I had a fantastic day today! I was really happy with both of my classes and my night so far has been great! I started the day biking to school around 8, far earlier than any of my friends who are student teaching back home. Poor them! I reckon if I was in Oxford student teaching, I wouldn't be getting up so late to go teach; it has been nice getting up at 7:30 every morning instead of 6!
I had class this morning with the year 11s. The objective today was to finish up the microscope lab from last week. The goal for me was to have the students become fluent on how to use the microscope and how to make appropriate scientific drawings. I have to admit, I was extremely impressed with many of the student's skills at the end of the lesson. After finishing up drawing onion and banana cells, I had the students make slides with some of the algae that Linda and I had collected a few weeks ago. The students had a great time looking at the algae since it did come from only a town away in the Gippsland Lakes off the shores of Metung.
The middle two periods were used to reflect on the lab and planning for the rest of the week. Lunch consisted of veggie curry; Rhonda is the best lunch lady I have ever met, her food has been amazing and it always seems like she gives me one more scoop than I need to be full! I still haven't had anything twice for lunch since I've been here! I wouldn't be able to say the same if I was back home!
The final class of the day was "Animal Inside." Today, I decided to have the students watch a video depicting the dissection of an elephant. The video focused mostly on the digestive system. It was a great segue into chemical digestion from mechanical digestion. There were a few "eww" comments from the students but for the most part, they were very intrigued.
I biked home after school to change into some athletic gear. I then made my way to the news agent in town to pick up the DVDs as a part of a promotional deal with the daily paper. Over the past few weeks, there have been coupons in the paper everyday for a new David Attenborough narrated episode of BBC's Planet Earth for $2. How in the world could I ever pass that opportunity up, so, I bought all 15 episodes! I even got a case to put them in! I'm looking forward to watching them!
Well, after my rant last night, I think it's only appropriate that I talk a little bit about Australia. What better to talk about than bowls, or lawn bowling. Tonight was lawn bowling night so I headed out with Domenic after the bike ride to the Bairnsdale Bowls Club. It was do or die tonight; we had to win or the team would be out of the tournament. I was lucky enough to get to play and my game didn't start out well, as usual! After a few laughs, I started to improve. I managed to get the final point of the match to clinch the game. It's hard not to be proud of that, especially when the other team kept telling me that they were going to send me back to the states.
I'm currently watching the end of the one-day cricket match between India and Sri Lanka. India is on the verge of loosing two one-day matches in a row.
Tomorrow is swimming sports day so unless there are thunderstorms in the area, there are no classes at school. The day is devoted to a competition between the different houses at school. I'm pretty excited to see how it ends up!
I had class this morning with the year 11s. The objective today was to finish up the microscope lab from last week. The goal for me was to have the students become fluent on how to use the microscope and how to make appropriate scientific drawings. I have to admit, I was extremely impressed with many of the student's skills at the end of the lesson. After finishing up drawing onion and banana cells, I had the students make slides with some of the algae that Linda and I had collected a few weeks ago. The students had a great time looking at the algae since it did come from only a town away in the Gippsland Lakes off the shores of Metung.
The middle two periods were used to reflect on the lab and planning for the rest of the week. Lunch consisted of veggie curry; Rhonda is the best lunch lady I have ever met, her food has been amazing and it always seems like she gives me one more scoop than I need to be full! I still haven't had anything twice for lunch since I've been here! I wouldn't be able to say the same if I was back home!
The final class of the day was "Animal Inside." Today, I decided to have the students watch a video depicting the dissection of an elephant. The video focused mostly on the digestive system. It was a great segue into chemical digestion from mechanical digestion. There were a few "eww" comments from the students but for the most part, they were very intrigued.
I biked home after school to change into some athletic gear. I then made my way to the news agent in town to pick up the DVDs as a part of a promotional deal with the daily paper. Over the past few weeks, there have been coupons in the paper everyday for a new David Attenborough narrated episode of BBC's Planet Earth for $2. How in the world could I ever pass that opportunity up, so, I bought all 15 episodes! I even got a case to put them in! I'm looking forward to watching them!
Well, after my rant last night, I think it's only appropriate that I talk a little bit about Australia. What better to talk about than bowls, or lawn bowling. Tonight was lawn bowling night so I headed out with Domenic after the bike ride to the Bairnsdale Bowls Club. It was do or die tonight; we had to win or the team would be out of the tournament. I was lucky enough to get to play and my game didn't start out well, as usual! After a few laughs, I started to improve. I managed to get the final point of the match to clinch the game. It's hard not to be proud of that, especially when the other team kept telling me that they were going to send me back to the states.
I'm currently watching the end of the one-day cricket match between India and Sri Lanka. India is on the verge of loosing two one-day matches in a row.
Tomorrow is swimming sports day so unless there are thunderstorms in the area, there are no classes at school. The day is devoted to a competition between the different houses at school. I'm pretty excited to see how it ends up!
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