Current AU time and date: 6:20 pm, Thursday 5/2/13
Current US time and date: 4:20 am, Thursday 5/2/13
G'day my fifth grade mates!
Finally getting a chance to sit down and fill you all in on my first (two) day(s) of teaching! To start, let me tell you that I gave out your pen pal letters today, and the students went absolutely crazy over them. They love hearing from you! I couldn't keep them quiet, they all wanted to tell each other about their pen pals and kept asking me questions about you guys. A few asked for me to clarify what some of the stuff in the letters meant such as PSSAs, morning work, specials, DPA, and so on. Abby, your pen pal asked me a lot of questions about the stealing of your goldfish at snack time :) They don't have goldfish here so it was kind of hard to explain. Anyway, they're all writing back. We finished up the letters this morning since they didn't have a lot of time yesterday. They will be typing them Tuesday when we go to the computer lab, then I'll put all the letters into one document and send it over to Ms. Michael so she can hand them out to everyone. I'm really excited for you guys to get the letters, my new students wrote about a lot of interesting things and wrote some good questions; you all will have a lot of fun reading them!
Here are your new Australian buddies!
So, back to the new school and school day. Well, yesterday I got into school at 8:30 and found that for the first 30 minutes of the day the kids get to play outside. So, our day starts around 9. Oh! And they all wear uniforms--all public schools here do. The students came in and welcomed me with a big "good morning Miss Probasco!" then their teacher gave them their new jobs. Like our classroom at PVI, these students have class chores too. Next, they had to move seats for the new term. I was surprised to find that they pick their own seats. After that, I got to go up and talk to the class for a bit about America and myself. They asked me a lot of questions and were really interested in how things are in the US. Then I handed out your letters, and they read and started responding. At 10:00, the kids had "fruit break" (which is a lot like our snack time, but they have to bring fruit) and continued to work until we headed to the Anzac ceremony. Remember when I told you I came in on a national holiday? That's what we were celebrating yesterday in school. A few people came up to talk about the history of Anzac Day, some soldiers marched around and to the flag, and everyone sang the national anthem. It was a really nice!
My new classroom! They have SmartBoards too, but theirs are Windows, not Mac, compatible. They also don't have any wireless in the school, so there are no laptops or iPads like we had, and the SmartBoard must be plugged into the desktop computer up front.
Since they have tables and not desks, they each have their own bin to put all their books, pencil cases, and belongings in. If you look against the back wall in this picture, you can see some of the bins. Like you guys, they have "table mates"--this is the same thing as your shoulder buddies and eyeball buddies.
The kids playing in the morning before coming into the room
I told you everything was outdoors! This is the fifth/sixth grade "hallway"
Backpacks get hung outside the room rather than having lockers or cubbies in the classroom.
Veteran soldiers from the Anzac ceremony.
After the ceremony, we had "tea time" or recess. The kids got their snacks and went out to play while the other teachers and I went into the teacher's lounge for some snacks, coffee, and tea with the guest speakers and veterans. When recess was over, we went back into the classroom to start working on some math. The past 2 days we have been doing some work with fractions to prepare them for the NAPLAN, which is almost identical to our PSSAs, in 2 weeks. I'm assuming you guys are pros on fractions by now since that's what Ms. Michael was teaching you after I left--maybe you all should come here to help my new students? Math, or 'mathes' as they call it, didn't go too long because we had to start art. Here, they don't have specials like PVI does. They do all the stuff they would do in specials, in the classroom. So Wednesday was "art". We started getting supplies together before lunch since we were going to start painting after lunch. We were making prints using cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage.
Check out their "table mate" that was working on fractions with them...
Barbie: "Just trying to get prepared for the NAPLANs"
Here are some pieces of art they made during art on another day. As I briefly mentioned in my other post, the Aborigines are the native people of Australia (like our Native Americans). Their culture plays a huge role in Australia, and they are known for some of their (very expensive) art work. The kids made their own versions of Aboriginal art.
Kids lining up at the canteen
Kids eating lunch on the court.
A lot of kids eat under here too, especially if it is raining.
The girls wanted Barbie to eat with them.
But so did the boys...
Barbie: "Its hard being so popular..."
Kids playing after they finished their lunches.
When the students returned from lunch, we worked on art for the remainder of the day. It was an easy day since it was the first one back after break.
Kids working on their art projects
That was my first day! Today wasn't too much different, except instead of art we had gym which is also taught by their teacher. Today, it was taught by me! I gave them a lesson on cheerleading since they don't have it here :)
The kids and me practicing our "high V's"
Some of the boys working on building a pyramid
Our class pyramid! We're going to try something harder next Thursday.
Aside from P.E. (gym), we did one other thing differently today than yesterday. We had "hisy" after math. 'Hisy' is what they call history! Pretty cool, huh? I also took notice that they have "Where's Wally?" books on the book shelves. Guess its not "Where's Waldo?" here. Like I said before, I'm making a list of the different word usages here. I promise I'll post it as an entry one day when I don't have so much to say.
Anyway, today it was about 74 degrees outside. Beautiful, right? Funny thing is, in Australia, 74 is "cold"! All day teachers and students were talking about how "freezing" it was outside. I explained to them that this weather at home is usually when people decide to start breaking out their flip-flops ('thongs' as they call them here) and shorts! While all my students were layering up in their 'jumpers' (sweaters), I was standing there in a sundress! Crazy!
I found Riley running around at lunch! All the grades eat at the same time so he was out for lunch too. Notice the hats they all wear, its part of the uniform and required when outside since its so sunny. Once they go to the high school (7th grade), they no longer have to wear the hats. Also, Riley's friend behind him is wearing a "jumper". Riley explained to me that he refuses to wear his jumper, and when he gets cold he just runs around more. I guess his 'mate' (friend) was affected by the "freezing" weather though!
Well, that about sums up my last 2 days! Again, if you read all of this, I'm proud of you. These entries are turning into quite the short novels. I'm not sure if the comments are working or not. I changed the settings though, so hopefully its okay. As of now, I'm not seeing any on the other entry. Hopefully no one tried to post one and failed? If you're having any problems, email me! No promises on getting back to you right away, though.
Until next time,
-Miss Probasco (and Barbie)
Barbie: "5/5! I'm an Australian expert!"
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