Week Ten Term Four

 Trudy and the Scholastic Book Fair...

 Housed in a corner of the BER.

 Speeches by candidates for leadership positions within the school for 2017.

 Lucien speaking.

 The end of year farewell tea put on by the parents.

 Don as teacher and parent (his daughter Jennifer is in my class).

 Claire and I thank the parents.

 Some of our girls.

The books and the gift card. Love the card.

Australian boys outside at recess.

December 5-9^th

On Monday, Trudy took my class to the Scholastic Book Fair. It was housed in the open concept area of the BER. It looked like a small room as the movable metal bookcases were arranged in a circle. It was interesting to see the same book fair and the same concept in Australia. The books seemed to be of a more advanced level, the middle school level maybe.

At the professional learning after school, Amanda went around and told everyone their assignment for next year. Some were very happy and others who, not by their choice, are not going to be here next year, where less so. They had to know because the kids are going to find out their classroom and teacher tomorrow.

On Tuesday, Don, Nigel and I went to a local Chinese restaurant for lunch. Don ordered ahead and when we got there the food was waiting. The lady came over to do something at the table and Nigel moved his meal onto what he thought was the edge of the table but was in fact just the paper tablecloth sticking out from the table... the result was the meal fell off the table, down his leg and onto the floor. It made a big mess and caused Nigel some real embarrassment. The lady was good about it, scooped it up, cleaned up the mess and went and prepared him another one. We had a good yack about all the staff changes that are happening at school.

On Wednesday, we had the last of the four transition sessions. This time I represented Maurene and met her grade threes in her room for next year (Libby's current room). Maurene's teaching partner in the grade four binome will be Isabelle, who is excited to be getting out of the BER.

When I went out with Joel the other night, he told me about a project he had to complete as a requirement of his first year of teaching. He let me look through it this week. It was entitled, “How Do I Effectively Use  A Range of Resources and Strategies To Engage Learners in the Performing Arts?” It was over 60 pages including his report and copies of resources he hopes to use. My first thought when I saw it was: who the hell is ever going to read it? Then I thought if a university had passed you and you had paid your Victoria Institute of Teaching fees, why do you have to do all of this when you are trying to get through your first year of teaching? The first year is the hardest one as you try to learn the classroom management skills that will allow you to teach the kids something. The mind boggles. Just another hoop that first years have to jump through.

Thursday was set aside for speeches for students who are running for positions on the school council and as house captains. There were over 50 speeches! There were all of the grade 2, 3, 4 and 5 students sitting in the BER from 9 to 10:15, then recess, then back again from 11:15 to 12:50, then lunch and back again from 2:00 to 2:45. It was a really long and tedious day and frankly I was amazed how well the kids actually managed.

Friday morning was the class breakfast. The parents set up snacks and drinks in my room at 8:10 and Claire and I met a lot of the parents and students. The parent rep had collected money from the parents and purchased gifts for Claire and I. They gave us three paperbacks and a $60 gift certificate for a bookstore, plus a gift certificate for a three hour cruise on Port Phillip Bay aboard a tall ship modelled after a boat that sailed around the world. The parents thanked us for the year and wished me a happy holiday and safe trip back home.

The weather was crappy for sport and my kids wanted to work on their projects, so we stayed inside and they worked.

On Friday night I drove to Foster where I had gone cycling in October. This town is the entrance way to Wilson's Promontory. I had booked a room at the Comfort Inn where I had stayed before. I got there about 9:30 and watched a bit of TV before going to bed.