School in Australia is both the same as Canada and completely different. Let me explain... Everything I've ever done is still me teaching the way I've always taught, and I have a lot of freedom in Australia to do that. However, I am doing so in a completely different culture. I would compare the difference to when I started teaching in Morley, Alberta on a First Nations reserve. There are little things all day long that everyone takes for granted that I had no idea to expect until they happen.
For example, This is not the entrance to my school, this is the entrance to my classroom.
When I open the door in the morning the kids all come in (just like Canada) as well as all of their parents (not like Canada). In fact for Canadians this is very weird. Students are often dropped off or the bus drops them off and very rarely do parents come join their kids in the classroom for the first 5-15 minutes of the day. I figured that maybe it was just because it was the first day of school and I was a new Canadian teacher, but it continued to happen everyday. I'm guessing the influence of school shootings in the US has led to more of a lock down approach to schools in Canada that hasn't happened in Australia. I'm not saying it is a bad thing, I'm just saying it is different and took a bit to get used to.
Other smaller issues are words like "recess" meaning different things in Canada and Australia. In Canada, recess means we send kids outside to play and get some exercise. In Australia it means a hearty snack and maybe some playtime after that.
It took me until Wednesday to figure this out. I kept sending the kids out at recess and they would come back in saying they didn't have recess. I would be confused by this because they just came in the door. They would say, "but we didn't eat," but I countered that we had snack right before recess. Well the snack before recess is apparently "Brain Break" and they are supposed to only eat fruit during this time. "Recess" is for eating something more substantial. Now I do it the right way!
Acquaintance night happened on Tuesday which was day 7 of school in week 2 as they like to call it. I had all of the parents join me for a PowerPoint presentation at 6pm on who I was and how I would be teaching. I also provided sign ups for classroom volunteering. I think it went well and I had many parents join me to talk afterwards and ask questions well after the time limit of half an hour.
I'm about to start Week 3 of term 1 tomorrow. I hopefully get most of it right and don't make the lunch lady mad that I forgot to send in the lunch order in again.
