We began our day with the daily prayer and then the students began working in their Mental Maths book. (They put an S on math and spelling here.) One of the questions in the book was, "If the date is 09-10-06, what is the month?" In Ireland, they write the day, the month, and then the year. For example, they would write today's date as, 18-11-15. They write it out with the day first, too (18 November, 2015). They were so confused when I told them that the answer October would be wrong in America, and that the correct answer would be September. I explained to them how Americans write the date; they thought it was so weird.
Next was the Irish lesson. During this lesson, the students did a workbook page that the regular classroom teacher will be grading tomorrow, since I would obviously be no help to the students in this area. After the students completed the workbook page, I had them teach me some Irish words. I learned how to say, "Hello!" (Dia duit), "Bye!" (Slán), and "Can I go to the toilet?" (Is féidir limo dul go dtí an leithreas). They have to ask the teachers if they can go to the bathroom (or toilet, as they call it) using the Irish language. After the third student came up to me speaking in what sounded like gibberish, I finally had to learn in Irish how to ask to go to the bathroom, so I knew what they were asking. It was hard for me to learn, so I just made sure to remember the word "leithreas"(toilet), so that I wouldn't be saying "yes" to them going home or something.
After Irish, it was time for " Busy at Maths". The students were learning fractions (finding equivalent fractions and simplifying fractions). I taught them using strategies that are used in America and strategies that they already use. When a student would have trouble, I would draw pictures to help them understand. I also incorporated American money by explaining that a quarter is worth 25 cents and 4 quarters make a dollar. So 75/100 is equivalent to 3/4 because 3 quarters is $0.75. Many of the students thought this was so cool and used it for the rest of the math lesson. I was also able to show them American money too. I passed around a $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100. They found it fascinating to see the different bills and actually feel them, since they feel different than Euros. I also explained the men on the bills and what they mean to America.
In the afternoon, the class had "Sports" (P.E.), so I went outside to observe. They were playing Gaelic football. It is like soccer, but you can carry the ball with your hands and kick your ball. It was really fun to watch and see the differences between it and soccer. During the game, one of the students was yelling, "Just call me James LeBron!!!" I went up to him and said, "Who?" He replied, "You know... James LeBron!"
"You mean, LeBron James?"
"Yeah, that's what I meant...LeBron James. LEBROOONNN JAMMMMESSS!!" I could not help but laugh!
After Sports, we did SESE, which is Social Environment and Scientific Education. We talked about the chapter, "Games and Pasttimes". After reading and talking about Irish games and pastimes (Irish dancing, Gaelic football, hurling, camogie, soccer, chess...), Chinese games and pastimes (Kung fu), and games and pastimes of Ancient Egypt (ball games, spinning tops, marbles), I taught the students about one of America's favorite games: baseball.
I taught the students the basic rules of baseball, showed them the equipment that is used, and then we sang, " Take Me Out To the Ballgame!" for our class " seventh inning stretch". Surprisingly, a lot of the students knew the song! After singing, I showed them a clip of an actual baseball game, since it was too wet outside to actually go outside and play. Hopefully, I will be able to take the fourth class outside to play baseball on Friday.
It was an awesome day in the classroom. I was excited to be able to show the fourth class how some things are done in America and be able to learn some Irish.