One school, one week

Hi all!

So yesterday I spent the rest of the day chilling out watching some TV and resting. Then I went to the supermarket and bought some stuff for lunches this week and to cook Ann dinner. Even going to the supermarket is hard here. I'm so used to what all the brands look like and nothing is the same here! Think I did about 20 laps around the tiny Sainsbury's haha. 

I cooked Ann dinner and I'm proud to say it was a success! I'm not much of a cook at home. When I was about 15-16 I cooked a meal or two a week but then came the horrors of VCE and Uni so I didn't anymore (sorry mum). But I made Ann penne with a tomato and garlic based sauce with mushrooms, capsicum, onion and bacon. Cooked some garlic bread and had some red wine, and the combination was amaaaazing! Loved it. I might make a good mum and wife one day yet (VERY FAR OFF! Haha). 

This morning I got up at 5.45am and walked the 90 minutes to school. Not ashamed to admit transport here during peak times still terrifies me and I think it will the whole year to be honest! I'm also trying to save money, and I figure if I can't afford a gym then walking lots is the next best thing. It's not a great look wearing runners with a pretty dress, but I just make sure when I'm around the corner from school I change into my nice boots!

So back I was at the same school as last Wednesday when I was a TA, but this time as a teacher! This week here is SATs week, a bit like NAPLAN. So the year 2s and 6s are doing tests all week. So my job all week at this school in Putney is basically to cover whichever classes have a teacher off helping with the testing. 

Started the day off in year 2. Alisha the class' teacher introduced me and helped start the lesson off to settle them in. And then our tasks were to make mind maps about London. So I played the whole "I'm new here tell me about London" card. Then we did some phonics, which thanks to Friday I'm more familiar now. The kids worked fairly well but as to be expected at primary level were a little rowdy. 

Then a teacher went home sick so instead of what they had planned for me I was put into a year 1 class with literally 5 minutes to read over everything and figure out what I was doing. Thankfully their topic was 'belonging' and the book of choice was the patchwork elephant so I was able to run a discussion circle and then they did their work. This class were lots rowdier!

Spent my lunch marking work and figuring out the afternoon. It was an activity about religious symbols and I'm a little ashamed to say I didn't know all of them but neither did the TA. But I did the best I could considering. They were quite rowdy but I'm pretty proud that I had 28 six year olds on task mostly all by myself (the TA left after the start). 

Did some more marking after school and spent some time chatting to Alisha (Australian) and an Australia TA. They both sound English now haha. We all did some marking and then the teacher whose class I'm taking tomorrow gave me a run down on what we are doing and some of the kids so I feel prepared for that. 

Highlights/funny points of the day:

1) One kid asked where I was living and I explained I had been looking for somewhere. His response "you should move around this area so you can come and teach us". Awww :)

2) In the last three minutes of the day we had time to kill so I told the kids to ask me anything about Australia. One kid asked if I have a pet dingo, and another asked if I like 'Neighbours'. When I mentioned we live so close to where it's filmed the kids were most impressed haha!

So overall a pretty successful day as a supply teacher. I'm happy to keep doing this this year and not work somewhere permanently to be honest but see what happens. I'm quite enjoying seeing different schools and how they work, comparing them etc. What I'm noticing so far is schools here are far more closed off than home. All the doors and school gates you have to press a button or swipe a card to be let in. And the kids aren't allowed to bring their lunch, they all eat in the cafeteria! Also they're all multi storey!

After school I walked 80 minutes to Wimbledon and I'm now sat on the steps of a theatre waiting for my English friend Emily to have dinner and a catch up. She's bringing some things I left at hers in March as well as my costume for the rugby 7s this weekend. I'll probably walk the hour back afterwards because the bus only saves me 15 minutes, which will make this my first day in London that I won't have spent any money - hooray!

Should be good! I've attached some photos I took on my walk to school and one of the view from the 3rd level of the school. 

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox