Cheers Mate!

Today was my first teaching experience in London.

These are the events that occurred:
1. Left the house at 735am
2. Missed the National Rail train at the station by about a minute
3. Asked people what train I could take to my destination
4. Got on a train that was supposed to go to a particular station but did not so I ended up seeing more of London than I wanted to
5. Had to switch trains, finally I was going the right way but school had already started
6. Made it to the station, asked people for street names (people who live in London can't even tell you street names because they are never posted!)
7. Found the street I needed, found the school, but how to get into the school?
8. A man walking on the street noticed my confusion and pointed me in the right direction
9. I found my way to the nursery school by the primary school and started my day (30 minutes late)

If I could describe the room in 3 words it would be: FREE FOR ALL

No kidding. I don't think there were any 'rules' in the room to follow. Children just did what they pleased. I tried to motivate some children to use the building blocks to build buildings instead of walking all over them...that lasted for a solid 5 minutes.

One child had a lot of 'energy' and when I asked him for his name he gave me one...only for me to discover later that he gave me the name of another child in the room...these children are only 4 and they know how to trick a teacher.

I absolutely love reading storybooks to children and when a few children were interested in a couple I was reading I was glad they were focused and sitting still, however I noticed that they do shout out a lot and probably don't know what it means to 'raise your hand.'

Despite the nightmare of a commute it wasn't a super stressful day. Tomorrow I return to the school to teach Year 1.