The First Day at School

Monday was our first day at Lurgan Junior High School and what an amazing day it was! Paul picked us up for school in the bus around 9:15am and when we arrived we were immediately greeted by the principle. We took a quick tour and ended up in the studio that is such a huge and amazing project at this school.

A little bit about the studio - Paul undertook this project and has built it up from nothing. It started as an idea for a radio show and developed into a high tech broadcasting studio with satalite and big deal equipment. The students are learning how to use the equipment, cut video clips, write stories. And these students are in MIDDLE SCHOOL! It's amazing. In the past year the studio has doubled in size and is continuing to expand.
While we were visiting the studio we were also set up on a live feed and broadcast throughout the school. Basically we introduced ourselves and explained why we were there.
After making our debuts, we went to Marina's music classroom and talked a little bit about how the school system works. We were all surprised to hear the differences from American schools. They break each class up into 3 different "bands". A, B and C. A is the very smart kids and C is the less smart students. Within each band they are broken up even further. This came as a complete shock to us because we are not used to a system like this.
Break time came at 10:15am and the entire school goes on break for 15 minutes! We went to mingle with some of the teachers in the teacher lounge and had all sorts of good treats!
After break we all broke up into smaller groups and went to various classrooms. Jordan, Kate and I went to Alanna's music classes for the rest of the day.
Jordan brought his banjo and harmonica so he played for the classes and Kate and I sang. Sometimes I played the tambourine or wooden sticks, but I wasn't always on beat. What a surprise!
We showed the students the video we made about Messiah College and then had a question and answer time. They asked us questions like "do we know Justin Beiber?", "do we like McDonalds?", "what is the weather like?". Typical questions filled with stereotypes of America.
We got to ask the students some questions about N. Ireland.
Alanna shared with us a need that the students have. She said that in some classes, the students are very divided. They do not know how to communicate with each other and there are definite groups within the class, especially in the "C" classes. She said the teachers do not have time to work with them on these problems because there is simply not enough time. Jordan, Kate and I decided to work on this with the students for the week. We played a lot of team building activities and communication games. The students were very responsive and enjoyed doing these activities with us. This was probably one of my favorite parts of working in the school. There was a definite need and it was great to be able to work on that.

We ate lunch in the canteen with the students and got to talk to them. This was also a very fun part of the school day!

After school we went to the mall with Alanna, Deborah and Marina. We did a little shopping before heading back to Paul and Marina's house for dinner.
Dinner was always one of the best parts of the day! We would all squeeze around the kitchen table and enjoy some laughs and good company. It really felt like we were all family while we were eating dinner. I think our team mixed very well with each other and we were very well bonded before even arriving in N. Ireland.

Teachers at the school provided us with all our meals while we were there. They made us dinners for the whole week and the school paid for all the lunches in the canteen. Talk about radical hospitality!
It was a great first day at the school and the next days would only get better!