Time flies when you're having fun

Every time I've had to write the date recently, I shake my head a little bit. How can April be over? I feel like this month barely got started, and now it's over. I think a lot of that has had to do with the extended Easter Break (2 weeks!) that happens in London schools. Even with that break accounted for though, I don't feel as though it's time for May yet.

This super fast passing of time is different to how I perceived the time to pass in January/February. During those short, grey, wet days and long, dark nights, I felt as though every day lasted about a day and a half. Now that the days are longer and brighter, and the temperature has gone up a bit, I feel like each day lasts about half a day. It's also quite crazy to me that I'm going to be back home in Ontario for a visit in just over 2 months. Even crazier is that I've been here for 8 months now. At times it feels like I just got here and am still figuring things out, and other times living in Toronto feels like an entire lifetime ago.

One thing that has been interesting is experiencing spring in a different climate. Winter weather wasn't that far off the mark, just more rain instead of snow. The warmer winter temperatures were a welcome change. Short days (very short!) and long nights, similar to Ontario. Spring, however, has been a little bit different. In Ontario, I  would spend a good deal of time paying attention to weather reports - being excited as the temperature slowly creeps up, and depressed when surprise spring snow storm hit.  Always watching for the snow banks to melt and disappear, and the trees/grass getting greener as well. Here though, since the temperature is much more moderate, it hasn't been such an extreme change. The trees have been a little bit green with buds for a while, and then about a week and a half ago I was walking down my street when I realized that leaves were out in their entirety. 

I feel like the rest of this school year is going to fly by as well. My sister is coming for a nice long visit from mid May to the beginning of June. We've got another (yes, another!) half term break at the end of May, and I'm going to spend a bit of it in Ibiza.  There is some talk of my parental units coming over in June as well. No slam dunk plans from them yet though.  School life is going to be kicked up a notch as well - Year 6 SATS tests, Sports Day, School BBQ night, Talent Show and a whole school trip to the beach in Joss Bay. Whew!

Decisions, Decisions

After spending a long weekend in Paris at the end of March, I returned to school on Monday expecting a normal, run of the mill day.  I was in the Nursery out on the playground when the head teacher came and found me. I thought there was a schedule change for the day, or something like that. I was a little bit off. Here's how our conversation went:

"How long are you planning on being in the UK, Heather?" she asked. 

"I was planning on coming back for the fall, and then going back to Canada at Christmas, and staying there permanently then" I reply. 

"Hm, not sure if that's going to work for me" she replies.

"Why is that?" I ask. 

"Well, I was thinking about offering you Year 4 for next year. But you'd need to be here for the whole year" she explains.

"Oh wow"

After telling my head teacher that I'd need a few days to think about it, I was in definite shock. I had never expected to be offered the opportunity to have my own class here in London. I had made my previous decision about when to head home, based on staying as the PPA teacher at my school. I carried on as usual, because I had to continue teaching for the rest of the day.

It wasn't until I was at home, that the enormity of the decision that I had to make became real. I was perfectly happy with my plan to come back for the fall, because I know that if I was staying home in July, I wouldn't be 'done' with London and traveling around.  I figured it would be a perfect compromise, since I'd still be able to get a bit more of London life and then head back, to reconnect with friends and family, move back to Toronto and the job I had before moving to London.

However, the offer of having my own class in a school that I'm familiar in, really changed all that. Especially knowing that the opportunity to have my own class in Ontario in September is pretty much not possible at this point, as there are very few jobs.

After considering all of my options, I've decided to take the job, and stay in London for another year. I'm apprehensive, because I know it's going to be a very different year than this year, and I know I'm going to learn loads. I'm also really excited to do the things that I've always wanted to do in my own class, and have some ownership over the class.  Plus, it's going to look great on my resume. 

I'm nervous and excited for next year. I think it's the right decision for me right now. It'll be great to fully take advantage of my visa being valid for 2 years. I can't wait to travel around to the places I won't get to this year. It will be a lot more work than this year, but I think it will be worth it in the end.

Here vs. Home - Educational Edition

I posted a while ago about some of the general differences that I noticed between Canada and the U.K.  This post is the same kind of idea, but with a specific focus on the things I notice are different in schools here vs. home. Not an all encompassing list by any means, but a bit of a heads up to the adjustments I had to make when I arrived. Enjoy!

• Paper sizes have different names. Normal, letter sized paper (8.5 by 11) is called A4. Bigger paper (11 by 14) is called A3. Don't ask me why the bigger paper is 3 and the smaller paper is 4.
• Periods (as a form of punctuation) don't exist in the UK. They're called 'full stops'.
• Erasers do not exist either. They're called 'rubbers'. This also means that the verb 'erase' does not exist. When asking a class of Year 4 students to 'erase your white boards', expect them to look at you like you have 3 heads.
• There are Learning Intentions with every lesson that you teach. This is written right after the date, in their workbooks. e.g. for a literacy lesson a it could be 'L.I. I am learning the features of non-fiction text.' followed by the work for that lesson.
• It's not math. It's mathS.
• In mathS, when multiplying a decimal by 10, 100, 1000 etc. - instead of moving the decimal point to the right, you move the number to the left. When I taught a lesson on this, the teacher had a power point slide that said "THE DECIMAL POINT DOES NOT MOVE!!!" This shook me to the core.
• Don't expect to be the only adult in your class. Each class has a teaching assistant (TA), and depending on the profile of your students, you could have some people in for one on one support.
• The date is written differently (all over the UK, not just schools) - the number of the day comes before the month. eg. April 3, 2009 is 3 April 2009. 
• Teachers get specific time out of class to do planning, assessments and marking. This is called PPA (planning, preparation and assessment). If you are the PPA teacher (like me this year) you are the one that covers the class while the teacher is out. Plans are left for you.
• Smart Boards, or Interactive White Boards (IWB's) are standard in all classrooms.
• You never have more than 7 weeks of school without a break. I've mentioned this before, and I totally love it. Breaks are longer as well - like the Easter one. We break up on Wednesday the 8th (a little odd, something to do with being in a Catholic school) and aren't back until the 23rd. Whoo hoo!