Worldly Wednesday: Amsterdam

Welcome to the Worldy Wednesday Link Up! Whether you have left the country, left the city, or left your house - link up and let us know what in the world you have been up to!

UPDATE: I'm going to start uploading Worldly Wednesday once a month on the first Wednesday of the month. Feel free to link up any time during the month!

To link up, just add the Linky button to your post, and link back to this blog, and join the link at the bottom of the post - simple as that!

We flew from Dublin to Amsterdam, Netherlands for the second half of the week.

We met up with my roommate's aunt and uncle who took us to a film museum to have a coffee and apple cake.

We didn't eat here, but we were certainly intrigued.

We woke up early our second morning to get to Anne Frank house bright and early. We arrived 10 minutes before open and still waited nearly 2 hours in line. Well worth it though, the reimagined factory, and bare rooms of the annex were both chilling and intriguing. 

Later that day we took a tour of the Heineken Brewery. The 'Heineken Experience' was a lot more hands on than the Guinness factory, we got to grind grain, stir mash, and they had a 4-D video experience where they 'brewed us' into beer.

We also got our two drinks with admission.

Trying traditional Dutch food - croquette. It is so delicious!

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We went to a bar called Ice Bar on our last night, where you get to hang out in a big freezer room with an ice bar and ice sculptures. They serve your drinks in a glass made of ice as well.

These parkas and mitts were provided, not quite my style.

Don't forget to link up. I can't wait to see what in the world you've been up to!

Sorry Friends!

I forgot to do Worldly Wednesday this week. I ended up scheduled to work through the day. I will write next week's post ready and scheduled to post next week. Just think of it as extra time to write about your own adventure!

Worldly Wednesday: Ireland (or the trip of many long bus rides)

Welcome to the Worldy Wednesday Link Up! Whether you have left the country, left the city, or left your house - link up and let us know what in the world you have been up to!

To link up, just add the Linky button to your post, and link back to this blog, and join the link at the bottom of the post - simple as that!

In October of 2014 my roommate and I planned a two country trip for our half term holiday. The first half of the week we spent in Ireland, to visit my cousin who was studying there. We flew into Dublin on the most terrifying flight of my life. By the time we landed my roommate and I were clutching on to each other for dear life. As our plane was descending it encountered rough turbulence. In addition to this the plane was rocking side to side. In addition to THIS the plane was rocking forward and back. TERRIFYING!

We boarded the bus at the airport to take us to Waterford.

Up early the next day to get on the bus to Cork. We took the city bus out to Blarney to visit Blarney Castle.

We ran into this chocolate store across the street from Blarney Castle. They had the most delicious chocolate bars. I bought a dark chocolate bar with dried strawberry in it.

Blarney Castle!

That hole at the top is where you lean through to kiss the Blarney Stone! It was so scary!

That evening we went out to a pub that happened to be hosting a jazz festival. We listened to this interesting band while we sipped our beers.

Again, the next day we woke up early and got on a bus for Dublin. 

We, of course, had to visit the Guinness Storehouse museum.

I learned how to pour a pint of Guinness and even got a certificate!

We stayed one last night in Dublin, then woke up to pack our bags and get on a bus to the airport to head to the Netherlands for the rest of the week!

I'm so excited to see what in the world you have all gotten up to! Link up below!

October Currently

Today I am linking up with Oh Boy Fourth Grade for the October Currently link up.

I'm spending the day today volunteering in Lisa Bee's classroom! (I'm teaching her class how to swing dance today!)

I've been though some major life upheaval in the last few months (If you are following along with my recap I will be getting to the good stuff soon, haha). I, however, am making the best of the situation and using it as an opportunity to do some volunteering, work in a different field, and getting back into writing. I am feeling more positive and excited to see what life has in store for me next!

Setting Up My First Classroom!

I was busy, busy in July (before I left for the summer) and again at the end of August setting up my very first classroom. As you can see, it was a bit squishy trying to fit seating for 31 little year 3 (grade 2) bodies in my room. 

The silhouette pictures hanging from my ceiling were made on our transition day in July. My new students each wrote a 'self' poem inside the shape of the head and then drew pictures of things they like (or just designs) around the outsides. They looked very cute once all hung up! I double sided the pictures and clipped them up with colourful clothes pegs. 

More desks!
Also, the orange board ready for our classroom rules and children's leaves to create a class tree.

Hard to see, but on the far wall next to the window is our class marble jar (picture). We earn marbles for our class for being excellent as a whole class (each of the marbles has a specific behaviour such as, being complemented by an adult, doing it the first time, working silently, etc.). I will fish it out and take a better picture later.

"We are ravenous readers" reading ladder. Children recorded their reading in their reading logs, and got to move their name up the leaves each time they finished a book.

Our 'Space Race' behaviour management system. Children move up the board for good behaviour and earn house points. Children who reach the 'Golden Globe' planet at the top are sent home with a special certificate for top notch behaviour. Consequently, children move across the board for undesirable behaviour. The first planet to the right is a warning, followed by a timeout in class, a timeout in a partner class, and finally being sent to the head teacher. 

This resource was created by my very lovely coworker, Mrs. T.

My tiny classroom library! This classroom did not have a class library prior to my arrival. It was very important to me that my students had a place to find an interesting book to read within the classroom. Aside from the dictionaries on the bottom and part of the middle row, and a small number of topic related books, the rest of these books I brought with me on the airplane from Canada. Our little library was small enough to separate into fiction, non-fiction, and topic books.

So, there is the whistle stop tour of my classroom from September 2014. If you have any questions about resources you have seen please leave a comment and I will get back to you!