Week Five Term Three

The National Sports Museum at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds.

 Our guide Barry who gave us the tour of the MCG.

Sean Wroe, an Olympian. 

The torches from the last 18 Olympics.

Monday August 8^th to 12^th

On Tuesday the grade 3 and 4 classes had an excursion to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds where the National Sports Museum is housed. There were seven classes and these are the same kids we will be taking to camp in a few weeks. We were broken up into smaller groups and taken by a tour guide around the Cricket Grounds Stadium. Our guide, Barry, looked a lot like Santa Claus and was a very knowledgeable man. He is a member of the Melbourne Cricket Club and he was telling us that there is a huge waiting list to become a member. He took us through the Cricket Club section of the stadium and then through different sections of the rest of the stadium where non members can watch either cricket or footy. He also took us to the behind the scenes places like the media interview room (which the kids recognized from TV), the locker rooms and change rooms. After the tour the kids had an hour to explore the National Sports Museum. This was a fascinating place has it had the history of cricket in Australia, the founding of Aussie Rules Football and an Olympic section that told the history of the Olympics. This building was used as the Olympic Stadium in Melbourne in 1956. There was memorabilia for all the sports and an flame from all of the games of the modern era. There was an pair of shoes there of an Australian Olympic swimmer from the 70's and it was no wonder he was a champion, he had flippers for feet – size 17!

We had booked this trip as a part of our Olympic focus as school and the highlight of the tour was 'Meet An Olympian'. His name was Sean Wroe. He is an Australian who wanted to be a footy player, but one day while he was playing he blocked a kick and the ball broke both bones in his forearm which broke the skin. His whole lesson to the kids was how to turn a negative into a positive, so he explained how he gave up footy at the point because he realized he didn't have the body type for it, but that he discovered that he was quite fast. So he went into running. He proceeded to tell us some of the ups and downs of his running career and how he always took the positive path around setbacks. He won several medals in the 400 metre distance and the 4x100 relay at the Commonwealth Games and other events worldwide. He competed in the Olympics in Beijing in 2008 but failed to place. He has since retired. He was a very well spoken man and he now makes a living as a motivational speaker.

On Tuesday after school for our hour long professional learning session we had a workshop on science. One of the French teacher coordinators, Giles, showed us all of the resources the school has for teaching science and gave us some handouts to use with them.

For weeks the Australian government has been promoting the National Census Day to be completed online by every person in Australia on census day. I had seen the form in my mail but assumed that it was for Cassie to do. I found out from teachers at the PD that the survey is to be completed by everyone including all residents and visitors, including me, and that there is a fine of $180 per day for not completing it on time. As a result on Tuesday evening when I got home I used the code number to register online and complete the survey. There has been lots of chatter about the invasiveness of the questions, but honestly I didn't find them that way. I completed it in about 20 minutes. That night on the news I heard that the website had been over whelmed and crashed and the help phone lines had closed because of the volume of calls. In the morning the news was that the website had been hacked. As a result many people didn't get to complete it and were worrying about the fine. Plus apparently a sizeable number of homes never got their code in the mail in time. Extensions have been given for filling out the survey and fines have been suspended. In other words, it was a real mess.

Our grade 3/4 team has had a lot of incursions and excursions booked this term and here are the expenses for parents:

dance fever team building activity $8

track and field event at a park with coaches $15

The National Sports Museum and Melbourne Cricket Grounds Tour $28

A visiting author in the school $10

The Olympic history play $6

and three day outdoor education camp $275

The following was given to me by our guide at the MCG, Barry, and makes about as much sense as the actual game does:

Cricket

An explanation for the uninitiated

You have two sides, each with eleven players. One side is out, in the field and one side is in, but not out, in the field.

Each man that's in the side that's in goes out and when he's out comes in and the next man goes in until he's out.

When there are ten players out, of the side that's in, the side all out and comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get out those coming in.

At the end of an inning there will be a man, of the side which is in, who is not out.

When both sides have been in and out, including the not outs, That's the end of the game!

Copyright Lord Richard Cranium (OBE)