One observation down, one to go!

Another day of beautiful weather and sun in East Gippsland!  Well, at least until it started raining for an hour or so in the late afternoon, but who’s keeping track?  I have almost come to expect rain when the mornings are like the one that I had today – sunny and warm.

Today was the big day!  Rod came to BSC to observe my lesson today for my period two “Bones” class.  During the observation, the students were working on their final project.  I introduced the final project earlier this week, and the students seem to really enjoy working on it so far!  I’m glad their optimism carried over into today’s day of work.

Basically, the students in “Bones” are to build a website using weebly.com to show their understanding of a particular bone that was assigned to them.  On Monday, I went around the room with 25 bone names in my hat and asked each student to pick a name.  I thought it was the fairest thing to do!  The students were given a tutorial on Monday on how to use the Weebly editor to build their website.  Since I am very familiar with Weebly (I use it just about everyday to write in my blogs), I was able to help the students with some of the basics.

Today, I really wanted the students to work on their projects, using all the time to their advantage to complete as much as they could.  I also wanted to go over paraphrasing with them and how to put someone else’s information into their own words.  The students did really well with the small activity that I had planned to gauge their understanding of how to turn research into their own work.  The students were really engaged on the netbooks and were extremely eager to find out more, not only about their bones, but also how to use Weebly technology to create the best site possibly; I need to come up with more projects like this one!  The sites are starting to come together and are really turning out well!

Eventually, when students start finishing up their sites, I will have them working together to build the main site that will link all of the sites together so there is a main interface that allows the students to see everyone else’s work.  I am also looking into having the students use links in their own web pages to other students’ sites, especially if there is a connection between the bones or another student’s bone is mentioned.  I am pumped to see the final products!

After period two, I met with Rod, Linda, and Pam to go over a few things, and then made my way to year 11 biology class.  Unfortunately, the students had an assembly today and were not going to be in class for too long.  I have such a great time teaching that group of students!  The assembly, in the main gym, was devoted to giving awards to the many leaders in the school who have showed leadership not only in the school, but also in the community.  The East Gippland representative in the Victorian Parliament, Tim Bull, was even there to give awards to students; I was very impressed with the whole assemblage!

After arriving home today on the bike, I hopped on the computer and skyped with Mary Kate, who was diligently studying for an exam that she has tomorrow; I wasn’t too surprised that she was up late making sure she had covered every last detail.  Best of luck to her!

I’m really hoping tomorrow brings good weather and no rain!  I was pretty sad that I wasn’t able to ride the bike today after coming home due to the rain, so I’ll just have to make up for it in the coming days!

Rain again in East Gippsland!  I woke this morning to an overcast day thinking that the rain would hold off, but I was wrong, it poured all afternoon!  I rode the bike into school this morning and went through my morning routine (thankfully it held off until the afternoon). 

I stopped to see Rhonda in the kitchen first thing to order my lunch for the day; I ordered a bacon and pumpkin focaccia (this has become my favorite and I will never consider anything else when it is on the menu).  I think a few schools in the U.S. could use a lunch lady like her.  She has a few recipes that she has for the students that are absolutely fantastic.  Other than the hamburger that I order once in a while, all of the things that I have at lunch are healthy and full of vegetables, even the pasta carbonarra has vegetables in it!  And did I mention, everything is made from scratch- could you imagine if the lunches in the US were all made from scratch?  I think students would be quite content with homemade meals at school instead of the processed junk that I see quite often in schools back home.  Rhonda is the best and will be missed when I go home!

After a quick chat in the kitchen while ordering my lunch, I headed to the teacher’s lounge to start work.  I had the first period to plan.  The time was used to finalize the zoo assignment for Friday.  After a few tweaks here and there, I was content with the final product!  I have “Animal Inside” tomorrow and will introduce the assignment to the students then.  I will use class to scaffold the assignment since they will be off on their own for most of the time at the zoo and may not get a chance to ask me questions while they are there.  I think the students will find the assignment manageable and worth their time. 

It looks like, after some discussion, I will be staying in Melbourne after the students are done at the zoo.  An option was given to me to stay in Melbourne for the night rather than just coming home on the night train with the group and having to travel back to the city the next day.  I was happy to accept the offer since I am welcome to stay at David’s house in Box Hill.  He and a couple of his mates are going to be getting together that night to celebrate his twenty-first birthday. 

On Saturday, the plan is to go into the city to attend the Moomba Festival, which is Australia’s largest free community festival, and has been running for over 50 years.  There are supposedly a whole bunch of activities for all ages in an area along the Yarra River.  There will be a few bands playing at the event; live music is always great, especially in an unfamiliar place.  I’m curious to find out what sort of music is played at a festival with a name like Moomba.

I will also be spending Saturday night with David and will then be meeting his family in the city for lunch on Sunday afternoon.  The plan is then to go with Domenic and Sheryl to Phillip Island, around 150 km southeast of Melbourne, in the evening to watch the Penguin Parade.  Little Penguins (Eudyptula minor), yes this is the common name, can be seen daily returning to their colonies at dusk.  I am extremely excited for this part of the weekend; seems like the perfect experience for a science teacher!  There is also an open range on the island where kangaroos and wallabies hop around freely; I hope to see a few of them too!  The plans are open for that night.  We will either be finding a place to stay in the area for the night, and wake up in the morning to head home, or will just make the 3-4 hour trip home Sunday night.  Thankfully we have some flexibility with the long weekend!  Monday is Victoria’s Labour Day so school will not be in session.  Also, students will not be at school on Tuesday due to some professional development workshops that will be going on.

There is also a large celebration in Bairnsdale this weekend with the secondary college turning 100 this year!  I was so happy to find that I would be at the school when they would be celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the college!  There are festivities going on all weekend, so hopefully I can catch the tail end of them when I get back. 

It already looks like I will have quite a bit to write about when I get back this weekend!  I will not be bringing my laptop with me since I have to carry all my stuff for the weekend to the zoo, so I will just have to keep note of everything until I get back when I can type it all up.

There is one item that I never thought I would need while I was in Australia.  It’s an item that one would not associate with Australia and its weather.  Lets just say an umbrella would have been quite handy these past few days.  It has poured in East Gippsland for two days straight, without even a small break for me to walk from building to building at school!  It has been quite a relief though to have so much rain; it has kept the past few days around 20 degrees, which I reckon is a great temperature!

  Unfortunately, due to the torrential downpour this morning, I wasn’t able to ride the bike to school this morning.  I had to wait until I got home to ride the bike but little did I know that it would rain the entire day.  In fact, it’s still raining, and is supposed to for the next day or so.  I’m really hoping to take a long bike ride during the weekend.  I’m anxious to head down to the Mitchell River to see how much it has flooded from all of the rain. 

I’m really excited for the weekend.  I’m starting to get tired this week and am ready to sleep in for a few days!  I am planning to go to the farmer’s market and the craft market at the college on Saturday.  I’m anxious to see what the locals have to offer.  I know Ernie will be at the craft market selling some of his metal work.  I’m very excited to see some more of his work; what I’ve seen has been amazing.

Tomorrow is Friday and is by far my busiest day at school.  I have four classes and will be exhausted by the end of the day.  I’ll be looking forward to the beer in the teacher’s lounge after school.  I’m off to bed early to get a good night’s sleep.  I will be back to write this weekend, hopefully with some great stories and insight!