This morning in our faculty briefing a teacher announced that he had a special tool for fidety students… a koush ball! I talked to him after the meeting about the koush ball and he told me that he had been to an education conference by one of the Brisish educational leaders who discussed the “new” concept of kinestic learning. In the conference he showed the teachers a koush ball and explained that the student can squeeze it or bounce it on one of the bands. This tool is to be used by students who fidget during classes. hhmmm.. ok. Seems like a classroom disaster to someone who grew up with koush balls…
Here is my daily schedule:
Every morning I start my day with a cup of tea get ready go to school where my supervising teacher makes me another cup of tea; then I teach two classes and partake in the faculty tea break, teach two more classes, eat lunch with tea; teach my final two classes, head home, drink tea with the family, eat dinner, then drink tea before going to bed. I am beginning to comprehend why the Boston Tea Party would have made the British so mad, 342 crates of tea dumped overboard. (The pretending to dump crates overboard in Boston didn’t really portray the impact, although it was fun.)

Hardest adjustment- no basketball!! They have some basketball hoops but the students don’t seem to understand how to play. (They all “shoot like girls”) The girls play a game called netball which sounds like what my mom used to play, no dribbling, no backboards … hmm… I think I meet have to teach these kids about the sport. I’m wondering if it will count for my community service project for IU, it seems like community service to me.
Things I have learned and questions from my students:
Apparently George Bush died
“Have you met JFK?”
Elvis Prestely died of constipation on the toilet
“Do celebrities just walk up and down the street all day?”
“What famous people are you friends with?”
“Have you seen my rubber?” (rubber refers to eraser…)
Everyone in American drives fancy cars… (I didn’t even start to tell them about the Grand Wagoneer)

I made it over! After arriving in Heathrow I hopped on the bus to Queens Station to Victoria Grand Station. I walked off the bus and followed the signs to Victoria Station where my next bus was suppose to be not thinking that I arrived in Victoria Grand Station. I (aimlessly) followed the signs out of the station, down the street and around the block into the next building. While walking I noticed the large red, white and blue luggage tag that mom had put on my luggage marked AMERICAN TOURISTER… well… that got removed as soon as I saw it.. YIPES Looking at the schedules I couldn’t figure out why my bus schedule did not match up. I was very confused. I asked for help but the accent was so strong I could not understand it. SO I went back out of the building, down the street back to the original station and followed the signs again… it was this second trip that I realized I was at a train station and apparently hadn’t noticed the 20 some trains around me… so I walked back to the bus station and found my bus… rode the bus for a couple of hours and arrived at Wisbech pronounced Wesbeach. Gotta Run… long story short I’m here.

This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere: the dew is never all dried at once: a shower is forever falling, vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.
John Muir