Fun in Brisvegas!

So...we are in Brisbane for the weekend.Yesterday we started our day at the Brisbane markets...

... A second hand shop that was so full of stuff that most of it was buried and if you saw something you wanted on one of the wall shelves there was no way you could reach it anyway.It is getting harder and harder to find 'Vimto' in Brisbane these days and attempts to locate it in the recent past have drawn a blank but yesterday we popped into the Foodworks shop that first stocked it for me on the off chance that it might be there...and it was!I was so delighted.On my last two visits there it was nowhere to be seen. I have messaged them and thanked them profusely and they wrote back and said 'Don't worry Nick, we've got you covered...See you soon!'We had dinner in the evening, in the West End, at 'Chop Chop Chang's' which was most delicious.It was a fabulous day.

I found treasure in Brisbane!

School Days.

So...we are now at the end of the fifth week, the halfway point to this second school term, and my first as 0.1 employee at the local school.For my part I won't say it is going well...it is just going, but it seems to be working for them. I have also done a few extra days here and there to cover teachers and turned down quite a few days at other schools because I was already teaching or simply because they asked me at the end of a day that I had been in school and I just couldn't face another day.I have a full fortnight coming up at the end of this term covering in a prep class in town and then at the start of the next term I have another full fortnight in the Year1/2 class I was in last year. I am a little daunted and wonder, at the moment, how I will survive but I know that most of it will be planned out for me.I am not enjoying the planning I am having to do for my one day a week...it practically takes me another day to plan for that one day. It is such a joy trying to access the Queensland Education Curriculum Plans online with all the passwords and pin codes that you have to put in and then when you finally get to it I feel like a Brazilian street urchin scrabbling through rubbish on my knees trying to find that scrap of food.Why all the security to get to it? No one in their right mind would look out of interest.For the Science with the Year 2 and 3 class we are learning about 'Matter' ie liquids and solids. With the Prep and Year 1's we are learning about 'Place' in Geography. I find it all quite dull and spend most of my planning time trying to make it interesting.There are a few 'toads' in the Year 2 and 3 class and their regular class teacher has lost the will to live. I think she is glad of the break I give her. I have a Teacher Aide with me for the session which is great because she is the one who knows how to handle the 'toads' and I can get on with dealing with the rest.In the Prep / Year 1 class there are a few 'tadpoles' destined to be 'toads' but I can loom over them like a hungry heron and bend them to my will.I have a great Teacher Aide in that class too which is a big help.As in most schools things don't always go to plan and there are disruptions to the school day. The other week the Year 3's were doing their NAPLAN testing (like UK SAT's) so I ended up with just the Year 2's in the staff room for two hours thinking on my feet to keep them occupied and not being able to do the work I had planned until we could all sit down and do it together.I did a days supply in the Year 5 and 6 class and once again feared for my life before hand. I asked for the planning but did not get it until I got to school on the day which did not help my nerves. It is really no good saying to me 'For Maths just practice multiplication and division facts for the 6 times table and then look at extended facts then do some work on 5 digit numbers'. My ears prick up, my eyes widen and like a startled deer I am ready to leap out of the nearest window and head for the hills...needless to say I completely ignored that instruction and did my own thing.I also did a day in the Prep/ Year 2 class but as there is a teaching student in there did not have to do very much. Again I had asked for the planning but got none and was faced, on the day, with notes like 'Mr Allen to do 30 minutes of Diary Writing' still I survived to tell the tale.  On that particular day there was the infamous 'pooh on the boys toilet floor' incident and quite a bit if the afternoon was taken up with an investigation and chat about correct toilet habits...all I had to do was sit and look disappointed and try not to laugh.

Floor joists.

Some of the floor joists are in.

Wonderful wet weekend.

So...we are down by the river for 'Eurovision'!We came down on Friday and head back tomorrow. It has been lovely to catch up with Tracy and Jen and Will's sister Shirley. The weather has been mostly wet but we managed a wander along Pippi Beach today.