Brisbane!

Yesterday was an incredibly long day at school so I didn’t feel the need to post last night. It was long for two reasons. One reason was that it was the last day of the term for the school so they spent the day finishing up assessments. Both my teacher and I were pretty bored. The second
reason was because I was up the latest I have ever been up since I came here the night before, so that didn’t help me out at all. We did come to the realization though, that they are at their point in their school year that would be similar to us going into Christmas break.

Today though, I fell in love with the city of Brisbane. It was SO beautiful! We took the train from Morayfield to Brisbane. It was about an hour ride. There were five of us American girls, and two QUT students who were nice enough to show us around for the day. The first thing that happened as we got on the train was probably the funniest thing that happened the entire day. We all got on to the train at Morayfield. But there were seven of us that would need to find a place to sit together so we had to move to the next car. The train started moving but we followed our Aussie friends through the carriage doors anyway. Sure enough, the first five make it through perfectly fine and turn around to see Kim’s WHOLE body stuck between the carriage doors that were shutting! Best part was all she said was, “Oh, I’m stuck,” in the most monotone voice ever! Kari and I were laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes. No matter where we go, there has
to be something that happens that screams TOURISTS. Haha :)

When we got to the city we went to South Bank first. Here we found the markets, which were so fun to shop around in! It was like a craft fair that you would see at a city park in the summer time, except down the middle of a couple streets and much larger. Near the markets was the river that we walked along and then there was a lagoon that people were swimming it. The river walk was beautiful. This park area was just full of people enjoying the weekend. The weather was
just wonderful of course – warm sun with a nice breeze, absolutely perfect. The lagoon is a public swimming area where families and friends gather to swim and lay out to tan.

We meandered over to an ice cream shop called “Cold Rock,” which I thought was cute because it was exactly like our “Coldstone.” It was delicious. I got Cake Batter Ice Cream with Tim Tams and Hot Fudge mixed in! YUMM!!

With our ice cream in hand, we walked to the river walkwhere we sat down to finish our ice cream and take some fun pictures. Then we walked down the river to catch the City Cat. The City Cat is a boat that takes you to different points in the city. All you have to do is use your Go Card that we use for public transportation. The City Cat dropped us in the area of downtown shopping. This would be any girl’s heaven. Awesome shops line the streets for blocks. I am really hoping to get a chance to go back to the city again to spend a full day of shopping there.

I loved Brisbane so much; I can’t wait to see how I will feel about Sydney!

Tomorrow is Sunday and I will be soakin' in the sun in our backyard and relaxing the entire day!

Take care lovies! Less than a month until I come home now! Miss you all so so very much!

Week 1: Thursday

Today Jenny came to check on us in our classrooms. It’s always so nice to see her bright and shining smile show up at school. She’s always so encouraging and supportive.

I discussed with her how I feel like I am learning more about how one of my future students might feel being immersed in another culture than being a teacher. It is really an experience to be in another culture for an extended period of time. I can’t even imagine how a student would feel if they didn’t even speak the same language as his or her classmates.

Since it is the end of the term there was a thank you lunch put on for the teachers. They served sausage sizzlers, which were some kind of hot dog. I do have one humorous incident that happened at the lunch to share with you. I was finishing my coke when a staff member was coming around for recycling. I wasn’t quite done so she said she would let me finish and come
back. A few moments later she started to walk away and I said, “Oh! I’m finished now.” And then I smiled at her and said sorry because I kind of made her turn around abruptly. She stopped in her tracks and said, “Oh my gosh! Look at those teeth! They are perfect and white! I’m getting venires and I want mine to look just like that!” I laughed and said, “Oh thank you! I can take a
picture of them for you!” I was kidding of course. There was laughter all around the circle of course and on with our day we went. Well, come to find out at the whole school parade later that afternoon, she was a deputy principal! I honestly don’t know if I would have said that to her if I would have known that. Oh well, it was all in good fun.

Kari and I took part in Thursday’s Late Night Shopping at the Morayfield Shopping Center. I found two tank tops, a belt, and some leggings. It was definitely a bit of a battle to find just a few things that were worth buying. I’m getting excited to start shopping for souvenirs to bring
back with me!

Tomorrow evening is going to be used to rest, relax, and enjoy our time with Heather and Bruce. I’m looking forward to the weekend. I believe we are going to spend all day on Saturday in Brisbane, so that will be exciting!

Lastly, I’ll leave you with one word I hope to catch on to using so I can use it back in the States.
“Heaps.” -- It’s classic word everyone uses instead of saying “a lot” they say heaps. It’s so stinkin’ cute. I just love it. So hopefully I’ll be able to pick it up and hang on to it!

In that case, heaps of hugs to you all! I miss you!!

Ps. My skirt that I'm wearing in the picture I posted is Janaya's! Thanks girl! I got a lot of compliments today!

The other picture is a shirt Kari found when we were shopping tonight. Haha.

Week 1: Wednesday

Yesterday the whole school participated in cross country. It was a really cool thing to see. Again, you would never see something like this happen at an elementary school in the States. All the classes come together and run in age divisions around what’s called the ‘oval.’ Obviously, the distance they run depends on their age. If I remember correctly, the oldest grades ran a 2K.

The neatest part about this event was how the school was divided up into “Houses.” The students were divided up by their last names into four teams. It reminded me a lot about Harry Potter. I believe they have a few whole-school competitions throughout the year. Each team has a house chant too. The names and colors are Yarrah(Red), Namoi(Yellow), Mangiri(Blue), and Willungo(Green). You well know now that most schools in Australia wear uniforms. For sport day each student wears their sport shirt which represents their team’s color of course. They also turn their hats inside out, which displays their sport color too.

We also had our first weekly “check in” meeting with one of the principals. This school has one head principal and then three or four “deputy principals.” The deputy principals are all responsible for a few year levels in the school. Anyway, this was just a time for all of us to come together and reflect. I was slightly distracted during this meeting because I knew the moment I got back to my classroom I had to teach my first lesson.

I taught a math lesson that started with a math warm up if Around the World multiplication and then the class divided into four stations. I had one station working with decimals, place values, expanded form, and standard form of numbers. The next station was at the interactive white board where the students practice working with fractions in four different ways. The third station was where I walked them through equivalent fractions by folding and shading pieces of paper. Finally, the fourth station was a division practice board game. Each of these stations lasted twenty minutes. For me, this was a very large lesson to teach so soon to students I felt like I barely knew, but it really did go pretty well. My teacher gave me a lot of helpful feedback,
which I appreciated greatly.

It was Jordyn’s 24th birthday on Wednesday! We all made plans to go to the Caboolture Sports Club for supper. We all waited after school for people to get done with their grade level meetings and then we ventured over to Angie’s for some social time before we were ferried to the
Club. It was so nice to kick back with the girls and enjoy some good laughs. Unfortunately,
Kari and I were bummed to find that the Club’s food was nothing compared to our host mum’s cooking. Kimberly bought a cheesecake for Jordyn which we were all lucky enough to enjoy together. It. Was. AWESOME. Best cheesecake I’ve had in quite a while!

After the party we headed home to rest for the evening and I was able to call my parents before they headed off to work! I loved talking to them. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen as often as I would like due to the time change!

Weeks in the classroom just seem to fly by. And it’s crazy to think that I only two weeks of holiday and then two weeks in the classroom and I’ll be home again.

Here are a couple of phrases that differ from ours.
“Good on ya!” – This is like us saying, “Good for you!”
“Straight away.” – This is like us saying. “Right away.” I almost feel like the students don’t know what I mean when I say “right away.”

The bonnet – the hood of a car (get it, bonnet – hood, pretty neat! J)

Take care, all!! Xoxo

Week 1: Tuesday

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.

Week 1: Monday

I don’t have a whole lot to share today. I actually have a feeling that since I am in the classroom now my posts during the week won’t have much for pictures either. But I guess we’ll see! I feel like my teacher and I get closer and closer each day.

I mentioned before how great of relationship she holds with her students. We actually got to sit down and talk about how she got to that point after school today. She even offered already for me to email her if I ever need anything after I leave. So sweet! And she even helped me print and scan my taxes form back in so I could send it home for my parents to take care of! So thankful for
her!

School starts at 9am, which is nice. I really like getting to school at 8 am, having an hour to prepare and then welcoming the students. The entire school eats lunch from 11:00 to 11:30, then another break at 1:15 until 2pm. This sets up the schedule to go pretty fast now that I’m used to it. Today I did a small group spelling lesson, facilitated a math test while Ms. Cooke did her “marks.” Since this is the last week of the term, all the teachers are crunching for time for their assessments.

On a more girly note, I wore a dress for the first time since I’ve been teaching. I LOVED IT. Haha, I feel I’m going to come back home and buy like five more if I get a teaching position. My sister said it best I believe, she said, “I love wearing dresses to work because it’s a complete
outfit in one. You just need shoes and a couple pieces of jewelry.” Love it.

I’m in the middle of planning a lesson for math game stations. That will take place on Wednesday and I’m really looking forward to it. Haha. Today served for an interesting story for Kari and I
getting home. Who knew two 22 year olds would have such a hard time walking home from school? My teacher and I got caught up talking this afternoon, and by the time I was headed up to the office to sign out I knew Kari and possibly Melanie would be waiting for me ---- I just didn’t know where! So I got to the admin building and noticed someone had already signed me out, but Kari’s name wasn’t signed out yet. I walked out to the front because I spotted Kim and Jordyn near the entrance. Before I could even say anything to them they told me Kari had
been looking for me and thought I had gone home or left with Melanie! So I pulled my phone out of my backpack to see where she was, saw I had a text from Mel saying she left with Lynn (so we didn’t have to worry about her) and three missed calls from Kari. I called her and she had already began walking home – fuming of course because she thought I had left her! Haha. Of course once we reunited we got our stories straight, realizing Kari must have signed me out instead of herself and then mistakenly thought I had already left without her. Ha, hopefully tomorrow we won’t have so much trouble.

One of my students today asked me, “What do you talk like back in America?” I almost didn’t know what to say, but then I said, “Well, I talk like this because we speak English in America. I just have an accent so it sounds different to you, doesn’t it?”

So Kari and I have noticed a slight difference in the way Aussies respond to us saying thank you for something. Aussies always respond, “That’s okay. No worries. Or, It’s fine.” And we’re always thinking, “No. I’m not saying I’m sorry, I’m saying thank you!” Haha. If you don’t see how slightly off the Aussie response is to us, try it something and see if you notice how weird
it sounds!

Take care, loves!

1st Weekend in Oz

As you may have guessed, the weekend hit here in Queensland so I haven’t gotten around to my blog for a few days! Sorry to those of you who I know were highly disappointed ;)

On Friday when I arrived at the school I was asked to wait because our supervisor from Morayfield East wanted to talk to me. I was pulled into her office because they had decided to move me to a different classroom. Obviously from what I described in my last post that classroom would have been a lot to handle. Sandra (our supervisor) told me they didn’t think it would be fair to me to have my lessons interrupted as much as they would be and that
they wanted me to have a better experience.

So, I was moved next door to Miss Kylie Cooke. She is in her second year of teaching, but I can already tell that she and I hold a lot of the same beliefs when it comes to building relationships with our students. I was most disappointed about switching classrooms because I thought well if this teacher is having a hard year, why don’t you let me help her as much as I can? It always makes a huge difference just having another set of eyes and hands in a classroom.

Anyway, in my new classroom, still Year 6, the kids are absolutely wonderful. Miss Cooke and the kids all say they love my accent. Haha. The first full day in the classroom seemed to be endless though, because I didn’t know the schedule. Unfortunately, Aussie schools hardly seem to follow
any type of schedule. Every day is different for them. Kind of drives me crazy and throws me off. I believe I will be teaching my first lesson this Wednesday so hopefully that will go well.
Friday evening eight of us met up at Kim and Jordyn’s for some champagne and “nibbles.” We were only there for a couple of hours because some of us were pretty tired from our long day in the classroom.

We had a nice relaxed morning getting ready for the BBQ at Sutton’s Beach. A few QUT students picked us up to take us there since our host family works on the weekends. It was nice to get to have some conversations with QUT students who are also studying to be teachers in an off campus setting. The beach was gorgeous! However, the QUT students were telling us that this was hardly a beach and that they would take us to a real beach while we were here. The one we were at was more of an area where families go for birthday parties or gatherings to have a BBQ (hence the reason we were there). A lot of us girls got some funky pink tan lines going on. I happen to have one foot burn, not too sure how that happened.

On our way home from the beach the QUT students took us on a wild kanagroo chase!! Okay, maybe I should be a bit more honest. The students drove us to a residential development where there use to be “bush” or what we would call a “field with a lot of trees and grass.” So there was a golf course, houses, a nice walking trail where kids rode their bikes, and then some kangaroos. They parked the cars and we got closer to the kangaroos than you would get to a squirrel or deer. They were such calm animals. I can’t wait to go to a zoo so I can feed them and scratch their tummies! Haha.

After that, we returned home to rest and recuperate before we headed off to downtown Brizzy (Brisbane). Ironic enough, this weekend they are working on the trains, so we had to take a bus from the train station to a train station about 30 minutes away to catch a train to the city.
One funny thing that happened while we were riding the train was all of a sudden we came to a train crossing where the blocks were down so traffic couldn’t go through. Which was funny because the trains weren’t running, so why would the blocks be down? So our driver radioed a few people and then asked cars behind him to back up so he could reverse and go another way.

Finally, we caught a train and off to the city we went. First we went to South Bank. The pubs in this area were more relaxed, laid back, not so loud music, more of a place you would go to sit around and talk with close friends. Then we moved to the area of downtown that’s called “The Valley.” From the sound of “South Bank” and “The Valley” you might imagine the two places
were like two different worlds. The music, the pub décor, the atmosphere, and the people couldn’t be more different. The Valley was definitely a clubbin’ type atmosphere, girls wore less and less, boys rocked their own style too. The music was loud and fun and everyone was dancing. Being our first Saturday night out in Australia – we were ready to dance! And no worries friends, Australia had plenty of Malibu Cokes waiting for me! We stayed there until about 12:30
before we headed out to catch the trains and busses back to Morayfield.

Pokies – as in poker a machines or slot machines as we would call them
Bucks or stag/hens parties – bachelor/bachelorette parties

So I have this little philosophy on round abouts that I would like to share with you. If you don’t know what a “round about” is, go google image it. So Australia does not have stop signs. They have stop lights and “give way” signs, but not stop signs at intersections or anything. Instead, when two major roads meet, they have a round about. Now, this makes for a very swiveled
ride in a car. You are always swerving or going in a circle. It’s weird. We Americans find it annoying to ride in cars around town here because it’s a rougher ride than we are used to. (Plus you have to realize there are a lot more cars here that are manual than cars that are automatic. Thus adding to the jerky car rides.) Anyways! I understand the use of round abouts. It keeps traffic moving, I mean really you hardly ever come to a complete stop while you are driving here
unless you are at a stop light. It would be hard to have stop signs with as much traffic as they have here. However, this amount of round abouts would never work in Minnesota or South Dakota. Want to know why? Come on, guess. Because we have icy roads! Can you imagine driving in circles like that and yielding for others while traffic just doesn’t stop moving? Where would they even begin to put the salt on the roads?! Ha, anyway – this is me sharing my thoughts with you from when I was trying to pass the time in the bumpy car rides.

Take care, friends! Love and hugs to you all. I miss you!!!

1st Day at M.E.S.S.

Today was our first day at Morayfield East State School! We got to see the campus, meet our teachers and class, and spend about two hours in the classroom. I met up with my teacher in “The Hall.” (It’s like an auditorium for us). The Year 3 – Year 7 students were having “Parade.” Australian School have Parade each week. It’s basically like a school assembly. A lot of times it’s
ran by the Year 7 students and administration. They take time to talk about things that are going on in the school, behavior, student recognitions, and singing Australia’s National Anthem.

Before my on-site advisor dropped me off with my class, she pulled me aside to discuss with me how different my class is. She said that Mrs. Brett (my cooperating teacher) is an extraordinary person. She explained how extreme my class is due to the behavior issues. My advisor said that this class is probably the worst one in the entire school, but that Mrs. Brett goes above and beyond to meet their needs. So I wasn’t surprised when we walked back to the classroom to see a few boys jumping on each other, throwing each other off the side walk, and yelling so loudly the whole way back.

Mrs. Brett introduced me to the class and I was able to hop right in and help with their spelling lesson. I sat with two students to keep them on task, which was helpful in guiding me to where the ability level of this class is at. Mrs. Brett even took time to explain to me which students are
on which levels. Out of twenty-five students she pointed out three students who are identified with Special Education, five students who are being assessed, and one student who has anger management issues. On top of that, as we were talking she pointed out multiple students that have troubles staying on task.

I had noticed the seating arrangement of the classroom as soon as I entered the room. At first, it really bugged me because all the students were spread out from each other but not even in rows. However, once I observed the students’ behavior I quickly realized they were all spread out in
attempt to keep them from talking to one another and distracting each other. Today was the first day she was trying the stop light behavior cards with the class. She started them all out on green and said if they could make it an hour and fifteen minutes, they would get a reward. She told me that this was the best day they had had so far. So, their reward today was a game. Mrs. Brett said that if taking ten minutes to play a game after every lesson would get these students to do their work and behave properly, that it would be the savior for their year. She had the students move their desks to the walls and drew a soccer field on the carpet with chalk. The students got into teams and played “Floor Soccer” with tennis balls.

After we were finished at Morayfield East, we headed back to Uni for lunch. We had the opportunity to talk together about what we saw this morning at Morayfield East with the Uni staff. This was helpful because we all got an idea of what is going on in the rest of the Year levels at this school. Then we joined another Uni class. This one was Art. The instructor had six stations set up of different kinds of prints we could do. We had a nice time playing around there but it was nothing too exciting.

One piece of big news is concerning “Holiday.” At the beginning of this year, Australia changed their school holiday schedule around. Instead of the country taking ten days off for Easter break, they are taking a full two weeks off. Unfortunately, this means we spend one less week in our
classrooms while we are here. Since there is a bit of a money shuffle in the mix of that, the Uni is going to be paying for us to take the train into the city and attend a Rugby game two weeks from tomorrow. Rugby is a big deal here too. Our host dad, Bruce, tells Kari and me about it when it is on the tele (TV). All Aussies and New Zealanders have specific teams that they cheer for and
there is no swaying from your team.

Anyway, so since we now have another week for taking trips, we had all the more reason to sit down as a group to plan day trips, weekend trips, and other excursions while we are here. All of us went to Melanie’s home stay to talk about dates and ideas for where we want to go. We came up with dates for a trip to Sydney, going to Moreton Island, taking a Riverboat ride in
Brisbane, going to the Gold Coast, and the Sunshine Coast. We pretty much have something planned each weekend and every other day during Holiday. I just can’t wait for these adventures!

Also, you know our whole “No shirt, no shoes, no service,” idea in the States? Believe it or not, that doesn’t quite hold true in all civilized parts of the world. Kari and I have seen multiple adults and children here walking in the mall, in parking lots, and along sidewalks who aren’t wearing shoes! For a country who pushes so much safety for the public, you would imagine they would have some type of health standards in place as well!
Australia: Shoes optional ;)

Indicator – blinker on a car
Full stop – period at the end of a sentence. (That would
have been nice to know before I worked with my students for thirty minutes
today when they were writing sentences.)
Jersey – a sweater

Uni / Ocean

Today was another adventure full of unexpected pleasant surprises!

Kari and I are started off enjoying a relaxed morning full
of Skype calls, phone calls, and sitting outside enjoying the beautiful weather
with Heather and Bruce as they drank their morning tea. The sun comes up so
early here it makes it difficult to fall back asleep if you wake up. I have been
waking up at 6:30am or earlier each morning. I don’t even mind it because Max
and I have an opportunity to Skype then when he gets home from his day (Since
it’s 3:30pm the day before for him). I also don’t mind waking up so early
because I haven’t been tired at all throughout my days. Maybe this should be
something I try when I get back to America!

We made our way to Uni at 10:00am. We were invited into some
of the education department’s classes. We went to a science lecture, educational
psychology course, and a science methods class. The science methods class was the
most fun because Year 2 students were presenting 35 minute long lessons. One pair
did a lesson on the life cycle of a butterfly and another did a lesson on force
and motion. They were both interesting to watch and participate in. What I was
most excited about was that they were using the 5E STRATEGY! Woohoo! The 5E
Strategy is a method for teaching all science concepts in specific way. The 5E’s
include: Engage, Explore, Explain, Evaluate, and Elaborate. Using this strategy
is one thing I am excited to do when I have my own classroom. I won’t bore all
you non-elementary-education-people with more details of that though. Another
learning experience to add to the list includes the fact that the nine of us
are to a point in our studies where we can observe these lessons being taught
and know what would work and what wouldn’t work in an elementary classroom. We
were able to give written feedback to the presenters since they were only Year
2 students. However, I almost wonder if we were more of a distraction for the
Aussie students --- we found ourselves having a bit too much fun throughout our
time in the classroom. At the end of the force and motion lesson (for the
Elaborate portion of the lesson), the presenters took the class outside to do a
Tug O’ War activity. Of course we followed through with the activity of making
predictions of what would happen with three people vs. the rest of the class,
then half and half. But before we went inside we HAD to suggest Aussies vs.
Americans! The nine of us girls headed to our side of the rope and turned around
only to see the nine tallest, biggest of the thirty girls facing us! Ha, as you
would imagine we got our cute American butts handed to us pretty fast. Then Jenny
(the instructor of the class and our university supervisor for our field
experience here) stepped up to even the playing field. She had each of us go
stand by an Aussie that was about our height and weight. No worries, Americans
--- we corn-fed girls from the mid-west had no problem of course!

Since the nine of us had some time on campus together we
discussed getting together tomorrow night at Melanie’s home stay to discuss
travel plans while we are here. We are hoping to go to Sydney, Melbourne, The
Sunshine Coast, and the Gold Coast. Unfortunately, with the flooding going on
right now, we are not able to travel up to the Great Barrier Reef. I started looking
up sights and flights on the internet so there should be some fun plans in the
making!

We asked Angie and Ashley for a ride home today, and as we
should have imagined it turned into quite an adventure! Angie is a retired Canadian
who has been living in Australia for the past 20 years! She lives life on the
edge of her seat and takes everyone she’s around along with her! So of course,
when we were on our way home our car took a bit different route to our first
visit to the Pacific Ocean! It was SO wonderful! We came to these mud flats and
came upon 100s of little blue crabs running across and burrowing in the mud! I
have a good video of Kari and Ashley holding one but I just stood there with
the camera screaming and laughing. Then we went to fantastic beach. The water
was warm and the sand was ever so soft! It was so cool to see real ocean waves!
It just gave me an itch to get to the barbeque we are having on Saturday. I’m
hoping for bright blue skies!

Here’s the continuing list of Aussie Lingo for you:

Mark – a grade you would receive on a paper or in a class
“Spot on” – a common saying a male Aussie student would say
for “Great job.”
Root – intercourse… yes, sex. So down here we can’t say,
that we “Root for the Vikings.” However some of us might not claim that anyway J
Shout – to buy another round. “Come on Aussie boys, are you
going to shout us or what?”
Chips – French fries!
Biscuit – any kind of cookie

Off to Wamuran State School

Well today was another lovely day in Aus! For some odd reason, it started at 4am for me! I woke up and just couldn't fall back asleep. Thankfully, I made it through my day with hardly a yawn.

We were taken to a small rural school called Wamuran State School. The "State" part of the title indicates that it is funded through the state, or it is equivalent to our "Public" school. We were welcomed to the school by the principals and four student leaders who were in Year 7. We were each given a pinapple because that is what their farming community is known for. They also added that gifting pinapples was a sign of friendship and honor. They said they used to be given to kings and that they were honored that we were here to learn from them, and that they were excited to learn from us as well.

I was placed a Year 7 classroom. The age of the students in this classroom are similar to our 6th graders, but the work they are doing is equivalent to our 4th and 5th grade work. It was kind of a crazy morning because I met up with the students in their Music class, then accompanied them to their P.E. class. From there we moved to their classroom where they had LOTE. I didn't end up meeting the classroom teacher until a half hour before lunch. Lunch was an hour long. The students all ate outside and then had time to play. The entire school eats at the same time but in designated areas. After lunch there was time for the students to read silently until we went to the libray for computer class. All that was left at the end of the day was a half hour for spelling and a half hour that I was in front of the class talking about myself, America's government, and just about living in America in general.

I just thought it was interesting that they had all of their specialist classes in one day during the week. Where, in America usually they are all spread out throughout the week. I like it better spread out throughout the week because it gives both the students and teachers a regular break. A lot of the students asked me questions that basically asked if America really was like the movies they saw. (haha) One student told me I sounded like Taylor Swift. Another student asked if American nerds were only people who had braces and wore glasses. They asked me what the most dangerous animal I've ever seen in America was. Come to think about that, I really could only say a rattle snake.

This school had a very fun atmosphere created for the students. There was a lot of positive encouragement given to the kids, and I saw very positve relationships between the students and teachers. I saw a lot of students giving hugs to their teachers. It seemed to me that America's schools are a bit more serious in this aspect with all of our behavior programs. Of course, it always just comes down to the specific teacher, but this entire school seemed to have a lot of love and fun in it.

One thing that I absolutely love about Australia is that all the schools are open air buildings. Almost all walls are windows that have large shades that can be pulled. Doors are always open and their hallways are all outside. Most hallways, eating areas, and play areas have covers since it rains multiple times a day. Really though, when I say it "rains" here, what I really mean is, "It mists for five minutes or less."

Again, Kari and I ventured off to the mall to get our phones fixed, do some extra looking for some hats, and grab some hairspray to help my hair with the humidity! No worries either, we took the public transportation busses like a couple of pros.

On Campus

We got started on campus today at QUT. Met some faculty, talked about what to expect, discussed a few teaching strategies, spent some time in the sun, and had a lunch of pizza and Tim Tams. I got really excited when we talked about teaching strategies, because we were handed multiple resources that I plan to bring back to the states and use in my future classroom.

One random thought for you is that the students have time in their school to go to LOTE (Languages Other Than English). That is just like our elementary students going to a Specialist Class teaching a foriegn language. In America, the most common second language would be Spanish, right? Well, in Australia the students learn Indonesian! Which of course makes sense because that's who their neighbors are. It's just the little things like that where I have my biggest Ahh moments." Because it makes so much sense but you would have never thought of it on your own. That's what this experience is all about anyway!

Kari and I ventured off by ourselves in the afternoon. We took the bus from campus to a train station and from the train station to the Morayfield Shopping Centre. Now, that doesn't sound too difficult but it was definitely a learning day. Some busses we needed to catch ran on the hour -- which left us waiting around the majority of the afternoon. And of course, we are not familiar with any of the suburbs in the area and I have no sense of direction here yet. So we relied on asking a lot of strangers questions along the way. We made it to the mall and funny enough, we ran into our friends Kimberly and Jordyn. We bought Trac Phones, so once I get that up and running I will let you know what my number is. Then we ventured back to another part of town where we walked to meet our Host Mom, Heather, and she showed us the way we will take to walk home when we are teaching at the schools.

An interesting moment happened today when Kari and I stopped to recharge our Go Cards (our public transportation cards). Kari talked to the clerk first and she asked if she was from the US and where in the US. Kari of course responded, "Minnesota." Then I handed her my card and money and she asked if I was from the same place. I said yes but the clerk was surprised, she said, "Oh really, your accent isn't quite as drawn." I thought that was neat because clearly I'm from South Dakota and we wouldn't notice a whole lot of difference but someone from another country does anyway.

After supper tonight, Heather served us Lemoningtons. It's a sponge(a very light cake) covered in chocolate syrup and rolled in coconut shavings. Delicious! She also taught us how to use Britain's dessert fork. (This is the picture I posted tonight.)

Thankfully, our host family eats healthy meals. Yes, I am eating things I wouldn't normally eat -- but we all know that's good for me!

The sun's rays are a lot stronger here. I got some funky tan lines from my shorts and t-shirt today. Hopefully those will fade out soon. You would not believe how beautiful it is here all. the. time! QUT staff said it was nice to see us enjoying the sun so much because they take it for granted and get annoyed with it quite often. But that goes the same way for us with snow. They LOVE snow. Most people have never seen snow in their life here and can't imagine living through our winters.

Again, we learned some more Aussie words throughout our day. Kari and I are trying to keep track of them, so to help me and entertain you, I'm logging them on here.

rubber - eraser

chuck a sickie - to take a sick day

lollipop lady - school crossing guard

wag - to skip school

tucker - food

tuck shop - food shop

sunnies - sunglasses

air con - air conditioner

have a go - give it a try

car park - parking lot

pudding - dessert, any thing you have for dessert is called pudding!

I love you all dearly and miss you muchly! Hugs to all.

Day 1... Or 2?

Wow! I have been wishing I could get to a computer sooner because I have SO much to share! So I began my journey to Australia with the Carey family. My friend, Kimberly Carey, and I student taught in St. Peter together for the past ten weeks. She was in fourth grade and I was in third. Her family was kind enough to give me a ride to the airport from Mankato.

We arrived at the airport just after Noon. Fortunately, our friend Kari hadn't gotten there too much before us and met us before security. The three of us had a great time wandering the MPS airport for neck pillows, gifts for our soon to be Aussie families, and a little food before we boarded our plane to Dallas.

The ride there was a fun, short two and half hour flight. The people who sat around us were friendly and intrigued to hear us share our funny student teaching moments with one another. We arrived in Dallas just before 7pm. We took some time to sit around and charge a few electronics before we enjoyed a meal at Chili's. Now, I have to share with you a short story about the southern gentleman we had for a waiter. As soon as we landed in Dallas, I was in dire need of at least one of my comfort foods. At this time it was a chocolate shake. The idea of leaving America for so long and being on a plane for so long was starting to get to me. I would have done anything and gone anywhere for a chocolate shake. Mind you, I had already been shut down by the Burger King at MPS for a chocolate shake. So five of us girls head in to Chili's for some supper. The first thing that caught me off guard was our waiters accent. I had forgotten we weren't in the Mid-West anymore. It came my turn to order and I asked if they had any shakes by chance and he said no and that they only served a little ice cream with some desserts. Of course I slumped my shoulders and said it was fine of course. We finished ordering and not even three minutes later he returns and says, "Actually, I do have enough ice cream to make you a shake. What flavor would you like?" And what more would you expect from a table of five girls except a uproar of high pitched, "Awww! How sweet!" The man topped off his good deed with even taking the extra reach to set the ketchup bottle that was on our table in front of my plate because he knew I was the only one at the table who didn't order ranch! Too funny.

So I was defintely pleasantly surprised by our air plane. They definitely set you up nicely for a decent over night flight. There was a pillow, blanket, toothbrush, toothpaste, and sleeping eye patches in every seat. Each chair leaned back comfortably and had movable head rests. The best part was the individual touch screens! Kim and I enjoyed watching three movies and even a little documentary on Kate and Pippa. You could also track the flight path the entire trip!

Our humongous plane landed safely in Brisbane at 5am local time, 2pm home time. For some reason they had to double check my passport and visa two different times going through customs. I had to be pulled aside twice but I was never told what wasn't lining up. I had a warning of this in MPS when they checked mine and told me I would just need to show the future destinations my visa. When I was questioned, I pulled out my visa but they hardly looked at it. But, whatever.

We were taken from the airport to the Caboolture Campus. This is a small campus of only 500 students. It is a part of the QUT which is the University we are working through to do our studies. We spent the morning talking with some staff members from QUT about what to expect in Australia and then snacked and walked a little while we waited for host families to come pick everyone up.

Kari and I were taken to our host home by Janelle. She let us in and we found multiple notes from our host mom, Heather. We picked our rooms, ate some delicous pizza (except it was nothing like the kind of pizza you see in America), unpacked, got settled, and SHOWERED.

So far so good, friends! I am a bit worried about how much I might miss home, family, and friends from time to time, but I do know that this is already an experience of a life time!

I'll leave you with some Aussie lingo that's been tossed around..

Tricky bits = difficult parts to get through

Tip it = pour it out

12 days until Australia!

I made this blog about two years ago. Now, I am happy to start using it again as I embark on my international student teaching adventure to Australia! I hope to update it quite often throughout the six weeks so my friends and family who would like to stay "posted" with me, can!
Take care, loves!
I will miss you while I'm away but I can't wait to return and share my experience with you all!