First Impressions Of Scone And Away

Hello everyone,

(Please note that this novella was written over a period of 6 days as the situation allowed me to reflect on the past four months away from Canada. Thank you in advance for bearing with the somewhat choppy flow to the accounts that follow).

As of today, April 19, I am waiting around in Queenstown, New Zealand for the weather to clear. Having done the parabungy jump yesterday, I thought while I was here in New Zealand, I might as well try tandem skydiving as well. I didn't want to get back to Canada and ended up with "shoulda , woulda, coulda" syndrome. I have philosophically arrived at the fact that if one was to plunge into debt, it might as well be "just for the fun of it." So while I am waiting for the clouds to hopefully clear, I thought I might try to put the last few months in perspective.

I won't bore you with the details of my road tour once I got to Oz as I know that my little novellas provided some sort of escape for you back home from the brutal onslaught of winter. Yes, I remember well that while I was basking in the sun at around 40 Celsius, Edmonton and most of Canada was wallowing in a week of bitter winter conditions. Ahh, the beach. How I loved spending time on the beach thinking of all of you back home in the snow :)

I have to say that the first term of school has gone by so quickly and wonderfully. I am very thankful for the fact that I ended up in Scone Grammar School for 2005. The school has a little over 400 students from K-12. I am currently teaching year 7,8,9,10,and 11 students. I also have a small group of advanced English 11 students that I meet with every Thursday after school until about 5 pm. Each of the grade levels required that I learned a different curriculum except for the novel study for year 10's To Kill a Mockingbird." There are great things to be said about teaching in a small town school and I will highlight some of my best memories thus far.

My regular classes range from 11 students to 25. How is that for classroom size and teacher/pupil ratio? I haven't taught grades 7-9 for the last four years but my years at Ottewell Junior High have served me well in reminding me to adjust my classroom approach with the younger students. Literature and responding to literature is the stuff of English teachers' domains. One of the most outstanding qualities that I have noticed about my students is their overall ability to respond to literature in a thought-provoking and interactive manner. Starting from kindergarten, the students at my school are shown and taught how to do excellent oral presentations. By the time they get to secondary level, it's just part of their skills base. I don't mean that in any given class, there may be one or two well spoken students. On the contrary, the norm is that everyone can do oral presentations with a level of sophistication that they simply assume is the way things are.

One of my most memorable moments as a teacher is Jack's oral presentation on an independent post holocaust novel study. He introduced his novel by singing a line or two that went something like this: "I'm all alone. There's no one here to keep me company. " He then went on to compare his novel of choice ("Z" for Zachariah I think it was) to the one we had studied as a class. This was a well prepared speech with the proper comparisons/contrasts that one would expect. What makes it memorable is how he told the class about the conclusion of the novel. He gave a brief synopsis of the ending and started walking off to the tune of "I'm on my way from misery to happiness. . ." It was fantastic!

There are just too many positive memories for me to share with you and usually these stories are most meaningful to share with the people who were there so I won't bore you with them all. Suffice it to say that I have enjoyed term one and can't wait to see how my students will continue to flourish in term two. Did I mention that one of my students brought in part of a log cut in half joined by hinges to reveal the similarities and differences between herself and Boo Radley from the novel To Kill A Mockingbird?

Anyway, here are the uniquely Australian events that have left an indelible mark in my teacher's psyche. Swimming carnival was a full day spent at the local pool allowing all students to participate in at least one event. Students competed at their age groups and earned points for their various houses. Everyone of the students in Scone can swim! I had brought my fold up Canada lawn chair and helped time students do their events the entire day. That was at the beginning of the term.

At the end of the term, we then had a Cross Country Carnival where we bussed the students to the nearby Lake Glenbawn Dam park. Students then had to either run/walk a 4 km or 6 km route. Again it was for house participation and students competed in their age groups. Top students at these events compete with other schools. On that particular day, I once again brought my fold up Canada lawn chair, put on sun block, updated my fading summer tan and watched that students didn't cut corners on their route. Can I tell you how great it is to watch students walk/run with their peers out in the country on such a marvelously sunny day? Once the events were all finished, we had a bbq/lunch and everyone sat around and socialized some more. I know that this may seem like an exorbitant amount of time to spend outside of the classroom given that most students are only doing the one mandatory event. But I can't help but think of the dividends that this will pay in the future in terms of teaching students to have a well balanced approach to their development.

One of the other highlights of this term was our very first House Music Competion. Jones, Pulling, and Ledger are the competing houses in Scone Grammar. We were given a task of organizing within our own houses so that we all sang "Where is the Love?" and then had to choose another song we would sing as a group. There were also entries for solo and ensemble acts from each of the various houses. This had never been done before and most of us were a bit doubtful about how it would all go. On the night of March 31, St. Luke's Hall was packed with students, staff, family, and friends for the first ever Scone House Music competition. The event was a success on so many levels as it truly did allow for individual and group strengths to be showcased. As the external judge critiqued each of the various acts at the end of the evening, I couldn't help but sit at the back of the hall and think, "Wow what a great event this has been." Notice that I have deliberately not updated you on the house standings at the moment. Our house is currently not in top place for any of these events so I'll tell you the standings when we win one of them :)

Overall, the school focus seems to develop the students in as many domains as possible. Because it is such a small school, there is a pervasive feeling of community. The students are respectful and though they hate wearing them, I think the students look so great in their uniforms. As a teacher, one really has to get to know her students individually outside of external factors because they tend to all look alike in their uniforms :)

I also can't begin to tell you how good I feel about the fact that students wait and line up outside the classroom before entering. Once they enter the classroom, they stand at their desks waiting for you to greet them "Good Morning/Afternoon" and instruct them to sit. It threw me off at first when school started. Now it's just one of those

"differences" that I absolutely love.

Oh, I should also mention that every day, we have "morning tea." From 10:40-11:00 am students and staff have a break. I love this part of the day as well because the students sit around in their groups under the shade of a tree or on the park benches on the school courtyard. I love watching them sitting around during these times as I can well imagine that these gatherings become part of their memories as adults. When I supervise at lunch, the same thing happens. One time I managed to supervise on the other side of the courtyard where the boys play cricket. They even let me take a turn at hitting. I still don't understand the game so I won't say much about it. All I know for sure is that there are never any real crickets involved in the game.

It's been a wonderful term one. I am absolutely amazed at what a fortunate place I am in my life, both literally and figuratively. As I did the parabungy yesterday, I couldn't help but miss my mom once more. I have had so many great days since I arrived and I have been tempted to pick up the phone and tell her all about it. But then I remember the final visit I had with her before she got really sick and I know that that was a gift which has enabled me to have a positive experience so far. And so as I head off to my tandem sky dive, I once again urge you to seize the day. And go out of your way to connect with the people who matter most to you. Those are gifts that you won't know the value of until the time comes for you to view them in retrospect.

Hours pass and the next installment is written about 10 hours later when the e-mail was written in first draft. It seems that I am meant to tandem sky dive at another time and place as the clouds simply refused to move over just for my benefit. I have to forego another possible jump tomorrow to keep me on schedule for my trip to Christchurch, the exit point for the flight which will take me back to Sydney on early Friday morning.

Even more hours pass and I find that after a brief holiday, there's always the dread of going back to one's routine. But as I was falling asleep last night, it dawned on me that when I get back to Sydney on Friday, I'll still be on a holiday away from Canada. That's kind of cool. So I'll not whinge too much. By the way, to show there's definitely been changes in my habits since I left Edmonton, can you believe that I passed by a Starbucks in Christchurch today and didn't order a chai nor buy a souvenir mug? What's up with that? lol. Okay, I had better sign off now as by now I'm sure you guys are wishing you had an espresso to wake you from the stupor I have caused by my meanderings.

On a more noteworthy side issue, I am currently reading Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring. I had done a book exchange today at the hostel. I exchanged a book that I bought off a fish and chips vendor outside of Haast, NZ. The book I originally had was a huge Reader's Digest collection of five non-fiction story. I bought it because it had

"Touching the Void" as one of the stories within the collection. Having

It is now April 25. Tomorrow is the beginning of term 2. I leave you with the final memory I have and how happy I am to be part of Scone Grammar School. Today is Anzac Day and all over Australia, people commemorate the Anzacs' arrival on Gallipoli on April 25, 1915. It was a defining moment for the nation of Australia paid with a high cost of human lives. I was fortunate enough to partake in this moving commemoration. I was in awe to be among the crowd realizing what a privilege it truly was for me to be here. Here I was, a hyphenated Filipino-Canadian amongst members of the rural community of Scone paying tribute to those who understood that freedom comes at such a high cost. To have travelled this far and to feel so poignantly that the goodness we enjoy today is borne off the backs of generations who came before us once again reinforces my need to be grateful for all that life bestows on all of us.

Thank you for bearing with my extended accounts.
Wish you all were here with me :)