Weekends in Esperance

Hello all,

I hope all is well in Canada with each and everyone one of you. I hear the ground hog added six more weeks - yikes! On with the skiing and snowboarding then!

John finished his first week at Nulsen Primary on Friday, and I was relief teaching in a year 2/3 class - my first assignment in Australia. It's quite an interesting school - it's small, however it has a large staff, with several educational assistants and differing specialist teachers. Those that are specialists assist with accomodations and assist classroom teachers with programing and curriculum sorting. 30-40% of the student population is made up of Aboriginal Students, and therefore you also have staff that are dedicated to working with those students and their families to promote schooling, behaviour and other social factors.

Behavioural issues within the school are largely apparent, however, they are dealt with promptly it seems, and there are consequences for various actions - haven't dealt with it personally yet though, which is always good. One issue John is slowly working through is the incredible need to differentiate, and we're not just talking between your multiple intelligences here, we're talking grade 2's in a grade 6/7 class, and several of them. I know this is present in our system back home, however, it seems that those classes where students are all over the map is more apparent and most classes deal with this issue than I believe we experience back home. Maybe it's just because we are at the initial stages of the year, and this is the time you use to complete various diagnostics, and maybe the retention levels over the summer are low; it just seems the spread is vast. Anyhow, we'll see what the year brings.

I have begun relief teaching here, and wow, do I have a new found respect for supply teachers. I've never supplied, I've always had my own class, so to jump into this role now is strange, great that I don't have all the ownership, but that is one small aspect of teaching that I do so thoroughly enjoy, even when it sucks the life out of you. I have several upcoming days and a two-week gig shortly, so all is good. I'm glad to have the work coming in. I wondering how much longer I could work on my tan for, really - yes, I know....screw off Cristen, but I love being busy. I think tend to work better when I am busier. Anyhow, this isn't suppose to be a journal entry!

So this past weekend, John and I spent Saturday morning strolling downtown, grabbing a few essentials and then just browsing around. We grabbed a latte from "Koffee Kat", our new favourite spot off the jetty (pier) and then I was got to chat with Heather on Skype for about an hour. LOVE SKYPE!!!! What a great program. If anyone else has it, let's chat. It's so cool chatting with someone and seeing them at the same time when you are on the other side of the world. Loved it! I use my yahoo account to access it: cristencarson@yahoo.ca if you want to add Johnny and I.

Saturday evening, John and I ventured out to the artistic side of Esperance. We found ourselves at the Bijou theatre, the oldest in the Southern Hemisphere, and we watched a play called "Seven Deadly Scenes". Hopefully no one from the Esperance Dramatic community is reading this, but John and I thought the play was abismal! We were wondering if, at any point, the intention from a scene was for audience members to die from sheer confusion and boredom. Oh Jenny, if you are reading this, we are terribly sorry for our honesty!! Don't let any of your Esperance drama buddies know please!!! We had a good laugh and a perplexed few looks to share when it was all said and done.

One Sunday, Narelle and Mark stole us away to the sand dunes close by where we drove "Scout", our car - well, Jennie's - through parts of the dunes, and then went sandboarding. It was great fun! Similar to snow boarding for sure, but the fact that we could be in our bathing suits was a highlight. That afternoon we swam at 11 mile beach and then had a Barbie at Observatory point. It was a great weekend!

We're off to Perth this coming weekend for a teacher's exchange meeting. I think we are heading to Fremantle for part of the weekend, and sightseeing in Perth a bit too.

Here is a link to some pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.ca/cristencarson11/FebruaryWeekendInEsperance?feat=directlink

We hope you all are well and we look forward to hearing from you about your lives in Canada! Take care, miss you all.....

cristen and John :o)