coldest day in 3 weeks

Today was my first day of work. Overall it was an interesting day. I got up this morning (freezing as usual....I really need to figure out how to get some heat up in this place) and got ready for work. I met Heather and Denning to head off to work. Denning and I caught the first bus and a very nice man realized we were super confused and told us exactly where to go to catch the second bus. We managed to successfully find and get on the second bus, however we also managed to pass our stop and go into a whole different part of Sydney. We had to ask a very nice girl on her way to school and she looked at us like we were crazy because the street we want was back across the bridge we crossed 5 minutes earlier. We caught a different bus and made our way back to Darling Street. We had to split up and I was on my own for finding Rozelle. Rozelle is a very cute school in the city. Luckily the teacher I am working with, Adam, was in the main office when I got there. I was very early so I got the full tour of the school, which is full of outside hallways, different buildings, and a brand new playground. The classroom is very large and very different than classrooms in the States. We got the opportunity to talk about what goes on daily and what to expect before going out to get the kids.

Every morning the kids are dropped off outside on the playground by their parents and when the bell rings they have certain places to line up with their classes. This morning we celebrated World Environment Day (which was really on Friday, but there was too much rain then). Each class made posters and presented them to the whole school this morning. One class even had a rap to go along with their poster, which was extremely cute. After the presentation we went into the classroom and did the basic attendance, introductions, and start to the day. The kids then had spelling this morning and had a pre-test. After their pre-test they had to write a paragraph with their words before it was time for Grammar. A different teacher comes in to teach Grammar on Mondays so Adam and I went to the teacher room to go over the weekly schedule and find SmartBoard activities for Math. When we got back, the kids had 10 minutes to eat lunch in the classroom. Those who order lunch from the school receive it delivered in a brown bag to the classroom. Today was hamburgers. I was surprised that they ate in the classroom and that all they got for lunch was hamburgers, there was nothing on the side or any drinks. After 10 minutes, they all leave and go outside while I got to eat lunch downstairs with the teachers. There are a lot of local restaurants that many teachers run out and grab something to eat, since we have 40 minutes. After lunch we get the kids from outside, where every class is there together at the same time. We then did silent reading and then split up into Math groups. The math groups come from all different classes. Today we were working on Mass....mass in australia means grams and kilograms. Not exactly what I am used to. They were working on a worksheet after some SmartBoard activities and I had the hardest time attempting to help. I need to brush up on some metric system information. The kids then have Afternoon Tea (aka snack and recess), while the teachers have time off. Finally we went to computers where the kids got the opportunity to type their stories about super-heroes they made in art class.

Overall it was a good day. The kids are a little loud and don't listen as well I was expecting. I feel like respect for teachers is not pushed as much as it is in the States. They also have more freedom and simply walk out of the classroom for recess after lunch and afternoon tea. There are not as many lines and definitely not as quite. Adam had told me that a lot of it was because many of the kids are very privileged and their parents do not uphold them to a lot of responsibilities. I am looking forward to getting to know the kids better and starting to work with them more. Adam wants me to start doing at least one thing a day starting next week.....yikes, but something that will definitely help me.