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Published: November 3rd 2009
These last few weeks of mine have been spent living the life of a real teacher. I am at school everyday from 8am to 4pm, teaching and writing lesson plans… which doesn’t leave much time for anything else!! I am enjoying my time with the kids, as they are very adorable! In my prep class (kindergarten) we have been studying passports and each week we study a different country. The first week we ‘went’ to Canada and got to make some pumpkin pie in class! Very cute and delicious!
Some interesting things I have noticed that are different from the school’s at home are
- Their accents make it really difficult to correctly spell words (eg Mother is Motha, Saw is Sar)
- They all have to wear hats outside to play- and the no hat, no play policy is very very strict!
- They spend a lot more time outside! The whole school is mostly outside, there are no hallways between classrooms in any school’s here.
- Many schools (not mine though) share one classroom for 2 classes, so you have to coordinate a lot with your other teacher when you do what type of activities!
- They hardly
ever enforce the ‘wear shoes in the classroom rule’
- Lots of schools go to the beach regularly for classes
- Surfing, or ‘good surf’ is often an acceptable reason for a student to be late to school
- A bubbler is a drinking fountain, texters- markers, port- backpack, morning tea- recess/snack time
- There is a lot of ‘wildlife’ in our playground, which inhibits playtime! So far we have seen a Goanna (more then once) and a huge poisonous spider. Other animals, which have not been around during my prac, include a family of Kangaroo’s!!!
Aside from teaching everyday, I have still been exploring the local area and attempting to make the most of the weekends! Some highlights include, a big Canadian Thanksgiving dinner (see pictures), attending a music festival in Caloundra, participating in a 4 hour yoga workshop, and of course going to the beach as much as possible!!
In the next few weeks coming up there are some very exciting events happening… The first being that prac is over in less then 2 weeks! This means I get to move out of residence and to the beach!! Following my move, I’m heading off to New
Zealand for 2 weeks to start my summer holidays! I will send more updates once my life becomes more eventful. Until then, I hope everyone is healthy and well back home. Would love to hear from you all!
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Auntie Louise
non-member comment
Kendra , we need your new address, need to send you a little something...ASAP