Like many teachers back home, Ruth teaches in a portable. However, when I saw this portable, my first, second, and third thoughts were all WOW! There's a storage room. And a sink. And the large windows that you see here are repeated on the back side of the portable too. The windows open hugely and let in a great breeze. There are two ceiling fans to help circulate air. And there is also an air conditioner. The strange looking grates in front of the windows are to shield some of the sun's rays. Today was the warmest day I've experienced here so far, and it went up to 27C. Now I know that back at my school, at that sort of temperature we'd all be sweating and uncomfortable and generally grouchy. But with the windows open and the fans going, it was more than comfortable in her room. When it gets really hot, Ruth can turn the air conditioner on. I know that Sydney gets a lot hotter for a lot more of the school year than Toronto does, but still. I'd just kill to have those wonderful windows!
Her school is currently being reconstructed, so hopefully at the start of the next school year in January she'll be able to move back into one of the buildings. That's right - Sydney schools are made up of multiple buildings! This is a picture of the primary wing and playground, where the kindergarten and grade one classes are housed. The grade 2's and the 2/3 are housed in portables. Her school is a little unusual in that their campus is split across a roadway - so the buildings housing grades 3-6, the office, and the assembly hall (sort of like a gym but much smaller than ours - I mean really, they do almost all their sport outside) are found across the road. They have the ability to erect car barriers across the road during school hours, so children can cross back and forth all day without worry of being hit by a car.Ruth and her colleagues found it very strange how much time we spend inside during the school day! There is much more of an emphasis on being outside here. The kids eat lunch in the school yard, supervised by teachers. Class activities often move onto the shaded porches or into the yard - like yesterday, when I helped the 2/3's with a measurement activity involving trundle wheels. There's no point in worrying about being too noisy and disturbing the class next door, when there is so much space between the classrooms and buildings! Also, there is no PA system and no phones in the classroom - so all communication between teachers needs to be done by student runners.
Because there's no PA, the morning announcements and attendance are done differently too. When the morning bell goes, all the children assemble - in class lines - and SILENTLY - behind the rec hall. The teachers assemble too, to gather their classes and take attendance. One of the VP's addresses everyone from the porch of the rec hall using a portable speaker and microphone. I am very impressed with the emphasis put on politeness at this school. At the morning assemblies, the kids were practically silent, all standing at attention, facing the speaker. He would call out anyone who was misbehaving and the behaviour generally changed immediately. With no snickering or comments from the other kids. Wow.
The school system also runs very differently here. The school year is split up into four terms, starting at the end of January, and ending the following December. Typically there are two-week breaks between each of the terms, with a 5-week break between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of having Christmas break in the middle of the summer! Report cards go home only twice a year, in terms two and four. Also, instead of "recess", they have "fruit break". Means the same thing, but with the change of title, the obvious meaning is that the students are expected to eat a piece of fruit or something else equally healthy as their snack before going out to play.
Over the last two days I've had the chance to help out with a number of lessons, including language, math, art, and even an Italian class! This afternoon I got to teach the 3's a science lesson - they've only had limited experience with doing experiments, so I did an experiment with them. We worked to answer the question "which combination of materials will cause a chemical reaction?" (for anyone who was on the Muppet camp with me last winter, it was the same deal - just without the Dr. Honeydew craziness.)
The kids had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed experimenting to find out what combinations worked and what didn't. The only downside was that at the start of the afternoon, when I was setting out all the materials, the bottle of cream soda I was opening exploded all over me - and my brand new pants! Wah!
