Ben - Internship

Just finished my first week of internship. Nice little school, unusually well behaved kids, and only a 20 minute bike ride from home. Not a bad little set up, all in all.

Ben - Holidays!

Well prac's over. I meant to party all night last night, but it seems going to bed at ten and waking up at six is going to take some getting over. Anyway, I learned a lot and have my best report yet.

Last lot of anecdotes:

Me: Oh, that's great! Your handwriting is so much better than last time. But how do we start a sentence?
Student: Um... um...
Me: Starts with a "c".
Student: Um... actually... venomous snakes are really bad.
Me: ...They certainly are, and start your sentence with a capital letter.

Student: I'm tired today because mum bought a new computer.
Me: Oh, were you up late playing it?
Student: No! I teached mum how to use it.
Me: How old are you?
Student: (proudly) Six.

Me: Okay, D----- here's your journal. Which of your relatives' motor accidents will you be writing about today?
Student: Well, my cousin fractured his wrist on a motorbike, but I'm going to write about how my uncle cut his forehead on his car's steering wheel.
Me: Good. Remember, I want to see at least three sentences.

Ben - Skool Egen

Student: How do I make blue?
Me: ...Blue.
Student: *sigh* Blue and what else?
Me: ...No, seriously: blue.

Me: ...and so the platypus made Tiddilick laugh, and all the waters came pouring back out...
Student: Did the animals drink the water?
Me: They sure did.
Student: Ew, yuk! They'll get frog germs!

Me: Who knows what this word is?
Student: (gasps) But that's illegal!
Me: Uh, no, this is the other kind of pot. You know, the sort you cook food in.

Ben - Moor Skool

Student: How come those eggs are different?
Me: I'm glad you noticed that. Frogs lay eggs in clumps; toads lay eggs in long strands.
Other student: Also, there are whales at the South Pole! They eat little animals!
Me: Uh... yes.

Me: Why aren't you in your classroom?
Student: I don't want to go.
Me: That's not a good enough reason.
Student: Oh. Okay, then.
Me: Holy crap, that worked?

Me: Hey! Hey! What did I tell you about running with those scissors?
Student: Sor-ry Mist-er Hil-ton!
(exit student, skipping)

Ben - Skool

Teacher: Okay, so eight plus...
Student: One?
Teacher: Eight plus four.
Student: Noooooooo!

Student: I can't read.
Me: What does this say?
Student: (dismissively) Oh, I can read that.

What else... a bird flew into the classroom and couldn't get out; so a student suggested that he lure it out by pretending to be a caterpillar.

Ben - Nearly there

One more day, and then semester ends. Granted, I have a four week prac after that, but frankly that'll be more fun.

No more being judged on how good an essay I can write on "How to teach reading"; I get to be judged on how well I actually teach reading.

I'm going to be teaching a kindergarten class. The headaches are going to hurt; I got one after visiting the class for less than an hour. On the other hand, I can dust off jokes that no-one over the age of five hasn't heard. And you don't have to be so careful about what you say as you do with the older kids, because so much of it just goes over their heads anyway. And when you're reading to the littlies you can overact to your heart's content, and I do so like to overact.

Anna : Guy has a fuzzy head

Guy had his head shaved for charity. It looked pretty wrong for the first two weeks but now it has reached the lovely fuzzy stage and the poor man is submitting very gracefully to frequent head rubs.

Ben - Damn apathetic kids!

Yesterday, I actually had to remind some ten year olds that it was April Fools Day.

Can you believe that shit?

Guy - Brain Dump

Erm, news eh? Gotta get into the mindset that my news is interesting.

Back at Burwood, they're keeping me busy. I'm now the Business Studies expert *nods*. But all the classes are pretty good, and I'm having fun.

I marched in Mardi Gras last weekend with a school group. It was well worth doing, but not as fun as watching the parade.

Friday night was drinks and karaoke with Dr. Lim. She's a doctor, a medical doctor. I think my best song this time would have been Minnie the Moocher. More spoken than sung you see. When you've got the impediments that I have you have to think of these things.

Currently looking after Anna, who's just had all four wisdom teeth out. She'll confirm, but I think she was in the chair for 75+mins. Ouch.

Guy - Sick Day

Being locked in a room with 30 teenagers is difficult, more so when you've got the lurgy.
I failed to talk a student out of dumping Studies in Religion because "it is boring" and switching to Business Studies. I don't feel that I'm making the subject very interesting. Oh well.
In Oscar tipping I got 8 out of 25, and for the record I work hard to be that wrong.
Took a sick day to recover, ended up doing piles of small jobs which had been building up. I'll sleep when I'm dead?

Anna : I left high school right?

I went for a swim yesterday at Noel Martin. While I was treading water at the deep end about to head off for a another lap I hear a small voice say "Excuse me ..." and turn and see there's a 10 or 11 year old girl hanging on the lane rope next to me.

Girl : "Do you go to Sceggs?"
Anna : "Sorry?!?"
Girl : "Do you go to Sceggs Darlinghurst?"
Anna : "Um no, I really don't ..."
Girl : "Cause you look like someone who goes there ..."
Anna : "Nope, that's not me"

Does high school really never end?

Ben - Free at last

Prac finished today. School swimming carnival. It was interrupted for an hour and a half due to an electrical storm, but the kids were pretty well behaved anyway. One girl wanted to know the odds of swimming fast enough to avoid a lightning strike;

Yesterday, a student from another class asked me if he could tell me all about the dinosaurs. If I'd had known that he was moderately autistic, I might have been more hesitant about saying yes. As it was, I heard all about the dinosaurs.

Tomorrow, holidays start which will mean a week of rain; but I guess my garden could use it.

V-day!

I totally made it! The evil class gave me a round of applause at the end, a soft-of card and the comment "thank you for controlling us sometimes." I replied "it's been an education."

*sigh* Done!

And now two weeks of nice classes. Sweet!

Two Weeks Until V-day

Highlights of the week?

1) We had a "global forum" to discuss the topic of whaling from a variety of perspectives on Monday. The pro-whalers kicked the ass of the anti-whalers. The "Australian school student" (someone playing the role of course, we wouldn't actually let one on the premises) was mocked for getting their anti-whaling propaganda from the Internet and from their Geography teacher. At the end she agreed that she wasn't really sure about the whole topic and perhaps she agreed with the pro-whalers.

Left wing bias in schools indeed.

2) Busy, angry meetings between teachers and the executive. Whenever I walk out of a meeting teachers keep telling me that I'm very brave. I'm so not getting a job.

3) When looking at the Black Sea oil spill story I was asked on multiple occasions "is this for real"? How many times do I have to say in Geography, "YES! THIS IS ALL FOR REAL!"? Damn it's a depressing subject to study.