It's been so long since I've blogged! I'm not sure what to write about. Even this update has taken 4 attempts over 3 months. Farley Mowat, a Canadian author who recently passed away said, "I've never enjoyed writing. I have enjoyed written. The completion of the exercise is marvelous!" Sums it up neatly. I find uploading albums and posting a quick daily status on Facebook satisfactory. For the non-FBers, I had tried starting a colorful newsletter but my creativity went by the wayside after struggling with what I should include in it. There's way too much going on (or at times, nothing happening at all) to sum up in a few neat 'articles'! But, on this sunny relaxing day, I'm motivated to sit in front of the warmth and reflect. Perhaps you'll finally get to read all my thoughts swimming in my head as of late. LOL. (Of course, that's if I send it out.)

Typical week nights in Wangaratta usually have us sitting in front of the tv watching Big Bang Theory reruns or 'The Voice Australia'. We're gearing up to vote for our favorite singers, something we couldn't do in Canada. I strangely find that exciting that I can have a say in their future. LOL.

I hate to admit it but I'm also hooked on an Australian reality tv, House Rules, which takes up 4 nights a week! The show is on roughly around 7.42pm to 9:09pm. I say 'roughly' because although it's listed as 7.30pm, shows here don't run that neatly. Sometimes it ends at 9.09pm or 9.13pm or 9.15pm. We don't understand the reason for that. You'd think as a tv producer, all you need to do is simply add up the times of each ad breaks and current episode and make it a nice neat hour show, played on the hour. It's a pet peeve of mine to not know when a show will begin.

On the weekends, we head out to nearby towns to explore. We have found some delicious local foods, cheese, olives, mustards, salad dressings, and wine. There are many Italians around here because of the wine region but I have yet to find a nice Italian restaurant. LOL.

Several people have invited us for a visit to see their city. What a wonderful chance to hang out with Aussie. They are friendly, welcoming people. One lady, whom I met on the train into Melbourne, invited us to her home for a meal. WOW! Next weekend, we are off for a real Aussie Rules footy game in Melbourne's Cricket Ground stadium. The game looks like rugby but if you asked a die hard footy fan, they may offended that we didn't recognize the finer qualities of this game.

This weekend, there's a Wine and Food Festival in Rutherglen. Staff have warned us to go early or it'll feel like a Melbourne street fair, inching along Main Street. I love that type of energy!

Adjusting to School Life

Our school calendar runs from January to December. Terms are 10 weeks long, followed by a 2 week break. School runs from 9am to 3.30pm but I haven't been able to break my habit of waking at 6.30am as I did for RJ's hours. Recess is at 11am for 30 minutes. At first, I was using the half hour to prep the rest of the day but I soon discovered that practically every staff member is in the staff room at this time having morning tea (snacks). It's so strange to have a half hour recess break! By lunch at 1.20pm (starved by then), the staff room is practically dead with only a handful of staff. Learning to swap that routine has been challenging and if I didn't, I wouldn't get to know the staff. I still haven't consistently shown up for morning tea so that's been a personal goal.

Teachers have a half day to meet as a team to plan the next term - all 10 weeks, each subject laid out! WOW! I know exactly what's coming up. Since our team of 4 shares lessons and resources, the weight of learning a whole new curriculum is off of me! WHEW! This was especially helpful when our Grade 3s and 5s had NAPLANs, their version of PATs. I had no idea how to prepare my students for that. Thank goodness for my team. I'm forever learning new things from these inspirational ladies! J

Great Marshmallow Challenge

Looks like my passion for Science is now Down Under too. I happily plan experiments and lessons every week for our Grade 3 / 4 classes. It's been interesting pretending to be the 'expert', knowing things about local rocks and soil erosion! They now can sing along with Bill Nye and Ms Frizzle. A few parents have shared their kids' increased curiosity for the moon, explosions, and more. For Education Week, the entire school participated in the Great Marshmallow Challenge, the same one RJ did a few years ago. Fun!

Yesterday, a student released a stink bomb during quiet reading time. I had to play "teacher' and send him to the office for consequences. However, I'm hoping to ask him quietly next day where he got the package. I would love one for my Grossology unit!

Tiger Snake Scare!

One afternoon, teachers were alerted to a snake on the school premise. Turned out that it was a deadly tiger snake who probably slithered from the nearby river to get some sun and food under our portables. Our Japanese teacher scooped it into a bin and placed a lid on it. I wanted a better view but it wasn't recommended since this 3 foot snake was apparently a jumper. The Snake Man was called in to capture and relocate it. By law, they can't kill a local reptile.

We've been trying to also get a class pet but owning any local reptile requires a license. We might just have mealworms instead.

Report Cards

I finished my rough draft of report cards this week after a month of assessing and writing. Let's see what Admin thinks now. I'm so tired! There's a term they use here - triangulation of data. To back up my marks, I should have 3 sources to draw from - online testing, school testing, and observations of school performance. It's all very time consuming. Students completed five online tests covering reading, writing, spelling, geometry, and probability. I then correlated those results to individual PMBenchmarks, one-on-one Maths testing, and school work. Hours of testing!! Finally, I assigned each student a current grade level mark (e.g., 2.5 means a mid-Grade 3 performance) for each subject area, team work, behavior, effort, and social skills. When parents see the report cards, there'll be a handy comparison chart with an open dot showing last term's results and a dark dot for current performance. A bold yellow line shows expected levels so it's easy for parents to see whether the dots fall below or above grade level. Very visual! Hopefully, students show growth in learning.

First Holidays

After a long 10 weeks of being overloaded with new routines, older students, Aussie curriculum, unfamiliar expectations (… essentially, an entire new country), term break arrived!

For our 2 week term break, John and I flew to Perth. We met up with another RVS exchange teacher, Melinda Csak, to exchange stories. It was so good to hear both celebrations and adjustment frustrations - someone who gets what we are dealing with.

We loved Perth! There were moments of familiarity. At one point in our drive around, there was even a city view overlooking a valley that seemed exactly like Calgary along the Bow River. It helped that Perth was warmer than Melbourne that day. Sunshine is so uplifting!

We hired a car to explore West Coast Australia. North, we went, while many tourists head South. What a strange varied landscape the further north we journeyed on this 1600km trip. It went from lush green trees to short, scraggly trees to even sand dunes! The rolling hills became flatter and more desolate. A whole lot of nothing between towns. BORING! PAINFUL! The most annoying part were the flies … and hundreds of them! Our enjoyment of the scenic views was most often ruined by these persistent flies. ARGH! Our best investment was the purchase of fly nets. The Aussies joke that the hand movement that one does when swatting flies is their national wave.

Two highlights stood out on our West Coast trip - the stunning Pinnacles Desert and once in a lifetime opportunity diving with the whalesharks.

Pinnacles Desert

The pinnacles are eroded limestone formations eerily dotting a specific area of the West Coast. The Dutch sailors who saw them from their ships thought it was a lost civilization. When we first came over the hill upon the Pinnacles, we both swore at the same time! It felt like a scene off Star Trek! Alien yet stunning.

Whalesharks

Further north, 4 days of long, hard driving, in Exmouth, we prepared to go snorkeling with whalesharks. They migrate during March to June through the waters of Ningaloo Reef. Because whalesharks filter feed on krill and plankton (and are relatively docile), wildlife regulations allowed 10 people at a time to snorkel, not dive, with each one for an hour. A small plane would fly around spotting these magnificent creatures and alert our boat to its location.

Our first whaleshark that we snorkel with was almost 8 meters long! At one point, she changed her course placing me directly in front of her. EGAK! Even though she wouldn't have eaten me, I didn't enjoy seeing her wide mouth that clearly by my legs! The plane would then locate another whaleshark and off we go.

Next up!

In a few weeks, Term 2 will finish so we are in the middle of planning for our next 2 week break. We are noticing that Aussies travel every chance they get so everything gets booked up quick! (I'm sure we are already behind and should have pulled together Oct's plans already.) Originally, John wanted to see every nook and cranny of Australia so with it being winter soon, we thought to make it to the Red Center where it would be cooler instead of the summer highs above 50'C. However, as we factored in the costly petrol, flights, holiday accommodation rates, and poor currency exchange, we had a tough choice to make with initial projections of $7000 for the 10 days. To see the iconic Ayer's Rock / Uluru or not?!? Sadly, we chose to just enjoy Ayer's Rock through other people's photos. We are headed to Bali instead.

With Asian countries like Cambodia and Vietnam so near to Australia, many staff members have travelled to these 'common' tourist destinations - locations where I once proudly claim as being top exotic spots in my passport. It's so humbling. I'll have to start throwing around some Mexico and USA references now to maintain my traveller's mystique. "Oh, one time in Vegas, …"

Fall has been beautiful with many trees changing colors. I didn't expect that. I'm also surprisingly freezing so I'll be headed off to a nearby city to do some shopping. Need more layers before Winter comes!

Have a wonderful summer, Everyone! (Anyone coming out this way?)

Keep in touch!