July 17th

July 17^th

Today was the first morning Beka and I took our bikes to school. We cut the time basically in half and get to wake up later! Woohoo! On day two I take first session off because Cameron has a lecture class with 6 rugby boys that don’t do much and I didn’t enjoy it the first time. I use this period to plan out any lessons ill be doing during the week, so today I finalized my lesson on binge drinking.

Session two is in the gym and like ive mentioned in past posts, im really just a supervisor in there. I did tend to more students today who were struggling with the machines and techniques. The students feel more comfortable asking me questions and unfortunately complaining to me. The girls wear really short shorts and don’t like to do squats or any exercise that might cause their shorts to ride up. A few of the girls complained but I told them it’s their own fault because we warned them not to wear those. I even know a couple of the girl’s names now because of how much they complained.

During morning tea I went to help Cameron and Madonna with the final discus throws from the rained out carnival. A few boys showed up and after measuring a few throws, we picked one that would go onto the all schools competition. Same type of carnival but against other schools in the area.

Another dodgeball game today. Usually this is Cameron’s rugby class that I don’t do much in because all the boys play on the team and they know “heaps” more than me. Since the ovals were closed today, we went into the gym and had year 10 vs. year 11 games. It did get a bit rough in my opinion and these boys are old enough to be able to really hurt someone with a throw. At one point a kid kicked the ball and it slammed into one kids stomach and knocked the wind out of him. From all the other P.E. teachers’ reactions, it seemed okay, but this would never fly in New York. At the end of this session a rugby player actually came up to the 2 teachers and I and said his shoulder dislocated. After talking to him, I found out that this is the 7^th or 8^th time it’s happened this year and that he is looking to get surgery on it but he’s not supposed to be playing anything. The procedures for an injury in school here is a bit different than at home. There is no school nurse to report to so the students just go to the main office and if its something that they can’t help, they call an ambulance. In the states I think most school nurses would call an ambulance for something they can’t do much for also but they generally help most students. There is no one certified here to help the students so if they feel sick or hurt themselves, they go to the main office to call their parents.

After checking up on that student at the office, it was time for my binge-drinking lesson. This class all of sudden had about 6 new international students so it happened to work out really well that I was reviewing a lot of what we learned already. Also, since I know many students didn’t take notes at all, today they had to take notes especially if they want to pass the final exam. I think my lesson actually went very well for my first ever lecture. I feel very comfortable in front of this group of students though and I know they will discuss the topic and actually ask good questions. I was surprised I wasn’t nervous and was ready to go. It was a bit of a dry lesson because it was really just review and note taking but next lesson I think I will plan an activity or game. Cameron did chime in a few times during the lesson just because he had something to add and I am not used to teaching this stuff. It’s a pretty casual atmosphere in the classroom also so whenever we both have something to add, we do. There are a few different terms used in this subject of drinking so I am learning as I research as well.

Yesterday afternoon I attended my first school rugby game. Apparently it was not such a good game and was very slow paced but I learned a lot and saw a few good tackles. At one point the kangaroos were on the field where they were playing which was very funny to me. A lot of the rugby boys thought my reaction was funny and continued to hold it against me as a joke. I was talking to a few of the players when they were on the bench and got o know them a little bit. I figure I should gain their respect and be able to converse with them since they are in my classes. It was really cold out by the middle of the game but it was a good time.

And the last comment for tonight even though this post is pretty long already, we had a staff meeting from 4-6:15 that was pretty fun actually. It was a professional development session that gave us more ways to teach and a lot of it we had already learned at Cortland but it’s new to the staff here. It was about checking for understanding and asking questions! Go figure! A few different activities to get the students involved more and we got to experience these. This wasn’t only a time to learn about teaching but to learn about my colleagues and to interact with them. Once again I felt like an equal and that I have been there for a while. They truly are the most welcoming group of teachers ive worked with so far.