Term 3 Reflection

Book Week: "Where's Wally" group photo

Term 3 is over! I can't believe I'm almost done my trip of a lifetime to Australia. This term has felt the most like I really live here, and this is where I belong. I have great friends — people I talk to everyday that I can't imagine not talking to in a few months. I also feel much more relaxed at work and have a lot of fun with my day; even during meetings! The Year 1 kids have become "my kids," and I feel we have made amazing progress since the first few days when I didn't know that recess was a snack. I have parents that come up and give me vacation advice help me out in the classroom, and everybody asks me whether I am going to stay...

On top of all that is happening to me, my exchange partner, Cathy Kepa and her husband Eddie have had to abruptly end their exchange at Sarah Thompson School. Due to illness in the family they have made the difficult decision to come back to Adelaide. Luckily I have some amazing friends back home and some family members that will be house sitting starting in October.

Jenny and I had the pleasure of meeting Cathy and Eddie in their own house, which we both thought was awkward. They are wonderful people though and we talked about our experiences for several hours over dinner. I'm looking forward to seeing them again for Canadian Thanksgiving!

Teaching the Australian curriculum has been challenging, but fun as it similar to the Albertan curriculum with some specific Australia related content. In Maths (yes with an 's') we have to be able to recognize Australian coins. The kids love the money bags game I taught them.

Money bags 

 I teach the IB program at Stradbroke so we have two Inquiries we do each term. This term we focused on "How we express ourselves through the arts." We did a variety of self-portraits using mirrors, lead pencil, paints and items from the natural environment.

 We went to the Art Gallery of South Australia as our first excursion (field trip) of the year. We only went for half the day, but it was a lot of fun for the kids experimenting with portrait making. Arts and culture is so much more of an experience in Adelaide and it can be a family outing. Jenny and I took our kids to the Art gallery that weekend. They really have a great children's program. Adelaide always has something for the kids!

 

 

This term we switched specialist teachers (yes we have specialist teachers). In the first term, Year 1s were taught by specialist Science teacher, Music, PE and Italian teachers. As a result I often get a lot of NIT time (prep time in Canada). This term, the I'm teaching Science and their is a specialist teacher that teaches Health.

Learning about 'Light and Sound' in Science!

We made treasure maps for our Bee-Bots in STEM

During Week 5 of every year in Australia everyone dresses up for 'Book Week.' This is to celebrate reading, and seems to be nation-wide. It felt more like Halloween to me as we had a costume parade in the gym with music. All of the characters were supposed to be from a book. Many of us teachers wanted to do something fun so we decided to all dress up as "Where's Wally (Waldo)" Afterwards we ran around the school and hid around the school just like kids.

Teachers dressed up as Wally hiding in the principal's office

This term had so many incursions! (in school field trips) We had Music is Fun which is similar to when we have music groups visit Sarah Thompson. There were a number of sports clinics as well. We had cricket, tennis and soccer. Instead of a Terry Fox run, we had a colour fun run (similar to Colour Me Rad in Calgary).

I also managed to take the kids to the wonderful natural area just next to the school for some outdoor classroom learning.

 During lunch I run a fairly successful coding/maths club in the Forest building computer room.

At the end of term, we had an open night for parents to come see our learning. I think my kids did amazing work. I also am really enjoying the ability to hang work from the ceiling. (Something I am not allowed to do back home). It really makes a great display.

We're off to Melbourne, the Grampians and the Great Ocean road for our last school holiday in Australia. I can't wait to go, but at the same time I am wanting time to slow down a bit.

Winter Weekends

Winter Weekends:

Enjoying the "Winter Reds" festival at Anderson Hill winery

We've been busy this winter aside from our trip to Sydney. School has become more relaxed in Term 3 and I'm getting out every weekend to take in as much of South Australia as I can before my time is up. (I'm cognizant of the fact that I only have four months left!)

August went by very quickly. It was quite a strange experience having a winter season during this time of year. The leaves do fall off the trees here, but there is no snow. There have been times when I have seen some frost early in the morning in the hills, but otherwise it is just a bit chilly. The biggest difference is that winter is the season of GREEN! I didn't really notice it until winter, but everything in Australia was so dry and sun-baked during the summer and fall. As a Calgarian, seeing brown everywhere was not out of the ordinary, but now that it has been raining regularly, everything has come back to life. 

Despite all of this, the festivals, wine and food events continue. I love the Australian way of life. You go to work and then relax at a cellar door or a pub on the weekends. Best of all as a parent is that everything is designed to be as child friendly as possible. Most cellar doors and pubs allow kids. In fact most of them have kids activities or playgrounds attached.

Goolwa weekend 

Cold morning in Goolwa

As part of our exchange, the South Australian Exchange Teacher's League puts on a few events during the year. One event that we had been looking forward to was a whale watching experience in Goolwa and Middleton during the winter. We got a house on the Goolwa beach and the Coves, the King family from Ottawa, Ontario, Janelle from Red Deer, Alberta, Betty from Brampton Ontario and Lynn from Orillia, Ontario spent a weekend together.

Middleton is a small town next to Goolwa that is known for being a whale nusery. We walked from Middleton all the way along the beach to a point where some whales were spotted. Bringing our binoculars and cameras we saw a southern right whale waving its flippers at us.

Thar she blows! It's a southern right whale.

Henry and Miles with Jack and Max King from Ottawa

After checking out the whales we walked into Port Elliot and got a few eats at the bakery. We had a few Australian favourites like meat pies, a kransky and sausage roll.

Seals at the Goolwa barrages

On our way home I wanted to check out a few more places. We made our way to the Goolwa barrages because we were told that we would see some seals. The barrages are where water is diverted to communities in the area and where there are plenty of seals hanging out by the dam. It was an overcast day, but we saw a few seals playing in the water as well as two up on the docks.

We also went out of our way to go to a new beach in Carrickalinga (mostly because I had seen it on Instagram). Miles got sick on the way so we didn't stay long, but Henry and I did some exploring of the beach and the rocks.

Adelaide Crows game

Not being huge sports fans, we hadn't really given much thought to attending an AFL or cricket game while we were here. It seemed low on the priority list. However, as the year has progressed, I had become more intrigued by the amazing devotion that people put into their teams. It definitely felt like being on the red mile watching throngs of Flames fans going to a game. I wanted to see what a Crows or Port game was like. I had been told that Port games were more raucous and that Crows games were more for the "posh" crowd. (I await having things thrown at me. *ducks*)

We ended up getting some free tickets for a Crows game at the Adelaide Oval so we went, decked out in crows gear. The boys were excited to see their first "footy" game. The Oval is HUGE! and there were thousands of spectators. There was a pyrotechnic show followed by an Adelaide Crows theme that initially sounded a bit old fashioned compared to a Flames game or an American football game, but here I am still humming it a few weeks later. People literally sang it on the way out.

I thought it was a little boring at first as the Crows were winning by 30 points, but I got into it more as it went. The rules are as far as I can tell, get the ball to the other side by bouncing it, kicking it or hitting it with your fist. If someone catches it that is good, but it if it bounces and someone on your team gets it then that is okay as well. The last five minutes were a real edge of your seat event as the Crows came close to losing the game. People got up in their seats and started shouting at the players. However, the Crows were victorious and we all went home happy. Go Crows: We Fly as One!

Glenelg: Seals!

We went down to Glenelg beach one weekend as it was another famously wonderful winter day. We weren't there long when there was a crowd looking out at the water. Looking myself and being one of those people to take their phone to the beach, I snapped some photos of a couple of seals playing in the water.


Mount Lofty Hike

Living up in Crafers we have been up to Mount Lofty more than once, but we hadn't actually done the whole hike from the base of the mountain in Adelaide. We decided to rectify the situation one weekend with a hike from Waterfull Gully to the summit and back. 

Utopia Cafe

Waterfall Gully

This was a really good hike and the longest one we have been on. It's pretty steep in parts and Miles needed quite a few rest breaks, but we made it. We had lunch at the Summit cafe, which is nice (but a little pricey).

Cockatoos and Kookaburras are everywhere in the Adelaide Hills

Miles taking a well earned break

View from the Summit

The Summit feels much more earned when you hike all the way up. The whole trip is about four hours, but it is much easier on the way down!