Australia Blog: Week of April 23 - First days of teaching, Anzac Day, Rugby Game, Palm Beach

View from the top of Palm Beach

Now that teaching has started my blog posts will probably be coming much sporadically as the time is not there for daily posts. With that said, I will still be posting at least once a week. As I said this was my first week in the classroom and it was very enjoyable. Monday was a staff only day so I was able to get acquainted with everything, spend time with my teacher and the rest of the math faculty and get organized. Then on Tuesday the students came. I was introduced to the students in the classes, but the day was mainly observational. Unlike back home a teacher and students' schedule changes every day on a 2 week cycle. For example, a student may have Math (or Maths as they say here) Period 2 on Monday, then not have it at all on Tuesday and then have it Period 5 on Wednesday and so on.

Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo on School Ground

Wednesday was a day off from school for Anzac Day. Anzac stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, and can be best described as Veterans/Memorial Day on steroids. The day begins with dawn services/parades that begin literally at the crack of dawn (we were up at 4 am to go to the local one). The service is a remembrance and appreciation for all those who have served the countries, it is a pretty cool thing and was a strong showing of Australian patriotism. Later on that day, Bobby and I went to a local town gathering area to play a game called Two-Up. It's an Australian game that is only legal on Anzac Day. Basically, there is a big ring (a little bigger than a boxing ring) and then people surrounding it. One person goes in the middle and flips two coins, the people on the outside are then making side bets between one another betting either on heads or tails. The coin flipper continues to flip until both coins land on the same side. It's a very simple, but very fun and enjoyable game which I made some many on!

The deadliest snake in the world!

After Wednesday's fun it was back in the classroom for Thursday and Friday. I'm getting more and more comfortable in the classroom and doing more things, and next week I'll teach my first lessons to the Year 7 (Grade 7) students which should be fun. On Friday, we had a reptile guy come in and give a presentation to the Year 7 students which I had the pleasure of attending. I learned about the most poisonous snake in the world (the fierce snake) and even had a python around my neck (I don't have a picture on my camera though!). It was another fun day though all around.

My cooperating teacher, Mr. French with the python wrapped around his neck!

Friday night, I teacher from my school very graciously took Brittany and me to a Rugby League game. It was a very fun experience, even though the team she and I were rooting for lost. The game was held at ANZ stadium which was the main stadium for the Sydney Olympics in 2000 so it was pretty cool to be there as well.

Rugby Game (NRL) game at ANZ Stadiu

On Saturday, the teacher took Brittany and me to Palm Beach. Palm Beach is another of Sydney's famous beaches. We hiked from the beach area at the bottom up to the top of the cliff where the lighthouse was. It was a fun walk with some spectacular views along the way.