Badger Galore
Staying ‘Up Over’ for a while.
City fix!
So...we are in Brisbane!Today we did the Rocklea Markets...I bought all the Vimto from the British stall! We went to the shopping mall at Indooroopilly. Will got his eyes tested and we shopped in H&M then we went to Carindale shopping mall with Ros and did some more shopping before heading to IKEA.We are off out for dinner tonight and then to the cinema.It's like being on holiday!
Saving the best until last?...NOT.
So...the last day of my latest teaching stint was a bit fraught.The children were still bubbling over and were loud and noisy. We managed to get things finished for our display and the class teacher had planned for them to complete pages in their maths text books on Subtraction. The plan said to work for 30 minutes with Year 2 while the Year 1's worked at the back of the room with a Teacher Aide and then swap over however I discovered, moments before, that the Teacher Aide was away and had not been replaced. I went ahead and attempted to get them all working at the same time.I left the Year 2's to work independently and the more able Year 1's and took my 'Bananas' to work together at the back.There was a slow dribble of the more able Year 1's and the less able Year 2's coming up to me and whining 'I don't know what to do'. It seemed I was getting nowhere fast and if I had hair to tear out I would have. I managed to keep my cool and finished off working with the 'Bananas' and sent them off to complete something on their own and went to help the others. At this point a Year 6 boy turned up , having been sent to our class from his room for misbehaving. He had never been sent before and so couldn't help me with what the usual procedure was.He was a really lovely lad and was worried now that his parents would find out since his sister was in his class too.I did a quick 'Teacher's' talk about being sensible and doing the right thing and that he only had himself to blame. He said he had hardly done anything wrong but I told him that teachers are not perfect and sometimes they get worked up. I told him that I was feeling pretty fraught at the moment and it was very easy for teachers in that state to overreact but that was why it was really important that he always did as he was told. I told him his teacher worked hard and he needed to appreciate that by being good."So...do you think you could help some of these Year 1's with their maths work?"It was hardly a punishment but it was a big help to me. I even gave him a pen and got him marking their work too.I had another lunch time duty...30 minutes of wandering about in a fluorescent jacket policing goblins. I hate it. Toerag's name kept cropping up with different children so I collared him and chatted to him about his weekend plans to keep him from mischief.It felt like the longest day but at last 3.00 pm came and I sent them all off getting a 'goodbye' hug from the 'Squirrel Killer. I pretty much dashed off after school as we were heading to Brisbane for the weekend but I got the display up.
('Peeking Ducks'- hand printed ducks with white feathers from Isis, Odin and Quilla, and red banners with the children's names in 'faux' Chinese writing.)
Frogknot connected!
Will's new Weather Station.....'Zephyr'. It is wirelessly connected to an indoor base station which tells us the indoor and outdoor temperatures, humidity, wind speed and direction and measures much rain we get.
The Call of the Pobblebonk.
"Ooh," said Will, " I think I just heard a Pobblebonk!"and he leapt up and rushed out of the back door.He was soon back."Yes! Come and listen!"I reluctantly raised myself from the comfort of the sofa and ventured out into the twilight.
Eastern Banjo Frog or Pobblebonk.
This is what it sounds like...
Tales from the Chalk Face.
So...two more days to go of my eight day stint at the local Primary School. Tomorrow is the last day of school at the school I used to work at in the UK as they break up for the long summer holiday up over there...but here I shall be back at school on Friday.I wish I could say it was dedication...but it is all down to money.It was Full Moon last night and like the effect upon werewolves so the 'little people' turn to the dark side. They have certainly been more fractious, less tolerant, much louder and restless.It wears me out and I could quite happily slap some of them from here to Perth... but I don't even though sometimes sharing a cell with Malcolm the Mugger for 6 months seems much more preferable to five hours with a bunch of the irritable goblins.Somehow we got onto mosquitoes today and there love of my blood, then it spread to leeches and spiders and I briefly considered telling them the tale of the spider that bit me in my underpants but thought....nah, maybe they are too young for that sort of thing.Today was, actually, the first day ever, at that school, that I have had the whole class there. In the class I am in, last week M was on holiday by the sea and a few others were in one day and away the next. T is constantly late and yesterday it was his birthday and he arrived at 9.45 and brought in cookies for the class and then promptly was collected at 11.00 to go home and open his presents.I asked him today what he did yesterday when he went home. He said he had to go outside for a few hours first while they got his presents ready."What did you do outside?" I asked"Oh, I just whacked the ground for a bit with a pool stick.""And what presents did you get?""Some X-Box games. I got Call of Duty -Ghost, oh, and I got 'Gran deaf toto'.""Gran deaf toto?" I asked."No, Gran deaf toto!" He said emphatically."Gran death torto" chipped in the class.....loudly, because of that damn Moon!.It was actually the game 'Grand Theft Auto' which I know is not recommended for under 18's...but there you go....and there was I protecting them from the 'Spider in my underpants' story."I got a 900 bike and did a few burnouts and wheelies," he said."Oh you got a bike as well!" I said."No, a bike on the game." he said as if I was stupid." I got a couple of guns too."I wasn't surprised."I don't like guns," I said."They are toy guns," he said."But you still pretend to shoot things with them." I frowned.I was marking some work at lunchtime when another teacher came in and said"Did you know it is your Lunch duty?"I didn't because it wasn't on my planning sheet."It's been changed to today from tomorrow. There was an email about it but you wouldn't have got that," said the teacher.I didn't. I went out and did the duty.Toerag was in trouble for throwing sticks and had to sit on a bench for 5 minutes. 'A' was wandering about acting suspiciously and it turned out he had money in his hand."Whose is that?" I asked."Mine" he said obviously lying.A bit later I found him trying to bury it in the sand pit."Shall I look after it for you?""No" he said."Put it in your pocket." I said and later mentioned it to his teacher. She was having a bad day....Yep, I'd been there.So...two more days to go....I had decided that I wasn't going to do a display...but Heaven knows why I changed my mind today!....just to make things a bit more difficult.