Orientation - Day 3

Today for orientation we got the opportunity to visit a different Australian school than the one that we would be teaching at. We would simply get the opportunity to sit in throughout the day, help out as we wanted, and observe the differences in culture. The school we visited was Wamuran State School. We were told to meet our "drivers" at the Caboolture train station and that they would provide us transportation to the school. As we were waiting at the train station, we saw SEVERAL kids (they had school uniforms on), who couldn't have been but 13 or 14 years old smoking one cigarette after another! It not only shocked us, but we were APALLED! Our teachers told us that sadly enough their parents probably bought them the smokes. On the way to the school I saw the remnants of an accident - the very 1st one I've seen since being here. Upon driving up to the school we were charmed by the sign they put up outside their school "A Warm Wam Welcome to the USA Pre-Service Teachers!". As we got out at the school we were welcomed by the school leaders, a group of year 7 students known for their good behavior and grades. After we had signed in, we were presented pineapples as a "welcome gift". The Wamuran school district is a rural district known for its pineapple, banana and strawberry crops. Two of the school leaders took us individually on a tour of the school. It was remarkable to hear the pride in their voices as they talked about their school. I was also impressed with how professional they presented themselves! The two girl leaders then dropped me off in my "class" for the day, a year 4 classroom led by Mr. Collins and a student teacher named Mrs. Cabrera. I walked in during roll call and was fascinated by the structure in which it was done. The teacher would say, "Good Morning Alice" and the student was required to reply, "Good Morning Mr. Collins and Mrs. Cabrera, I'm feeling like a 10 this morning". This not only proved respect by the student, but also gave you a gauge of how they were feeling in the morning. One of the first things I noticed about the classroom was that it was VERY compact. There was no small group reading table, and only 2 bookshelves. Besides that there were only the students' desks and a teachers desk, and I had a DIFFICULT time squeezing around the classroom! Nothing like the classroom sizes of MN! A few other differences I noticed were that they gave the students the option of playing the Playstation as a reward! I was amazed by that. Also, at this school as well as every other Australian school, the students are REQUIRED to wear a wide-brimmed hat while they are outside. This is to help the extremely high rate of skin cancer found in this country. They all function under a "No Hat - No Play" rule... similar to a "No Boots - No Play" type rule we have during MN winters! The school also hired a company to come once a week and teach the students a choreographed dance. This time is used as the 30 minutes of REQUIRED active time each class must do besides P.E. and recess. At the end of the day, because of the students' good behavior, they were allowed to teach me a few games outside to finish the day. I officially learned how to play "I've got it!", a rather fun game that I wish I would've known when I worked at camp!

During the evening, Tina, Trevor and myself went into Brisbane to Shannan's house, had fajitas for supper, and talked about our days. I told the group that at the end of the day, the student teacher asked me if I thought that these children seemed like a bunch of "bogans". I told her I had NO idea what a bogan was. She told me that she guessed it would probably be like what we considered people from Texas to be like. I was still very confused about this so I asked Shannan (who giggled when I told her how the teacher had described them). Shannan said that bogan is the equivalent of trailerpark trash, or redneck! I didn't feel like the students were like that at all!

After supper we all went to this entertainment center where every night they show a free movie. So, I got to see Sherlock Holmes, which was very exciting! :)

written by

cowane1 on August 18, 2010 from Wamuran, Australia

from the travel blog: Australian Adventures!

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