Monday, July 13, 2009

Prac Blogging - Second Installment....

Hello my wonderful readers!

I write to you from the Sunshine Coast, which will be my home for the next three weeks as I complete my third year placement. Those of you who may have read my previous prac blogging installments will be pleased to know that my "Learning Manager" badge is once again in use, and once again I have no idea what this title is supposed to entail. Even more concerning is that some of the teachers managed to call me Carla today, despite the clearly printed "Carly" written on my badge. They're probably the same teachers who still believe that the "3 R's" actually begin with the letter R.

Today was my first day of prac, and even though I am feeling bruised and weary, all in all it was a good day. Why bruised, I hear you ask? Belle, Cam, Lyle, Leah, Mr & Mrs Yates, Mark and I hired a sailing boat on the weekend (the rest of the crew will be sailing until Saturday, I had to return early for prac), and I managed to fall down the stairs on the first night. I'm not sure that my derriere has ever been this sore in my life. It certainly made todays four hour staff meeting more painful than it already was.

Today was a pupil free day, so most of my time was spent in meetings and planning for the week. I'm feeling very excited, because I am sharing my placement with a student from New York who is in Australia completing her final year placement. I'm really thankful that I will be able to partner teach alongside another student rather than having to handle 27 grade ones on my own. It was also very interesting to chat to Katie about how the American education system differs from the Australian system. Comparatively, we really have it quite good over here. However I was reminded today that Australians really do make a big song and dance about Americans when they are in town. As I was walking home from school this afternoon, I noticed that the large notice board out the front of the school read "Welcome to our student teachers from New York!". I'm sorry, but I don't remember reading "Welcome to our student teacher from Townsville!" when I first came to the school in April. Maybe I just missed it. Seems unlikely. Either way, I had a great time today chatting to lots of the teaching/cleaning/admin staff at school; everyone is so lovely and friendly which is so important, particularly being away from home.

Stay tuned for more prac related blogs... I hope to keep you all fairly updated.
Peace out :)

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