The school days go quickly because of the large chunk that swimming takes up. It is fascinating to see how quickly the students are progressing during their swimming lessons. My teacher and I jokingly say that we wished that they could learn EVERYTHING that quickly!

Teaching is going fairly well. Because of swimming however, the kids are SO moody, which makes EVERY lesson an unpredictable one! In the morning, the kids are bonkers. They are so excited about swimming, and worked up about it, that they have trouble focusing, however they are quick to learn things and acitvely engage in my lessons during this time. Immediately after their swimming, the students are EXHAUSTED. Several of them continue to lay their heads on their desks after I ask them to sit up, because they are simpy too tired to obey. Teaching during this time is a breeze because they are simply too tired to misbehave, however, very little deep learning can be done during this time. And then the students go to big break (their hour lunch/recess time). When they return from that, they are absolutely irritable. It is usually during this last 45 minutes that students will be fighting with eachother, calling out, and non-compliant with anything I ask them to do.

Everyday after school, Tina asks me (in one sense or another), "So, were you mean today?", and I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. My teacher approves of my meanness and wrote, "would like to see her be more firm with the students" on my mid-evaluation, but sometimes I feel bad and wish I could solve the problem in a different (more positive) way. Nearly everyday I tell Tina about one "mean" thing I had to do during that day. For instance, today the students had to stay in for 3 minutes at lunch because they were being much too loud during an independent work time, and 3 of my top students had to stay in even longer to finish their handwriting assignment that they SHOULD'VE finished during class time. I was also forced to write out two pink behavior tickets for students who could not get along and refused to do the tasks I asked them to do.

I did start something really neat during school today though. I read about this in the book I'm reading, "Three Weeks With My Brother", by Nicholas & Micah Sparks. In the book, in their childhood Nicholas and Micah would fight and every night their mother would come in and talk to them individually before bed and have them tell her one nice thing the other brother did for him during that day. Over time, the boys either started being nicer to eachother or were able to more easily see the nice things that were done to them. So, today during roll call I asked the students to tell me ONE nice thing that one of their classmates did for them yesterday. I also pre-warned them that I would be asking them the same question tomorrow and that they could not say the same thing then. It was wonderful to have kids come up to me and say, "So-and-so did THIS for me, isnt' that nice?". We'll see if this little experiment has the same outcome as it had for Nicholas and Micah. :)

On a bit of a "kids say the funniest things" note, I had a student volunteer at the board working out a math problem yesterday and as he was writing a number, he quickly erased his 8 and said, "Oops! I wrote that one backwards". Ha ha! If anyone can explain to me how to write an 8 backwards, please do so. :)

I also had quite an inspiring moment yesterday as well. After my lesson, the kids were required to attempt a worksheet reinforcing the concept I had just taught. 5 of the students that finished early (the same 5 that do all the time) and so I assigned them each a classmate to help finish their assignment. To my surprise, this worked far better than I had expected. I was then NOT swamped with questions by these struggling students, the students who were teaching it learned it even BETTER and it kept them busy. As I supervised their "teaching", I was also extremely pleased to see that they truly were TEACHING these students, and not merely giving them the answers. I plan to do something similar in a couple of my upcoming lessons.

It has been exciting because for the past 2 days in a row, ALL of the students in my class were present! Granted, 8 or 9 walked in late each day.... We just take what we can get.

Last night I saw yet another Australian movie, Brand New Day. It was definitely more "chipper" than the last one and I enjoyed it greatly. Tina and Trevor insisted that we play the pokies (slot machines) too. Together, we ended up winning 10 dollars! Woo!

Some new vocabulary for you... togs=swimsuit, crack (or chuck) a wobbly = throw a tantrum or fit, boomer = big kangaroo, among others! :)

Tonight I plan on doing some of the normal work I MUST complete every week, but ALSO, starting my final presentation! Its hard to believe that it will be over in ONE week! Ahh!

written by  cowane1 on September 9, 2010 from Morayfield, Australia
from the travel blog: Australian Adventures!
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some of that vocabulary from down under cracks me up. I am finally getting to understand zonks, and now I hope I don't crack a wobbly when I tell this to Gayle tomorrow at work! It is almost like something Joyce would say! Love ya.

written by  Marcie Cowan on September 9, 2010

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