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