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.:-)
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.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
What a busy three days, but not bad overall. :-) Friday went better at school - well, sort of. The students lost more stars than I would have liked, but it was not a bad day overall. At least, I didn't come out stressed at the end of the day and wanting to gorge myself silly with chocolate. :-) I hope that I am getting through to these students - I would really like to 'want' to go into school each day rather than sighing as I go in.
I took a break on Saturday morning and watched some tv. I happened to be watching an episode of the 'Love Boat' and who should be a guest on it but Donny Osmond. I was so sure I was going to see/hear him sing, but wouldn't you know my luck - it was a part one and today (Sunday) it was the second part. Sheesh. Where is a pvr when you need it! :-)
Dad spent Friday 'tracking down' his collectors - he had to meet up with all of them since it was their first day of collecting and make sure that they were doing the collecting correctly. He was able to find five out of the seven - he wasn't able to connect with the two teachers he had hired - one was sick and he just couldn't find where the other one was doing her collecting. He was able to find both of them on Saturday. They were all doing a good job - he did well in the hiring, that's for sure. There is one collector who is very slow at getting around, but hopefully he will just spend more time doing the collecting and get it all done in time. He has another week to finish the collecting. We had a woman stop by our place on Saturday afternoon who was a census collector - when I told her that Dad was an area supervisor, she asked me if he had spent a lot of time doing his job - I told her that he had spent many hours doing the job. Dad completed our census information on the internet (e-census), but his collectors have been telling him that most people are asking for a paper form to fill out rather than doing via the net. I guess if you live in a town with many retirees, that is to be expected.
I spent the afternoon doing school stuff - right now, there is a ton to do - but, I made quite a dent in it, so that's good. I drove the car to the chapel at around 3:15pm only to find everyone packing up. I asked Dad was what happening and he said it was over. I told him that he had said that it was going until 4pm and he said he said that the Open Day only went to 3pm and that he was going to be done by 4pm (cleaning up, etc. afterwards). Anyway, it appeared that some miscommunication had gone on and I didn't get to see the displays or his presentation so I was quite disappointed. Everyone involved in the day was very pleased with the turnout. They had 96 people come to the Open Day of which at least 70 were non-members. In the chapel, they had three demonstrations: how to index names (converting old records into internet searchable databases), how to order and use microfilms and microfiches, and the free family history resources available at the FHC. In another room, there was a demonstration about the free on-line research training courses people can watch and Dad did his demonstration in a fifth classroom. His demonstration was on the new family search which is a global family datasbase which is now open to the general public. The Bishop even mentioned more than once today how impressed he was with everything that had happened on the Open Day. So, after all of Dad's and Denise's work, it was all worth it! :-)
We had another lovely winter's nap outside today. :-) It was 25C today, although it was a bit windy. But when I checked out the wind on the patio, it was very slight and the sun was shining down - it was a perfect way to spend a couple of hours on a wintry Sunday afternoon. :-)
I took a break on Saturday morning and watched some tv. I happened to be watching an episode of the 'Love Boat' and who should be a guest on it but Donny Osmond. I was so sure I was going to see/hear him sing, but wouldn't you know my luck - it was a part one and today (Sunday) it was the second part. Sheesh. Where is a pvr when you need it! :-)
Dad spent Friday 'tracking down' his collectors - he had to meet up with all of them since it was their first day of collecting and make sure that they were doing the collecting correctly. He was able to find five out of the seven - he wasn't able to connect with the two teachers he had hired - one was sick and he just couldn't find where the other one was doing her collecting. He was able to find both of them on Saturday. They were all doing a good job - he did well in the hiring, that's for sure. There is one collector who is very slow at getting around, but hopefully he will just spend more time doing the collecting and get it all done in time. He has another week to finish the collecting. We had a woman stop by our place on Saturday afternoon who was a census collector - when I told her that Dad was an area supervisor, she asked me if he had spent a lot of time doing his job - I told her that he had spent many hours doing the job. Dad completed our census information on the internet (e-census), but his collectors have been telling him that most people are asking for a paper form to fill out rather than doing via the net. I guess if you live in a town with many retirees, that is to be expected.
I spent the afternoon doing school stuff - right now, there is a ton to do - but, I made quite a dent in it, so that's good. I drove the car to the chapel at around 3:15pm only to find everyone packing up. I asked Dad was what happening and he said it was over. I told him that he had said that it was going until 4pm and he said he said that the Open Day only went to 3pm and that he was going to be done by 4pm (cleaning up, etc. afterwards). Anyway, it appeared that some miscommunication had gone on and I didn't get to see the displays or his presentation so I was quite disappointed. Everyone involved in the day was very pleased with the turnout. They had 96 people come to the Open Day of which at least 70 were non-members. In the chapel, they had three demonstrations: how to index names (converting old records into internet searchable databases), how to order and use microfilms and microfiches, and the free family history resources available at the FHC. In another room, there was a demonstration about the free on-line research training courses people can watch and Dad did his demonstration in a fifth classroom. His demonstration was on the new family search which is a global family datasbase which is now open to the general public. The Bishop even mentioned more than once today how impressed he was with everything that had happened on the Open Day. So, after all of Dad's and Denise's work, it was all worth it! :-)
We had another lovely winter's nap outside today. :-) It was 25C today, although it was a bit windy. But when I checked out the wind on the patio, it was very slight and the sun was shining down - it was a perfect way to spend a couple of hours on a wintry Sunday afternoon. :-)
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Well, Krystal might call me a 'slacker' again for not writing on Tuesday (), but I have a legitimate reason this time - I am sick again - can you believe it? My throat is so raspy and it's hard to talk - and then on Tuesday night, the pain in my ear started shooting through - it was so painful I went and took two extra strength Tylenol that night. Even with that, though, I couldn't get to sleep until 1:30pm and the night before I only got about three hours sleep. Those sleepless nights were due to the stress I feel about teaching at this school. I have talked to other teachers at the school and they are feeling the same thing. We are doing too much disciplining and not enough teaching. I also hate it that they want to push these kids beyond what they are ready for. It really ticks me off that the 'powers that be' make these decisions when they really have no idea what they are doing - and they have no idea what it's like to be teaching 24 five year olds in this classroom in this area. I can see how children like Colin (who's five and has such amazing support at home) could be doing what they want a Prep child to do, but these children (in general) do not come from homes like you girls have and so many of them come with issues which need to be addressed before teaching them to read at the age of five. We are not supposed to have a play-based program anymore in Prep, but I said to heck with it and I actually let them play for fifteen minutes each day! So sad, eh?
My program is starting to come together. I have my language program at a place I am happy with and my theme program (where they do a lot of arts/crafts/language) sorted out to a place I am happy with. I am also teaching them to 'read to themselves' during D.E.A.R. (drop everything and read) time. The only area I am not happy with is my math program and so I am going to work on that this Saturday. So, it's only taken me five weeks to get to this point. Needless to say, because of the fact that I am not enjoying working, I am counting down the days - we have seven weeks left in this term and ten weeks left in the next term. I am pleased that it's Friday tomorrow.
I had this mom of one of my kids come to me a couple of days ago to ask me if I could open up the classroom doors earlier (both Chantelle and Pam open their doors at 8:30am, but I didn't want to open them up early, even though Yvonne, the teacher I took over from, used to open them early). The mom said that some parents want to come in earlier so they can look around and say good-bye to their children and put their child's stuff where it needs to go and go to the library. I asked her if she couldn't go to the library before she came to the classroom and she said that really wasn't the point. I felt that ten minutes was enough time for the children to prepare for the day. Anyway, she also said that some parents were having to leave their children outside the room so they could go to work (am I their babysitter, I thought) and that rather than complaining about it, she thought she would say something. I was quite annoyed at this (things sure are better at RJ Lee with no parents being allowed in the classroom and teachers not being expected to open the doors before the bell). So, against my own feelings, I opened the door yesterday and today at 8:30am and guess what time that mother showed up both days: 8:42 - yeah, that's right - past the time I was opening up before. Sheesh! :-(
Dad has been really busy this week between doing census stuff and family history stuff. He has been making his final preparations and training his final people and visiting the last few places (like the fire station) because delivery of the census forms begins tomorrow morning at 8:30am. He will be out on the streets beginning tomorrow morning at 8:30am tracking down each collector and walking with them to a few houses until he is comfortable that they are comfortable with what they have to say and do and the information they have to get from each house.
He has also been busy making preparations for the mall display which took place today - the mall display is part of National Family History Week which is this week in Australia. He had a large poster/sign made up advertizing the Family History Centre Open Day which will take place at our church on Saturday. He also had little cards printed which had the information about the National Family History Week on it and an invitation to the Family History Open Day. He was given a reprieve from Meals on Wheels today (they had extra people on this week) which gave him the opportunity to man the display at the mall this morning. He said that a number of people stopped by the display and said that they would be interested in coming to the Open Day. He has also been busy making preparations for the Open Day on Saturday. They are planning five different displays/activities: 1) live demonstration of the New Family Search global database; 2) demonstration of New Family Search indexing; 3) demonstration on the available online research courses re: family history; 4) demonstration of microfilm and microfiche reading ; and 5) demonstration of the available free premium family history websites that one normally has to pay for, but is free at our chapel.
My program is starting to come together. I have my language program at a place I am happy with and my theme program (where they do a lot of arts/crafts/language) sorted out to a place I am happy with. I am also teaching them to 'read to themselves' during D.E.A.R. (drop everything and read) time. The only area I am not happy with is my math program and so I am going to work on that this Saturday. So, it's only taken me five weeks to get to this point. Needless to say, because of the fact that I am not enjoying working, I am counting down the days - we have seven weeks left in this term and ten weeks left in the next term. I am pleased that it's Friday tomorrow.
I had this mom of one of my kids come to me a couple of days ago to ask me if I could open up the classroom doors earlier (both Chantelle and Pam open their doors at 8:30am, but I didn't want to open them up early, even though Yvonne, the teacher I took over from, used to open them early). The mom said that some parents want to come in earlier so they can look around and say good-bye to their children and put their child's stuff where it needs to go and go to the library. I asked her if she couldn't go to the library before she came to the classroom and she said that really wasn't the point. I felt that ten minutes was enough time for the children to prepare for the day. Anyway, she also said that some parents were having to leave their children outside the room so they could go to work (am I their babysitter, I thought) and that rather than complaining about it, she thought she would say something. I was quite annoyed at this (things sure are better at RJ Lee with no parents being allowed in the classroom and teachers not being expected to open the doors before the bell). So, against my own feelings, I opened the door yesterday and today at 8:30am and guess what time that mother showed up both days: 8:42 - yeah, that's right - past the time I was opening up before. Sheesh! :-(
Dad has been really busy this week between doing census stuff and family history stuff. He has been making his final preparations and training his final people and visiting the last few places (like the fire station) because delivery of the census forms begins tomorrow morning at 8:30am. He will be out on the streets beginning tomorrow morning at 8:30am tracking down each collector and walking with them to a few houses until he is comfortable that they are comfortable with what they have to say and do and the information they have to get from each house.
He has also been busy making preparations for the mall display which took place today - the mall display is part of National Family History Week which is this week in Australia. He had a large poster/sign made up advertizing the Family History Centre Open Day which will take place at our church on Saturday. He also had little cards printed which had the information about the National Family History Week on it and an invitation to the Family History Open Day. He was given a reprieve from Meals on Wheels today (they had extra people on this week) which gave him the opportunity to man the display at the mall this morning. He said that a number of people stopped by the display and said that they would be interested in coming to the Open Day. He has also been busy making preparations for the Open Day on Saturday. They are planning five different displays/activities: 1) live demonstration of the New Family Search global database; 2) demonstration of New Family Search indexing; 3) demonstration on the available online research courses re: family history; 4) demonstration of microfilm and microfiche reading ; and 5) demonstration of the available free premium family history websites that one normally has to pay for, but is free at our chapel.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Well, I HAD to make sure that I didn't forget to write tonight since Krystal called me a 'SLACKER' for not writing 3 times last week. :-)
I was very happy to have Friday come - Fridays at school are fairly easy. Literacy rotations (already set up) and gym, then it was activity rotations (already set up) and show and tell, music, learning about the worm farm, science (with Mr. Keatley) and computers. After a very hectic and exhausting week, it was a nice way to end the week at school. One of my 'challenge' children was not there on Friday, but one of the ones who has been pretty good in the past while was totally off, so I was quite tired by the end of the day. I was able to get a ton of photocopying done on Friday which I was really pleased about. The regular photocopier which counts how many copies we make has been on the blink and they have a loaner which does not count the number of copies, so I have been trying to use it as much as I can. :-)
Dad met with our friend, Rob, from church on Friday morning - they needed to plan the lesson for today for the Relief Society/Priesthood combined class. The lesson was called 'Missionary Media Presentation". The Pacific Area presidency is putting together a media awareness campaign for Australia about the members of the church in Queensland. They have asked the members to create a written profile about themselves on mormon.org. They are also asking members to create a video profile as well to be put on mormon.org and to be part of a television/media campaign. So, on Friday, Dad showed Rob the presentation that the area presidency had put together and several sample profiles which are already on mormon.org as examples of what the area presidency are looking for members to do.
Friday night we rented two movies - one of which Jennifer suggested we watch and another since we had a coupon to rent two movies for $6.50. We watched the movie Jennifer recommended on Friday night which was called "The Next Three Days" and we thought it was a good movie - we rated it about a 7.0. It was a long time setting everything up, but the exciting part kept our attention.
We didn't have any special plans for yesterday (Saturday) so we just puttered around in the morning and then did some errands - I needed to pick up some things for school - we are doing a fairy tale unit at school and I needed to pick up some paper crowns so that the children can decorate them to be either Cinderella or the prince in that story (that's our fairy tale of the week this coming week) and also supplies to make Cinderella cupcakes as we have a cooking class each week.
In the afternoon, we watched the second movie we had rented - it was called 'Sanctum'. It was basically about a group of people who go caving (exploring caves underground) and what happens to them when they get trapped in one. It was a good movie - we rated it about a 7.0 - worth a rent if you might be interested in that type of movie. There were quite a few surprises along the way which kept it interesting.
Saturday evening was spent doing school and church stuff - more prepping for my literacy centres and Primary Sunbeam class lesson and Dad reviewing his talk for today and also working on the two Family History events which will occur this coming week. It kept us going until about 10:30pm. I was thinking as I was doing all of this how nice it would be to have a job where it just went from 9am to 5pm and when I got home, there was nothing to do that was job related. Oh well - that's never going to happen if I stay teaching. :-)
Today, Dad gave his talk in Sacrament meeting about Family History and he did a great job! I was sitting in between two friends and both turned to me after the meeting and said what a great job Dad had done. He was really prepared and the talk was really organized and he made it personal which always keeps people's attention. One of our friends even told me that her husband said that Dad's talk was so good that he ALMOST convinced him (our friend's husband) to do his family history. :-)
During the Relief Society/Priesthood combined meeting today, Dad and Rob showed the presentation from the area presidency along with samples of written profiles and samples of video profiles of members of the church. Four of these profiles were well-known Australian Latter-Day Saints and the fifth profile was Terri-Ann's (that was really cool!).
After church, Dad and I started watching a movie, but both of us were so tired that we were falling asleep, so I suggested we have a nap. It was a wintry day and so of course we napped outside. :-) It is the middle of our winter and the temperature (according to our outside thermometer) was 26C, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. :-) So, Dad and I took our pillows outside and laid down on our chaise loungers and fell asleep for 2 1/2 hours - I think that we are going to have to do this every Sunday. :-) We spent the rest of the day relaxing - I love Sundays! :-)
I was very happy to have Friday come - Fridays at school are fairly easy. Literacy rotations (already set up) and gym, then it was activity rotations (already set up) and show and tell, music, learning about the worm farm, science (with Mr. Keatley) and computers. After a very hectic and exhausting week, it was a nice way to end the week at school. One of my 'challenge' children was not there on Friday, but one of the ones who has been pretty good in the past while was totally off, so I was quite tired by the end of the day. I was able to get a ton of photocopying done on Friday which I was really pleased about. The regular photocopier which counts how many copies we make has been on the blink and they have a loaner which does not count the number of copies, so I have been trying to use it as much as I can. :-)
Dad met with our friend, Rob, from church on Friday morning - they needed to plan the lesson for today for the Relief Society/Priesthood combined class. The lesson was called 'Missionary Media Presentation". The Pacific Area presidency is putting together a media awareness campaign for Australia about the members of the church in Queensland. They have asked the members to create a written profile about themselves on mormon.org. They are also asking members to create a video profile as well to be put on mormon.org and to be part of a television/media campaign. So, on Friday, Dad showed Rob the presentation that the area presidency had put together and several sample profiles which are already on mormon.org as examples of what the area presidency are looking for members to do.
Friday night we rented two movies - one of which Jennifer suggested we watch and another since we had a coupon to rent two movies for $6.50. We watched the movie Jennifer recommended on Friday night which was called "The Next Three Days" and we thought it was a good movie - we rated it about a 7.0. It was a long time setting everything up, but the exciting part kept our attention.
We didn't have any special plans for yesterday (Saturday) so we just puttered around in the morning and then did some errands - I needed to pick up some things for school - we are doing a fairy tale unit at school and I needed to pick up some paper crowns so that the children can decorate them to be either Cinderella or the prince in that story (that's our fairy tale of the week this coming week) and also supplies to make Cinderella cupcakes as we have a cooking class each week.
In the afternoon, we watched the second movie we had rented - it was called 'Sanctum'. It was basically about a group of people who go caving (exploring caves underground) and what happens to them when they get trapped in one. It was a good movie - we rated it about a 7.0 - worth a rent if you might be interested in that type of movie. There were quite a few surprises along the way which kept it interesting.
Saturday evening was spent doing school and church stuff - more prepping for my literacy centres and Primary Sunbeam class lesson and Dad reviewing his talk for today and also working on the two Family History events which will occur this coming week. It kept us going until about 10:30pm. I was thinking as I was doing all of this how nice it would be to have a job where it just went from 9am to 5pm and when I got home, there was nothing to do that was job related. Oh well - that's never going to happen if I stay teaching. :-)
Today, Dad gave his talk in Sacrament meeting about Family History and he did a great job! I was sitting in between two friends and both turned to me after the meeting and said what a great job Dad had done. He was really prepared and the talk was really organized and he made it personal which always keeps people's attention. One of our friends even told me that her husband said that Dad's talk was so good that he ALMOST convinced him (our friend's husband) to do his family history. :-)
During the Relief Society/Priesthood combined meeting today, Dad and Rob showed the presentation from the area presidency along with samples of written profiles and samples of video profiles of members of the church. Four of these profiles were well-known Australian Latter-Day Saints and the fifth profile was Terri-Ann's (that was really cool!).
After church, Dad and I started watching a movie, but both of us were so tired that we were falling asleep, so I suggested we have a nap. It was a wintry day and so of course we napped outside. :-) It is the middle of our winter and the temperature (according to our outside thermometer) was 26C, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. :-) So, Dad and I took our pillows outside and laid down on our chaise loungers and fell asleep for 2 1/2 hours - I think that we are going to have to do this every Sunday. :-) We spent the rest of the day relaxing - I love Sundays! :-)
Thursday, July 21, 2011
I can't believe that a whole week has gone by since I last wrote - on Sunday night, I just completely forgot and then on Tuesday, I remembered after I was in bed - sheesh - I am so way tired. Anyway, I will fill you in on this past week like a Reader's Digest version. :-)
School has been keeping me busy - both with preparing things, searching for ideas and just keeping this kids in check (or rather, trying to). I actually like preparing and searching for things - I don't have many resources for kindergarten or even grade one since I only taught K for one year and grade one for 2 years. I also don't want to spend much money since I likely won't be doing this again. I have been planning out my literacy rotations: reading, writing, spelling, printing, and computers for the kids. I have five literacy groups and have found that I can get them to rotate through 3 areas on Mondays and Thursdays and the other two on Tuesdays and Fridays. Chantelle and I have worked on our activities for our Theme units (fairy tales), so I just have to get them all ready (gonna do lots of photocopying tomorrow). :-) So, now I just have to work out how I am going to do my math rotations and my phonics lessons. Hopefully, I will have it all worked out by this weekend.
I still am not enjoying teaching and neither is Chantelle - I told her that it's hard to enjoy teaching at this school as we are doing more disciplining than teaching. I feel sad that my passion for teaching is not there right now - who knows if I will ever get it back - I never thought I would be saying that. I truly do love teaching, but it's hard when I am not getting to do much teaching. I do have to say that two of the students who were challenging are coming around - I still have two who drive me nuts and I am just going to have to get more firm with them - one of them missed his two play times today and will be missing the first one tomorrow - I am also going to have to speak to his mom tomorrow. I think that I am going to refer him to our behavioural specialist and see what she can do with him. He just can't seem to sit still, be quiet, focus, or put any effort into what he does. The teacher I am taking over for started this star chart where if they do something 'wrong', they have to take a star off. If all three stars get taken off, they miss a playtime. I am going to get tougher with this - I have been trying to give the kids a bit of a chance since I am new to them, but that's it - I am just going to start taking the stars off much quicker and hopefully, behaviour will change. I still don't know what the future holds and whether I will be teaching next year or not, so we'll just have to see. I am still thinking of going to talk with someone at the christian college (K - 12) near us to see if they are looking for teachers - I will keep you posted.
Dad has been very busy doing lots of stuff: census stuff - the actual night is August 9th - but the collectors start handing out the forms at the end of the month; church stuff - he is working on a talk for Sunday about family history, a family history presentation at the mall, a family history day at our chapel, and a lesson for priesthood/relief society on Sunday which will be about how members in the ward can put a profile about themselves on the church website so that people can go to the website and learn about members and what they think and believe; house stuff - laundry, vacuuming, bathrooms; plus he still had his church meeting on Tuesday night, was at the FHC on Wednesday night, and did Meals on Wheels this morning and SES tonight. I don't think that he has time for a full-time job. :-)
Last Saturday, Dad had the opportunity to attend an SES training session in Bundaberg (about 90 minutes north of HB). The training was to learn how to be an air observer for airborne search and rescue. If SES was called to participate in an airborne search and rescue activation, Dad could possibly be called out (eg; looking for a missing aircraft, a lost hiker, a lost ship, someone overboard, etc.). The training consisted of six hours: learning about general aviation safety and observation techniques to be used so that you don't miss anything in your search area. They were supposed to go up in a plane to look for planted items, but the weather was not co-operative - it was raining all day and so they cancelled the flight and are going to reschedule as soon as they can.
School has been keeping me busy - both with preparing things, searching for ideas and just keeping this kids in check (or rather, trying to). I actually like preparing and searching for things - I don't have many resources for kindergarten or even grade one since I only taught K for one year and grade one for 2 years. I also don't want to spend much money since I likely won't be doing this again. I have been planning out my literacy rotations: reading, writing, spelling, printing, and computers for the kids. I have five literacy groups and have found that I can get them to rotate through 3 areas on Mondays and Thursdays and the other two on Tuesdays and Fridays. Chantelle and I have worked on our activities for our Theme units (fairy tales), so I just have to get them all ready (gonna do lots of photocopying tomorrow). :-) So, now I just have to work out how I am going to do my math rotations and my phonics lessons. Hopefully, I will have it all worked out by this weekend.
I still am not enjoying teaching and neither is Chantelle - I told her that it's hard to enjoy teaching at this school as we are doing more disciplining than teaching. I feel sad that my passion for teaching is not there right now - who knows if I will ever get it back - I never thought I would be saying that. I truly do love teaching, but it's hard when I am not getting to do much teaching. I do have to say that two of the students who were challenging are coming around - I still have two who drive me nuts and I am just going to have to get more firm with them - one of them missed his two play times today and will be missing the first one tomorrow - I am also going to have to speak to his mom tomorrow. I think that I am going to refer him to our behavioural specialist and see what she can do with him. He just can't seem to sit still, be quiet, focus, or put any effort into what he does. The teacher I am taking over for started this star chart where if they do something 'wrong', they have to take a star off. If all three stars get taken off, they miss a playtime. I am going to get tougher with this - I have been trying to give the kids a bit of a chance since I am new to them, but that's it - I am just going to start taking the stars off much quicker and hopefully, behaviour will change. I still don't know what the future holds and whether I will be teaching next year or not, so we'll just have to see. I am still thinking of going to talk with someone at the christian college (K - 12) near us to see if they are looking for teachers - I will keep you posted.
Dad has been very busy doing lots of stuff: census stuff - the actual night is August 9th - but the collectors start handing out the forms at the end of the month; church stuff - he is working on a talk for Sunday about family history, a family history presentation at the mall, a family history day at our chapel, and a lesson for priesthood/relief society on Sunday which will be about how members in the ward can put a profile about themselves on the church website so that people can go to the website and learn about members and what they think and believe; house stuff - laundry, vacuuming, bathrooms; plus he still had his church meeting on Tuesday night, was at the FHC on Wednesday night, and did Meals on Wheels this morning and SES tonight. I don't think that he has time for a full-time job. :-)
Last Saturday, Dad had the opportunity to attend an SES training session in Bundaberg (about 90 minutes north of HB). The training was to learn how to be an air observer for airborne search and rescue. If SES was called to participate in an airborne search and rescue activation, Dad could possibly be called out (eg; looking for a missing aircraft, a lost hiker, a lost ship, someone overboard, etc.). The training consisted of six hours: learning about general aviation safety and observation techniques to be used so that you don't miss anything in your search area. They were supposed to go up in a plane to look for planted items, but the weather was not co-operative - it was raining all day and so they cancelled the flight and are going to reschedule as soon as they can.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Ooops - sorry I didn't write on Tuesday - and even last night - just way too busy and by the time I remembered that I hadn't written the blog, I was in bed and ready to crash. Since I am writing about four days, I will do a quick synopsis so you all don't fall asleep as you read about our exciting lives! :-)
On Monday, it was a pupil free day. We spent the morning meeting as a staff - the usual boring meeting - some housekeeping as they call it (to do with what's going on in the school, etc.) and then some professional development (talking about inference) - boring to me for two reasons: one, I had already seen the info when I was teaching at Kawungan and two: trying to teach inference to Prep kids would be ridiculous with the lack of what they come to school with. For goodness sake, some kids didn't even know what a fairy tale was.
I am teaching a fairy tale unit and started off the unit by asking the students to paint a picture of their favourite fairy tale character. When one of them was asked what they had painted which had nothing to do with fairy tales, he said that he didn't know what a fairy tale was. When I talked with Sam, my TA about this, she said that when they did the nursery rhyme unit earlier this year, a number of them had never heard of these rhymes. Sheesh!
The rest of the day on Monday we were given time to team plan. We actually didn't do any planning as we were all busy with trying to get our own classrooms sorted out. It was good to have that time to get my classroom a little more in order. I am trying to make the classroom a little more my own - it's going to take time, but it was good to get a little start on it.
Tuesday, the kids were pretty good and I was pleasantly surprised and Wednesday, it was the same. I began to think that possibly I might actually learn to like teaching here in HB. Then, today hit - yeah, not going to enjoy it much if it keeps going on like this. I was talking with Chantelle yesterday and today about this, and she is of the same mind. When I mentioned that one third of new Ontario teachers leave the profession in the first five years, she said that she doesn't think she will even make it that long. She is very disillusioned with the expectations put on teachers. She told me that she is seriously looking at government jobs which will pay the same as a teacher makes, but with way less stress and certainly better hours. I'm feeling the same way!
For the last four days, Dad has been very busy with census stuff. He's been visiting with more establishment people trying to get them on board with organizing who is going to be doing the census collecting and meeting with a collector to go over the info from their area. He has also been going through our boxes one by one and putting the items in the boxes away (you know the old saying, a place for everything and everything in its place). He's also been working on preparations for the Family History Open House Day which will be on July 30th. He is one busy boy!
On Monday, it was a pupil free day. We spent the morning meeting as a staff - the usual boring meeting - some housekeeping as they call it (to do with what's going on in the school, etc.) and then some professional development (talking about inference) - boring to me for two reasons: one, I had already seen the info when I was teaching at Kawungan and two: trying to teach inference to Prep kids would be ridiculous with the lack of what they come to school with. For goodness sake, some kids didn't even know what a fairy tale was.
I am teaching a fairy tale unit and started off the unit by asking the students to paint a picture of their favourite fairy tale character. When one of them was asked what they had painted which had nothing to do with fairy tales, he said that he didn't know what a fairy tale was. When I talked with Sam, my TA about this, she said that when they did the nursery rhyme unit earlier this year, a number of them had never heard of these rhymes. Sheesh!
The rest of the day on Monday we were given time to team plan. We actually didn't do any planning as we were all busy with trying to get our own classrooms sorted out. It was good to have that time to get my classroom a little more in order. I am trying to make the classroom a little more my own - it's going to take time, but it was good to get a little start on it.
Tuesday, the kids were pretty good and I was pleasantly surprised and Wednesday, it was the same. I began to think that possibly I might actually learn to like teaching here in HB. Then, today hit - yeah, not going to enjoy it much if it keeps going on like this. I was talking with Chantelle yesterday and today about this, and she is of the same mind. When I mentioned that one third of new Ontario teachers leave the profession in the first five years, she said that she doesn't think she will even make it that long. She is very disillusioned with the expectations put on teachers. She told me that she is seriously looking at government jobs which will pay the same as a teacher makes, but with way less stress and certainly better hours. I'm feeling the same way!
For the last four days, Dad has been very busy with census stuff. He's been visiting with more establishment people trying to get them on board with organizing who is going to be doing the census collecting and meeting with a collector to go over the info from their area. He has also been going through our boxes one by one and putting the items in the boxes away (you know the old saying, a place for everything and everything in its place). He's also been working on preparations for the Family History Open House Day which will be on July 30th. He is one busy boy!
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