Life at Uni

This week was my first week back at uni. We've had orientation stuff for the past few weeks, but yesterday was the first day of classes.

And what a full day it was!

I had classes from 9am to 6pm, with only an hour lunch break in between. I got to 3 o'clock and thought "I'm ready to go home now!" and yet I still had three classes left to go!

I have a few classes tomorrow, but the majority are on Tuesdays. Obviously Tuesday is a really big day for me, but it's exciting getting to finally learn about primary teaching and so that excitement overrides any tiredness!


This semester, I am doing 4 subjects as usual:
Educational Psychology for Primary Teachers
Classrooms Without Borders
Education, Knowledge, Society & Change
Primary PD/H/PE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education)


PD/H/PE is the only curriculum subject (ie like English, Maths, Science, Creative Arts etc) that I am doing in my first semester. I guess they figure that they want to "ease" us into the Primary curriculum- if you could call it that!

However it's anything but easy- unlike most subjects that only have a lecture and a tutorial each week, in PD/H/PE we have both of those, plus a class where we actually go to the gym and participate in PE lessons as if we were the kids. We had our first class yesterday, and it was actually really fun! (And I'm not even a sport person!)

Our lecturers and teachers are really great- most of them have been or are still primary teachers, so they tell a lot of stories and relate the unit content to the classroom. They are really good at giving us tips throughout the classes.

- eg. "Most important thing- save your voice! Invest in a good whistle."

"See how I never let you stand behind me? You always want to keep the children in front of you where you can see them all."

"Always make sure you're the one facing the sun- can you imagine kids staring into the sun? They'd use it as an excuse for not doing any work."

"Make everything into a game. Keep it fun, and they won't even notice that they're learning."

"You want your kids to go home raving about what they've done at school today. Nobody wants to hear their child answer "Nothin'" when they ask what they did in class that day."


Those are just some of the quotes that stood out to me. Like I said, our teachers are really good at injecting pieces of advice and wisdom into what they are telling us.


One of the biggest things they told us is that teaching is more than just English and Maths (although given that Australia has just received a new National curriculum, you wouldn't know it because all the focus is on these two subject areas at the moment).

As primary teachers, we get to teach across 6 KLAs (Key Learning Areas) in a class that we have for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. Teaching English, Maths, Science & Technology, PD/H/PE, Human Society & its Environment, and Creative Arts means that at uni, we have to learn a lot and we have to learn it fast.There are only 10 weeks in the university semester (to keep in line with the school term) and so the pressure is on, so to speak!


And to up the ante, for my Classrooms Without Borders unit, we have to complete 20-30 hours of placement in a community agency. (Think voluntary community service). Starting in April, I will be working with the St Vincent de Paul Society teaching and mentoring newly arrived refugee kids. It will be a challenge, as I've never met, much less worked with, refugees before but I'm very much looking forward to it. I know I'll learn a lot.