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After every trip abroad Ive come home wanting more. Wanting to see more ;wanting to learn more; wanting to give more. Through these experiences I have come torealize how much I enjoy traveling and how much I grow as a person in the process. Whenoriginally committing to Stranmillis and the idea of completing the second half of mystudent teaching abroad, I could not even begin to fathom how much I was going to learn

about myself and grow as a teacher and a person. One incentive for coming was to gainclarity on whether or not I wanted to teach abroad after graduation. I was hopeful that thistrip would make clear whether or not I could adapt to a new curriculum, live in a new city,and be away from home. After this powerful ten-week experience, I have a clearerdepiction for my future and more confidence in my ability to be an effective teacher in theUnited States and abroad.

While I grew a lot as a person through spending an extended amount of time awayfrom home, traveling parts of Europe, and experiencing a new culture, the most growthhappened in the classroom. I learned about and interacted with a new curriculum and wayto approach lesson planning. I learned new teaching and management strategies and wasable to refine techniques that I had already developed. I learned alternative forms of

assessments and how different cultures view the importance of assessment. Through theprocess of learning all of this, I also learned that kids are kids and I have a passion forgetting to know them, teaching them, and hopefully making an impact in their lives.

Curriculum:The Northern Ireland curriculum has been adapted and changed over the years just

as we have seen with the curriculum in the States, most recently the Common Core (2014).It was interesting to have different professors speak to us on the various academic areas,because they kept emphasizing how much direction and structure the current curriculumhas. However, this is quite surprising to me because the curriculum spans a minimum oftwo years. This means that for Key Stage (KS) 2, which is comprised of Primary 5, 6, and 7,the curriculum solely states what students should know at the completion of KS 2 and eachindividual school has more responsibility to generate their curriculum. Thus it is notbroken down nearly as much as the Common Core curriculum I am familiar with in theUnited States. This presents teachers with much more flexibility to teach what and howthey want; however, it creates concerns in terms of there being holes in a studentslearning. It requires teachers to work incredibly close together to ensure a smoothtransition from each grade level and to have a strong understanding of where students areat when they enter your classroom. I am still unclear as to how smooth the transitionwould be if a student were to switch schools. Additionally, the Northern Ireland curriculum(2007) is primarily broken down into Language and Literacy, Mathematics and Numeracy,The Arts, The World Around Us, Personal Development and Mutual Understanding, andPhysical Education.

The overall lesson plan follows a fairly similar format to which I have experienced inmy previous Drake classes and have used in my teaching placements. It includescomponents that have been emphasized again and again such as differentiation, learningintentions, and assessment. However, the planning process in Northern Ireland doesappear to be more regulated. The teachers at Dundonald Primary School are expected tosubmit weekly detailed plans and the lesson plans I have seen do seem to be a bit moreintensive. They specifically emphasize cross-curricular skills as well as thinking skills and

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personal capabilities. This means that there is a particular focus on tying together theWorld Around Us (history, geography, and science), mathematics, and literacy. There is aspot on the lesson plan template to discuss skills from other subject areas that are beingused within a specific lesson. The other component is the five thinking skills and personalcapabilities: managing information, thinking, problem solving, and decision making, being

creative, working with others, and self-management. This does seem to create morecontinuity and allows for a flow from one year to the next.Finally, the way the NI curriculum is written allows for teachers to be creative. For

my previous placement I worked primarily from curriculum books and wrote short-handed, bulleted lesson plans based primarily from the basil. Therefore, it was definitely atransition for me to write more detailed lesson plans from relatively broad standards for allmy lessons. However, I think this has helped me to think outside of the box and try newthings while Im teaching. My goal is for this to transfer home with me and to find a balancebetween the structured curriculum and creativity and ingenuity.

Teaching and Learning:

I came into this experience knowing I still had a lot to learn about teaching in adifferent culture. However, having had prior teaching experiences in both Ghana andUganda I initially thought I wouldnt undergo as much of a learning curve as I had in myprevious teaching abroad experiences. I was wrong and the past ten weeks have puteverything back into perspective for me. They have brought to light the most importantcomponent of culturally responsive teaching which is exactly what I had lost sight of, thediverse students. My students at Dundonald Primary School have grown up incompletely different environments, received different forms of education, and havedifferent resources than my students in the United States, Ghana and Uganda.Therefore, they are their own unique group of individuals that deserves me to be every

bit aware as I was on my first teaching experience. For example, in order to makelearning more appropriate and effective for my students it is going to be helpful to speakthe same language as them. For instance, if I wanted them to use markers I needed tocall them felt tips or erasers are rubbers. By being aware of these cultural differences I was better able to eliminate confusion and maximize instructional time.

I have also recognized how much teaching and learning differs based on thenumber of pupils in the classroom and resources available. There were 30 students inmy P5 classroom, as there were in the other three sections. This was a pretty commonsight throughout the school as the school has been growing in the past several years andis continuing to grow. This large number of students in my classroom makes it thatmuch more challenging for the teacher to effectively meet the needs of all the students.Therefore, the teachers placed a large emphasis on differentiation. The differentiation,however, often came in the form of a shortened or my simplified task rather thanadditional support. This initially surprised me since additional support was my primary job in my previous placement. However, it quickly became evident that the schoolsimply did not have the resources or staff to provide the support to all the strugglingstudents and thus the teachers are doing the best they can to make the contentaccessible.

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In both settings, teaching is truly intended to be student-centered. I haveobserved the use of task boards (Activity Based Learning), group work, partner work,and discussion based lessons. This really requires students to fully understand conceptsand to take responsibility for their own learning. According to the Lesson Cycle,students receive new content through brief direct instruction, use a learning activity to

activate new learning, and then continue to receive scaffolding, support, and feedbackthroughout the course of the activity. This ensures that all students are engaged and metat their independent level.

Assessment:

Assessment has been the one area where I have observed the most differencesbetween the United States and Northern Ireland. While assessment is still an integral partof education in America, there is not the same kind of emphasis placed on marking as I haveseen in Northern Ireland.

In the classroom setting, teachers mark every piece of work completed by students

whether it is formal or informal. At Dundonald Primary School the st udents homeworkbooks and class activity books are checked on a monthly basis to ensure that teachers arethoroughly marking student work. Additionally, the students take a daily test with specialemphasis on their Friday test. Although there is not this same emphasis on formal markingin America, there is a bigger focus on informal assessment. Teachers appear to givestudents more guidance and feedback throughout rather than waiting until the end toassess their work. This results in students continuing to improve their work throughoutrather than waiting until the end when they have moved past a concept to receive feedback.Furthermore, in Northern Ireland there is a huge emphasis on culminating assessments,such as at the end of primary school. I would compare this to standardized assessments inAmerica; however, these exams do not have the same impact on their future education.

Despite the differences in education, at the end of the day kids are kids. Theyhave a sense of humor, want someone to care about them, and aim to please. I haveenjoyed getting to know a new educational approach, but more importantly havethoroughly loved getting to know each and every one of my students and it will beexceptionally hard to say goodbye to them at the end of the week.

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References

Assessment for Learning: A Practical Guide Lesson Cycle, Elements of Practice/Focus onLearning, p. 23.

Common Core State Standards Initiative (2014) Read the standards , available athttp://www.corestandards.org/read-the-standards/ (accessed 15/12/14).

The Northern Ireland Curriculum: Primary (2007).

http://www.corestandards.org/read-the-standards/http://www.corestandards.org/read-the-standards/http://www.corestandards.org/read-the-standards/