on Oxford Street:

My long walk around London:

A few weeks ago I went out walking to take some pictures around London. Five hours later I had seen Hyde Park, Wellington Arch, Buckingham Palace, Green Park, Picadilly Circus, and Covent Garden Market. Here are just a few of the pictures:

I just happened across the Royal Salute in Hyde Park for Prince Charles' 60th birthday.

Queen Elizabeth's Gate at Hyde Park

Crazy tame squirrels in Hyde Park eating out of people's hands. They were also climbing up people's pant legs but I didn't get pictures of those ones.

Wellington Arch

Buckingham Palace

Queen Victoria monument at Buckingham Palace

Lamp post in Green Park

A Week of Work is a Wonderful Thing!

For the first time since I’ve been here I had a full week of work this week. Four schools in five days! It sounds daunting when put in those terms, but I actually enjoyed being in a different school just about every day. There is something to be said about consistency and stability, but there is also something to be said about variety and spontaneity. It is really interesting at this point to see the ways that different schools are run, and to get new ideas and strategies for classroom management from watching other teachers and TAs during the week. I can’t say that I feel like I’ve done a whole lot of “teaching” so far though. As a supply teacher, most of my energy goes into class management. Man, if you think kids in Canada take advantage of on-call teachers, you ain’t seen nothing until you’ve been in a London classroom. I haven’t had any horror story days quite yet, but I have definitely had classes take over to varying degrees. Sure, kids are kids no matter where you go, but students here in London, even in Reception (Kindergarten) and Year 1, have an overdeveloped understanding of their rights in the classroom. Teachers do not get any automatic respect as an authority figure, as they often do even in some of the rougher schools in Canada. You have to earn these kids' respect, and that is fairly hard to do when you only are with them for one day.
All that being said, I had a good week and I’m really glad that work is finally picking up and am hoping for another full week coming up.

First Week of Teaching

My first experience of teaching in London went surprisingly well. I was posted to a school in Northern London for three half-days to start off the first week back from the mid-term school break. I was in a Year 2 (Grade 2) class at a Jewish primary school. My first morning there was like something out of a dream or a movie. I was introduced to the class by the Head Teacher (Principal) and the whole class (all 13 of them!) replied in unison, “Good morning, Miss Stock”. There was an assembly for the first hour on Monday morning, which I didn’t have to attend, so I didn’t actually start teaching until around 10am. The class I had were very well behaved. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, and we did have a few characters who liked to test the boundaries with a supply teacher (Teacher On-call). While I was teaching, I couldn’t get over how cute the kids here are with their British accents. And despite the fact that we were all speaking English, we had a few humorous miscommunications while I was teaching. First off, one of the other Canadian teachers living in Warwickshire House is named Leah and is always complaining that people pronounce her name wrong. On my second day at the Jewish primary school, one of the handwriting words for the day happened to be Leah. While we were going over the handwriting words, I said with my Canadian accent that the final word was Leah (Lee-ah) and suddenly there were little hands flying in the air. One of the children looked at me very puzzled and said, “Miss, don’t you mean Lay-ah?” To this I replied, “In Canada we pronounce this name ‘Lee-ah’”. One of the girls frantically put up her hand and quickly informed me that I was incorrect; “It’s Lay-ah, Miss. That’s my sister’s name, and her name is Lay-ah!” Obviously I couldn’t argue with this evidence, so I conceded that it was indeed Lay-ah. Thinking that the moment had passed, and having gotten most of the students on track with their handwriting practice, I noticed that one of the boys was sitting and staring at me quizzically. I asked him if he needed any help with his work. He replied, “Miss, could you say that again in Canadian?” Needless to say, this is not something I have encountered whilst teaching in Canada.
Another miscommunication I encountered was to do with bathroom breaks. As in every Canadian primary classroom, students will ask frequently to use the washroom. On my first day teaching I had a student ask, “Miss, can I go to the toilet? I’m bursting!” Without thinking, I replied, “Yes, you may go to the bathroom,” to which I got a puzzled look from the student. He then said, “But Miss, I don’t need to have a bath, I just need to use the toilet!” In London, most buildings have separate rooms for each part of the average Canadian bathroom. A bathroom here is a room with a bathtub. A toilet here is a room with toilets and a sink. And a shower is a room with showers.
Overall, my first days of teaching in London went really well. The only downside to this particular school was that I had to travel thirteen stops on the tube (the underground), which took about 45 minutes each way and cost £7 round trip.
As promised, I will share a little about this interesting building that I live in. Technically there are two buildings that makeup the accommodations provided to us here; Bonham Carter House and Warwickshire House. Two of the newly arrived Classroom teachers live in Bonham Carter and the other four of us live in Warwickshire. One of the tricky things is that Warwickshire only connects to Bonham Carter on even numbered floors. So finding making your way from Warwickshire floor one to Bonham Carter floor one is not as simple as you’d think it should be; involving trips upstairs and down and all around. Further, the room numbers are duplicated in each building, so at first it was sometimes difficult to tell if you were looking at Warwickshire Room 218 or Bonham Carter Room 218. Oh, and not all of the staircases go to each of the floors. Leah and I had an adventure a little while ago, taking a new staircase. We got thoroughly lost and ended up coming out onto Gower Street four addresses down from our front door! We live at 52 Gower and we came out the front door of 58 Gower without ever having left the building! Bizarre! I also inadvertently found the laundry room in the dungeons of our building by taking a staircase that I thought would take me to Leah’s room on the first floor of Warwickshire! I think we’re getting more used to the building now, though, I haven’t gotten lost lately!
Here are some pictures of what I’ve seen lately:

Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

Westminster Abbey
For all the Harry Potter fans: Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross rail station

Canadian Girls Rock!

So I know I've spoken briefly about my fellow Canadian teachers here in Bonham Carter House and Warwickshire House, but I would just like to say how thankful I am to have these ladies here with me. Making the transition to a foreign country is a daunting task to say the least, and even when jetlag begins to fade away, there are many moments when my brain asks me "Arlene, what the *bleep* are you doing?" But these wonderful Canadian girls seem to have a way of keeping me sane. I think a huge part of it is just realizing that I'm not alone in every feeling and every struggle of the transition to London life. Even though I've only know some of these ladies for a week now, I feel like I have known them forever. It's great to have other people to go explore the city with, or explore our own building, as the case may be (there will be stories to come about this crazy building that we live in!). Just about every night this week we have cooked our dinners together and watched a movie in someone's room. Tonight four of us were watching a movie and talking and I ended up laughing until I cried and it felt so good. It is so great to have people around who understand how you're feeling when you suddenly have a moment of homesickness.
I am so grateful to have this built-in support system already and I'm excited to get out and start teaching and meet even more great people!