Thursday

Today was my second day at St. Brigid's. I am absolutely loving the class that I am in. There are 34 girls in my class, which is an unusually high number for class size at the school in general.

Before I left for Ireland, my 4th/5th grade class in Washington made a book with pictures and descriptions of our school. I shared that book with the girls today and they were fascinated. My American students also wrote letters and I read one aloud to the girls. I'm going to try to bring the letters into a 4th or 5th Class so they can reply back (writing letters would be a bit challenging for the tiny ones!). I also shared the picture book of Washington that I brought with me called, E is for Evergreen. (I really love that book and they actually have one for every state I believe.) I'll leave it at the school before I go.

One of the highlights of the day for the girls was dance class. Every Thursday an Irish dance instructor comes to the school and sees each class for about 30 minutes. The girls were doing foot exercises, marched around the room, and practiced a dance routine to an ABBA song they learned previously. They also did this great Irish farmer's dance.

Another highlight was the interactive white board that was just installed in the room (see second photo). We spent a great deal of time playing online educational games that were projected onto the white board that the girls played using a special pen the board came with.

Tomorrow will mark one week that I have been in Ireland.