29th and 30th July

Sunday night! 

We took Sunday as a a day of relaxation, and kind of slowly woke up, got ourselves situated. We headed over to the chase to pick up some black shorts for my netball game. We wandered past the movie theatre there, and saw the 'free movie if you register for so-and-so'. We had previously looked for tickets for movies there and it was around $18.00 per movie. We were absolutely floored, but both had wanted to see Magic Mike, and certainly not because of the promising acting.
We both signed up for the frequent customer card thing (which costed $7.50), so basically we paid $7.50 to see a movie, which was pretty decent.
Magic Mike: terrible movie, terrible acting, excellent eye candy, good dancing, fine price. Really, really glad we didn't pay $18.00 to go see it. However, we did get to see a tripper movie in Australia. Wahoo!!!

Netball

Later that night, I had my very first Netball Game EVER!!! It was super incredibly confusing and embarrassing. However, I think I will be able to get better eventually, even if it does take three months.
My stats for the game:
I played Wing Defense.
I caught and successfully passed three passes throughout the game.
I played two quarters.

I learned several things about defense in netball:
You MUST be 90 cm away from the player you're guarding.
If your man doesn't have the ball, you cannot put your hands up.
If he doesn't have the ball, you have to stand to their side.
When you're standing at their side, you are not allowed to use the hand on their side of you to defend, but you can use your opposite hand to defend.
Make sure you know exactly what your position is, and where you are allowed to be on the court!
I think that's all...I'm sure there's something else, but I'm not sure what it is. I'm sure I'll come up with it when I try to play again.
Moving on!

Monday: Back to School

When I left home on Monday morning there were blue skies. The walk to school is about 35 minutes. After ten minutes, it started dumping rain. So, I walked the rest of the way to school in the crapping rain. Fortunately, I was listening to 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' on my phone. 

When I got to school and started to warm up (thank goodness!) Blake told me that I would be in control of the classroom for the first hour and a half of the morning because he had a meeting. It was super exciting! Luckily, I had helped with a lot of the planning and so I knew what was happening with our literacy rotations and other stuff:)

The rest of the day was a different story, and I ran into some much more frustrating issues dealing with student behavior and the issues surrounding it. Today I had a variety of kids who were a) running away from me, b) grabbing my hands/arms and trying to push me away, c) kicking and punching and screaming (sometimes obscenities) at other kids, and d) wrapping his hands around another students neck and beginning to shake her. 

Most of these situation I was terrified, frustrated, and restricted! I was terrified because there were students in danger and I legally couldn't do anything to stop it if they were already in motion. Several times today I stepped between the attacking student and the student who was being attacked, and took the hit myself. This, unfortunately, was all I could do to protect the other student, and didn't do anything at all to curb the behavior of the other student.

I'm getting frustrated by the lack of power I have with some of these students. I have narrowed it down into three big issues:

1) We can't find consequences that work to discourage the negative behaviors our students sometimes demonstrate

2) No staff are restraint trained to help kids that are physically aggressive and/or violent toward students and teachers

3) Kids for whom we can't find any motivation

As a student teacher, these are things that I need to stay at least three or four kilometers away from, and which I should touch with a ten meter pole. However, they are things that I will be faced with when I have my own classroom, and am in charge of keeping other students safe and in a healthy and comfortable learning environment. 

I have absolutely no doubt that the classroom I am in is a healthy and positive learning environment. In spite of this, there are students that still struggle with inappropriate or destructive behaviors. 

Another problem I have encountered is that there is no ultimate consequence. I am not an advocate of using punishment to teach, I support reinforcement only. However, sometimes students have developed habits/skills of manipulation or behavior that need to be absolutely broken. Behaviors that are not acceptable anywhere; especially not in the classroom where there are other students trying to learn..

I apologize for the negative-nancy post. This next part is more positive!

Bob and Judy (my Mom's host parents when she was down under) picked Kylen and I up and took us out to the Rotary Club dinner! The Rotary Club was who sponsored my mom when she came down, and so many of them new her pretty well when she was down here. They were all so lovely to meet and chat with as well. Thank you so much Bob and Judy for giving my mom and me the opportunities you have already given us! :)

See you all tomorrow!