Graduation Day + Inchcolm Abbey

Well folks, today is my graduation day.  Technically, just commencement because the graduation list will be finalized June 1 (my last day here).  I know that loads of people could care less about going to their graduation ceremony, but I'm not one of those people.  I was looking forward to having photo shoots with all my friends that I've met over the past four years.  It makes me really sad that I may not see some of them again (so if you want an invite to my grad party, let me know!).

The past four years have led to an undergraduate degree of Bachelor of Science in Education High School with a major in Mathematics Education.  I am graduating Cum Laude (soooo close to the next step) through the Jane Stephens Honors Program, with participation in Omicron Delta Kappa and Phi Eta Sigma.  I worked my butt off to get there.  I was invited to the honors breakfast with President Ken Dobbins too.  This is why I wanted to go to my commencement ceremony.

I will just have to settle for getting my diploma and other certificates in the mail.  To take my mind off things, my flatmate and her boyfriend took me to Inchcolm Abbey.  We took the train to Queensferry then bought our tickets for the boat to Inchcolm.  We stopped at a wee cafe and had a snack - I got a banoffee pie (banana toffee)... fab-u-lous!  I need to figure out how to make that at home.  Anyway, we got on the boat that took us to the island and guess what we saw on the way?  SEALS!  How cool is that?  I have never seen a seal in the wild!

After obsessing over the seals we got to Inchcolm!  The abbey is beautiful.  Nothing too different from some of the castle ruins I have seen, but I really enjoyed it.  I think I will just post a few pictures and call that quits for the day.

I swear we speak the same language

There are so many words/phrases that they say here that are different in America!

School/Math List
Maths = math
Show your workings = show your work
Revise = review
Their decimal points are written right in the middle instead of at the bottom
BODMAS (brackets, order, division, multiplication, addition, subtraction) = PEMDAS (parenthesis, exponents, ...) -----> this means they don't learn exponents with order of operations
Jotter = notebook
Factorise = factor
Marking = grading
Exclusion = expulsion, expelled
Nothing = zero
Gradient = slope
Surds = answers left in square root form because they can't be simplified
Indices = exponents... okay, that makes sense
Reset = redo
Rubber = eraser
Corridor = hallway
Pythagoras = Pythagorean Theorem
Trapezium = trapezoid
Simulaneous equations = systems of equations
Supply = substitute teacher
Yufty slip = "you have to cover" slip
Cuboid = cube

Non-Math List
Cooker, hob = oven, stove
Chips = fries
Lift = elevator
Trainers = tennis shoes/sneakers
Mind the step/mind your head = watch your step/head
Wee = small
Note = bill of money
Rubbish = nonsense, trash
Digestive = cookie, biscuit
Aye = yes
Mental = crazy, omg
Jumper = hoodie
Bloody hell, bloomin eck = omg
Hoover = vacuum cleaner
Plaster = bandaid
Turning point = point of inflection
Nutters = crazy people
Lass = lady
Lad = guy
It's been donkeys = it's been ages
Rape = canola
Dogged school = skipped school
Loo, toilet = bathroom
Skittles = bowling
Mucking about = messing around
Coo = cow
Loch = lake with salt water
Ben = mountain
Glen = valley
Tea = dinner
Inverness = Inver means the mouth of the river and ness denotes the river ness
Inchcolm = inch is an island

I will add to this as I learn more.

Another Week Down

Four weeks of student teaching over.  That means I've been in the UK for five weeks and I have three weeks left.  It's going by quickly.

Today is another rainy day and since I am planning all sorts of activities for my remaining time, I decided to spend my half day inside planning the next three weeks and getting some chores done.  I don't know why I am spending all this money without a job waiting for me, but when in Rome, eh?  Now I sound Canadian.

My plans for the next 3 weeks:
May 12:  Inchcolm Abbey
May 13:  Gilmerton Cove

May 18:  Leave for London
May 19:  London (suggestions?)
May 20:  London (suggestions?)
May 21:  WB Studio Tour London - Harry Potter!!!
May 22:  Arrive back in Edinburgh (long weekends rock!)

May 25:  ??
May 26:  Edinburgh Zoo?
May 27:  Arthur's Seat?
This weekend really depends on the weather...

June 1:  ?? (last day student teaching)
June 2:  Craigmillar Castle?
June 3:  Fly back home

Kinda wanted to get a trip to Glasgow in, but that might not be possible.  Looking for suggestions on free/very cheap things to do in London next weekend! 

A Postitive Outlook

Today I looked at my planner and realized today was originally supposed to be the day I was coming back from Scotland.  Although my car accident was absolutely terrible, I am blessed that things are still working out for me.  I was originally going to come to Scotland, be in the classroom for 3 weeks, take a 3 week holiday, and teach again for 5 weeks.  With the help of SEMO, I arranged for me to stay at my first placement for a total of 9 weeks (with my recovery time in the middle of that) and my abroad placement for 7 weeks.  This still allows me to complete the 16 hours of student teaching my classmates were required to do, I just split it up a little differently.  This seven weeks instead of my original plan actually worked out better except for the missing commencement part.  I was able to fly over with my parents and travel before starting my placement, and my placement is in one big chunk instead of two smaller chunks.  That also cut down on costs of living/traveling over here.  So as awful as my accident was, I think everything worked out for the best.

A lot of my close friends and family are also probably wondering about my recovery.  My leg is great as you can probably assume by the amount of time I spend walking and climbing.  Sometimes my foot hurts, but that seems to be getting better slowly.  [Side note: I have no idea why my foot hurts! Maybe it was jammed under a pedal, I don't know.]  My arm is doing so much better.  The scar is still wicked (as well as my leg scar), but my range of motion is very close to normal.  Even if it never gets to the range of my right arm, it's not going to make much (if any) difference in my life.  Think about it - when do you ever need to hold your arm completely straight by your side in the real world?  Hardly ever.  So I'm doing great.  I like to think of myself as a little miracle :)

I found out today that I'm going to be a judge for the school's Masterchef competition in a couple weeks!  I'm excited (and a little nervous about what they will be cooking).  I'm so happy to be placed at a school that welcomes me with these opportunities.

Teaching - Week 4

This week I started teaching the third years.  I actually really enjoy them because they are more mature than my first and second year students.  Unfortunately due to not having school on Monday and they only have half a period on Wednesday, I only had 1.5 class periods with them.  My other classes are going well.  Second years had to take tests this week, so I had my students that were present do thinking/math games to improve their logical thinking and reasoning skills.

Today I made a big uh-oh... I slept through my alarm.  I have a cold right now so I think that affected my brain because I remember hearing an alarm far away and looking at my clock and seeing 4:30am, but that must have been a dream.  Anyway, when I woke up at 8:24 I immediately e-mailed my cooperating teacher and he was very understanding about it.  Luckily I didn't have a class first hour, so I made it in plenty of time for my class.  Embarassing though.  I'm just glad the faculty at Trinity are very very nice.  Even those outside of the maths department have been welcoming.  I am lucky to have been placed at such a great school.

MacBackpackers Trip

Oh man, I'm already worried about how long this is going to be and how I am going to limit the amount of pictures I add. Apologies in advance for the length, but if you have time, it should be worth the read.

So I booked a 3 day tour with MacBackpackers. Here's the tour details and a map of where we drove: http://macbackpackers.com/tour/3_day_loch_ness_and_skye

Day 1: We (29 tourists, most in their 20s) took off from a hostel in Edinburgh at 9am. Our first stop was The Hermitage, a national forest. The waterfall and river running through it was beautiful! After lunch in a wee town, we stopped at Ruthven Barracks. Then the group decided we would go on a whisky tour, so we headed for Tomatin distillery. I found that Scotch whisky was better than Irish whisky, but I still don't really care for the stuff. Next stop: the site of the Battle of Culloden. At this point I was completely wipped out and it was raining anyway, so I spent the majority of that stop at the cafe. Near that was the Clava Cairns (on right), piles of rocks formed into "igloos" used for burying people and a "calendar". Our last stop of the day was Inverness, the capitol of the Highlands. There, I stayed in my first hostel, which actually wasn't too bad. I also went on a pub crawl with some other people from the bus.

Day 2: We started the day of with Loch Ness. Absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately I did not spot Nessie. Some of the people on my trip were brave (or crazy) and went swimming in the loch, I only put my hand in. Then we stopped to take pictures at 2 different castles. One of them was where Made of Honor was filmed. So I got a little excited that I was basically in the presence of Patrick Dempsey and Kevin McKidd (a Scotsman!). Okay, now to the hardest part of the day: hiking to the Old Man of Storr. I tried to Google how steep up and how far the walk was and as far as I can tell, it's 2,359 ft high and about a 2 mile walk one way (but of course I walked back as well). Pictures from the hike:

Okay, so most difficult hike/walk I have ever been on. Ridiculously hard. But hey, I can say I've done it! After the exhausting hike, we stopped at Kilt Rock (named for the kilt-like "pleats" formed by the rock). Dinosaur footprints were found there! How cool is that? Alright, so second (third?) big adventure for the day: I tried haggis. Haggis is made from the innards of the sheep. If you think of it like a hot dog or sausage, it makes it more bearable. So my haggis was covered in oats so I got more oats than haggis. Not sure if that's cheating but I can cross it off my list. It wasn't too bad, but not too good either. I did feel more Scottish after eating it though! Now my flatmate says I must try black pudding (don't even look that up - you will regret it). Spent the night in hostel #2 on Skye, and I got the best bed in the room - no bunk!


Day 3: We had a large distance to cover to get back to Edinburgh, so there weren't too many stops. We went through the beautiful Glencoe. A glen is a valley, so Glencoe was formed through a bunch of mountains. During the lunch break, I took a walk down the valley to the river. Clearest water I've ever seen, so I had to have a drink! Then we got back on the bus and we stopped to see the world's cutest animals - hairy coos! (cows) I seriously love them, I mean, c'mon how adorable is this baby hairy coo? Okay okay, next stop: the Wallace Monument in Stirling. William Wallace was this badass dude who fought for Scottish Independence. He was also quartered, which means they cut up his body into four pieces and sent them off to cities across Scotland and England to prove a point. Gross. Anyway... they built this big monument to him so I paid the bit of money and climbed to the top. You think after walking up all these spiral staircases and mountains and such that I would be less scared of heights, but no. Still a little terrified, especially when the wind is blowing through the windows. So here is a picture of me after climbing all 246 steps (go me!). Then we arrived back in Edinburgh. Absolutely wonderful trip, but equally as exhausting. Took me 2 days to recover, which is why I am so late getting this out.

Also, if you're wondering why I wasn't at school on Monday, it's because it was May Day! I think I should look that up because I have no idea why it's celebrated.

Slacking

Sorry I have been slacking this week!  I don't have a good excuse either.

I taught both of my first year classes all this week.  We are learning ratio and proportion, which the kids are finding pretty easy, only a couple stragglers.  That's one of those hard things about teaching - some of the kids think it's too easy and some think it's hard.  The challenge?  Giving the kids the same amount of work that is at the level they are at - a very difficult thing to do in math day to day while remaining fair.  For the week I have been giving the fast kids a magic square to figure out - and they have really surprised me with how good they are at problem solving!  The slower kids have unfortunately had to finish their classwork for homework because that's the only way I can think of to ensure all the students are doing the same amount of work.  I also continued to teach my second year class - we have moved onto wages & salaries and I will be teaching that for the next 2 weeks.

Today was a half day! Yay for Fridays!  Since it was rugby tournament day for the first years, I decided to go watch that instead of sitting around planning lessons (especially since I have next week planned).  It was touch rugby and they are young, so it wasn't too official.  But they did have "coaches" that were college/professional rugby players.  How cool is that?

After school I got some food down by the Firth of Forth.  Had some curly fries... that seemed weird to me.  Then I went to the Royal Botanic Garden!  Not the prettiest time of the year to go, but the glass houses (the part you have to pay a "wee bit" for) were absolutely beautiful - and warm!

This weekend?  Loch Ness, Inverness, Isle of Skye, & Glencoe!  Expect an overload of pictures if we are facebook friends and a long blog on Monday (possibly Tuesday).  No school Monday because it's May Day of course!