Mood:  happy

Hey everyone!

Okay so I realize I haven’t updated the blog in ..well a very long time so here’s what’s been happening as of late:

I'm FINALLY done my prac! Wooot! Four long long weeks of hard work. I ended up doing some really awesome stuff with them including making healthy food superheros We discussed aspects that make a superhero and started with an apple and then added things with their suggestions. We did this again with the evil Chocolate Chump as one of the kids named him . I then showed them the examples Nate drew for my class. They loved them. (Pics:   http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Classroom/ ) My final report was really good too so it all worked out for the best. The kids were sad to see me go but I've made them a promise to come back once a week to visit and teach. Plus its good practise for me without the pressure of being marked.  On my final day  (oct 30) I did a big presentation for the kids on Halloween. If your wondering why its because they don’t celebrate it here. I didn’t dress up but Nate decided to for his prac – he went as Canadian Man LOL it looked awesome actually. Speaking of Halloween, Nate and I decided to go out with some of his Canadian friends which turned out to be a bust so we ended up bailing early and heading home but not before taking some random photos at KGS. J Pics of Halloween : http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Halloween/

A few weeks ago nate and I heard about the new opening of King George square so we went to check it out. Not gunna lie we went cuz they were giving free food LOL what can I say we’re starving students :P it ended up being really awesome! Their were some drummers and circus ppls. We watched the drummers for a bit and I got a few videos of them – they don’t really do them justice but still pretty cool. Also pretty sweet was when they did the hour long show where every native tribe from Australia came out and preformed their tribal dances while they sang / played the Didgeridoo. It was awesome to see them all dressed in their tribal outfits. It was also neat to see the differences among the outfits and dances.  Wat was not cool was the sunburn I received while watching the natives. Not impressed face. Pics and Videos:  http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/KGS%20opening/

On an exciting note – if you havnt already heard – I got a new haircut! Its much cooler considering the crazy hot weather were having here. Haircut pics: http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/haircut/

Speaking of, the weather here has been really crazy. We’ve hit the highest temps in Brisbane in 9 yrs for the month of Nov. Just today it was 38 and extremely humid. My friend described it perfectly when she said its like someone blowing a blow-dryer in your face. Add that to the fact that the sun is much stronger here then what I'm used to and it gets pretty crazy.  As I'm writing this I can currently hear thunder so I'm assuming the heat and humidity are causing a storm that should be hitting fairly soon. – Gah news just said theirs a storm warning in effect – big storm with strong winds and large hail. How you  can have hail when its this hot I do not know.... if it does hail ill be sure to take pics.

Along with this heat come of course the crazy amount of weird bugs and animals that seem to be everywhere here. Such as when I went to do the dishes just to see a large spider there (I named him 6 legged Mel since hes missing 2 legs..), a large lizard that I was told is a water monitor, barking geckos everywhere outside, and an insane amount of houseflies. I've never seen so many houseflies in one spot before but they’re everywhere.  Here are some pics of the different animals I've encountered lately (including a beautiful white horse we saw out one day and I thought of Jen and took pics so she could see lol) : http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Animals%20and%20Such/

Lastly the other night Nate and I decided to have a date night and go out to dinner and then to see the new 2012 movie. Had a blast that night, movie turned out to be really good. It had alot of potential  to be better but I cant complain. Coolest part of the night  had to be that the theatre has a liquor license and therefore a full bar along with the popcorn at the concession stand. Pretty sweet actually.  Heres some pics: http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Movie%20Night/

Well I think thats it for now. I promise to update more often now that things have settled down. And ill write tomorrow and give an update on the storm that is now shaking the house.....

Mood:  hungry

Alright I’m going to start off by saying that i had over  1500 words typed out for one hell of an update and then my internet crashed without warning and i lost it all. - So not impressed right now.

First of all let me apologize for the lack of updating the past few weeks have been really really hectic for both of us.

 Week one of prac:

Week one, although busy turned out to be alright. I had a full week with a supply teacher since my teacher decided to extend her vacation by a week lol. I was nervous at first seeing as the last supply this class had hated me but I lucked out and got the nicest one ever. Her name is Brenda and she pretty much told me I could take on whatever I wanted to and could teach whatever I wanted to during the week. She also consulted with me and everything. I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better supply teacher. During this week I got to teach a bunch of lessons, my fav. being the maths-space lesson on compasses. I channeled my inner Chris LOL and taught them all how to hold/use a compass to find north. After I taught them that we did an enhancing activity where I had 15 shapes laid out on the floor in a grid shape and the kids had to stand on one of them. I then gave them an instruction for them to move – ex: move one spot to the south-west and they had to use the compass to find out first where north was in the classroom and then where south-west was. They loved it. I also got to teach and help them make a weather mobile which was pretty fun.  Another highlight of the week was that the Channel 9 weather guy came to the school and did a big presentation with the four 2/3 classes. They were all  really excited to be on tv that night. At the end of the week I asked Brenda if shed mind giving Penny (my classroom teacher) a review of my teaching over the week. Luckily she sent it to me too. So here is the review Brenda gave me:

It has been a total pleasure working with Amanda for the week. Lucky you, having such a talented pre-service teacher for the next few weeks!

Amanda has a lovely manner with the students and they respond well to her. Her planning is good; her provision of teaching materials is imaginative, educationally sound and fun. Amanda is organised and, probably most important of all, not at all fazed by sudden changes to the timetable. Which was just as well at the beginning of the week!

I might just add one thing. Not long ago I talked to another pre-service teacher (at another school) who declared she hated poetry and would never teach it. Hmmm... Amanda, on the other hand, appreciates poetry in her personal life, and was a marvellous person to have with the class when we were crafting poetic metaphors. We need more teachers who are passionate about poetry!

Pretty Sweet Eh?? I was still nervous about having Penny come back and mark me but this review was a real confidence booster.

Week Two of Prac:

This week started out the best possible way – with a phone call home on Monday morning (Sunday night – Thanksgiving) to chat with everyone. It was FANTASTIC to hear everyone’s voice although it made me miss the craziness that is our family get-togethers.  I miss hanging out with Jess and Maddie before dinner just catching up on life and dancing all crazy with Jess, Maddie, Mom, Aunt Kat and Aunt Jen  after dinner. Oh and of course the never ending “turn it down” … “turn it up” battle that always ensues. Aw how I miss you guys <3

Anyhow back to my week. Monday I got to start teaching my new unit on healthy eating/foods with the kids. I started by having them write down everything they know about healthy foods. Lets just say that only 5 of them could name at least one food group the other twenty didn’t have a clue. It kinda worked out better for me anyways since I had made a GIANT food pyramid for them (Pics: http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Classroom/ ). Unfortunately my teacher isn’t the kind that gives you both good and bad feedback – she just gives the bad. And while I’m glad that she’s being honest with the things I need to work on I still wish she could throw in a “good job” in there. So add the constant criticism to two weeks of exhaustion and then a meeting with the vice principle in which we (the other pre-service teachers and myself) found out that the teachers have been saying some brutal stuff about us – the biggest problem is we aren’t sure what is directed at whom. Both guys also found out they are in danger of failing. So this built up and lead to a mini breakdown on Wednesday night. Fortunately I have the best boyfriend ever and he was able to make me feel better and then on top of everything  he made me my fav cheesy dinner. Whenever im feeling like this my fave thing to listen to is “Life Aint Always Beautiful” by Gary Allen some of the lyrics just fit so well:

Life ain't always beautiful
Sometimes it's just plain hard
Life can knock you down, it can break your heart

Life ain't always beautiful
You think you're on your way
And it's just a dead end road at the end of the day

But the struggle makes you stronger
And the changes make you wise
And happiness has it's own way of takin' it sweet time

No, life aint always beautiful
Tears will fall sometimes
Life aint always beautiful
But it's a beautiful ride

Nice eh? … anyhow Thursday I unfortunately woke up with the beginnings of a cold and by Friday my voice was disappearing. I made a judgment call and decided to stay home Friday and try to get better. Sadly its now Sunday and I still have it. Oh well life must go on.

Bugs, Birds and Geckos..oh my!

Bugs: so some of you may have heard that the other day we had the BIGGEST flying beetle thing I’ve ever seen. Pics on the link below

Birds: I was walking home from prac one day after a huge thunderstorm and looked at the tree across the street and saw 7 or so parrots sitting in a tree. Kinda cool.  Pic below also.

Geckos:  Nate was cooking dinner one night and told me to grab my camera. Turns out the light from to kitchen was attracting the moths and bugs outside and so the geckos were climbing all over our windows catching and eating all the bugs. The prob is that they are fast skittish buggers lol so we got a pic of ones belly but that’s the best we could do. Its also below.

Pics: http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Bugs%20Birds%20and%20Geckos%20Oh%20My/

On another note I uploaded the mothers day videos to youtube as well as papas video . Unfortunatly they blocked the sound on papas video (boo) but the other ones are ok. Links below:

Little Guy : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdb1Nzjq_hI

My little girl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaLSJfm7Ktc

Papas Video (without the sound) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp1a7FD0iBk

And Finally a song to make every country girl feel good about themselves:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ-Xl7ykddk

Countdown to the end of my prac: 2 weeks and 1 day

Countdown to the end of Nates prac: 4 weeks

As for right now, im not so patiently awaiting Nates home made lasagna....

Mood:  happy

Hello

Not very much happening here. Saturday I woke up and called home but unfortunatly that got cut short - boo! After that Nate and I went shopping at the craft store where i got my next activity for the kids (Puzzles - the get to make their own :D ) Then we came home and cooked some dinner and watched some movies. OH! we also saw a few geckos!! due to the warm weather they are out again and decided that our kitchen window was the best spot to catch moths. Very cute bellys they have :). As for today, i had a meeting with my classroom teacher really early so Nate had to go to the farmers market alone. The meeting went well. Since shes not going to be there for my first week she made huge lists of stuff ill be taking on this first week, Then once she comes back ill be teaching the healthy food pyramid, how to make a healthy food poster, and comic book language. should be fun. then for their assessment ill be marking their healthy food posters advertising healthy food for the Tuck shop. After that i went and got some groceries. Then we both met up back at home and have been preping ourselves for prac tomorrow. Wish me luck. Ill update again Wed (hopefully) to let you all know how im holding up.

Sidenote: What kinda country doesnt have Garlic salad dressing?! - Not Cool.

Countdown to the end of my prac: 4 weeks
Countdown to the end of Nates prac: 6 weeks

Hey Ppls,

 Hope all of your week is going well. Nate and I decided to take today off and instead of going to the zoo we decided to go to the science center. Its way smaller then the one at home but still fun. Here are our awesome super pics :) http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/science%20center/ 

Anyhow we are finally done first semster WOO! only thing left for us is prac. which starts next week. So wish us luck!

Side Note: CRAZY weather going on in the surounding countries lately. Tsunamis , Earthquakes and Typhoons :s horrible! Thankfully nothing here altho they are warning us of another sandstorm to come either tomorrow or Saturday!

Mood:  cheeky

Me: I love you

Nate: How Much?

Me: all the words in all the books in the world.

Nate: well  I love you all the letters that make up the words in all the books.

Me: so like 26? ..sad days... :(

LOL

This one's for you Mr. Nathan :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npE8QdDtN4I

I watched this video and it made me cry and miss my daddy even more then usual.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzmgAM8rIgo

I LOVE YOU DADDY!

Mood:  happy

Heya!

Not too much exciting happening round here. The sandstorm (thank god) never got as bad as Sydney had it. Made all of Brisbane yellow but other then that was fairly ok. I took a bunch of pics from our house so you can check out things from our perspective (Note there is two photos at the end that show what it should look like sans dust.) http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Dust%20Storm/ 

As for today, Nate and I decieded to head down to Southbank and check out the Great Brisbane duck Race where they race rubber duckys down the river. When we got down there we noticed that there was a really odd circus  (and by odd i mean "Check out the man that breathes thru his eyes!" kinda odd- yes that was an actual tent). So we checked out the duck race and it was kinda lame so we walked the boardwalk for a bit. They had giant boads with childrens interpretations of the city along to boardwalk. It was so awesome. If you knocked on the board it played the childrens voices explaining their board. Very cool. and i guess it was the school too that covered all the trees in empty water bottles. Anyhow it was CRAZY hot out today and i started feeling really sick and gross so nate and i went into the movie place to get some a/c for a bit and decided to treat ourselves to a movie. We went to see fame and i have to say i wasnt that impressed with the lack of any realy plot. oh well. After that we just headed home. All in all a good day date :)

Pics from the day: http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Duck%20Race%20Day/ 

As for this coming week i have one more assessment to finish and then perhaps Zoo on thursday?

Mood:  down

Hey All!

Nothing all that exciting to update ppls on, hence the lack of updating. Both Nate and I have an insane amount of assessments due in the next two weeks so we havnt done anything exciting at all.

 Well that pretty much sums it up. How sad is that ... le sigh. lol

On an up note Terry (our landlord) made us some banana bread cake as a thank you for not killing Fred # 2. .. she didnt know about the attempted vaccuum incident. the bread was delicious tho once i picked the gross stuff out of it  :)

On another note: I miss home. terribly.

Hello Everyone!

This week overall has been fairly good. Tuesday at prac I worked with mostly with Ned (a austistic boy) in my class so that i can put into practise the techniques my teacher told me to teach him. It actually went really well overall. For my craft club the kids worked really well and ended up making so amazing masks! They also loved the examples Nate and i made for them, i made the blue and the green ones, Nate made the spiderman one. The school then asked us grad students to come back on thursday for the Mystery Festival. Every year the school (mainly the parents)puts on this day of experiments and general mystery for all the students. They start the day with the entire student body watching a play that the parents wrote. This year the play was about a bunch of people flying around in a spaceship looking to buy property on one of six planets: Bubblurn (planet covered in bubbles), Lodestond (planet full of floating rocks), Nomoon (planet covered in aluminium), Geiser (planet covered in geisers), Burnus (planet on fire) or White planet (covered in white chalky discs). After they take off back to earth after visiting the planets they realize that Mr. E (the gr 7 teacher) isnt on the ship, which means hes on one of the planets. They do howvere have his backpack and know that he collects a sample from every plane hes been on. Then the play ends and all the students return to class and the first grade level comes down to do the experiments. They were broken into groups of about 4 kids and each sent to a station (i was station one!!!) to do thier experiments. For each experiment they had to compare the sample given from each planet to the sample in the backpack. If it was the same then Mr E had both been and returned from that planet. They LOVED the experiments, they made lava lamps, became a human battery, made rocks float, and played with dry ice (if you ever get a chance pour water with dish soap in it over some dry ice). Then they got to watch the last two experiments. By the end of their time they had figured out that three of them he has been to and back from, and three thats uncertain. This continues with all of the grades throughout the day then at the end the teachers in their class play the powerpoint which contains 6 huge collages of every student in the school and they had to look in the three planets for Mr Es picture. All in all a fantastic way to encourage science in the school. Here are some pics of me doing the experiments with the grade 6s : http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Working%20with%20the%20kids/

Then improving my week even more was i got my first mark back (their grading scalle goes from 1-7) which was a 5 - (somewhere between a 66-72%) !! I was really excited by this! YAY!

On Sat Nate and I went to the convention center on Southbank for the Education Fair. They had a ton of free stuff however wouldnt give us any cuz we are just pre-service teachers. Once i realized this we spent the rest of the day telling ppl we were actual teachers! lol it was actually alot of fun, cant wait for the real thing! After we finished there we had about 4 hours before the fireworks started at 7pm (even thought there was people claiming their spot at 11 am..)so we went to the mall and grabbed a dice game called Greed$ (which is exactly like Farkle lol) then headed back to the beach. Oh while at the mall we found a lego darth vader (sp?) and a a random hidden pagoda at the beach so we took pics of that too. We wernt really sure where to grab a seat but the guy informed us anywhere we would be able to see so we grabed a spot next to the boom camera from channel 7 figuring they would grab a good spot. About 530 to entertain everyone they had planes come in for an air show right above us. It was pretty sweet! After that Nate decided to go get us some fries at about 6. At 7pm he still wasnt back - thats how many ppl were there. There wasnt a spot to be had (sitting or standing) anywhere along the boardwalk. while he was gone i was actually on tv as they had the camera scanning the crowds while they did the live broadcasts. At 7 he finally got back just in time to watch the begining of the show. And what better way to start it then by two jets flying directly above us breaking the sound barrier! The fireworks were amazing! Not only because they were all put to music but also because they were everywhere! and i do mean everywhere, from the tops of the city buildings, to the bridge to the bardge in the middle of the river! You didnt really notice the coreographing of the music until Halo by Beyonce came on, then whenever she said halo a circle firework would go off and look exactly like said halo! Then a slow song came on and everyone was like wtf? rainbows?wat? LOL but then some went "look over there" so we look to the bridge and the fireworks were coming off the bridge like a waterfall! it was so pretty! then the song mentioned somthing about skies of blue and the whole sky lit up with blue fireworks. it was awesome. After about a half hour or so the show was over and the jets flew over again to end it all. (when you look at the pics the gets just look like balls of fire) It then took us ever to get home. Over all a very very good day! http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Fireworks%20at%20southbank/

As for the close future: i have 2 assignments due, and two next week then a week off then 4 weeks of prac teaching. sigh..

Status of assignments: 1 down - 3 to go....