TGIF!

Wow. So I guess I haven’t posted since Monday! Here I am on a Friday night watching the Australia vs. New Zealand Rugby League game. I’m thankful for this time to rest my mind and my feet since both have them have seemed to be “on” for the past five days.

This week began with a stressful sense. I think all the girls here at some point this week were feeling a bit overwhelmed. I know for myself I felt like I was in “survival mode” teaching. I’ve never stepped up to teach feeling so unprepared. Most of the unpreparedness came from me feeling like I didn’t know the kids well enough to teach them effectively.

My lessons did go well this week. I ended up teaching all but one hour of the day on Tuesday. It was quite a surprise how it unfolded that way, but it worked. This whole semester I keep recalling what my mom told me, “You just gotta do it to get through it.” That phrase has held true for the past several months of my life. So THANK YOU MOM! J

Jenny met with us on Thursday after school to check in with everyone. We were all thankful for that because it gave us an opportunity to all sit down together. All nine of us girls getting together doesn’t happen very often, especially when we are in school, so we were glad to have this opportunity. Jenny (our QUT supervisor) offered to come observe me today (Friday) to see if she could help relieve my stresses a bit. I thought that was just so kind of her. When we talked on Friday she mentioned how worried she was about me at our meeting because not only was I hardly saying anything, she said I actually looked pale! Ha, I’ve always known I’m like an open book. My emotions can always be seen!

Anyways, Jenny came to my classroom on Friday to observe me teaching a math lesson. In this lesson the students were working on learning different ways to find a simple fraction of a whole number.

Out of all the people who have worked with me in the past four years, I have never had anyone spend so much time working with me. She was there for the entirety of my lesson (which took about an hour) and she stayed over 20 minutes after to discuss my lesson with me. A lot of university supervisors always have so many other things to get to; they have a hard time staying for the entire lesson, let alone staying to discuss your teaching skills after the lesson.

She gave me such fantastic feedback; I don’t think I will ever let go of her sheet of paper FILLED with positive and encouraging comments. She even discussed with me my “presence” in the classroom and how it is so calm and engaging, in comparison to hers which is more of a, “I’m so entertaining you don’t want to look anywhere else in the room because I’m so funny you wouldn’t want to miss this!” Haha. (Those were her words, not mine!) No one had ever pointed that out to me before, so it was comforting to know how much she was paying attention to the details.

Jenny has this gift of making anyone feel better and encouraging them to continue to give it their all. She told me I had nothing to worry about, that I was such a fantastic teacher. She said there were multiple times in my lesson where she was shaking her head because she couldn’t believe I was ever worried about how I was doing. I was so relieved by her feedback and support that by the end of this reflection, I was almost in tears because I was so thankful for her.

We continued to discuss how to deal with my perfectionist problem. She noticed how hard I am on myself and explained how it is okay to let some things slip from time to time. We talked about how it was hard to comeback to the business end of this trip after having two weeks of holiday. I also told her on top of that, I had just found out a few days before coming back that I was offered my first grade teaching position. I told her how difficultit was to concentrate earlier in the week because I have been looking forward to seeing my friends and family, celebrating graduation, starting my summer job,and then preparing for my own classroom.

As you can tell, I am feeling SO much better about taking next week by the horns. I am ready to rock the faces off those kiddos! Haha. We’ll see if I’ll still be saying that once I start planning my lessons! I am teaching everything next week. We do not have school because it is ANZAC day. ANZAC Day celebrates Australia and New Zealand joining forces in Gallipoli in 1914. They had to go straight at the cliffs to get off the battleships to fight Turkey in the First World War. Eighty to ninety percent of the soldiers were killed. This was the start of Australia and New Zealand always coming togetherto fight in war.

One of my newly discovered sweet treats that I’ve found inOz are ANZAC biscuits! They are like a light little cookie. All they are made out of is rolled oats, salt, flour, coconut, baking soda, golden syrup, and butter. These “biscuits” or, cookies as we wouldcall them, came to be because the women back in Australia during the FirstWorld War wanted to make a cookie to send to the soldiers that would last the whole voyage and still be edible for the men when they received them! I justlove learning about the culture in Australia! The things that I get most excited about learning are the things I would miss if I were only here for a short time. I love how immersed into the culture we have been. So blessed!

This afternoon half our class went to compete in “Sport.” I don’t really know what goes on when those students are at Sport except for the fact that they compete in different sports against different schools in the area. The other half of the students that were left at the school did an ANZAC Day project and participated in Sport related activities for the rest of the afternoon. Now, clearly this would never happen in the States. Sports take place after school and on the weekends. The only students who have to miss school for sports are generally only in high school and college and if they miss school, it’s their responsibility to keep up with their work.

One differentiation technique that my cooperating teacher uses is little gold star stickers on the desks of students who need extra help.The classroom is set up with a supportive community, so all the students know that these students are allowed to work with a partner and ask other students questions on their work.

Our time is running out here in Oz. I need to remember to buy some Australian children’s books while I’m here! I’m also hoping to get back to a couple of stores before I leave to pick up a couple of souvenirs for myself. J Tomorrow will be spent catching some rays in the morning and afternoon, then it will be on to planning out my week, completing a reflection assignment, and hopefully making some good gains on my presentation that is due on Thursday.

So here’s to a “Working Weekend.”

Now I can finally say, see you soon, friends! Nine more days!!

Xoxo