Day Off - Sunday (Week III)

It was a cool, but dry day and thankfully, I am feeling much, much better and those budding flu symptoms of Friday have all but disappeared. This herbal elixir I got at the health food shop is great. Yes, it tastes like your drinking sludge tainted with some kind of foul poison, but it works so I must be brave and finish the bottle.

On such a nice Irish morning a leisurely walk to mass is always a good idea. I got to St. Joseph’s church for their 10:30am service and it was packed. There was a choir singing but it was not as inclusive as I prefer. I like to sing when I’m in church but today everyone was pretty silent and they just listened to the choir instead of participating.

After mass I stopped off at the same café I went to yesterday because the food was so good and they had a plug for me to be able to use my computer. My laptop is over six years old and the battery is virtually gone so if it’s not plugged in I can’t work and there is too much to do this week to not work. Also, I had a great scone yesterday at t the café and it just made me crave more. I got about an hour and half of school work done and then I headed over to the Town Hall Theater to see a staged reading of two new plays. It was the end of the 2010 Galway Theater Festival and I was so happy to be able to see something before it ended. The first reading was called Hooked! By Gillian Grattan and the acting was superb and the writing was top notch, very well crafted. It really is totally ready, with this same cast to go right into rehearsal for a full production. It was about three lives intertwined through hardship, lust and vengeance. Now that sounds serious, and it was at times, but it was also funny. The second play was Dev’s Army by Stuart Lee and was equally as enjoyable but the timing was off here and there so the dragged only a little bit. It was a talented group of actors and the play is a lot of fun.

It has been wonderful to do some theater stuff this weekend and although I’m exhausted overall I really needed it. And the best thing about this country and their theater is it’s so incredibly inexpensive. It was only 11 Euros in total for both readings today and well worth it. And, since yesterday’s 4 hours of theater talk and exercises was free, I got a great weekend of theater and it didn’t break-the-bank.

I took another long walk around town on my way to the gym. As you can see I stopped to take more pictures of my surroundings. Sometimes I just walk past a house and have to take a picture it inspires me so much or just catches my fancy. The street St. Joseph’s is on is rather interesting because you walk past a house that could have been build in the Elizabethan period in England and housed a Shakespearian theater and just a few feet away a completely different, almost Victorian style home happily faces the canal.

By the time I got to the gym at 5:00pm I was famished so before going to the pool I sat and had some dinner in the pub up stairs. If I hadn’t, the whole time I would have been thinking about food and been grouchy.

I managed to get two more hours of school work done while I had a leisurely dinner.

Day Off - Saturday (Week III)

Happy again! I woke up to bright sunshine and a mild day. My love for this country is sadly dependent on the weather it shows me. Not really, I do love Ireland regardless, but my mood changes drastically as the weather changes.

I headed off to the public library early this morning hoping to get a good start on my homework. Since I had plenty time before getting into the library, which opened at 10:00am, I took a long refresing, relaxing walk into town.

I found a quiet street next to the canal that reminded me of Bruges in Belgium (charming and peaceful.) I found some ducks frolicking in the water and two swans gracefully making their way along. I fortunately had some crackers in my bag so I was popular with the foul for about 2 minutes until the crackers ran out and I was no longer of any use to them. We all parted ways, me down the street to the Cathedral and them to find another early riser who might have treats for them.

I made my way past the cathedral where Jean Marie got married and then down Nun's Island road past the theater there (more to come on that place in a moment) and found myself a short block from the Bridge Mills and my school. It's always fun when you take a path to who knows where and come out to place you know well.

I headed across the center of town to the library to find it didn't open until 11:00am. What to do, I thought, and you all know me so well so you can guess exactly what I thought to do. Eat, yes, you are correct. I mean what's a Saturday morning in Ireland without a nice fresh scone with butter and jam. I found a wonderful cafe to sit and have my pre-studying, morning snack.

Now the library was not as helpful as I thought because they wouldn't let me use the internet there. I had dragged my own laptop and all my course books but I still needed a code and the women behind the counter refused to give it to me. She said it politely but a refusal is still a refusal. I was able to get other work done but I was sure that had it been a nice older Irish man he would have been kind enough to help me out. Oh well, luck of the draw.

Now the fun part of the day was I got to go to a free lecture on theater and the integration of performance art into mainstream productions. Yes, you may have guessed, this is where the Nun's Island Theater comes in. The theater looks like it is housed in an old church that was repurposed nicely for theatrical use. I walked back across town and enjoyed an incredible discussion between the Dramaturge at the Druid Theater and two lovely performance artists who do a lot of their work in art galleries and random spaces around Ireland and the UK. There were about 20 people present in the audience for the two hour talk but only about 10 of us for the practical use portion where one of the performance artists used us in a demonstration. Lots of fun and I learned a few good exercises to use with my class and when I'm directing. I felt like a theater student all over again which was so nice and a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon in Ireland.

I took another long walk weaving and winding around the town until I made it up the hill to my gym where I rewarded myself for the exercise I'd just done and spend a good bit of time in the Jacuzzi relaxing.

Jean Marie met me at the gym with friends, Noreen and her dad, Pat (Frank's brother-in-law.) We were all heading to Ellen and Frank's restaurant (the Co-Op) for their 30th wedding anniversary costume party. It's amazing that 30 years ago Ellen came to live in Ireland in an apartment with no running water or heat. I mean that's truly being in love since she's stayed here ever since. I suppose when your in your early 20's you'll put up with a lot for love. When you’re in your forties running water and heat are really the bare minimum, rock bottom kind of thing that you require no matter how fabulous he is.

It was a surprise party for Ellen who looked beautiful dressed as a good witch and Frank, who had planned the whole party, came as a hippie something or other. Hard to tell with Frank since he looked pretty much the same as he normally does. Okay the hair was a tiny bit more out of control but not so far off. It was a lot of fun and Jean Marie got some great pictures of Ellen with me and then with Noreen and Pat. I also had such a great time talking with Hannah who works at the Budding Cafe a few days a week and her husband who is a computer programmer here in Ireland. They are both originally from the Czech Republic so we had lots to talk about since I am in love with their home country and have been since my first visit three years ago.

As enjoyable as the evening was by 11:30pm I told Jean Marie I really had to go home. I need to be in bed at a decent time or I'm totally grouchy and difficult the next day. Okay maybe not that extreme but I am certainly not a cheerful bunny if I haven't gotten lots of sleep.

Class - Day 14 (Week III)

Okay, this morning was just ugly here. Just plain ugly. It rained my whole walk to school and fortunately my sister had forced an umbrella on me last weekend and I still had it or else I would have been a sopping mess. The rain didn't clear up until about 5:30pm which was a good thing because it was taking a toll on my usually cheery disposition.

The bright side to the morning was getting to class and hearing lots of laughter coming from the room as I approached. It's so nice to be around genuinely happy people.

This morning was a kind of exciting event, for me anyway, because we had to make presentations on alternative teaching methods. My team and I got the "Total Physical Response Method which basically is teaching the same way a baby would learn to speak its first words. It's all about the teacher repeating language and makes the corresponding movement. So if I said stand up, I the teacher would in fact stand up and then get the students to follow me. The students don't speak until about the 10th hour of classes. The student is instructed to only speak when they feel a natural inclination to do it, just like a baby only starts speaking when it's good and ready to.

So team A included Maura, Eoin and Ben and they did a fabulous lesson that was about creating mood and taking the students into a relaxed state of consciousness by playing Baroque music, lighting candles and suggesting the language to them so they can just absorb it naturally. I could see the merits in it and they never teach grammar so that gave it my 5-star rating right there. And team A really made an effort to create mood and atmosphere in the classroom with candles, colorful cloths and posters.

My team consisting of me, Ruth and Niamh (see picture of Ruth (blonde) and Niamh (brunette)went third and Ruth presented the introduction to the method and I followed with the practice part. We all had to teach our lessons in a foreign language so I looked up what I needed to say on the internet and did my whole lesson in Italian. I'm lucky that all I had to do was say one or two word sentences. I started by standing in front of the class and miming to them not to speak and then I proceeded to say "alzatevi" the Italian word for stand up and at the same time I said the word I stood up and gestured for the students to do the same. Then I said the word "sedetevi" which means sit down and then I sat down. The students dutifully did the same thing. I repeated these words and did my action as the students continued to do the same. I spoke and they did the actions all in total silence, it was kind of fun to be in such control. Now for added challenge I said "mangate" or eat and did a gesture for that. All went well so I added one last thing, "batti le manine" clap your hands. They really had a lot of fun and by the end I had part of the class standing and sitting while another part was eating and the last section was clapping their hands.

Niamh followed right after me with a summarization of what our method was all about. I don't think she every could have guessed the kind of laughter she’d end up soliciting. I was laughing so hard tears were streaming down my face. Niamh is truly one of the sweetest ladies and she is soft spoke and just lovely so when she stood up and said "As you can see from what Debra just did the teacher is a dictator and the students’ mimic what she does." Now it probably doesn't seem so strange to you but when the word dictator came out of her mouth the class just burst into laughter not because they knew it was the wrong word just because it was funny to them that I would have been referred to as a dictator by my own teammate. But I on the other hand was doubled over laughing because I knew the real word was supposed to be director. I take now offense to what her subconscious was thinking and I can see how the role of the teacher in this method could very much be like a dictator.

I was particularly happy after the lesson was finished because I found out just a little bit later that the foreign students studying English in the class next door to us said to their teacher, when they heard my class going on, that they really wanted to be in there with us. What can I say, I just make learning fun! And yes, I'm totally dramatic all the time and I'm loud so that makes me more noticeable. The Irish may like to talk but they do it in more subtle tones where as I can be heard three floors down while the river is raging outside their window. See included picture of raging river on rainy Galway day.

In the afternoon I observed Louis and Maura's teaching practice 5. Both were great and Maura even got a distinction rating and well deserved I might add. Her board work was impeccable and her lessons were clear and fun and it was a fabulous lesson in every way. I'm so happy for her.

Jean Marie met me at the Budding Cafe and we went off to the gym and then had Indian food for dinner. Apparently she had never had Indian food before but she managed just fine although I don't think it will become one of her favorite cuisines. She's like my mother in that way, they like what they like and foreign food consists of Chinese.

I am off to bed shortly as I am fighting off a possible flu attack. I tell you, I rarely get sick in New York or anywhere else for that matter, but during just about every visit I've made to Ireland I've caught some kind of bug. I picked up some herbal remedy today and hope that I can evict this unpleasantness from my body by morning.

Class - Day 13 ( Week III)

Today may have been the dreariest day since I arrived. It was raining and overcast and blah all day long. Especially in the morning on the walk to school the whole city looked like it had been covered in a thin layer of blue paint. It was fortunately not cold at all just dreary.

We spent the morning learning about student autonomy and how we can help our students with learning on their own in and out of class. We got a detailed lesson about learner strategy which is basically the different styles of learning that can define your students. I think I'm more a social learner, big surprise there and a little bit of the cognitive learner who likes to take classes for fun and learn for the enjoyment of it. But I am absolutely a social learner more than anything.

This afternoon I had my teacher practice 5. It went a little better than yesterdays and this time I managed to include all the necessary items which I suppose IS something even if, in the end, I felt my board work really lacked in pizzazz and my handwriting was not up to snuff. Also, I had chosen a ridiculously long sentence as an example of past perfect (When Pablo Picasso was born his parents had little hope that he would survive until the doctor had blow cigar smoke into his nose and he began to breathe.) If you can’t tell already, my topic was ARTISTS and the reading excerpt I used was about Pablo Picasso’s life. Although the sentences provided in the reading were complex there was at least one other alternative to the past perfect sentence I chose and if I had not been trying to impress the teacher I would have chosen better. My pride got the best of me and my grammar lesson suffered. Oh, well, live and learn.

Now at the end of all our lessons our teachers gives us feedback and although today Reece, a teacher we never had before, picked up on my board work issues he said my over all lesson was fantabulous (his exact word) so I know I should not feel too bad, but somehow I’m still not exactly dancing for joy.

What worked really well were my creative exercises. I placed on the board five pictures of famous paintings (da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Vermeer’s The Milkmaid, Picasso’s The Family Saltimbanque, George Surat’s Sunday in the Park with George and van Gogh’s The Potato Eaters) and asked the students to connect somewhat ambiguous past simple and past perfect sentences to the painting that it would corresponded best with. Example for past simple: She had smiled while he painted her picture. So of course that would be the Mona Lisa. They all got involved in the discussion and had a lot of fun. There was only confusion about the past perfect mashed potato sentence I came with because some students thought it was the Milkmaid picture because she was cooking and others knew the answer was The Potato Eaters simply because of the potato referece. Both could have been correct but I was looking for the latter. I think bright visuals always make the difference in an exercise and what better visuals than some of the worlds great art work.

And then for my final exercise I had them visualize a work of art that they would have created and write a description of it and then I told them they now have to sell it. They went around the room describing their work to their fellow students and tried to get them to agree to buy it. They really enjoyed this one and Su Ellen from Brazil came up with a great idea, which I incorporated on the spot. She suggested that as a student is describing their art work the other student (potential buyer) must draw what is being described. It went really well and her and her partner Jose, from Peru did two phenomenal drawings in a matter of a minute or so. I love when I can learn something from them but also make them feel good that their suggestion was now part of the class.


After our teacher practice was complete I met with my alternative methods group (me, Ruth and Niamh) to do our final preparation on our methods lesson that we are presenting tomorrow morning. I’ll have more details about that once we’ve completed it but why I mention it now is because as we worked in our classroom with the other groups we noticed people floating down the river which is outside our building. It was alarming at first since it’s a bit cold to be playing in the water and also the river runs quickly and it surly must be dangerous to be paddling about in it. Anyway, it turns out the Galway fire department was conducting emergency rescue practice. So there were lots of people pretending to be stuck in the river and being swept away by the current while two firemen, down river, tried to catch them. All I could think of was brrrrrrrrrrr! Well that and I hope they get rescued because none of us are too keen on jumping in to save them.
In the pictures I’ve included you’ll see the one red helmeted person floating down river and the two firemen in the distance near the bridge.

And a fun side note, before I head off to bed, I got a great email from my friend Elke who works at the German House near the UN. She is of course from Germany and she certainly can make me laugh especially today when I got the following emailed message from her after she had begun reading my blog.

’Omg, you actually write as much as you talk, LOL! I had to print this out so that I could read it at lunch time and in the bus on my way home, and it was like having you sit next to me and tell me about all your adventures in person. Love it! Btw, that German term you referred to on day 4 is dinglish, with a d (a mix of the words Deutsch and English). I hate that, too, but it seems to be pretty common nowadays. We just take a word from the English language and add a German touch to it, which leads to horrible expressions like "downgeloaded" (I downloaded something; the "ge" in the middle is the German touch). ‘

Tell me that isn’t just so adorable and Elke I really loved getting the message so thank you for making me smile. And thank you to all who are reading my ramblings. It’s fun to do and I know I’ll look back in a few years and laugh at all my craziness.

Sweet dreams.

Class - Day 12 (Week III)

This was a wacky weather day with some bright sun in the morning, lots of clouds covering the sky throughout the afternoon, a light rain from time to time and then a torrential downpour at 6:00pm followed 10 minutes later by incredible sunshine and the most magnificent rainbow that seemed to span the whole of Galway.

I enjoyed my peaceful walk to school this morning enjoying the sunshine and the somewhat warm humid air. I passed one of my favorite houses and today the brilliancy of the Hydrangea’s color just jumped out at me. I just had to stop and take picture. And since I had my camera out already why not take some pictures of the sun over the water and a lone swam making his or her way down the canal.

Class this morning was all about the uses of the grammar form “use to.” It doesn’t sounds so exciting but our easily excitable class made the most of it and had a lot of laughs. And one very poignant moment when Ruth shared the heartwarming story of when she was ten years old and was sick with a very high fever and to cool her down her father took her outside that night and kept her occupied out there by pointing out stars and explaining all about them. Ruth is such a kind, generous person so it certainly makes sense that she was raised in such a lovely family.

After we pretty much exhausted all aspects of “use to” we moved on to preparing for our teacher practice 5 which incredibly for me and Aoife is tomorrow. It’s only incredible because I had my teacher practice 4 just this afternoon.

Now after a mad scrabble during lunch to prepare as much of my teacher practice 5 lesson as I could I managed to scarf down a tuna sandwich that Maura went out and got for me and did my prep work for the teacher practice that was only minutes away.

It turned out to be a terrifying experience more so than I had imagined. The students were great and again we had a very diverse group. Maria and Alex from Barcelona, Barbara from Poland, Martin and Matilda from France, Magid from Afghanistan, Marie from the Czech Republic and Jose from Peru. They were all very excited to be in class and seemed to enjoy my lesson on “making plans.” I did have them laughing several times but especially when I asked Jose and Magid to come to the front of class and stand back to back so they couldn’t see each other and then read from a preprinted telephone conversation. It doesn’t sounds so funny, I know, but what I didn’t realize was that back to back (not being a term normally used in class) is too advanced for an Intermediate level group so even when I went to demonstrate what I meant by having Jose stand behind me with his back to mine he actually stood right behind me but facing me and basically just staring at the back of my neck and head. The class was hysterical especially the teacher who was assessing. Now, as you can imagine, it didn’t take me long to figure out what was so funny and then I physically put Jose and Magid in a position where they were finally back to back. And in the end they performed fabulously and I was happy and they all had fun.

Now where the horrifying part comes in was when I had to write out all the sample sentences on the board and teach the functional grammar part of “making plans.” Basically “can you”, “would you be able to”, “I was phoning to ask if you…” and then the responses which would be either regret (“I’m sorry, but I can’t” or “I would have loved to but…”) and the positive of that (“Yes I can go.” Or “I would love to.”) There were so many components to teach within a ten to fifteen minute time line that I missed two. I knew I had done it and I knew it meant there was no way I would get a distinction for the teaching practice. I think I was just more horrified at the idea of writing this all on the board, soliciting alternative sentences, teaching what a contraction was and why we used them and also focusing on intonation.

It was all very overwhelming while I was up there but I don’t think the students saw that I was nervous and they genuinely seemed to appreciate the lesson once it was over. I did learn something today which was be very mindful to have examples pre-determined because when I went to explain how intonation works (putting stress on a particular word or word sound to get a meaning across) my spontaneous choice of an example was “I like cats.” Now we all know I love cats so perhaps that’s why I said it but there is not a lot of variation you can have with it. Barbara from Poland however gave a great reading of the line and put the stress on “like” so you absolutely got that she really does love cats. Now when I tried to elicit from a student how this same sentence could sound like you didn’t actually like cats it went down hill fast. I finally got from Martin a good reading of the line but then he second guessed his answer and came out with “I only like my cat!”

In the end I was just happy to get the class over with and will hopefully do better on tomorrow’s grammar lesson that also has 7 different components to teach. It’s all good or at least I’m going to tell myself that so I can get some rest tonight.

Louis followed my lesson with on the grammatical form of agreements and disagreements. And in this picture you can see his visual clearly showing two people disagreeing. His lesson was a huge success and I am so proud of him for getting a distinction. He didn’t miss one crucial part of the lesson and he earned his special honor. Even though Maura, Aoife and I did not receive honors this time we truly are happy that Louis’ superb efforts were recognized.

I met Jean Marie after class and we went to the gym and then she took me out for a quick bite at the Kabob House and kindly dropped me back off at school around 8:00pm so I could finish my lesson plan and all the supporting materials I need for tomorrow's teacher practice.

I am now home writing this all down but getting very tired so I’ll say goodnight for now and think good thoughts that my lesson tomorrow is a huge success.

Class - Day 11 (Week III)

Woke up to rain but somehow it was also amazingly warm. This is I understand is an Irish winter but I’ve been told not to get to used to any type of weather it can change in a second.

Class was good today we had to observe another class of Intermediate level students first thing this morning. The teacher, Tristan talked about lucky charms and besides the rabbit’s foot and the shamrock none of the other students could think of a single lucky charm from their country. Ju, from Korea however gave us a bit of interesting information on superstitions and one was if you cut your nails in the evening before bed a rat will come and eat the nail clippings and then take on your personality and start running amuck in the world disguised as you, or something there about. For those of us who are still single and looking for Mr. Right we were admittedly intrigued by the Koran tradition that if you go into your bathroom at midnight and look into the mirror while you hold a knife in your mouth you will see the face of your Mr. Right and you will I guess meet him soon. I told Ju during the morning break that I would have to do that and she reminded me that it must be done in the bathroom at midnight or it won’t work. I think I can manage those few little details.

Now, since I’ve been feeling better after having had a cold, I have been much more like my normal enthusiastic self in class and Louis, my teammate from Canada pointed out today, after one of my enthusiastic comments that he balances my enthusiasm and I think he’s right. Actually all four of us in my group really balance each other very nicely. We couldn’t have picked a better group if we had tried. Maura also pointed out during the conversation in class about optimism vs. pessimism that she is an optimist when she should be pessimistic and a pessimist when she should be optimistic. I suppose we all are like that at one time or another.

When our whole class got back together around 11:00am my fellow students had a lovely birthday surprise for me. They had gotten me a card and each wrote such sweet things and gave well wishes for a wonderful new year and they also got me a chocolaty treat which I enjoyed immensely during lunch.

These are a few pictures of my classmates. We have a lot of laughs in the class despite the pressure and amount of work. It’s really a great group of people and I’m so lucky I took the course when I did because I have them to get through it all with. Humor especially can make most any situation more bearable.

The late morning session was taught by Julie and we got another assignment due on Friday. It’s a lesson we have to teach on unique and unusual teaching methodology and I have been paired with Ruth and Niamh who are both wonderful and we are looking forward to our shared teaching experience. I’ll have more on the specifics of that lesson in Friday’s entry.

The afternoon had us doing teacher practice 4. Maura and Aiofe had their lessons today while Louis and I go up tomorrow. I really feel both women did a great job and it was an extremely difficult lesson because it has more than 7 parts to it and you have to present all of them within an hour and do some error correction as well.

I am looking forward to my lesson tomorrow but like Maura and Aiofe I don’t expect to get any distinctions and that really is fine.
I’m currently studying in the library at school so I must get back to my work as it’s getting late.

Bank Holiday - Day Off (Week III)

HAPPY BITHDAY TO ME, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!

It was a fabulous day from the start. As I woke from my happy slumber I saw the glorious rays of sun bursting through the edges of the curtains trying desperately to break in and wish my a very happy birthday. Although the air was very crisp it was still a perfect day for a celebration!

I went off to the leisure center around 9:00am to start my new year off on the right foot. I only spent about 5 minutes actually doing any kind of aerobic exercise in the pool and then I went off to the Jacuzzi for some relaxation. I figure it's my birthday I'll do as I please.

After another satisfying Irish breakfast Jean Marie and I headed out to the airport to meet our friend Ellen who was flying back from a few days holiday in Germany. Dublin airport is not nearly as large as the three major NYC ones but it can still be confusing to get around but we managed to find her just as she made her way out of the immigration check point.

We then headed off to a beautiful part of Dublin (I can't remember the name right now) but it is all luxury villas and mansions not far from the ocean. Driving across town brought us through diverse neighborhoods with lots of colorful shops.

We were going to visit an elderly priest friend of Ellen's who has sadly had a stroke and is now living in a nursing home. We had all good intentions of visiting him and since I like to do something to give back to others on my birthday I was very excited about this visit. However the Dublin marathon created so much traffic it was impossible to get to him so we turned around and headed for Galway. Even a cute Garda officer (Irish policemen) tried to direct us on a less congested route but to no avail. But even in traffic the scenery was interesting. Dublin has a new ferris wheel attraction something like the Eye in London.

Ellen spoke to her husband Frank who had decided to surprise her for their upcoming 30th anniversary and take her to the Hodson Bay Hotel for the night so we stopped off in Atholone (one of my favorite little town in Ireland) and brought her to her husband who met us there. The hotel is on the Hodson Bay and when we arrived lots of ducks were frolicking around in the tiny waves on the hotel's private beach. Something about the scenery reminded me of Cape Cod.

Ellen and Frank were so kind to have a birthday dinner for me at the hotel and it was wonderful. Ellen even brought me a beautiful scarf, some chocolate and scented soap from her Germany trip. She also brought Jean Marie home some tasty German treats. It was a lovely celebration and lots of good conversation.

Jean Marie and I headed back to Galway and after picking up milk for my morning cereal I was in my apartment by 8:00pm and ready to unpack and head off to bed. It was a lovely birthday and I am so grateful to my sister for taking me away and for the beautiful bracelet she got me and for Ellen and Frank for making the special day even more special. Also wonderful to get calls from home and lots of great email best wishes.

If you couldn't tell already, I really love to celebrate my birthday!