Rainy days and Mondays

Well, I love rainy days, but Mondays do always get me down.

It is my 'big' day - 8:30 to 5:30, full of intense, confusing theoretical classes. I try not to stress out, 'cuz I know that 1- there is more to learn than I could EVER learn, and I just have to get the basics, and 2- everyone else is just as confused and ragged as me by the end of the day! So funny to see us all drag ourselves out of the last class!

So much stuff seems so intense and complex on Mondays. I always end up thinking, "Do I really want to be a teacher??" But once we start actually using it on Thursdays in school, you see how much simpler it really is. And while it is important to learn the different theories of education, once you've studied them, they just become a way of thinking, and you don't have to worry about it anymore. (Except in interviews, where apparently we are supposed to name drop names such as Piaget, Vygotski and Clay with ease!)

If anyone has any doubts about how someone can be a teacher after just one year of teacher training, they should come along on a Monday and check it out - they really pack stuff in!!

But today is Tuesday. I have survived another Monday, so I know I can make it through the rest of the week. I like Tuesdays - fun PE classes, and only 2 hrs in a classroom. Finished writing up a unit plan for Health in class today, and it was SO very satisfying to see how I and my partner had taken one little sentence in the standards, and turned it into a 3-week unit plan, complete with activities and assessments, all flowing together and building on each other. It was for preps on emotions, and I used some of the stuff we talked about from your emotion books Kel!

I also have a new toy which will make things easier... a laptop!! Yay!! Was a bit of a hassle swapping between uni computers, Dad's and Adam's, depending on availability, and troublesome trying to keep track of where everything was saved etc. I was hesitant to buy one before, 'cuz I would have such substantial debt with just my fees, but since they are so much more manageable, I decided to go ahead! :-) I had to use it to blog first, but I am about to shut myself in my room, and start tapping away at one of my 2,000 word assignments due next week. How fun! :-)

I'm a teacher now!!

Honest, I am!! The preps said so!

I had my second day at school on Thurs, and taught my first lesson. (Maths, of course!) I really enjoyed it - wasn't nearly as scary as I thought! I obviously passed, 'cuz later I heard one of the littlies saying to another... "Miss Brice is a teacher now!" Giggle! That was easy! Just have to convince the uni to give me the certificate now...

The biggest thing I need to practice is my teacher voice. I keep on asking in this nice, quiet voice, "Could you please sit down now?" etc, and wonder why nothing happens. Then my mentor teacher calls out across the room - "Amy, sit down!", and the response is immediate! LOL! I'll get there!

And if you're wondering about my new heading, I've decided to share some of the cute stuff kids say or do with you all. This week at recess, I had a kid ask me if I was Mrs Brice (they have trouble with my name). I replied that no, my mum was Mrs Brice, and I was Miss Brice. She looked up at me, rather surprised, and asked, "Do you have a mum, Miss Brice??" Giggle... no, dear, don't you know teachers are grown in test tubes in the staff room?!?

WOOHOO!!!

Received the most excellentest news yesterday!!! My course is supposed to cost $16,000 this year... bit of an ouchie. But yesterday they announced that because of low enrolments, they have surplus government funding available, so all 40 in our course (minus the international students) can get a Commonwealth Sponsored place, making our debt just... $5,000!!!! We all cheered as they announced it, but they continued... because it is a HECS-HELP position, we get a 20% discount if we pay up front, making it just $4,000!!!!! WOOHOO!!

Adele threw up her hand asking if we got a free set of steak knives with this! Giggle! They responded, No, but now you can all afford to buy your own steak knives!

It is such a huge blessing, for myself and so many others. I can now afford my fees still have a little left for living expenses, so I don't have to stress about trying to combine work with study this year. I've heard others saying the same, one even saying he was thinking about dropping out b/c he couldn't manage the workload (pretty intense course) as well as work. A couple others are buying houses this year, and now have a lot more available for a deposit. We are all so happy and smiley today at uni!!

I love the Australian government!!!!

My first day of school!

I went back to my first day of prep last Thursday! Was quite different this time however! I got to use the staff toilets, boss people around (and they actually listen), and my name was different... I was doing one activity with some kids where we had to write our names at the top of the page... I started writing H..e..a.. when one of the kids looked over curiously and I suddenly remembered... bugger... scribble, scribble, M..i..s..s...B...

I have suddenly become aware of my height all over again... at lunch time (I was on yard duty!), a Grade 3 girl stared up at me, "Wow, you're tall... you must seem so high up to the preps!"

It was a fun day, and the kids were so cute! Some of them are so tiny, you wonder if they are really old enough for school. It was good to see the stuff I've been learning in classes actually working together in a classroom - the theory all starts to make more sense when you're seeing the practical. Was slightly overwhelming, too, though... it will be kinda scary to have to try to manage a whole class, and keep all the groups straight and moving around to their appropriate stations, and answering their questions and monitoring behaviour, and remembering what each is doing next, all without referring back to any notes, 'cuz there simply isn't time. But I'm sure it gets easier once you've done it a few times.

This week I'm planning the numeracy activities for next Thursday... kinda tricky, 'cuz Preps really don't know much!! But it will be good experience. I'm in a little school about 50min drive from home (parent's home, that is) every Thursday for 10 weeks, then I'll have 4 weeks full time at the end of the semester. Should be fun!