Starting School Down Under

So today was my first day at Blackfriars Priory School, and it was quite the day!  The principal was out sick, and nobody else has a clear idea of what I'll be doing yet, so I got to experience a bit of everything.  Once the principal gets back we're going to work out a clearer program, but I think it will still involve a lot of different things, which is really exciting.

The school itself is set on a small outdoor campus just north of downtown Adelaide.  The racial makeup of the school is actually really interesting -- there are over 80 different nationalities represented there, so probably just about half of the boys are Australian, while a lot of the others are Afghan, Pakistani, Vietnamese, Chinese, or any other.  Some of the boys are from refugee families, so it's great that they have the opportunity to go to the school.

I started out my day in a Year 10 Religious Ed class; they were learning about the Eucharist, and two of the boys were assigned to talk to me about it.  I think half of the talk was actually about the Eucharist, and I let them have the run of everything else.  They each insisted that the other was mental and that I ought to watch out for him, while at the same time asking me if I'd be their new best mate.  I got plenty of questions, too: "Do you have a wife and kids?  What do you think about the troops in Afghanistan?  Do you know Vinn Diesel?  How bout Jessica Alba?"  It was quite the class!

I got to spend some time in a couple different math classes, too (or "maths" as they call it here) and talk to the boys there, and also refresh my memory about adding fractions and common denominators.  What was really fun was spending time in the Year 1 class, with the boys just learning to read.  I helped them go through lists of words, and then they read to me such literary masterpieces as "What the Pirates Saw" and "I Want New Socks."  They were a great bunch of kids!

A lot of the day I spent in the Learning Enrichment office, where they help out kids with special needs and learning disabilities.  I worked one-on-one with a bunch of the boys in there, which I really enjoyed.  Some of the boys are having trouble reading or speaking, and others just need a little extra help with the math skills.  It's great all the help that BPS offers, and I hope to be really involved in the Enrichment program.

Doing all this different stuff around the school is really cool -- it can definitely help me figure out what I want to do with my life, working in so many different areas.  It looks like every day will bring something new, and it's exciting to see what is in store for me!