WELCOME TO KINDERGARTEN!

Well, I guess this is what they call 'back to reality.' Most of the time my experiences overseas seem like only a figment of my imagination now. Although that chapter is over, I am excited in welcoming this new chapter to see where it leads me. 

Last week was my first week as a full-time teacher! It was a great week and as my second week has come to an end, I am very grateful for weekends to rest and mentally recharge. I do genuinely love being a teacher. It's challenging, difficult, surprising at times but it's always about the smile on the children's faces and the warmth they put in my heart. 

I am very grateful to have a gorgeous learning space for the Kindies! I have twenty-one kindergartners who come to school for full days every other day. Their excitement for learning and coming to school is admirable. Just this week, we were able to read our first poem! They were so excited for it that they wanted to show their moms and dads. I had to run down to the photocopier at recess time to run copies for them to take home! ha ha! 

My kinders singing "Five Little Monkeys" by the Learning Station. They LOVE this song and video!

On the days the Kindies don't come to school, I trade in my paint and marker covered hands for oven mitts! Yes, I get to teach Grade 10 Commercial Cooking! I also teach Grade 1 Social, Science, Computers, Library and Printing on those days. But mostly, I am excited for my cooking class. I have to say, the noon hour before the first class started I could barely eat I was so nervous. I didn't know how many students to expect as the roll hadn't yet been confirmed and I was picturing them all as giants! 

My Cooking Lab has 4 awesome kitchens!

These guys were cooking up Chicken Quesadillas and homemade Salsa!

As it turns out, teaching grade 10's isn't at all half bad. I really enjoy it and I have a great group of students. It's nice because this is a class that the students get to choose, so they enjoy coming to class as well. It's a win win for everyone! Being able to teach grade 10 has been a nice balance for me. I have often asked my grade 10's if they would like to stand up and do a "brain break" or do a little dance because I feel so bad for them sitting and listening to me talk for more than 15 minutes! Ha Ha!  

While I've got you here, allow me show you around my classroom. I've put a fair bit of work into it and I'm proud of how it's turned out. Each time I am done with one project, there is always something more waiting to be done. I spend most evenings and weekends at the school fixing everything up and getting the paperwork done as well! 

I love my "BEE-utiful" board where students can post pictures they've created. How cute is it!?

Kolby is one of my students who is so passionately curious about everything! He asks many intriguing questions and I am so happy that he likes looking at my map. He is always finding new things on the map and really enjoys it! I got the map from Costco ages ago and I was so excited to hang it in my room! 

I made this poster so that we know who the Helpers are each day! My "Helping Hands" also get to sit in folding camping chairs instead of at their regular spot on the carpet! 

Speaking of our carpet, here it is! Unfortunately the gorgeous rug does not belong to me, but how great is it!? It's a thick rug on top of our carpet, that makes it double comfy! Each student has their own letter to sit on so they always know where they are to sit! 

Here's a quick look into a few of my centres. I made name tags of our writing centre. The students really enjoy writing or stamping out their friends names! Next, we've got some coloured pasta with our zoo animals. They love sorting pasta into colours and types of pasta! I also have a sensory bin that they can dig around in. At the moment there are seeds in there. 

During our normal centres, I let the kindies have a choice of what they would like to do. They can choose between heaps of activities and dramatic play. But, when I do my literacy and math centres as well as my investigation centres, I like to keep the kiddos a little more organized. 

So, I went ahead a made what I like to call my "Swap Cards." Each card has a students name on it. They carry it around with them to each centre. I organize them ahead of time so I have students in particular groups. When they look at their card they know what centre they will need to go to first. Once there, they peel the velcroed number off and come place it back in my blue basket. I set the timer for a designated amount of time. When they timer goes off, they know it's time to swap and head to their next centre. 

I'm finding that my Swap Cards are working really well, in the beginning it takes a bit of getting used to! 

Sometimes the biggest challenge of teaching it that there are not more of me! I especially wish I had at least 6 more of me when I take the Grade 1's to computer class. 

At this point, they have a REALLY hard time logging on to the computers. Some don't know how to type their full name while others just can't find the right letters on the keyboards. I spend nearly the whole class going around to log every one on. 

So, I went ahead and made login cards for each student. I took a screenshot of the login page and typed for each student what they need to type in. I then made a list of websites that they can go to for a play which coordinates with a document I made on their desktop so that the links are easy and quick to find and click! 

This solved a few problems, but we just need more time to familiarize ourselves with the computers! 

Lastly, I think this is my favourite thing I have done. I asked my students what they would like to be when they grow up and recorded it on to a chalkboard and then took a photo (in front of my awesome map, of course!) Their responses were so sweet and they were genuinely excited! Not only do they LOVE seeing pictures of themselves hanging in our classroom, so do the parents! Parents come in and take photo to send! Too Cute!  

RED CENTRE TO REEF

I just wanted to quickly share a video that I made about a week ago. It was a bit delayed, but it brings together some of my highlights of July when I was travelling around Australia one last time. There are times in my daily life recently, where a memory from Australia floods my entire brain and senses and I have to take a moment to smile and remember how I felt in those moments.

Some of the greatest moments I had on this trip took place in the Outback. Who knew how stunning and magnificent heaps of rusty rocks could be!? Uluru was wonderful and it was a time where I really got to feel how small I am in comparison to the world. The Olgas had me experiencing a breathtaking hike through the curves and valleys of sacred stones. Kings Canyon had to be my favourite though. It was spectacular. One memory that often floods my mind is the moment I stood on the edge of a cliff at Kings Canyon at half six in the morning after hiking up through the darkness. I stood there watching as the sun rose over the beautifully rustic, red rocks. It's just one of those moments that are hard to explain, but I will never forget it. In moments like those, I remember the feeling of being so ALIVE and so extremely grateful to have such experiences. 

So here it is, a bit of a summary of my last Australian experience. I can't wait to go back one day.