Monday, Feb 23
Today was a pretty basic day at school. I taught most of the day. However, in the afternoon, I went over to Scott’s class and taught science with him. He is a great teacher, and I really enjoyed the students. We made paper helicopters and learned how to create an experiment. After school, I caught the bus home. I then went for a run/walk and had dinner with the family. We watched a hilarious British TV show called Top Gear. We laughed for an hour and a half.
Tuesday
Rob started his subbing for Brett today. He is an incredible teacher, and has a good relationship with the kids. He is a retired teacher, but has had many of the kids in the past. I’m probably not going to be teaching as much as I have been for these next two weeks because he really wants to take some lessons, since he only gets to be here a short time. That’s fine with me, because that lets me work with individual students a little more. We had a good day and really got along well.
Tonight was fantastic! Hazel got tickets for John and her, Heather, Katy and I for the movie at Kings’ Park. We went to see Slum Dog Millionaire. The movie played on a huge, outdoor screen in front of a huge lawn. We took a picnic dinner and a couple bottles of wine to enjoy before the movie started. It was fantastic; I certainly know why it cleaned-up at the Oscars. Katy and I decided to celebrate Fat Tuesday by buying M&Ms and a Crunchie bar to eat during the movie.
Wednesday
We had an interesting day. After dodgeball this morning (morning fitness), some boys decided that it would be funny to hit Ashleigh and I in the backs with their balls; therefore, we told everyone that they will no longer be playing dodge and will be running timed laps around the oval on Friday morning. The students got a little naughty again right before lunch. I ended up raising my voice to a level that I didn’t even know I could reach and told them to all sit down. Let me say that this was only after me saying “sit down” five times at a normal volume before this. The little buggers looked like I'd killed someone, and miraculously straightened right up! We had a good afternoon though.
IT RAINED TODAY! (I suspect the reason for the chaos.) Just around lunchtime today, I looked outside and it was just pouring. Today is the first day that it has rained since I’ve been here. It was also about 60 degrees, and I was in a skirt and sleeveless top. Let’s just said that I was fairly cold and covered in goose-bumps all day. I’m now sitting at home, in bed, drinking a cup of hot chocolate.
Since today is Ash Wednesday, Katy and I are going to try to go to church. We have to figure out the ride/driving situation. That is one thing that I severely miss about home—being able to drive anywhere and anytime I want. Here, I have to rely on people to take me somewhere or to catch the buses. Two sleeps until Bali!
Thursday
So, about that Ash Wednesday Service... let's just say it was an experience. Katy and I pulled into the parking lot and looked at each other and said, "Uhhh... do you still want to go?" We walked in quite possibly the smallest church in Australia. It was Wembley Downs Uniting Church. The people were great, but it was so small. The average age of the members was about 65, and everyone else had at least 40 years on Katy and I. The service was nice, but it was different. The Call to Worship and sung responses were prerecorded on a tape player and played on two little speakers. We ended up going for a coffee after the service at the Dome, which was really nice. We caught up on some stories from each of our schools.
Today, we did lots of seat work in the morning. In the afternoon, students performed their celebrity interviews. Most of them were fantastic--until a boy farted in the middle of his, and the whole class burst out in chaos. (It was pretty funny.) I caught the bus to the shops tonight after school and grabbed some supplies for the trip to Bali tomorrow. I've just been home packing and relaxing this evening. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, and I certainly don't want to be exhausted when we get into Bali at 10PM tomorrow night. One sleep!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Surfing/Catamaraning/Swan Valley
Saturday
It was another one of those “best days ever.” I woke up at 6:30AM… I know, it was not fun getting up that early on a Saturday morning. Johno picked me up at 7:00AM and already had Katy. We headed for Trigg Beach. The surf wasn’t fantastic, but it was a good size to learn on. Johno is very tall, so his board was quite long. Katy and I both took turns surfing and body surfing. It was the most thrilling experiences of a lifetime. I know why people are addicted to surfing. The rush of the waves and riding them was awesome. I only got up on my feet about once, but I got up on my knees several times.
After surfing, we had breakfast at a local café. It was a little expensive, but very good. (They put scrambled eggs on toast over here… not with toast, on toast!) Johno dropped us off at Katy’s house after brekky. We had lunch and went back to the beach with her host family. They have two little boys 7 and 10 yrs old. We took surfboards and boogie boards with us. We stayed out for about two hours and came back home. Johno picked us up after a while and took us to the Swan River with some of his friends in the city. We hired and took out catamarans for an hour. It was my first experience sailing a boat entirely on my own. I could do that all day, everyday; it’s incredibly fun and relaxing.
After catamaraning, Johno dropped us each off at our houses. I went for a run, had dinner and took a shower. I got dropped off at Katy’s, and we ended up deciding to go out. We went to Subiaco, where we walked around to find a good place to go out. We ended up at the Subiaco Hotel, where there was a live band. We really wanted ice cream, but since we couldn’t find an ice cream shop still open, we just bought a pint from a convenience store. We also got peanut butter and Oreos. When we got back to Katy’s, we pigged-out like the Americans that we are. I then spent the night.
Sunday
We had a leisurely morning, getting up without setting an alarm. I woke up and helped on of the boys on the computer for a while. When everyone was up, we drove into Subiaco and had a Boost Juice smoothie. We also went to the supermarket (where I bought chocolate chips, because I’m going through withdrawal and NEED chocolate chip cookies!) We then went back home and got ready for the afternoon.
Katy drove us to my place, where Len and Heather were ready to take us on a tour of the Swan Valley. The Swan Valley is an area full of vineyards, a chocolate factory, and breweries. First, we stopped on the side of the road at a farmer’s pick-up truck to get a watermelon and honeydew melon. We then went to the chocolate factory, which was no more than a glorified, tourist trap, chocolate store. It wasn’t particularly exciting. What was exciting though, was our next stop. We went to the John Kosovich winery. We met the winemaker, Jason, John’s son, who led us through the wine tasting and told us all about the wine. We tasted down in the bottom of a cellar, where there were stacks of wine barrels. We then headed to the Faber Vineyard, where the winemaker, John Griffiths, led us through the tasting of his wines. I ended up purchasing two bottles of wine. It was just fantastic to sit with two wine makers and really hear about the differences in wines and what goes into making them. I certainly have a newfound appreciation for wine. We went to a little Italian couple’s house after that and purchased quite a bit of produce, including cantaloupes, tomatoes, grapes, eggs, garlic and figs. On the way home, I fell asleep.
We had a very nice dinner tonight, as Heather and Len’s friends came over. I’m tired, but I’ve got a big week ahead. I leave for Bali on Friday night, so I’ve got to catch up on sleep before then!
It was another one of those “best days ever.” I woke up at 6:30AM… I know, it was not fun getting up that early on a Saturday morning. Johno picked me up at 7:00AM and already had Katy. We headed for Trigg Beach. The surf wasn’t fantastic, but it was a good size to learn on. Johno is very tall, so his board was quite long. Katy and I both took turns surfing and body surfing. It was the most thrilling experiences of a lifetime. I know why people are addicted to surfing. The rush of the waves and riding them was awesome. I only got up on my feet about once, but I got up on my knees several times.
After surfing, we had breakfast at a local café. It was a little expensive, but very good. (They put scrambled eggs on toast over here… not with toast, on toast!) Johno dropped us off at Katy’s house after brekky. We had lunch and went back to the beach with her host family. They have two little boys 7 and 10 yrs old. We took surfboards and boogie boards with us. We stayed out for about two hours and came back home. Johno picked us up after a while and took us to the Swan River with some of his friends in the city. We hired and took out catamarans for an hour. It was my first experience sailing a boat entirely on my own. I could do that all day, everyday; it’s incredibly fun and relaxing.
After catamaraning, Johno dropped us each off at our houses. I went for a run, had dinner and took a shower. I got dropped off at Katy’s, and we ended up deciding to go out. We went to Subiaco, where we walked around to find a good place to go out. We ended up at the Subiaco Hotel, where there was a live band. We really wanted ice cream, but since we couldn’t find an ice cream shop still open, we just bought a pint from a convenience store. We also got peanut butter and Oreos. When we got back to Katy’s, we pigged-out like the Americans that we are. I then spent the night.
Sunday
We had a leisurely morning, getting up without setting an alarm. I woke up and helped on of the boys on the computer for a while. When everyone was up, we drove into Subiaco and had a Boost Juice smoothie. We also went to the supermarket (where I bought chocolate chips, because I’m going through withdrawal and NEED chocolate chip cookies!) We then went back home and got ready for the afternoon.
Katy drove us to my place, where Len and Heather were ready to take us on a tour of the Swan Valley. The Swan Valley is an area full of vineyards, a chocolate factory, and breweries. First, we stopped on the side of the road at a farmer’s pick-up truck to get a watermelon and honeydew melon. We then went to the chocolate factory, which was no more than a glorified, tourist trap, chocolate store. It wasn’t particularly exciting. What was exciting though, was our next stop. We went to the John Kosovich winery. We met the winemaker, Jason, John’s son, who led us through the wine tasting and told us all about the wine. We tasted down in the bottom of a cellar, where there were stacks of wine barrels. We then headed to the Faber Vineyard, where the winemaker, John Griffiths, led us through the tasting of his wines. I ended up purchasing two bottles of wine. It was just fantastic to sit with two wine makers and really hear about the differences in wines and what goes into making them. I certainly have a newfound appreciation for wine. We went to a little Italian couple’s house after that and purchased quite a bit of produce, including cantaloupes, tomatoes, grapes, eggs, garlic and figs. On the way home, I fell asleep.
We had a very nice dinner tonight, as Heather and Len’s friends came over. I’m tired, but I’ve got a big week ahead. I leave for Bali on Friday night, so I’ve got to catch up on sleep before then!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Monday, Feb 16—
Today was the second day without Brett. It went relatively well, but it’s just different. Frank taught most of the day, while I floated around to those who were struggling. I did teach a science lesson and a health lesson. I was really worried about science, because of the poor behavior that the students have showed the last couple of days, but it all went smoothly. They made circuits with wire, a battery and a light bulb. It was great, they become involved and loved the hands-on activity. We ran out of time, as usual, but at least the lesson went well. After science, I taught health. We talked about prejudice today. I guess it went well, but as we were talking about the reasons someone is prejudice, I was upset by some of the things that the kids were saying. They laughed every time I mentioned a gay or lesbian person. It really bothered me, because I was trying to teach them about not being prejudice, and they were sitting there laughing at gay and lesbian people. I told them that I didn’t know what was so funny, and they said that the just weren’t used to a teacher using those words. I just wasn’t thrilled in their discussion about being prejudice.
Tonight, I just stayed home and had a nice dinner with the family. Heather made a wonderful chocolate mouse that was heavenly! We also had tim-tams, which are a type of chocolate cookie.
Tuesday
Today was a big day for me. I started off the day teaching like normal, but then my supervisor showed up. I was evaluated one out of the two times for the term. It went well, and my supervisor was very pleased with how the class was being run. It was a little stressful knowing that I was being evaluated, but honestly, I forgot he was there for part of the lesson. After he left, we had lunch, and Brett and I discussed some lessons. The principal, Gavin, came in and said that he needed to talk to me. An hour and a half later, when I came out of his office, I was exhausted. He wanted to chat about my placement, see my lesson plans, check my evaluations, etc. So, basically I had an entire day full of evaluations. Now, I won’t be evaluated until the end of the quarter. Gavin and I did talk briefly about non-school activities. He offered to take Katy and I to the Pinnacles, which is an area up north that has natural sand dunes and a much different landscape from Perth.
Tonight, we had our parents’ meeting. They have a meeting at the beginning of the year with the classroom teacher to communicate the rules and expectations for the year. The parents were great, and nearly all of them showed up. (Of course, the parents whom we really needed to speak to didn’t bother to come.) After the meeting, Ashleigh, Brett and I went out for Thai food. We bought a bottle of wine and had delicious, prawn, chicken, and tofu, Thai food.
Wednesday
We had a good day at school today. We are still having trouble with students turning in work on time, so we ended up cutting out a lesson to give the students more class time to work. I taught most of the day, with the exception of reading. I got a horrible headache this morning, and that’s very strange for me. I haven’t gotten a true headache in several years, but today’s was pretty awful.
After school today, I came home and went for a quick swim in the pool. My teacher’s sister came to pick me up at around 5:45PM, because it was my teacher’s wife’s 50th birthday party tonight. We had fish and chips, salad, and three wonderful types of birthday cake. The people were all fabulous and very welcoming. Brett’s whole family as well as his wife’s was there. We just sat out back, had a glass of wine, and enjoyed good conversation. I graded some papers when I got home from the dinner party, and now am of to bed. This weekend we decided not to go to Rottnest Island, but to go to Swan Valley, which is a nice area full of vineyards about and hour outside of Perth.
Thursday
School was a little crazy today, but still mostly enjoyable. I taught math, spelling, writing, speech and drama, and mapping. It was really fun, and the kids were on-task most of the day. After last night’s party, I was a little exhausted today, but not quite as tired as Brett. Brett completed his midterm evaluation of me today. That was a little nerve-racking. However, he marked me as mostly 4s and 5s on a 5 pt scale. It made me feel like I was actually doing something right! It’s not quite halfway, but I’ve got to get the evals in early, because I’ll technically graduate before I get back into the States. Brett took me home once again.
I laid by the pool for a little while this evening. When Len and Heather got home, we went to pick up Katy and head off to their wine-tasting club. It was fabulous! We tasted about eight wines, worth over $400 total. It’s a bit funny, because they go to a cheap Thai restaurant, yet have hundreds of dollars of expensive wine at the table! They keep the wine covered, while the owner asks questions about the wine, where it’s from, who made it, what type is it, etc, etc. It was remarkable what they could tell about a wine from just smelling it and tasting a bit of it. After dinner, we walked over to a coffee shop and had a coffee and cake. Delicious once again.
Friday
Today was a little nuts. Brett ended up yelling at the autistic boy in our class, because he just reached the end of his tolerance and snapped. It was fine in the end, and the boy probably needed a wake up call, but it disrupted the class for a good while. Then, we had a boy not do his homework, so Brett didn’t let him have a snack from the canteen at recess, so he ended up hiding and crying. After a meeting with the boy’s mom and the boy, it was settled reasonably. This afternoon was better though, we canceled sport because it was just too hot to make the kids run around outside, so we watched Sister Act II instead! Sitting in the A/C watching a movie sounded like a much better way to end the whopper of a day that we had. After we had a drink after school, we headed home.
I had a nice nap by the pool when I got home. I ended up going for a run and taking the evening at a relaxing pace. Katy is coming over to spend the night tonight, because Johno, one of the guys we met, is going to teach us how to SURF in the morning! We have to be ready by 7AM, because the best time to surf is early in the morning. Then, I think we might go around to the shops with Len or possibly to the AQWA aquarium later in the day.
Today was the second day without Brett. It went relatively well, but it’s just different. Frank taught most of the day, while I floated around to those who were struggling. I did teach a science lesson and a health lesson. I was really worried about science, because of the poor behavior that the students have showed the last couple of days, but it all went smoothly. They made circuits with wire, a battery and a light bulb. It was great, they become involved and loved the hands-on activity. We ran out of time, as usual, but at least the lesson went well. After science, I taught health. We talked about prejudice today. I guess it went well, but as we were talking about the reasons someone is prejudice, I was upset by some of the things that the kids were saying. They laughed every time I mentioned a gay or lesbian person. It really bothered me, because I was trying to teach them about not being prejudice, and they were sitting there laughing at gay and lesbian people. I told them that I didn’t know what was so funny, and they said that the just weren’t used to a teacher using those words. I just wasn’t thrilled in their discussion about being prejudice.
Tonight, I just stayed home and had a nice dinner with the family. Heather made a wonderful chocolate mouse that was heavenly! We also had tim-tams, which are a type of chocolate cookie.
Tuesday
Today was a big day for me. I started off the day teaching like normal, but then my supervisor showed up. I was evaluated one out of the two times for the term. It went well, and my supervisor was very pleased with how the class was being run. It was a little stressful knowing that I was being evaluated, but honestly, I forgot he was there for part of the lesson. After he left, we had lunch, and Brett and I discussed some lessons. The principal, Gavin, came in and said that he needed to talk to me. An hour and a half later, when I came out of his office, I was exhausted. He wanted to chat about my placement, see my lesson plans, check my evaluations, etc. So, basically I had an entire day full of evaluations. Now, I won’t be evaluated until the end of the quarter. Gavin and I did talk briefly about non-school activities. He offered to take Katy and I to the Pinnacles, which is an area up north that has natural sand dunes and a much different landscape from Perth.
Tonight, we had our parents’ meeting. They have a meeting at the beginning of the year with the classroom teacher to communicate the rules and expectations for the year. The parents were great, and nearly all of them showed up. (Of course, the parents whom we really needed to speak to didn’t bother to come.) After the meeting, Ashleigh, Brett and I went out for Thai food. We bought a bottle of wine and had delicious, prawn, chicken, and tofu, Thai food.
Wednesday
We had a good day at school today. We are still having trouble with students turning in work on time, so we ended up cutting out a lesson to give the students more class time to work. I taught most of the day, with the exception of reading. I got a horrible headache this morning, and that’s very strange for me. I haven’t gotten a true headache in several years, but today’s was pretty awful.
After school today, I came home and went for a quick swim in the pool. My teacher’s sister came to pick me up at around 5:45PM, because it was my teacher’s wife’s 50th birthday party tonight. We had fish and chips, salad, and three wonderful types of birthday cake. The people were all fabulous and very welcoming. Brett’s whole family as well as his wife’s was there. We just sat out back, had a glass of wine, and enjoyed good conversation. I graded some papers when I got home from the dinner party, and now am of to bed. This weekend we decided not to go to Rottnest Island, but to go to Swan Valley, which is a nice area full of vineyards about and hour outside of Perth.
Thursday
School was a little crazy today, but still mostly enjoyable. I taught math, spelling, writing, speech and drama, and mapping. It was really fun, and the kids were on-task most of the day. After last night’s party, I was a little exhausted today, but not quite as tired as Brett. Brett completed his midterm evaluation of me today. That was a little nerve-racking. However, he marked me as mostly 4s and 5s on a 5 pt scale. It made me feel like I was actually doing something right! It’s not quite halfway, but I’ve got to get the evals in early, because I’ll technically graduate before I get back into the States. Brett took me home once again.
I laid by the pool for a little while this evening. When Len and Heather got home, we went to pick up Katy and head off to their wine-tasting club. It was fabulous! We tasted about eight wines, worth over $400 total. It’s a bit funny, because they go to a cheap Thai restaurant, yet have hundreds of dollars of expensive wine at the table! They keep the wine covered, while the owner asks questions about the wine, where it’s from, who made it, what type is it, etc, etc. It was remarkable what they could tell about a wine from just smelling it and tasting a bit of it. After dinner, we walked over to a coffee shop and had a coffee and cake. Delicious once again.
Friday
Today was a little nuts. Brett ended up yelling at the autistic boy in our class, because he just reached the end of his tolerance and snapped. It was fine in the end, and the boy probably needed a wake up call, but it disrupted the class for a good while. Then, we had a boy not do his homework, so Brett didn’t let him have a snack from the canteen at recess, so he ended up hiding and crying. After a meeting with the boy’s mom and the boy, it was settled reasonably. This afternoon was better though, we canceled sport because it was just too hot to make the kids run around outside, so we watched Sister Act II instead! Sitting in the A/C watching a movie sounded like a much better way to end the whopper of a day that we had. After we had a drink after school, we headed home.
I had a nice nap by the pool when I got home. I ended up going for a run and taking the evening at a relaxing pace. Katy is coming over to spend the night tonight, because Johno, one of the guys we met, is going to teach us how to SURF in the morning! We have to be ready by 7AM, because the best time to surf is early in the morning. Then, I think we might go around to the shops with Len or possibly to the AQWA aquarium later in the day.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Tuesday, Feb. 10th
Today was a relatively easy day at school. Brett still taught math, and I taught just about everything else. We are working on many different things with one being a peer biography. The students are actually surprisingly low in their skills. For some reason, in about every subject, they are behind. It’s really quite a concern, because we have to get them ready for high school by this time next year. About a third of the class are over a year ahead of where they should be, about one third on track, and about another third well below a year behind. It makes teaching quite difficult. There are so many individualized assignments because of this, which all have to be graded according to each student’s ability level.
I hadn’t realized how much my failed science lesson had gotten to me, but it really bugged me. I was able to talk it through with Brett today, and we worked out a new way to attempt it. The students just aren’t quite ready to work in cooperative groups yet; they’ve got some maturing to do. The frustrations of being a teacher are alive and well now that I’m into my second week. Students don’t do what they are specifically directed to do, they don’t turn in quality work, some simply don’t care, and others are never going to get it as much as I explain it. One little boy has an IQ of about 70, and just missed the level of receiving assistance. Keeping him on track, while trying to keep another student, who is more advanced than me in math, challenged at the same time; it’s just really difficult and draining. Thank goodness Brett is there to help some of the lower students while I’m handling the rest of the class.
Tonight, I went to dinner at Carine with Heather, Len and Kit and John, Hazel and Renee for Hazel’s birthday. Dinner was delightful! After dinner, I did some prep work for school and headed to bed.
Oh yeah, THE AIR CONDITIONING WAS FIXED AT SCHOOL TODAY!!!!
Wednesday
It was awfully hard to get up this morning. I felt like I weighed about 1000 lbs and was just exhausted. I got up anyway and went for a run. When I got to school, my day was already looking up, because the air con was working. It would have been torture teaching with no AC today. It was over 100 degrees again.
The day went well. The big event of the day though was this afternoon. One of the little boys wasn’t getting any work done. I kept checking on him, but I looked over, and he had just run out of the room. Our rooms go directly to the outside, and when I saw him, he was bent over puking in the bushes. Brett got him settled and the mess cleaned up, but that was quite the disruption for a seventh grade class. The poor little guy came back to class too and finished the day!
When I got home from school, Fatty was here. Fatty is a friend of Kit’s who will be staying with us for about a month. We chatted some and then I did some planning. After my evening dip in the pool, we had dinner. It was wonderful as always. It was a relatively uneventful day.
However, today has been monumental in my social life. Katy, the other COST student teacher, and I made some very large plans tonight. We have decided that we are going to go to swim with the dolphins this week at Rockingham, but then we are going to say and see Penguin Island and spend the night camping on the beach. We will get up the next morning and drive home through Fremantle, which is a bit of a hippie town, and go through the Fremantle Markets. We also made plans for the last weekend in Feb. We are going to BALI!! It’s going to cost us about $500 each to go to Bali for 3 nights and 3 days, so we’re just going to do it.
Thursday
Today was a good day. We were in the air conditioning, so it was relatively pleasant. I taught the whole day today, with Brett just jumping in where he needed to in order to fill in things that I forgot. It’s really nice to have an experienced teacher to help when I don’t know how to say something quite simply enough. We had lunch duty today. It was really easy, because the kids just go wherever they want. It’s really not too hard to look after them because they all go outside to run and play, so they are pretty well behaved.
I didn’t do much this evening. I went for a run down by the beach, but that was about it. Tomorrow will be the test for the students’ behavior in science. They know that if they blow it, we’ll not be doing anything fun. I’m not about to pull out wires, light bulbs, batteries, voltmeters, etc, when they are acting as if they haven’t got a brain in their head. So we’ll see…
Friday
The little buggers were naughty today. This morning was lovely, the students did a chance and data lesson with dice to find probability, which went wonderfully. HOWEVER, after lunch they were like a totally different group of kids. I had to yell a few times (which I really hate), and they just wouldn’t listen. I told people to turn in their homework, and 6 out of 31 turned it in. Therefore, on Monday, we are going to have a nice long chat about this. Brett and I are spending more time chasing kids around trying to get their work turned in than actually teaching. It’s ridiculous. I don’t know what kind of structure they have had in the past, but it certainly wasn’t how we are running things. The kids are fantastic and lovely to be around, but their work is just pathetic. There are about five kids who are on top of their work, and the rest of the class simply acts like they don’t care.
This afternoon, Brett and I had a quick beer with the rest of the staff after school and headed home. I had a bowl of ice cream! Everyone is pretty healthy here, but Heather just bought ice cream that she doesn’t like, so I told her that I would get rid of it for her. ☺ When Heather got home, she and I went for a little test drive. We were able to get insurance for me on her car, so I can take it this weekend. I needed to go to the store and get some food for the weekend. The drive went relatively well, I only hit the curb once, and managed not to hit any other cars. It was a bit weird; I constantly felt like I was going the wrong way.
I packed the gear into the car for our camping trip, because I’m going to have to leave at 5:30AM tomorrow to pick Katy up and be at the departure jetty at 7:30AM. We were able to get a camping spot, so we are going to take a tent and sleeping bags. After a long dinner, I went to bed.
Saturday
This could quite possibly be one of the most incredible days of my entire life (… and I know people say that all the time, but this really was one of those days). I was able to pick Katy up on time, and head toward the town of Rockingham. It’s about an hour and a half south of where we live. We got there relatively easy, because it was a Saturday morning, and not many people were on the road. We picked up a coffee before getting on the boat. On the boat, we had to go through the spiel about safety and liability information. After that, they passed out the snorkels and wetsuits. The wet suits were the kind that floats. Therefore, all we had to do in the water was lay out on our belly, so the dolphins could swim around us.
I can’t explain how cool the experience was. The dolphins literally swam three feet in front of my face. We were not allowed to touch them, because the oils in our hands are actually toxic to them. It was just fascinating to see them playing with each other and playing with our guides. We linked together to make a long chain of people, and our guides pulled us around with motorized swimming machines. We were able to go out about five different times. One time we didn’t actually see any, but we just got back to the boat and then went right back out as soon as the skipper found the dolphins again. We were able to see a couple moms and calves. One calf was only about 2 weeks old; it still had the folds in its skin from being inside of his mom. On the way back to the jetty, we kicked up a big wave because the boat was moving pretty fast. The dolphins love to play in the waves, and they were jumping out of the water and doing some little flips just like in the movies or at SeaWorld. They are really playful animals and quite entertaining.
After we got back, we went walking around the town, and then we drove to Penguin Island. There are real penguins here, and it’s a natural colony. We took the ferry over to the island and walked the whole island. We didn’t see any penguins, because they are nocturnal and were either hiding or all out in the ocean gathering food. There was a tank though in the middle of the island with a few penguins in it for demonstrations. The little island makes one feel as if he is miles away from anything else in the world.
We headed for the campsite after we left the island. We got there, set up our tent, (on about at 10x10 piece of ground) and headed out walking towards the beach. We walked along the beach for about an hour. It was not the softest beach in the world, but it was beautiful. We walked along in the water and soon realized that it was full of starfish!! They were everywhere. We had to be careful where we stepped, because they were being tossed around by the waves. We walked back to the campsite and put some chicken on the barbie. They had really nice, electric barbies at this particular caravan park. After dinner, we walked back to the beach to enjoy a beer and watch the sunset. We weren’t disappointed. It was a good way to enjoy Valentine’s Day… even if we were flying solo.
It was back to the campsite after sunset for S’MORES!! Do you know that Australia DOES NOT HAVE graham crackers, Hershey bars or regular marshmallows!?! We had to improvise. We used shortbread cookies, Cadbury chocolate, and raspberry flavored marshmallows. Since we only had an electric barbie, we also had to just melt everything rather than use a fire. Nonetheless, they were still a perfect way to end the day.
Sunday
We woke up today, took showers in the incredibly clean shower house, and then packed up our gear. We went to Fremantle, shortened to Freo, for the day. There are fabulous stores and markets in Freo. We went to a coffee shop, Ginos, for breaky, and then we went to the Fremantle Prison. The prison was the first one on the west coast, built for an by convicts from Europe. It was great, but quite eerie as well. The prison has only been closed for 15 years, and it was very run-down. By the looks of the pictures, it didn’t look much better when it was an actual prison. We went back towards the markets, and they were finally opened by 10AM. I ended up getting a few things, one being a sarong, which is basically a piece of rayon that people use as a bather cover-up.
After the markets, we went to the Shipwreck Galleries and some other historical spots around town. The Shipwreck Galleries were great, but we were starting to get tired. We decided to find lunch. We ended up eating at Cicero’s. It’s the best fish and chips shop in Freo, and it was definitely delicious! We also walked through a brewery. It was an unbelievable coincidence, because the brewery that we went through, was the maker of the beer that I happened to pick up for Friday night. It’s the only major brewery in the area, and all of the beer is made in that one location.
After lunch, we headed home so Katy could get to her little host-brother’s bowling, birthday party. I laid by the pool all afternoon and got my life back in order from the weekend. This week should be a good one. It’s got to be, because Brett leaves for Tasmania for two weeks starting this Friday, and I’m going to be the main teacher! Ahh!
You're a champ if you made it all the way to here! Whew, a lot happened this week.
Today was a relatively easy day at school. Brett still taught math, and I taught just about everything else. We are working on many different things with one being a peer biography. The students are actually surprisingly low in their skills. For some reason, in about every subject, they are behind. It’s really quite a concern, because we have to get them ready for high school by this time next year. About a third of the class are over a year ahead of where they should be, about one third on track, and about another third well below a year behind. It makes teaching quite difficult. There are so many individualized assignments because of this, which all have to be graded according to each student’s ability level.
I hadn’t realized how much my failed science lesson had gotten to me, but it really bugged me. I was able to talk it through with Brett today, and we worked out a new way to attempt it. The students just aren’t quite ready to work in cooperative groups yet; they’ve got some maturing to do. The frustrations of being a teacher are alive and well now that I’m into my second week. Students don’t do what they are specifically directed to do, they don’t turn in quality work, some simply don’t care, and others are never going to get it as much as I explain it. One little boy has an IQ of about 70, and just missed the level of receiving assistance. Keeping him on track, while trying to keep another student, who is more advanced than me in math, challenged at the same time; it’s just really difficult and draining. Thank goodness Brett is there to help some of the lower students while I’m handling the rest of the class.
Tonight, I went to dinner at Carine with Heather, Len and Kit and John, Hazel and Renee for Hazel’s birthday. Dinner was delightful! After dinner, I did some prep work for school and headed to bed.
Oh yeah, THE AIR CONDITIONING WAS FIXED AT SCHOOL TODAY!!!!
Wednesday
It was awfully hard to get up this morning. I felt like I weighed about 1000 lbs and was just exhausted. I got up anyway and went for a run. When I got to school, my day was already looking up, because the air con was working. It would have been torture teaching with no AC today. It was over 100 degrees again.
The day went well. The big event of the day though was this afternoon. One of the little boys wasn’t getting any work done. I kept checking on him, but I looked over, and he had just run out of the room. Our rooms go directly to the outside, and when I saw him, he was bent over puking in the bushes. Brett got him settled and the mess cleaned up, but that was quite the disruption for a seventh grade class. The poor little guy came back to class too and finished the day!
When I got home from school, Fatty was here. Fatty is a friend of Kit’s who will be staying with us for about a month. We chatted some and then I did some planning. After my evening dip in the pool, we had dinner. It was wonderful as always. It was a relatively uneventful day.
However, today has been monumental in my social life. Katy, the other COST student teacher, and I made some very large plans tonight. We have decided that we are going to go to swim with the dolphins this week at Rockingham, but then we are going to say and see Penguin Island and spend the night camping on the beach. We will get up the next morning and drive home through Fremantle, which is a bit of a hippie town, and go through the Fremantle Markets. We also made plans for the last weekend in Feb. We are going to BALI!! It’s going to cost us about $500 each to go to Bali for 3 nights and 3 days, so we’re just going to do it.
Thursday
Today was a good day. We were in the air conditioning, so it was relatively pleasant. I taught the whole day today, with Brett just jumping in where he needed to in order to fill in things that I forgot. It’s really nice to have an experienced teacher to help when I don’t know how to say something quite simply enough. We had lunch duty today. It was really easy, because the kids just go wherever they want. It’s really not too hard to look after them because they all go outside to run and play, so they are pretty well behaved.
I didn’t do much this evening. I went for a run down by the beach, but that was about it. Tomorrow will be the test for the students’ behavior in science. They know that if they blow it, we’ll not be doing anything fun. I’m not about to pull out wires, light bulbs, batteries, voltmeters, etc, when they are acting as if they haven’t got a brain in their head. So we’ll see…
Friday
The little buggers were naughty today. This morning was lovely, the students did a chance and data lesson with dice to find probability, which went wonderfully. HOWEVER, after lunch they were like a totally different group of kids. I had to yell a few times (which I really hate), and they just wouldn’t listen. I told people to turn in their homework, and 6 out of 31 turned it in. Therefore, on Monday, we are going to have a nice long chat about this. Brett and I are spending more time chasing kids around trying to get their work turned in than actually teaching. It’s ridiculous. I don’t know what kind of structure they have had in the past, but it certainly wasn’t how we are running things. The kids are fantastic and lovely to be around, but their work is just pathetic. There are about five kids who are on top of their work, and the rest of the class simply acts like they don’t care.
This afternoon, Brett and I had a quick beer with the rest of the staff after school and headed home. I had a bowl of ice cream! Everyone is pretty healthy here, but Heather just bought ice cream that she doesn’t like, so I told her that I would get rid of it for her. ☺ When Heather got home, she and I went for a little test drive. We were able to get insurance for me on her car, so I can take it this weekend. I needed to go to the store and get some food for the weekend. The drive went relatively well, I only hit the curb once, and managed not to hit any other cars. It was a bit weird; I constantly felt like I was going the wrong way.
I packed the gear into the car for our camping trip, because I’m going to have to leave at 5:30AM tomorrow to pick Katy up and be at the departure jetty at 7:30AM. We were able to get a camping spot, so we are going to take a tent and sleeping bags. After a long dinner, I went to bed.
Saturday
This could quite possibly be one of the most incredible days of my entire life (… and I know people say that all the time, but this really was one of those days). I was able to pick Katy up on time, and head toward the town of Rockingham. It’s about an hour and a half south of where we live. We got there relatively easy, because it was a Saturday morning, and not many people were on the road. We picked up a coffee before getting on the boat. On the boat, we had to go through the spiel about safety and liability information. After that, they passed out the snorkels and wetsuits. The wet suits were the kind that floats. Therefore, all we had to do in the water was lay out on our belly, so the dolphins could swim around us.
I can’t explain how cool the experience was. The dolphins literally swam three feet in front of my face. We were not allowed to touch them, because the oils in our hands are actually toxic to them. It was just fascinating to see them playing with each other and playing with our guides. We linked together to make a long chain of people, and our guides pulled us around with motorized swimming machines. We were able to go out about five different times. One time we didn’t actually see any, but we just got back to the boat and then went right back out as soon as the skipper found the dolphins again. We were able to see a couple moms and calves. One calf was only about 2 weeks old; it still had the folds in its skin from being inside of his mom. On the way back to the jetty, we kicked up a big wave because the boat was moving pretty fast. The dolphins love to play in the waves, and they were jumping out of the water and doing some little flips just like in the movies or at SeaWorld. They are really playful animals and quite entertaining.
After we got back, we went walking around the town, and then we drove to Penguin Island. There are real penguins here, and it’s a natural colony. We took the ferry over to the island and walked the whole island. We didn’t see any penguins, because they are nocturnal and were either hiding or all out in the ocean gathering food. There was a tank though in the middle of the island with a few penguins in it for demonstrations. The little island makes one feel as if he is miles away from anything else in the world.
We headed for the campsite after we left the island. We got there, set up our tent, (on about at 10x10 piece of ground) and headed out walking towards the beach. We walked along the beach for about an hour. It was not the softest beach in the world, but it was beautiful. We walked along in the water and soon realized that it was full of starfish!! They were everywhere. We had to be careful where we stepped, because they were being tossed around by the waves. We walked back to the campsite and put some chicken on the barbie. They had really nice, electric barbies at this particular caravan park. After dinner, we walked back to the beach to enjoy a beer and watch the sunset. We weren’t disappointed. It was a good way to enjoy Valentine’s Day… even if we were flying solo.
It was back to the campsite after sunset for S’MORES!! Do you know that Australia DOES NOT HAVE graham crackers, Hershey bars or regular marshmallows!?! We had to improvise. We used shortbread cookies, Cadbury chocolate, and raspberry flavored marshmallows. Since we only had an electric barbie, we also had to just melt everything rather than use a fire. Nonetheless, they were still a perfect way to end the day.
Sunday
We woke up today, took showers in the incredibly clean shower house, and then packed up our gear. We went to Fremantle, shortened to Freo, for the day. There are fabulous stores and markets in Freo. We went to a coffee shop, Ginos, for breaky, and then we went to the Fremantle Prison. The prison was the first one on the west coast, built for an by convicts from Europe. It was great, but quite eerie as well. The prison has only been closed for 15 years, and it was very run-down. By the looks of the pictures, it didn’t look much better when it was an actual prison. We went back towards the markets, and they were finally opened by 10AM. I ended up getting a few things, one being a sarong, which is basically a piece of rayon that people use as a bather cover-up.
After the markets, we went to the Shipwreck Galleries and some other historical spots around town. The Shipwreck Galleries were great, but we were starting to get tired. We decided to find lunch. We ended up eating at Cicero’s. It’s the best fish and chips shop in Freo, and it was definitely delicious! We also walked through a brewery. It was an unbelievable coincidence, because the brewery that we went through, was the maker of the beer that I happened to pick up for Friday night. It’s the only major brewery in the area, and all of the beer is made in that one location.
After lunch, we headed home so Katy could get to her little host-brother’s bowling, birthday party. I laid by the pool all afternoon and got my life back in order from the weekend. This week should be a good one. It’s got to be, because Brett leaves for Tasmania for two weeks starting this Friday, and I’m going to be the main teacher! Ahh!
You're a champ if you made it all the way to here! Whew, a lot happened this week.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
The End of Week One
Thursday and Friday—Well, the end of week 1 has come and gone. The students are getting used to the structure of the class and what is expected of them. It’s been a fairly smooth start to the year. They don’t quite see me as the teacher yet, but I think they will by mid next week. They are really good about doing what is asked of the; however, they are still testing us to see what they can get away with. I taught most of the day these past two days, but it was really like team teaching, because Brett just jumped in when he wanted to add something. He is just great to work with, our personalities get along wonderfully. He is giving me a lot of freedom that not a whole lot of teachers allow, so I am very thankful for that, and sincerely hope that I don’t blow it. We stayed after work for a little bit to get some work done on Thursday, and on Friday we stayed, but not to work. We had “beer o’clock.” I might have mentioned this before, but on every Friday, all of the teachers have couple of beers or glass of wine once the kids leave. It’s a great time to unwind and vent some frustrations with people who truly understand what you are talking about.
On Thursday evening, Katy and I went out. Katy is the COST student from the University of Georgia. We’ve been doing as much as we can together, and it’s been really fun so far. A teacher at Katy’s school has a son, Johno, who has offered a couple of times to take us out. Well, we went out with him and his friends on Thursday. We went to a nice restaurant that overlooked the ocean as the sun set, and then we went to the Claremont Hotel in Cotesloe for a drink. Aussies love to dance! It was very entertaining to watch.
On Friday evening, we met the newest COST student, Lauren. She is placed in Belmont, so she’s a bit further away from Katy and I. We ended up having dinner with our coordinator and his wife, as well as my host family, and then Katy and Lauren at my house. Len and Heather made a wonderful dinner, as usual, and we spent the evening chatting and drinking wine. I ended up going to Katy’s house for the night, so that I would be there for our wonderful weekend getaway to Mandurah!
Saturday—I woke up somewhat early, but the boys had already been up for a while. Tom, who is 10, and Will, who is 8, were up watching Saturday morning cartoons. Mel and Katie were up soon after I got up and we all had smoothies for breaky. We went to the market to pick up some groceries for the weekend, and then to a sushi shop to pick up some lunch. Yes, I ate sushi—my first sushi experience! I enjoyed it, but I couldn’t eat it everyday. When Mark got home, we packed up the car and headed out for Mandurah, which is a small beach city about an hour and a half south. It took us about 3 hours to get there though because we took the scenic route along the coast, going through Fremantle and Rockingham. That afternoon we just got to the beach house, and went for a drive around the town so we could see all of the canal system, and had a quick drink at one of the pubs in town. In the evening, we had dinner and watched some footy on TV.
Sunday-We got up fairly early and had breaky. We got the gear together, and took off for the water. We went to one of the inland waterways that was extremely shallow. I took the second round of crabbing, as it was pretty chilly when we got there. The first group caught about 6 crabs, and then I went back out with the boys. We actually caught a good amount, probably about 25, but they were all too short to keep. Mark put out the nets in the deeper water, but we still only caught one that was actually sized. We threw them all back and packed up around noon. It really was a blast though. We just walk along slowly with a scoop and a bucket tied to our waist, and try to step on the crabs lightly. If we felt them move then we pulled our foot back quickly and tried to scoop them up. On the way back to the beach house, we stopped at a local crab store and bought crabs for lunch.
I ate a crab, and I liked it, but I still have a long way to go before I can say that I would eat it often. We eventually packed up and heading back home. We all fell asleep on the way home. We were sunburn and tired from a long night and early morning.
When I got home, there was a crowd of people at my house. It was Heather’s, my host mom’s, birthday, so they were having friends around. They ate many courses over the day starting at 1:30PM and ending at about 8:00PM. I didn’t make it back until the wine and cheese course and the desert. I thought, “perfect timing!” I went for a run and tried to catch up on some work before heading to bed.
Monday—Today was my first day without Brett. Every Monday, I’ll be teaching with the deputy, (assistant principal), as my cooperating teacher. The day went well and relatively smoothly. There were no disasters, except for my science lesson. It was a royal nightmare. I put the students into cooperative learning groups, and they couldn’t handle it. They didn’t like whom they were working with, so they wouldn’t cooperate, and many of them simply didn’t do the activity. So, after lunch, I flat out told them that they would not be doing anything fun, like playing with light bulbs or chemicals until I could trust that they could work together. There was a silence after that, so I think they got the message that I was pretty ticked-off. Other than that little disaster, the day was very pleasant. I think it’s going to be nice to work with another teacher, because I’ll get to see how two people teach, not just one.
After school I tried to stay cool. I had to take the city bus system home, and got turned around, so I was pretty hot by the time I got home. It got up to about 98 degrees today, and in the sun, that’s hot. I went for a run in the evening and had dinner with the family after a quick dip in the pool to cool down. I am pretty tired, and still have a long week ahead.
On Thursday evening, Katy and I went out. Katy is the COST student from the University of Georgia. We’ve been doing as much as we can together, and it’s been really fun so far. A teacher at Katy’s school has a son, Johno, who has offered a couple of times to take us out. Well, we went out with him and his friends on Thursday. We went to a nice restaurant that overlooked the ocean as the sun set, and then we went to the Claremont Hotel in Cotesloe for a drink. Aussies love to dance! It was very entertaining to watch.
On Friday evening, we met the newest COST student, Lauren. She is placed in Belmont, so she’s a bit further away from Katy and I. We ended up having dinner with our coordinator and his wife, as well as my host family, and then Katy and Lauren at my house. Len and Heather made a wonderful dinner, as usual, and we spent the evening chatting and drinking wine. I ended up going to Katy’s house for the night, so that I would be there for our wonderful weekend getaway to Mandurah!
Saturday—I woke up somewhat early, but the boys had already been up for a while. Tom, who is 10, and Will, who is 8, were up watching Saturday morning cartoons. Mel and Katie were up soon after I got up and we all had smoothies for breaky. We went to the market to pick up some groceries for the weekend, and then to a sushi shop to pick up some lunch. Yes, I ate sushi—my first sushi experience! I enjoyed it, but I couldn’t eat it everyday. When Mark got home, we packed up the car and headed out for Mandurah, which is a small beach city about an hour and a half south. It took us about 3 hours to get there though because we took the scenic route along the coast, going through Fremantle and Rockingham. That afternoon we just got to the beach house, and went for a drive around the town so we could see all of the canal system, and had a quick drink at one of the pubs in town. In the evening, we had dinner and watched some footy on TV.
Sunday-We got up fairly early and had breaky. We got the gear together, and took off for the water. We went to one of the inland waterways that was extremely shallow. I took the second round of crabbing, as it was pretty chilly when we got there. The first group caught about 6 crabs, and then I went back out with the boys. We actually caught a good amount, probably about 25, but they were all too short to keep. Mark put out the nets in the deeper water, but we still only caught one that was actually sized. We threw them all back and packed up around noon. It really was a blast though. We just walk along slowly with a scoop and a bucket tied to our waist, and try to step on the crabs lightly. If we felt them move then we pulled our foot back quickly and tried to scoop them up. On the way back to the beach house, we stopped at a local crab store and bought crabs for lunch.
I ate a crab, and I liked it, but I still have a long way to go before I can say that I would eat it often. We eventually packed up and heading back home. We all fell asleep on the way home. We were sunburn and tired from a long night and early morning.
When I got home, there was a crowd of people at my house. It was Heather’s, my host mom’s, birthday, so they were having friends around. They ate many courses over the day starting at 1:30PM and ending at about 8:00PM. I didn’t make it back until the wine and cheese course and the desert. I thought, “perfect timing!” I went for a run and tried to catch up on some work before heading to bed.
Monday—Today was my first day without Brett. Every Monday, I’ll be teaching with the deputy, (assistant principal), as my cooperating teacher. The day went well and relatively smoothly. There were no disasters, except for my science lesson. It was a royal nightmare. I put the students into cooperative learning groups, and they couldn’t handle it. They didn’t like whom they were working with, so they wouldn’t cooperate, and many of them simply didn’t do the activity. So, after lunch, I flat out told them that they would not be doing anything fun, like playing with light bulbs or chemicals until I could trust that they could work together. There was a silence after that, so I think they got the message that I was pretty ticked-off. Other than that little disaster, the day was very pleasant. I think it’s going to be nice to work with another teacher, because I’ll get to see how two people teach, not just one.
After school I tried to stay cool. I had to take the city bus system home, and got turned around, so I was pretty hot by the time I got home. It got up to about 98 degrees today, and in the sun, that’s hot. I went for a run in the evening and had dinner with the family after a quick dip in the pool to cool down. I am pretty tired, and still have a long week ahead.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
First Days of School
Monday, Feb 2nd—Today was the first day of school, and Heather took me at about 8:00. WOW. I have 31 students in my class and 10 more that come over for math and reading. The day went really well with only minor challenges. The students all wear uniforms—all schools public and private wear them over here. That was a big shock when they all arrived in the morning; I hadn’t quite expected that. The day was a lot of expectation-setting and establishing the classroom atmosphere. The students are relatively well behaved and highly respect Brett, my cooperating teacher, so I don’t think we are going to have too many difficulties with discipline.
It was unbelieveably hot here though. It was about 110 degree and humid. Our classroom’s air conditioning is broken and has no windows that open. Therefore, by 2:00PM it was a heat box, so we just let the students sit down and watch a movie. One of their subjects is viewing, so part of the time we did actually analyze the camera shots used in the movie. We’ve got a smartboard in the room, which is absolutely fantastic. It was like a huge movie screen for the kids. (I know there are more academic ways to use it, but for today it was great!)
Brett took me home again at about 5:00. When I got home, I took a dip in the pool and then got ready for the evening. After a very nice dinner, Heather, Katie and I went to the Camelot cinemas, which is an outdoor movie theater. We saw Vicky Christina Barcelona while sitting under the stars and sharing a bottle of wine. It was incredible. That however did lead to a long night. We got home at about midnight, and then I had about and hour of planning to do, so that put me into bed at around 1AM.
Tuesday—For the second day of school and still being quite warm, the day was relatively good. The biggest struggle that I think we are going to have is an autistic boy in our class. He is defiant and hard to engage. His aid is fabulous, but she’s not in the room all the time, and of course, he seems to act up when she’s away for a while. I taught most of the day today, with the exception of math and art. I introduced the spelling unit,
Tonight, I just stayed around home. I ended up walking down to the beach right when Brett dropped me off, and I fell asleep for about 45 minutes. It was a wonderful nap. I walked home and lounged around until dinner. After dinner, Heather and I watched Muriel’s Wedding, which is a Western Australian movie. (She has a whole list of movies and books that I need to read while I’m here—although I don’t think I’m going to get them all done.)
Wednesday—Today at school, I was almost the main teacher. We do fitness every morning for 15 minutes, and today’s game was soccer. It’s a FABULOUS way to start the day, because Brett, Ashleigh and I just watch the games to make sure no one gets hurt. We then had the kids take their math test and work on some sudoku problems. The day was extremely productive. We had about an hour of uninterrupted time for planning. Therefore, tonight, I really don’t have a whole lot to do. Our DOTT time (duties other than teaching) started today, so we had an hour of time that we didn’t get the past two days. It was awfully nice.
I taught spelling, a unit about flags, and a unit about biographies and interviewing. Brett is trying to let me have the class completely by next week. Since the school deputy (like the assistant principal) will be filling in for Brett on Mondays, Brett would like me to be the full teacher before this coming Monday, so that the deputy will not have to do much for class.
Tonight, I just stayed home and got some work done. I watched two Australian soap operas, Neighbors and Home and Away. Both are typical soaps, but only 30 minutes long. Tomorrow will be another day, and I believe that I’m going to go out tomorrow evening.
It was unbelieveably hot here though. It was about 110 degree and humid. Our classroom’s air conditioning is broken and has no windows that open. Therefore, by 2:00PM it was a heat box, so we just let the students sit down and watch a movie. One of their subjects is viewing, so part of the time we did actually analyze the camera shots used in the movie. We’ve got a smartboard in the room, which is absolutely fantastic. It was like a huge movie screen for the kids. (I know there are more academic ways to use it, but for today it was great!)
Brett took me home again at about 5:00. When I got home, I took a dip in the pool and then got ready for the evening. After a very nice dinner, Heather, Katie and I went to the Camelot cinemas, which is an outdoor movie theater. We saw Vicky Christina Barcelona while sitting under the stars and sharing a bottle of wine. It was incredible. That however did lead to a long night. We got home at about midnight, and then I had about and hour of planning to do, so that put me into bed at around 1AM.
Tuesday—For the second day of school and still being quite warm, the day was relatively good. The biggest struggle that I think we are going to have is an autistic boy in our class. He is defiant and hard to engage. His aid is fabulous, but she’s not in the room all the time, and of course, he seems to act up when she’s away for a while. I taught most of the day today, with the exception of math and art. I introduced the spelling unit,
Tonight, I just stayed around home. I ended up walking down to the beach right when Brett dropped me off, and I fell asleep for about 45 minutes. It was a wonderful nap. I walked home and lounged around until dinner. After dinner, Heather and I watched Muriel’s Wedding, which is a Western Australian movie. (She has a whole list of movies and books that I need to read while I’m here—although I don’t think I’m going to get them all done.)
Wednesday—Today at school, I was almost the main teacher. We do fitness every morning for 15 minutes, and today’s game was soccer. It’s a FABULOUS way to start the day, because Brett, Ashleigh and I just watch the games to make sure no one gets hurt. We then had the kids take their math test and work on some sudoku problems. The day was extremely productive. We had about an hour of uninterrupted time for planning. Therefore, tonight, I really don’t have a whole lot to do. Our DOTT time (duties other than teaching) started today, so we had an hour of time that we didn’t get the past two days. It was awfully nice.
I taught spelling, a unit about flags, and a unit about biographies and interviewing. Brett is trying to let me have the class completely by next week. Since the school deputy (like the assistant principal) will be filling in for Brett on Mondays, Brett would like me to be the full teacher before this coming Monday, so that the deputy will not have to do much for class.
Tonight, I just stayed home and got some work done. I watched two Australian soap operas, Neighbors and Home and Away. Both are typical soaps, but only 30 minutes long. Tomorrow will be another day, and I believe that I’m going to go out tomorrow evening.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Thursday--Today was my first day at school. My cooperating teacher, Brett, picked me up and my life drastically changed. I can't just have fun now; it's actually time to work. So, we got to school and had a coffee, while Brett introduced me to most of the staff. We sat in meetings all morning. They were the kind where the Principal listed his expectations, and then teachers brainstormed, etc. We grabbed lunch at Subway (they are EVERYWHERE here). We had more meetings in the afternoon for about an hour, and then time to work in the classroom. Ha. Well, we were supposed to have time to work in the classroom. The last year’s teacher that taught in Brett’s room this year didn’t move any of his stuff out of his room due to surgery or something. SO, we got the honors of doing that. We stayed at school until about 5 and then Brett took me back home. He was very generous and offered to take me out to dinner with his family. It was fabulous! We went to an Italian restaurant—one where he is a regular. After dinner we all went to the movies and saw Grand Toreno (the one with Clint Eastwood). And yes, I would recommend it. That’s it for today, but tomorrow is the second teacher day, and I’m sure will be full of surprises.
Friday—Well, I was right about the surprises. We didn’t notice it too much yesterday, but we sure did today—and that is that our air conditioner in our classroom doesn’t work. Now, I know you all probably have no sympathy, but in 110 degree weather and no windows that open, it’s a nightmare. We spend the first two hours today in some more meetings. After that we were supposed to have planning time, and all of the other teachers in the school did, but Brett and I continued to move junk around all morning. Lunch was nice; the school had it catered. All afternoon we had some more meetings and then time in our classes. By 4:30PM, we had most of the room done, but still no plans for the first day of school on Monday. We called it quits and headed to the teachers lounge for a beer. It’s crazy here, all of the teachers have wine or beer every Friday as soon as the kids leave in the teachers lounge! There’s a fridge stocked, where people just pay for a bottle or glass when they want one. It’s was very nice after two days of unexpected difficulties.
Katy, the other COST student from the University of Georgia, and I met up with one of her teacher’s sons to go out. We ended up going to the Claremont Hotel, and then to a house warming party for the rest of the evening. We ended the night with a trip up to Kings’ Park. It’s a natural bush land area that is to never be developed an overlooks the whole city. It’s quite spectacular.
Saturday—I decided to take this weekend lightly, especially with the amount of writing and planning that I have to do to be ready for Monday. I decided to go for a long run today. So, I woke up and fiddled around until about 9:30AM (I know, some of you would think that’s early, but this culture really fits very nicely into my lifestyle, because as you probably know, I’m an early riser, and most households are up and doing things before 9AM—even on weekends). I went out for a run, after about 25 minutes, I decided to stop for a swim. I took a couple dips in the ocean. There’s a really calm area that’s great for swimming. And then once I dried off, went back out on the path. In all I was out about 2.5 hours. I was hot and sweaty after getting back home, so I took another dip—but this time in our pool at the house.
I showered and tried to get some work done, and then Heather, Len and I went shopping. I looked around at some neat shops, and then we got the groceries at the supermarket. (It’s strange, the supermarkets are in the malls!) When we got home, we all had an ice-cold beer and sat in the pool to cool down.
I ended up staying home tonight and had intended to watch an Australian movie, but I got carried away with other things. Len and Heather, especially Len, are gourmet cooks. I don’t think I’ve eaten a meal with less than 3 courses since I’ve been here! It’s absolutely fabulous. They are also wine connoisseurs and attend a wine club every week. So, I’m learning a lot about wine, and typically, we have a couple types to match the foods that they have planned for dinner. Heather was going to go to a movie tonight, but it was sold out so their friends just came here and had some wine and cheese and socialized a bit.
Sunday, Feb. 1st—You know how we were really behind on work and preparation last week? Well, guess what, that means we had to come in on a Sunday morning to get ready for tomorrow. Brett picked me up at 8:45 and we headed to a local coffee shop, the Dome, to meet Ashley and head to school. Ashley is the teacher next door to our room. She teaches 6/7 graders, and Brett and I have the rest of the 7th graders. There are 41 7th graders, and Brett and I have 31 of them, so we are leaving the movable doors open between the two classrooms, because much of the time, Brett and I will have all 41 of the 7th graders. It’ll be a unique experience, but I think it’s going to be really, really fun. (Except for the fact that our room isn’t air conditioned right now and neither is hers.)
We worked until about 12:30 and then Brett brought me back home. I spent the afternoon planning and swimming in the pool. It’s really stinkin’ hot—and my house doesn’t have air conditioning either. Len made toasted sandwiches for lunch, and Heather made about 6 different types of salads for dinner, which were all delicious! And that’s after we had ricotta pancakes, fruit and yogurt for breakfast. I’m going to plan some more this evening, because tomorrow is the first day of school, and I’ll be jumping right in there as a co-teacher. I’m hoping to take the class over as the lead teacher by the 2nd or third week, because Brett has to take a week off, and hopefully, I will be the main teacher by then.
Friday—Well, I was right about the surprises. We didn’t notice it too much yesterday, but we sure did today—and that is that our air conditioner in our classroom doesn’t work. Now, I know you all probably have no sympathy, but in 110 degree weather and no windows that open, it’s a nightmare. We spend the first two hours today in some more meetings. After that we were supposed to have planning time, and all of the other teachers in the school did, but Brett and I continued to move junk around all morning. Lunch was nice; the school had it catered. All afternoon we had some more meetings and then time in our classes. By 4:30PM, we had most of the room done, but still no plans for the first day of school on Monday. We called it quits and headed to the teachers lounge for a beer. It’s crazy here, all of the teachers have wine or beer every Friday as soon as the kids leave in the teachers lounge! There’s a fridge stocked, where people just pay for a bottle or glass when they want one. It’s was very nice after two days of unexpected difficulties.
Katy, the other COST student from the University of Georgia, and I met up with one of her teacher’s sons to go out. We ended up going to the Claremont Hotel, and then to a house warming party for the rest of the evening. We ended the night with a trip up to Kings’ Park. It’s a natural bush land area that is to never be developed an overlooks the whole city. It’s quite spectacular.
Saturday—I decided to take this weekend lightly, especially with the amount of writing and planning that I have to do to be ready for Monday. I decided to go for a long run today. So, I woke up and fiddled around until about 9:30AM (I know, some of you would think that’s early, but this culture really fits very nicely into my lifestyle, because as you probably know, I’m an early riser, and most households are up and doing things before 9AM—even on weekends). I went out for a run, after about 25 minutes, I decided to stop for a swim. I took a couple dips in the ocean. There’s a really calm area that’s great for swimming. And then once I dried off, went back out on the path. In all I was out about 2.5 hours. I was hot and sweaty after getting back home, so I took another dip—but this time in our pool at the house.
I showered and tried to get some work done, and then Heather, Len and I went shopping. I looked around at some neat shops, and then we got the groceries at the supermarket. (It’s strange, the supermarkets are in the malls!) When we got home, we all had an ice-cold beer and sat in the pool to cool down.
I ended up staying home tonight and had intended to watch an Australian movie, but I got carried away with other things. Len and Heather, especially Len, are gourmet cooks. I don’t think I’ve eaten a meal with less than 3 courses since I’ve been here! It’s absolutely fabulous. They are also wine connoisseurs and attend a wine club every week. So, I’m learning a lot about wine, and typically, we have a couple types to match the foods that they have planned for dinner. Heather was going to go to a movie tonight, but it was sold out so their friends just came here and had some wine and cheese and socialized a bit.
Sunday, Feb. 1st—You know how we were really behind on work and preparation last week? Well, guess what, that means we had to come in on a Sunday morning to get ready for tomorrow. Brett picked me up at 8:45 and we headed to a local coffee shop, the Dome, to meet Ashley and head to school. Ashley is the teacher next door to our room. She teaches 6/7 graders, and Brett and I have the rest of the 7th graders. There are 41 7th graders, and Brett and I have 31 of them, so we are leaving the movable doors open between the two classrooms, because much of the time, Brett and I will have all 41 of the 7th graders. It’ll be a unique experience, but I think it’s going to be really, really fun. (Except for the fact that our room isn’t air conditioned right now and neither is hers.)
We worked until about 12:30 and then Brett brought me back home. I spent the afternoon planning and swimming in the pool. It’s really stinkin’ hot—and my house doesn’t have air conditioning either. Len made toasted sandwiches for lunch, and Heather made about 6 different types of salads for dinner, which were all delicious! And that’s after we had ricotta pancakes, fruit and yogurt for breakfast. I’m going to plan some more this evening, because tomorrow is the first day of school, and I’ll be jumping right in there as a co-teacher. I’m hoping to take the class over as the lead teacher by the 2nd or third week, because Brett has to take a week off, and hopefully, I will be the main teacher by then.
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