Preps and Farm Work

This week went by fairly quickly.

Friday I had my first day at my new placement.  It was only an orientation day - to know where the school is, how to get around it, and to fill out papers and to meet my mentor teacher.

Last semester I helped teaching a Year 5 class in a Private school. My mentor teacher is now my friend. She is an amazing teacher and a great mentor teacher. We e-mail each other all the time, and we're even friends on facebook :P

This time, I am teaching prep (basically senior kindergarten). I didn't know what to expect because I was used to something completely different with my Year 5s. The school is very large. There are about 4-5 classes of each grade (insane!). They have assembly in the pine (tree) forest because their auditorium cannot host them all - haha. But it's a State School (public school) so the rules are a little more relaxed but the students are still really well behaved.
The preppies.... so after the paper work I got introduced to Prep C - The C represent what class in prep - because there are so many of them! My mentor teacher is a lot older than my previous one (my old mentor teacher was a year younger than me).
Because this is my second placement, they expect a lot out of you.  They basically throw over their class to you on the first day you arrive.
Right now, my placement hasn't started. We're doing orientation and make-up days right now. Because when my placement starts, there are three public holidays and legally, Teaching placements have to be for 31 days so we have to make those days up.  We all figured it's better to make those days up now, than after placement because we'll have assignments for Uni and we'll be packing up our lives from Oz.

So next week, I'll be back in the classroom.

I have to find fun, exciting and engaging ways to teach prep. I feel like they need it.

Friday night I finished an assignment and then headed to the farm . Saturday morning I started my work on the farm. I woke up at 6 am but there was too much fog and mist that we couldn't start until 8:30. Then it was time to:
a) learn what a custard apple was
b) how to pick it
c) when it was a right time to pick it
d) how to pack them

And how to avoid massive cob webs.

After 1.5 hours, Cait's mom called it quits because the apples weren't fully ready to be picked....so she made the call that next weekend, or even the weekend after would be better.

So my job was done. I got paid for the work I did and we headed home.
On the way, we saw a farmers market and I stocked up on some awesomely fresh veggies - a huge box filled for $16. It was a great deal.

So my farm girl experience wasn't a 100% success but it still happened!

haha

xx