Talk about being flooded with input. What a full day! Yesterday I had my first day of work. I walk to and from school everyday, a walk of about 3 miles one way. It is a nice time to peacefully soak up Australia - the flocks of sulphur crested cockatoos screeching at me as I walk along Henry Parry Ave, and the pinging bell bird making the path through the woods magical are my favorite parts.
The school is broken up into blocks of permanent brick buildings with 'demountables' along one edge. Demountables are portable annexes where classes are held. I think the name sounds like something out of a Transformers movie! The blocks are given letter names like A, B, and C and teachers teach classes within those blocks. An important difference to our system in Seward is that each teacher isn't assigned a room all for themselves. Each classroom is basically empty of everything except desks, chairs, and a projector and the teacher goes to the room assigned for the class they teach during that hour only. (Most of my classroom assignments are in Block C.) The teacher's desk and belongings are housed in a department room. My desk is in the Teaching and Learning (TAL) department which is upstairs in a building that staff affectionately refer to as 'The Barn' because of its shape. I share the staff room with about 10 other teachers and we make up the middle school team. (though they don't call it that). Assignment of teaching duties is also structured different. Instead of one teacher responsible for teaching one subject, the subject is split between many. So I'm not the only teacher teaching Year 7 and 8 Humanities. There are about 4 other teachers that also have Year 7 and 8 Humanities class and will be teaching them at the same time. From what I've been told there is a lot of communication between these teachers about what they are doing in their classes day-to-day, and week-to-week. That communication happens in the TAL room. Additionally, each teacher is not creating-from-scratch their curriculum material. Each department has a Dept. Head that organizes the creation of curriculum including scope and sequence and final assessments (which they call 'tasks'.) The Dept Head shares that curriculum through Google Drive and then all the teachers access it, tweak it to their style, and use it in their classrooms. All students, regardless of the teacher, takes the same final assessment every Term (Quarter) and every Semester. This ensures that all the teachers that are teaching that same class are approaching it from the same angle and that all students have the same learning outcomes. So yesterday we started the day similar to the way we do it in Seward, with a large staff meeting. The difference is that it was not district-wide. I haven't seen any indication so far that there is any attempt to align schools within the district. To be honest... I'm not even sure they have districts. The only communication I've had with anyone through the school has been with immediate school administrative personnel or with the state of New South Wales. The first staff meeting took place in the gym where the principal spoke about issues similar to our start-of-the year meetings: new staff, awards the school has received, dress code, caution with private/professional lives on social media, etc. I found they they use a lot of acronyms (just like stateside education) and that the issues surrounding students are generally pretty similar to our schools. Something I thought was pretty neat, was the Acknowledgement of Country (paying respect to tribal custodians of the land and to elders past and present) that I wrote about in a different blog post was actually on a permanent sign on the wall in the gym right next to the stage. Information about my class load and schedule: They organize their schedule into fortnights (two week) rotations. Not one day is similar to another. I see some classes twice a day, and other teachers have said they might see a class four times a day, but then not again for the rest of the week. After the two weeks (Week A and week B) you repeat the schedule. The students themselves have been broken up into groups (kind of like our Clan Wars and Elves Unleashed at Seward Middle School.) Year 7 students (7th grade) are broken up into groups and the groups are named with scientist's name. Year 8 students (8th grade) are given Australian Basketball players names. Year 9 and 10 are given the names of Australian Beaches. (By the way, Year 9-12 social studies courses have teachers that are in a different department. They are in the HSIE department, and I can't remember what that stands for.) I teach: Year 7 Humanities
Concerning breaks, I've had some questions about what people here call "Tea." It was finally explained to me. Here it is folks, if it has ever confused you.
There is so much more that I can write about, but I'm going to stop for now. The pictures that I have added below have each week separate so that you can read them easier, and then the final one is of fortnight schedule. I've used a highlighter to identify each class so that it is clear when they meet throughout that fortnight.
2 Comments
Jenn DesErmia
1/29/2017 10:51:41
Hey, I see the Kirra shout out! :)
Reply
Myla Liljemark
1/30/2017 01:29:18
Oh Ya! Cool! I forgot about that! Well I've got a group that has her name!
Reply
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AuthorThe Liljemark's enjoy exploring the world. This blog chronicles our adventures. Archives
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