Community and Perseverance

Unfortunately, as many of you have probably already heard about in the news, the bush fires in Victoria continue to burn and spread to towns all across the state. At this point the death toll is still rising and has reached over one hundred and eighty as of last night. Families all over the state have lost everything, and are still waiting to hear if loved ones have been located.

This tragic event has brought communities together and the support among strangers is impeccable. People from all over Australia as well as other countries are sending clothing, food, toiletries, and monetary donations. Right down the road from where I live there is a community centre that has transformed into a relief center. People are able to stay here until the fires have ceased and it is safe to return to their communities. The support the communities and surrounding states have shown is incredible and while it is devastating that people are without everything they had to call their own, it is amazing to see how people can come together and raise money to assist all those who have suffered.

My host parents, Alan and Carolyn have known several people affected by the bush fires and we actually were in the area of the fires two weekends ago. One week after we went up to their son's Break Away camp the fires started. They finally received word last night that the fire had not destroyed the cabin and lodge that we celebrated the opening ceremony in. The towns we went through on the way up to the lodge have been affected though. Both Buxton and Healsville have been under flame or are completely burnt to the ground. We even stopped in one of these towns for an afternoon tea and the place we were at, no longer exists. Homes, businesses, police and fire stations, etc. will have to rebuilt and communities will have to start over from nothing.

It has been a very emotional time for both my host family and also the school community. Students and staff members have been directly impacted by the fires and many have come to school with stories to tell. On Monday, Mr. Fairweather (our principal and also my host dad) had a brief staff meeting to address how to approach this in the classrooms. In my grade, my teacher and I decided that we would address the fires and allow the students silent writing time to either write about their weekend or any questions or concerns they had about the fires. This allowed students to ask questions in a safe setting or to write about something other than what was all over the news the entire weekend.

On a more positive note, my second week in the classroom is going by fast. I cannot believe that tomorrow is Friday already. The students will have their final day of intensive swimming in Eltham and we will also participate in the first Inter School Sport competition. Each Tuesday morning the students practise in their specific sport and then on Fridays they either compete at school or travel to another local primary school to compete against another school. I am helping with the volleyball team and I am excited for the first match. Most of the students do not know a whole lot about the specific rules and techniques of the game and I am looking forward to educating them on these things. It is a wonderful opportunity for them to be active and also learn to work with others. I have found that the grade 5/6's have numerous opportunities to strengthen their teamwork skills as well as be active outside the classroom subject areas of maths, language, and integrated studies.

In the past two weeks I have done a lot of observing and getting to know my students on a personal level. Learning names was pretty easy for me, and the students have been nothing but welcoming and enthusiastic about me being in their classroom. The students are very curious and I feel that with each day I get to know a few more on a more personal level. I have introduced Pen Pal letters to my students (I had the classroom that I will be working in when I return to America write letters to the students in Australia) and throughout the week they have written letters back to the students in America, learned about the assessment process in grade 5/6 for the beginning of the year, taken role, read parts of the fruit and cereal novel, and engaged in various team building activities in the classroom.

Next week will be more of a regular schedule for grade 5/6's because the intensive swimming program will be finished. We will have another two periods with the students to start doing language and maths on a more regular basis. Lauren (Miss Richardson) is going to introduce me to their literacy circles as well as the spelling program they use and slowly give me tasks to do towards the end of next week or the start of week four. We are planning to do the same with Maths and possibly do small group work next week. The focus unit for this term is about Indigenous Australians, which we will also begin next week. I am looking forward to learning about the curriculum in more detail and take on some bigger roles in the classroom.

Over the weekend I will have some planning to do on Respect. We are doing some work on the Greenhills Gets Going Program next week and I am in charge of having groups of students put on plays about respect. Two of them are group plays and the other is a song to an NSYNC song. The students will have fun with these and entertain their classmates, I am sure of that. This weekend we are heading to Alan's (my host dad) mothers beach house. They have a gathering on Saturday night and thought it would be a chance for us to see a different part of Victoria and relax by the beach. It is supposed to be very nice weather for the weekend so I am excited to see something new and get away from everything for a weekend. I will try to post some pictures soon of all the adventures I have had since arriving in Melbourne. More on these later...