July 13, 2010

The first week of student teaching FLEW by. I can’t believe how fast the days go by. The kids are outside and have so many breaks through out the day. We start the day at 9 with “smart moves” which is when we go outside and play a game for a half hour. Than the kids come in and do some maths (not math.. maths) after they do their maths they get a fruit break for about 10m minutes. By now its about 10:15 so they come in and either do more maths, or spelling. At 10:50 the whole school has morning tea. This is for 40 minutes. The teachers get a break while the students eat for 10 minutes, and than play on the oval for 30 minutes. Than middle session starts. This only goes from 11:30 to 12:50 the students do some work with either science or English. Than from 12:50 to 1:30 the students have big lunch where they again eat for 10 minutes and play for 30. They day is broken up so much by giving the children a chance to play outside that it just flies by! "Afa" session or afternoon session the kids silently read for a while have a lesson and than get the last 15 minutes of the day to go back outside and play an organized game with their teacher. The students are not in the classroom for that long but they still get a lot of work done and complete what needs to get done. I love it! I have started picking up little think like doing their maths with them, and spelling. Each week I will take on more responsibility until I am teaching completely on my own. Every other Tuesday we have staff meetings which last for only about an hour. Since Danette is away for the first 2 weeks I have been working with Kris. She is awesome, she’s so funny and so easy going. She drives me home everyday even though its only a 5 minute walk. She also took me on a “field trip” to Daniel Murphy’s Discount Liquor store and bought me a bottle of wine. She’s taught at Mooloolaba for 26 years but recently became a contract teacher and just subs for teachers who are on long service leave. She pretty much runs the school because she’s worked there for so long. So one day when we had none contact time she drove us to starbucks and we drank our coffee on the beach for an hour. Everyone at Mooloolaba is so nice and so welcoming. I am loving my first student teaching placement! Tuesday night a bunch of us went and played OZ*TAG again. This time we played a real game and have the official shorts! It is so much fun.