Back to School!

On Thursday, I was at Chaucer Primary School. This was considered the "lower" income school as compared to Widey Court. I did not necessarily think that the school was low income, but that is because I am used to how the phrase is used in regards to the schools in the United States. I was put in a first year classroom, the students were around 5 and 6 years old. When I walked in the children were being very disruptive which really surprised me. At Widey Court the students were really well behaved and the teachers did not have to raise their voice to get the class's attention. In the first year classroom, the teacher was constantly raising her voice to get everyone to listen. When she was reading a story, several students were wandering around the classroom. She would stop every minute to tell them to come back, but when one student came back, another would get up and walk around. She didn't even finish the story because she kept having to stop.

One thing I noticed in both the primary schools is that the students are given a lot of responsibility. At Widey, students were allowed to walk around the campus delivering messages from their teachers. At Chaucer, when we arrived, we were given a tour by two 4th year girls. They were extremely polite and showed us everything. In the US, I wouldn't even trust most high schoolers to deliver messages or give a tour by themselves. I really liked observing the UK schools. I saw a lot of differences between US and UK schools, but I also saw a lot of similarities.

On another note, here is the my sample podcast. It is just a test for me to use the technology inorder to create a podcast. click