Back to School

Yesterday made me feel like I was a kid again. I think so. 6:00 a.m. my wonderful scary alarm goes off and it was time to get ready for school. The only difference was that twelve years ago I wasn't looking forward to school. It was all about the five extra minutes of sleep. The messy hair and dirty clothes were certainly not a problem back than. Now the shirt and pants are ironed down to the seam and the hair is shining and I'm ready for school. The 5 Chancellor colleagues met up for the 7:30 bus and arrived at school a little before 8. After getting off the bus we walk to school for about 10 minutes and saw some huge male kangaroos. They can be found on the school grounds, where most often the teachers will guide them off the grounds. Upon arrival we were all greeted by our host principal. He gave us the good ol' lesson on professionalism and expectations. They were concerned about our dress code but I was more concerned about the dress code of some of the teachers. Holy macro I didn't know that teachers could wear basketball shorts and an old raggedy polo to school with high socks.

I met my teacher for a bit and she introduced me to the students. There are 27 students in the class which is definitely much larger than the classrooms back in the states. I only grasped about half of the students' names. To me they all look alike so I have a feeling it is going to be quite some time until I can put the names to the faces of all 27 students. The students are definitely much more polite though. They always say thank you Mr. Kok for almost everything. When speaking to the children, if they can't hear me they won't say "what?" Instead they will say pardon. It is so weird because it sounds so proper. The day went fairly quick because it was a new setting for myself. In this term the students will be learning about probability in math, phases of matter in science, author studies in ELA, and important figures of Australia in history. It shouldn't be too harsh I think those are manageable topics that I can relate to.

School finished at 3:00 and I caught the 4:20 bus so I didn't get back until about 5:10. Once I got back its dinner time and by than I'm exhausted. I had some lessons to write as well so that was even more draining. Made it in bed by eleven and the routine started all over again.

The next day was the same routine, pretty sure we saw the same kangaroos hopping about. I taught about myself and New York. The students were really excited and enjoyed the pictures that I had. We had a teachers meeting with the principal after school and missed the normal bus so we didn't get back until 6:15. Thank god I didn't have any lessons to write because it was dinner time and was in bed by 8:30 for the first time ever probably. I dont know if I will see that clock strike midnigt again during the week.