Griffith: Day 9

After getting home at around 11:30pm the night before, I was not at all ready to get out of bed too quickly. I stayed warm and snug for a while, before finally crawling out to have some green tea, and a couple of pieces of ALDI’s high-end raisin toast (which I can seriously recommend).

After a relaxing breakfast, my housemate and I wandered out to the Griffith Rotary Markets, where farmers sell local produce, and there are plenty of secondhand items, artisanal foods and handmade ornaments/jewellery. Although I failed to take many photos there, I did get one of some very cute hand-made plush elephants, which you can see below.

After the farmer’s market, we headed to the ‘Second Hand Shoppe’ (complete with olde tyme spelling). There were many useless things here, but equally many pretty wonderful things. I happened across several bikes more lovely than my own, but decided if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. (Not entirely true, as my bike only has 2/3 gears at a stretch, and has only one slightly functional brake.)

Of the many interesting and odd things in the place, a couple did catch my eye. I am now the proud owner of a jazz guitar handbook (complete with CD and worth $40), and Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet (which I have wanted to read forever). The only other picture of for Sunday is an image of my lucky book finds, which only cost me $2 all up. The rest of Sunday I spent doing work at school with many of the other English staff. It seems I’m truly getting a sense of the never-ending work these people do.

Two books I’d been meaning to pick up in Sydney for quite some time. 

Griffith: Day 5

Again I find myself woefully behind on these blog posts – rest assured my sleep deprivation at the current time has encouraged me to be more proactive in getting my lesson plans and blogs done.

Day 5 (last Wednesday) was my first day teaching without assistance from my supervisor. Suffice to say I learn a lot about how lessons that look great on paper translate poorly to the classroom. With my year 8 class, I began to understand how diverse the engagement and work speed of a class is, and how poorly I had planned for those who got ahead.

My year 10 class went surprisingly well – though the flow of the lesson was rather poor, the content was good, and I managed to get most of the troublesome students onside. Although the class is full of big personalities, they are a hard working group who enjoy higher order thinking, and deep discussion about Macbeth (our core text). At the current time I’m helping them work towards their assessment task, which is a listening exam that involved extended responses.

I certainly discovered that day that teaching is a job I find fulfilling and quite manageable. I can certainly see myself working as a teacher after I finish uni.

As per usual, here are some photos from my day:

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Griffith: Day 3 [the teaching begins]

This morning was a slightly less unreasonable wake-up for me – at 7:25 I crawled out of bed and donned my most teacherly attire. As it so happens, even when you try to dress up, the kids find something to use against you. But more on my humorous encounter later.

My lovely supervisor was quick to introduce me to everyone, and let me know who was the most friendly (the allies of the English department) as quickly as he could. Having an honest and capable communicator to guide me continues to be invaluable. It was also his birthday recently, and being the popular teacher that he is, he has received (thus far) the sum total of 14 cakes. I am in no way exaggerating the figure. I turned up to recess to a cake that another English teacher had baked, this being a chocolate vanilla swirl baked cheesecake with a milk arrowroot biscuit base, dark chocolate ganache topping and raspberries. Truly decadent, and honestly one of the best cheesecakes I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating. I can certainly see why teachers come to Griffith on a short term basis and end up staying far longer.  I sadly did not take a photo, but I hear the recipe is somewhere in the depths of taste.com.

One of the highlights of my first day was getting to observe the top year 9 class, taught by the head of English. Incidentally, the head teacher used to live quite close to my local area, and has worked at several schools I know well. As such, he’s an excellent person to talk to about the differences between Sydney’s northern beaches and Griffith. It’s always inspiring to see someone achieving what I hope to achieve as a teacher. He was patient, effective at managing his class, and his work was engaging, thought provoking and very relevant. He didn’t shy away from broaching issues of racism, suicide, and transgender people. I hope I have the rapport and bravery to do the same in my teaching.

Probably the most amusing encounter of the day was with a year 7 boy. My prac teacher had informed me that the class was difficult; he was correct, but none of the kids were actually bad people. Painful perhaps, but not really ‘bad’. It was a great opportunity to apply my classroom management knowledge. As I was dressed in suit pants, suit shoes and a collared shirt, students were quick to note that I was dressed similarly to my supervisor. This was a rather harmless observation, until the resident class-clown-come-disturber-of-the-peace decided he wanted to ask:

“Miss, are you a boy or a girl?”

I thank my father for instilling in me a sharp wit, and an air of diplomacy. Not missing a beat, I calmly inquired:

“Well you called me ‘miss’, didn’t you?”

Unfortunately I didn’t get to hear his witty retort, as my supervisor decided the behaviour warranted some time out of the room (which is fair enough). Unperturbed, I moved to the other off-task student and assisted him, and much to my joy he became engaged and got some of the work done. He improved so much in fact that my supervisor sent a text to his parents to let them know – teaching certainly is a rewarding thing to do.

It’s late, and as per usual I’m procrastinating on work, but it will get done in time. I’ll finish this post with some photos from my lovely walk home this evening.

Griffith: Day 2

After managing a good 10 hours of sleep last night, I awoke at 8am today to write yesterday’s post. Tonight I’m settled in bed once again at an unnaturally early time for me.

Today I got to meet my supervising teacher, and I’m feeling very lucky. My supervisor is very realistic about his classes, and well liked by both staff and students. I’ve got a strong idea of what is expected of me during my prac, as well as the general atmosphere and attitudes of the school.

In the morning, my supervisor, myself and a LOTE (languages other than English) teacher headed to a local cafe. I was stoked to find that the town had matcha lattes, and ordered one to have with my burrito-inspired jaffel for breakfast (rather decadent and exciting food for my first full day in Griffith). After breakfast and a good chat, I had a tour of the school, and was allocated my classes for prac. I’m pleased about the level of freedom and challenge my supervisor has allowed me, and I think I’ll be able to really get the most out of my time here with such a capable person guiding me.

Later on, my new housemate and I stocked up on as many groceries as her small car could carry. I got home ravenous and put together a sort of lentil and veggie pasta sauce with Mexican spices – thankfully the experiment turned out delicious, as I’ll be eating it for lunch the next few days.

My rather experimental meal (with penne pasta beneath). 

As I type, the fatigue of taking in so much in one day is setting in; I should be trying to plan lessons already, but I just want to get some sleep. Perhaps tomorrow morning or afternoon I’ll have some luck with that.

Griffith: Day 1

On Saturday the 20th of May, I accidentally awoke a whole hour and a half before my 5:00am alarm. This is likely to be the first of many mistakes and learning experiences.

I’m currently sitting in my hotel room in Griffith, contemplating that I’ll be spending the next month here – it seems a very foreign thought to someone who has never lived out of home, or travelled for more than two weeks away from family. Naturally I had a bit of an ‘adjustment period’ yesterday (read: listening to my ipod and having a good cry) thinking about the rather troubled family situation I’d left behind in Sydney, and hoping they could cope without me to reconcile their differences.

Aside from that minor drama, life in Griffith seems to be lovely. I had the joy of meeting the lady I bought my bicycle off yesterday, and her generosity in dropping it direct to my hotel and offering me free services (her brother is a mechanic) felt like a warm country town welcome. I say this because I’ve spent time rurally before, and there’s a definite warmth and community that comes with many small towns.

Above: My lovely ‘new’ bike.

After getting to ride the bike around town a little, I was feeling more at home. I don’t have my licence yet, so I’m used to riding around Sydney. I took off somewhat unsteadily along the main street, hoping their EB games was still open. My birthday was the 19th and a new game I was rather keen on had come out the day of my leaving – as the morning had been so early, I was left with little opportunity to purchase it.

I passed a group of children practising tapping sticks (forgive me if there is an Indigenous word for them I’ve overlooked here). Griffith seems to have an abundance of Aboriginal art, and plenty of autumnal trees – certainly a lovely place to be this time of year.

An aeroplane at what I believe was an RSL. 

I passed this beautiful plane on my way to the big shopping centre in town. Since I’ve brought along a nice new camera, I’m hopeful to get a few more quality photos of it. All the pictures from this outing were from my phone, as I was too sleep deprived to learn to drive my camera.

The shopping mall was much like the kind of shopping mall you find anywhere – somewhat out of place in the ambience of a rural setting. I didn’t spend too much time there, as there are plenty of malls in Sydney that I dislike just as much (although I work in one). I made haste and discovered that I could in fact purchase the game – you can see below how that eventuated.

Probably the most homely moment of the trip so far. 

Before I tie this post off, I should mention that the rest of this series will be dedicated to documenting my time as a prac teacher at a high school in Griffith (naturally I’ll have to refrain from specifying which one). I’m more nervous than excited at this point, as all the energy I had in the weeks leading up to this has been whisked away by the the reality of being far from home and the requirement of responsibility and self-sufficiency. In any case, we’ll see how things go together I suppose. Whatever happens, I’m hoping to approach it with a calm and open mind.