Many of you have asked about my school teaching assignment. Tonight I have just finished my first term of teaching here in Australia. Up until now I have written only briefly about my school teaching experience in an earlier blog, but now here is the whole story captured at once. It has taken me 8 weeks and until the end of first term to get fully acclimatized into my role here at Malvern Primary School and to understand the inner workings of a new school in a new culture in a new country. All in all, I can tell you honestly that I really enjoy my school and my teaching assignment!
Malvern Primary School is a state Prep - Grade 6 school located in an upper socio-economic area of Melbourne. Most of the students therein will go on to private school for the upper grades. Hence we have 6 classes of Prep students (that's Kindergarten in Canada) and only three classes of each of the upper grades. The students are predominantly white Caucasian students, with a few different nationalities thrown in. This is totally the opposite from my Canadian school where we usually have over 50 different cultures represented in the school. So when the one Korean student offered to spell his name for me and I told him that I knew exactly how to spell Hyun Bae, he and the other students in the class were shocked.
My assignment is a combination of teaching music for three days and offering support in literacy for struggling students in Grades 3-6 (that's resource) for two days per week. I teach 15 classes in all, same number of classes as in Canada, except here they are all students from Prep to Grade 2! I have six classes of Prep, five classes of Grade 1 music and 4 classes of Grade 2 music. So I really have only to prepare three separate lessons a week! I am really underutilized in the field of music teaching, but that is OK with me for the year. The class sizes are average, with the biggest grade 2 classes all sitting at 28 students apiece. The name selection for the students is also quite different from popular names in Canada. Here there is a Chloe, Harry, James or Emily (or some derivative thereof) in almost every class and most classes have two or three Wills or Williams! I find it difficult to learn all their names, as I see them only once per week, as opposed to three times per cycle in Canada. For the remaining two days I help students in the area of reading, writing and spelling. I like working in this area, but because I see the students only once a week for thirty minutes, it is difficult to make progress with them.
Malvern Primary is a big school with over 700 students. The students are generally very respectful and polite. I am really enjoying the students, and at recess time the younger ones are always helping me carry the "bumbag" around (that's the first aid kit!). They all wear school uniforms. The summer choice is either a blue-checkered dress for the girls, or a blue polo shirt with black shorts for anyone. There really are relatively few behavioural problems in the school. It is only the occasional time when it is necessary to raise one's voice. In the weekly Friday afternoon assembly, the 600 children (preps do not yet come to assembly) usually sit quietly facing the front. I was absolutely shocked at how well-disciplined they were at my first assembly. The school is run on a house system like schools in Britain, and there are house captains for the four differently-coloured houses - blue, green, red and gold. The students are each assigned into a "house" and can earn points for special tasks. House points are then tallied and one of the houses is declared the winner for the week.
The school is located exactly across the city from where we are living, so I usually count on an hour's train ride each day both to and from school. Initially the train was quite a harrowing experience, as I have described in an earlier blog, but by now I am better able to deal with the unpredictability of the train system. It is always the same route and departure time for me in the morning, but I am never sure if a train will come at a specified time, if the travel will necessitate a change of trains, if the train will have moved to an entirely different track or maybe even be cancelled completely! This makes for things being a little harried at times. Nevertheless, I just go with the flow as best as possible, and along the way, I am now even finding time to read books or drink coffee en route. I do enjoy the invigorating walk from the train to school each morning and back. I am getting quite fit and adept in running for the train by now!
The school is well-run. It has a principal as well as two assistant principals, all of whom are very friendly and supportive. I am really enjoying the camaraderie of the staff. The other music teacher is delightful. I have come to know the staff better as the term has progressed and through working with them at various excursions. The staff has greatly helped us acclimatize to life out here in Australia. I have found it very wonderful when we received "barbie" (that's a BBQ in Australian) or dinner invitations from staff members, or when they provided us with helpful hints or special touches to make our life a little easier out here. I have treasured all the Australian knowledge I have gleaned from them. Today I was thrilled to find a chocolate Easter bilby in my "pigeon hole" (that's the staff mail box).
The bilby is a very strange animal looking like a rat with a long tail but with pointed ears. The Australian bilby may some day replace the Easter bunny out here!
Administratively, we have more meetings and duties than I ever had in Canada (Dalhousie teachers, take note!) We have a staff meeting after school once a week, and I have a lunch hour duty as well as two recess duties per week. The school has a "No hat, no play" policy, so all the students and staff wear wide-brimmed hats outside. Baseball caps are not allowed; gum chewing is non-existent out here, even at recess. Recess time is called "morning tea" or just "tea time". The schoolyard has three play structures for the different grades. Many students play cricket for recreation at recess. Next term the game of preference will be footy.
The curriculum is also taught in a different manner in Australia. They do not break their teaching down into subjects as we do in Canada. There is only one topic that is chosen per grade for the entire term and within that topic the students do reading, writing, maths (that's how they call math) or social studies. Grade one, for example, had the topic of "Family" for this term while the Grade two's theme was "Australian animals". Next term is entirely devoted to a topic in science for each grade level. The school teaches Italian to every grade as its language of choice. There is a wonderful art program in the school with two art specialists, and there is also a drama teacher at the school. Phys Ed does not get as much emphasis as in Canada, but there are school swimming and footy (that's a type of football that everyone out here is nuts over!) teams.
Music still has some latitude in choosing materials and topics for each lesson. We plan our lessons in advance for each term and submit these plans in to the specialist coodinator for her approval. For reporting and assessment purposes, all the subjects are taught toward having the students attain a specified state standard called VELS (Victoria Education Learning Standard) in each subject every year - lots to look forward to next term when the first set of reports will be done!
The music room is well-equipped, perhaps not as fully as Dalhousie, but certainly adequate. The school has a strong emphasis on choral singing - there is a Grade 2/3 choir with which I am involved plus a Grade 4 choir and a Grade 5/6 choir. The classes begin studying recorder already in Grade 3, and continue until Grade 6 with the same soprano recorder playing rather than switching to the different sizes, as we do in Dalhousie. Besides this there are no special school instrumental clubs like handbells or African drumming. We are planning for a special drumming workshop with the classes in August. There is an extracurricular instrumental option that students can take with a private company to learn to play different instruments or play in a band.
You may have guessed it, but it's the Australian terminology as well as the pronunciation that I find so different and unusual. If the students spell for me, they pronounce the letter "a" as "i", so my seating plan is full of mistakes, like when I wrote Anne as "I"nne or Lachlan as "Lichlin"! All the "er" endings are dropped, so they will say things like "Masta" instead of "master" and then I don't always know what they are talking about. Of course I think their accent is cute, but they in turn think that I am the one with the accent! They sometimes look at me blankly when I say things and I can tell that they don't have a clue what I am talking about. One day, for example, I told a little girl that her hair bangs were adorable - she had no idea what I was saying, until I learned that bangs are called "fringes" out here! Who knew that "afternoon" was called "arvo" or that a sausage was a "snag"?
Highlights of the term have been many. They include:
- Accompanying the Grade 1 classes to the National Art Gallery for a study tour on art about families
- Celebrating Grandparents Day with the Grade 1 classes performing for over 300 invited family members. We had just three weeks to put together an Olympics format of musical games and activities for the guests. Everyone loved it! The entire performance was videotaped and the classes loved to see themselves up on the screen!
- Driving 2 hours east out of Melbourne with Rick on March 4 to experience the Grade 4 camp
- Accompanying the Grade 6 classes via a 4-hour bus trip
south-east of Melbourne to Lakewood Park Camp near Paynesville from March 9-12. The camp is located on a picturesque land property
situated between three lakes and is a 45-minute boat ride to the ocean.
They told me that wildlife and birdlife abound nearby, and although I was not one of the fortunate ones to spy a wallaby with a joey in its pouch, I did spot a pelican nesting ground,
some unusual birds
and the usual parrots,
llamas,
a donkey,
lots of jellyfish in the water,
and got to meet a dragon lizard personally!!
It was a fun but exhausting experience filled with canoeing, rafting,
rope climbing, sailing,
waterskiing,
and kite making/flying activities.
- Enjoying the staff party at our principal's home
- Celebrating Easter this past week at school. Easter is huge in Australia. On Wednesday our school presented an Easter pageant at a neighbouring church.
The church was packed with parents (our moms are mostly stay-at-home moms). The Grade 5 students were the cast, presenting the entire Easter story 
complete with the Palm Sunday processional, 
the Last Supper,
the Crucifixion 
and the Resurrection! 
I was so surprised that a secular state school could present such a Christian story! It would never have been allowed in Canada! The Grade 5 students all wanted to play the part of Jesus. One Jewish boy even cried when he was eliminated from the role! Amazing! My role was to play the coconut shells for the "Trotting" processional and to lead the school and church in the "Lord of the Dance" congregational song.
Somehow the Easter egg with an emphasis on new life got woven into the story as well! The whole pageant was well presented and well accepted as a Malvern Primary School tradition.
And so I have survived my first term of teaching out here and have lived to tell the tale! Thank-you for all your emails of encouragement as the term has progressed. We have appreciated every shred of correspondence, although we have not always managed to respond in person to each email. Now it is time for a relaxing and rejuvenating break, so we are off to the Formula 1 race on Sunday (most exciting but I am not sure how relaxing!) and then to Tasmania by ferry for the following 10 days! Tasmania is supposed to be very scenic and beautiful, reminiscent of New Zealand, complete with spectacular gorges and lush rain forests. We hope to make a circle tour around the island, do some hikes and meet up with some old acquaintences there!
So, you are in our thoughts and prayers - we wish you all a very blessed Easter!
Our hotel, the All Seasons Olims Canberra, was a historic building in and of itself, built when the city was founded. 
It is located in close proximity to our first sight-seeing stop of the day, the Australian War Memorial. We were amazed at the grandeur of the monument.
The museum resembles an airplane structure with the main exhibit as the cabin, the one wing dedicated to World War I, the other wing to WWII, and the tail being a huge building in and of itself. In this building there were full-size airplanes 
plus an authentic Japanese submarine from both world wars. This room was used to show fantastic video footage as three separate sound and light shows featuring first the air force, then the army and finally the navy. The army film was produced by the director Peter Jackson of "Lord of the Rings" fame. As per the schedule, the bus picked us up on time and transported us to our next chosen destination - the National Portrait Gallery 
and the Aboriginal exhibit in the National Art Gallery. When we arrived there, huge six-hour queues were waiting to get into the Impressionist exhibition, but we did not have this on our agenda for the day. Our third stop was a visit to the immense new Parliament building. 
The Aboriginal art displayed here was most impressive.
. 
Here we were free to view the red House of Representatives room 
as well as the green Senate chamber. 
The outside of the building has a huge steel structure on top of which is a gigantic Australian flag, purported to be as big as a double-decker bus! 
How proud we were to see the Canadian flag flying majestically in the "Parade of Flags" which lines the road approaching the Parliament Building. 
Our last stop of the day was a boat sight-seeing cruise on Lake Burley Griffin. It was a beautiful warm day, perfect for a lake cruise. 
Along the shore we spied a huge wooden flag pole which was a donation from the country of Canada to Australia. In thanks, every year the Canadian flag is flown on July 1st! Later that night we returned to the lake front from the other side to watch a long spectacular fireworks display. We could never figure out the reason for the fireworks - I guess the Australian government is no different than ours in Canada, and just likes to spend money! 
Our hotel, the All Seasons Olims Canberra, was a historic building in and of itself, built when the city was founded. 
It is located in close proximity to our first sight-seeing stop of the day, the Australian War Memorial. We were amazed at the grandeur of the monument.
The museum resembles an airplane structure with the main exhibit as the cabin, the one wing dedicated to World War I, the other wing to WWII, and the tail being a huge building in and of itself. In this building there were full-size airplanes 
plus an authentic Japanese submarine from both world wars. This room was used to show fantastic video footage as three separate sound and light shows featuring first the air force, then the army and finally the navy. The army film was produced by the director Peter Jackson of "Lord of the Rings" fame. As per the schedule, the bus picked us up on time and transported us to our next chosen destination - the National Portrait Gallery 
and the Aboriginal exhibit in the National Art Gallery. When we arrived there, huge six-hour queues were waiting to get into the Impressionist exhibition, but we did not have this on our agenda for the day. Our third stop was a visit to the immense new Parliament building. 
The Aboriginal art displayed here was most impressive.
. 
Here we were free to view the red House of Representatives room 
as well as the green Senate chamber. 
The outside of the building has a huge steel structure on top of which is a gigantic Australian flag, purported to be as big as a double-decker bus! 
How proud we were to see the Canadian flag flying majestically in the "Parade of Flags" which lines the road approaching the Parliament Building. 
Our last stop of the day was a boat sight-seeing cruise on Lake Burley Griffin. It was a beautiful warm day, perfect for a lake cruise. 
Along the shore we spied a huge wooden flag pole which was a donation from the country of Canada to Australia. In thanks, every year the Canadian flag is flown on July 1st! Later that night we returned to the lake front from the other side to watch a long spectacular fireworks display. We could never figure out the reason for the fireworks - I guess the Australian government is no different than ours in Canada, and just likes to spend money! 
What was comical for me coming from a culturally-diverse school in Canada was to see four non-Chinese children dress up in Chinese costumes 