One month in the One Month In The New Job

I asked my students the other day, what is something you don't like. One student said that she hates leaving the house in the night time. Another said she didn't like that the sun shined in her face in the second hour of school. I can totally understand their pain!

The last two weeks I've been getting accustomed to the daily weekday routine.

I wake up always feeling like a mess.

Like my students, I leave my house in the night-time. In order to arrive to school 10 minutes before classes start/my contractual times, I leave the house just after 7am. For your information, even in Summer 7am looks a little something like this:

And when I arrive to school and the kids are outside playing before the bell, the view from my classroom window looks like this:

Taken 5 minutes before school starts... you can see the crack of dawn!

The days are long, and I can have up to 6 meetings in a week (This week alone is 11!), but with each meeting I learn a little more about what I need to do and how I to fit in around here. I must say though that I feel very welcomed. There's even a certificate to prove it!

We have been learning all about our wonderful selves. On the day we had to take things to school that were important to me, I brought in my Teddy I was given at birth wearing the too-big clothes my Nanna knit him. He was very happy to spend the day with 1D.

All parents and students are happy with me and my teaching style at school. The kids were so loving when they said goodbye that a group hug of 12 girls resulted in broken shoes! It made for an interesting walk home.

A highlight of my day is definitely lunch time. It is still a novelty to be served my choice of a hot lunch each day, with access to a salad bar and a dessert.

It must be mentioned though that I don't envy the kids lunches. From Pre-kinder to 2nd class there are no choices and what you see is what you get.

The weather of March has been a string of 30something °C days. It is only now, in the last week of March that we have had some rain and 20ish °C. Today, I saw the first touches of snow on the mountains from school.

School is also starting to absorb some of my Saturdays. Cross Country is this Saturday, and then an all day seminar in a fortnights time.

I guess it's time to go out and buy some winter clothes!

Personally, all is doing very well. A lot of relaxing evenings and weekends have been had. The Walking Dead is the latest series we are watching, though I can't go 5 minutes without criticising something ridiculous from the show (mainly the dumb sheriff's uniform, or the unnecessary speaking in low tones or redundant commands the protagonists are always giving.) Here's hoping it gets better... there must be SOME reason it is still on air!

We are also *finally* getting a microwave delivered! 6 months of searching the shops, I have finally found one that ticks almost all my boxes. I can't wait to open it when I get home tonight!

We have also been one month without internet in the house. Despite contacting the company about 10 times, and having 2 technicians, we're yet to see improvement. Fingers crossed that the technician does come tonight and will fix our problem once and for all!

Have a happy Easter week everyone:)

First fortnight of School

Oh what a physically and mentally fortnight it has been accommodating with the ordeal of starting at a new school!

My first day of work was reserved just for new teachers. Presentation after presentation occurred introducing key-staff members, an outline of the school, human resources information, training about insurance, simulation of putting out fires with fire extinguishers and meeting our direct bosses while receiving our timetables.

The next week was a week full of staff meetings. Some meetings were held with all 300+ teaching staff, other in divisions of 60+ people, others in year levels of 12 people. Some presentations were completely in Spanish, others in English. Some lasted an hour, others for a day. The time outside of scheduled meetings were left to set up the room for the year, so I spent that time balancing on chairs stapling wall displays, creating alphabet friezes and other displays as well as filling in the blanks of our timetable.

I am teaching Year 1. There are two teachers in the room, with 26 students. The subjects to be taught are English and Reading, Mathematics, Humanities, Science and IT, Physical Health and Well Being, while a subject teacher covers the class for PE, Religion, Art, Music and Spanish.

This week has been a full week with the kids. Just like all first-week-of schools, I have come home absolutely exhausted bordering on feeling ill. Nevertheless, I have loved working with young children, I am learning a lot and contributing a lot of ideas from my own experience that this school has never seen before.

As I am not sharing any sensitive information about work, unfortunately there are no pictures.
I've also bought a new phone on an 18 month plan - and I love it very much :)

So to compensate for the lack of school photos here is a picture of my wet birds from my new phone.