Day 133: 13/5/13
I was on Facebook for a while before going to sleep last night and I was chatting to Shaun in Dubaii. He had just found out that day that his cousin had died in a car crash in Australia. He was only 24. He has a few cousins in Sydney and this lad was out in the countryside. It will be tough for all the family as they will have to wait for the body to get home now and everything. It's hard on Shaun too as he has no family near him. I couldn't go to sleep for ages then thinking about that poor family. I saw lots of comments and things about him on Facebook when I got up.
I got a call at about twenty to seven to go back to the school I was in Tuesday and Thursday so that was grand. I was at the station this morning waiting for the train and the next trains that are coming are all listed on the screen Before my train was due it vanished off the screen so I didn't know if it was a mistake or if it was delayed or what. So I got a different train to Flinders Street and the Train I was suppose to get arrived there anyway so it was fine. I don't know if it skipped the stop I had been at or what- it seemed to come from the wrong direction!
I had a year 1/2 class. The teacher's mother is suddenly very sick and she may be out for the full week. There was a student teacher due to start with her today. He was about my age Id say and he has worked in the school as an aide and coordinating the after school care so most of the children knew him. He seemed like he wanted to be running the class as he had been there loger than I had but then at the same time he hasn't taught before and when I asked if he wanted to do the maths he said he would if I told him what to do. Later in the day they decided he should so his practice in the class next door as they don't know when this teacher will get back and he has to write up observations and things. I heard him say aswell that he wasn't anxious to watch a CRT for the week!!
The teacher didnt really have work left. she had the timetable and generally the 1/2 classes do the same thing so the teacher next door gave me everything I'd need. First they did writing about their weekend. I got them writing but then there's an aide there aswell ad he told me afterwards they always do a plan first. We didn't really have time then to go and do that so some did plans and some didn't! Then we had spelling. The studeny teacher was able to keep one group while i worked with the others and then we swapped. For reading groups aswell some were with me planning a design for a mask, some with the student teacher reading and some with the aide practicing spelling.
After break we had Maths. the grade 2's had a coluring numbers sheet on subtraction so they could do that themselves. I had the grade 1's doing subtraction with unifix cubes. They were all over the place- with barely any concentration! I don't know if they ate always like this or not, but it looked like they might be!! After that we had show and tell where they were talking about their pets. Some of them had nothing to say really so we had about ten minutes before lunch so I did show and tell with the tin whistle. They seemed to like that!
After break they had rotations. There are four 1/2 classes and they split them all up so you get a group with a mix from all classes. It's a good way to get then to know each other. I had been given an activity about being a good friend. They had to do a survey on whether they were good friends or not and then decorate a butterfly with words describing their qualities as a good friend. The first group didn't get half the butterfly decorated. The second rotation seemed to be longer and lots of them had it finished! They were pretty noisy at this time as it seems to be a big novelty to be mixed up with all the other classes!
The teacher will definitely be out tomorrow so the teacher next door came in to see what the timetable was. We have most stuff for tomorrow but I just needed to organise something on subtraction and then they wanted to know lots about Ireland so I'll do that for integrated studies probably. I had no message from the agency after school so I rang them to make sure thy didn't put me somewhere else! They contacted the school and then rang me back. I'm only booked in for Tuesday so far. They'll see after that. I'd love if I got the whole week there as it would mean I wouldn't have to do that music day!
I went to the Peter Pan office on the way home to see if they had deals on the prices for some of the things I want to do on the east coast. The greyhound bus pass they have is cheaper but the Whitsunday and Faser island things aren't really so if I'm going to pay for a dear one I'll need to figure out which one might be the best value!
I spent a good while on the Internet downstairs in the hostel cafe then as I wanted to look up a few bits and pieces for school. I didn't have that much I wanted to look at but the Internet kept cutting out so it took me forever!
When I was getting ready for bed I got a text from Shell to check my bank account and she had put in a lovely surprise for me! Me wondering if I had enough money didn't mean I was expecting ye to give me some!! I'm very grateful! I should be able to book the more expensive Whitsunday and Fraser Island trips now! Part of the money I needed too was to put into my Irish bank account to cover the loan payments in June and July so thats covered now! It's probably a good thing seeing as She'll is my guarantor!!