Jade Down Under

I've got nothing new to report. I've been in class (at Uni) for the past two weeks and it's been as mellow as usual - I'm slightly disappointed in the program here at JCU but will continue, of course. I'm not sure what they think the classes are teaching us. Unfortunately our class time has become further ammunition for after class time; us students discuss the pitfalls of the program and how it could be improved. Luckily our practicum time is where the learning happens, if only I could stay in the high school I'd be a professional by the end of the year. Well, perhaps closer to one.

We had a test today, blah. I have an assignment due tomorrow; it is already completed. I watched The Bridge to Terabithia tonight, wow; that was a kids movie for sure. I've also got started on Man vs. Wild thanks to Jamie and his almost idolization of Bear and what he'll put in his mouth. Life on res. is definitey a laid back one.

I'll be back in the unnamed high school next week (for two weeks) so life will once again be crazy. We are expected to teach 14 lessons over the two weeks, as well as complete a list of tasks while we are there. I'm looking forward to it although not looking forward to getting up at the crack of dawn, which to a student is 6:30am. I've really adjusted to the student life. I could go to bed at 9 and wake up at 9 - I've apparently got my adolescent sleeping patterns back.

Tomorrow we get our rooms cleaned, one of the highlights here on residence. I don't remember my room back home needing a vacuuming this badly - perhaps my white carpet hid it better? Doesn't really make sense but go with it.

Liz is going away this weekend to meet some of her Canadian buddies in Airlie beach - we went sailing there about a month ago - so this weekend will be spent doing laundry, reading and catching up on some stuff.... I really don't have anything to catch up on but I felt like I needed a third task this weekend. I'll come up with something. I know it is only Tuesday night but the week does fly by. I'll be in class tomorrow, volunteering and class on Thursday and then my weekend starts.

Til then...

Last night the girls and I went to a Townsville Cowboys game. That's rugby for those who have no idea, but don't ask me what kind... I don't know. We are doing some volunteering with the City of Townsville so the tickets were free if we agreed to work the halftime.

Below is the Dairy Farmers stadium and just to give my dear cuz some more ammo they even had cows there!! Shut up Sean.


They were loading these little guys while we were working the halftime so I got to cuddle up to one of them. They are only a couple days old!!!



Katie and myself.

Here are the Cowboys right after a... try? I think that's what they call it - a good thing.


Here are the West Tigers from Sydney. They got their bums handed to them.


This was near the end of the game, minutes remaining.


And the Cowboys won!! It was actually a pretty blah game because the Tigers were that horrible - the Cowboys could have won with half the number of players.


After the Cowboys win the whole audience stands up and sings some cowboy song. I'm not as country as I thought so the words were lost on me. People get right into it though.



Below is the Cowboys and the cheerleaders. Game over.


We ended up heading to a pub after where I sipped my coke before heading home to watch the new Grey's Anatomy episode. I'm stuck between wanting Derek to save Izzy and wanting Izzy off the show. Oh, the major dilemmas in life.

Hey everyone,

Although my practicum was last week I've been told to post about the experience as apparently people are feeling left out. I didn't post anything last week as it was crazy busy and then on the weekend I went to Crystal Creek and forgot about posting about how teaching went.

First off, love it. I was placed with a great 'mentor' teacher who gave me enough feedback to encourage improvement while also providing positive reinforcement to encourage further positive development. My nameless teacher (don't want to breach the whole privacy thing) has been teaching for almost nine years but still remembers what it is like to be a pre-service teacher; major bonus. For placement I was to teach two of her classes. Well, to be precise I was supposed to teach two 20 minute lessons to a small group of students however, I taught two lessons to the whole class. The first lesson was to a grade 11 class starting a new unit on documentaries. All went well, I was nervous the kids were talking a bit, but I feel they absorbed the information I was delivering.
The second lesson was a fourth period lesson (da da daaaaaa) to a grade 8 class. I'd love to say that it all went pleasantly, they loved me, I loved them... blah, blah, blah ***reality check*** They talked, and talked, and talked, and I stood at the front of the room saying, 'Attn....' They were excitable little things and I spent a good portion of the lesson trying to implement the behaviour management techniques that I remembered. SIDE NOTE: who remembers the teacher that stood at the front of the class with their arm in the air like they had a question??? YEAH, that was me! Ah man.
Let's just say the Uni didn't prepare us for behaviour management and that is a major complaint of a lot of pre-service teachers.

I survived.

I am back at Uni for the next two weeks doing... behaviour management... don't ask why they saved it until after the fact, and then I'll be back in the high school for another two weeks. I went to the library today - looks a lot like Trent U library - and picked up some books on behaviour management. Those kids won't get me again.

Schools out for the weekend so it was time to relax. We (Liz and I) were both pretty wiped out so we decided to stay in, that was until 10. We decided to go out to the Uniclub, basically out of boredom. The Uniclub is the pub at JCU. It's only open until 12 and they're pretty serious about closing time. They literally turn on the hoses to get people out. Lights on, hoses out.

The two Canadian girls.


Below is Riffy, Tim (Bday boy) and Liz.


Riffy and Liz

This is my floormate Tim, who's buddy Tim's birthday it was. He was our protector and walked us home from the club.



So that was Friday night. Fairly mellow. Saturday I did nothing.... watched more episodes of Scrubs, which I am now on season 6. Season 7 is all ready and waiting.
Leighton texted Liz to see if we were up for a Crystal Creek expedition so this afternoon (being Sunday) Leighton and Paddy picked us up and we headed North. Crystal Creek is all fresh water and it's beautiful. Below is one of many waterfalls. We swam under them and they pound your head pretty good. The entire swimming pool is a large current pushing you away from the waterfall.



Another shot of the same waterfall.



We moved from the above swimming hole to the upper falls. Leighton and Liz walking up.


This is the higher falls. It was wonderful.




This is a closer shot of the falls themselves. The boys were enjoying sliding down the lower falls on their bellies - not for me. I'm petrified of pain.


This is looking down from the higher falls, looking at the same bridge - built in the 30's. There was a rock engraved with a date.... March...12th.... 1936? Something along those lines.


Brian (our Captain from the Whitsundays) walking down the stone pathway.


Pretty butterflies.


There was also a lot of rock jumping - this is Paddy and Leighton.
Again pain and Jade do not go together so I stayed in the water.


Here's your pic. Leighton!


Overall it was a very relaxing and enjoyable afternoon. On the way back to Townsville (about an hour) I had asked where you can get good fish and chips and coincidentally Paddy's mom owns a fish and chip joint. It seems that whatever I ask for I get around here so we were able to get delicious fish and chips for dinner. We went to a picnic table on the river and enjoyed the feast. It was a great day.



LEIGHTON - NAME CORRECTIONS MADE! :)

Yep, that's right, tomorrow I teach. I have spent the last two days observing my wonderful prac. mentor and tomorrow she will hand me her grade eleven class to teach them a lesson. It's all very exciting. Originally I was supposed to be teaching to grade 10's, and only a few of them; instead it's grade elevens, and a full herd!
Am I nervous you ask? Sure am. Those kids are the age that I feel so the butterflies will probably come alive tomorrow. What right do I have teaching my own age group? And then reality sinks in - I'm almost 10 years older than them, when did that happen?
I really can't believe how old I am, and being called 'Miss' all day drills in my age.

'Miss' 25!
'Miss' 25!

Although I do like being called Miss I don't like the connotations that come with it. I'm an elder.

Wish me luck. Hopefully I won't break a hip on my way in tomorrow.

Perhaps you remember the story from the other night, about the HUGE rat that scared me half to death. Well, in the daytime she's nothing more than a cute and cuddle-y possum!! Look at the little face!!!


Apparently we can feed her bananas and she will take them right from our hand!! I love mammals. I captured this picture by a simple whistle - but then realized she was probably looking for food and I felt kind of bad. Not too bad as I took three more pictures before letting her return to cuddling her young one.

Besides taking pictures of the wildlife I have actually been doing school related tasks. Yesterday I had a meeting with my SBTE (Student Based Teacher Educator) who appears to be a good match. I will be working with her next week teaching grade 8, 11, 12. Ahhhh..... I haven't been in a high school in 8 years so it's a little scary.
Next week I'll be teaching 2 lessons which will complete my first level of requirements. I will then be back at the Uni for two weeks and then back to high school for another two weeks. This is Phase 1 of our teacher training and will be the least intensive. The interesting part is my SBTE is ICT (Information, Communication and Technology) based (don't you love all the acronyms) so I will be doing a lot of work with computers - and let's face it, that's where the world is headed so it's good training. Also, my SBTE will be running a lesson on Smartboards, which is just fantastic because they look awesome!! Think Ben Affleck in The Paycheck - a complete touch screen board. You use your fingers to move things around. This is where the school systems are headed and I need to make sure I keep up. Bye-Bye blackboards and overheads!!

I still haven't found a job yet and will be applying more Monday night, sometime. I did however find plenty of volunteer work opportunities and just spoke with the Deputy Principal at Townsville Community Learning Centre for the Disabled and will be volunteering with them as much as I can. That will start Monday 16th.

My parents and Sis (with a capital 'S') have booked their flight for June which is when I'll get a break and head down to Sydney. I'm looking forward to thier visit. I also want to do some other travelling this year but until I get a job my travel plans are dwindling fast. New Zealand is calling me.....

On Monday Liz and I took the ferry over to Magnetic Island. As the story goes James Cook came to Magnetic Island by accident and called the island Magnetical Island as he thought the island had magnetic properties and that was why he was drawn to it. No sailor has ever found this theory to be true. Poor James Cook.
This is the Nelly Bay port, which is where the ferry drops you.



See, told you.


Liz and I walked around Nelly Bay for a while but realized (quite quickly) that there was nothing there, so we jumped on a bus and headed for Horseshoe Bay which is supposed to be the nicest beach area.



Here's Horseshoe! We grabbed lunch as soon as we got off the bus at a place called Noodies, a Latin restaurant. I would not recommend it although it was our own fault - a taco from Noodies.

Below is a picture of the beach. As you can see the stinger netting is still in place and everyone must swim between the netting. Stinger season runs from November through May so we still have some time. I was driving Liz nuts as I made a big deal about getting in the water each time. My argument is there is SHARK netting at Bondi Beach in Sydney and somehow a SHARK gets through that netting approximately once a year - or so I've heard. What's stopping a stinger from getting through the little netting???? PS Dad, we are going swimming there - and you are getting in the water!


This is the beach. You can't tell from this picture but Aussie sand is not like say, Mexico or Cuba sand. Aussie sand is more like little hot rocks that are small enough to pass as sand but my soft feet make them feel like jagged hot coals. One really cool thing was I found a sand dollar, which is quite common but not for me! The sand dollar I found is actually the shape of a LOONIE (man, I love that word), so it means more to me.



After chilling at the beach for a couple hours we had to head back. Unfortunately I had a floor meeting at 7 o'clock so it cut our time short. Liz got some ice cream on our way home and here she is sitting peacefully on the ferry enjoying her ice cream.


This is pulling into Townsville, also known as Breakwater Terminal.


Oh, my lovely new hat.... lol... it was actually a big pain and I crinkled it up in my bag and took it out for this picture. The $7.00 did not go to waste.

On Friday night some of us when to an Irish Pub called Molly Malones to see a guy in our class play. By the time we all got there he was singing the last song so we ended up heading back to the main floor level where the music was also live, and fantastic. The bar was crowded, mostly of males which I think further explains this sign. I absolutely love Australian signs.


Here's some of the girls, and a moose in the background. Peace signs were a common occurance on Friday night but I can not post a lot of pictures because of the Australian Internet quota system. Basically, everytime I download something, or switch through internet pages (technically a download) I'm charged. As part of my University education they have given me a certain dollar amount I'm allowed to download but it isn't much. Until I figure out how much that is the pictures are going to drop to minimal.

From left: Half of Alyce, Sophie, Liz (in yellow), Jess, Me, Penny and Penny's friend.