Sunday, August 28, 2011

What a busy three days and what a relaxing three days - how does that work? :-)  Well, I started off by being busy, but being a relaxing busy at school on Friday - if only every day at school could be without students!   It was great being able to work in my classroom - I spent the morning cleaning and tidying up.  At lunch time, I went up to the staff room with Natasha (who's on a contract in grade 3) and we sat and chatted while we ate.  While we were there, a former science teacher came in and we talked with her for a while.  In the afternoon, I was able to do some preparation getting ready for Monday.  It felt really good to get so much done - it's so hard to get the nitty gritty stuff done on a regular basis.  I think that we need one of these days every week. :-) 

Dad picked me up just after 1pm, so he didn't have all day to work - he spent the morning doing more census stuff - he worked on his second collector's book and was able to complete that in a couple of hours.  He's hoping that the rest of the collectors' books will be as fast and as easy to check.

In the evening, our friends, Robyn and Geoff came over for dinner.  We've all been so busy lately, so it was nice to slow down and have a nice meal and chat together.  Dad cooked up some pork spareribs on the barbie (after boiling them) - he actually found some rib bbq sauce to use.  Geoff had never heard of boiling the ribs first - here, they just throw them on the barbie and cook them without the bbq sauce.  We had some corn on the cob with it - yummy! :-)  We then went and sat on our new lounge room furniture and was it ever comfortable!  It was such a lovely evening just sitting there and chatting - so relaxing - I loved it! :-)

We slept in on Saturday and were totally lazy.  Dad was originally planning to drive to Bundaberg for his flight lesson for SES (search and rescue), but that was called off due to bad weather (grey skies and raining) and so he had the day off - a nice treat after being so full-on for the past while.  Around 10am we went downtown and did some errands.  When we got home, we got right into our work - Dad doing census stuff and me doing school stuff - Dad also helped me do some school stuff which was great.  When I am doing stuff which isn't exciting, it's nice to just have Dad hanging out with me. :-)  We spent the evening watching 'Air Crash Investigations' and doing church stuff - Dad had to do his lesson for the High Priests and I had to do a Primary lesson for the Sunbeam class.  We were both tired and ready for bed when I remembered that I needed to do a cover letter for a job I wanted to apply for.  The closing date for applying for the position is tomorrow  and since I didn't want to work on it today (Sunday), Dad and I stayed up late last night working on that.  I finally got it all together and put everything into an envelope and Dad will take it over to the school tomorrow morning.

Things were really busy at church today.  We started off at 8:15am at our usual ward missionaries meeting and then had Sacrament meeting.  The theme for today's meeting was about the importance of families sticking together - one of our youth, Jordan, spoke first, and then Debbie, my first counsellor in Primary, spoke second.  The Bishop actually spoke last today - he rarely speaks and I was very interested to see what he had to say.  He basically talked about obedience and what that means as members of the church.  He went through a list of things we should be doing as latter-day saints - it was a good reminder to 'endure to the end'. 

After Sacrament meeting, I asked Amanda, our CTR teacher, if she could take our only Sunbeam today into her class - I figured that rather than teach just one little girl myself, that it would be nice for her to go in with some other children.  I still am not feeling up to par (cold symptoms), so I thought that during class time, I could meet with my counsellor and secretary rather than after our meetings.  When I talked with Amanda, she told me that she was going to take her daughter home because she wasn't feeling well and could I teach her class.  So, there I was teaching all the children in Primary (only five here today) and then afterwards, I conducted Sharing Time. 

After the meetings, Dad went to choir and I met with Debbie (our secretary, Denise, had gone home to be with her family who were visiting from out of town) so that we could discuss our outline for the Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentation which is at the end of October.  I wanted to share with her the ideas I had found on the net and get her ideas about what I had found.  We spent about a half hour going over things and I think we have the program basically worked out.  I spent some time this evening typing it out and will complete it tomorrow night after I get some papers from Denise tomorrow.

We Skyped with Grandma and Grandpa and Terri-Ann after church - there were a lot of people there when we were Skyping:  Tricia and Courtnay, Doug, Sharon, Erika, Christopher and Zachary and Jackie.  We had a little chat with most of them and it was good to see them.  Grandpa is looking very weak - he was laying in bed and talked a little, but didn't have a lot of energy to talk much.  Terri-Ann is going to try and get a flight out of Vancouver on Monday.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

I am sure feeling better than I was on Tuesday night - what a day that was.  Dad got sick on Sunday (remember I said I brought him home after Sacrament meeting?) and then on Monday, he got even worse.  Well, he is such a nice guy, he passed it on to me. :-)  So, I am 24 hours behind him on this cold.  Yuck!  I thought my head was going to explode on Tuesday.  It was so bad, I even started taking some Sudafed to see if it would help.  I also went to bed at 8:15pm on Tuesday night and slept through until 6am Wednesday morning and then went to bed early again last night.  It's been a rough slog at school and Dad has been picking me up early (at 4pm) each afternoon this week as I was just too tired to stay there any later than that. 

Some news about Brayden: his mom told me that they took him to someone 'like a pedicatrician' and that she said that he is too young to diagnose.  Sheesh.  This 'doctor' watched him play on his own and talked with his mom about his behaviour and then the doctor said he is 'normal' in his behaviour.  Gee, has she ever thought about coming into the classroom to see how he interacts with others, listens while the carpet, follows instructions, etc. -- NO!  Man, it's  so frustrating.  So, nothing will be done about his behaviour other than mom (bipolar) and grandma and grandpa trying to work with him.  Who knows what actually happens at home, though - I reckon there's a lot of talk and not a lot of walk.  Oh, and get this, the 'doctor' says that one reason for Brayden's behaviour is likely that he has a 'new' teacher - I have been his teacher for nine weeks now - I hardly consider that 'new'.

Some good news....for me, anyway.  Teachers in HB worked an extra day in January before the children came to school and so have a day off tomorrow.  I was told that I might be able to go to another school to do some planning/preparing if I wanted to get paid OR I could take the day off.  I didn't want to give up the money and so I chose to go to a different school (all the teachers in HB who did not do that extra day were going to meet at that school).  Anyway, Neil (our acting principal) told me today that I could come into our school and work in my classroom.  I was so excited about that as I can have time to organize things right there instead of having to drag everything somewhere else.  So, I will get paid for doing things I would be doing at home anyway. :-)

Dad has been busy working on census stuff - checking out the collectors' books - it took him hours to go through the first collector's book, but now that he has done that, he said it's been easier to do the second collector's book.  He will have five more collector's books to do this week - he has to be completed all of the checking by September 7th, so he has told his collectors that they need to have their books to him no later than Monday night.

On Tuesday night, Dad set up things so that a live webcast could be received in our chapel from Brisbane.  It was about the 'I am a Mormon' campaign which will begin in Australia in September.  The purpose of the webcast was to let everyone know about the campaign and also to let them know how the campaign went in North America (it was a resounding success there).  The campaign will consist of tv ads and video profiles on mormon.org.au and facebook, youtube and twitter. 

Tonight at SES, Dad practiced ladder hinges and ladder slides (yeah, I had no clue, either, but then Dad told me what those terms meant :-)  Basically, these are two ways to get a patient on a stretcher, either up or down a cliff or from a basement of a house which has collapsed (no stairs to climb up).  They used mannequins as the 'patients' and, in their shed, they have a second floor and so they transported the patients up and down between the ground floor and the second floor of the shed without using the stairs.  They don't practice this procedure very often because  normally the firies would do that, but they do need to learn how  to do it and to practice it once in a while. 

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Yay for the weekend!  Friday was another one of those days - it was so good to be done for the weekend.  Baylee had not a bad day, but Brayden was in full form.  I ended up having to put him on a Slip 1 because of a situation which occurred in the classroom.  He went and hit this boy on the carpet and told him that he was not supposed to be talking while the kids were reading.  During  D.E.A.R. time, they are not allowed to talk except to themselves as they are reading.  But this was during free time.  Anyway, I told him that he had to be put on a s\Slip 1 because he hit someone.  I talked with Brayden's dad after school and told him what had happened and he spoke with Brayden about it - told him it wasn't acceptable.  I'm not sure whether he will follow  through at home, though.  However, it now means that Brayden has to 'be good' for the next week; otherwise, he goes on a Slip 2 and eventually if it keeps going on, he will be suspended.  I told his dad what the consequences would be if he didn't start following the rules.  We'll see what Monday brings.

Dad spent the day at the Family History centre Friday - not by design, though.  He was only supposed to be there for a couple of hours, but  ended up being there all day.  He went in to help out a lady who had been at the FHC on Wednesday night and needed some more help - and those who were manning the FHC on Friday didn't know how to help her, so they called Dad.  He had just finished helping the lady when a fellow walked into the centre and asked for help - it turned out that Dad knew the guy from SES - and Dad ended up helping him 'til 3pm when the centre closed.

Friday night was so relaxing - I love Friday nights - after we went shopping, we came home and did nothing all evening except watch tv. :-)  We have been watching a show called 'The Glee Project' (like American Idol, kind of, but the winner gets a four episode guest spot on the tv show 'Glee').  After that, we watched 'Law and Order UK' and then 'Law and Order' - a lovely way to spend the evening after a busy and stressful week. 

Neither Dad nor I got dressed on Saturday - lazy, eh? :-)  It was actually really nice.  We started our day off with a lovely, but short chat with Terri-Ann and our boys - it was wonderful to see everyone and to find out a little more about what they are doing this summer.  Dad spent the day continuing on with census stuff - going over one of his collector's books.  I spent the day laminating and cutting out resources for my classroom.  Since they want me to teach these kids grade one stuff and I haven't taught that grade in ten years, I didn't have a lot of stuff which I felt I need for teaching what they want me to teach to them.  I am also having to get some things ready for those in the classroom who don't even know the names/sounds of all the letters of the alphabet.  We spent the evening watching two episodes of 'Air Crash Investigation' - we had seen both episodes before, but it was long enough ago, that we couldn't remember everything about the crashes and so we watched them again - we love that show.

Today, Dad wasn't feeling too well, but decided he was well enough to go to church.  The talks at Sacrament meeting today were really good.  The topic was about strengthening your testimony through prayer.  My first counsellor, Maureen, the Bishop's wife, Diana,  an our friend, Goff were the speakers.  Dad started looking not too good during sacrament.  His nose started running and his eyes, too - he reckons he caught something from someone who was at the FHC on Friday.  Anyway, I asked him if he would like me to take him home and he said 'yes'.  I returned to church as I needed to be there to conduct Primary. 

After church, I drove over to Christine's (my visiting teaching companion) for a luncheon she had organized for a couple of our sisters we visit teach.  So, we ate and talked with Amanda (and her daughter, Talia) and Robyn (Geoff's wife) - as usual, I had a lovely time talking and getting to know the sisters better.  We have six sisters on our list which will be quite a feat visiting every month (along with another sister which my friend, Denise, and I will visit), but I will do my best to visit every sister visited every month.  I have always loved visiting teaching - I remember  going to see one sister (Margaret Vinand) every month when I was in the Toronto 1st ward and living on Jackman Ave (Broadview and  Danforth in Toronto).  I had to walk to the bus stop, take a bus to the subway station, then take two streetcars, another bus and then walk to Margaret's house.  My companion and I went every month - I didn't even think about how much time it took to get to Margaret's house.  I just loved visiting with her and sharing a message with her. 

When I got home, Dad told me that he had talked with Grandma and Grandpa via Skype.  He talked with Grandma for about ten minutes before talking with Grandpa (who is now staying in the big bedroom of their unit (where Erika was staying during the school year). After talking a little bit with Grandpa, he asked Dad if he could get a tour  of our house, so Dad unplugged the computer and walked around our house inside and out to show it all to Grandpa.  Grandpa says our house looks really nice (we love it! :-)

Our friends, Christine and Chris, from church, dropped by tonight for a quick visit and to ask us if we would take care of their dog while they are away for two weeks in September.  I was not fussed on it, but couldn't think of how to get out of it.  Dad reckons he will be okay to look after the dog during the day - the dog stays outside all the time, so that won't be an issue.  I told Christine and Chris that if the dog, Josie, started whining or barking, though, we would be calling them to come home (Chris is going on a course for a few days and then they are going to check out a house they own up near where the floods were earlier this year). They assured us that Josie would not whine or bark and that we wouldn't have to take her for walks, either.  We'll see how this goes - they were the ones who let us use their granny flat when we first got here in '09, so we felt like we should return the favour.

We watched a movie tonight called 'Under Siege' with Steven Seagal and Tommy Lee Jones.  It was a really good action movie - the only stupid part of it was when the main character used an exotic dancer character to help him shoot up the ship - I hate it when they feel like they have to add a female character to the movie which doesn't make sense at all.  Sometimes I wonder who thinks that this is necessary to add to the movie.  Why can't we just have a good shoot-em up with guys.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Sorry I didn't write on Tuesday night, but things were just so depressing about school and I just couldn't bring myself to write about how miserable I was that day.  So, here I am writing on Thursday.  Not much new to report re: school, though.  Chantelle reckons that her kids are getting worse this term.  Brayden has had the worst week yet this week - Dad says it was a full moon week - that explains it! :-)  We teachers always use to blame the full moon when the kids were 'off' in Canada.  The three star system seems to be working for some kids - but, it's definitely not working for Brayden and Baylee.  All the teachers were so happy today that it was Thursday cuz that means that tomorrow is Friday and that means that another week has passed and we are one day closer to being on holidays for two weeks. 

Today, I had an idea for working with Brayden: We have 'Show and Tell' at the end of the day (by which time Brayden is ready to escape out of the room because he has to sit still and listen for ten minutes), so I thought I would ask him to clean up the mess on the floor from our craft time earlier in the day.  I figured that if he was busy doing that, he would be okay.............NOT.  He just made noise and was running around at the back of the room and disturbing others, including bothering one of my sweet boys who (for whatever reason) was at the back of the room.  Anyway, I spoke with Brayden's grandfather today and he said that Brayden's mom (who has bipolar) is very scatterbrained and unfocused like Brayden.  I mentioned that his wife had told me that Brayden's mother was going to get Brayden to the doctor's so that a pediatrician can look at him and the grandpa said that their daughter says one thing one day, but then the next day, she  forgets what she said she would do (distracted).  Sheesh!

I'm very busy doing school work in the evenings.  I am still trying to figure out what to use to teach these Prep kids.  I have tried to do grade one stuff with these kids, but they haven't had enough Prep preparation and so it's really hard.  There are some children who are doing well, especially one young girl named Kayla, but there's enough who are just not.  So, I have asked what we need to report on so that I can fine tune my program and not worry too much about trying to do so much with the half of the children who are not ready for the 'grade one' program.  Why try to get them to read when they don't know the letter names/sounds.  So, I have been researching games online that I can download (like sound Bingo) which can help the children learn the letter names/sounds and hopefully that will lead them to understand the books that I have for them to read.  I tried using books which are rhyming books, but even that is too hard for a few of them.  So, back to basics for them.  I have been doing math centres and decided to do them ability based and that seems to be working well.  I will continue to teach them various concepts and have math centres where they can practice these concepts in a fun way.

Dad has been having a bit of a slow week re: census until today.  The collectors have been finishing up the collecting of the census forms.  They have to go to each house five times until they can 'call it a day' and then they just write down that there was no response from anyone at that house.  Corrie, his collector extraordinair,e had over 600 houses to enumerate of which 100 were e-census so she didn't have to go back to those houses, but she did the other 500 already and only had 5 which she received no responses from.  I told Dad that he owed her big! :-)  The other collectors are on track to finish on time and have also been reporting good numbers.  Now that their job is almost over, Dad's is just beginning.  Now, he has to go through each of the collectors' books and make sure that the job has been done correctly.  He spent a couple of hours today going over Corrie's books and still did not finish.  So, he will be spending a lot of time, it seems, in the next two weeks or so going over the rest of the collectors' books.

We had the missionaries over on Tuesday night for supper - four of them, as the Bundaberg missionaries were down visiting with our missionaries.  One of our new missionaries, Elder Johnson, is from Calgary and is a big Flames fan, so he and I spent a lot of dinner time talking about hockey. :-)  I can't believe that the Leafs traded Matt Stajan to the Flames, but it's also amazing that the Leafs gained Dion Phaneuf - man, that's gonna make a difference, I reckon.  I have to say that other than Luke Schenn, Kulemin and Kessel, I didn't recognize any of the other names on the Maple Leafs roster.  I feel like I have been away for ages when it comes to the Leafs.  Oh, and a sad sideline: I found my Maple Leafs license plate frame and it doesn't fit the license plates down here. :-(  Dad says he is going to put it up on one of the garage walls.

Tonight at SES, the 'firies' (what they call firefighters in Australia) came to visit.  First, they did a kitchen fire demonstration (what to do and what not to do when a fire breaks out in the kitchen) and some other general household fire safety items (eg: electrical fires and what kind of fire extinguisher is the best to have).  Then, they gave the SES people a tour of the firetruck and showed them all the equipment they carry on it and talked about what they use the various pieces of equipment for.  Dad really enjoyed the evening - he found the firies very interesting and very friendly.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Well, I an so up and down with this teaching thing.  I had a horrible day on Thursday and I was ready to move back to Canada.  I prayed really hard on Thursday night to have help on Friday - I found it went much better and I was much more patient that day.  Don't get me wrong, Brayden still drove me crazy, but I was able to handle it way better.  And Baylee had a three star day which was fantastic!  I still am planning on going to the private school near us and talking with them about teaching there next year, but at least, I had a good day on Friday.  We'll see what happens tomorrow - they seem to forget all the routines after a weekend.

After grocery shopping and making a stop at the library to pick up some books for school, Dad and I drove home and had pies and chips for dinner and then just sat and watched tv all night.  I do love Friday evenings because I never do any school stuff and Dad and I just get to veg out.  We often make an easy dinner and literally do nothing and it feels so good after being so full-on during the week.  We borrowed a movie and two tv show DVDs from the library and watched a couple of episodes of 'Murder, She Wrote'. 

I was very lazy on Saturday and stayed in my jammies all day. :-)  I watched some tv and played some computer games until after lunch time and then I got stuck into school stuff and worked on that until 9pm.  There's always so much work to do when you are starting a new grade.  I figure that I will have things the way I want them to be by the end of the school year. :-) 

Dad spent the morning hanging out and doing nothing, but had to go to training from noon until 8pm with SES.  They did two more hours of classroom training re: traffic control at the SES shed and then spent the rest of the time (minus time for supper) practicing what they had learned in class.  They had to do two sessions: one during the daylight and one at night.  Everyone had a turn at being a traffic controller (the ones with the STOP/SLOW signs and the two-way radios) while everyone else either observed or drove a vehicle to create traffic to simulate realistic conditions (they were on a very quiet sideroad to do this practicing).  Dad found the practical training to be very worthwhile and relevant.  It looks a lot easier to do on paper than it is to do it in 'real life', although Dad said that he didn't have any issues.  Some people found it hard to do all they had to do at once: switch the sign to STOP, put up your other hand, point where you want them to stop, give them the thumbs up when they are fully stopped and then remember what the last car was that went through so they can radio ahead and let the person at the other end know so that they know when to change their sign to SLOW. 

Today was a busy church day.  We had really good speakers in Sacrament (Shannon - a youth, our friend, Rosalea, and a member of the Stake presidency).  Shannon and Rosalea spoke about the importance of service as members of the church.  President Ormsby spoke about his memories of his mission and some of the General Authorities who came to visit New Zealand where he served.  After Primary, Dad had choir and I had a Primary Presidency meeting.  Later on that afternoon, Dad had to meet up with Zander and the Bishop to organize the computer to receive a broadcast from the Stake Centre (about 2 hours away) for the Priesthood meeting tonight.  While they were organizing that, I was at Leanne's house for dinner (Dad and the Bishop were supposed to be coming, too, but they ended up having problems getting things sorted for the broadcast and so missed dinner).  There were  five women, two teenagers and two missionaries at the dinner - the boys went to the meeting at the chapel after dinner and us women sat around chatting.  It was great having that time together to get to know each other better and just relax and laugh and talk.  Now that Dad and I have our loungeroom set, we plan on having people over for dinner once a month - we are starting with Geoff and Robyn who are coming over on Friday night.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Tuesday night, I was ready to move back to Canada - I'd had enough of these Prep kids and wanted to really TEACH again.  Wednesday turned out to be a good day at school (except for Brayden) and I was back on track.  Today was one of the worst - gee, this is so like a roller coaster.  Thank goodness that tomorrow is Friday - I love Fridays - it means I get two days away from those kids. :-)  Today, I had to contact one parent and talk with her about her son (Baylee) and then talk with the behaviour specialist about Brayden.  Both are driving me crazy.  Baylee's mom filled me in on the family's issues (so many things happening to these kids which helps me understand why they are the way they are).  When I asked her what I could take away from him that he would care about (he doesn't care about losing his playtime outside), she suggested I take away his football game (at home).  I thought that she meant a computer game, but he actually plays football.  I don't want to take that away - I'm not into taking away home activities - but, after telling Sam (my TA) about it, she suggested we take away computer time (we go to the lab for an hour on Friday afternoons).  So, I am going to talk with both Brayden and Baylee tomorrow and tell them what we have come up with.

I also spoke with Kay, our behaviour specialist, about Brayden because I have used up all the strategies that I know and I wanted to see if there was something else I could do.  She asked me if I had positive reinforcement in the classroom and I told her about my three star program (where if they don't lose any stars, they get a stamp and after ten stamps, they get to pick a treat out of my box), but she said that ten days would be too long for Brayden to 'be good' for.  She suggested that I set up a special program for him where he gets 'rewarded' for short periods of good behaviour - she suggested that I get a picture of something (like a truck) and then for every certain period of time that he 'behaves', I put a dot on the truck and then when he gets five dots, he gets some treat (like five minutes on the computer).  I am not at all in favour of this type of system, but I might try it anyway.  This kid will be the end of me if I don't find a way to help him sit still and listen and not call out, etc. etc.  Anyway, we shall see what tomorrow brings.

Dad has spent the last two days dealing with the system issues of collection of the census forms.  There are many glitches they are finding, such as messages to the collectors indicating an internet census form has been filed have been very slow in coming back to the collector - the collectors have therefore been going to many houses which they don't need to go to.  It's been upsetting some of the residents and some of the collectors (for doing work they don't need to be doing).  Dad's been spending his time trying to work out the issues and trying to make things run as smoothly as possible. 

Meals on Wheels went smoothly today - Dad and his partner, Paul, did the same route as usual, with a few changes.  Dad really likes working with Paul as he works really well and does things the way they are supposed to be done.

At SES tonight, almost everyone who is in the SES in HB, took the traffic control training which was offered.  The training was about how to safely control or reroute traffic.  For instance, how many metres tall the stop/slow sign has to be; how many metres away from you and the accident sign the speed reduction signs have to go; how to set up the cones (witches' hats, they are called here) to create a safe work zone.  Dad found the training very boring, but again it's necessary to know all this stuff as, when they are called out to help in such a situation (traffic accident, a house fire where cars had to be rerouted, etc.), they need to know it.  On Saturday, the SES will spend two hours finishing the theory of traffic control before setting up and demonstrating their knowledge - they have to close a lane of traffic (in daylight and at night time). 

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Well, a busy two days when usually I have little to write about.  First of all, we FINALLY got our living room furniture and it looks GREAT!  The set is a plum colour so it looks really nice against the grey of the carpet and the blinds in the living room.  I thought that the furniture might get lost in the room since it's quite a good sized room, but it fits beautifully.  So, now we can finally start having people over for dinner and have somewhere to sit with them after dinner rather than sitting at the kitchen table.  Both Dad and I sat in the chairs and on the couch and they are so comfortable.

Dad had his second collectors' training meeting last night (6 - 8pm) and it went really well - in fact, it went quicker than expected - he had asked everyone to be there for three hours, but they were finished in less than 2 hours.  Dad brought in the patio table and some chairs and set those up along with the kitchen table and chairs (and made one long table going  lengthwise in the dining and family rooms).  The main purpose was to review what they had to do when they went to pick up the census forms beginning tomorrow. 

It's been a rough two days at school, but what else is new.  It's becoming a job to me - something that I have to do until I finish up in 15 1/2 weeks.  It's not fun to feel I have a job rather than a career which I love - however, it does help me to understand how Dad felt during his last two years of work at Air Canada.  I asked him yesterday if he would have retired if I had stayed teaching at R.J. Lee and he said 'yes' - he was not enjoying his job at all and didn't want to stay in it any longer than necessary - I understand  what that was like for him now.  I didn't understand it back when I was teaching in Canada because I loved what I did back then - I used to say to Catherine, my principal, that I was so happy to come in to work every day and felt bad that I couldn't understand what Dad was going through - I get it now.

Today is 'Census' Day in Australia and Dad was really busy today.  He received tons of emails and texts today from various people.  All the collectors were calling Dad as they were getting messages to go and do things (like give out extra forms) and they didn't know where to go and do these things as Dad had their collector record books.  He got them from his collectors yesterday as he had to review them and make sure everything was in order (eg: to ensure that the books has been filled out correctly).  He also spent some time today returning the books to the collectors. 

Sunday, August 7, 2011

What a lovely weekend - but first, let's talk about Friday (ugh).  Every morning, I try to get positive - that the school day will go well - but, one hour after it starts, I am 'down' again.  Anyway, at least Friday came finally.  And it started with a two hour meeting (the behaviour teacher took over my class during that time).  I hate meetings!  It was all the grade one and Prep teachers and the principal and deputy principal.  Each of the teachers took turns talking about how their class was doing re: the goals which were set last meeting (a month ago).   Then, we each showed one thing we were using in our classrooms which had been successful and showed differentiation (teaching to all skill levels).  I showed two things: my CVC (consonant/vowel/consonant) cards: a pic and then three blanks below it where they use clay to form the letters of the word (my high kids) and ones with pics and words on them for the low kids.  I also showed my matching cards for math: match the number of stars to the number on the astronaut cards (numbers from 1 - 20).  The principal asked me where I got these ideas and when I told him, he wrote it down so I think that he's going to pass the internet site on to other teachers which made me feel good.  I don't feel that the meeting was worth two hours of my time, but then I had two hours out of the classroom so I guess I can't complain. :-)

I spent more time on Friday helping the children practice how to line up and walk without talking - I stood there and waited for them to be quiet and every time someone talked on the way to where we were going, I stopped them from walking and we waited 'til that person was quiet.  They ended up missing their 15 minutes of play time because it took so long for us to get back from music - we talked about it when we got back to to the classroom, but they will likely have forgotten it by Monday.  Oh well - at least we only have six weeks left of this term - unfortunately, we also have ten MORE weeks next term before the year finishes. 

Dad spent the day mostly doing stuff at home.  He vacuumed the house, put out the laundry, prepared his priesthood lesson, and worked on his census training which will be this coming Monday.  There's so much on his plate right now, it's a good thing that he doesn't have a full-time job. :-)

We slept in on Saturday (until 7am) and then relaxed for the next few hours.  We had a treat in the middle of our resting when we Skyped with Terri-Ann and James.  The boys had already gone to bed, but it was nice to catch up with Terri-Ann and James. :-)  Hopefully, we can catch up with the boys next weekend.  Anyone else out there wanna Skype?

After lunch, I went out for a girls' day out with my friend, Denise.  She is my Primary secretary and we get along really well.  She picked me up and we went for a walk down on the beach first of all.  We both love the water and it was lovely to just yak and walk - Dad and I haven't been getting down there as often as we would like - I said when I moved here that I wanted to make sure that we didn't take the beach for granted - it seems like we have been too busy lately to appreciate it.  The sun wasn't shining (wouldn't you know it - the only day this week when it didn't shine), but the temperature was nice and so we really enjoyed our walk.  Next, we went visiting teaching.  Denise's VTing companion is sick right now and so Denise asked me if I would mind accompanying her. Of course I was happy to do it since I love to meet up with the sisters and have a good yak.  Our first visit was with Leanne who is our Primary chorister - she is also a teacher and so we talked some about my not-so-positive experience with the Prep class.  She suggested I go and apply at the private school near where we live and I told her that I was definitely going to do that, and soon.  Our second visit was with Judy - she is about 80 years old and she took a shine to me when we moved in.  Four months ago, she had a stroke and we thought we had actually lost her, but she is bounding back and it was good to go and spend some time with her.'

After our visiting teaching, we went to 'Hungry Jack's' (Burger King) and had a lovely dessert and drink for afternoon tea.  They had a good deal ($5) for some sticky date pudding and hot chocolate - the sticky date pudding was topped with caramel syrup and soft ice-cream.  It was sooooooooooo yummy!  And it also gave us some more time to talk which is always good.  We are going to try and do this on a regular basis.

While I was gone, Dad spent time doing census stuff (are you sensing a pattern here :-)  Finally, all his collectors fnished their routes (even Peter!) so Dad was smiling big Saturday night.  Plus, he got to watch two episodes of 'Air Crash Investigation' - what could be better than that? :-)

Dad drove me to the emerg today before church - we have found that going on Sundays usually means a quick turn-around there and today was no exception - I was in and out within an hour.  This blocked ear is driving me crazy and I haven't been able to get in to see my doctor (and I hate the idea of having to pay to go and see my doctor - most doctors charge a fee over and above the Medicare rate - I think it's about $24 a visit).  Anyway, a doctor there looked at my ears and said that he believes that my Eustachian tube is inflamed and that fluid is filling my middle ear - probably from when my ear and throat were sore a few weeks ago.  He drew me a picture of my ear and showed me what was happening inside.  He told me to take some anti-inflammatory medicine - like Advil (the brand name here is Nurofen) - for three days and to lay on my left side at night since it's my right ear which is affected.  He also gave me a script (prescription) for Amoxycillin which he said he hopes I don't have to take, but to do it if the Nurofen doesn't fix the  problem within the next three days.

We were late getting to church today and so missed some of the testimonies - our meeting actually went late because so many people wanted to get up and bear their testimonies and our Bishop doesn't like to cut anyone short who wants to bear their testimony.  He told us in our Ward Council meeting after church that our Stake President wants to know how many people mention their faith/belief in Jesus Christ in their testimonies and the Bishop said that all 21 people who bore their testimony today spoke about Jesus Christ. 

We spent the rest of our Sunday resting and relaxing - we were going to have a nap, but by the time we got home after church and the Ward Council meeting and driving the missionaries home, it was about 2:30pm, so we figured that was too late to start napping.  I love Sundays - going to church and then relaxing for the rest of the day is such a nice change from the rest of our hectic week. 

Thursday, August 4, 2011

It's been two full-on days at school as usual.  The days pretty much flow into each other and sometimes it just is hard to remember all that happened.  It seems that lately it's been more about setting up routines and spending so much time disciplining - I almost feel like I'm a mother having to teach these children how to sit still and be quiet and listen and  focus and get their work done, blah blah blah. :-)  I feel like I am (mostly) able to handle my four challenge children a little better each day.  James has not had a meltdown in ages - I seem to be able to talk with him and help him to do what he needs to do.  Mia sometimes still has crying fits when her mother brings her to school (I wish she would bring her on time - she is late almost every day), but Mia is having less meltdowns in the classroom.  Baylee is still driving me crazy as is Brayden - those two I am working on.  Baylee just keeps pushing it (I asked his mother to come and talk with me - via Baylee's older brother - and the message I got back was that she was in the car and didn't have time to come and talk with me, so that tells you something, eh?) and so he loses stars and then his playtime - I think with him it's just going to be a matter of staying on top of him and not letting up.  Brayden has so many issues, but I do like him, so that's a plus.  Because he has trouble focusing and tends to talk (and bother) whoever he chooses to sit beside, I have now put down a little mat on the carpet for him to sit on all the time (and it's right in front of me) and he has to sit next to Kayla W. who is the sweetest girl in my class. 

I am reviewing and changing my class schedule again - it always seems that I need to add something and now it's science.  I don't know how I am supposed to fit in language, math, science, P.E., music, etc. etc. - and all in kindergarten.  I wonder if Australia has ever checked out the education system in Canada - with children only going half a day to kindergarten (although I did hear before we left Canada that there was talk of it becoming full days which I think is crazy).  Terri-Ann, now that I have taught children in full-day kindergarten, I totally understand why you kept Colin home every Wednesday for a while - for some children, it's so tiring.  So, tonight, I changed my class schedule to include Science - of course, something else has to go, but hey, what do the higher ups care about consistency for little five year olds.

Census stuff has been keeping Dad very busy in the past two days.  He has been in constant contact with his collectors as well as with his supervisor.  This is the busiest week to date for his collectors - and today he found out that all but two of his collectors are completely done their routes which really pleased Dad.  His other two collectors are still working hard and should be done in time (by Sunday night).  Dad is finding this working stuff tiring - he finds by Thursday, he's very weary.  He also was back to Meals on Wheels today (it  went fine) and then went to SES tonight.  Tonight's training was divided into two:  the first half was about parking and traffic control which the SES is doing for the Whale Festival this Saturday.  Dad will not be able to help out with this task, though, as he will be still busy with making sure his final two collectors complete their routes - he said that he might have to go and 'help' them move along.  The second half of the night was spent doing an exercise on briefing - getting and giving them as in a search exercise.  The idea was to be able to get the important info from a briefing and also to be able to give a briefing that gives pertinent info.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

There really isn't much to write about today - basically things have been going the same at school with me - still trying to get used to all the extra stuff expected of teachers here (paperwork) on top of meetings (2 hour long ones every other week) and the principal checks up on us to make sure we are having them.  And all that is on top of having to deal with the behaviour issues and large classes (23 five year olds) which is actually a lot of work - and then put it together with all day school for five year olds (they really need to nap :-)  and it's even harder and more wearying work.  Chantelle and I were saying just yesterday that we think that school should end at 1:30pm here (that's the time of their second break here - we start school at 8:50am here and have our first break at 10:50am which goes for 40 minutes, our second break from 1:30pm - 2:00pm and school ends at 3pm). 

Dad's been busy with census stuff - it's basically taking up most of his time now.  He has been visiting with his collectors when they have needed help, helping them over the phone when there are problems, and checking in with them via texting to see how many homes they have managed to do.  One of his collectors is almost finished and she has the largest number of houses to go to - almost 600.  There have been some people who have refused to do the census (which is against the law and punishable by large fines) or have made complaints against the collectors (totally unfounded).  Dad's collectors are doing really well in the delivering except for one man, but he told Dad that he will be out every day this week and assured Dad that he will get it done in time - they have until Sunday night to complete their workload.

We have new missionaries in our ward now - Elder Paki went home (his two years was over and so he headed home to Melbourne today) and Elder Richardson got transferred - so we have two new young men.   We met Elder Johnson on Sunday - he is from Calgary and is a Flames fan - YAY! :-)  The other Elder, Dad has met, but he can't remember his name.  Dad took Elders Paki and Richardson to Maryborough to catch a train to Brisbane yesterday and picked up the new missionary.  We will have them to dinner next week and start to get to know them.

I still have my raspy throat and blocked ear - it's driving me crazy now - I told Dad that if things haven't changed by Sunday, I am heading into the emerg to see what they can find out.  We have tried to get an appointment with our doctor, but it's just about impossible and both times I have been to emerg on a Sunday afternoon, it's been very quiet  and I have been able to get in pretty quickly, so we'll see what happens.  It sure is hard to read many books to the children, though, with this raspy voice - today I had to ask my TA, Sam, to read a story to the kids during their fruit break.  They are not allowed to eat inside like I used to do with my students in Canada, so we go outside and sit on the pavement and we read a book or two to the kids while they eat their snack.

That's it for the past two days - not much going on - probably not much for the rest of the week, either, but I will be sure to write anyway - I sure don't want Krystal to be able to call me a 'slacker' again. :-)