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.