Day 121: 1/5/13
The agency rang around half 6 this morning to see if I would go back to the school I was in Monday instead of the one they asked me to go. I didn't mind but they said this school had requested me and I'm there again on Friday so I best keep them happy! There wasn't too much of a difference in the time I needed to get the train so luckily I was ready!
The trains are annoying. When you get on in Melbourne Central it tells you all the stops ahead and you can make sure your station is listed. When they get to Flinders St they often change their mind about where they are going next. So today when I got on I was on the right train but when I was at Flinders Street I was on the wrong one and had to change. Luckily the one I had to change to was delayed a few minutes so I made it okay. You really have to be on the ball at 7am!!!
Today I had a prep class. The teacher had everything left ready and the teacher next door was very helpful aswell. In the morning we read a poem- Teddy bear, Teddy bear and they looked for t's, rhyming words, etc. tet had a book with a poem stuck in for each letter which was lovely. Then they had performing arts and pe so I was with the year 1/2 class I was with Monday morning. Their teacher was sick too but they have a student teacher and have specialist subjects most of the day so they didn't get a sub in. I was just helping out for a while. They were doing literacy first and then they went to the garden. The year 3/4's are in charge of the garden but they are having a harvest week so the other classes were allowed down to visit. They got to see the chickens and hold them. Also, they were digging for worms. There were some people in the kitchen cooking also, using food from the garden so they got to taste the food.
After recess I was back in with the preps. We were talking about things that will/won't/might happen and they had to draw a picture for each one. Lots of them hadnt a clue!! Then they were working on their 'beautiful books'. In these books they had made a picture for each letter of the alphabet. Today it wa a teddy bear. The teacher had the parts of the body ready to cut out and paper left for us to make a bow-tie. It was really cute! Each page had 'I begin with __' said the __.
After lunch it was the preps turn to go to the garden. They watched the chickens being fed but couldn't hold them while they were feeding them and then it rained so we couldn't stay down there! They were disappointed that they didn't get to hold the chicken. They did get to watch the people cooking in the kitchen and got to taste the pizza they made afterwards. Also, they helped to stick some tiles onto a mosaic. There were lots of really nice ideas in the garden. They seemed to have a gardner that was there all the time to look after it. Maybe he's just there this week, I'm not sure!
On the way back I had the class holding hands and one guy twisted the other guys hand around. The teacher that was with the 3/4's say it at the exact same time as I did and she took him aside. He started pulling away from her and trying to punch her so she brought him into the other prep class for the last part of the day. He was fine really, he just freaked out when we mentioned walking back with a teacher.
For the last lesson we were looking at a book called Window. It was a really nice book by Jeannie something! It showed a boy looking out his window or perhaps playing outside the window as he grew up and you could see all the things that had changed in the garden and in the land next door. In the end he was in a new house with a baby of his own. It was a very good book for the younger ones to notice changes that have happened- ill definitely be trying to get that! They had to draw a picture then of things that have changes in their lives. The teacher had asked then that I scribe what they had said under the pictures, so I was killed out trying to get around to them all!!
At the end of the day when I was tidying up, they rang from the office to ask if I would come back tomorrow for the year 1/2 class. I'm in the school anyway Friday with the other prep class so I've a full week now! The school though takes over an hour to get to so it's not the best one to have a full week in, but I can't complain!!
I did very little this evening. I was talking to Alex, a German girl for a good while. She reads a lot so we were talking about books mostly. She was wondering also what impression we have of Germans and whether her impressions of Irish were realistic- Guinness, whiskey and red hair! I find Germans super organised and they don't deviate from their schedule! They get really annoyed if buses, etc are late- where as we take no notice!!
I intended to start looking up places to go to on the east coast and stuff but I just got as far as looking up the greyhound bus pass and then gave up! Ill have to start at the weekend maybe.