School Week 6

 The grade 3/4 team: Libby, Carol, Emily, Anne-Cecile, Claire and Don, the team leader.

 Beautiful, expensive didjeridu.

 Carol, Joel (the music teacher) Anne-Cecile's husband, Bev, Anne-Cecile, me, Libby, Margie and Shawna in front at the pub.

Monday to Friday, March 7-11

Another busy week at school with the kids. Although they are generally great kids, they are not without challenges. I have a total of 44 students in the two classes and there are about 6 boys who are still very immature and silly. They like to play with pokemon cards and blow farts with their armpits. But it is two girls who cause the most challenges. They are still prepubescent but are beginning to act like teenagers. They belittle another girl who wants to play with them, and they use her and exclude her. That girl for some reason desperately wants to be friends with them despite my suggestion of finding someone who does want to play with her. Plus the other girls are beginning to see the two as the cool girls and wanting to be with them. They do what the two want them to do and are now beginning to exclude others. Catty girls. There have been a couple of incidents of physical stuff too with one slapping another and then one pinching another. Granted it's not like what I left behind in Toronto, but it is frustrating and time consuming trying to sort this out.

Anyway, other than that I spent this week doing diagnostic tests on the class to find math competencies, spelling and reading levels. All good fun.

I didn't ride the bike on Monday as I had done enough on the weekend, but I did ride it Tuesay and Friday. Usually I spend the evenings at home or make a short trip to the beach, but this week I went out twice, on Wednesday and Thursday, so I didn't ride then. On Tuesday I took a the photo of the grade 3/4 teachers during our team planning session. On Wednesday I went after school into town to visit the Queen Victoria Market. This is a large open air market that sells all sorts of food stuffs, has a multitude of small truck type restaurants and has lots of crafty or boutique type shops. On Wednesday evenings they have a couple of stages with live music and there are a few bars that set up. It was fun to wander around checking things out and people watching. I saw a young man with ear spacers that were bigger than any I saw on a Masai warrior.

On Thursday, Libby suggested that the grade 3/4 team go out for a drink after school. So I went with Libby, Carol, Bev, Shawna, and Joel. Anne-Cecile joined us later with her husband and then Libby's partner Margie showed up. We had a good time talking about all kinds of things over a couple of drinks and snacks. Nice to see people outside of work. Margie and Libby drove me home as they live out my direction.

In the washroom of the restaurant/bar that we were in they had this toilet paper. I laughed when I saw the name but then read the poster. Interesting idea.

So another week over and now I have a three day weekend, as Monday is Labour Day here. I going to drive the Great Ocean Road.