Finishing Up

Well, the last time I posted I had just taken over the whole class. Yesterday I finished teaching my last full day. The time has gone quickly especially in the classroom. Over the last few weeks we have traveled through a unit on maps where I had them make a model of the classroom using salt dough. They then made their own maps and got to use maps to go on an Easter egg hunt. Before we left for spring break, be had fun celebrating Easter and worked on writing books for a Young Authors Fair that will be held this coming Friday (after I leave). I took the students through the writing process from brain storming ideas at the beginning to writing and editing, to illustrating and finall this week we built books covers and fully assembled the books. What a priviledge to see the excitement on my students faces when they finished their books and got to read them to one another. Yesterday, I ended my last reading lesson by having the students make marblized paper with shaving cream and food colors. Again we had a blast and fortunately the paper wore more of the shaving cream than the students (always a good thing).

During spring break, I was able to finish my e-folio and then was blessed with some free time to do some sight seeing. I loved touring down town Budapest! It has such a beautiful old world feel to it. The building are just incredible in their detail and structure. While I was down town, I got to see a Jewish synogogue which is one of the largest in Europe, tour around the outside of a palace, visit one of the local high schooler's homes and see Hero Square.

Over spring break, I also got to go on a day trip to Vienna. The city is much more modern and well preserved. Once again there were incredible building filled with amazing architecture and detail. I am always amazed and delighted when I get to see frescos and paintings on the buildings. We just do not have anything like this in the U.S. While in Vienna, I got to walk through their Easter market, which was alot of fun and tour one of the palaces. Wow, it was unbelievable! I felt like I was walking through history.

Today I am planning on doing a little more meandering through the city as I tour my way around the Castle District in the day light and do a little more shopping. I will be sad to leave this lovely city.

Well I am now teaching the whole class. Last week was my first week taking over and it went really well. It had its ups and downs, but all in all I loved it. In social studies I'm teaching a unit on maps, so I had the students make a model of the classroom using clay and them draw a map after looking down on their model.

In writing the student have begun creating their own stories for a young authors fair that will be held the Friday after I leave. Then on Friday we had a beach party in the elementary school. All of the students got to dress up, play beach themed games and eat their lunches on the floor. That is about most of what is going on right now. This week I will continue teaching the whole class and then next week will enjoy spring break. I'm hoping to see some more of down town Budapest and finish up my efolio :) I just can't believe how fast the time is flying.

album Budapest (104 photos), by Brittney Gmeiner

So I finally figured out a way to put my pictures on my blog. Hope you all enjoy them. Most are from the day I spent in downtown Budapest. However there are also a few from my bedroom window and the poetry books my first graders created.
Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share. (this is from Snapfish :)
Click here to view photos

Beautiful Budapest My first trip down town

Saturday I joined a friend Andrea (the school's librarian) on a trip to down town Budapest. These were some of the sights I enjoyed seeing. We hiked to a high lookout and saw a beautiful view of the whole city and surrounding towns. Behind us in the piture is Budapest and the Danube river.



















This is our group in front of the look out. It was built in honor of one of the countries queens.

This is the group that we joined. It took us about an hour and a half of walking to find our way to the tower. It only took us twenty minutes to make it back :)

Look at that, they even have Burger King in Budapest.

First Week in First Grade

I have spent most of my first week unpacking and settling in. The family that I'm staying with have done a wonderful job making me feel at home. The same can be said about the school where I will be teaching. There are fifteen first graders in my classroom and they are filled with smiles and stories. The students speak varying degrees of English, yet for the most part they understand everything that is said. I love the diversity of students in the class. There are several students from Hungary and the U.S., however there are also students from surrounding countries and one from Australia. Just as I am fascinated with learning everything I can about the culture and the school, the school is enjoying getting to know me. One of the high schoolers came over to the elementary side (the whole school shares one building)and interviewed me for an article in their school newspaper.

On another note, have you ever thought about what it is like to watch T.V. in another country? Almost everything is spoken in another language :) This has made watching the olympics very interesting. They do get a few channels that are in English, unfortunately the onlympics are only in Hungarian and Romanian. Good thing they are still fun to watch even if you can't understand what is being said.

A brief note from Budapest

As I type this note, I am sitting in my host home in Budapest. It is a bright sunny winter day and my body is still trying to figure out what time it is. Budapest is six hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. Currently it is 2:50 p.m. Sunday Feb. 21 while it is only 8:50 a.m. back in the U.S. The flights here were great. I flew out of Chicago and had a layover in Amsterdam. It was a very modern airport and I was relieved to find that almost everything was labeled in English. However as I flew out of Amsterdam, things changed. Predominately everything in Budapest including the safety speech on the plane is written and spoken in Hungarian. Fortunately for me the school that I am at is an English speaking school. As soon as I arrived, I met my host family and teacher and was taken to the school where they were finishing a basketball tournament.

FYIs that I have learned thus far include: orange roof tops, goulash is a favorite food and when you flush the toilette you have to press a stop button.