Day 129: 9/5/13
Today I didn't end up having 5/6's after all. I was just doing teacher release which was grand! I was in a grade 1/2 class first and they were doing time. Some were drawing what they did at certain times of the day, some were matching times to clocks. It was grand but they were noisy. Then I went next door to another 1/2 class- the one I was in last week. They were going to play a spelling game - writing the letters of a word, cutting them up, jumbling them and then timing themselves putting them back together. It would be a good activity except they couldn't find enough timers so they ended up arguing and being really noisy!
At break time they had a surprise lunch for a girl that's going on maternity leave tomorrow. There were loads of little quiches and cakes which was nice!
After break I was back in the same class again. They were doing maths and I just had a small group to work with using clocks which was grand. Then the kids went to library but the teacher wanted me to fold up some pamphlets so I was doing that while chatting to her for a while! Then I had yard duty which fairly drags on- 25 minutes wandering around hoping noone gets seriously injured!!
After lunch then I was with the prep class I've been with for a few times. They had show and tell and choosing time so it was pretty easy, they were just noisy.
I walked to the train station with Aoife after school. She's having a bit of a battle with the agency as she wants to work somewhere closer to home. They said they didn't have anything and then the two girls she lives with got a school right beside them. She rang today asking why she hadn't been offered that and they said the school requests certain teachers back and it wasn't a reflection on her. That was a really bully tactic to get her to back down as she knew for a fact that one of the girls hasn't been there before. When she said that they didn't really have any answer for her. It sounds like they don't have as much work as they usually do and they are having a hard time getting work for all the guaranteed teachers so we can't be fussy really!
I got a text just before we got on the train to teach in the school I was in yesterday. It's grade 1 aswell- hopefully they won't be as bossy as they were yesterday! I don't know if its the same class or not. I few minutes later the agency rang back again to see would I do next Thursday and the Thursday after in the school I was in where they learned scripture and Sanskrit- the days were as a music teacher though. I said yes but that if something mainstream came up Id prefer it. I don't really mind the thought of a day of music but in this school I'm not sure what kind of music they would think is appropriate!!
I took my time going home this evening and had some tea in a cafe with free wifi and watched some videos on YouTube. When I got back to the hostel I was talking to some girls in the room for a little while. Then I went downstairs to the wifi to look up travel stuff again.
I was wondering yesterday and today if it would be better for me to go to Fiji rather than the east coast. I can always come back again to do either one, but I'm just not sure which I can afford at the moment! I don't have enough time to do both anyway. I've wanted to go to Fiji all along but then it would be a shame to miss some of the best parts of Australia!! I need to do a lot of research and comparisons over the weekend!!
By the way my visa application has arrived in the embassy so I just have to wait for them to process it and then track it on the way back to me!
I felt better today, just a bit tired and I'm really tired now tonight. At least tomorrows Friday so if I do get sick I have the weekend to recover!