It’s the final week of the term!  It really is so hard to believe that my parents will be here at the end of the week to travel around with me for a couple weeks!  I only have 3 weeks of teaching left until I come home to graduate! 

This weekend went by extremely fast!  The highlight of the weekend was certainly the trip with Ernie to Buchan to explore the caves of the karst topography.  We took a tour with a few people through the Royal Cave, one of two that is open to the public to take tours through.

The caves were absolutely stunning!  We traveled in and out of open rooms full of calcite crystal stalactites, stalagmites, and columns.  The tour took us through about 500 meters of the cave, in and out of cave sections lit up by artificial light.  At one point, the guide turned off all of the lights so we could experience “complete darkness.”  The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had never experienced that kind of darkness in my entire life.  After 10 minutes in the complete dark, I still couldn’t even see my hand in front of me at only 5 centimeters away.  The guide claimed that even after a whole day in the dark of the cave, your eyes, adjusted to the dark, would still not be able to see a single thing.  I’m glad the caves didn’t experience a power outage!

The rest of the weekend was devoted to finishing up my project for Miami and some bike riding.  I’m really focused on finishing up this project by Wednesday to allow myself the rest of the week to make any needed corrections before it is due of Friday. 

Tomorrow, I have two classes devoted to dissection.  Unfortunately, the year 7s weren’t able to do the squid dissection of Friday, as the squid never arrived at school.  The students used the time to finish up some work that was outstanding.  The “Animal Inside” students will be dissecting a mouse tomorrow.  I’m very excited for this since the students have been really keen on a dissection all term.  It is only fitting that the dissection is occurring at the end of the term!  Can’t wait!

It finally felt like summer today!  Reaching the mid 30s, the weather today was somewhat abnormal; at least compared to what its been like since I’ve been here.  I was told today was a typical summer day in East Gippsland.  This is the weather that I expected when I crossed the equator. 

After school today, I decided to make the most of the good weather, although a little warm, and went for an extended bike ride.  I took the Rail Trail half way to Nicholson and then turned back and took the trail up the Mitchell River passing biker after biker.  I’m sure they all had the same idea as I.

I’ve been thinking about next week all day today.  I will be implementing a lesson that I need in order to complete Miami University’s student teaching program.  I have been building a lesson for my year 11s around their next chapter of study.  I will need to have two pre-assessments and two post-assessments.  I will have to use the data that I gain from these assessments to show student understanding of concepts prior to my lesson and after my lesson.  I am still working on the lesson, so I will have to post about it at a later date.

Also, next week, Rod, my student teaching supervisor, will be coming to observe my teaching next Wednesday.  I’m really excited for him to come so I can get more feedback from another observer.  I’ve been getting great feedback from Pam and Linda, but it will be nice to have feedback from someone who isn’t in my class on a daily basis.  I’m always open to criticism; it certainly helps when I am reflecting on my lessons.