The first week came and went all too fast (it’s the beginning of week 5 now and time is rollin’ on by). The beginning of the second week, reality hit and we were off to 3 days of staff meetings at Kelvin Grove State College. If American staff meetings are boring, Australian staff meetings are almost unbearable (few rooms have air conditioning) and seemingly a bit more chaotic. Teaching and class schedules (called times-tables as I eventually learned amidst the rest of the Aussie educational lingo) were still being argued about and tossed around just 48-hours prior to the first day of school with room arrangements still up in the air. With Kelvin Grove operating above capacity for students and class sizes hovering around 30, classes actually didn’t get finalized until Day 8 of the school year, which is a common school census day across Queensland. The class that I teach has 28 students. With Kelvin Grove only several kilometers from the heart of Brisbane and a gaining reputation amongst the local and international communities, the student body is made up of a large array of students from vastly different geographic and sociocultural backgrounds.
Anyway, as an English and Psych teacher, I was a bit surprised when I was led into math and science meetings for half the day. Little did I know then the middle level teachers (I’m teaching year 7 or 7th grade) teach four core subjects. Math, Science, English, and Social Studies. Unlike the majority of schools in the U.S., Kelvin Grove has yet to adopt specific subject area teachers. Instead, they teach all four core subjects to the same class of students. They also have specialty classes like Art, Computer Technology, Music, Italian and Physical Education once a week which essentially make-up teacher prep time. Not knowing this set-up at the staff meetings made things a bit more difficult to understand. If you’re interested in the philosophy and specific make-up of the core courses, check out the following link for the school. Also, on this page you can download the student handbook 2010-2011 which is a great tool that explains their curriculum for each year and subject area, their behavior management system, assignment policies, as well as their various schools of excellence (golf, tennis, dance, music, aviation) which are extremely successful.
Our final free weekend we spent by going on a roadtrip with a few of our Australian friends to Stradbroke Island.
North Stradbroke Island, or “Straddie” as it is referred to by the locals, is one of the largest sand islands in the world. We spent all of Saturday here and left late Sunday afternoon, taking us only about 2-hours to get back home by ferry, railway, and bus. The beaches were extremely nice and we hope to go back once more before leaving as the waters were still a bit murky from the Brisbane River flooding which emptied out into Moreton Bay, leaving the ocean-waters not quite as clear as they usually would be. Still, Point Lookout (where we spent a good deal of our time) was incredible with a great beach and a massive rocky gorge where there are usually sharks and turtles.
After spending a majority of the night hanging out on the beach, we slept in a little hut-styled room just off the beach.
This (above) was the view from the window looking out onto the ocean.
These three pictures (above) are of the beach where we spent the majority of our afternoon.
This is Brown Lake also found on Stradbroke Island, which is a Tea-tree lake. The oils from the surrounding Eucalyptus trees seep into the lake, which makes the water feel extremely soft and pure. It’s wonderful for your body and felt amazing on my scorched skin. “Fountain of Youth” of sorts they say.
Sunburnt and all, the next day my student teaching experience at Kelvin Grove State College in Brisbane, Australia began.
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