Update

And another week has come and gone! Time goes by so quickly here! This week at school was great; a bit more of a challenge than last week, but I think that's a good thing. I had a few lessons this week that weren't great, but I did also have a couple of gems. But with every lesson that is less than ideal, I learn a lot; unfortunately for my students, it's good for me to make some mistakes. I still need to work on slowing down, of course - that's my main goal for this week. I've been keeping a journal, in which I write after every lesson I teach, reflecting on what went well, what didn't work, what I need to work on in the future, and the pointers my teachers gave me. I was also observed this week, both by Mark, and by Professor White. They both said good things about my lessons (and I do have to admit, they probably saw a couple of the better lessons of the week), and Professor White gave me a lot of great tips that will help me immensely in the future. On Monday, I introduced "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe to my year 8 class, which, in all honesty, is probably a bit above their ability level. But I didn't do the best job of introducing it, and I felt that the lesson fell a bit flat. I was a little disheartened. But for our next lesson, I tried to update it a little bit, and I showed them several YouTube videos of readings by James Earl Jones and Christopher Walken, and the Simpsons episode in which they did "The Raven." That seemed to get them more into it, and I think they really understood, which was great. When we were talking about the themes of the poem, I gave them a couple of minutes to discuss with their neighbors what they thought some of the themes might be, and then I asked for students to raise their hands and tell me what they came up with. Almost every student raised their hand - it felt like a real accomplishment. And they all had great answers. That was definitely a high point in my week. And this was also the lesson that Professor White observed, and he told me that he thought the videos went over really well, and I have to agree. Any time you can get a visual or audio supplement with text, especially with boys, is a huge help. I'm going to be doing some old English poetry with my year 11s this week, and I'm going to show them some YouTube readings of the poems as well. It'll keep them engaged and give them a break from hearing my voice. And I finally figured out which sport I am going to be involved with at school - it's not basketball, like I originally thought, but rather swimming, which is great! It's school swimming, so it's kind of like PE, as opposed to competitive swimming - although Trinity did win the CAS swimming competition this year (that's their conference). But I am glad to be doing something that I'm a bit more familiar with. It'll be a good way to get to know the boys outside of class, as well. And I guess they were kind of short handed during the periods that I'm going to help, so they were very grateful for my participation. And it's always a good thing to feel appreciated.

This weekend was Halloween, of course, although it's not the same here as it is in the US. Kids don't trick or treat, really... at least not most of them. And there's no candy corn or caramel apples or foliage because it's not fall here. Which is a bit weird. But the BU Sydney Program had a Halloween Party for us, which was really fun. There was trivia, and a costume contest, and a few appetizers. My roommates and I dressed up as the Sea Princesses, which is a cartoon we stumbled upon last weekend when we were flipping channels. After doing some research, it turns out it's actually a Brazilian TV show that has been translated into English and airs here in Australia. Most people at the party didn't know who we were, but we still had fun. On the show, there are lots of sea princesses that each identify with a different sea creature, but the three of us were the three main girls - an octopus, a shark, and a starfish. I was the starfish. Our costumes turned out to be great, and though we won neither trivia nor the costume contest, it was still a fun party. We then went out to the Argyle, one of the clubs down in the rocks, where lots of people were dressed up. It was a pretty fun night, although it wasn't much compared to the scale of an American Halloween.

I absolutely cannot believe it's November already. It's crazy. And in Australia, that means its time for Christmas decorations. Which is even more nuts because it's finally starting to get hotter. I think one of the girls in the internship program said we have something like 40 days left, which just seems insane. Though I do feel comfortable here now (I mean, I've been here for two full months), I still kind of feel like I just got here, and I can't believe we only have 6 weeks left. Oh, and they don't call McDonald's Mackers, like I said before, but rather Macca's. That was just my inability to understand their accents. I finally saw it written out in a TV ad and was blown away. Hopefully next weekend we can make it out to the beach - there's a big sculpture festival along the cliff walk between Bondi and Tamarama Beaches until November 15, and I would love to see that. On the docket tonight: making dinner and watching Australian Idol - they're down to the last 5 now! One of the contestants is a teacher, so we're really rooting for him. He's quite good, too. I miss you all very very much!