If Music is the Feast of Love, Play on...

Today is my last day at All-Saints and I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE! My students are so wonderful and it's going to be hard to walk out at the end of the day. I've gotten such awesome teaching opportunities over here: My 8s are reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, which is a coming-of-age novel about a boy struggling with Asperger's. When we first introduced the book, Tom and I had a hard time getting kids to sympathize for the narrator, so I created a presentation on the characteristics of Asperger's and the various attached social implications. My 9Bs are reading Women's Work by Maya Angelou, looking at poetical structure, and writing their own poetry which mimics the style and Angelou. I had some prompting questions and ideas to get them started, but I didn't even have to use them because my kids are so smart! All of the writing is done portfolio-style as outlines by the National curriculum. I love it! My 9As are finishing up their adverts (advertisements, proposals) and Tom and I are grading their presentations today during class. My 13s are reading Othello and my full-class lesson is a sort of gateway activity to the first act where I have created and provided students with postcards from characters in order to bias their reading. In the postcards, the characters bring up issues of race, class, and gender--directly relating to Feminist theory, Marxist theory, and African-American theory. I'm introducing literary theory/criticism to these kids because they're headed off to University next year and they're all bright enough to handle the challenge. Providing students with a specific lens from which to read Shakespeare will hopefully lead fruitful full-class discussion later on today; I'll let you know how it goes :-)

Yesterday and today have been typical days in London: lots of gloom, lots of rain. It's warmed up quite a bit, so the ice/snow aren't affecting our travels. We saw Les Mis on Wednesday night and it was AMAZING! The acting and music were so memorable that our whole group was belting the lyrics the entire walk home. We walk to the theatre because they are all so close to our apartment. I'm becoming a pro at being car-less. 12th Night was a great show, but not as well performed as Chicago Shakespare. Last night we saw Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, which topped (surprisingly) Les Mis! No one wanted to go, so I went with my two professors. We got THIRD ROW TICKETS--which really paid off since James Earl Jones played Big Daddy (yes, the voice of Darth Vader and Lion King's Mufasa) and Phylicia Rashas played Big Mama (Mrs. Cosby from the Cosby show!) Lucky us? You can say that again!

The show went pretty late, so I had a pretty long night of planning. Woke up at 6, walked over to Starbucks, and commuted to school. I have a couple of pseudo-planning periods before I teach again today. I say pseudo because I've realized that there is absolutely no planning done by any of the faculty here. Because of the National curriculum, most teachers don't even think about what they're going to teach until 5-minutes before since they just have to log on to the Internet and download an already-made lesson.

We leave school today at 2:30 and I'm heading straight home to take a nap. We're doing a city pub crawl tonight at 7, so I need to be rested!

Oh, did I tell you about St. Paul's Cathedral and our London tour last Saturday? I can't remember if I've already mentioned it, but I took some illegal pictures of the inside while we were there! So beautiful! Perhaps I'll put all of my pictures up on Shutterfly when I get home so that they're accessible to everyone. We also went to a food market; the freshly made Chai tea was like Christmas in a cup and I had enough samples of cheese to count as a full meal. I also tried rabbit. Yum!

Tomorrow is our very last day in central London, and we're kickstarting the day with a 6AM departure to Kennsington Gardens to watch the sun rise. The Peter Pan statue is in the park as well as the Princess Dianna memorial. After Kennsington Gardens, we're taking a walking tour of Wimbledon and then going to another market. I'm not sure what the plans for the evening will be. Kiera Knightley is starring in Misanthrope, so maybe I'll be able to get some 1/2 price tickets that morning to see the production! So much theatre...so much goodness :-)

You're so lucky to get such a long post today! I only have a week left, so get excited to see me back in Chicago shortly! I have some BIG news to share with everyone that I just got today from the Head Master--but I'm going to leave you all hanging until I get back. :-P I know, I'm so cruel.

Let's pray for those in Haiti. And everyone have a wonderful Friday: It's lunchtime for me here, but I'm pretty sure only about 5:15AM back in Chicago.

Cheers,
C

Personal Ad: Woman in Great Need of a Hot Latte

Hello:

Finally at school today and just loving it. I had a long, long night of planning because I get to teach a full class lesson today on the basic principles of rhetoric. Basically, my 10s (which would be freshmen in America) have to act as entrepreneurs, create a product, and sell it to a board (which will be and my HOT cooperating teacher, Tom Barlow!) We're teaching them how to be effectively persuasive by using simple rhetorical appeals: ethos, pathos, logos. Product development is going well. One of my students thought to create toilet paper with crossword puzzles, word game, etc. as you pull so that you are never bored in the bathroom ;-) Too funny! I didn't want to com in unprepared today, so I did all of my planning last night and now I'm sitting here bored and FREEZING during my planning period(s). Yes, the teachers here get TWO full planning period, plus one lunch and one tea break...a literal tea break where we all gather in the lounge and make hot tea. Bet you wish you were a teacher in the UK!

We didn't make it to dinner last night because the seminar lasted so long, but we did make it to the ice bar and it was one chilly experience. We all had to put on these insulated robes before going in and once we were actually inside our whole group broke out into spontaneous dance parties to keep warm. The pictures are hilarious! Plus, if you know Dr. White or Dr. Chambers and can picture them dancing around, that's a laugh in itself ;-)

We're going to the Prime meridian after school, taking tons of pictures, and then heading back to change and get ready to see Twelfth Night (by change I mean that I have to change OUT of my nice teacher clothes and INTO jeans because absolutely no one dresses up for the theatre here).

It's so much easier to update the blog here at work, so I feel like my posts keep getting shorter.

On a fun note, I'm pretty sure my friend Aleks is taking the Oxford/London Express on Saturday to come visit me. She's studying at Oxford the whole semester and I'm stuck here in central London until the 20th--and then I'll join her in Oxford for a ridiculously good time and a visit to Blackwell's, which is quite possible the best book store in the entire world. :-)

Missing you all! (But probably more when I decide to move here since I love it SO much!)

C

Finally...

It's Monday and the weather has "calmed down" enough to let us go back to work. I wake up at 6, get breakfast at 7, leave the apartment by 7:45, and hop on the Tube by 8. I have a 30 min. train ride and then a 30 min. bus ride just to get to my school in Barking--so I'm fairly far away from my "home" in central London.

School starts at 8:45 and I teach until a little before 10. I now have two free periods (from 10-11:30) which probably isn't conveniant for any of you in America since I'm sure you're all sleeping.

We've gotten so much done the past couple of days and we're continuing with a full day immediately after school's out. I have a seminar at 5 (with my commute I probably won't even get back to the apt. by then, so it's a long work day) and we're all grabbing dinner at Maxwell's tonight because they have 1/2 price meals. After dinner we're going to the ice bar (totally cool--you must google this!) where EVERYTHING is made out of ice and we're only able to stay inside for 45 min. because it's so cold. I've seen it on the Food Network, so perhaps you know what I'm talking about.

Small correction to my work e-mail: ccanham@all-saints.bardaglea.org.uk

Cheers!
C

Snow days, snow days, and more snow days

Hello there (in my very best British accent):

Since I'm hardly ever near a computer, there's so much to update! We got here Sunday, had orientation at the schools on Monday, and I haven't been back at school since then due to "severe" weather. We also just found out today that we're not going to be able to get to Paris tomorrow because the Eurostar isn't running (also due to severe weather). It's crazy, really, since I know you've all been hit with a lot more snow than there is here. It's more icy than anything, but the weather isn't terrible at all.

I'd have to run back upstairs to get my journal to tell you everything I've done on each day, so I'll just sum it all up. We went to the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, British Museum, Tower of London, and the National Portrait Gallery. The last was my favorite because they had an awesome Beatles to Bowie exhibit. Everything here is free (museums, exhibits, and most tours). Since we haven't been in school, it's basically been a sightseeing trip--which I'm definitely not complaining about.

We're staying at the Citadines Apartments, but there was a power surge yesterday and we got moved (get ready for this one!) to a FIVE-star hotel in another area of town. Compared to the couch bed I'm sleeping on now, this place was a palace. We had two bedrooms, a kitchen (with a stocked fridge and the nicest knives I've ever seen--which is a serious blessing since we have to use butterknives to cut anything here), a living room, and two bathrooms. We even got robes...so talk about being pampered! We're back at Citadines now, but the temporary upgrade was fabulous and a special little treat.

We go to pubs EVERY night...very English of us ;-) Princess of Wales is still the favorite. We had dinner there the other night and our waiter was comically ridiculous. They ran out of almost everything, so any time one of us ordered he would come back and say (you must read this with a British accent): "It appears that we don't have any chicken, can I interest you in..." He also got yelled at by the manager for drinking the last glass of milk in the kitchen. It's an inside joke so you all probably think it's not funny, but if I tell you the story back at home you'll be laughing to the point of tears. Never gets old.

Today we had our full walking/bus tour of London and I came back and took a 4-hour nap. Who knows how I'm ever going to fall asleep tonight...that was probably a mistake. Tomorrow we're waking up early to see the changing of the guards, and then we're all going to walk through some little markets. I'm spending money like crazy; it's a serious, awful problem ;-) My professor has already offered to store some of my things in her suitcase on the way home since I'm positive I'll be over the weight limit. It's mostly because of books. We found a small cobblestone side street with second-hand bookstores all along it and I found AWESOME copies of Milton's poetical works and Pope's Essay on Criticism. I'm still searching for Shelley's Frankenstein, so cross your fingers and wish me luck.

I've kept another girl on the trip waiting while I blog away, so I GUESS I should let her on the computer now ;-) I figured I owed you all a long post since I've been so terrible at updating.

Keep checking back,

C

P.S. If we DO get a chance to teach next week, you can also send me e-mail at my work account and I'll probably respond quicker: ccanham@all-saints.bardaglea.uk.org

Home is where the Heart is...

Hey everyone!

Well, it's 9:00 here and I'm sitting in the apartment waiting to see if I have to go to school today. Get this: There are FLURRIES outside (no snow is actually sticking) and the whole city is in hysterics and most schools have snow days...including mine, probably. Guess they don't know how to rough it in a blizzard like us Chicago. Oh! I just heard cheering! SCHOOL IS CANCELLED! Crazy!

Found my warm and fuzy space yesterday: The British Library! I spent about 80 pounds just in the gift shop and the lady at the register thought I was so cray that she gave me a catalogue just in case I wanted to purchase more from home ;-)

Ok, enough about the fun sites though. We spent our first day in the school yesterday and I LOVE IT! And well, that's about all I can say for now. Every classroom is FREEZING, but I actually get to teach full class lessons (particularly Beowulf, so I'm ecstatic) and there's hot tea around every corner. I'll check in again later.

C

To be, or Not to be...

Greetings from Trafalgar Square!

Sorry this is my first post, everyone. Looks like I won't be posting as often as I had hoped. I'm here in London (beautiful, amazing, out-of-this world, London) and having a great time.

We had a pretty long flight with a lot of turbulents and I don't think I ever even got any "REM" sleep, so I was running on low fuel for awhile. We got to our apartment and my roommate and I found ourselves in tears because we were laughing so hard; we were the last to get our room and we walked in and there was only a couch. We thought we would be spooning the whole trip, but we figured out that the couch is a pull out bed (with two twin beds). We even rearranged our room today, so it's super cute now.

Yesterday we ate at a pasta cafe, walked around the city with our tour guide Allen, and introduced ourselves as "regulars" at our fav new bars: Sherlock Holmes (right next to our apt.) and The Princess of Wales (my personal fav, re: hot bartender).

Today we woke up early for an orientation at our schools. They even offered us all jobs here in the UK--so maybe I'll never come back ;-) Just kidding. After the school visits we went to THE GLOBE THEATRE (where all of Shakespeare's works were performed) for a group tour. I bought a post for my office--which will later hopefully be displayed in a classroom of my own. After the Globe, we all hopped on the Tube and went to Harrod's (the biggest and supposedly best shopping area in London). It reminded my of Bloomingdale's in NYC. It was okay...not the best.

I'm back at the hotel now with my favorite "groupies" and we're plotting the rest of our week(s) to come. I'd tell you now...but then you'd never come back to check in on me. ;-)

Highlights of the trip: my couch bed, getting the "reject" Tube card (mine doesn't work, so the whole group has to wait for me in the subway until a worker comes to let me through--it's become a running joke) and my many British boyfriends (total joke, but it has also become a running joke with the group).

Cheers!

Carla