Week Three: Feb. 27- Mar. 3

Week 3: February 27-March 3, 2017

Fiona Tumulty

Lauren and I had an amazing time in Vienna! Although I lost my jacket at the airport during our layover in Munich so I had to buy a University of Vienna sweatshirt in a souvenir shop (sorry UD, nothing personal). We saw some beautiful palaces, churches, and museums, and I’ve decided that Vienna is like a German-speaking Paris.

Now that we’re back in action at ACS, lots has been going on. Last Friday, the third graders put on a “living wax museum” where they researched and dressed up like a famous person or historical figure, and you could walk around the room and press their button and they would suddenly come to life and tell you all about themselves! It was the cutest thing. Some of my students from the special education program were there and they did a fabulous job!

I’m finally getting the hang of working in the special ed classroom, and learning to kind of just go with the flow when students come in with lessons from other teachers and we just have to figure it out nearly on the spot. The fifth graders use the social studies textbook “Building a Nation,” which I’m pretty sure I used in elementary school. Crazy how that thing can still follow me all the way to Athens so many years later! I’ve also gotten really good at fractions again, which is not something I thought I’d have to do because I wouldn’t normally be working with upper elementary students, yet here we are.

In my JK classroom, things are going well. I’m trying to be as involved as I can given how independent these kids are during free choice time! There’s one student who is only 3 but every day makes these incredible constructions out of magnatiles…I swear he’s going to be an architect one day. They all love to draw as well, and I’m slowly but surely starting my own collection of drawings that the children have given me! So far I have 4 and they are proudly hanging up behind my desk so that everyone can see what great writers and artists my students are.

Lauren Montagna

Is it just me or are these days flying by??  It really makes me scratch my head on how we are in week three.  Anyway, this past week has been amazing!  We absolutely loved Vienna and its old charm, but were excited to get back to school.  We had the day off on Monday for Clean Monday (the official start of Lent).  That Monday was a day to fly kites in Greece, as it is the unofficial start to spring.  In the classroom, we had a few activities relating to the kite flying activity.  One of them was constructing a poem using prepositions to describe where the students flew their kites.  We got very creative with our prepositions (I’ll include a few pictures of the finished product!).

This week we also got into doubles for our math lessons.  It is an interesting dynamic in math class because the students are so diverse.  We have a few students that are ESL and can only communicate in their native language or very limited English.  On the other hand, when discussing doubles, one student pointed out that we were multiplying single digit numbers by two.  This dynamic certainly makes for an unique classroom experience and one that is rewarding to be a part of.  I am glad I have my co-teacher to not only help instruct in Greek if needed, but to also arrange small groups.

Fiona and I did some traveling around on Thursday evening!  Some of the other first grade teachers suggested a good place for dinner around the metro stop.  It was a mission with a goal in mind: getting our student monthly passes for the metro.  Long story and one angry Greek woman later, Fiona got her full-price metro ticket and I got to stand in line and take in the scenery for an hour! Good news though, I have found a soulmate and it is the fries at The Stick Bar.  

Friday is Crazy Hair Day, so we shall see how crazy it gets!  I do not know what we are doing this weekend, but an electrician is coming on Saturday to check the place out.  Hopefully this will (finally) solve our wifi issue!!