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!

School, Goodbyes and Museums

It is nice to know that my students miss me, even when I'm gone for half a day. Monday of last week I woke up and wasn't feeling so great. I went into work around noon and was surrounded by questions of, "Where were you Miss Kendle?" "We missed you this morning." "When we said, "Good Morning Miss Tuite and Miss Kendle, you weren't there!"" It was cute and felt good to be missed.

For the past week my students continued to work on the art project of the Phoenix which is being auctioned off next weekend. Here is the progress -

They got to choose one white spot to color a star on. These two boys were helping to glue on a few remaining feathers.

This little girl was coloring in her star. She was doing such a great job!

This is what it looked like after everyone painted and glittered their stars. The final product to come!

My class started learning about the solar system as this week is science week. Last week we went into a planetarium that was put together inside of the hall (auditorium). Each class was able to spend an hour inside with a real life astronomer who taught the students about the stars, planets, constellations and rotation of the Earth. It was quite fascinating as I have never been inside of one. It was cold inside though, because of the air they were pumping in to keep it up.

As we were leaving the guy asked me to stay inside and make sure all the kids got out. The planetarium starts to deflate as students go out and by the time I got them all out I could almost touch the ceiling of the planetarium!The whole experience was amazing and I definitely learned a whole lot more than I already knew.

Thursday and Friday night I met up with some friends before they were to leave on Saturday morning. Thursday night we went out to The Shakespeare Hotel for dinner and Friday night to Pancakes on the Rocks. I had been there one time before but this time we went with a group of 15!
This place has some amazing food. I had the Strawberry Stack this time. Buttermilk pancakes with Strawberries and ice cream! I was too hungry to take a picture but here are some pictures from that night...

AJ, Dani, Me and Janelle waiting for the bus.


This shows some of the pancakes. We were all too hungry to wait for everyone.


Kevin, Andrea, Me and Melissa. They are from Wisconsin. Got a reason to visit that state now!

Last Friday at school was Jeans for Genes Day. It was a day set aside for everyone to wear jeans to school to support Gene research. Every student and staff member wore jeans to school and donated a gold coin ($1 or $2) into a bucket. We ended up raising over $600.00 just from the students alone. It was such a great cause and I was happy to be apart of it.
Here is a picture of my school I took the same day.

This is Rozelle Public School. It has been here for over 100 years. One of the first schools in Sydney, Australia. It is a fantastic school and I absolutely love the old buildings!


This is my classroom from the back of it.


This is the other half of my classroom. It is a good size!


This is a common thing in all classrooms. Circle Time. It is a time for students to share and chat with each other. It helps build them up and teaches them patience, respect and how to share the voice space. It is a favorite time for most of the kids.

I recently went to The Power House Museum. It was filled with tons and tons of things to look at. From a very interesting clock called the Strasburg clock, to outer space stuff, old bikes, cars and carriages to hands on science and technology things to odd floats and trains.
It was a huge museum of 4 levels. Quite a few interesting things to look at. To see them all be sure to go to my Picasa website and look at the pictures and videos.

Here are two pictures from my time at The Power House Museum.

A real MOON ROCK!!!
It was well protected inside this pyramid. It was quite shiny and very cool to look at!

I also found this very uncomfortable old bike. I am not sure how people used to ride these things, it is not fun to sit on at all! And very hard to balance on as well! Props to those of you who can ride these old things!

My friend Melissa (my boss) and her mother are coming to Sydney in 2 and a half weeks! We are planning a trip to Cairns to go to The Great Barrier Reef! I cannot wait to get back up there and see it again!

I'm going to another concert tomorrow night at the Sydney Opera House called Pulse! It includes all Sydney Primary Schools and their students who will be performing via singing, dancing, acting and speaking. I can't wait to see what all the students from the city have put together!

I'm also going to another concert next week where the organ inside the opera house will be played. For those of you who don't know. This organ is absolutely gorgeous and it is only played twice a year! I can't wait to hear it.

Most of my friends that I met here have left and gone back to the U.S. to start school. I'm just over halfway done with my time here and I can't believe how much I've seen and done! I am having such a great time here and the experiences I am getting are beyond my wildest dreams. I hope the rest of my time doesn't go by too fast!

School is still going fantastic and I am finally starting to teach lessons! The first one I taught yesterday was a spelling lesson. The students have new spelling words each week. For their activity, I had them each create acrostic poems out of their spelling words. Each student wrote a minimum of 2. They all turned out so well! I made sure to have time at the end of the lesson to allow them to share with one another.

I will be teaching more and more now. It took up until now to start teaching due to the fact that I was so sick and then Holiday came up! My mentor teacher, Carlie, is great about including me in classroom ideas and using me to help the students. I am enjoying my students more each day and am still learning so much about this school. The staff is still great and they are so much fun to work with!

Let Me Catch You Up!

I have been up to quite a bit since the last time I wrote and because of that I haven't been able to update this very often.

Let me catch you up...

On July 23rd I headed out to the Hyde Park Barracks where convicts were first taken when they arrived here many years ago. The building has since been partially restored but you can still see the original signs on doorways and the floor boards - even where the rats used to live! There were lots of artifacts that they have restored and put on display such as pipes, clothes and parts of books. They are still to this day finding things in and under the building to put up on display. It did a great job of telling the history of the convicts here and around the world.

Inside Hyde Park Barracks where the convicts slept

The Original Hyde Park Barracks building

The same day I also went to a show at the Opera House called Classical Mystery Tour. There were four men who looked and sang just like The Beatles. They sang with a full symphony back up. AMAZING! I have never heard music so grand. The four men did a fantastic job, they were really amazing singers and they even dressed up in different costumes for the different songs. They sang all The Beatles songs exactly as they were written! It was a sold out show for 3 nights running.

On July 24th a friend and I went to Manly Beach. We took a ferry (about 45 minutes) over and sat and watched all the surfers surfing. It was quite entertaining! The weather was warm and sunny.

July 25th my friend AJ and I went down to The Rocks, it is a market here on the weekend where craftsman from Australia sell their arts and crafts. It is the best market I have been to! I found some really awesome things to bring back. AJ hadn't been across the Harbor Bridge yet so we walked across it and found ourselves at another market. We then headed down to Luna Park. It is an old carnival type park that has been in Sydney under the Harbor Bridge for over 100 years. You have to walk under this clown face to get into it. It is quite creepy. We only spent about an hour inside as the rides were extremely expensive and there was no way I was getting on any of them.

Creepy clown entrance


One of my favorite photos I've taken here. The Ferris Wheel at Luna Park. Look at that blue sky!

School started back up on July 28th and I wasn't quite ready to go back. I was excited to see my students again, but not so thrilled to get up at 7am when I was used to going to bed around 4am. The first day back was pretty relaxing as the kids wanted to tell us everything they had done.

I ended up going to another show at the Sydney Opera House called Pericles. It was a Shakespeare play and I honestly couldn't tell you what is was about. Even though it was really hard to understand I found parts of it entertaining and was overall happy to have visted yet another theater inside the Opera House. I was able to spend some time with friends as well, which is always a good thing.

The second day back to school was a sports carnival day. This meant that every student and teacher walked about a mile away to an oval (field) and participated in track events. For the day, every student from kindie to year 5 participated in the 100, 200, 400 and 800 sprints as well as long jump. They all did a great job and it was quite fun to see them all participate! They were very tired the next day which made it easy to teach them.

This is the entire school in their respected houses (teams) before they started their carnival day.

The students are also creating an art project to auction off as a fundraiser during one of the parent nights coming up. Each classroom is in charge of creating an art project and my class is doinig a Phoenix (from the constellations) and it is turning out well!

This is the art project we are doing. Where those little circles are, stars are going to go. There are enough for each student to paint one. The young woman in the red is my mentor teacher, Miss Tuite. She is AWESOME!


Some of my students working on gluing down the feathers

Friday night I was able to meet up with my cousin Shaylene from my Dad's side. Her, her husband and I met up at a place called Blackbird Cafe at Darling Harbor. It was good to see her again and sit down and have a meal.

This last Saturday was the last Saturday everyone will be together before they start taking off so we decided to go out. We went to a few places and had a great time and finished the night at Pancakes on the Rocks which is a lot like Denny's or Shari's but SO much better! I have been told that you haven't truly experienced Sydney until you've eaten there, so we went. Apparently people start lining up hours before it opens to eat there. Good thing they are open 24 hours a day!

This is Tobias, me and Dani!

This is all of us before we went out for the night - Me, AJ, Heather P., Janelle, Katie, Dani, Lydia and Jack.

I hope everyone is doing well. It would be great to hear from some of you! Shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment.