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!

Is it just me or are Australian current affairs restricted to Australian television?  Do you ever hear about anything going on in Australia in the States?  I certainly haven't.  Is it because nothing happens here, or is it just that we ignore Australian news?  Doing a search on Al Jazeera's (AJ) English website, I only found current events as recent as December of last year!  What the hell?  You would expect with AJ's in-depth coverage of the American primaries (which happens to be some of the best and most reliable), Australian politics would be mentioned a few times a month or even more.  With so much else going on in the rest of the world, why would anyone care to read about whats going on on the largest island in the world?  I would, especially from a reliable source like AJ.

Al Jazeera plays frequently on Australian local stations for world news coverage and I rely on it a few times during the week to catch up on whats going on outside of the bubble that is Australia.  Why does it play here but not in the States?  Is it the Arabic name (it couldn't be...could it?), or is it because of the outside, highly intelligent take on American issues?  Is it because it's based out of a Middle Eastern country?  To hell with that.  If you want some good international and even US news that is non-partisan (as opposed to bi-partisan) check out http://www.aljazeera.com/.  You may, however, pick up on a few opinion editorial authors' agendas, but most seem to be logical and well thought out.

I bring this up at the start of this entry because good news and good news coverage is something that I feel very strongly about.  At home, when I turn on the television to Fox News, I expect to watch "Fair and Balanced" news since that is their claim.  Instead, I get right-wing agenda shoved down my throat; agenda so thick that you couldn't cut it with a knife, you'd need a saw.  MSNBC is about as left as Fox News is right.  Who can you trust?  Not CNN, especially when Anderson Cooper gets the giggles in the middle of his program.  Well, I guess thats not a totally valid argument against the Time Warner station, but it seems that they, too, have an agenda.  Unlike the other two stations, they are just a little confused about what it is.  

From my many travels and experienced, I've found that the best source of news is from the outside, specifically from the outside of the country where you're from/living/visiting.  What about Australia?  All of the news about Australia, IS Australian!  I wish there was a source where I could find out what's going on here.  Its really not that hard to find out what's going on but I'm still trying to figure out which source is the least likely to fill their words with political or social agenda.  

Now that I'm done ranting about the news, I can talk a little about my day.  I had class commitments during periods 1 and 4.  I was able to get a lot of planning done during the middle two periods. 

Period 1 was year 11 Biology, an absolutely fantastic class!  I was a little surprised to find that one of the students thought that Captain Cook was a Dutch explorer.  Duh, even the American in the room knows who he was!  His name was brought up when talking about the early classification of flora and fauna of Australia when people first explored the "Southern Land."  I am planning to take over the class tomorrow with a short practical about classification using keys.  Can't wait, especially since I recently completed a field botany course that required me to understand how to use keys to identify different trees.

The middle two periods were used for planning.  I also managed to get my photo taken for the school pictures!  I was pleased that they invited me to have my photo taken as a faculty member!  I hope I didn't blink...

Period 4 was "Animal Inside."  I worked with students to complete their assignment that was issued to them the previous day.  I think the class is a good group of students but there are a few that may need some help getting motivated.  One, unfortunately, needs a lesson on proper glue use.  IT'S THE NINTH GRADE!  I think I'll be able to manage a lesson that incorporates proper school utensil use.  Hopefully scissors aren't going to be an issue!

The end of the day came quick and we left for home.  I hopped on the bike, as I have habitually done after school and rode around for a few minutes;  I had to go back to fix the handle bars, which had slipped out of place.  Tuesday nights is also Bowls night so I took the bike to meet the team at the club at 5:30.  I managed to make it in time to see the first match.  The team invited me to play the second match after a tough loss.  I happily obliged.  My first roll was about 5 meters short of the jack; granted I didn't make it in time for practice.  After a laugh from the crowd, my game started picking up.  I managed to score the final 2 points which tied the match.  Thankfully for us, we managed to win more games during the match so we left victorious!  If you have no idea what I'm talking about...you'd just have to see for yourself, or check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowls.  

After the quick ride home, I walked in the door to some homemade stir-fry.  Delicious!  Truly a great end to an eventful day!

Have a happy Tuesday America! Since I've already been through the day, I can tell you it'll be a great one!