Mid-Term

Can't believe how fast the time flies. It's been another busy couple of weeks at St. John Vianney's. Every week has had some special event or time taken out to do something, whether it's a liturgy or an incursion or something else that has just come up. I also haven't had a day where I've had every single student.  Half-way through the term and I have yet to see every beautiful Year One face.  It's a little crazy. I feel that I am in constant catch-up mode.  I must admit though, some of the events have been fun.

Last week we had a crazy Thursday.  Not only did we celebrate St. Anne and St. Joachim Day (Mary's parents) by having grandparents come in and read to the children, we also had a book day where the students got to come to school dressed up as their favorite (or the easiest costume for mom to make) book character. They don't celebrate Halloween here so I think they take every opportunity they can to dress up (fancy dress). I bet no one can guess what I went as..............



Shoot! You got it.  The Paper Bag Princess once again made an appearance.  Amazingly, this book has made it's way across the Pacific and the equator and into Australia. It's even on my book shelf, and no, it is not my book. I made sure to introduce Robert Munsch as a Canadian author and I've now got parents asking me his name so they can check him out.  I even went onto TumbleBooks and had Robert himself read the book to the kids.  There was no way I could do it justice.  The day actually turned out pretty well considering that the students didn't have to wear uniforms, which is always interesting, and they were in costume, plus the grandparents. I even managed to get some work accomplished in the afternoon.

Last week we also had an incursion.  To me this sounds like we're being attacked, but I guess if you call field trips excursions, you have to call field trips that come to you incursions.  It was really great.  All about mini-beasts.  The kids thought it was great and I learned about which spiders I need to stay away from. That was nice to finally learn.  Hopefully I'll only see the harmless ones.

This week coming up won't be much better. Today we had a liturgy to introduce our new focus for the second half of the term.  Don't ask me what it is right now, I've forgotten.  That's a great start. I actually didn't have to go because my students had Italian, so their Italian teacher supervised and I got some work done. We also have Learning Journeys during the afternoon on Friday.  This is a Student-Guided Parent teacher interview of sorts. Some parents choose not to come so I have to have something for those kids to do, plus prep everyone for what they should be doing with their parents.  I'm not even certain that we've really done anything worthwhile sharing with all the interruptions we've had. Oh well, Maria and I will think of something. Also, on Friday, we've got Father's Day activities. That's right, Father's Day is in September here. The dad's will come in and read with their child. I also have to figure out a gift or something to make.  Yay for The Important Book. Teaching descriptive writing and a Father's Day gift in one. I love it!







Playing ball hockey



Stick bugs from Queensland















 







Outside of school life isn't hugely exciting. I've been watching a lot of movies as it is still winter here and it gets dark pretty quick after school. I watch movies because most of the shows in Australia are just finishing their seasons, so I've already seen them.  I have watched some Aussie television and some of it is pretty good.  Better than Canadian television at any rate. There is one show called QI where comedian get asked questions about various topics and the goal is to get as many answers wrong as possible. I'm sure that's what the goal is.  I may be wrong though. :-) Another show, called Underbelly, is based on true events in Australia's past.  This season they are focused on Sydney in the 1920s and 30s.  It's kind of interesting and gives some of ideas of places to visit next time I go to Sydney.



I've also spent alot of time paranoid about spiders.  I had my first Huntsmen in my kitchen yesterday.  It was about the size of a Twoonie, maybe bigger and there was no way I was going to pick it up in a kleenax (even if they are completely harmless. I took a broom and smacked it.  Then I had to smack it again, and again and again.  Man, are they resilient . I think it took me a good 2 minutes to kill the thing. I then spent the rest of evening seeing spiders out of the corner of my eye, or feeling them crawl along my neck. That's right everybody.  I'm a wuss.



I've also taken up netball.  I explain it as ringette is to hockey as netball is to basketball. Apparently it can get very violent (you know women) but so far it just seems to me that you give everyone too much room (3 feet) and people can shoot at will because of this space.  I was told by my team that I did great for a first timer but I felt like I couldn't play defence to save my life. It's a lot like handball where you can't run with the ball and have to rely on passing so I have no idea where to block someone as standing behind them is pointless and as soon as they get the ball, you have to jump back 3 feet. I'm sure I'll get it figured out.  It was fun and I'm looking forward to getting better at it.



Next weekend I'm off to Adelaide and then it will only be a couple of weeks until I hit Tazzie for the term break. I can't wait! It's time to see a little more of Australia.

The top of Gibraltor rocks looking towards Canberra.

Another trip to Tidbinbilla and a very curious Emu.

All dressed up in Aboriginal face painting and nowhere to go.

I miss all of you and to all you teachers, teacher's assistants and other school employees, enjoy the first week of school.  I can't wait to hear about it!

Feels Like Home to Me

Hey everyone! Yes, I'm still alive. The last couple of weeks have been full of teaching and other fun activities.

The Year 1s and I are really starting to get rolling.  Our first two weeks were a little chaotic with no real opportunity to really set up a routine as there were excursions, uniform free/fun days, Jump Rope for Heart and celebrations (Father's 80th birthday and our school's 40th Anniversary). This week has been almost distraction free and I actually feel like I'm getting some things accomplished, except for assessment (I guess my work ethic in Australia is no different than in Canada). Thank goodness there are only 2 reporting periods here.  One mid-year and one at the end of the year.

This week (and the next couple of weeks), I will be teaching the Year 1s how to play hockey.  Unfortunately, in the entire school we only have 3 floor hockey sticks.  I may have to do something about that.  Instead we are using field hockey sticks and the big foamie styrofoam type ones. My Year 1s were quite good on Wednesday and today I get to take on the other Year 1s.

I've also managed to teach my 1s the poem Alligator Pie.  They were quite excited about the reference to hockey sticks.  We also wrote a verse together called Kangaroo Meat.  Today they are going to try and write their own Aussie verse.  I'm really hoping for a platypus stew or emu cake. We'll see how it goes.

I'm starting to get used to the language differences and have actually gotten comfortable using and answering How you going? I also now use the word bench instead of counter, year instead of grade, bin instead of garbage and tub instead of bin (though I still sometimes mess up on this one.  The kids now just laugh at me).

I've had some requests to hear more about the school so here goes:

• Our school is 40 years old this year
• It has recently been renovated
• We have two classes for each grade except 4, 5, and 6 which only have one class per.
• Our staff is fantastic
• Each classroom has a 'wet area' to do painting and artwork
• We have class sliding doors to our classrooms which I love
• Kids each lunch and snack outside
• Students have to wear uniforms (Wednesday and Friday are sport uniforms)
• On sport days (Wed. and Fri.) teachers can wear trackies (track pants), running shoes and hoodies
• Students must wear hats or they are not allowed out of the shade to play, even when it is only 20 degrees
• Classrooms are smaller and all carpeted.
• There are no locker, though students have cubbies for their bags
• We are in the suburb of Waramanga, about a ten minute drive from my suburb of Monash
• I teach 19 awesome kids

Now more about me.  Last weekend I went to Sydney with Nat's brother and sister-in-law (who is 8 months pregnant). While Rob, Nat's brother, did a security course, Nicole and I visited Parklea Markets (where I bought random cheap souveniers and crap I probably don't need), killed the battery on the car by leaving the lights on and just randomly drove around South Sydney (I think we were south). Had a great day bonding with my adopted family members. Sunday I did more shopping at the Old Bus Depot Markets in Canberra.  I bought some food and some artwork including an order for custom made didjeridoo from an Aboriginal artist.  He's going to put a platypus on it for me and everything.  I'm very excited.

This weeked I have been invited to 'barbie' at one my student's house and then I may go see the final home game for our local professional hockey team, the Canberra Knights.  On Sunday, I'm invited to dinner at a staff member's house.  I've definitely been well fed here.  Some clothing is starting to feel a little tight, so it's a good thing that I've been invited to play on a netball team with a couple of student's parents.  I've been told it is exceptionally violent (like most women's sports) and full of little stupid rules.  It is basketball for girls, just like ringette is hockey for girls. We'll see how this goes.

Limbo-ing for Heart

Jump Rope for Heart

Hockey Day in Australia

Ready for the day to start

Well, that's my update for the last couple of weeks.  I miss you all. Talk to you soon.