Week 2...Teaching!

Week 2...Day 13 in the Land Down Under :)

Hello! This week has been very fun for me socially, as well as somewhat stressful as I have begun my MI unit in the class!

I've begun making a list of differences I notice between the lifestyles and schools here, and back home...so allow me to list a few before you go on and read about my week:

Differences
*Full Stop=period (yeah, apparently the don't call that 'dot' at the end of a sentence a period like we do...my kids gave me the weirdest looks when I tried to make them add "periods"...not called that here apparently!
*Z= Zed...yup...they really call it "zed"...not a joke
*Everything closes at 5pm....other than Thursday night which is 'late night shopping' till 9pm...ohhhhh...(oh Taco Bell...I miss those 2am runs :()
*Cheers,g'day mate, no worries= common phrases
*That's alright= your welcome (people always say this when I say thank you...makes me think I did something wrong)
*Cricket and Netball= like baseball and basketball, but both different...netball you can't dribble...cricket has a flat fat bat and is just weird
*Kangeroo crossing signs...they seriously are like our deer (we had one run across in front of our car!)
*Use Metric system...kinda confusing...although it was pretty funny to see a school zone sign with a speed limit sign for 60! (KM per Hour)...but still
*Hungry Jacks= Burger King (exact same restaurant...but that name was already copyrighted or something like that over hear so they had to use a different one!)

Ok that's all I feel like writing for now...on to my week of teaching experiences!

Teaching Experience:

I had the kids come up with questions about Michigan, and make a concept map about what they know, or think they know about our State...boy did I get some interesting ideas! Funny questions:
1) What is the name of Michigan's President (the same as every other US state's president...lol)
2) Do they have X-box 360s there? (Yes...they came from America)
3) Do people catch crocodiles? (ummm maybe in the zoos??)

Misconceptions
Michigan is in South America
USA, AMERICA, and UNITED STATES are all different places
Michigan has a president
Michigan is as big or bigger than their state of Western Australia (really MI could fit in WA 17 times!)

We did an activity on Tuesday where the kids traced their hands to make the two peninsulas and then wrote in facts from a song I played about Michigan. They are soo artistic! I set up for penpals with a 3rd grade class at my old school I taught at previously. I brought in a puppet cardnial named Connie, who traveled from MI with a letter from the other class, asking if they would be penpals(I know..I'm awesome). The kids were sooo excited! We wrote letters back today and they received letters from their penpals friday morning.

Thursday I went on an excursion to Penguin Island with the year 5's. We saw Fairy Penguins, which I've included a picture of on the side. They are the smallest penguins in the World...about 1 1/2 ft tall! We also went on a seal lion cruise, found them laying on an island, sunbathing...living the good life ya know :) The boat we were on had a clear bottom pane that you could look through and see the Ocean below. So pretty! When we returned from the Island we played a mock game of the Olympics, where the students were split up representing 10 different countries (w/o the American flag represented I might add...prolly cause we would dominate.)
I also got to see a ventriloquist that night! He was super funny and used a bunch of different puppets...including a Scottish rabbit.

Social Activities
Before coming to Perth I got connected with a girl named Anna who had stayed with a guy who is a children's author in Grand Rapids, who I just so happened to buy a book from about MI, mention I was coming here...and whala, connection made! We went out to dinner and the movies Monday night in Leederville...saw 500 days of summer! (which I had seen before..but actually really liked the 2nd time ) I met four of her girlfriends and they are all soo cool/fun. One of them actually live quite close to me:) I actually am starting to have a social life now! They invited me to to the premier of New Moon...the second Twilight movie next wednesday. They are showing Twilight at 9pm...and then New Moon at 12:30pm. We couldn't get the midnight showing cause guess how much the tickets were?...$40!!! (crazy right?) Movies here are really expensive anyway...like 15$ to go...hello student prices?? (I miss my $6 movies :() But yeah...I might die that night cause I prolly wont get home till three...then up at 6am for school. Responsible choice? no. Once in a life time experience with cool Aussi girls? yes! (its only sleep people)

I Haven't been good about posting this week...sooo busy! So that's all for now...and I'll tell you about my weekend soon...w/in the next two days for sure! Love you Love you Love you! TILL NEXT TIME...STAY WARM!

Rachael