Monday 30 May 2016

Thank You

Our three weeks in Spain have come to a close and we're very thankful for the opportunity that we have been given by Erasmus+ in taking part of this project. In particular I'd like to thank Colin Carters, Miriam Dunne and Amanda Maguire for assisting us in our journey and helping us to create the projects we did with the classes. It has been an amazing and memorable experience and I'm sure that the students taking part next year will enjoy it just as much. Thank you.

Sunday 29 May 2016

Recommendations for 2017 students

For the students coming next year here are a few recommendations for activities to do and things to see in your spare time.


  • Royal Palace of Madrid - very beautiful building with amazing sculptures. usually with street performers outside. 
  • Temple of Debod - a breathtaking attraction situated in a lovely and lively park.
  • Cable cars - see the whole of Madrid including the Palace and Casa de Campo (the huge amusement park) from the sky. really fun experience. 
  • Museo Nacional de Prado - very interesting exhibits and some inspirational art 
  • Boats at Buen Retro Park - row boats in the lake for only 6 euro per boat. very enjoyable. 

Homeward Bound



Today is our last day in Alpedrete and I'm sad to be leaving this beautiful place so soon. The teachers, students and staff of both Montessori schools have made our time here both very enjoyable and educational. I hope that the students that come next year will have an equally amazing experience as I have.

Saturday 28 May 2016

Hala Madrid - CL Final

Tonight was the Champion's League final , Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid. The all-Madrid final is extremely rare, and it was a privilege to have a bite to eat and a drink in a Madrid bar surrounded by passionate Madrid fans (mainly Real!) and experience the passion and love for their team. The streets were empty but the bars were not! Surprisingly managed to get a seat right at the front outside and enjoy the match. Fireworks going off now and the streets are busy!
A great experience, nothing like I've ever been around before, especially when each team scored and when the penalties were missed! What a last night in Alpedrete.
Watching the match outside

Enjoying a Mahou, Spanish beer

Eve

Last day before we're off tomorrow evening. Spent my last full day wandering Alpedrete for hours, grabbed a bite to eat in La Tabernita and attempted to go on a hike (didn't work out unfortunately) - a day that summed up the town. Now to settle down, pack and watch the All-Madrid final!

Friday 27 May 2016

Some Information for 2017 Students

For the lucky students heading over here next year, here is some info and tips, as well as some personal recommendations!

FOOD - ALPEDRETE


  • La Tabernita (Alpedrete) do some great and cheap lunch time foods, as well as good deals in the evening to relax and have a beer if that's what you're into.
  • Mana Taberna - Only open around lunchtime, but a lovely restaurant with quality service and a very Spanish-themed menu, highly recommended
  • Cafe Bar - A nice small bar that does some lovely food, speak English and are incredibly welcoming. 
  • Supermercados (Gigante, Maxicoop, Dias) are all great value and are a 10min walk away from wherever you are in the town. From 2pm - 5pm they are closed due to the siesta, but Chino Bazar is always open during those times if you're stuck and need a snack. 
TRAVEL INFO

  • The 681 bus from Alpedrete goes to Moncloa station, which lasts about 40mins, and from there you can get the Line 3 Metro to Vodafone Sol, which is essentially the middle of Madrid. If timed well, you can get into Madrid in under 90 mins.
  • Train station in Alpedrete is useful if there are trips to the airport or if you're interested in heading up to Sierra de Guadarrama like myself. Fast and efficient transport
THINGS TO SEE/DO - My favourite

  • Park del Retiro - Beuatiful park with a tasty Cafe beside the lake, also you can rent out a boat for 6 euro and row around the lake. Highly recommened, great fun
  • Museo del Prado - Interesting art, although often queues are lengthy. Find time and check it out!
  • Sierra de Guadarrama - Indescribable experience train from Alpedrete to Cercedilla (15 mins) and about a 3km walk to the bottom of the mountains, from there you can decide what routes to walk/run/hike. A definite must-do
  • Alpedrete Fiestas - During the second week here in Alpedrete, a fiestas was held for 4 days (Thursday - Sunday) and had all sorts of fun things to do. The town was incredibly lively and there was live music, shows, markets and amusements. Great first-hand experience of the Spanish culture and how they celebrate their fiestas.

And the winner is...

For the past two days Miriam has been sitting in on classes so that she can judge the winners of the final projects. In the end the winners were:

Year 7 - Group two
Year 8 - Group three
Year 9 - Group two

We gave every student a bag of sweets for their participation and the winners received prized suited to their likes and interests. Year 7's got colouring pencils, Year 8's got pic'n'mix and Year 9's (who are huge fans of chocolate) got a huge Milka bar each.

Year 8 feedback

Our last class with the Year 8's was yesterday afternoon. They performed their stories brilliantly and afterwards, they told us about their most enjoyable activities and stuff we did over the 3 weeks:

  • Rafa - The teamwork
  • Daniela - Helping each other in groups
  • Luis Vico - Not being friends before we came but being in the group together and getting to work well as a team and friends
  • Ignacio - Really enjoyed everything!
  • Ana - The detectives riddles and games!
  • Oscars - The mystery games
  • Quique - Creating our detective
  • Berta - Learning more about detective stories and the project was fun
  • Carlota - Group exercises and the games
  • Juanho - Creating the detectives and the classwork with the worksheets
  • Luis - Creating detectives and making up the names for them
  • Felipe - Letting our creativity fly

Student Feedback

Our Year 7's told us about their favourite things during the 3 weeks:

  • Victor - They explained everything very well, interesting to work with and now I can write better stories
  • Ruben - They helped us when we didn't understand and were fun to try speak Spanish with
  • Sofia - Really enjoyed it, good to have different teachers with accents and from Ireland and were great at explaining everything
  • Miguel - Very nice and friendly, had a good time
  • Mikel - I can now write more descriptive stories
  • Lucas - Learned lots of new things about writing
  • Gonzalo - They did a very good job, shared lots of new things that helped us
  • Victoriano - Had a very good time being with them
  • Cesar - Very nice and kind to us, misses Colin!
  • Lucia - They are different to many people and the different work was great
Our last class with Year 7!

The End

Today was our last two classes, and the students performed their finished stories for the class and Miriam. After an extremely busy week, we were looking forward to finishing the work but sad to be saying goodbye to our students. It was a brilliant 3 weeks with them, and some of them were begging us to stay longer! We wish we could. I honestly did not think I'd love it as much as I have, and despite the heavy workload, I'd do it all again.
Year 9 group 1 performing their story

Year 9 Group 2 performing their story

Year 9 Group 3 performing story

Year 9 Group 4 performing their story today



Year 9's performed their stories excellently and were very grateful for the projects we did with them, and was sad to say goodbye!

Monday 23 May 2016

Retro

The Retro Park in Madrid (only a ten or so minute walk from Vodafone Sol) is an amazing place to spend a few hours walking around and taking in the sights. The row boats are a particularly popular attraction.






Last Week of Teaching

Today was the beginning of the end of our teaching in Montessori School. We have 12 classes this week, and by the end, all of our students will be performing stories that we have constructed thanks to worksheets they have been doing. Looked around Madrid over the weekend, explored Retiro Park and chatted to some Spanish artists on the streets of Madrid, which had fascinating stories. Remaining plans will be sorted this week as we come close to the end of our time in Alpedrete

Saturday 21 May 2016

Festival Day

Yesterday was the second day of festival activities in Alpedrete. Despite the shops being closed we have never seen the town so lively and vibrant. 






In the afternoon we went to a street market and bought some presents for family and some things for ourselves.







Later that night we went to a concert in the town that was full to the brim with Alpedrete natives singing and dancing. It was something that the students coming next year should experience.



Friday 20 May 2016

Mana Taberna

Just ate out and had a 3 course lunch.....not sure what I ate for the starter but was delicious. Salmon marinado and strawberyy cheesecake followed. Was super handy and lovely meals. Town getting set up for festival, will be heading in at 7pm tonight to see a horse show/event (not really sure!)

Fiestas

Festival season in Alpedrete began last night. We took a stroll through the town to explore and have a look and it was as busy as its been since we've been here. Loud music, beer, dancing. Hopefully another good day of it today.
Main Area

Cool Lights

Unmissable 

Wednesday 18 May 2016

Here are some photos of the Year 7's doing a very messy activity in class yesterday.

Internet Problems

The last couple of days have been hectic enough. We've had busy classes with fun activities for the students (bowls with horrible stuff in them for them to imagine its brains etc) lots of VR stuff and recording messages for the Year 9's, which was good fun. Year 8's are getting through their worksheets very well and are creating interesting characters and drawings.

Internet is scarce, and I'm currently using the Montessori one to access blog, email and to chat with friends and family. Immersing myself in the Alpedrete culture, eating out at some nice Cafe's when I can, and really enjoying it and especially, the class weather.

Loving teaching, and loving Alpedrete. #AroundHalfway

Sunday 15 May 2016

Today's Activities

Scott and I went to lunch at a local resturant in Alpedrete today, before the festival activities began. There was a band playing in the town and we stayed there for a while to listen. Good day in Alpedrete!

Madrid






Yesterday I went into Madrid to see a few sights.

After taking the 681 bus to Moncloa I got the Metro from there to Vodafone Sol, where I found a range of street performers. Some of them were dancing in the middle of the square. I also saw a few statues that are in the square and took pictures.
The first stop on my list was to see the Palace. The gardens outside the Palace was beautiful with hedge mazes and colorful flowers. 
There is a statue in front of the Palace that a street performer was blowing huge bubbles at to entertain the children visiting.

Next I went to Museo Nacional Del Prado. On the way there I found a roundabout that had a water fountain with a statue of Posidon in the middle. There were many exibitions open in the museum, my favourite being Goya's section.

It was amazing to stroll around Madrid and see such interesting art.






Saturday 14 May 2016

Exploration

Spent my first Saturday in Madrid exploring the Spanish mountain range. Sierra de Guadarrama. 4 hours of trying to figure out a map, taking photos and enjoying the peaceful nature. Unfortunately couldn't reach the summit as I was entering snow territory and I was wearing shorts and runners! Another day for sure.






Friday 13 May 2016

First Day Off

Spent the first day off having a read over the students work so far. Some fascinating stories and characters have been developed already. Great feeling to see progress and the student s enjoying the project so much.

Tried cooking some Spanish sausages, ended up burning them......settled with Pizza. Slowly exploring the Spanish culture and food, but not tonight! Hopefully a fun weekend looking around Madrid and getting a start on the classes stories.

Thursday 12 May 2016

First Week of Teaching: Terminado

Our first week of teaching is done....a great 3 days with Years 7,8 & 9. Really enjoying getting to know the students and helping them progress with the project and learn more about creative writing, and their assigned modules (Gothic, Detective Stories and Horror)

The weather has been the only shortcoming to our first few days, but its slowly picking up as we get more and more accustomed to Alpedrete. Hoping to sort our some extra classes with the students, should be fun. Super first week with them, and will only get better and better (As will my Spanish)

Wednesday 11 May 2016

We Have Entered A Virtual Reality...

Sort of. For today's class we used the masks we made last night to help the students create their own virtual reality. We did this by having the students put on their VR's for two minutes and imagining that they are trapped in a room, kidnapped by some sort of evil overlord. The setting, characters and dangers they face are theirs to create. After two minutes they write a short description about what they experienced in their virtual reality (guided by a worksheet we provided).
Here are some photos of the students wearing the VR masks.