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!