Caboolture Campus

I want to start by saying I cannot believe I forgot to mention my roommate! Her name is Kelli and she is pretty awesome. I was completely unaware that I would be having a "sister" during my stay but it has been amazing. She is very outgoing and we get along very well. She is working on her birth-grade 3 license and is from Kansas.

Now on to our first day of orientation (Monday) which was very eventful. One of the highlights was having to learn how to write in Australian. We were given whiteboards and markers and practiced writing the alphabet. The letters all look the same (except the lowercase k and the uppercase G) but instead of being rounded like we write our letters in the US they are more jagged. It was a hoot and I realized that I can write in Australian much better with my left hand. (Also, many of their words do not have z's instead there are s's. Realize = realise. and their z is pronounced zed when talked about in isolation. So pizza is spelled p-i-zed-zed-a... it's the little things!)

Flat Lincoln and I learning about the Australian schools and all of their abbreviations.

The second highlight of the day was when we were able to sit in on a first year assessments class. It was exactly like the assessment course I took in the states. The great part was the girls sitting in front of us kept slightly turning their heads and giggling. We had no idea what they were doing until after we were introduced to the class as "American visitors". They turned around and told us we had the--I'm not kidding here--coolest accents!! I about died. I said no, our accents are pretty lame. You all have the cool accents. It made my day. The last highlight will be more exciting for my teacher friends... but we were given two strategies to help us teach in the classroom. One strategy was the Six Hats. Each hat is a different color and represents a different way to look at a situation in order to analyze it. For instance the white hat has you look at the obvious facts about the situation. The other strategy is called the Thinker's Keys and has 20 ways to get students thinking about situations differently. For instance, you start the class off by giving them an answer to something and the students have to come up with five questions that would make sense with the answer.

So far I have only seen the college side of the educational system and have had a peek into what the elementary system is like. I noticed that the classes we sat in on were darn near mirror to the ones I had sat through in the states. They teach the same theorists and strategies which makes it a lot easier to transition into their schools. Many of the classes were giving presentations and it was easy to see that they were all student centered and hands on. Even being an adult I was very engaged with the lessons they were teaching us as ‘year five students’. With all of these it is easy to see that they value each individual’s learning needs instead of a uniform way of teaching all students.

What I have seen and read so far about the elementary system plays off what we saw in the college classes. They are very student centered. There are many breaks throughout the day for students to play outside and have breaks from learning. The teachers also have ‘non-contact time’ away from the students. From my understanding this time comes in increments throughout the day and not just in one time chunk. This is time for the teachers to prepare their lessons.

I am looking forward to Monday when I get to meet the students. I have brought along a book from MN about the North Woods in order to help the students understand where I am from—and the fact that it is still snowing there, in April. I have not had the privilege to really work with such a young age and I am looking forward to the challenge; especially after our Australian handwriting lessons. I feel slightly nervous about teaching year one students when I write in a different dialect so to speak. I will discuss this with my teacher the first day and see if she would like me to attempt to write more like an Australian.

The campus itself was beautiful. A lot of outdoor spaces to hang out and relax and it was so GREEN.  still can't get over the green. Sources from MN say that there is snow in the forecast. Horrid. We will be able to explore more of the campus on Wednesday during our visit as well as sit in on some of the classes. I'm excited to see how they compare to back home!

Today (Tuesday) we took the tram to Brisbane and went shopping! I was very excited because I was able to talk to my family in the morning before I left :) I purchased lots of gifts for family and friends and also made quite a ridiculous purchase for myself. But it was worth it. It is a little coin purse, real leather, that I found at the UGG store. The design caught my eye. It has the map of Australia on it. I spent more than anyone should on a coin purse but it is beautiful. The fashion trends are very different from what we have in the states right now and I hope they don't make their way over. High wasted shorts that show half of your butt cheeks.... I'm pretty sure I would be picking wedgies all day. They do NOT look comfortable. By the end of the shopping I was so tired. The tram ride back went by fast - an hour both ways.

On our way to Brisbane!

A beautiful sculpture/mural above the shops in the main part of the mall.

The center of the strip had some restaurants and it was lined with shops.

Now I am just sitting here waiting for 6:00 because I have a date with my homestay family, my roommate, and maybe another girl from the program. We are going to see Host. It sounds pretty good :)  ADD IN: the movie was great! I loved all the actors. When we got to the movie theatre the gentleman selling us the tickets asked us where we would like to sit. I just looked at him. I have never been to a movie theatre that sells seats. What a wonderful idea! The employees can see how many seats they have left and where they are. An easy way to catch the kids sneaking in.

I promise I will upload pictures when I get back from the movie. Not like anyone will know.. It's 2:30am right now!:)

More orientation into the Australian curriculum tomorrow and then the Aussie Zoo on Thursday!