Day 116: 26/4/13
Today I'd an extra hour in bed as I didn't have to be in the school until 10. I had looked up train times incase they were different after morning rush hour, but they leave every few minutes. When I got to Flinders station though I got a bit of a fright as lots of trains were delayed and some platforms were closed. I don't know what was going on! Eventually one came up on the screen that would get me there on time, thankfully!
The first class I had today was Performing arts with year 3/4. The teacher wanted them to sing Tie me Kangaroo down. I didn't have the words on the board for them, but it played on the laptop and there was a piano there for me to play so it was grand! They had to do some miming then while I read about circus performers and stuff. They were fairly good at doing it silently! The last thing she had left was a game where they do a freeze frame and someone had to guess where they are. We had just started that when the teacher came back.
Then I had to go to a Prep class who were working on groups. I'd to work with a group who were reading a story and practicing reading common words. Others were drawing picture to go with stories and stuff. They were fine but we'd a bit of confusion wondering where to put the books and where to go for lunch. Preps can't tell you things the way others can!
After lunch I had another Prep class. There are four prep classes and in this time they all do investigations. The children can go anywhere in the whole prep area, between all the classes to do writing, drawing, construction, Lego, etc. it's basically free play but they put in their findings (pictures, writings, etc) in an investigation book. One girl was the photographer for the day and she got to take photos of people working with an iPhone. One section was really interesting- they had screwdrivers and what looked like the insides of a computer or DVD player or something- they looked like very busy electricians!! There was also a cafe area where they could play pretend cafe! I'd say any infant teacher would be completely jealous of the space they have for all this play! I that time the teacher I had covered the other day recorded me singing the song I had taught them so she could practice it with them again!
After this I went to 1/2's. They were all working in groups and all I had to do was help a group that were trying to measure lines with rulers. Then I'd another 1/2 class where they had a choice of writing activities- handwriting, writing stories, etc. They were pretty good.
Then I had a 3/4 class. There was a student teacher teaching about medicines. They did a lot of brainstorming about where they would get medicines and stuff and what might be written on a medicine label. She asked them then to write their own label, like one you would get in a chemist but there was a bit of confusion as they hadn't seen any examples, so they were a bit restless! Eeventually they settled though and did the work for her!
After yard duty and recess I was in another prep class for the last hour. They were really good. They had to read to a buddy, change their readers and then do some handwriting. The whole hour was left aside for handwriting- there's no way we would have all that time! Actually, when they came bac from recess they had a 3 minute silent time where they had to do nothing. It was really good to get them sitting quietly but I doubt many teachers in Ireland have 3 minutes to spare!!
After school I checked my emails and I'd gotten paid for last weeks teaching which was great! I wa afraid they'd hold it another week and I got paid a little more than I was expecting- only about 30 more but still!! I also had an email form the agency asking if they could put me on a special list for the term where they would guarantee me work for every day. The only catch is you have to be solely available to this agency and no other agency. You're still allowed days off as its still a casual basis. That was no problem to me as I'm not with any agency anyway and I'll be just taking the last few weeks of the term off. So obviously I emailed back to say Id be delighted to be on this list!! So it looks like I'll have plenty of work!!!
To celebrate this I let myself into the bookshop. Books are really dear over here- over 20 at least in a normal bookshop like Easons. I hadn't bought a book her before this so I did today! I'll have something good to read for a little while anyway! I've been waiting ages to read Life of Pi so I got it today.
I didn't do anything else this evening- just hung around in the hostel. I'm doing a bus tour to some markets tomorrow with the hostel and some other girls in the room are going on it aswell so it should be good.