Week One Term Two

Cross country running in a neighbourhood park.

My birthday party, Carol, Libby, me, Bev and Bornique.

Monday, April 10th. to April 15th.

A very happy birthday to Mike on the 11th and me on the 12th. Because of the time difference, this year we celebrated on the same day!

Back to work after an amazing two weeks of driving around Tasmania and the Outback. I had a great time and it left me with a thirst for more. I'd like to get back to Tasmania and Cradle Mountain later in the year and I'd like to get to Kangaroo Island, but not sure how to do that one as it is a full day's drive away. I'll figure it out.

So, the first problem at work was I forgot my password into the school network, so I guess I had a good time and cleared my mind of everything over the holidays.

Tuesday was my birthday and I got a lot of e-mails from family and friends, but as I was riding to school I thought I'd like to hear people singing, so as I asked our principal if I could make an announcement during the morning briefing. I told them that it was a special day for someone and asked the music teacher to help me sing Happy Birthday and everyone was singing and looking around trying to figure out who they were singing to, until I raised my arms and pointed to my head. Lots of laughs and I got a few hugs. We had a cross country meet in a neighbourhood park with all the grade 3, 4, 5 and 6's that day. It went very well and was a nice easy day outside in the sun.

It's amazing how quickly you fall back into routines. The rest of the week passed quickly and without incident. I started teaching the social studies topic "Where do we come from?" I know that sounds like sex ed, but it's about early Australian history. So I started with human migration out of Africa and eventually to Australia and then we talked about the aborigines and then early European explorers. I played them two Midnight Oil songs, Beds are Burning and the Dead Heart, which address aboriginal and white issues. So I am learning about their history as I go.

I rode the bike to school all five days and the weather was very pleasant. Apparently we are having a drier and milder spring than usual. I'm not complaining!