My first day...

"If I shot a bullet straight ahead and if it didn't hit anything, would it eventually go all the way around the world and shoot me in the back?"
- a question from a Year 7 student on my first day... during a lesson on latitude and longitude.

Yes, I am here and I survived my first day teaching Year 7s at Beechmont State School. It all went very smoothly, actually... nothing (apart from the above quote) out of the ordinary to report.

The class actually seems very "normal"... a little too normal, in fact. All twenty kids (yes, only twenty!!) are quite attentive and mostly just get on and do the work they need to do. It's actually unlike any previous class I've had... but in a good way :)

Tomorrow I'm going to do a lesson on "weeds" (no, Ben, not THAT sort of weed) as part of a study on plants and the environment we're doing. Once I set the task, I'm planning to give the kids a fair bit of rope and let them go off and find answers to the questions themselves (try and practise some of this "constructivism" bullshit they preach at uni!).

We are having a "Plant Out" at a nearby park on Friday. Both our class and the 5/6 class will venture out for the whole day to plant plants.... and stuff. It sounds like a lot of fun. Nothing like the great outdoors! I'll post some photos so you can see how we went.

Meanwhile, the moving on the weekend was absolute hell. I think we under-estimated how much we had to do on the last day, and hence, we were packing and cleaning until after 7pm on Saturday. As a result, I had bruises, scratches, and some serious emotional scarring. It was the most fun we could've had with our clothes on :-| But we got there in the end.... bye, bye 44 Vale Street forever!

On another note, seems I won't be a member of the EQ Alumni for much longer, with November 13th a tentative date in which I will return to the fray to do some ICT Community updates! Hurrah!!! Doughnuts all round!

Ciao!