It is my third day here in Mooloolaba, Australia. Mooloolaba is in the state of Queensland. It is located on the Sunshine Coast. My boyfriend, Matt, is living in a three bedroom apartment at Newport Apartments. It is a beautiful city located right on the coast.
I will be using much of this blog for educational purposes. I am keeping a personal journal of my experiences here in Australia. I will be discussing my experience with a year six classroom.
Yesterday, I was given the wonderful opportunity to meet Matt’s class and teacher. These year six students are from a school about twenty minutes from his apartment. Unlike the U.S., these students begin the school year in January. They go to school all year long and have various vacations. It is currently the winter here in Australia. The students have just come back from their holiday. This week, the students spent three days and two nights at a campground nearby. The students stay with a few other year six classes at the camp site. There are cabins that the students sleep in as well as other buildings and outdoor activities such as high and mid ropes courses, an obstacle course, a “human yoyo”, a radio activity, archery, orienteering, and a talent show called “red faces”. I absolutely love that this school does this for their students. From what I observed yesterday, they had the best time.
When I arrived at the camp with Matt, we met his host teacher and his students. All the students are required to wear wide brimmed hats and apply sunscreen multiple times due to the intensity of the sun. I felt so lucky to be able to meet these children. The activities that I did with the students included a radio activity, the obstacle course, the high ropes, archery, and orienteering. For the radio activity, the students were split into groups of four. Each group received a walkie-talkie radio as well as a map and a handout. The groups gave themselves a name based on the phonetic alphabet. For example, the teacher was “Alpa 1” and my group was “X-Ray”. The students were taught how to properly use the radio. For example, when calling the teacher, the student would say: “Alpha 1, Alpha 1, this is X-Ray, X-Ray, over.” The groups split up to find various numbered landmarks throughout the campsite. There were little squares found on trees and other areas around the camp that had a letter, a number, and a name. Each landmark was worth a certain amount of points. Each time a group found a landmark, they called the teacher and answered a particular question to gain the points for that landmark. For example, for one landmark the students had to figure out what thirteen multiplied by three was. For another site, they had to tell the teacher what animals are on a particular Australian coin. It was so much fun and I had a blast doing this! Orienteering was an activity that familiarized students with how to use a compass and a map. These are just some of the activities that I did with the students.
What I like about the school day in Australia is how they break it up. At around ten o’clock, the students have “morning tea”, similar to our snack time. Then, the students attend a late lunch around one. Midday, the students have “afternoon tea”. Also, since they spent two nights at camp the students were given breakfast, dinner, and supper. Supper included dessert foods.
After spending a day at camp with these loving and delightful students, I look forward to spending a day in their classroom next week!
Today, I took a walk on the beach and visited various shops located just outside the apartments. I cannot believe what a beautiful country Australia is. The people here are so friendly! I already talked to a few people in the last few hours about my visit here. The woman at a souvenir shop I was just at was so excited when I told her I was from New York. She said that she dreams of visiting New York one day. Another shop owner I spoke to went to New York in the 1960's when he was in the navy and he also spent some time there in 2001. I had a wrap and an iced coffee at a place called Emjay's Coffee and I dipped my feet in the cool, blue water. Now I am waiting for Matt to come home and this weekend, we will be visiting Noosa.
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