The Beginning...

Tuesday, 25 September

The rest of Monday and Tuesday were mostly spent preparing for and wasting time before our holiday trip! It's really boring, so I'll leave it at that.

The ever obliging Blake took us to the airport. Our flight wasn't until 8:00, so our plan was to leave the house at 5:30. This turned out to be a gross over-estimate of the amount of time it would take to get through security. I had checked us in the night before, and we weren't checking any bags, which cut off almost an hour from the time we needed. We literally walked straight through security - pausing only long enough for Kylen to get randomly searched. Friendly Australian security people are wonderful!
Unfortunately, the speed with which we got through meant that by the time we got to the gates our flight hadn't even showed up on the departures board yet. We found seats and waited for about an hour. After a while, I got up to have a look around and see if our flight was up on the board yet.
Nothing.
Wait a bit longer.
Play Egyptian Rat Screw, got my butt handed to me by Melissa, and then we all got up to walk around, toting our suitcases. We got about halfway down the terminal before we found our flight would be leaving from the gate at which we had just been waiting for an hour.
Go figure...
Anyway, the flight was relatively uneventful, save for the awesome girl sitting next to me reading "Clash of Kings" (second game of thrones book). We talked for a bit about how incredibly depressing and addictive they are nd how George R.R. Martin is probably a sociopath who just is doing a mass psychological experiment to see how many people will waste hours of their lives reading depressing stuff - just as long as it has some boobies in it.

After the flight, we verified where we needed to meet our morning bus before grabbing a taxi to go to bunk backpackers in Brisbane. The ride was the normal amount of awkward including a quiet cab driver and long, awkward silences punctuated by someone (usually me) making a comment about the flight or scenery.

Made it to the hostel where we were greeted by the "DOON-CHA, DOON-CHA, DOON-CHA" of the attached bar. It looked like it was hoppin', but we had a early bus in the morning.
The very busy front desk attendant was fabulously sweet and impressive. One of those people helping five people at once and everyone feels like they're getting her full attention. Thank god she was smart, too, because it turns out the airhead on the phone I talked to to reserve the room didn't actually reserve it. They had no record of my name or reservation.
Panic.
It was 11:00pm, we were in the middle of Brisbane, we had a bus leaving from the airport in 8 hours time, and had just spent $40 on a cab to get here.
She must have noticed the panic on our faces because she said it sounded like it was their fault, and she would see what she could do.
After a few more minutes of silent panic - she rescued us! She gave us a four person room for the eight person room rate on the condition we only stayed one night.
Saved!
We made our way up to room 404. Spacious, two bunk beds and individual showers and toilet. Sweet!
Finally getting over the adrenaline rush we headed to bed for an early morning.

Wednesday, 26 September

Alarm at 6:30 am. I just went to bed! Stumble for toilet, contacts, and teeth brushing.
We stripped the sheets off of our beds and headed downstairs (choosing to avoid the questionable elevator we had taken up the night before), hopped in a cab, and made it to the Sun-Air bus with enough time to get some breakfast at a cafe inside the airport.

Saturday & Sunday, Phillip Island!

Saturday, 22 September

Woke up at six, right back to sleep, woke up at eight, couldn't get back to sleep. Also, late night + sinus pressure in my inner ear = absolutely zero balance. Thank you!
In the morning, though, we got up and got ready to go to Phillip Island with Andy and the boys. Yay!\
I didn't know this, but apparently Phillip Island is a collection of three-four parks all over the actual island.
Anyway, Andy and the boys picked us up around 1:30 and we headed down south to a tiny little almost-a-town where Jo's sister and her family live.
They live on a beautiful dairy farm with a lot of acreage and a herd of 100 cows!
After arriving and meeting the family, Dave and Andy took us on an awesome drive through the valley and to a gourmet ice cream, wine, and cheese shop. We only had ice cream, and wow it was amazing! The views were pretty too, but the ice cream ...Yum!
We headed back and got introduced to the four-day-old, two-week-old, 2 month old, and four month old calves on the farm. They are super cute, but our conclusion is that cows are just weird. Full stop.
We walked around the land a bit, and were looking out over the valley right at sunset. It was absolutely gorgeous! And when I finally find the time to plug in and edit all these pictures I'll add some here. But for right now, just trust me.
After watching the footy (Adelaide v Hawthorne) - which was a qualifying match for the grand final (Adelaide fought back hard, but Hawthorne came out on top), we had an early night. Thank goodness.

Sunday, 23 September

The next morning we headed to the actual island.
Our first stop was the Koala Conservatory - so many of them! Andy is the best spotter ever, much to the boys' (who were keeping score) dismay.
We also got a really close-up view of a Kookaburra - such awesome birds. I wish he had laughed when I was that close, though.
After the Koalas, we headed out to lunch at a town called Cows. Haha. Delicious paninis and chips and then off to the nobbies!
The nobbies are a national park with a beautiful view of some huge rocks in the distance in the shape of knobs (like on a stove). Again, it'll be more clear when I upload some pictures.
The nobbies is where you go to see seals on Phillip Island. Unfortunately, we didn't see any seals, but it was a beautiful day, if a bit windy, and we some a couple of Cape Bering Geese and Goslings - so cute! (Again - photos later). I got tons of great pictures of the Nobbies and the Ocean.
Next we headed to the Penguin Parade! Before we saw the penguins, Andy and Jo booked us an Eco-Tour with a ranger talking about the history of the penguin parade, which was super cool! On the way back to the center, too, we saw the most amazing double rainbow! (It went all the way across the sky).
When we got back to the centre, we had a few minutes to burn before we should start heading down to get seats, so we bummed around and bought some ponchos to sit on. We had some snacks and mosied on down to find some seats.
After getting settled in our spots Sven (the guide guy for the actual parade) comes on and chats with us for a few minutes, telling us not to make loud noises, throw things, or take pictures.
The light slowly started to go down and we saw some wallabies on top of the hill - pretty cool to see them in the wild!
Anyway, we slowly began hearing interesting noises; splashes, squeaks, and grunts. We weren't supposed to stand up in the bleachers, so we craned our necks around to see what we could see.
Eventually, we started to see some movement in the dusk light!\
We started to see some penguins waddling their way up!!!! They were so freaking cute and funny it was insane. And the amount of self-control I exhibited to NOT take pictures was seriously impressive. Ask anyone who knows me.
Seriously, youtube, 'fairy penguins', 'little penguins' or 'blue penguins' - these are all names used for the smallest of the 17 known species of penguin in the world. Anyway; it was awesome and I can't explain.
Oh! Also on the way back up to the centre (after watching the penguins), we saw two penguins laying down...one on top of the other...gettin' busy. We stopped for a second, incredulous, and the ranger said quietly, "Well, they're going to have more than two eggs this year!"
Awesome.

Wednesday

Dessert Story; it was in. SANE!

I don't have any of the pictures from the place, but it was pretty crazy awesome. And also ridiculous. Pictures later.

Thursday

Thursday morning started out really slow, and I got to school probably the latest I ever have gotten to school. I came in about halfway through the staff meeting. The meeting was totally normal and fine, until the end, when both Blake AND my principal said, 'You should be afraid for the assembly tomorrow.'
Based on the comments I've gotten over the course of the term, I'm assuming I'll get my first taste of Vegemite on toast probably in front of the whole school. Ugh. But bearable.

Thursday at noon, our kids headed out with us to the Forest Hill Footy oval, where we would be meeting with the other small school with whom we will be going on camp. The walk was relatively long, but certainly bearable. Once we got to the oval, we waited for the other school. Then, we got to head out to play and mingle! We played some footy and some frisbee and some soccer and some gymnastics - it was great fun! After having some time with the other kids to mingle was really great, especially before spending a lot of time with them on camp:) That was fun and a nice difference to the day:)Thursday after school, I don't think anything happened...

Friday

Friday morning was very exciting, because we took all the grade fours to a Transition Fun day at a Secondary College. Jenny and I took all our grade fours to hop on the bus with the other small school (same school from yesterday) and we headed to the college.

When we got there we split up into three groups with schools mixed together. When I stood up and held my hand up to show the group number I was in charge of (all eight boys), the boys all said, "Yesss!!!" It was a nice little boost:) hah.
Our group first headed outside to go on a scavenger hunt throughout the school. It was pretty well put together requiring kids to go through each of the different areas of the school, as well as take pictures with mascots/house colours. After going through the scavenger hunt, we went to a craft area where each kid got to make their own door hanger. This is where something interesting happened (interesting/inappropriate). My group (all boys) were sitting around a table with a variety of stickers (some which may be deemed 'girly'). Our guide picked up a mermaid sticker and said, teasingly, "I'm sure you all really wanted this meeeermaid on your door hangers, right?"

The boys all shook their heads and said, "No!" vehemently. I said, "I dunno, guys, she's pretty cuuuuute..." 

One of my boys (with some behavioural struggles), immediately looks up at me and says, "Are you a lesbian?"

My immediate reaction was to laugh, although I knew that would probably be inappropriate:) Hah!
I said, "No, I'm not gay, my fiance is a boy, but that is not really very appropriate to just ask someone."

He immediately felt bad, "Oh, I didn't mean it to be rude or inappropriate!" 

Altogether, it was pretty funny:)

Later, we got back to school and head lunch. Our kids had some time to play after lunch. When we got back in line to go back into the classroom, the kids were pretty fiesty, and wouldn't get on the wall. When I had the kids get into the classroom, one of my girls screams at the top of her lungs, "GET A LIFE!" to another student.

That was quite a disruption. The kids all freaked out and we ended up having a big discussion about respect and solving things like adults. After losing the time we were going to spend playing outside on my last day, we walked over to the assembly, to find two of my kids teasing the single sweetest, most harmless girl in the class and sending her to tears. I was so ticked I nearly pulled him out of the assembly and made him sit in the other room on his own. 

The assembly started and we went straight into the Students of the week. The first surprise was when I was called up as a student of the week! It was pretty fun :)

We spent a while during the assembly talking about end of the term, when Blake heads up to the front, grabs the mic and says, "I'm not used to sharing the spotlight, but I'm willing to give a few minutes over to my student teacher." 

Before I knew it, I was sitting at the front of the room, draped in an Australian flag, and being handed presents to unwrap.
I was super spoiled.
The first thing they brought me was a Parkmore t-shirt and awesome hat - both of which they made me put on. Next, I got a set of four fairly cornerstone Aussie Children's books including: Possum Magic, Are we there yet?, and two others I can't remember right now because I'm on vacation.
I also received a Parkmore mug for hot chocolate, a small aussie flag, a footy, a netball (which all of the staff signed), a card from each student in my class that they made in Art on Wednesday, and the most amazing scrapbook ever put together by the wonderful Lorraine!
There were at least two pages per class in the scrapbook, and students in each class said something to/about me/America. One of my favourite pages are the preps quotes, some of which include:
"American people are old."
"They eat Pork"
"America is in New York"
and
"They wear ripped up towels and stuff."
...interesting.

Anyway, after some really embarassing attention, the assembly ended and I got an absolute flurry of hugs from kids all over my school.
One of the best things about a small school is that even after being here for only a term, I can confidently name about 90% of the school. Pretty proud of that:)

Immediately after the kids left, the staff headed to Jake's room to watch a slideshow of the ridiculous pictures from the cocktail party. They were both awesome and embarassing.
Next stop was T.G.I. Fridays where, aside from Blake telling them it was Jake's birthday, things went smoothly. After T.G.I.'s we headed to Tor's house for some dress up:) We made our way to Jake's for some footy and cards before heading out. When we eventually made our way out, we went to a club called the Manhattan - which is in Vermont (which I gather after talking to Jo and Andy and Sharon and Dave) has a rich history of live bands, dentist chairs, and spinning dance floors. Although only the live bands are around now, it was still a pretty fun time. Awesome night out with awesome people!

Thursday to Monday

Thursday, 13 September 2012

All right, so, Thursdays are tricky days, and easy days because our kids are out of the classroom for a large portion of the day. Unfortunately, we have a pretty awkward schedule, having the kids for half hour blurbs that aren't long enough to do anything, but are too long to just give the kids finish off time. It's tricky. The kids did well, though, and although we didn't really have any big issues for most of the day, the single issue was a big one.

Student A (who often has trouble with anger and violence issues) asked students B and C to stop talking during a bit of free time. B and C continue talking, and A continues telling them to stop (probably not in the nicest way). All of the sudden, A stands up, runs around to the other side of the desk, and grabs B by the hair. He got three or four punches in before I crossed to the other side of the room to step in the way of the hits. Obviously, I'm terrified of getting too involved, but I was the only teacher that saw it, so I had to do something to stop B from getting beat on! Literally, punched in the head over and over again. It was so freaking terrifying, I was nervous that I had made such a huge mistake by getting involved. However, after talking to my principal and several of the teachers at school, they reassured me that I made the right decisions. Thank goodness.

The rest of the day passed relatively without incident, not including the restorative chat with Adrienne, the three boys, and myself.

I got home and absolutely collapsed after Thursday.

Friday, 14 September 2012

Friday was about a million times smoother than Thursday (mostly due to Student A being in school suspension for the day). At the end of the day, the students had the chance to play some games (the drawing the name cards out of the jar turned out absolutely brilliantly - kids were so excited about the drawing and everything. It was a lot of fun, and nice to know that it worked out well.

Saturday, 15 September 2012

Saturday was quite a busy day! I got to wake up slowly and get ready at a pretty leisurely pace. The wonderful Gretchen dropped me off at the train station at 9:15 ish, and I caught the train to Boronia in order for Rachel to pick me up around 10:00. Rachel had a netball game in Boronia at 10:40, and I wanted to go (so I could see what an actual netball game looks like, as opposed to our team). All the girls on Rachel's team are quick and smart, and watching them play really showed me what it's supposed to look like. It's weird because it seems as if they all know where their teammates are without seeing them. It appears to be a sixth sense that I don't possess. Blurgh. Maybe it's an Australian thing. 

Immediately after the netball game, Rach and I headed back to her house, but she dropped me off at a little shopping center with a Lolly Shop that has American candy! I almost peed when I saw that they had...
WHOPPERS! I was so excited! Unfortunately, I didn't have any cash, so I had to buy more candy in order to reach the $10 check card limit. In addition to Whoppers, I got Hershey's Cookies'n'Cream Chocolate, Bubblicious Bubble Gum (Watermelon) - but only because they didn't have Original Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape, and I got a tootsie roll! It turns out that Australians don't appreciate any of these things except maybe the Hershey's. Silly Australians.

Anyway, Rachel picked me up from the shopping center and we headed to our school's Open House Fun Day, which really was awesome! There were dozens of stalls set up in around and on school grounds. We had popcorn, parades, slushies, souvlaki (sp?), pick a stick, face painting, photo booths, and a huge blow up slide! I'm sure I've forgotten things, but that's fine. I worked in the pick-a-stick and raffle hamper (basket) stalls, which were pretty fun. The REAL awesome-ness came when Fleur (another student teacher) and I got to go around and have some awesome going on. First, we got our faces painted, then took a walk around at all the stalls.

Next thing, got my face painted! Fleur had a rainforest butterfly, and I had a rainbow butterfly! Here's us strutting our stuff:

Also, it's just going to have to be upside down, because I can't figure out how to make the blog realize I have turned it right side up. We also bought these fabulous fairy wands from one of the stands by one of my students' moms. She is absolutely wonderful, and made a variety of these  fantastic arts and crafts. I also got another beautiful item from her for Jory Ann, so I won't share what it is on here! The beautiful thing has a wonderful story - it was sold in order to generate money to support my school, and it's absolutely perfect for you! :) I'm excited!

Next thing was the HUGE bouncy slide! It was four dollars to go into the slide for five minutes, and it was SO fun. We had to climb up to the top of the slide and then make these epic leaps down! After going down a few times, the guy working the slide told us to try to do a summersault at the top of the slide and then go down. It was absolutely AWESOME. We took spectacular flips and had such a great time! It was hilarious!

After getting our faces painted, we decided to head to the photo booth! The pictures were absolutely hilarious, and I'll take a picture of the pictures to enter them in. 

Fleur and I also each took a photo using our magic wands to find the best sticks in the pick-a-stick booth (where we were working). Yellow sticks got us a small chocolate, and purple sticks got us a big candy. Unfortunately, we both earned eight yellow sticks, and no purple. So, if you go to a pick-a-stick booth, don't do this...

Not effective.

Anyone, after the fair I headed over to Tor's netball game, to see some more of the actual netball game. Tor's game was a lot of fun to watch as well!

Saturday night, Tor, Cathy, and I were planning on going out to dinner, but we were all exhausted, so Tor and I went out to pick up take-away, then immediately came back to their house to flop on the couch and watched quite a bit of The Big Bang Theory! It was a lot of fun, even if we all were really exhausted by the end there. Hah! The wonderful Tor drove me home and I collapsed into bed.

Sunday, 15 September 2012

Sunday morning I took a few minutes to sleep in and slowly wake up and get ready. When I finally did get my lazy bum out of bed, I caught a bus to the train station, and took a train into the city. My first stop on Sunday was the Old Melbourne Gaol. The gaol didn't actually have a tour, so you just walk through and spend your own time reading and learning the information. It was absolutely freaking incredible and terrifying! 

This picture also makes it look like it's a lot brighter in the gaol than it actually was. It was absolutely terrifying! Not only was it dark and small, but within each of these tiny little cells was a freaking DEATH MASK of the criminals who lived in each of those cells. Creepy stuff!!

Death Masks are creepy.

After bumming around at the jail and scary the holy living crap out of myself, I went through the gift shop and talked to the woman at the shop. The next tour of the WatchTower was still a half hour away. So I mosied on down the street to the State Library, which is the most spectacular building ever! It was so beautiful, and it looked like the beast's library in Beauty and the Beast. Most of it was closed off because it was Sunday:( I did get to see the outside of the library and the basic internal structure, which was similar to the Treasury - where I went later in the day.

I headed back to the Gaol to go on the Watchman's Tour. The Watchtower was closed in '93 or '94, so  it was a pretty recent setup. The whole tour was conducted as if we were criminals in the watchtower in the early 90s. My character that I was playing had been arrested for growing illegal plants (I said that I was just watering my dad's garden). Anyway, we were taken in through processing, fake 'frisked', and then led into the waiting cells. There were three different kinds of cells (not including sizes). Because the watchtower is just your station while you're waiting for the magistrate to rule on your case, there were very minimal comforts. Each of the standard cells had wooden floors, with a wooden bench around the outside of the pentagonal room.The 'warden' locked us in each of the cells (men in one, women in another) and turned off the lights - it definitely was scary, but all the girls in the cell were pretty good. 

The outside of the men's cell was:

Hahaha. It was hilarious!

Other cells included cells with no wood on the floor, cement floors that slant down to a drain. The warden called these the 'drunk cells', because drunk people are messy. haha.

We also found some actual padded cells - creepy, but cool:

I also got a mugshot taken - I was definitely the cutest criminal there...hah!

Taa-daa!

Next, I headed to the Old Melbourne Treasury. The amount of history in this building is absolutely incredible. I wanted to go to the Treasury for two reasons. 1) the architect who designed the building was only 19 when he designed it, and when on to contribute to the designs of dozens if not hundreds of buildings throughout Melbourne and 2) down below the ground floor of the building was an exhibition on the gold rush. I had kind of mediocre expectations for the exhibit on the architect, but I was SUPER excited for the gold rush exhibit. The actual exhibits were completely the opposite. The exhibition on the architect was actually incredible! The Exhibit on the gold rush turned out to be quite a huge disappointment. The only part of the gold rush things that I was impressed with was the replicas of the largest gold nuggets ever found! The largest one was called the 'Welcome, Stranger', and the next largest nugget; the 'Welcome Nugget'. 

This was the only demonstration of the incredible size of the nuggets. These were underneath the ground!!

That was pretty much it for the treasury, and although it was pretty cool to read about the history, I'm glad that the Treasury Building Tour was free:-D

Next Stop: Immigration Museum

It was absolutely spectacular! The first floor was a pretty traditional summary of what you would expect to be in an immigration museum; timelines, reasons why people immigrate, periods of heavy immigration, etc. The top floor was this incredible demonstration of stereotypes, assumptions, physical appearance, ability, and other things that make us judge the people around us. There were a variety of interactive pieces that allowed you to determine what kind of prejudices you might have, and what you can do to combat them. It covered everything from skin colour, face shape, clothing, job, and all about how those things can affect your opinion of someone. It also went into a variety of groups and teams that relate community; these things also included specific aspects of someone's personality that were incredibly unique/beautiful/amazing that you probably wouldn't know about them until you got to know them more deeply.
There was also an interactive scene in which you watched  four people on a tram in the city. two are bystanders, one is a young aboriginal man (talking on the phone in a language other than English), and the other is a middle-aged white man in a suit carrying a briefcase. He is incredibly rude and disrespectful to the younger man. After watching the scene, you are given the choice to 'hear' what one of the people in the scene may have been thinking at the time. It talks about the assumptions made by the older man, the hurt felt by the young man, the uselessness felt by the two bystanders, and the need to do something about it. It was pretty intense, and I felt, very accurate.
Also on the top floor (right toward the end of the exhibits) were two stations that looked like they belonged on the Bridge of the Enterprise:

In the small white square you place one hand. The pad scans your hand (not your hand print, just the outline/shape of your hand). It then asks you to write something pertaining to prejudice, connections, community, trust, assumptions, etc. It gives you prompts such as, "I'm glad to live in this country because...", or "Sometimes I wish I could change how people think when...". I wrote something about being welcomed as a member of the country rather than cut off as an outsider. It was more profound than that, though.
Last but not least at the immigration museum was a huge tree, and beneath it was an enormous tub of recycling materials; bottles, cardboard, fabric, aluminum foil, etc. In the 'tree' (and all around the room), were hundreds of airplanes made by people who had come through the museum.

Everyone's plane was different, and it's so cool to really just sit and look at the differences. The creativity that went into many of the planes. Materials used in new ways and by new people. It was absolutely awesome and deep. Especially for me, in my long day of deep deliberation and terrifying myself in 80-year-old gaol cells. Hah!

After finishing up at the immigration museum, I headed back to the train station, because I had to get home for...

Netball

We were absolutely clobbered. Afterwards we talked and decided that the third quarter was probably our best quarter all game. Unfortunately, that was the quarter that I sat out of the game. Hah! I think netball might be something you just have to grow up with...
Anyway, clobbered as usual, but thus beginneth my last week of teaching in Australia!!!!

Monday

Blake was back! It was really nice to have things back to normal...(Blake sitting in the back of the room while I teach instead of Cyn), and the kids were glad he was back in the room. After we got over the initial shock of Monday morning, the day progressed typically, allowing us to get through several maths and literacy rotations throughout the day. We also got to finish off our freetime, which the kids were really excited about. Here are a few games they play down here, and what their 'translations' are.

• Giant's Treasure - red light green light
• Tiggy - tag
• Scarecrow tiggy - freeze tag
• Chinese Whispers - Telephone
• 40/40 - Hide and Seek

Tuesday

Tuesday, I had my last observation with Kevin! The lesson went pretty well, although there were some logistical problems for which I was unprepared. For instance, when drawing fractions, I didn't expect drawing thirds to monopolize the better part of 45 minutes. However, Kevin saw that I coped well with a change in my lesson, and I responded to my students' feedback on how the lesson was going. We slowed down, and just gave the students more time to complete and understand their fraction circles. Because I was overplanned, but also didn't rush the students, instead spending time wandering around the whole classroom to get a feel for each students' understanding, and modifying the lesson on the spot to fit the needs of the kids was a great thing for Kevin to see that I am capable of doing. 

Pretty exciting! 

Also - we had a going away dinner for me at Persian Flavours - a fabulous middle-eastern restaurant near school. It was great!

Wednesday

Wednesday was footy day! Which means that everyone came to school wearing their team's colours/jerseys/scarves. I, unfortunately, don't have any Roo Gear (North Melbourne Kangaroos), so I was forced to wear a dirty little Adelaide Crows Jumper someone-who-can't-stop-buying-them-on-eBay let me borrow. Which was nice, but I still wish I had something Roo:( 

The day was good, and a really cool bit of it was that I got to spend time in several other classrooms throughout the day. Shockingly, it took me a full ten weeks to get across the hall and spend some time in the junior school! I spent the first hour with Rachel and her preps. I got to watch their morning reading groups which were great! I had a really good understanding of the tact Rach was using to improve their reading skills, and I would see each of those methods in progress. Also, the kids are delightful!

Next I went to Cathy's room to spend some time with the grades 1 and 2. They were also incredibly lovely. Incidentally, today (in Australia) was International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Fortunately, this tainted all of our activities during their reading groups including making hats, treasure maps, and a pop quiz game show about Pirates. The 1/2s were also absolute treasures! It was so great to see a couple of different classroom setups:)

Tonight, some of Kylen's friends from school took us out to a restaurant and dessert bar in Glen Waverly. I'll need to talk more about it and post some pictures, but it turns out I really need to go to bed, and I really need to post this finally. Good night all, see you next time!

-Megan

Monday and...Wednesday?

Monday

Not sure why exactly I skipped Monday on the last blog post. Oh, I remember - because I was trying to block it out. Monday was a really rough day, even though the CRT (casual relief teacher - sub) with me is the regular music teacher - and is super awesome - but our kids (on the spectrum and not) do not do well with change. Having their teacher gone for a week is a big change for these kids. There was a huge number of aggressive/openly defiant incidents, four timeouts, and a LOT of disrespect. In fact, we spent the last hour of the day (after lunch) in a deep conversation about respect, trust, and following directions. Cyn and I went home absolutely buggered, and tried to get enough sleep for a new day on Tuesday.

Tuesday

Tuesday was a better day. At the beginning of the day, we challenged the group to get no names on the board (a warning system for students who are disruptive/disrespectful/etc) throughout the whole day. Generally throughout the day we get 5-7 names including sometimes one or two in timeout. Monday, when Cathy asked the group if we could go a whole day with no names on the board, lots of the kids said no. Ugh. What wonderful faith they have in themselves and each other.

So, Tuesday, we decided to start a new positive reinforcement. If we can go a whole day without getting names on the board, we will get to have a huge game time on Friday afternoon. Throughout the day, we have been passing out small pieces of orange paper to students who are doing well, and having them write their names on the paper and put them in a jar. On Friday morning, we'll draw a name out, and that person gets to choose which game we play. So, obviously, the more orange cards they earn, the more likely they are to get to choose the games. It has been working well so far. Tuesday, Cyn and I passed out 81 cards. 

Wednesday

This morning, we challenged the kids to try to earn more than 81 cards as a class (we're really pushing this teamwork thing). After school, we counted them up, and they earned 117!! Wahoo! They will be excited to see/talk about this tomorrow, and our challenge tomorrow is for them to earn more than 117. If we follow this pattern, this will happen:-D Unfortunately, the kids spend a lot of time out of the classroom on Thursdays, so we may not see them enough for them to earn 117.

Also - I developed a really awesome spelling activity for my kids! This morning when I was talking to Sam, I was talking about that I needed to have a spelling activity for a short period of time today. I got an idea and implemented it today and it was a huge success! Spelling Theatre. Similar to Reader's Theatre, but the students write their own scripts using their spelling words. This requires the students to not only know their words, spell them correctly, know their definition, but also to be able to use them fluently in conversation! We didn't all finish today, but I have saved some time on Friday (and maybe tomorrow) for finishing the scripts up and practicing, so we can perform Friday afternoon before our game time. I can't wait to watch them! Some have a lot of personality (because my kids have a lot of personality) and even the kids who we really had to push to get moving got a lot done on them! So exciting! :-D 

Tomorrow should be interesting, as we don't have kids for very long, and I believe we have our last round robin sport! 

My group will be staying at our school to play along with several other sports teams and some of the teams will be bussing to a different primary school to play there. I hope my softball team does well tomorrow! More than anything, I hope I have all nine players tomorrow! Whew! I'll let you know how it goes in the afternoon!

Lots of love,

Megan

How do I get behind so fast?? Blurgh!

Tuesday

I forgot to add this picture to last week's blog post. This is the awesome Angle Construction I had the kids make! It worked out SO well, and my kids all had and used one that they really understood, and got to personalize a little bit. 

The angle-ator (that's what I decided to call it - just now) Each student made their own, which helped them to understand, and then to create it. They also went on angle hunts where they got to go and find different types of angles in all sorts of places. Here's another picture below to give you an idea of how they work:

One arm is glued down (the one on the right hand side), and the left arm swivels around to show each of the types of angles (without bringing protractors into it). This style and method allowed for all of our students to be a part of the lesson, including all levels of skills. It was a successful lesson and I was pretty pleased with it overall.

Thursday

Pretty normal day, considering the craziness of the rest of the week. With sport and then the strike, then Thursdays, which the kids spend most of their time outside of the classroom in CRE, Chinese, and other things:). 

Friday

A final day of the crazy week was just as crazy as I would have expected. The kids were a little crazy, as they are every Friday afternoon. Such is life. 

However, after school on Friday, I had an awesome girls' night planned! Rachel picked me up and we headed out for dinner to Persian Flavours, an absolutely DELICIOUS restaurant. We split a huge thing of butter chicken, beef, steamed rice and Nan. It was sooooo good, but when we were leaving, this is the situation:

We were standing in line to pay, and I looked over to the take-away bar and saw someone's last name written on top of container. 

Megan: "Haha, that person's name is 'Shank'."

Rachel: "Uh, that's a Lamb Shank."

Megan: ".....what's a shank?"

We had to leave the restaurant because Rachel was laughing too hard. 

Anyway; we headed over to Tor's house where there was wine, champagne, snacks, soup, nail polish, youtube, gossip, and games!

We spent a few hours just relaxing, having some champagne, doing some nails, and watching a lot of Jenna Marbles! 

For one thing, we had a big discussion about something that I REALLY miss from home; Ranch Dressing. Sam, if you read my blog, then you would definitely comment on this part:P

This is how that conversation went...

Megan: "What I really miss is ranch dressing! I feel like that's pretty American, because I haven't found it anywhere else!"

Bec: "We don't have ranch dressing."

Megan: "What? Why not?"

Bec: "Because here in Australia we don't have RANCHES, we have FARMS. And you can't have FARM dressing!"

Yes, Thank you, Bec. However, it turns out they DO have Ranch Dressing in Australia. Obviously, not Hidden Valley (The magical place where children love to eat their vegetables), but it does exist. I know this, because today (Monday), Cathy brought some in for me. She's wonderful! 

Saturday

Saturday was pretty low key - Bec and Cruz picked me up at around 10:30, and we headed to the Knox  Shopping Center to look for a dress to wear 'out'. Although I didn't find a dress, I did get to spend a great few hours with Bec, Cruz, Rachel, and Amber wandering around and being girly:). After shopping for a while, Rachel and I headed back to her house and brainstormed some ideas for what to do that night. 

We ended up going bowling, but not before introducing me to some fatally Australian/British shows. I saw the movie 'The Castle'. It turns out that I LOVE Australian humour. Hah! We also watched the first two episodes of the show 'The In-betweeners' which is absolutely awesome and hilarious. I also love British Humour. Hah! We then went to the bowling alley and had a great time, where I absolutely flew the American Flag (I whooped on Rach). It was a great night again! I got home plenty early to have a good night and get a good night's sleep for Sunday, which is where a lot of awesome happened.

Sunday

Melbourne Museum: On Sunday, I headed off around 9:00 am to catch the train into the city in order to make it to the museum before they got busy. I made it at 10:30 to the Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia. It was absolutely fantastic! Not only did they include all of the incredible history and geography and mythology within the area and time, they brought in the actual carvings from that long ago. Amazing. They included a variety of clay tablets including inscriptions from schools, businessmen, royal scribes and even farmers. They also included the translation of each of the tablets with an explanation of the language and history.
The incredible number of exhibitions they have are amazing!!
The Mind and Body section has some really awesome demonstrations of internal systems and functions in the human body (I won't go into detail on here....). The section on the brain was absolutely incredible! It was divided into areas such as perception, memory, motivation, stress, etc. SO cool. I was glad to note that I do pretty damn well with optical illusion puzzles and brain teasers:).
The Dinosaur Walk was pretty darn cool too! Not only did it cover a variety of dinosaurs who bones remains were found in Australia, they also have a full reconstruction of the largest marsupial that ever lived. It was about the size of a rhinoceros, but looked like a wombat.
There is an Evolution exhibit that includes a lot of the work of Darwin including pages of his journal and casts/stuffed birds that he reported on, as well as another Evolutionary Scientist whose name I can't recall. Near the Evolution area was an area devoted to wild animals. Taxidermy galore! There was a stuffed every animal from every continent everywhere! The animals were organized by geography and standing on steps up the sides of every wall. The interesting part is that there wasn't any labels/descriptions/etc on any of the animals. However, I can't believe I didn't take pictures of any of the equipment used! BLURGH. This shot is of the Australian area of the room, and it's kind of an example of what the rest of the room looked like only from all different continents, and no writing anywhere else.

Sorry about the necessary neck craning to see this photo.
Anyway, they had a 5-6 monitors in the room, which looked like those telescopes you put a quarter into and you can look through, only instead of looking through the eye pieces it displays to a touch screen. You can swivel and turn the camera to look anywhere in the room. First, you point the camera at an animal, and when it's on the screen you touch it. The screen registers which animal it is, and brings up a ton of information including its location, habitat, level of endangerment, diet, and a 360 degree view (which you can rotate to see the animal from all angles). I played with the technology for a long time. It was SO COOL! Combining the visual imaging with touch screen and topic selection. I played in that room for quite a while without really reading any information about animals. Super cool. The only downside I can see is when the museum is really  busy and there aren't enough machines to go around. But, it was still spectacular! So cool...
That's probably it for the museum; now I know why people didn't want to go with me...

Queen Vic

Following the museum, I met Kylen at the Queen Victoria Market, which was cool (as always) and incredibly crowded (as per usual). Kylen got a few things but I didn't - mainly because I didn't bring any cash with me to the market (good choice on my part) - which was because the ATMs had literally 35 people lined up to use them. (Yes, I counted one of the lines).

Something Aussie

Later on we moseyed on up to a store called 'Something Aussie', which is (obviously) a tourist-y center. It was cool, but way more freaking expensive than the market anyway.

Pancake Parlour

We finally made it to the Pancake Parlour, which is a restaurant the kids have been raving about for....since we got here...and I got a hold of some coupons for it:). We found our way back to the Melbourne Central Train station because that's where the Parlour actually is, and found a really cool, funky restaurant that really didn't match its name. The pancakes were FABULOUS, the hash browns delicious, the coupons effective. We enjoyed our time, and then headed out to the aquarium!

Aquarium

We finally made it to the aquarium! Thank goodness I had the coupon (buy one get one free), because although it was cool, it was pretty small, especially compared to the Seattle Aquarium. There were some cool exhibits including:

PENGUINS! This guy slept sitting right there for the whole ten-or-so minutes we were wandering around the penguin area. He really, really looked fake, but then he opened his eyes and looked around.

Although fake-y was pretty cool, my absolute FAVOURITE penguin was this guy.

The entire time we were there, he was literally looking at his reflection in the window and moving and then looking at his reflection again, and then moving and looking back. He was for sure stalking his own reflection, and I think might actually catch it.

"Flo, move! I can't see!" - Deb (Finding Nemo)

The Cuttle Fish were another favourite...they are so weird and cool, as well as masters of disguise...

He's obviously disguised as a hand doing this...

Crazy long-necked Turtles!!

I almost died....

Twice!

Also Jellyfish and stingrays oh my!

Thus endeth the travelling for the day. But Hark! My day was not over! We panickedly got home in order to get to my netball game on time (thank goodness for Rick and Jon's quick and careful driving).

Netball

We were absolutely smashed!! We played hard, and periodically we would meet them goal for goal, but not enough. It's still fun and a great group of people to play with, especially as someone who is not...familiar with or good at the game. Not that I know anyone like that...

Anyway, fun time, long and interesting day! 

Today (Tuesday, 11/9)

Today is not only our host dad's birthday, but also our host parents' anniversary (that was planned deliberately so that he would only have to remember one date). So, we'll be hanging out at home celebrating!

Thanks for listening, hopefully soon I'll have some interesting things to share:)

Wednesday, 5 September

Wednesday

Strike day! I got to get an inside perspective of the Australian teacher's union in Victoria. At 9:20 I caught the train into the city with Blake, some of his mates, and some others from school. We met at the Rod Laver Arena where we heard a variety of speakers including the president of the union, a variety of representatives from different sectors of the union, and the hilarious comedy/singing group Tripod. They were absolutely hilarious, by the way!

There were a lot of issues being tackled at this rally, including contract lengths, work weeks, allocated planning time and other benefits. 

There were several speakers that were so eloquent and passionate that you couldn't help but listen to what was happening! In the stadium there were 15,000 people...we were up in the nosebleed section...this is what we saw:

Holy crap!!! Also, after the ridiculously long speeches that, toward the end, were a little less eloquent, probably about 13,000 of those people began walking through the city. Because we were at risk of being trampled, I only really got one photo of the protesters...pretty impressive as it is, though:

It was awesome to see all of the people on sidewalks, in cars and buildings and everywhere supporting all the teachers: honking, yelling, cheering, etc. It was awesome!

After the march to parliament, we headed to a restaurant in Richmond (I can't remember what it's called) with fantastic cider called, 'Dirty Granny'. I saw the label and almost laughed out loud. 

Nature Plank Walk

On the way home from the train station, Kylen and I walked through a variety of parks and trails looking for good..planking areas. We were successful: Here's a sneak peek. The rest will be uploaded to facebook:

Kylen, terrified, planking on the 'Friends Bridge'

I also almost died. Going into the water head first almost.

Monday - Whoops, I forgot!

On Monday evening, Kylen and I also went out to see the movie 'The Sapphires'. I'm pleased to say it was a pleasantly surprisingly good movie! From the previews, we were expecting basically exactly the story of 'Dream Girls', but there were such awesome things going on that were deeper than the expected plotline. I would definitely go see it, especially if you LOVE sixties music:) At the end of the movie, Kylen and I were leaning in to each other, smacking the armrests and each other. It was awesome! And quite intense. Overall, I would give it a ... seven out of ten sapphires!!!! ;)

Just over a week went by...Whoops!

Monday through Thursday

Last week was a pretty typical week. Blake and I did a lot of planning for the next two weeks, because today I begin taking full control of the classroom on Monday the third. 

Friday

Friday was the day we had our staff part after school! The theme was Around the World, and everyone had to get dressed up as a different country, and bring food from another country. So, naturally, I decided to dress up as an American! Me, Kylen, and Melissa all decided to be American. Kelsey's host parents have hooked her on Hawthorne, so with her jersey (and hidden socks) she was an Australian! With several weeks of hunting, we eventually came up with the following:

It was a ton of fun! I'm again forced to concede that I have a really super awesome staff at my school, and am super glad I was placed where I am! We stayed the night at Rach's house, and helped her clean up quite a huge mess in the morning. :)

Saturday

Saturday was a pretty slow day, as we were all quite tired from the night before. It was an absolutely beautiful day outside, but Kylen, Melissa and I were all so exhausted we spent a while vegging out on the couch watching movies. I eventually convinced Kylen and Melissa to get out of the house and come for a walk with me and we headed to a primary school down the road so that I could play basketball, basically. We just had a nice relaxing day:)

Sunday

Sunday was an absolutely great day! At about 11:00, Bob and Judy came to pick us up for a father's day barbecue! We went out to Ringwood Lake Park to have a great time! Got to see Bob and Judy, Andy and Jo, and meet some of the other family members that I haven't met before:)

It was beautiful out there! It was a fabulous day, they got there pretty early, so we had a great spot in the grass in the shade and sunshine near the bbqs! You'll notice that Bob has quite a nice friend in his pocket.

We also found an interesting..... 'sign' (I'm using the term loosely)....which was only the tiniest bit terrifying...

Probably completely unrelated, there were some curious bubbles in the pond directly to the side.

hmm...

After our walk (where we found the crocodiles), I learned how to play Cricket, and Footy! It was so much fun! I'm told that my bowling is illegal by a 9-year-old, but everyone else seemed to support me!

A few hours later, Kylen, Melissa and I headed over to the Ringwood train station to go into the city for a bit (Melissa had never seen the Queen Vic Market). By this time it was about 2:00 pm, and the market closes at 4:00 on Sundays, so we hurried!

When Bob dropped us off at the station, we saw our train coming around the bend....so we started running!! We 'touched on' with our Myki passes (which basically just tells the system we're getting on the train). We got through, and realized that we had to cross the barrier and go back over the overpass to get to our train!!!! It was slowing down now, so we really sped up and were running across the overpass (only looking a tiny bit silly). We got down to the end and Kylen quickly touched on to get on the train (again, letting them know she's getting on the train).
Melissa and I touch on. However, the gate doesn't open. Meanwhile, Kylen is walking onto the train. Melissa and I switch turnstiles and try again. And then again. And then again. We can see Kylen through the window of the train, and she has found us three seats together. Meanwhile, Melissa and I are still trying to get through the darn gate!!! Slowly (like in slow motion) the doors close, and the train starts to move. With Kylen on it, and Melissa and I are still on the other side of the gate. It was definitely in slow motion that Kylen looks around, very confused, and watches us slide away on the train station, as her train pulls out of the station.
Melissa and I stood stock still for a while, until we busted up laughing, standing in the gate (I'm sure frustrating the guys working and the other people trying to come the opposite direction).
We laughed for a solid five minutes, thinking we may in fact be in a sitcom of some kind. The guys working double checked our cards, and the gate wouldn't let us through because we were already touched on on the other side. I quickly got a text from Kylen, and she got off at the next station to wait for us. Fortunately, the next train was only about eight minutes later. It was a pretty hilarious eight minutes, for sure. Also, for the rest of the day, anytime my mind wandered back a few minutes a got a great laugh:).

Anyway; we eventually made it to the Vic Market, and I found some great stuff just as the booths were closing up:) Although Melissa didn't get to see the market at its fullest (we'll be going back), but she really enjoyed it, and can't wait to go back! :)
After the market we headed back toward the station, wandering around, taking some silly pictures. It was fantastic. We actually found a variety of....elephants. After meeting a couple of guys who (what looked like) were doing a photo scavenger hunt and taking pictures of these....elephants. And here they are:

Sorry - can't turn the darn picture on here...

Taa-daa!! Freaking Elephants! Everywhere! It was so funny, and so much fun! Haha!

We also took a couple of extra shots that were pretty fantastic such as:

Taa-daa!!!! This is my BLOG!!!!

This is Kylen planking on a bike rack. Thank goodness she didn't drive away without us this time...

Monday

Sport!!! I finally got to take my softball team to play!! We played two games, lost one and won one! The other coach was really great and understanding, and his team was about the same level of understanding of the game as my kids. Hah! Thank goodness!! :)

Today I also introduced a really really really cool introductory lesson on angles. We started out talking about the difference between 'angles' and 'angels'. My other host teacher and I also collaborated to develop an angle-practicer. I will be putting a picture of it on here, but I don't have it with me right now. It was a real success, and I'm so excited about it! More on that later...

Tuesday

Hoop time!!! Today we took both level three classrooms to a basketball centre for a whole day of basketball fun for all of the kids. Three other teachers and I each took one time of 8-9 students and played 5-6 games throughout the day. ALL of our kids had SUCH an awesome time, and we didn't have a single behavior problem ALL day. We had a large number of wins and a fewer number of losses overall, I think, and everyone had fun, coaches included:)
My team, called the Panthers, were 1 and 4 throughout the day. However, they all kept their heads high and smiles on their faces. It's amazing how supportive our kids can be in a team situation when they are pitted against other teams. This is a mentality that we have been hugely pushing for all the kids before they all go to camp at the beginning of next term. Unfortunately, I miss the camp date by only one week! My kids have been begging me to stay longer, and it's heartbreaking! Because watching everyone plan it makes me want to go and be a part of it SO badly!! Bah!!

That's all for now, folks. Tomorrow I'll be going into the city for a protest! We will also be going to the aquarium (hopefully) after the fact. I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks for listening:)
-Megan