I spent almost my whole day today in the primary school, and it was a blast! Two lessons with the year 2's, and then four lessons with the year 2's. I started off with the year 4's, who I hadn't seen in over a week. They were having a Japanese lesson, so I sat in for that and then went around and checked out the family trees they were making, using Japanese family words. It was pretty cool to see 10 year olds learning Japanese. After that, they had a PE lesson so I went along with them for that. They were practicing handball, which is a move in "footy" to pass the ball to the next player. It was my first time playing with an Australian football, but I don't think I did too badly -- I'm definitely better with one of them than with an American football. I might have done it a bit too hard though; the boy I was handballing to was tiny, and he reeled back a few times when I passed it to him. But he never fell over, and only flinched a little bit! When the class was over, I was left holding a ball and one of the boys decided to try and tackle me for it -- it was great practice at running with the footy and passing it off to someone to get tackled!
I had a quick meeting during recess with the deputy principal to touch base about everything for my last two weeks. After the meeting, I was set to go to the year 12 philosophy class; when I got there, though, the teacher said the boys were just going to do quiet work the whole lesson and I wouldn't need to stay. Feeling a bit relieved (I didn't feel much like philosophizing today), I went back to the primary classes to see if anyone needed some extra help. And so I found myself with the year 2's! They were working on a maths (they have an 's' in math here) assignment, so I meandered around and helped them out. I had a nice chat with one of the boys, Dylan, who always seems kind of shy and surly -- I always keep a bit of an eye on him, and he really was warming up to me today! When they finished with maths, they had a guided reading activity, so I was paired with my buddy Tommy and another great kid, Morteza. They both need a bit of a push and some guidance in their work, but it was really rewarding to help them out and see them smiling when they finished.
After two lessons with the year 2's, it was time for lunch. I made my way back to LE, where they were having the Monday Games Club. There were a couple really nice year 8 boys there who I talked with for a while as they devoured my pretzels (they're not a very common Australian snack, but I buy them whenever I can -- and prepare to have them get eaten on me at Games Club). When lunch was over, I went back to year 2 for my usual time slot there. They were in the computer lab for the lesson, reading some stories and then doing maths practice on the computers. It was really fun, but definitely hectic! I would hear my name being called by at least 3 different boys at a time all over the room, one boy kept coming up and tugging at my sleeve to ask for help, and then Tommy kept would wheel his chair over to me every few minutes to check in. A very crazy, but a lot of fun. I got so caught up in it that I lost track of time and conveniently missed my year 7 lesson! (only partially on purpose).
After several high-fives and even a hug, the day came to a close.
Now I’m preparing a powerpoint for the year 2’s about America, a task much more daunting than I first thought – there’s a lot more to America than I used to think!
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