Mood:  chillin'

Hello Peoples!

Im sorry i havnt been able to update lately but things have been really hectic and schoolwork has been consuming my time. sigh.  

Last week I had two assessments due. One in Engaging Diverse Learnes where me and john had to create a unit plan, a microteaching lesson plan and two more individual lesson plans. We then have to present our microteaching in two weeks. The second assessment was for Early Years:Literacies where we has to write a 2000 word essay on Literacy in the 21st century. As for this week i only have one due and thats a proposal for Early Years:Maths. And then to celebrate finishing those assignments Nate and I will be heading to the beach! YAY! I have yet to go to a beach here so im excited t check out Surfers paradise.

As for Prac its going really well. I start my Craft Club this Tuesday which im pretty excited about. We are going t make Zebras with cups and spoons and paint. Should be good, hopefuly at least lol. This week coming is Book Week at the school as well and all the grad students were tasked with decorating the entrance way to reflect the theme "Book safari". I think we did a damn good job lol. Check out the pics below.

Bookweek Pics: http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Bookweek/

Its technically spring here now, well that inbetween winter and spring time which means all the bugs are emerging. The hosue flies here are the size of bumblebees - not cool. Nate named one fred # 1 :) ..and then we killed him cuz he was making too much noise when we were trying to sleep. Other then the flies we've found some weird /huge flying insects and some just generally weird bugs that i usually just try and keep my distance from. However thats not always possible, like when a week or two ago we noticed a fairly big spider in the bathroom. I made nathan kill it and all was forgotten. Then the next morning or the one after I had to get up super early in order to shower before prac. Which was fine till i got in the shower and looked behind me to find a giant spider. In actuality it wasnt all that big - maybe twice the size of a toonie (including legs) but still . so i jumped out of the shower and tried to shake it off the curtain and into the water. When i finally knocked it into the water and got all excited .. it just stood up and walked out of the water! gah! so plan b was squishing it with a container and then pushing it down the drain. Mwaha Spiders = 0 Amanda and Nathan = 2 ... and we must pissed off the spider gods or the mom of those two babies cuz well.. maybe you should just watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmnQVHwWJS8

As for the weather, we are in a "Winter Heat Wave" wich means 30ish temperature weather at 9am lol . not horrible but it makes me scared for summer. :S

Anywho thats all thats really new and exiciting here. I miss my friends terribly but am glad i can still somewhat be there for them when they need me. Much love guys!

Miss my family tons too, altho ive been able to call home and talk to mom and dad at least once a week so it def makes it easier..calling them also gives me something to do when im up at 5am avoiding spider rooms lol Even if they both did laugh at us lol. Love you mom and dad <3

Ps. I saw these knife holders in the store and thought it was halarious. I like the person one but the hearts cute too. At the very least i thought chris would find them amusing.

http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/?action=view&current=DSCN0778.jpg

 Until the next time i can update: I love and miss you all!! ..ou and Timmies bagels ...

Mood:  don't ask

School assignments are owning my life right now. I promise a huge update this weekend! ...and maybe some pics too!

Mood:  not sure

Hello Peoples, Sorry i havnt been able to update but ive had one hell of a week. On the good side ive survived my first week as Miss Denman : YAY !

 On Tuesday we were moved all around again throughout the day. We finished the day learning about the "Support - A - Talker " program. Which was awesome to learn and gave us some of the resources to work with children that dont speak english or need the extra ESL work. Very very interesting! (for me at least lol ). After school I attended a Professional Development staff meeting where all the grade three teachers (everyone went with the grade they will be teaching) meet and go over different childrens work to see if they agree or not with the level grade that was given to them - they said they'd give me a certificate too which cant hurt the portfolio any :) 

General update as follows :

 Saturday we went shopping so that i could get a hat for prac. cuz you need one to do duty with. I ended up getting a black cowboy hat which turned out ok. Yay cheap hats!

Sunday Nathan and I got up early and took the train to Nunda where they had an awesome farmers market. We got tons of veggies and stuffs for dirt cheap, including one ginormous head of lettuce for 2$. pretty freakin sweet!

As for today, this was my first day of prac! YAY!We will spend the majority of these two weeks being shuffled around to do different jobs in the school so we can really understand and get a sense of what the school is about. I did get my assignment though, I will be working with a 2/3 split class. Unfortunatly the teacher was sick for the past 3 weeks so she didnt even know i was coming but im sure once she gets settled again everything will be ok. One cool thing about today though was that we all got trained in the Support-a-reader program and assign two kids with need work reading. So for the next two weeks everyday i get to work one on one with 2 different kids (15mins each). Im really excited about this.After that i had lecture so it was a really long day. Then as we were coming down our walkway we saw a Cane Toad! I vaguly remembered reading about it being really venomous (and lets face it everything here is poisonous lol) so i didnt want to go near it but it would hop out of our way. So nathan, being the gentleman that he is, stomped on the ground near it till it hopped into the bush enough that i would walk down the walkway. Turns out (and nathan knew this the entire time hence wy he got so close to it) its only poisionous if you lick it or ingest it. stupid cane toad.  Anyhow didnt make it home till after 10pm tonight and im zonked but ill try and give another update soon!!

Ps Check out the photos of the food from the farmers market and my school! Sorry no frog pics, i just wanted him to go away!

http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Random/ 

Mood:  celebratory

YAY its Friday!!

So far this week went by really fast, always a good thing i guess.  All the classes are preping us for our two week immersion that starts next week. Its exciting in a sense that we can fully absorb the school atmosphere by becoming apart of that school and the people in it without inturruptions. However it also sucks in that now im at the school from 815-3ish and then on top of that i have to listen to online recordings of my lectures and tutorials to make sure i dont fall behind. add that to my assesments and i have no time for anything else. sad days. As for this weekend, really try and get the majority of two of my assesments done, or at least all the research done. hopefully. maybe. try to? lol.

 Have a great weekend!

Weekend Update!

Friday : Not too much happened on friday. I had a 9am class then a three hour break then another lecture (Early Years: Field Studies). Then headed home to clean and such before Nate got back from his placement. When he did get home he had the most FANTASTIC news: instead of being shuffled around for 5 weeks from classroom to classroom (this is what normally happends when we go to school one day a week) they asked him to design, create and teach a drama program in the school!!! how freaking awesome is that?! SO PROUD OF YOU BABE!

Saturday: was spent mostly relaxing after a hectic first week. That plus National Treasure was on Tv so i couldnt not watch it. hee hee

Sunday i wasnt feeling that well so just read all day and did some laundry.

As for today: i started it off horribly by my alarm not going off and me (thank god) waking up at the exact time i was supposed to be leaving the house. Luckily i still made it to school for my 8am class. then just hung out researching learning tool and songs i could possibly use in my lesson plan. Because of doing this i walked around with the bear hunting song and fred the moose in my head for the rest of the entire day. Which was annoying as hell at least until Nathan's class was done then i just sang them to him hee hee. You shoulda seen the looks of ppl passing by the library as i watch sesme street on youtube while waiting for nate. it was so funny!

**Shoutout to Mike: Happy Birthday!! ***

 Anyhow im off to bed. Goodnight moon

Ps: i find out which school ill be doing my prac at tomorrow...hopefully ill get the one a couple blocks from my house *crosses fingers*

Mood:  happy

 Hello All!

 Nothing crazy happening today. I had class at 9 am (Early Years: Mathematics Tutorial) which was fun cause we got to play kids math games on the comp! it was pretty sweet lol. After that i hung out on the comp for an hour while i waited for Nathans class to finish up. Ended up chooseing the three schools for prac. YAY being productive! Then checked out the campus groups that were all around the main part of campus while enjoying the awesome +24 winter weather. Then headed home and opened all the windows and doors, turned up Meatloaf [cue crazy dancing and singing] and cleaned the entire place again. All in all a great day! Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Phrase Of The Day:  You shouldnt stick it in my ear orifice, you coulda blinded me!

BAHAHHAHAHAHAHA

and now for my new list of awesomeness:

Things Ive Learned Since Being in Australia:

1. Just cause a snake is sleeping doesnt mean you should poke it. **cough**NATHAN**cough**

2. The bigger the spider, the less dangerous it is.

3. You never know how great indoor heating is until you take it away.

4. Dunkin Doughnuts has got NOTHING on Timmies...[ aww i miss bagels]

5. Talking about Timmies makes you long for it even more. le sigh.

6. Only in Aust. can you walk down the road in t-shirts and shorts and look next to you and see a person with a winter coat and scarf.

7. Dancing around and singing to Meatloaf isnt nearly as much fun without your family around belting it out with you.

General update as follows: honeslty didnt do anything all that exciting this weekend. We decided just to take it easy seeing as we dont know when we will have that chance again with school starting and everything.

As for today, i had my first day of classes. Started it off with an 8am class in Early Years: Literacies. Went prety well. then had another one at 11 (Early years: Mathematics). Prof was kind dull but nothing to bad. Last class went from 4-7 and it was Diverse learners. It was actually really interesting. Had a good time and looking forward to this class next week. Unfortunatly with school comes 2 essays and 1 group project in the next few weeks. Peachy.... ugh well i have a migrane so im off to sleep. Night all!

Ps Happy 3 Years Babe! <3

So today we got up insanly early so we could catch the 715 bus and then the train then the other bus to get to the zoo. Finally at 930 ish we arrived! YAY! We saw some awesome animals throughout the day, but i do have to say that the Toronto Zoo is much much better lol. The Australian Zoo is more hands on tho which is kinda cool, you can go pet kangaroos and koalas and they do an AMAZING show where they shows a ton of animals (elephants that walk by , snakes in the pool, birds that fly around your head while they talk, and of course the crocs!) . At the beginning of the show the guy was calling out countries to see where ppl were from and he said canada and nate and i yelled ! LOL everyone looked at us cuz we were the only ones to yell heheee Go CANADA! It was really cool. They also have giant tributes to Steve Irwin all around the park. Sadly tho i forgot to charge my camera before we left so i have no pics of the tigers or the asia part of the zoo, but i did get a yrs pass so next time i go i will take pics of the ones i missed. All in all a good day.

http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Zoo/

Oh btw i forgot to write it on here but when i went to the international meeting i met some really awesome people. Including a guy named Keenan who is oddly enough from Pickering! Small world eh!?