In the last few days, for the first time since we arrived (nearly 2 years ago now), I’ve felt a little pang of homesickness.  As it gets warmer and we begin to venture out into the wide world I miss the friends that I want to hang out with.  I have a couple of wonderful friends here who I can call on – I haven’t spent the last two years avoiding civilisation completely – but that doesn’t stop my brain planning things that me and X,Y and Z could do, only to realise that X.Y ans Z are not here.

At this time of year,  there are usually people about to arrive at our home. People to share our wonderful Adelaide shores with. That’s not happening, at all, this year and that feels a little strange. There are no big plans at all. Obviously, we caught up with everyone only a few months ago at various weddings and so flying back to the U.K.,or them flying out here is a little much to expect and I don’t expect it… it’s just strange not having a date pinned on when I’ll see people again. There’s always been an event to plan for. The lack of a date like target, makes it feel like the gap has widened somehow.. Not sure how… I guess it has to eventually, that’s life.

It’s just strange that it has taken so long for my brain to react this way! I’ll get over it! Perhaps that is in part due to the fact that all the strange, awkward and sometimes horrible events that have happened since we’ve arrived here.  The trials and tribulations of both nearly and actually losing family and friends, of stressful workplaces that have had to be left, of bit career decisions or medical situations etc. … they’re all calming down a bit.. Perhaps we’ve finally got some time to relax?  Hopefully, that will mean we can moved forward even further on our journey.

This new life is still growing and developing and with each decision made comes new discoveries about the place we now call home and the people in it.  Sometimes the differences between where I’ve come from and where I have arrived are so subtle that it takes a while for them to come out.. then you have to work out how to get your head around them.  The deeper you go, the more you learn – it’s still an adventure.

I’m “not  in Kansas anymore Toto”.

Oh yeah!  Happy Meowloween!

TEACH!

So, I have reached the end of a short contract in a lovely school in the city. For once, I’ve been teaching my subject. In fact I’ve been teaching both of them… (Mummy Cow will know that when ever drama teaching was mentioned at Shenley I had to keep quiet about my drama teacher training… not that I minded really.) That’s not to say that it hasn’t been awesome getting back to another subject I feel really passionately about.

I have learnt so much during my short experience. There are so many things that I became really good at in England that simply do not exist in the school I was working in; I was pushed well out of my comfort zone again! Talking to other teachers, I’m pretty sure that they don’t exist – full stop- in the SA schools hereabouts. I won’t deny that it was shock when I asked for a copy of some data for my classes and I was taken down the corridor to look in a filing cabinet, where there was an individual folder for each child containing a paper copy of past reports. No pupil tracking at all; Interesting and a bit scary. Data has always been such a big part of what I do. It’s something that has been so valuable to me and to my students. For all the hoo haa over APP once I stopped seeing it as another stick to beat me with and started using it to facilitate learning and improvement in my students the world became a very well informed and empowering place. Teaching without ANY data at all was like being in the dark. I had no previous grades from lower key stages, no target grades and I was asked to give pupils a D- A grade based on how well I figured they’d met some ( in my opinion for what it’s worth) very broad and general standards.

I have had so many fantastic conversations with the fab head of English about it all. She has been so supportive and wonderful as I got my confused head around a system that isn’t constantly asking me to justify my every move. It’s been a fabulous experience. It really has and I’ve learnt as much as I’ve taught.

On a lighter note, I’ve obviously tried very hard to teach the girls to speak properly. However, they’ve also gotten their own back by refusing to give me things until I use the correct terms. You see, we don’t hand in work instead we ‘Hand up’ work. An essay and an Assignment are very different things . Apparently an assignment is something you do over a period of time and an essay is something you write under timed conditions (not sure about that one.. lol). You can’t ask for Sellotape… no idea what that is… you must instead refer to it as sticky tape.   There’s no such thing as a Hoover either… that’s called a vacuum See a wealth of knowledge! Ooh and when you want to ask for sugar paper and markers to do some collaborative work ask instead for ‘butcher paper’ and ‘texters’.
I’ve also found myself letting go of the British teaching acronyms like AFL – which believe me confuses students more than anything. – … TA, HOD, APP, AO, AF etc. A TA(Teaching assistant) becomes an SSO (Student Support Officer) and APP, AO and AF?… well they don’t actually exist. A Head Teacher is a Principal (thanks Ruth for easing me in gently with that one) and a form group is a Care group instead.
There are so many subtle differences it’s untrue and I’ve had fun experiencing them all! I’ve also been blown away by students who are so independent, confident and able. Friday was a special day at school. A little like a Shenley Immersion Day, the timetable was suspended and each care group was asked to support  charity.  The school has pupils from R – 12 and pupils from year 5 onwards were asked to create a stall and sell something to the other students to make money for their year group charity.  The students also gave rock a concert on the grass behind the main building.  Now, this may not see all that extraordinary as, like I have already mentioned, we run similar activites in the UK.  What did blow me away was, unlike in the UK, where to make this thing happen teachers have been having hours of meetings organising the whole thing, getting the materials for the students to create what ever it was they were doing, organising them so that they didn’t mess up, being in charge of money etc, it was ALL run by the students.  Shenley’s Pastoral team should think about popping over this time next year to see how it’s done.  Each year group has their own responsibilities – they are in charge – they are expected (and trusted) to do it on their own and they do!

I was attached to a care group who would be the equivalent of year 9.  I had no idea how the day runs.  I didn’t need to either.  Two girls took over and did a presentation to the class about how the stalls would be laid out, another two printed off a roster so that each class member had a shift on the stall and time to look at the other stalls too, they warned that if you were late for your shift you would receive a text message to remind you where you should be (lol  – love it) The girls had made a whole heap of jewellery and then had a nail bar. “Nails N Things” and they made a fortune!  The whole school was buzzing.  Little ones were walking around the stalls having their nails done, making pet rocks, buying cake (LOTS of cake) etc.  It was fab and there was a special theme about “closing the gap” which is such an important thing to think about. What was most fun was that the teachers were relaxing too and able to join in.  We watched the various rock bands, I had my nails done (in all the colours they had – of course).  I hovered by the girls for ages thinking that was what was expected before realising that, it was Ok to just let them get on with it! Awesome!

The key things i have learnt are about balance.  In the UK there is Sooo much pressure to perform with the grades, pressure on teachers – the wrong people – not students that perhaps we’ve gone a bit too far in how much we feel we need to interfer.  This is a cultural thing.  In the school I’ve been at I can see room for improvement in terms of expectation and challenge,  There’s a lot of potential there  but not at the expense of the fabulous way in which they work.  I guess, what I’m trying to say, is that a balance between the UK and AUS would be amazing.  That’s why I’m very excited about the opportunity ACARA is giving Aussie educators.

I’ve also realised just how valuable a of the stuff the government got us to do was (APP etc) and that perhaps the problem there is more about what it might seem to represent – another thing that makes us even more accountable for our students – another thing someone can beat me with.  An App and it’s data were instrumental in making some massive changes for some very switched off kids.  Perhaps, I needed to spend less time resisting it and get faster at thinking… ok… this is what we have to do… let’s make it meaningful.

Exciting times! I have soo much more to tell you… I’ll stop there though – I don’t want to get too excited and bore you lol  Shop… that’s all I talk about these days… eh LOF? :p

Oh an Laney… I’ve never had sooo much fun teaching in a faith school.  NOTHING like our old ‘friends’ environment at all! Full of fab, fun teachers who you’d fit in with brilliantly too

The sun is shinning and warming your body as you drive. The window’s open and you’re on your way home. You take a deep breath and wait for that moment of total relaxation to happen. For a rush of warm energy to raise from the back of your spine all the way to your head; for your eyes to open wide and smile; to know you feel good; that you are good.
…

I saw the 4 new signs, designed to look a little like flags, along the front first, then (as I drove down the drive) I followed some very posh looking signs down a newly tarmaced drive and parked the car. New signs; every building labelled to within an inch of it’s life and a really cute sign post directing you to the purpose of the building 4 meters away.

Brand new red leather sofas in reception and LCD TVs showing the days events like a professional CPD center I once knew well in Hindmarsh. It’s all looking very professional, modern and new.

Of course, we’re still in the same buildings and the classrooms are no different than they were back when we were just a ‘school’ but there is a changed mood. Even though, fundamentaly we’ve got a new logo and signs everything does feel exciting and new.

Change is good.

It’s been mentioned that people don’t read this anymore because its too depressing (lmao). Sorry about that . Truth is this year has been really hard for many reasons which I won’t get into here. I have enjoyed many things about 2008 though (of course I have) and despite my frustration i am happy to be with my friends and family. It has been a turbulant year and it’s nice to see most things working out for most people.

Today has been lovely. I spent the whole day with my lovely husband in my new Pig slippers. We ate and ate and ate and LOF enjoyed the fact that I had deliberatly made too many sausages wrapped in ham – this meant that he could say ” I want a sausage” and one would be delivered – heaven! lol Needless to say all 12 are gone now

We’ve spent the whole day chilling out. Watched movies, cooked and ate dinner together. We entertained my Nan, Mum and Dad, Sis and G for about 2 hours and fed them some tea when they were on their way back from the hospital (visiting my cousin) which was fun. They did help those sausages to disappear though

Once they left we just chilled out a little more. I’m really enjoying my new CDs. The Live Lounge 3 CD2 is awesome and very chilled. I actually like some of the songs that normally I HATE…. I suppose it’s not the actual song I have a problem with…. lol

All in all it’s been a very relaxed and enjoyable xmas. We’re going to pop to see my cousin tomorrow and maybe take a trip on the bike so LOF can try out his new jacket. It all depends on the chain being oiled… apparently! If not I’ll be reading “Beadle the Bard” and enjoying the complete lack of pressure to do anything. I’d forgotten what that felt like

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY
I’ve posted todays pictures below.

I’m off to bed NOW. The end of a very different and fun Christmas day. We’re still waking up at 10:30am and heading out at around 11:30. This morning we spent sometime downstairs in the hotel lobby which contained fake snow, reindeer’s, Christmas trees and snowmen. Once we’d had something to drink and eat we decided to try, once again, to get to Jeremiah beach, This time in a taxi. It quickly became very obvious that there is no way that we could have walked from our hotel – The Arabian Courtyard- to the beach. It took about 10mins in the taxi to get there down long and dangerous looking highways.

We couldn’t find a way to get onto the 7 star hotels’ beach but we did locate the beach right next to it (There was even a photographer trying to take pictures through the fence into the 7 star hotel – I wonder who was there?) We Sat down , relaxed called mum and Dad and then decided to walk further along the beach to find the water park.

At about 1/2pm we entered the Wild Wadi Water Park. (at a discounted rate because we were so late!) This park was no ordinary water park. I tell you, they don’t do things by half here! You can pay to put money on a plastic wrist watch which acts as payment for everything. This means that everything goes in a locker, nice and safe and everything is taken care of for you.

As I was waiting for Matt to get changed I was stood by a man-made cliff. Suddenly, theme park style thunder and lightning sound effects began. Amused by this I turned around to notice a pretty waterfall had started behind me. I was observing this with the usual Ohh- Ahh and wonder when suddenly the pretty waterfall turned into a tsunami and soaked me, flooded the footpath and went gushing off into the distance! Brilliant but I was soaked. Good job I got changed first!

We had a whale of a time on the rides. You sit in a doughnut which floats you to the beginning of each slide. When you get to one you fancy you line your self up and off you go. Jet propulsion sends you up the slide and gravity does the rest. You don’t need to cue up though, you just float along. The only concern is whether or not you’ll still be wearing your bikini bottoms once those jets of water start pushing you along! Note however that cheap swim suits like mine will not withstand the pressure. When I got back to the hotel and washed out my bikini my bottoms were thread bare and had to be thrown away!

Once the park closed at 6pm we sat on the beach and watched the sunset. Actually we got a little chilly then and got into a taxi back to the hotel. I then caught up on the blog and we had dinner, sat in the Sherlock Holmes British Bar for a pint and then mack to the room at 10pm.

A really different Christmas!

By the way I think that Vodaphone have helpfully ignored my letter and have cancelled my phone contract way too early. So I can’t receive any more messages or send them on my old number. I’m going to be a new Sim in Australia though.
Thank you all for your messages so far and I hope you’re all having a great Christmas.