9-13-17: First day of student teaching!

My meals for the day:
Breakfast = vanilla yogurt with blueberries and strawberries + a glass of orange juice
Lunch = a gluten free sandwich with spinach, tomatoes, cheese, and cucumbers + a nutrition bar with nuts and berries in it + one rice cake with chocolate + a bottle of water
Supper = a salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, and honey mustard dressing + roast beef + steamed veggies + cheesecake + an ice cream bar! 2 desserts, I know :)

    Last night I didn't sleep the greatest. I believe it was from how much I napped today. Hopefully tonight I sleep better. Anyways, I woke up this morning around 6:15 am to get ready in time to leave the house by 7 am to catch the bus. I either take the L23 which is the faster bus because it doesn't have as many stops, or the 423. Jeanette and I got on the 423 at around 7:25 because we had missed the other one. This bus was still pretty fast though, because by the time we got to the school and she took a picture of me in front of the painting it was only 8:10 and the teacher wasn't expecting me until around 8:15-8:20.
    Once I arrived and found the room, I talked with me cooperating teacher about what the day was going to be like and things that were going on.
    Here was the schedule for the day:
8:35 - roll call/ quiet reading
8:45 - Assembly
9:25 - Language
10:00 - Language
10:40 - Recess
11:00 - Math
11:40 - Drama
12:20 - Drama
1:00 - Lunch
1:55 - Topic
2:35 - Topic/ pack up
3:15 - Go home

    First off, during our assembly the 5th and 6th grade orchestra and choir performed. The orchestra did two songs and one of them happened to be the Game of Thrones theme song which was really cool. It was so neat to have them perform at the beginning of the day because it was such a great start to a good day.
    After the assembly then, they go to language for about 80 minutes everyday and during this time, the students either learn German, French, Italian, or Japanese depending on what they picked and they stay on the same language for the entire year. During the first 40 minutes my cooperating teacher and I sat down and discussed different procedures and plans for my time here, but after that I got to be a part of a German class that takes place in our room. This was such a cool thing to be a part of because not only do I only know English, but it is part of the school's curriculum to teach these languages which I think is awesome.
    After recess then was math. During math they finished up a writing sample that needed to be finished in order for their art projects to be done, but after that they were working on shapes. They had to pick 2-3 shapes, cute them out, trace them in their math journal, measure the sides and angles, and explain all the characteristics of that shape that they knew.
    Next, they went into drama. During this time they are reading a book that is a journal from the point of a refuge. This was a very intense book because it talks about people dying because of starvation, people being murdered because they are going through tough times and they have arguments about splitting food, and it goes into great depth about what these people go through. My cooperating teacher told me that last week he made a student cry because the details were just too much, and it's a really good story that 'sucks you in' and makes you feel like you are actually living that story.
    To go along with what we read, the students then had to come of with 3 freeze frames where the first frame was something that had already been read, and then the other 2 were predictions about what they thought might happen next. There were groups with 3-5 students and each group took turns going. Then, without saying anything in their performances, the rest of the class had to try to guess what was happening in their sequence of frames. It was really cool.
    Then, after that, my teacher read a couple more pages and then we did another activity. During this activity, students had to act out a person from the story. Then one-by-on, they entered the 'postcard'. As they walked on to the 'stage' they introduced themselves as the person they were and the emotion that person was feeling, then they stayed in that spot until eventually the whole class was on the 'stage' and at the end my teacher took a picture so we could see the resemblance to the picture they were recreating from the book. It was a great idea!
    Next was lunch. They don't have cafeterias here so everyone is allowed go basically go anywhere to eat as long as they are back by 1:55. During this time, I found a little table outside a coffee shop where I sat and had my lunch. It was nice to be by myself and have a little quiet before it got crazy again in the afternoon.
    When I got back from lunch, it was then time for Topic. During this time, they have been working on making websites that introduce and spread awareness for topics that deal with issues involving children having a tougher time succeeding in developing countries. A couple examples are; dirty water, education upbringing, medication, etc. I thought this was a great project because not only does it inform the students, it makes them more aware of a bunch of issues because they are going to share their websites with the rest of the class next week.
     Finally, at 3:15 school was let out. I stayed and helped with gymnastics from 3:30-4:30 though, because 1. my cooperation teacher helps with it and 2. I didn't have anything else to do. I have never been around gymnastics that much in my life so it was really fun and a good experience to be able to help out for an hour!
    After gymnastics was done, I walked up and across the street to the bus stop to wait for the bus. I got on the L23 and road it to the bus stop close to the one I got on this morning, I walked back to the house, and got home at about 5:20.
    I had a really good day! :)

Differences I have noticed between Australian school and American school:
* Because Australia doesn't allow people to have/buy guns, students are allowed to talk about them in school which threw me off right away.
*Australian school do a lot of integrated lessons (as in, teaching about one subject but relating it to as many subjects as you can. Ex. Talking about India you would talk about it's history (history), maybe see how far away it is (math), maybe look in the news or write a paper on some interesting facts you find about it (current events and writing), etc.). This was interesting to hear because we had to do a lesson like this last semester in school and that was the first time I had ever heard of it.
*At least in the class I'm in, the teacher doesn't find it very disrespectful if students are loud during a discussion or are talking some when he is trying to talk or a video is being played. This I found to be very interesting and I'm a little worried when I have to teach because I don't want to have to constantly talk over people and repeat myself because they aren't listening.
*No one 'bats an eye' if the students swear every once in awhile in Australia.
*If religion gets brought up, the teacher just basically goes with it.

All of these I noticed just today on my first day, so I'm sure there will be other things. It's so interesting how different schools are across the globe and I'm glad I get to see first hand some of the differences and how I form my opinions and how it shapes my structure of how I think teaching should go.

Tomorrow is a new day and I'm looking forward to seeing what else I learn. It's also sport day, so I'm looking forward to that!  

 My first day of Student Teaching! These were taken by the mural right by where you enter the school!