Sunday, April 29, 2012

What a week!  Sometimes I just don't know what to do about teaching in Hervey Bay - sometimes, I really enjoy it and other times, I just want to get out of it.  On Monday, Dad and I were doing a crossword puzzle in bed when I got a phone call some time between 8am and 8:30am from Kawungan asking if I would come in for two hours for Luise.  She has a lovely grade one class, so I do enjoy going in there.  But, it was so late that I didn't know if I could make it on time.  Luise had been given a doctor's appointment in the morning at the last minute and so I said 'yes'.  I didn't even take time to wash my hair and was at the school within half an hour.  I had a lovely two hours in her class and told her that she can be away any time she likes. :-)  BUT, then on Tuesday, I got a call about 8am to go into teach a grade two class at Torquay.  I have never had that class, but I was worried as I had been told by one of their teachers that they were feral (which means challenging - although Dad says 'nasty' :-)  Well, there were 24 kids and about 16 or 17 were fabulous, but the rest were not and it made for a very hard and stressful day.  So much so, that I told Dad that he had to take me to get a 'Magnum' ice cream bar after school. :-)  Those ice-cream are so amazingly delicious and really take away the stress.  I had my contract day of teaching on Thursday and everything went well on that day.  So, I don't know where my head is at right now re: teaching - on the good days, I am so happy to be in that profession, but on the 'nasty' days, I just want to go back to RJ Lee to teach.  How frustrating not to love what I am doing these days after having so many wonderful years of  doing what I love.

Dad spent the week doing stuff around the house and, of course, doing his volunteer work.  He spent many hours one day mowing the lawn, trimming it and spraying it with fertilizer and weed control.  He was quite done when he was finished.  On Anzac Day (Wednesday), Dad went to help out with traffic control with the SES for the Veteran's parade.  When the SES were getting their assignments from the #2 guy at SES, he told Dad that the #1 person (a woman) at SES wanted him (Dad) to carry and lay the wreath from the SES up to the cenotaph.  Dad was very pleased and honoured to be asked to do this.  There are pictures at the end of the blog which were taken by an SES volunteer and by the local newspaper.

We were going to go to the beach on Saturday, but it turned out to be a very rainy day and so we ended up staying inside.   I love living by the beach, but when I work so much, it turns out that I don't get to go as often as I would like.  So, when we get a day to go and it rains, it's so disappointing.

Church was going as usual on Sunday when, during our Sacrament meeting, our Bishop and his first counsellor got up and went to the back of the chapel. Dad turned around and said that they were going down to help Brother Pearce who appeared to be slumped in his chair.  He is an older gentleman whose wife died last year.  They took him into the family history room and called for an ambulance.  Both Cherylyn and Trudy (sisters who are nurses) went into the room as well to assist.  Dad went back to ask Alastair (a psychiatrist with basic medical training), the first counsellor, if he would like him to continue with the meeting and Alastair said 'yes'.  So, we continued on.  Part of the way through the second talk, Bishop came to the front and asked us all to vacate the chapel.  As we were doing this, the paramedics came into the chapel to attend to Neville.  A few minutes later, they came out with Neville on a stretcher and took him to the hospital.  We all came back into the chapel and Bishop cancelled our Sacrament meeting and Alastair ended the meeting with a special prayer for Brother Pearce.  We are all worried about Neville and will continue to pray for him.

So, that's our big week - some good, some bad, some happy, some sad - sounds like life, eh?

Dad walking the parade route behind the Emergency Services cadets (newspapter photo)

Dad walking the parade route in front of the Emergency Services scouts (newspaper photo)

Dad walking up to the cenotaph with two Emergency Services cadets.

Dad laying the SES wreath at the cenotaph.

A moment of silence and respect.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

A very busy week although not all with school.  Monday was my first day of my one-day-a-week contract at Torquay SS.  Pam, the teacher I am working with, gave me a list of eight children to work with, of which six were there that day.  I had planned a ton of activities so that I could find out what their abilities are - that way, I can best plan for the group in the coming weeks.  Pam had said that I would be working with the top children in her class so that I could extend them - however, she has given me two different ability groups (I'm guessing her top group and her second top group).  So, my activities are going to have to be more differentiated than I was hoping, but that's the way Pam wants to do it, and Neil, the deputy principal who asked me to do this contract, told me that I was to do whatever Pam wanted.  I will be able to work in the library in a small room so that will be really good (no distractions).  During the day, the principal, Angelique, came and spoke with Pam and then they both talked to me and said that Thursdays would work better for Pam and would that work for me - I said it would. 

On Tuesday, I went into Kawungan to volunteer with Bronwyn - still trying to get to know these children  who I will be teaching later on this year.  I spent most of the day working with children reviewing word lists, math activities and others who had missed work because they had been absent from school.  While I was outside after first break, Luise Wotton, who teaches grade one (I was supposed to take her 8 week contract last year before I was offered the 22 week one at Torquay) saw me and was so pleased.  She wasn't feeling well and really wanted to take a day off, but doesn't like to get just anyone to cover her class.  Someone had told her that I was in the school that day and she told Jan, the deputy principal, that she would only take me to cover her class.  That made me feel really good. :-)

So, on Wednesday, I went into Kawungan to teach Luise's class and they are a beautiful group of children.  Luise had left a ton of work to do and so we just kept going and going all day.  The children listened well when I was talking with them and worked well when I sent them back to their desks.  They are a bit chatty, but I can't say much about that since I was a chatty student when I was young (Jennifer, you come by it honestly ). :-)  I told the students that I didn't mind if they talked as long as they worked at the same time.  I had a wonderful day and hope that Luise has to take more days off this year - I can't wait to work with her class again!

I was pleased not to be called on Thursday or Friday as I had a lot of stuff that I needed to get done at home.  I spent most of my time working on Primary stuff, my Mother's Day talk and my application to teach permanently or for a longer period than half a year.  There just seems to be a lot on my plate right now, so it was great to have the time to work on things.  I was able to get my Primary stuff done, my talk basically done (I'm going on to my third draft) and started my 'Personal Statement' for my teacher application.  The personal statement can be no more than 500 words (it's at 1,000 words right now) which talks about my beliefs as a teacher and also how I incorporate different things into my classroom.  I will be working on all those things again this week, so hopefully I won't get called in to teach too much. 

Dad spent his week working on a few things.  He spent a couple of days working on our old digital camera.  He has decided to take up the hobby of photography - he has wanted to do this for many years, but hasn't really had the time to put into it - he has now.  Dad tried to turn the camera on, but it wouldn't do it.  The camera is old and, as Dad researched about it on the net, he found out that it would cost too much to have someone else fix it compared to the cost of buying a new one.  So, he took it apart to see if he could fix it and then tried to put it back together.  He found out what the problem was with it, but it would cost too much to fix it.  So, he spent some time researching other cameras of the same model (used)  so that he could buy one and use parts from both cameras to make one good camera.  I told him that I thought that he should just buy a new camera, but he's not sure he wants to put out that kind of money at this point.  The rest of the week, Dad did a bunch of things around the house - there always seems to be tons of stuff to do around here.

On Saturday, I left Dad at home to piddle around some more and I went out to lunch with my Primary counsellors, Maureen and Debbie, and Denise, who was just released as our secretary.  We drove over to Maryborough (where Debbie lives) and went to a chinese food restaurant.  The food was quite yummy, but even better was the chance to hang out with my friends for a few hours - chatting and eating and then stickybeaking around in a knick knack store which Maureen wanted to go to.  Dad and I were invited to Trudy and Peter's place (friends from church) for dinner that night (so I got to eat out twice on Saturday - nice, eh? :-)  Trudy cooked us a yummy roast chicken and vegetable meal and we enjoyed getting to know Trudy and Peter better (as well as Trudy's mom who was visiting - she used to be in our ward and I was her visiting teacher then).

Our Sunday, as always, was wonderful.  Caleb, who just returned from his mission from Taiwan, spoke to us about the atonement and then we had the high council speaker speak to us.  Primary was as busy as always, but I did get through it.  I gave the lesson to our one little nursery boy, then gave a short talk to the Primary children as well as gave the Sharing Time lesson.  After church, Dad went to choir practice and I had a meeting with my Primary counsellors.  After my meeting, Talia (our only young woman in our ward) asked me if I would talk at a fireside the youth are having on Tuesday night.  She told me that she knew it was really short notice, but that it would only have to be 5 - 10 minutes.  She is such a sweet girl that I said that I would do it (she was quite relieved as my name was already on the program :-)  So, I spent this afternoon working on that talk.  While I was preparing that, Tammy (one of the R.S. counsellors) called me to ask if I would lead a workshop on the 19th of May.  I told her that if it was at any other time, I would willingly take it on, but with all that was on my plate right now, it would be just too much right now.  She totally understood once I explained to her all that I was doing in the month of May.  I felt a little bad, but I know that it would just be way too stressful to take on anything else at this point.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Well, I am sad to say that our vacation is over - well, mine is anyway - school starts again tomorrow.  I was planning on doing some school work during the week, but I didn't get to it until Friday. :-)  It was just so nice to be able to relax that we kept on doing it. :-) 

On Monday, my friend, Robyn and I went visiting teaching together so we had a lovely time chatting with our friends and leaving them a message about Easter.  On Tuesday, Dad and I met up with Robyn and Geoff for lunch at the Kondari Hotel (where my friend, Denise, took me for lunch last week) and  we had a delicious roast pork dinner with orange cake for dessert (including a salad bar and all for $8.90).  It was really nice to go out and spend more time chatting with our friends.  After lunch, we went out back of the hotel to see the turtles in the pond out there.  We spent a while just enjoying being outside near the water and in the lovely warm sun. :-)  After that, Dad and I went down to the beach for a walk along the water - it was a perfect day for doing that.  We went back to the beach on Wednesday morning hoping to enjoy the morning on the beach.  We were there for about half an hour (reading and doing puzzles) when we decided to go for a swim in the ocean.  Just then, it began to rain (rats!), so we had to pack everything up and come home. :-(

On Thursday, Dad and I did Meals on Wheels and things went much more smoothly this week compared to last week.  The people are so appreciative of us bringing them their meals and it's so nice to do this for them.  We spent the afternoon doing home teaching and visiting teaching and in the evening, Dad went to his SES meeting and I worked on my talk which is going to be on Mother's Day.  Friday, Dad went to the Family History Centre and I went and had a spa pedicure and manicure with Robyn.  I had received a gift card from two of my students at the end of the year last year for our grocery store.  I told Dad that I was going to use the money from that to do something for myself and a pedi/mani was my choice (I did have to put in a little bit more money to pay for it :-)  It was so amazing to be spoiled for an hour - I chose a rust coloured nail polish (pics underneath the blog) - and I can't wait to do it again (likely in another year or so :-).  When I got home from that, I worked on school stuff, getting ready for tomorrow (my first day at my new contract in Kindergarten).  I am sure that I have way too much stuff, but since the teacher wasn't really sure about what she wanted me to do, I figured I would get tons of stuff organized and then see what she wants me to do from that and then I will know better next week what to get organized.

On Saturday, it was great to talk with and see all my beautiful grandchildren (oh yeah, and you girls - .  Dad had to go and do recertification with the SES - it was about providing basic emergency life support which includes performing CPR - you have to recertify every year for this.  Dad said that there were about 15 people there and the fellow who taught it is a doctor and a member of the SES, so he volunteers his time to do this refresher training.  Dad said that he found the training an excellent refresher of the emergency skills.  While he was doing that, I worked more on school stuff.  At 5pm, our friends, Geoff and Robyn and Alistair and Haidi came over to our house for dinner.  I didn't time things very well and so we didn't eat until 6:30pm, but that just gave us time to talk while we waited.  We had a roast chicken dinner with mud cake and ice-cream for dessert and had a wonderful time eating and chatting with our friends. 

Today was Conference Day at church - General Conference was actually on March 31st/April 1st, but because of the time difference between here and North America, we usually download the Conference from the internet and watch it the following Saturday/Sunday.  But, this year, Easter was the following weekend and so we watched Conference this weekend.  It was wonderful to listen to all the talks and especially to hear our prophet speak to us - it was a very uplifting Sunday for us. :-)

Sunday, April 8, 2012

It sure is lovely being on holidays this week - it's been a bit of a busy week and a bit of a lazy week.  On Monday, I went out for lunch with some friends from Kawungan School - a  few of the teachers were getting together for a teacher's birthday (who I didn't know) and one of the teachers asked me if I would like to come, too.  So, since food and chatting are two of my favourite things, I went along and had a lovely time.  When teachers get together, most of the talk is about school, of course.  I added some to the conversation, but most of the time, I just listened.  On Tuesday, my friend, Denise, from church took me out for my birthday.  We went to the same restaurant which Dad and I had gone to for my birthday - the Kondari Hotel.  On Tuesday, they have a special for $8.95 which gets you a roast dinner (we had pork), all-you-can-eat salad, and a dessert (cake with cream).  The meal was really delicious and filling.  Denise and I had a lovely long chat while we ate.  Afterwards, we went out back to the pond to check out what was there.  As we walked down to the pond, all these turtles (about 30 of them) came swimming over to us.  Denise thinks that people must feed them and so, when they see people coming down to the pond, they all swim over.  They were small turtles and so cute looking up at us from the water.  That night, Dad and I went to the Bishop's for dinner - I had talked with the Bishop and his wife on Sunday to see if we could come and visit on Tuesday to home teach them (Dad and I are home teaching companions) and Diana invited us for dinner - always a nice thing. :-)  We had a great time chatting and eating with them - Diana is so funny and both of them are so easy to talk with.  We had a really good discussion about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and I mentioned how comforting it was to know that I would see Poppy again because of what Jesus did.  It was really good to have such a nice gospel discussion.

On Wednesday, I went visiting teaching with Robyn.  Her companion has moved and my companion is away for a couple of months, so we decided to combine our lists and be companions for now.  I just love visiting teaching - it's great having some time to get to know the sisters better (just don't have time on a Sunday, especially with being in Primary) and also to have a gospel discussion about the message of the month.  We visited with four sisters (two of them are mother and daughter) and enjoyed ourselves very much. 

On Thursday, Dad and I did Meals on Wheels and what a shmozzle that turned out to be.  Since it is Easter weekend and no deliveries were going to be made on Good Friday, we had to deliver two meals to some of the people.  That would have been okay, but they also said that the desserts would be different for each day, but had put down that the dessert for Thursday was chocolate mousse, but we figured out later that it was actually Friday's dessert, so a couple of people at the end received the same dessert for both days (I figured that they could handle that, though :-)  Also, because of the double meals, we got away more than an hour later that we would usually do, so some of our clients were a bit concerned about whether we were coming or not.  We finally got done and with only a couple of uh-ohs, so we were pleased about that.

After that, we went to see a camping trailer which we had seen advertized on the internet.  The trailer was a 2006 model and they were asking $18,900 which was definitely above our budget, but we really wanted to look at this kind of trailer as it is so easy to put up - takes about five minutes.  This trailer was first owned by a couple who had to sell it after a few years as one of them got ill.  The couple who own it now have had it for about a year and they had found that they weren't using it as much as they thought they would.  We absolutely loved it - it was in immaculate condition and had some extras which would add to the experience of camping.  I would have loved to have bought it right then and there, but of course, we didn't.  We  are seriously thinking about it, although there's no way we could offer anywhere close to what they are asking.  We are kind of hoping  that no-one else will want to buy  it and that this couple will want to just get rid of the trailer and accept our offer - we will keep you posted.

On Friday, Dad and I had the best lazy day ever - we never even got out of our jammies all day and most of the day we spent in bed, mostly doing crossword puzzles, reading or being on the computer - it was such a wonderfully lazy day and very much wanted and needed. 

We had decided on Saturday that we wanted to get out of the house and go for a drive somewhere.  We originally were going to go for a river cruise on the Mary River in Maryborough which is about half an hour from HB.  However, we ended up driving down to a place called Nanango (about 3 hours from HB) to see a camping trailer (like the one we had last in Canada).  My friend's sister was selling it and, although they weren't at home, they told us that we could go and have a look at it.  We were excited to see it as it was up for sale for only $3,800 and we figured that we could buy this one and have it until we retired and then we would buy a nicer one to travel around Australia with later on.  It was a lovely drive down there and, on the way, we stopped at a little town called Goomeri (pronounced G-mary) where we had a most delicious hamburger with fries at a local take-away.  The trailer itself was quite disappointing - it was really old and it showed in a lot of ways.  If we had bought it, we would have had to put in a lot of work to make it ready to use. 

Today was a lovely way to end the week - it was an Easter Sacrament meeting today and it was nice to listen to the talks reminding us of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us and of the gift of the resurrection for all of us.  We were invited over for dinner to Leanne and Bill's place which was a nice way to end  the day - their two teenage boys were there along with two church friends and we ate and chatted for a couple of hours before heading home.  This coming week is going to be another one which will be a little bit busy and a little bit lazy - we are both looking forward to it.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

It's been a good week for me, but not so good for Dad.  Let's start out with Dad - he went for his interview on Thursday and was sad not to 'go on' to the next stage to get a formal interview.  When he got there, he found out that he was one of ten people selected for interviews that day.  He was told that 300 people had applied for the two positions and that 20 had been selected for the interview process.  He said that of the ten in his group, there were only a couple of 'older' people - those were dressed well like Dad (who was dressed in nice pants, a short sleeved shirt and tie) and the young ones were dressed in jeans with either a golf shirt or t-shirt.  They asked each of the ten to take three minutes and talk about themselves and then they divided them into small groups and asked them to work as a team to come up with ten things they would take with them if they were on a deserted island.  Dad's group came up with very serious things on their list (like food and water), but some groups came up with less serious things, like their favourite football team or their dog.  After their lists were presented, they chose five of the group to move on to formal interviews, but Dad was not one of them.  All of the five people chosen to go on were young (three males and two females) and either were not working or had had many jobs.  This job was only three hours per day, so Dad was surprised that these young people wanted to work at a job with limited hours.  Anyway, he was quite disappointed that he didn't get the job - he's never not gotten a job he applied for before - but, like he said afterwards, there is another job out there which he is supposed to get.  It's just hard (and somewhat frustrating) not knowing where it is or when he will get it.  We are going to do some searching this week including going to a 'headhunter' company for professionals to get their thoughts on where to look for a job in HB.

Now, for some good news  - I was offered a one day a week contract at Torquay State School for this term (ten weeks).  I was actually offered the position for all year, but I told them that I was going back to Canada in June and so wouldn't be available to do it after this term.  I also told them that I had been offered a four week full-time contract in September/October at Kawungan.  For the one day a week contract at Torquay, I will be working on Mondays with Pam who is a Prep teacher.  I met with her this past week and she wants me to work with her bright children to help them to go beyond the kindergarten curriculum since most of them have come to school with a lot of what they need to know or can show me with little help what they know.  She gave me an outline of what they are going to be teaching their classes this coming term and I will be looking over that in the next two weeks (we are on holidays right now) and doing some planning on how I am going to 'stretch' these children.

I was also offered a ten week position in grade two for next year.  I think that I mentioned in my last blog that I had run into a teacher called Mel Cooper last Saturday on my way to vote and she asked me if I would take on her class next year for the first term (she just needs some time off, she said).  She works three days one week and two days the next.  This past week, when I was in at Kawungan, Karen (the person  who does the hiring for contracts) officially asked me to cover for Bronwyn later this year.  I was expecting her to ask about me about taking Mel's class, too, but she didn't.  When I came out of Karen's office, Barb, one of the vice  principals, told me that I needed to get an interview so that I could take Mel's contract.  I couldn't understand that as I had taught for 22 weeks at Torquay without needing an interview.  Barb told me to call this woman at HR which I did.  She told me that I could actually teach for 1 semester (half a year) without getting an interview so I could take Mel's contract, no problem.   So, that was good news.  Then, the woman told me that it would be a good idea to get the interview, though, as if the contract was extended, I wouldn't be able to take it unless I had the interview.  So, after the holidays, I will be talking with Neil, vice principal at Torquay, about what questions might be asked during interviews - he actually interviewed Chantelle when she graduated from university. 

I also worked three days this week - one day at Kawungan in grade one which was a really nice day; and two days at  Torquay - Thursday I was covering for teachers for planning time: kindergarten, grade 4/5 (didn't like that one much) and grade one; on Friday, I was covering for teachers who were in a meeting - grade one (a lovely class) and grade two (a challenging class).  It's been great getting so many days' work right after getting back from Canada - let's hope it keeps up - I would love to get three days a week work - the other two days I would be volunteering as I told both Bronwyn and Chantelle that I would come in to their classrooms once a week.

We were busy socially this past week as well.  On Wednesday night, I went out for dinner with the grade one teachers from Kawungan - just a sort of end-of-the-term dinner - it was nice to hang out with the teachers (Dad called it 'networking' :-)  On Friday night, we had some friends from church over: Robyn and Geoff and Allison and Graham.  We started off our evening drinking juice in our 'wine glasses' on the patio - it was such a lovely day and it was nice sitting out there on our comfy patio set and just chatting with our friends.  On Saturday night, we went over to Robyn and Geoff's for dinner with a new couple who came from Darwin to HB - Jan and Gil.  While we were chatting, we found out that Gil and Geoff knew a number of the same people from when they lived up north in Queensland - such a small world, it is.  I am looking forward to having more dinners with more people in the next two months.