One month in...

Hello Everyone!

Beginning this week at school marked week 5 in Australia and nearly a month since first arriving. I briefly talked with some of my students today about it and they could hardly believe it had ONLY been that long, they felt as if I had been with them for months! This made me happy as I too felt as if I had known them much, much longer. In giving you an update from last week, I had an awesome professional success. I had been anxiously waiting to implement my science lesson this week and was determined for the lesson to teach the students the content and allow them to have fun. As science is my favorite subject, I was disappointed initially learning the students tended to think science was boring, they even used the hate word. I had planned a lesson where students observed and measured the impact capacity of various packaging materials to protect a biscuit when a weight was dropped upon it. I made sure to engage my students in a guided inquiry lesson through a variety of medias and was constantly probing their thinking during the experiment through various questions. The students were not only using scientific vocabulary to explain their conclusions that impressed me, but they also were laughing, smiling, and having fun. After the lesson multiple students came up to me telling me how much they enjoyed the lesson and were already wondering what the next lesson would entail. I would say the lesson was a “smashing” success.

One of the major times I had felt discouraged this past week was when all of the year six girls were at dance practice and I had the entire group of year six boys to myself for a poetry lesson on Bridge to Terabithia. I had done the lesson just before with the girls and it went very well. Thus, I felt accomplished in my instruction and classroom management techniques. Yet, when I had the boys immediately after the same instructional techniques and management failed. The boys in the other year six class I have never worked with before did not seem to respect me as a teacher and began to cause problems following directions. I was unable to make it through my lesson for I spent most of the time trying to redirect students from talking back or playing in the classroom. I finally was able to have some of the boys from my own class help get their friends to settle as they could tell I was beginning to feel disrespected. I felt very frustrated as I realized the boys I have never worked with in this age only knew me as the American teacher next door. I confided this to my teacher Fiona and the other year six teacher and we had a group talk with the classes about treating all people with respect no matter their age, race, nationality, or familiarity they have with you in a classroom. I have yet to work with these boys again, but they seem to be causing ruckus for most teachers in general.

I was also invited by my host dad to what I thought was a parish barbeque one evening. However, I actually attended a special mass given for the pastoral council of St. Patrick’s and then was invited to attend the pastoral council meeting immediately following the mass. I initially felt very awkward and out of place as this was a group of about 13 individuals, besides my host dad and the priest, which I had never met before. The individuals were rather old in age and some of them were hard to understand when trying to hold a conversation. I had always thought pastoral council meetings to be a private, serious event in a parish but did not want to turn down the offer. I nervously sat in on the meeting, and actively listened to the various speakers. After the meeting, the barbeque began where I was almost “put on the spot” to give a brief summary of who I was, where I was from, what I was doing in Australia, and what I thought about things thus far. I tried my best to keep it brief, light-hearted, smiled a lot, and thanked the members all for being so welcoming that evening. I realized that although I did not know any of these people and they did not know me, it did not matter, for I was just another child of God and I was automatically welcomed in their eyes. I ended up staying at the parish event for hours and enjoying myself chatting with various council members.

Last Friday I had been invited by my host sister Emily to go to dinner at a Thai restaurant with her and six other teachers from her Catholic school down in Woy Woy, about a 25 minute drive from East Gosford. It was such an interesting opportunity to meet other teachers from another Australian school, especially to chat with two other year 6 teachers. As with the teachers at St. Patricks, these teachers were also so surprised by the fact that students in the States lack so much physical activity throughout the school day. I had the most delicious cashew chili nut tofu loaded with heaps of vegetables. YUMMMMMY! The teachers, Emily, and I then went to the local performance of The Fiddler on The Roof. It was brilliant! I had flashbacks from watching Ellen and Carol's performance of that musical at Marian from long ago. Needless to say the songs are still in my head.

Last Saturday I took an early train with Elizabeth and Cliff down into Katoomba to bush walk and hike about The Blue Mountains National Park. Quick history now: The Blue Mountains were formed as a result of the Kosciusko Uplift during the geological epoch, Pilocene around a million years ago. The mountains formed to be about three thousand feet tall, where abouts the well-known Mount Victoria is located. The mountains earned their name as the dense population of oil Eucalyptus trees causes the mountains to appear to have a blue haze as the sun rises each morning. (We missed this unfortunately). The very fine oil droplets in the atmosphere combine with water vapor and dust particles that scatter the short-wave lengths of light, which produce a blue like color from the light spectrum. We hiked The National Pass which was a bit intense at parts as the steps back up the mountain were super steep. We saw two different huge lizards, a brown snake (SCARY!), and heaps of Cockatoos. These are some of my favorite photos!

After a long day of hikes in the sun, we headed back to Sydney. Elizabeth and I's dreams came true when we found a Mexican restaurant almost like Chipotle or Qdoba, we were in heaven. I think I had about 4 refills of fountain orange soda here also since I haven't had fountain pop since before leaving the States!

Finished the weekend off by attending the Sunday night youth mass at St. Patrick's. I believe attending the parish council barbie event was a great thing to attend as I saw several members who all remembered me by name and warmly greeted me.

Tomorrow brings on another day at Sailability. Updates soon. Happy Thanksgiving week you guys, I am thankful for you all :)

Love, Jules

Sailability

In my overseas program through Indiana University I am required to complete a service learning project. This project is to promote the development of active learners seeking to increase their own knowledge as they undertake realistic tasks that serve the community. The project requires my ability to make strong personal reflections about my interactions within the community as reciprocal exchange between myself and others is to occur. The project is also to be arranged and completed outside of school and I was not allowed to work with students who attended St. Patrick's. This does not seem like that difficult of a task to organize as one would think that there are countless charitable organizations that would love the helping hands of volunteers, especially young ones with a passion for helping others. My first week here I began excitedly contacting numerous organization but quickly became discouraged as several of them never returned my phone calls or emails, or simply said they have no use for me as a volunteer given my timing willing to help right before the holiday season. This seemed bizarre, for in the States usually organizations need the most volunteers around the holidays.

It wasn't until I attended the Gosford Sailing Club with Michael and Cherie one night that I saw a little flyer with bold letters printed on it, "VOLUNTEERS WANTED FOR SAILABILITY GOSFORD... WE NEED HELP!" The add had me immediately after reading "VOLUNTEERS WANTED," and I had not the slightest clue what Sailability was but I figured I may as well try this organization! After making a few phone calls and awaiting a few email replies, I learned that Sailability Gosford is a non-profit volunteer-based organization that provides sailing opportunities to people with any type of disability, the elderly, and the financially and socially disadvantaged of the Gosford community. I did some of my own personal research to learn that Sailability is a world-wide organization that originated in Great Britain during the 1980's and came to Australia in 1991 and has spread like wildfire along the Central Coast. Sailability can be found only in Florida, Idaho, and in New Jersey in the United States. So, I explained to the two secretaries of the group, Jane and Ruth, a little bit about myself including my passion for helping others learn and my experience working with a variety of abilities in educational environments. I also shared with the ladies that I come from a long line of family members who devoted most of their lives to serving, teaching, and helping those with varying abilities discover their talents in order to live lives of inclusion. (I thank Gramps and Grams for passing along this talent to me!) The ladies were thrilled to have me help on board even though I have never sailed a day in my life!

Today was the first day volunteering with Sailability. The community center of Gosford has organized weekly activities for seniors and individuals with special needs. This week 8 individuals ranging from about 19 to early 30's came to sail. I arrived at 9:30 a.m. where Ruth and Jane gave me the background information about the participants as well as any special precautions I may need to take working with some of the friends. I appreciated this communication as I know how important it is to not accidentally cross certain limits while working with special needs individuals. Since I have had no actual sailing experience, the team members of Sailability quickly started to show me the ropes about transporting the small access dinghies that allow disabled people to sail in comfort and safety. A trained sailor and one participant can be held in the boat at a time. I assisted in assembling the sail boats, helping the participants in and out of the boats, and entertaining them on shore with their community care takers as they waited for their turn to sail.

I was pleased by how many of the participants came up to me and took an interest in wanting to know who the unfamiliar face was. I found it easy to talk with most of the individuals except for one gentleman who I quickly learned from a caretaker that they did NOT like girls and could act out physically against them if they felt threatened. One girl about my age had an infatuation with asking what street I lived on and telling me what street she lived on, only I realized it was a game once she started changing every street name to do something with fish: fish guts ave, fish bone road, fish head cove, and would roll with laughter. We then invented silly names for fish and it did not matter whether it made sense, for her smile was incredibly contagious and I had such a good time making up nonsense sayings for about an hour on shore. Once again, I helped with a barbie for the participants, and then helped the team put the dinghies away. I will be helping out again next Tuesday with the same group of participants and cannot wait to continue to see how therapeutic this program can be for individuals.

My personal moral note of the story: even though it was so very frustrating initially trying to find a volunteer project, good things come to those who wait. Sailability is a beautiful program.

It is a bit of a challenge...

HELLO ALL!

My apologies in this massive blog update you are beginning to read, but I have a lot of catching up to do as there is so much I would like to share with you guys! Last week was one of the most exciting thus far. I had the opportunity to attend the year five students' Christian leadership development camp held at "Challenge Ranch" in Somersby. This camp operates under the auspices of the Catholic Diocese of Broken Bay in which St. Patrick's is a part of. Challenge Ranch is classified as an outdoor education facility lead by trained employees who specialize in outdoor recreational activities. The camp was held over a period of two days where the students were to further develop an awareness of leadership attitudes and skills as they move towards being the "senior class" next year as year sixes. At the end of camp five girls and five boys are nominated by their peers for the position of "school captain" during their final year six year. But enough of the background information! I had not worked with any of the year 5 students or teachers prior to this experience and so naturally I was eager to see what this camp was all about. We arrived at camp Tuesday morning where we were greeted by the Challenge Ranch staff members. The staff was a wide range of individuals from around the world who had a passion for adventure and a love of working with kids. (Sound familiar?) The students were divided into three groups, and another teacher and myself worked specifically with a group 18 students. Our first leadership building activity was to have the students use an assortment of barrels, wooden planks, ropes, and oars in order to build a raft that was capable of transporting their entire team of 9 across a lake. Easier said than done. Aside from the initial bickering by the girls wanting to assign roles to people, the boys stepped up to show their teammates knot tying skills they had learned in Scouts or from their dad. After what the kids thought they had done an excellent job in constructing actually fell to pieces once a boy hopped aboard, the students eagerly re-thought how to improve their raft. I also was thrilled to use this as a teachable moment about buoyancy, balance, and what makes objects able to float :) YAY SCIENCE! Yet, after the kid's second failed attempt I asked them if they wanted my help and they decided Miss. Seevers may know a helpful trick or two. (Little did they know, I remembered doing this exact activity at camps growing up). Finally, on our third go at the raft building our team was able to work together well enough to make it across the lake with the raft intact. Check out my raft builders below!

After morning tea and DVD exercises involving the students identifying why they are special, what their personal goals are as leaders, and how they can develop these strengths at camp the students and I set off for the next adventure: abseiling! Now, if you are wondering what exactly that is as I was until about 5 minutes before we began, it is when you decend down a face of a rock using a rope on a pulley system. The Challenge Ranch staff member flew down the make-shift wall build from wooden planks about 10 meters up, making it look like a piece of cake. Many of the students were rather nervous before this activity, but this was where I saw the leadership in students come to life. The words of encouragement I heard from students given to friends who were scared delighted me to no end! Some of these students were really starting to show qualities of school captains. Take a peak at these action shots. Oh and I got to have a go at the wall as well!

The rest of the afternoon and evening included reflection time, free swim (it was VERY HOT that day), showers, dinner, soccer (which was fun to play in with the kids), and the night ended by our parish father giving a mass for the children before bed. Lights out was suppose to be 9:30 p.m. Needless to say, a huge cabin full of rooms of 10 and 11 year olds both boys and girls did NOT go to sleep until the wee hours of the morning. Lucky teachers right? It was funny though to think about how just yesterday I was away at camp with my friends and we probably would have tried to stay up causing mischief the same exact way. I pleasantly reminded the other teachers, that it was just one night away from home so of course the thrill is new and they will want to not sleep through the entire night. Kids will be kids.

The next day included similar leadership building activities and our final outdoor activity with the Challenge Ranch team. Flying fox was what the Aussie kids called it. We know it in the States as a zip line. After a quick chat about keeping an eye out for red bellied snakes since the weather was so hot and it had rained the previous night, we set out on our hike up to the take off platform. The kids had an absolute blast during this activity, and thankfully we saw no snakes. Take a look here, and yes, of course I gave this one a go as well! The last picture is of me and the other teacher, Lauren, who lead the same group of kids during the two days of camp. She was a blast!

We got back from camp Wednesday afternoon, and I was exhausted and eaten alive from the mozzies here (mosquitos). Shower, food (as the camp had no meatless options-so I was very thankful my host mum thought to pack me with snack alternatives just in case :) ) , mozzie cream, and sleep immediately.

That Friday at school was sport day! It is absolutely mind blowing to think about how American schools, specifically public ones, stop recess/sport recreation each day typically after year 5. Aussie students have recess every day twice, (including time for lunch), from kindy until year 12. That helps to explain a lot about Australia valuing sport in such a passionate way. The boys were practicing cricket, and AFL (Australian Football League) rules (similar to touch football in the State where you wear the waist belts with flags, but using a rugby ball instead of a football). The girls wanted to play soccer, which of course I got to ref. Here are my lovely lot of kids below as well as pictures of my school that are long overdue. Oh and I also was volunteered to help our handyman cook roughly 100 sausages on the barbie for the First Communion students....... I did not quite have a choice and as a visitor I know I should just go with the flow, so I had to try my very best to not want to throw up while turning over the massive sausages for a half hour. Fiona, my teacher, laughed later after she realized what exactly they had me doing and called me "the Jack of all Trades!" The things I do for kids...needless to say there are no pictures of this.

Ok now up to the weekend! Speed version. I caught a train down to Mosman to meet Elizabeth and we wondered about looking for some good ole fashioned American pizza at a pub as it had been a long week at school for the both of us. Now you have to understand the za here is NOT like it is in the States. It is normally given as thin crust and a small size could be eaten easily by one semi-hungry person. Must remember that in future!!

Saturday Elizabeth and I took a bus to Bondi Beach where we had the opportunity to participate in the annual Sculpture by The Sea walk. This walk from Bondi Beach to Tamarama displayed the most interesting, creative, and abstract pieces of art work by various artists. Not to mention the view of the ocean was like nothing I had ever seen before! I took about a 100 pictures this day, but I will only put up a few of my favorites!

I came home from Mosman early Sunday, and FINALLY got to Skype with my Mom for the first time, who was visiting Carol in Indy, and then with Ellen and Troy who I am able to see more often. I didn't realize how much I missed them until I actually got to see and hear them on the computer! After wiping away a tear or two, I quickly had to help the Goodways get ready for a barbie we were hosting at their place. I got to meet finally their new granddaughter, Gieselle, who is only a month or so old. So precious!

This week at school I am leading reading groups, teaching maths-percents, science-packaging, religion-justice/injustice in the Kingdom of God, reading the novel Bridge to Terabithia-I already warned them I will cry at the end, an integrated unit-media and advertising, and I am teaching a unit on figurative language in writing. The boys are starting to get a bit, how do I say this nicely, unruly and some of them have begun to notice girls in a new way, if you get my drift. Tomorrow I am volunteering at the Gosford Sailing Club with their Sailability program where disabled people gave the opportunity to learn how to sail. Maybe I will be lucky enough to get a sailing lesson or two in there!

Alright. That is all for now, I have lessons and marking to do and ANOTHER barbie to attend tonight at the parish. Love to all.

Jules

P.S. A sunset view of the waterfront by my house from this past week on a walk.

I can wear tank tops and shorts in November?

My school week took an interesting turn last Thursday afternoon. I gave my year sixes their maths assessment over the unit they learned before I arrived, and the one I taught them that week. After marking them I received scores ranging from 30/31 to 9/31 correct. Slightly confused, I took a closer look at the problem areas students were having with the units on long multiplication and finding the area of 2D shapes. I saw the most careless and simple mistakes students could make in maths; not putting a decimal in your answer when multiplying decimals, forgetting to divide the base x height by 2 when finding the area of a triangle on the entire page of problems, or merely just putting question marks in answer blanks. Then I remembered how I felt when I was about to graduate and move onto "high school," highly unmotivated to do my work! I think my year sixes are quickly catching the "I don't care anymore it is almost holiday and I'm going to high school" disease. I read the class scores aloud without saying which scores belonged to whom, and the students were shocked by so many low marks. I told them we would reteach and retest tomorrow and that they better study, because poor effort and low marks will result in missing of sport. Let's just say, they do NOT like to miss sport. After school Thursday I had many students stay to ask questions and I encouraged specific students having problems to stay for some extra help. I was impressed by their desire to do better and felt pleased that students took up on my offer. Then Friday came around, and after a morning watching the year six girls and boys do Cricket warm ups, I finally got to see my first live match! Not that the girls could play for more than 5 minutes without arguing about something, or that the boys were not trying to show off their Cricket talent for the girls, I had a blast! I got to learn to bowl and bat. I think kids in the States would enjoy the game. I will have to try to make it to a professional Cricket match, but not one of the matches that goes on for days on end... I would fall asleep.

That night I went with the Goodways, my host family, to a surprise 60th Birthday party for a cousin in Terrigal, about 20 minutes away from us in East Gosford. I got to meet heaps of family members and everyone welcomed me as if I was part of the family. Each person I met was interested in my story and how I got to end up with such an awesome family, like the Goodways. I received travel suggestions up the wazoo that were full of great advice, information I could not have easily figured out on my own or on the internet. The resort the party was held at looked right over the waterfront. Sunset and nightfall there was something you would see in the movies. Below is Emily (my host sister), me, and Cherie (host mum).

Saturday morning I woke up and caught a train to Central Station, Sydney with another friend from IU, Esther, who is in Terrigal teaching secondary arts. We went to Bondi Beach and as silly as this sounds, I had a permagrin (permanently grinning) for about the first half hour we were there soaking up the incredible environment. Check this out.

Oh and not to mention there was a surf competition going on...

Esther and I then met up with her friend from high school, who was from Valparaiso- small world, living in Paddington, Sydney right off of the famous Oxford St. We then met her friends at Circular Quay for a birthday pub crawl that took us to various places along the waterfront and a to a beautiful island called Cockatoo Island full of cuckoo art pieces. All the Aussies I met were as friendly as can be to us! Below are some of the photos from the day.

Today we took a train home early and I walked along the water to take some photos as the day was gorgeous. I saw a primo photo location along the road so I stopped, put my bag down to take a picture, and within 10 seconds I felt this awful crawling feeling all over my feet and legs. I look down to find my bag and my lower body covered in tons of tiny black ants. Naturally I start flipping out, waving my arms around, jumping about trying to whack these awful things off myself and my belongings, all while cars are driving past. I hope you enjoy this photo for all it is worth.

Got to Skype with Carol today for a good long while, and I enjoyed it so much. It is nice to see a face from home each week. COUGH COUGH!! I went to the youth mass tonight at St. Patrick's with Emily, just finished dinner, and now enjoying mango (over ice cream) for desert :) The mangos here are nothing like I have ever tasted in the States. Mom and Ellen, you would be in heaven. Tuesday and Wednesday I will go with the year fives on their Christian Leadership Campout as a counselor. Needless to say, I will not be sleeping that night.

Has it snowed at home yet?

Love and miss you all.

Jules

The Start of it All...

G'DAY Family and Friends!

I apologize in my delay for setting up this blog, as I had ran into issues loading everything with my internet. I will summarize the past week for you quickly though!

I arrived at the Sydney International Airport 24 October in the morning and was warmly greeted by my host dad and "mum," Michael and Cherie Goodway. Even though I had only spoken to Michael for the first time on the phone about two weeks prior to flight, it felt as though I had known them for a very long time by their immediate kindness. We had about an hour and a half drive north along the Central Coast into the Gosford Area. Yes, it was weird driving on the other side of the road, and yes it felt weird riding as passenger on the left hand side of a car. It is still bizarre to see people fiddling about in the passenger side on the left while walking to school. I went to meet my teacher, Fiona Bolton, and my year 6 kids that day just a few hours after stepping foot into my host family's home. Year 6 is equivalent to the 5th grade in the States, as the children are about 11 and 12 years old. The students saw me walking down the steps towards their classroom and instantly drew looks of excitement and wonder upon their faces as they looked through the window. As soon as I walked into the classroom 25 hands shot up for questions. "Do you know Kim Kardashian?" "Do you play NHL?" "What famous people have you met?" etc. etc. as the list of obnoxious questions continued. Fiona greeted me with a big hug and I immediately knew this was about to be a life changing experience. I began teaching small reading groups the next day at school and was invited to attend their touch footie gala day that Thursday. The kids here for sport tournament days miss school in order to play a sort of round robin tournament. I initially thought I would just go to help things organized and such. Wrong. Five minutes before the year 6 girls' first match, another teacher handed me a list of rules and the roster and I had to learn the game in order to be assigned as their coach. Thank god these kids were old enough to semi-organize themselves for the first game as I learned the ways of touch footie. Below is a picture of my girls and the year 6 boys.

Then, last weekend I went to visit my good friend Elizabeth (another IU education major in my program), in Mosman, a wonderful classy sailing town. The fish and chips around here are the real deal, let me tell you! Saturday morning Elizabeth and I took a ferry ride from Mosman into Circular Quay, right into the heart of Sydney. We had a beautiful sunny say to sea the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Here we are below!

We then met with my friend Cliff from the States in a Sydney suburb called Newtown and ate delicious Israeli and Thai, went shopping, and visited the Sydney Uni (aka University). The architecture of the buildings was beautiful and there were these trees that were a brilliant shade of purple called Jacarandas.

Then we all went to a Halloween party in North Strathfield hosted by the Goodway's cousin, Sally, and met Michael and Cherie's daughter, Emily, there. It was a blast meeting all these new Aussies and seeing how they threw down a Halloween party. They do it QUITE well, trust me.

This week... I took over teaching maths full time and have been having a great time doing so. I actually had a girl come up to me with a smile on her face saying, "You know I am really starting to like maths," after one of my inquiry based lessons finding area of 2D shapes. Those types of things are why I love what I do. It was also "heaps" of fun dressing up with my fascinator (an obnoxious hair piece) for the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday. Think Kentucky Derby but more HUGE. We gambled in a "sweep" at school for which horses would win. Luckily I only put down $5.00 as my horse, who now I can't even recall, did not win. It was good fun though and the kids enjoyed it as well. That day we also did pink face painting and ribbon sales for Breast Cancer Awareness. The kids alone raised $300 that day by donations. Amazing how big their hearts are. Here I am with my class on Melbourne Cup and Breast Cancer Day. Can you tell which ones are the most entertaining?

I have also been taking breathtaking walks with Michael and Cherie along the waterfront, as they live literally two blocks away from the water. We went for a sunset walk along the waterfront yesterday, had a drink while we watched the Twilight Race of sailboats finish, and then Cherie taught me how to make quiche! We finished the evening by watching British murder mystery movies over tea on the tele.

Time here is already flying as I cannot believe I am finishing my second week tomorrow with my class. I am loving every minute I spend here and cannot wait to share more experiences with you all. Love you and miss you and share with me YOUR lives!

Jules