My first lesson and a weekend visitor from Germany

Hello there,

I'm now into my second week at the Primary School in Manchester. It's been great. I actually feel very settled and I'll be sad to leave tomorrow! It's hard to leave in the midst of half-term. I want to see what the kids will catch in their insect traps, know how tall their bean plants will grow and see how their WW2 day goes. They're having an Eid party next week and will all be bringing in food and I'm very sad that I won't be there to see it (and taste a few dishes!).

Today was particularly good. I taught my first every lesson - fancy that! Like a real teacher and everything. Well, sort of... I had the last lesson of the day, an hour long, in which to get 24 boys and girls to think about the lives of world war two evacuees, and write an imaginary evacuee letter home. It went really well. We had some great discussions about words they could use, and what life was like in the country compared to the city. The children then went on to write some great letters! Best of all they were all enthusiastic, if a little chatty and excited by the end of the class. Let say it didn't put me off at all!

For a seasoned teacher, this lesson would just be one of several in a day, nothing special, but for me it feels like a real achievement. I faffed and worried about my plan and my resources. I had a very thoroughly drawn out lesson structure, and thought I might be complicating things so much that I'd get lost in it. I was also feeling nervous about what it would be like standing at the front of the room, with 27 pairs of eyes (there was a teacher, a classroom assistant and another PGCE student in the room too) staring right at me.

I reassured myself, however, that I would have the whole of the previous lesson to set up, because the students would be in the hall doing PE. So after lunch I waiting for my opportunity to print off my plan and get myself well prepared, with all my resources ready before 2:30. However, the clock hour hand reached 2 and the students still hadn't left. They were running so behind, the teacher decided to skip PE. So suddenly my cushion disappeared. I had 5 minutes to get everything ready and read over my plan quickly. So not as calm as I was hoping! But as I said, it all went well in the end, and I'm feeling much more confident for the start of my course next week.

Steffi, me and Chris at Bramall Hall near Manchester

In other news, last weekend, we had our first real visitor! Steffi, a German au pair who I met while working in Paris who is now a student, was visiting London for a week with friends. At the end of her visit she came to stay with us for 3 nights. It was really fun to have a chance to do a bit of tourism together. We went to the Town Hall, the Cathedral, the John Ryland's Library (which is very beautiful) and on Sunday we went to a Tudor house called Bramhall Hall. We learned a lot about Manchester, and talked about the differences in our cultures. I feel I learnt almost as much about Germany as she learned about England. We also treated Steffi to a whirlwind of English cuisine, including sausage and mash, cornish pasties and egg custards, a meal on the Curry Mile, pork pies and Dairy Milk, and finally a Sunday roast with chicken, roast potatoes, vegetables and homemade gravy and bread sauce. A real treat for all of us!

Me humiliating a chicken, dressing it with butter and herbs ready for roasting

We also had two of my cousins Bernie and George over for dinner last week, making boeuf bourguignonne. Bernie is a chef so we were a little concerned about how he'd react to our food but he seemed to like it, and even brought over a brilliant raspberry and white chocolate bread and butter pudding with homemade butterscotch sauce. Yum.

All this talking about food is making me really hungry! Luckily I'm sitting in front of a cake which I have baked for Chris because it's his birthday today. Shhh, don't tell him though! He doesn't know anything about it. Hopefully he's cycling home now though, so he won't have a chance to find out about it by reading my blog! If he doesn't get home soon I'm going to have to eat it myself anyway... Unfortunately it is one of the ugliest cakes I've every baked, otherwise I'd have included a photo.

Anyway, I hope you're all well. Please leave me a comment to let me know how September is treating you! xx