I did it! I finished my first week of teaching in Australia. Talk about a whirl wind crazy experience. Tom used the phrase "consistently inconsistent" which my Aussie co-workers thought was a pretty good description of things. Yesterday was a little tough. 7th grade has a 3 day camp next week that I got invited to go on, but then was told yesterday that they overbooked on staff, and so I would be staying back. That made me a bit anxious, as I knew I would have to sub in the classrooms of the other teachers that were at camp. All I could imagine was class after class of kids chewing me up and spitting me out - putting me through their test. I am going to sub in those classes, but now that my week is over and I think I've got the hang of this I'm not stressed at all. I also had the interesting experience of a state-wide internet shut down right as I was about to teach my internet-based lesson. Augh! Luckily I can think on my feet and played a silly name-game which my 10th graders seemed to think was hilarious.
Today was AWESOME!!! I had two classes of Year 7 (the same class twice in the day) and two classes of my Year 8 (same class twice in the day.) Teaching today was like teaching back in Alaska. Everything wasn't so new, I can understand the kids' accents better every day, and I know their personalities and names better too so I was on! I had one kid (one of my main Year 8 stinkers from Tuesday) that said wide-eyed, "You need to be a motivational speaker!" (We were discussing stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination.) His collaborator in stinker-behavior in the same class saw me with his mates later in the common area and said, "Hey Miss!" and then told his friends, "She's my favorite teacher!" When I walk through the halls I hear "Hi Miss!" like birds chirping all around me. Kids smile. They want to come talk to me. Two of my Year 7s spent their entire recess (20min) standing with me while I was on supervision duties and told me all about their parents, and getting their ears pierced, and just all kinds of stuff. I think I passed some kind of test, and teaching is starting to have that same good feeling is has back in Alaska. So I've mentioned a couple times now the "Miss" thing. Students here call their teachers their names (most call me Mrs. Lil or Mrs. Liljemark), but I'd say about 70% of the time they just refer to women teachers as "Miss" and male teachers as "Sir." It felt weird at first because "Miss" feels informal and young. Especially when compared to "Ma'am." It kind of reminds me of the German "Fraulein" instead of "Frau." I'm getting used to it though, and now respond almost immediately when I hear it. I think it will become one of those things I will remember fondly about my Aussie students when I leave. Olin and Alta have also had a great week. They both are enjoying school. Olin came home today and said he wants to join the school band and the chess club. They both are meeting kids and making friends, and both say they like their teacher. The kids had their gymnastics and parkour lessons this week. Alta's gymnastics was an hour and a half. She said they did a lot of bar work and that it was fun. Olin's parkour was about an hour and he come home sweaty and happy. Tom has been keeping busy. Yesterday he drove out to the beach and did some open sea swimming while we were all at school. Today he made salsa! Today after school he picked me up about halfway home from my walk and we all went to the beach. The kids and Tom played in the surf, and I .... slept on a beach towel. It was exactly what I needed. Some important milestones. 1. We have officially been here for 1 month. 2. The kids and I finished our first week of school, and Tom rocked it as a stay at home dad. 3. I had my first dream last night where everyone in the dream spoke with an Australian accent. For those of you that have learned another language you know that it is a big deal when you start dreaming in the language. (I know it is still English... but it was cool.) Walk-to-Work tally: 40 miles.
2 Comments
Linda Feletar
2/6/2017 10:56:01
Hi Myla,
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Myla Liljemark
2/8/2017 01:33:08
Thanks Linda! The Aussie life is definitely an easy one to adapt to! Relaxed and sunny!
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AuthorThe Liljemark's enjoy exploring the world. This blog chronicles our adventures. Archives
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