I got to school today just in time to walk with my teacher to the full staff meeting held in the hall. This was the last meeting of the term, so it was full of thank yous, housekeeping details, schedules, as well as contracts and payment.
After school we had a year level meeting. The teachers were talking about their old dictionaries and saying they didn’t even have the word ‘gawk’ in them. It was kind of comical though, because one of the deputy principals who was sitting in on the meeting had never heard of the word ‘gawk.’ He even asked Melanie and I if we had heard it before and we of course nodded. Then the
teachers said, “See! They’re Americans! Good thing we checked!” Another discussion was brought up about the word ‘marquee.’ My teacher and I kind of giggled because I had never heard of this word before and had to ask Ms. Cooke what it was and how to say it when I gave the spelling test last week. Then Melanie leans over to me and says, “So, what is it?” Ha! SEE I wasn’t alone! The meeting went on to discuss marking and reporting processes, and the classroom teachers creating a dance rubric.
Obviously, I have mentioned before how Australia does not have the selection of curriculum America does, so this even means that they don’t have a story of the week either. I will continue to look for ways that they incorporate reading skills and strategies into their classroom without specific stories to guide the learning of those skills. However, I have come to learn that staff meetings are always so hard to follow when you are a student teacher. I always had a hard time keeping up with my grade level meetings back in St. Peter because they always seemed to discuss things that either happened before I was there or are happening after I will be gone. It’s also harder to follow their accents when people are talking to a large group of people. You
wouldn’t think it would be, since they speak English and all, but it is!
Schedules are so different here than in America. No day throughout the week is ever the same as the week before. Today we had an hour at the end of the day for Gold Pass and tomorrow we have Cross Country. Gold Pass is a part of a rewards system, so all the students who behaved the best
throughout the term we able to participate. In Cross Country, everyone runs. Weird, right?! I love how much healthy eating habits and healthy physical activities are pushed in this school.
In Gold Pass, students had the option to work with technology, do disco, play sport, or play water games. I went to water games with the students. The school set aside one hour for the students to do this. Melanie and I were talking and this type of activity would never happen in the States.
One of the teachers responded saying, “Well, it’s one hour out of ten weeks. It’s six minutes a week. I think we can handle that.” Plus, I believe it’s always a positive thing to let kids be kids every once in a while. These kids were able to bring their own water pistols, water bombs, and buckets from home. I think every student was soaked.
I read through the “behaviour” program that Morayfield East has set in place. It says that students are required to be “water wise” and “sun smart.” I found these rules interesting because I don’t believe you would find those rules anywhere in the States. Australia was in a drought for seven years so they have become accustomed to conserving their water. It got to a point
where they limited themselves to four minute showers. Of course, at the end of that they got flooding rains. But, I’ve heard that’s just typical Australia. I also mentioned, kids needing to be“sun smart.” This refers to students always needing to wear a hat and using sun screen. The sun’s rays are stronger here and the students spend a lot of timeoutside throughout their day. Australia is the skin cancer capital of the world, so schools are doing their part by protecting their students.
I have already found a few things I plan to bring back to the States to save in my teaching repertoire. Demand writing is one of them. Ms. Cooke will create a leading sentence or play a short youtube video and ask the students to write about it. Most times they turn into stories and she encourages them to use what they have learned in reading. Some students use personification and most students include a protagonist and antagonist in their stories. I hope to do something similar to this multiple times throughout a week in my classroom.
In the morning our classroom has ‘fruit stop.’ This is where the students are allowed to have a snack. The special thing about this time is that the students are only allowed to have fruit, vegetable, or nut for snack. I think this is a great idea that benefits the students. In America, the
students are generally allowed to bring anything they like to eat. This can range from crackers, to chips, to chocolate. I hope to be a positive influence on my students’ health by implementing the ‘fruit stop’ rule.
I finally completed plans for my lesson tomorrow. Hopefully that will go well. I’m doing a whole group activity as a math warm up. Then students will complete fours stations in groups of six or seven. These stations will have them practicing work with fractions, equivalent fractions, decimals, and division.
This is a nice quote I saw in a classroom today:
“In this room, we don’t do easy – We make easy happen through hard work and learning.”
Aussie Lingo:
“How you going?” – this is what people here ask you instead
of “How’s it going?” I almost don’t know how to respond. Do I say I’m going
well? Ha, just something I’ll have to get used to.
Togs – swimming suit or swimming trunks.
