Stop Work, Valentine's Day, 2008 - Thursday, February 14, 2008
 Well, the stop work went ahead today and only three of the sixteen grades were operating at school today. Ours was one of them, and of the twenty four kids who were technically supposed to be there, nineteen arrived at the start of the day. Last year I had twenty four of twenty five on the stop work day, and that missing kid gave me a note the next day explaining how he had the gastro, but nineteen was a decent turn out. Especially as several had younger brothers and sisters at home for the day as well.
Which I thought was encouraging, as the parents seem to be backing the stop work action by keeping their children home on the day, yet also agreeing that the education offered to their other children is still important even on an interrupted day such as today. We followed our set program for the day and the kids still worked as they would have, so it wasn't just a baby-sitting event.
Of the three grades operating, ours was the largest, but the other two still had eighteen and twelve kids working all the same, but it certainly made yard duty a breeze. Just about all of them were swinging on the monkey bars through recess, and a half dozen were hitting a ball around with a plastic cricket bat on the oval. It was nice to be out there with them.
Funny how with a such a smaller, most intimate yard duty you can spend time talking to the kids more than you usually would and get to know them much better in such a small amount of time. When lunchtime rolled around, I just wandered out for the sake of it and joined in the cricket game out the back.
Unfortunately I haven't been home long enough to hear much of the news on the telly or radio, so I don't know how well the Melbourne rally was attended or whether any immediate gains seem to have been made, but tomorrow's paper will tell some sort of story. My prediction is that the Union will claim a huge number turned up, the government will claim half that number, and the true number will be somewhere in the magic middle.
Whether it makes much difference in the long run is still to be seen, so I'm expecting a few more of these throughout the year. Undecided at the moment though whether I'd take part later on. Depends on whether the Union still claims money as the number one reason.
If that's the case I'll probably stick around and teach for the day instead.
|
|
Comments (1) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
Junior School Council Elections - Tuesday, February 12, 2008
 It happens about now every year. We have to elect two representatives from our grade to join the Junior School Council, one boy and one girl. This afternoon we held our elections. There were cheers, smiles, disappointment and a few held back tears. Always an emotional and excitable time.
The role of the Junior School Council representatives is to take part in fundraising for the school, deciding how certain funds should be spent (generally in regards to play equipment and yard furniture or gardens, etc), community work around the school neighbourhood, and other varied roles and events during the year. Weekly meetings, the odd lunchtime given up to carry out tasks and responsibilities, presenting information to the grade and in front of whole school assemblies... there's a lot to be done by these kids. It's a highly responsible job to get, and a lot of the kids would love to be on it. Unfortunately, there's always only room for a few, and much more room on the other side for the kids that miss out.
We opened the floor Monday morning for the kids to nominate themselves if they were interested in standing for election and about fifteen kids raised their hands. A decent discussion later and they'd highlighted the qualities they all thought a person fortunate enough to be given the privilege of representing our grade required. I told them then that they would have that day and today to watch the kids who had nominated themselves to see which of them displayed those qualities in the room to help them form their final decision for this afternoon's election.
That also gave the nominees Monday night to prepare a short speech to present to the grade as a last chance to sway their votes.
By the time we sat down on the floor after lunch today to decide our representatives, about six of the kids had elected to stand down, so the numbers were thinning. Of those still in the running, most had prepared a speech the night before, and I have to admit they were all great little speeches. I'm sure there was a decent amount of parent help hidden amongst the lines, but the kids delivered them effectively. Then came the vote.
 Two kids won the two positions, which meant about seven or eight missed out. Always the hardest part of the procedure as you know they all want the job. At least at grade three and four you can convince them that they have another two or three years to try again, or try for the School or House captain and vice captain positions when they get to grade five and six.
But that's two or three years down the track. That doesn't really help with the disappointment of today, eh?
Time's a great healer though, and I'm pretty sure most of them will get over it by tomorrow!
By which time we'll be beginning the process to choose the various House Captains instead.
It all starts again, eh?
Cheers.
|
|
Comments (4) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
When it rains, it pours... - Wednesday, February 6, 2008
 Went yesterday evening to watch those two kids play their first game of Under 14 basketball. When one of them saw me there, instead of a nice g'day and a friendly hand shake or a wave, he decided to throw the ball against my arm a few times while I wasn't watching. Cheeky little bugger. That little bit of friendly, well-intentioned disrespect over and done with, we had a bit of time to just sit and chat and catch up after the summer holiday and see how things have been.
I asked him why, when we met at the cricket a week earlier, he hadn't told me his good news. He looked at me with a vague expression so I prodded again. Your good news! Oh, he said, realisation dawning in his eyes, yeah, I got the Star of the Week award at my new school first week back!
Fantastic. But what about your new little brother and sister, eh? Oh yeah, the twins arrived in January. Obviously enough time had passed for the novelty to wear off!
They had a win and played pretty well for a new age group. It was good to sit down and just watch the kids have fun without having to worry about being the teacher. I really believe both the kids and yourself get a whole lot more out of interactions like this, as you get to see their real personalities outside of school, and they get to know you in much the same manner.
They've got a bye next week though, so I get a week off!
Gave the grade a big old spelling test today. Seventy words in total. We did it in two bits, forty then thirty after a break, all done before recess. The kids soldiered through it really well so they earned the reward of a lolly from the jar at the end. I seriously hope the government doesn't try to remove lollies from class rooms because of childhood obesity like was rumoured a year or two back. I don't think doing a big spelling test for the glorious reward of a wet carrot stick will have to same sort of appeal, eh?
Anyway, from the results of their efforts I managed to get a good overall picture of the kids' spelling abilities. They're all generally eight or nine years old, and the range of spelling ages this test gave me indicated the kids stretch from a spelling age of about 7 to nearly 13. A good range, and the few down towards the bottom aren't all that far below where they're expected to be. A good base to work with, and also enough cluey spellers in the grade that Mr V can send the kids to ask their mates how to spell words now instead of being continually interrupted while he's trying to listen to little Johnny stumble over his reading like a one legged donkey on a hillside.
Meanwhile, it fair belted it down at school today. The heavens opened up and decided to dump the equivalent of Port Phillip Bay over the school pretty well from go to whoa all day. By the final bell, half of the basketball court was under water and the kids were watching the gutter out the front surging past and beginning to have serious concerns of out portable being floated away. Sending them off to the loo caused a few wet moments too. Especially when one thought it would be good to stand in the rain a little while on the way back. It looked like he'd fallen in, so I gave him the quiet, stern talking to when he got back. He was quite quiet and repentant too. He had the strength to look me in the eyes all the way too, so I know he's got something there.
Meanwhile... to add to a bit of intrigue... one of the kids I watched last night got called up to the office over the loudspeaker for the whole school to hear. I think I'll have to drag him aside sometime tomorrow and have a bit of a word and find out what's going on. I've told him before he's got me on his side to the very end because he's shown me he's more than worth my effort, but I think a bit of an ear bash on a few home truths might be in order.
We'll have to see how it goes tomorrow.
|
|
Comments (2) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
More than just yesterday's teacher... - Friday, February 1, 2008
We've been back at school for three days now, the kids and I, and the grade's looking like it's going to be another winner. Nothing to complain about here. But more on them a little later. No doubt they'll give me plenty of material to put up here throughout the year. Instead, I'm going to ramble on about two kids in particular, both of which haven't been in my grade for more than one and two years, respectively. Today they managed, in a quick thirty second conversation as I passed one of them in the yard, to show me how significant I still am to them. No longer am I just the teacher they had fun with back in grade three or four. I'm somebody that's still important enough that they think it imperative that I'm still actively involved with their lives.
Here we go.
They're both now starting grade six. I taught one back in grade three, and the other in grade four. Both are fantastic kids and brilliant people. If I had a top five, they'd be fighting for top spot. One of them, unfortunately, had to transfer schools for this year, but that hasn't stopped them.
I watched these two play basketball all of last year. The first feller I've actually been watching since half way through grade three, about two and a half years now. At the end of last year, they won their first premiership, and even invited me as the 'number one ticket holder' to join their breakup pool party the following weekend. There was no way I was going to miss that, and to be honest, it's probably the best day I've had in my entire career. You get to know the kids at school, but very rarely are you given the privilege of getting to know them outside of that environment. That day I realised they were even better people than I first thought.
This year though, they had to join a team from another school as there were no other teams from here in their age group. That means a different weeknight than usual. These two have managed though to still get a message to me today concerning this year's basketball.
I was heading across the yard to have a recess break in the classroom when he ran up with a huge grin. Turns out the young feller who's now at another school had found out when they were to play and spent most of the weekend trying to ring the other young feller to tell him the time. Once they both knew, the next step was for the second kid to make sure he let me know.
Yep. They're playing for another team, but I seem to be important enough that they needed to make sure I was there to watch them.
Not just an old teacher from a few years ago. Not just yesterday's hero.
It's the little thoughtful things like this kids do from time to time that make everything worthwhile.
You know where I'm going to be Tuesday afternoons now, eh?
|
|
Comments (3) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
First Day - Wednesday, January 30, 2008
 Today was what I consider the official 'first day' of school. The kids were there. No meetings or sitting around listening or getting stuff ready for when the kids turn up. No. Today, the kids turned up, and all the preparation is tested to breaking point. Have you got all their lockers ready? Are you organised enough to not only get them to sort out their year's supply of books and pencils into some sort of order, or remind them of all the regular school rules they've learned by rote, but can you remember how to sit down in front of two score odd kids and get them to sit and listen?
I mean... that first half hour or so is when you either win them over or spend the rest of the year playing catch up, eh? How did I manage it? The same way I handle it each year.
I made myself look silly. In this case, mentioning something along the lines of behaving, or if your mum's anything like mine she'll bash you. Got a giggle.
Then I completely won them over by showing them how I can pull my thumb off. Always a winner. Any teacher that can pull body parts off and reattach them MUST be cool, eh?
Makes them think twice too, when I threaten them later with ripping off their arms and hitting them with the sloppy end. Cos if I can put my thumb back on without a mark, a nine year old's arm can't be too much of a jump, eh?
Okay. Besides that, there was serious stuff too. The kids wrote me between half a page to a page about their holidays in about twenty minutes in generaly silence, and then I threw a spelling test on them first day up, so they should realise they're gonna be doing work as well. It's not just Mr V making himself look a dill so they all want to come to school each day in case Mr V does something else silly.
Mind you... getting them there is more than half the battle, eh?
|
|
Comments (2) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
Australia Day Weekend, 2008 - Monday, January 28, 2008
Lots of sun, lots of lamb and lots of cricket this weekend.
Australia Day was Saturday, a nice, warm day with a chance of rain all across the district, except wherever we were, which would have been useful while we were being beaten at cricket in the afternoon. Shouldn't complain though... it was a nice day! The morning was the annual walk around the local town, then off to play cricket. Beaten, but that's not really news this year.
Sunday though, the state team (Victorian Bushrangers) played South Australia out here in an official match. I believe they send them out to a regional location once a year to spread the game to the grassroots level. Got in for free as part of my local club (along with the other local clubs) and raised money selling icecreams and drinks all day. Victoria had a good win, but the entertainment came from the drunk ten metres further along who decided to do a nudey run across the oval. He ran back along the gravel path around the boundary in bare feet, got dressed again, and continued drinking. Apparently his mates bet him $20 to do it. Nine of them. So he made $180. Nobody seemed to worry though, as the security or police never bothered to chase him.
Mind you... if any of my school kids were there, I know what their show and tell is gonna be come Wednesday morning!
Caught up with one of the kids there too, a young feller who's doing his last primary school year at another local school instead, which was a shame. Good to catch up with him though. You're not officially supposed to be friends with the kids, but there's always a few you get closer to than most. I can see the reasoning, but a good friend's not something to just toy around with, eh?
|
|
Comments (2) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
Preparing the classroom - a house of cards... - Wednesday, January 23, 2008
A curious mixture of realising I need to get the classroom in some sort of order before the kids get back next Wednesday and a rather lengthy sense of boredom sitting at home saw me while away most of yesterday afternoon back at work. The cleaners had paid a second major visit to the room since I had last been in just after New Year's and had moved all the piles of stuff I was still to sort from the back half of the room into the main area of the room so they could clean the lino floor. No worries, except those relatively neat piles were stacked on tables and chairs and my desk. So five hours later I emerged having inhaled several cubic metres of dust and sporting a nose that was running faster than a kid tied to the school bus.
I also came across the box of a dozen sets of playing cards, as well as about five other decks that didn't fit into the box. So I sat down to sort them out. Well, that killed two of my five hours right there. Now we have twelve complete decks of cards, and a pile of extra cards taller than the box they all live in. So many extras, yet not enough of the right cards to make another deck.
I think I might just sit those twelve complete decks up on the shelf, tell the kids they are there, and then not let them touch them again. I was starting to relish the boredom I had been feeling back at home before the cards were all sorted.
Anyway, the afternoon proved productive as the kids' locker tubs now have bright blue on orange name tags contacted onto the front, their little name tags I use for all sorts of random draws are laminated and chopped up in a little plastic bucket, and the tables are now relatively clean and all the piles of unsorted stuff have now been either sorted and put into appropriate places, sorted and put into inappropriate places until I can find an appropriate place for them later, or unsorted and hidden in the supply cupboard in the back room.
I'm thinking of taking a photo of the room, because experience tells me that it will not get cleaner and more organised than this for the rest of the year, so I might as well enjoy it while it lasts.
Which will probably be until this Wednesday. Yep. The day the kids turn up.
|
|
Comments (1) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
When the kid's mum cuts your hair... - Monday, January 21, 2008
As a teacher in a relatively small town (there's about eight primary schools, so I don't know most of the kids, but I seem to know enough of them), there's always a pretty good chance that, come holidays, each time you wander down the street to grab some food to fill the pantry, you're going to run into one or three kids or families. Some will holler out your name in greeting in the loudest voice they can muster, waving furiously as though their pinky finger has just been bitten by a dirty great yabbie who just won't let go. Others will hope you didn't see them and cross the plaza floor to walk on the other side, keeping their head down and intently studying the posters of women's products stuck to the shop window.
Once a term or so I'll get my hair cut in the cheap joint in the local plaza, right out the front of the main shop. The lady who cuts my hair happens to be the mum of one of the kids I had the pleasure of teaching last year, so at least we have something to chat about. She wants some dirt on him, so I make something up and ask the poor little bugger about the outcome on Monday morning. All good. Today was no exception.
This is also the kid who turned up just before school photo day with his hair in a mohawk. Funny thing is, it suited him and didn't really stand out as much as it would on other kids. He carried it well and didn't make any fuss at all over it. It was just his hair, nothing more.
I knew it was his birthday in two days time (with some kids you just remember their birthdays) so I brought that up, get mum to wish him a happy birthday for me. No worries. He's at his Dad's at the moment though, so she'll let him know when he gets back later in the week. Good thing I reminded her about his birthday though, because it's the same day the school opens before term for parents to pick up their kids' school supplies. Well... that's where we hatched our plan.
When he gets back home at the end of the week, ready to get presents from this half of the family, he'll be handed a great big box wrapped in nice paper. When he opens them, he'll find this year's school supplies. My little parting shot at him.
We'll have a laugh about it when he finds me in the schoolyard again. That's the way it should be.
|
|
Comments (1) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
Soon to start again... - Sunday, January 20, 2008
There's just over a week to go before the school year starts for 2008. It's about this time that most of us think about wandering into the classroom from time to time leading up to that first day to start getting bits and pieces ready. Fiddle around here and there, straightening stuff up, putting labels on the kids' lockers. The more done in this week, the less worry on that one day of work we have without the kids. After that first day, the kids are here and it's all hands on deck, hold on tight and we'll see you in the staffroom at the end of the day. The first beer might be free, after that, it's regular prices to raid the fridge.
Mind you... I've been ready to head back to work and get involved with the kids for the last week already. Probably says something about me, but that's okay. To be honest, this has been the first holidays I think I can remember when I've managed to walk around town fairly regularly without ANY kids actually meeting me and calling out in public. Not that I don't mind that, it just usually happens five times every day I drive into town.
Anyway. Time to start getting the house in order so it's at least liveably clean before the first term starts up.
And fiddle with the School Spirit webcomic. I've managed to put the holidays to good use and have a backlog that will see the strip through almost to the end of term one, so it's not a mad rush to get any more done right at the moment. I can take it easy for a while now.
Right. I'll wander back and put something else up if anything vaguely important happens in the next few days.
Cheers.
|
|
Comments (5) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
|
About Me
This is an offspring of the School Spirit Webcomic site. Where that site features the comic strip itself, this site focuses more on the real life minor adventures of teaching in semi-rural Victoria.
Friends
|
