Week 21 Personal

I cannot believe that I am in Cullyhanna writing my final Erasmus blog entry and to be honest I am an emotional wreck.  I think this last blog entry has taken the longest time to write because every time I think about the past week I either laugh because of the funny memories or cry because of the emotional goodbyes (how I hate this word).

This week was packed with numerous parties and it all began on Saturday night when we decided to have a pool party, these parties continued until Tuesday night until it hit us that our leaving ceremony was the next day. 

Leaving ceremony

For the leaving ceremony each group had to make a presentation about their time in The Netherlands.  Some groups created videos, others had made up a song and my group showed some “interesting” pictures and told the stories behind these pictures.  I was amazed to see how much we had accomplished during our time here and the memories we had made but at the same time my stomach was turning because these videos meant that goodbyes were coming soon.    Another part of the leaving ceremony was when we were getting our certificates a member of our group had to say a speech about us.  This was a great way of getting to hear how everyone felt about each other and I will never forget my speech said by my Finnish friend Mikael and I don’t think anyone else will. 

Our meal together

After the speeches we had a meal where each country had prepared their own dish.  As I looked around the table my eyes rested on my two Belgium flatmates (Bryan and Deborah) who were leaving that day.  I had done a good job of holding back the tears until they both gave me a hug which set me off.  However I know we will meet again and our adventures together will continue. 

We returned back to Vossenveld and attending a birthday party where we had to say goodbye to a lot of people leaving early the next morning.  One of the hardest goodbyes was leaving the two Irish girls, even

Not wanting to say goodbye

though I know I will see them again I felt like I had lost a limb when they left.  Thursday was a terrible day,
some of our closest friends had gone and we still had to say goodbye to more leaving that day.  We went up to flat 8 where we had to say goodbye to Mikael and Olli.  When it came to my turn to hug them goodbye I couldn’t even speak because I felt the tears coming but I know that I will see them again someday. 

After this my whole evening was spent trying to pack 5 months of my life into a suitcase and talking with the remainder of the group.  One minute we would all be laughing and then the next it would be complete silence.  It got to the stage that the silence was the upsetting that the conversation turned to talking about our friend Arttu’s toes.  Eventually the time came to go to bed and final hugs and goodbyes were said, however there was two people I did not say goodbye to that night, our American friend Beth and our Basque friend Ane because they had planned to get up early the next morning to take us to the bus station and I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to them yet.

Reminiscing about stories 

When I woke on Friday morning I was feeling ok until I heard Beth and Ane and then I knew that this was it. When walking towards the door of Vossenveld I realised I had to turn and say goodbye to two of my closest friends.  The tears began and they did not stop.  However I know that I will see these two girls again because there are plans of them coming to visit within the next year. 

We eventually touched down in Belfast where I experienced something I never thought of, saying goodbye to Sarah and Darren.  When thinking about saying goodbye to everyone I never once thought that I would eventually have to say goodbye to them.  We went over as friends but came home as family and I can’t thank them enough for having this experience with me.

Erasmus was the most amazing experience and it is something that will remain part of me forever.  I will never forget all the wonderful people I have met during my five months and I am so glad that Facebook was invented because it makes staying in touch so much easier.  When you come home from Erasmus you find yourself talking non-stop about it and it is so hard to describe how you feel.  There is a sense of joy because you get to see all your family and friends again but sadness when you think that it might be a long time before you meet your Erasmus friends again.

I know that I am way over the word limit for this week’s blog but there is so much to say and not enough words to say it.   So to finish I will just say Erasmus 2013 you have been an amazing group of people and not only have I made friends but I have made friends and memories that will last a lifetime.  

Erasmus 2013

Week 20 - Professional

This week was our second last week of Erasmus and it was mostly spent finishing up assignments and having our last few classes in PABO (the building where all our classes were held). 

As usual I had left everything to the last minute, other people in our Erasmus group were finishing up their assignments but I was just starting them.  I have never been one for starting assignments a few days or weeks before they have to be handed in and this was still the case on Erasmus. I always find myself procrastinating and telling myself you still have lots of time left to do this work and if I am being honest leaving things to the last minute has always worked out for me (well so far anyway) and as Michael S. Traylor (2013) says “If it weren’t for the last minute, a lot of things wouldn’t get done.”

 This week we had our final classes of our classroom of diversity module, our global citizenship module and our tutoring module.  In each of these modules we had a variety of different assignments and presentations to do both individually and working in groups. 

 For our classroom of diversity module we had to write a narrative about “How to deal with diversity”.  This assignment got us to think about our lives and the different ways we have learnt to deal with diversity while growing up.  This made me think about how important it is to teach children about diversity not only in the world but also in their own lives.  We were giving different aspects of our lives to look at from values passed on by parents, teachers and friends to different influences from the communities we grew up in.  I think that this was a great way of getting us to think about diversity in a personal way.  Not only did we learn about what diversity is but we learnt how diversity has affected us throughout our lives and how it has made us into the people we are today.

In our Global Citizenship module we had to produce five lesson plans using a book called “Windows on the world”.  We had a variety of different themes to choose from and the themes I chose were: diversity, identity, sustainable development, distribution and peace and conflict.  I really enjoyed this assignment as we got to see how to use an unusual resource to create unique and individual lesson plans which we then got to share with the rest of our class.  I will definitely be using this book for future lesson ideas when I am teaching the World around Us and I will be using some of the lessons I have planned.

Windows on the world book 

Finally for our school placement module we had to write an eight page report about our time in our placement schools.  This was very interesting for me as I got to reflect on a variety of different things I had learnt while I was on placement and also what I taught the children during my time there.  This made me think to the other placements I have experienced and the different things I have learnt from each of my placements.  This experience has allowed me to see what it is like to teach in a “foreign” school and I think we cannot learn this by being taught but we have to experience it first-hand. As Benjamin Franklin stated “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” 

References

Franklin, B. available at: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/learning (last accessed 26/06/13)

Traylor, Michael S. (2013) Time management quotes and sayings available at: http://timeman.com/time-management-tips/time-management-quotes-and-sayings (last accessed 26/06/13)