The Time Has Come

I leave Sydney in just 8.5 hours. The time has flown by, yet I feel as though I have done and accomplished so much more than I thought I could in my time here.

This morning a huge dust storm rolled into Sydney. You can google it for more information and to see some astonishing pictures. I only have a few on my picasa site. Basically a huge dust storm was building up in the East (The outback) and blew into Sydney sometime during the night. I woke up to a blood red sky. And by the time I really woke up my room was OSU Orange. I opened my kitchen window and looked out and saw nothing but orange everywhere. It was quite eerie and a bit weird to me. I got to school and was told nobody had seen or heard of anything like this happening before. The air was very toxic and we had to keep the students inside with the windows and doors shut all day. All plane and water transportation was grounded for the day until about 5pm this afternoon.

My last day at school went well. I taught the entire day except the last hour when my students and mentor teacher Carlie surprised me with a Farewell/Happy Birthday Party. They had food and banners and everything up while I was away at lunch. They were very sneaky! They had made a book for me with all of their pictures in it and a special message from each of them. My class also had a huge birthday card that they all signed as well. It was very cute and meant quite a lot that they thought of it. My principal also brought in a very nice pen and tea towel that had my school on it. The staff as a whole wished me well and asked me to come back soon to visit and teach. Both of which I plan on doing!

It was quite hard to leave Rozelle yesterday but I am so grateful for the opportunity I had and all the learning and growing I did while there. What an adventure. I couldn't of asked for a better experience or a better group of people to get to work with.

I've now cleaned my room completely and my bags have been packed for the last time. I am catching a taxi around 3:45-4am to head to the airport. My flight leaves around 7am and after a few layovers I should arrive in Portland in the afternoon on the 24th.

Hope this finds everyone well and will see you all when I get back.

4 more days

Until I am on a plane headed back to the U.S.

Not much to update on. My bags are totally packed and my room is empty. I've got a few lessons left before I am done at school.

I went to one last show Sunday night at the Opera House and took some pictures. I went to the International School Music Festival. A lot like W.I.B.C. for those of you who remember me doing that in highschool. It was a great performance and I'll have pictures and videos up soon on picasa.

Once back at home the following day is my birthday and the day after that my family/friends bbq. I am excited to see everyone. Sunday will find me back up in Monmouth at a staff meeting and school beginning Monday morning at 8. I also start student teaching immediately.

I'll try to update this one more time before I get on the plane. 26 hours to get home here I come. Yipee.

Last couple of weeks

Last time I updated this I had gone to the reef, Kuranda and was back in Sydney.

I took Melissa and her mom Lynn to my school last Thursday to watch my class perform the assembly at school. They did a skit on "How the Animals Came to Australia" it was adorable. I was finally able to video tape the whole school singing the Australian National Anthem and their unique Happy Birthday Song. You can find these videos on my picasa website.

After the assembly I took Melissa and Lynn to Paddy's Market where we spent quite a few hours shopping and getting gifts. I was able to pick up the last of what I needed to get and then we headed back to my place to start packing. They took an entire suitcase of clothes and gifts home for me so I didn't have to pay for an extra piece of luggage.

I also cooked Kangaroo one of the nights for them. It turned out really good and they both seemed to like it.

One Friday last week we took a Ferry to the Sydney Olympic Park. We toured the Aquatic Center and both Melissa and I decided we wanted to work there. Her of course, as my boss. :-) We both sat and watched swimming lessons and walked around the pool. We also went through the volunteer poles that are displayed outside of the ANZ Stadium where the opening and closing ceremonies took place. They have some awesome poles with names on them. Again, check out my picasa website for these. (It just takes too long to put pictures up on this - it is slower than a slug.)

We went on a tour of the Opera House and I learned a few new things about how it was built. We also went to a show the same night called Verdi Requiem. They played the entire requiem with no stops. It was beautiful!

Last Saturday I took them on the Coogee to Bondi walk I had previously done. It is probably one of my favorite things to do here. It was a gorgeous day and we got some great pictures. They were even doing a kite festival when we made it to Bondi! The same night Meliss and I went down to Darling Harbor later together and walked around and chatted. It was a great way to spend the night talking with her and walking around. We even met up with my friend Franco and had a good time.

Sunday was Meliss and Lynn's last day, so I took them to my favorite place here - Watson's Bay for lunch and to see the city from a distance. They really enjoyed it and I was happy to go back one more time before I leave. Sunday night we went and sat on the Opera House steps and watched Fame on a huge screen with over 4000 other people. What an experience! It was amazing.

Monday found me back at school. Boy was I glad to be back. I enjoyed my time with Melissa and her mom so much, but I was really missing being in the classroom. As cheesy as it sounds, it is definitely the highlight of being here and I am living my dream right now. I don't want it to end.

I did journals and spelling with the students Monday morning and it went really well. And on Tuesday (today) I did another spelling activity and taught the students about Chinese New Year for their celebrations lesson.

The students are now aware that I am leaving and each day another one comes up to me either crying or wanting a hug because they don't want me to leave. It is cute, but is making it harder for me to pack my bags.

I've started to pack my bags and my room is looking quite empty. I'm really going to miss being here in Australia. What an adventure, I hope this is only the beginning of my time teaching in Australia.

www.picasa.google.com/MeggoinAustralia - HEAPS OF NEW PICTURES

Quick update

I have been super busy since Sept. 2nd when my friend Melissa came to visit. We left Thursday morning early to head up north to Cairns. We visited the Great Barrier Reef two different days and went to Kuranda where we got to hold a koala bear and a crocodile. I have tons and tons and TONS of pictures up on my picasa website from the past week or so.
I am super busy right now having friends here and haven't been in my room to update. So give me until they leave to update it properly. However, look at my pictures! (PLEASE NOTE: I have not had time to change them all facing the correct way and have not put captions on them. I WILL be doing this soon, so check back in about a week or so for that to be finished.)

At the Great Barrier Reef we got to see 3 different turtles, huge clams, an eel, a stingray and TONS of fish. I even took some videos.

Kuranda was beautiful and I truly enjoyed holding a Koala bear again and holding a crocodile too!

We are now back in Sydney and today climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Yup, that's right, I went all the way TO THE TOP! It was AWESOME! I've got some pictures that they took to bring home and show everyone.

I went back to school for the first time in about a week and taught a lesson. The students were happy to see me and I was sure happy to see them too. Tomorrow I am going in again for their assembly and then am off to the markets with Melissa and her mom to get some gifts for their friends and pick up what I have left to get.

I hope everyone is doing well at home!

www.picasaweb.google.com/MeggoinAustralia - check out all my new pictures!

Lessons, Lessons and More Lessons!

This whole last week has been quite eventful and full at school.

On Tuesday morning my class joined 4 other classes in the Hall for an assembly on Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network had come in and set up about 20 touch screen computers so the students could learn how to make their own cartoons. They also had set up 4 large games for the students to play.

Here are some of the pictures I took:





They all had a great time creating their characters and making them talk, jump, run and fly. They loved it!

A huge Connect Four game!

They just played a tossing game against each other.

The big Twister game with Cartoon characters!

On Wednesday I started the morning with a spelling lesson. I wrote the word 'Mnemonics' on the board and asked the students if any of them knew how to say it. The guesses I got were both hilarious and very cute. I covered the 'M' to tell them it was silent and they were still struggling. I didn't expect them to get it, but I wanted to hear what they came up with. I told them what it was and they proceeded to tell me I spelled it wrong! I have been getting this a lot lately - they think I don't know how to spell. So cute.
Anyway, I told them it meant we were going to write silly sentences with their spelling words so they could remember how to spell them. We did a few together on the board and they came up with some cute sentences. I sent them back to their tables where they came up with their own. We joined back together on the carpet and I had several of them read theirs out loud. They had a great time with my lesson. Yay!

Before lunch time we had to sit the class down to talk to them about one of their classmates who would be gone for quite sometime. This students father had passed away over the weekend and Carlie was told by the principal that we needed to let the class know what happened and to answer any questions they had. The whole class seemed to understand and we came up with some ideas of how they could help their friend feel better when he did finally decide to come back to school. I guess there never is a good way to tell a whole group of children about death, it was definitely a learning experience. The class is eager to have their friend back and they all said they would give him a hug. Cute!

I was also in charge of the Art lesson on Wednesday. They had learned about the Diwali celebration that happens in India the previous day. For this celebration people create Rangoli Patterns. I taught my students how to make them using shapes we had in the classroom. Their pictures turned out great! I will post pictures of them next time I write here.

Thursday was a CRAZY day! Literally. It was book week this week and Thursday was the day everyone dressed up as their favorite book character. Instead of our normal assembly we paraded around the community showing off our costumes and then around the school in a big circle. The kids had a lot of fun.

Four of our staff members dressed up as the Ninja Turtles! The kids LOVED it.

Walking down the street. Parents lined the streets at the coffee shops to watch and take pictures.

One of my students!

I know I'm not supposed to have a favorite student - But... - Mr. Cat in the Hat himself!
His hat was almost as tall as him. Precious!

Thursday I was also in charge of Maths. They had just learnt (They say learnt here, not learned) how to do division and so I was doing a review with them. Because they were so excited about it being book parade day I had a hard time keeping their attention. I had been told before by Carlie that it was okay to raise my voice to catch their attention, but I didn't like doing that. Well, today she was proud of me because I firmly told them that it was disrespectful and rude to be talking and drawing during my instruction. It quickly got their attention and they didn't talk again. :-) I win! I sent them to their tables to finish some problems I had put on the board. It was definitely a lesson I learned from on how to do things differently. But, we can't all have perfect lessons. Carlie gave me some very helpful suggestions for next time.

After lunch Thursday I was also in charge of their health lesson! I was very excited about this as Math and Health are my focus areas. I was teaching them about the food pyramid and what each section meant. I started by asking them what each had for lunch and I wrote them on the board. I then explained the food pyramid to them and how everything we eat can be put in the pyramid. During this lesson I also learned that I say tomato, banana, pear and a few other words 'incorrectly'. And when I tried to same them with an Australian accent they just giggled at me. They are cute. Together as a class we classified the foods they had for lunch. I then had them take their own pyramids and cut out foods from a magazine and put them in the correct places. They seemed to really enjoy this lesson and it was probably one of the best ones I have given.

Yesterday after school I headed down to Darling Harbor to meet up with one of my friends who is still here. His name is Franco and he is from Peru! We watched some street performers perform and people watched. It is always nice to hang out with friends!
Here is a picture of Franco and I.


Next week, my friend Melissa and her mom are visiting. We are leaving for 5 days to go to Cairns! I do my best to update this and my pictures once we get back.

Cockatoo Island

I have been teaching lessons more and more.

Last week I taught a spelling lesson. I had the students use their spelling words to make word finds! I didn't think that they could successfully make them with diagonal and backwards words but they proved me wrong! The students made their word finds hard! Once they were done I had them trade with each other to find the hidden words. They seemed to have a great time doing this instead of having to write sentences using their words.

I also taught a math lesson the same day on area! I was a bit nervous to teach Maths as the class is made up of 6 other classes. The students are sometimes rowdy and don't listen. I found different shapes in the room and taught them what square centimeters were and how to use them to measure area. After a thorough introduction I had them rotating around the room to different stations to measure area. My Maths lesson went SO much smoother than I had original thought it would. They listened and asked great questions.

As with all my lesson plans Carlie, my mentor teacher, writes down suggestions for next time and things that I did really well. Her suggestions are always extremely helpful and usually followed by, "Oh yeah, that would work!" She is a great mentor teacher and I really enjoy working in her classroom with her.

My class is also learning about different celebrations from around the world. Last week they learned about indigenous celebrations and made Dreamtime stories using pictures. They turned out great!

Last Thursday I left school early to go to The great Organ Symphony concert at the Sydney Opera House! The Organ only gets played about twice a year and I was so lucky to get an incredibly cheap ticket, great seat and time off of work! The first half wasn't great for me. I don't enjoy listening to stringed instruments so much, but I did enjoy listening to the Bassoons and ... the Contrabassoon! I was very jealous of the lady playing it. After intermission came time for them to play the Organ. What an absolutely amazing sound! (To listen to it go to www.picasaweb.google.com/MeggoInAustralia and click on Sydney Organ Symphony and then the black picture.) I was able to take sound of the Organ playing without getting in trouble. The portion of the piece that most recognize was used in Babe the movie.

On Friday I was in charge of the spelling test again. One of the words was 'skull' and I quickly learned that Americans do not pronounce it correctly. A little girl in my class raised her hand and said, "Miss Kendle, it's not skUll, it's skAll!" I thanked her and apologized for not having an Australian accent. The word came up again for another set of students and was told again I pronounced it wrong. I finally told them that regardless of how I say it, they should know how to spell it. Needless to say, that ended the argument that I was saying it wrong.

On Sunday I woke up early and headed to Cockatoo Island for the day. It is the largest island here and it used to be where they held convicts. Through the years it has been used for many other purposes, but has only recently been open to public tours. I took a ferry out there and decided to wander the island. You can actually camp there over night! They have the tents set up for you already. What a view of the Harbor you have and of the Bridge.
As always, more pictures are on my picasa website, but here are a few:

The entrance to Cockatoo Island!



The campground you can stay at, right on the water



The Mess Hall - it was way small!



One of the many beautiful views from Cockatoo Island



A privately owned house on the island. You can rent it for special occassions.


There is an upper part to the island and a lower part

Overall my trip to Cockatoo Island was great. The sun was out and it was really hot! I also learned about killer seagulls living on the island. Not one inch of that island was clear of a seagull, crow or bird poop. I somehow managed to stay clear of flying bird poop for the 4 hours I was on the island.

This week in school I am in charge of spelling, art, Maths (division) and Health as well as the spelling test on Friday. It should be a good week of teaching!

Next Wednesday my friend Melissa, also known as my boss, will be here visiting with her mom for two weeks. During that time we are going up North to Cairns for 5 days to see The Great Barrier Reef, Rainforest and an island. I am excited to get back to the reef and to hold a Koala bear! We will also be spending their remaining time here in Sydney at many of the local tourist attractions and hopefully climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge one of those days!

Cheers!

Artwork, Opera House and Watsons Bay

This is our finished art work! It is getting auctioned this Saturday. I'll let you all know how much it went for. It turned out awesome! The kids did all of the work except the little touch up work that Carlie and I did with the black paint.

Last Thursday night I went to a show called Pulse! 2009 at the Sydney Opera House. It was inside the Concert Hall, the most famous hall of them all. It was absolutely amazing. Over 500 Sydney students from 20+ schools (primary to high school) represented and made up the mass choir. Smaller concert bands and dance troupes were also present to perform.

All of the video clips are on my picasa website. Be sure to check them out.



This was part of the Australian National Anthem.

The whole concert was absolutely amazing. There were several different songs performed and dances danced. I truly enjoyed it. I hope that you all find the time to watch all the short video clips so you can hear what it sounds like inside the Concert Hall!

My students have been bringing in their science projects to present at the science fair today. Here are some of their projects. They all did a fantastic job!

The majority of the students did their project on planets. This little boy had by far, the most unique way of presenting all the planets.

Waiting for the other students to come by and see their projects.

Some students just chose to do one planet.


Others just did posters - which were full of wonderful information!

This last weekend I also went to Watsons Bay. Part of it touches the Harbor and the other half the Tasman Sea! I can now say I have been to the Tasman Sea. Here at Watsons Bay you can pull your boat right up on shore.



Across the street is Gap Park. This is a place notorious for suicide attempts. People jump into the rocks below during rough seas. As sad and morbid as it is, it is an absolutely gorgeous view of the ocean and cliff sides. The fence they have put up is there to keep people back from the edge and if you are caught on the wrong side of it there is a fine of $200.00.

From the hike you could see the Sydney City Skyline and Harbor Bridge. It was an absolutely gorgeous day out. One of the hottest days so far! There are more pictures (heaps) on my picasa website, along with a few videos showing you how close the Harbor and Tasman Sea are. Down at the Bay there is also a huge park where many people go for a picnic. It overlooks the water and directly at the city skyline. I have found my new favorite place here in Sydney!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the hike in Gap Park.

Halfway along the hike.

Looking back towards the city.

Watsons Bay

Don't forget to go to http://picasaweb.google.com/MeggoinAustralia for all of my pictures and videos!

Cheers!