I got to wake up nice and early today to get ready for my first day of 1st/2nd grade at Rouse Hill Primary School! Those of us who were placed here had a little talk with the principal and a tour of the school which is quite large with 900 some students K-6. The schools here are set up a little differently when it comes to how it is set up; rather than having one big building, they have multiple buildings that require you to walk outside to get from classroom to classroom. Also, their playgrounds have a roof over them in order to protect the kids from the sun, since skin cancer is such a big problem in Australia. The kids also are sometimes required to wear hats when they go outside. Once it was time for school to start all of the students were gathered for an assembly before heading to the classrooms, and at this they decided to welcome all of the American teachers from MSU that were there.
Typically the students would be required to wear a uniform to school, however today was apparently a really big day in the fact that a famous Rugby League player named Jarryd Hayne was coming! Many of the kids were all dressed in their blue and yellow jerseys and anything else that had to do with the "Parramatta Eels". One of the kids in my class was all decked out in a full on mini uniform since his Dad is apparently one of the coaches for the team (he was too cute!). After helping with the reading groups first thing, they were all excited that they got to decorate a poster to hold up for when this Jarryd guy came into the classroom. It's funny to see people get all worked up about a player and game that I no nothing about! I had to explain to one of the girls that I had never even seen a Rugby game because it's not really that big in America.
Eventually it was time for Morning Tea/Recess. The kids got to eat some of their snack in class and then take anything left out to recess with them while Jillian and I went to the staff room for our own morning tea since we didn't have recess duty. I don't remember the exact amount of time that we had but i remember thinking that it was a fairly long little break that we got! Then only an hour or so later it's time for lunch which was also quite long compared to the lunches that I'm use to in school. After school we had to go to a professional development meeting, which apparently happens every Monday. Though the meeting was a bit on the boring side I think it's great that they have these sorts of meetings that often, it's a nice way to see that everyone is on the same page.
Finally the meeting was over and we all got to go home. We came home to find Margret and Granny gone and just Don and Wilson relaxing at home. Today for dinner we had some sort of spaghetti and meatballs with curry ? I'm not exactly sure what it was but it was good! I had a glass of wine with dinner and we all sat around talking about education and various other things. I have to interview Jillian by wednesday but i feel like I have been doing that since I got here! I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to ask, but I should probably get going on that!
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