Day 1 - Bring It On!

Well, it's over, and I survived!

Today was my first day of teaching rounds at a secondary school in northern metropolitain Melbourne. I was quite surprised how the day panned out, as there were quite a few unexpected things which I encountered today, that my learnings at university had not prepared me for!

8:30AM - Arrived at the school car park, two-spaces from the entrance of the building / reception. I was particularly glad for getting such a great car parking space - I thought, what a way to start my week!". I approached the reception desk, and after the polite exchange of greetings, I was requested to move my car from where I had parked because it was apparently in the Vice-Principal's car parking space. So I went out side, reparked my car in another vacant space, and went back to the reception desk, only to be advised again to re-park my car as it was in the Senior School's space. Sheesh!

Lesson 1 # Don't disrupt the pecking order by parking in the right car spot.

8:45AM -Staff meeting. I'm introduced to the other teachers by the VP. There's only about 30 teachers in this school (hopefully I'll remember all their names by the time my placement is up). I also met another student-teacher who started her practicum today. She's teaching Biology. I didn't get to talk much with her though, as in the first 15 minutes of her placement, she was fortunate enough to be invited to an excursion to the zoo today with the Year 9 science class, while I was fortunate enough to be playing musical cars with the head-of-school. What luck.

9:05AM - Period 1. I find myself bserving from the back of a classroom a Year 12 Psychology class, studying Alzheimer's disease. Whilst the subject matter itself was rivetting, it was equally interesting observing the students in this class. One student unashamedly slept for about 50% of the class. Another student strolled in late (with a 1.25L bottle of coke in his hand which he guzzled through the lesson). I found the noise levels to be quite high when the teacher was talking, but amazingly, when working independently, the students carried on with their tasks in silence.

Lesson 2 # "Keep the darlings busy [engaged]. If they haven't got work to do, they're entitled to be bored, talkative, troublesome etc." (Thanks Mr. Prosser!)

10:45 - It's recess and I forgot to bring my playlunch. No bagels in sight either. :-(
There's no cafe anywhere within walking distance for my daily dose of caffiene and, for a moment there, I find myself somewhat 'homesick' from the Barista Cafe at my place of work. :-(

Lesson 3 # Buy some Jarrah Coffee & Bagels from Coles tomorrow.

11:56AM - It's Period 4. I observe a Year 11 Psychology class and they are studying 'eccentric and abnormal human behaviour'. The teacher asks the kids to go around the room and explain what eccentric behaviour they possess. I discover from the young lasses that 'being single', being 'unable to spell', and 'having boys as a hobby' is what makes them 'eccentric'. I thought that to be peculiar. The teacher couldn't agree more.

12:43PM - It's lunch time. I walk across the road to check out the eateries. I ended up getting some lunch from a Chinese take-away place, quite similar to China Bar. I'm thinking I should start bringing my lunch in though. Less take-away can't do me any harm - it'll be good for the wallet, good for the waistline and good for the social bonding that comes from talking to the veteran teacher-folk at the school :-)

2:23PM - Period 6. I watch the I.T. teacher reprimand a Year 7 boy for being absent for an entire 5 days last week. Reason for his absence? He was scheduled to be on detention for each of those 5 days. The boy thought he'd be able to dodge the detention that was planned for him last week by taking the whole week off! The teacher gave him a 'super nanny' type lecture to break the news that he'll have detention off for the whole of this week instead. My guess is that we won't be seeing that little recalcitrant for the next 4 days ;-) hehehe. Funny buggers.

All in all, it's been a pretty good experience.

I'll try to update this again tomorrow afternoon, when I get home at around, oh, i don't know....say 4.30PM? ;-)

Ciao!