Showing posts with label university life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label university life. Show all posts
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Neglect
So I have been very neglectful of this little blog- I had lots of inspiration but then last week I got sick with an awful cold/ stomach bug and it just threw a spanner in the works.
Then I had a big assignment due so... that explains the last couple of days.
And now, I'm housesitting and watching a lot of Private Practice while researching an essay about including students with intellectual disability in the regular classroom... and so I have time to blog and let you know what I've been up to!
Then I had a big assignment due so... that explains the last couple of days.
And now, I'm housesitting and watching a lot of Private Practice while researching an essay about including students with intellectual disability in the regular classroom... and so I have time to blog and let you know what I've been up to!
Which is- watching a lot of tv, going to uni, working, and reading a lot of educational journal articles.
Oh, and getting excited about graduating in less than three months! I'm already dreaming about decorating my classroom- lovely stationery and wall displays. I get giddy just thinking about it.
My little Year 5 class is not going to know what hit it :)
Thursday, March 10, 2011
My morning
This is my second week back at uni.
The second week of the last semester of the last year of my degree.
For those of you playing along at home, this marks Year Number FIVE for me and my university career.
Anyway, this morning.
This morning I rushed out the door with barely any makeup on and pulled back two bits of my hair from each side and clipped them up in an attempt to make it look "done".
It was eight minutes past seven, one minute later than I'd left yesterday morning. And yesterday morning had not worked out well. It took longer than the usual hour and a half to get to the campus, and I was ten minutes late to my first lecture.
So, makeup less with messy hair, I fly out to my car thinking "I am going to be late FOR SURE."
What happens? Of course, there's hardly any traffic. If you live in Sydney and ever have to drive anywhere in the early mornings, you will know what a MIRACLE this is!
I was so amazed! I breezed past exit ramp after exit ramp, thinking "I should be stopped in traffic by now... or by now... or at the very most, by NOW!"
Usually, it's a "good day" if you can make it five or ten minutes of driving without being blinded by a sea of red breaklights.
I had thirteen minutes of motorway heaven. I got on at 7:23am and actually drove at the speed limit until 7:36. (I know this because I kept tracking how long I'd been driving, since traffic was moving so unusually quickly)
I had thoughts of getting to uni early and coming in to the library to blog and kill time before my lecture.
But there is a reason I'm only writing this now at 11:32am.
Peak hour is called peak hour for a reason.
As expected, my highway bliss was rudely interrupted by traffic coming to a standstill. For no reason at all. It seems Sydney cars just get a kick out of exercising their break lights every once and a while.
My joy at actually driving along the highway - as opposed to the stop-start of a gridlocked Sydney road- was short lived.
I made it to the exit ramp right before the one I take, and then everything stopped. We crawled along for the next 20 minutes and then proceeded to drive very slowly all the way to the university campus.
But I was still early.
I could've taken time with my hair and makeup after all :)
The second week of the last semester of the last year of my degree.
For those of you playing along at home, this marks Year Number FIVE for me and my university career.
Anyway, this morning.
This morning I rushed out the door with barely any makeup on and pulled back two bits of my hair from each side and clipped them up in an attempt to make it look "done".
It was eight minutes past seven, one minute later than I'd left yesterday morning. And yesterday morning had not worked out well. It took longer than the usual hour and a half to get to the campus, and I was ten minutes late to my first lecture.
So, makeup less with messy hair, I fly out to my car thinking "I am going to be late FOR SURE."
What happens? Of course, there's hardly any traffic. If you live in Sydney and ever have to drive anywhere in the early mornings, you will know what a MIRACLE this is!
I was so amazed! I breezed past exit ramp after exit ramp, thinking "I should be stopped in traffic by now... or by now... or at the very most, by NOW!"
Usually, it's a "good day" if you can make it five or ten minutes of driving without being blinded by a sea of red breaklights.
I had thirteen minutes of motorway heaven. I got on at 7:23am and actually drove at the speed limit until 7:36. (I know this because I kept tracking how long I'd been driving, since traffic was moving so unusually quickly)
I had thoughts of getting to uni early and coming in to the library to blog and kill time before my lecture.
But there is a reason I'm only writing this now at 11:32am.
Peak hour is called peak hour for a reason.
As expected, my highway bliss was rudely interrupted by traffic coming to a standstill. For no reason at all. It seems Sydney cars just get a kick out of exercising their break lights every once and a while.
My joy at actually driving along the highway - as opposed to the stop-start of a gridlocked Sydney road- was short lived.
I made it to the exit ramp right before the one I take, and then everything stopped. We crawled along for the next 20 minutes and then proceeded to drive very slowly all the way to the university campus.
But I was still early.
I could've taken time with my hair and makeup after all :)
Friday, August 20, 2010
Covergirl
So, I wasn't going to post these on here, but then I realised it'd save me having to post a copy to my Dad, my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins etc... who want to see it.
Back in February, I got asked by my university to do a photoshoot for their 2011 brochure. Since I had a scholarship for my undergraduate degree, I used to get asked to do all sorts of promotional stuff for the uni. I got my hair and make-up done (but wore my own clothes) and had fun being a covergirl for an hour or so.
Last week, I finally received a copy of the brochures (there's one that's just an Undergraduate Program brochure and another that is specifically for the Arts Degree).
So... let's just pretend I'm posting a picture of someone else, because otherwise this is highly embarrassing (and I'm not a huge fan of the photos anyway!) I would also like to concur with the widely held belief that the camera adds ten pounds- otherwise I may need to go hide in a corner and cry!
Back in February, I got asked by my university to do a photoshoot for their 2011 brochure. Since I had a scholarship for my undergraduate degree, I used to get asked to do all sorts of promotional stuff for the uni. I got my hair and make-up done (but wore my own clothes) and had fun being a covergirl for an hour or so.
Last week, I finally received a copy of the brochures (there's one that's just an Undergraduate Program brochure and another that is specifically for the Arts Degree).
So... let's just pretend I'm posting a picture of someone else, because otherwise this is highly embarrassing (and I'm not a huge fan of the photos anyway!) I would also like to concur with the widely held belief that the camera adds ten pounds- otherwise I may need to go hide in a corner and cry!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Time
I spend half my time in class wishing it would go faster.
Except for yesterday when I went on my first school prac and the day flew by far too quickly.
Then I realise it's August already and I think where has the time gone?
Then I recognise that i'm a third of the way through my masters and how did that happen?
Then I realise it's been four years that I've been at uni and wow that's really the start of my adult life, spent at the same place.
Then I recognise that this time next year I'll be a fully fledged teacher! How crazy is that?!
Then I realise that I'm 22 years old and how did THAT happen?
Time is playing tricks on me.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Back to School
Was it really in July that I last posted? Wow. I'm such a bad blogger. I hadn't even noticed that it had been that long! I've been so flat out with uni work that everything else got put on the backburner I guess.
So... what have I been up to? I have classes pretty much all day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Thursdays are the best days, because:
a) it's the shortest day at uni for me (only 2 classes, 1.5 hours each)
and
b) I have my Science & Technology class, where we get to play with materials and make cool stuff!
It's just like being a kid at school again, except we don't get bossed around by a teacher, and we have little instructions so we get to figure it out for ourselves. Things to remember for when I am the teacher, right?!
Here's a photo of me from class yesterday, where we made traffic lights out of polysterene cups, wood, hot glue, masking tape, aluminium foil, coloured cellophane, a 9V battery, 6 wires and a light bulb! So much fun- and we're adults! Can you imagine how much fun kids would have doing this stuff?
So... what have I been up to? I have classes pretty much all day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Thursdays are the best days, because:
a) it's the shortest day at uni for me (only 2 classes, 1.5 hours each)
and
b) I have my Science & Technology class, where we get to play with materials and make cool stuff!
It's just like being a kid at school again, except we don't get bossed around by a teacher, and we have little instructions so we get to figure it out for ourselves. Things to remember for when I am the teacher, right?!
Here's a photo of me from class yesterday, where we made traffic lights out of polysterene cups, wood, hot glue, masking tape, aluminium foil, coloured cellophane, a 9V battery, 6 wires and a light bulb! So much fun- and we're adults! Can you imagine how much fun kids would have doing this stuff?
Showing off our technical prowess:
We even made our own "switch" out of a small piece of wood, thumbtacks and a paperclip, so you can choose whether to have the red, orange or green light on.
See! It really does light up!
We are learning lots of cool stuff in this class- last week we made cars out of milk or juice cartons, then we put them on a ramp and had a race! Unfortunately my car's back axle was a bit skew-iff and the car veered to the right a lot... needless to say, it didn't win.
Our teacher recorded it all on his mini flip camera and then played it on the data projector through his laptop for us all to see! We also made graphs on the laptop, interactive whiteboard and regular whiteboard- can you imagine how much fun kids would have with that? Not to mention all the learning involved- lots of maths in particular (measurement, speed, physics and gravity, just from racing the cars themselves!)
I can't wait until we get to go on prac (next Monday!!!) and get to bring all these ideas we've learnt and put them into practice in a real classroom.
Have I mentioned where I'm going on prac? My old primary school! How funny is that?! It will be weird to be back there after about 10 years- and even weirder to be there as a teacher! I'll get to go in the staffroom! That was definitely a no-no when I was a student there. It'll be like getting a backstage pass! Behind the scenes at CMPS!
Just for fun, here's me back in 1998 and 1999, in the school uniform! I'm thinking I'll take these photos in to class on Monday, just in case the students don't believe me when I tell them I went there too!
Look at that badge on my collar- that was for School Representative Council, I think.
I wish my hair still looked like that- beautiful and straight, and look at my natural colour! I will spend the rest of my life trying to get a hairdresser who can attempt to dye it back to that blondey-brown colour.
And this blue badge on the photo down the bottom here? That was for Library Monitor. Don't laugh- it was cool back then! Everyone wanted to be a Library Monitor. It basically meant that you got to pretend to be in charge of all the kids who were in the library at lunchtime.
I remember this photo day- I was growing my fringe out, and had my mum put one roller in the front just so it wouldn't hang in my eyes and look horrible by the time it came to get photos taken (because we were in the older grades, we were always the last to get our photos taken, right at the end of the day after lunch when you were all sweaty from playing at lunchtime).
I still looked cute though. If only it was that easy now. You just wait til Monday- I'll be up at the crack of dawn, blowdrying my hair, putting makeup on, deliberating over outfit choices! Kids don't know how easy they have it!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
When it rains, it pours
It is rainy and miserable here in Sydney today. Boo. I miss the sun. I'm sick of winter. Bring on a decent Sydney Summer! I'm so excited for hot weather.
Anyway. I don't have uni until 1.30pm today, so it has been nice to be able to potter around a bit this morning. Yesterday was a crazy busy day, with non-stop classes. I was at uni from 10.30am-7.00pm - yes, I had classes at night! It was pretty hard trying to stay focussed and listening in my last lecture, when all day you have been trying to remember everything you're being told, find classrooms, make it on time, jot down notes or important points, start thinking about assignments, form groups for group assessments, etc... By 3pm I was ready to go home, but I still had another 3 classes to go!
Luckily in most of my classes I saw people that I recognised, so I had friends to sit with. There's nothing worse than being lonered and sitting by yourself! It's not nice. But since we're doing teaching, we have to do a lot of group work, and the added bonus is that you get to know lots of people! So even if you're not technically "friends", you'll still know each other well enough to sit together.
And I'm rambling again. Being back at uni has turned me into this frazzled person, because somehow the calendar sped up and holidays were over before they were supposed to be! ;)
What has also contributed to this frazzled-ness is that yesterday on my way to uni (literally 5 minutes away, actually) I had a car accident. A minor one, no one was hurt or anything like that, but still it was frustrating, and made me late to my first lecture and generally started my day off on a bad note. What's worse is that it was my fault- I was travelling behind a ute/truck and we were both about to turn left to merge onto a highway. I thought he went, so I looked to my right to check the oncoming traffic, put my foot on the accelerator, and felt a crunch. Since I felt and heard it first, I actually thought I'd hit the gutter, but when I turned around to look, I realised it was so much worse than that! My car definitely came off worse, being a small little hatch back designed to crumple at the smallest impact. The guy in the other car was so nice, he didn't seem worried about his car at all, in fact he was more worried about me because I was shaking and almost crying. Luckily I was so close to uni, we exchanged details and he tried to calm me down a little bit before we drove off, and I promptly called my mum and sat crying in the carpark at uni!
Not a good start to my day, but being the optimist that I am, I thought it can only get better, right?! And it did, but then it got worse. I found out that I will have to take an extra subject this semester, which means I will be doing 6 subjects at once (the standard is 4). Goodbye any semblance of a life! Looks like my life from now on will revolve around planning lessons and units of work.
And insurance quotes and smash repairs, of course.
Anyway. I don't have uni until 1.30pm today, so it has been nice to be able to potter around a bit this morning. Yesterday was a crazy busy day, with non-stop classes. I was at uni from 10.30am-7.00pm - yes, I had classes at night! It was pretty hard trying to stay focussed and listening in my last lecture, when all day you have been trying to remember everything you're being told, find classrooms, make it on time, jot down notes or important points, start thinking about assignments, form groups for group assessments, etc... By 3pm I was ready to go home, but I still had another 3 classes to go!
Luckily in most of my classes I saw people that I recognised, so I had friends to sit with. There's nothing worse than being lonered and sitting by yourself! It's not nice. But since we're doing teaching, we have to do a lot of group work, and the added bonus is that you get to know lots of people! So even if you're not technically "friends", you'll still know each other well enough to sit together.
And I'm rambling again. Being back at uni has turned me into this frazzled person, because somehow the calendar sped up and holidays were over before they were supposed to be! ;)
What has also contributed to this frazzled-ness is that yesterday on my way to uni (literally 5 minutes away, actually) I had a car accident. A minor one, no one was hurt or anything like that, but still it was frustrating, and made me late to my first lecture and generally started my day off on a bad note. What's worse is that it was my fault- I was travelling behind a ute/truck and we were both about to turn left to merge onto a highway. I thought he went, so I looked to my right to check the oncoming traffic, put my foot on the accelerator, and felt a crunch. Since I felt and heard it first, I actually thought I'd hit the gutter, but when I turned around to look, I realised it was so much worse than that! My car definitely came off worse, being a small little hatch back designed to crumple at the smallest impact. The guy in the other car was so nice, he didn't seem worried about his car at all, in fact he was more worried about me because I was shaking and almost crying. Luckily I was so close to uni, we exchanged details and he tried to calm me down a little bit before we drove off, and I promptly called my mum and sat crying in the carpark at uni!
Not a good start to my day, but being the optimist that I am, I thought it can only get better, right?! And it did, but then it got worse. I found out that I will have to take an extra subject this semester, which means I will be doing 6 subjects at once (the standard is 4). Goodbye any semblance of a life! Looks like my life from now on will revolve around planning lessons and units of work.
And insurance quotes and smash repairs, of course.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Where I'm At
Today is my last day of class for the semester!
Semester One, complete!
These past 10 weeks have gone so fast, I can barely believe the first semester is over. I now have the rest of May, the whole of June, and two weeks of July off! So much spare time, I won't know what to do with myself!
Of course, there are a few uni-related things I have to finish up before the semester is over. We have a workshop on behaviour management to attend, and we have to make a presentation on what we have learnt through working with our community service agencies.
The fact that my group hasn't actually started mentoring at our school yet is a bit of an inconvenience, but we have still had a few opportunities to meet with the kids and get to know them.
I have to say, the main thing I have learnt is not to judge people by their post code. The area within which the school is located is one of particularly low socioeconomic status (how's that for a university term?!) and has quite a bad reputation.
BUT, the kids and parents that I have met from the school are all fantastic. Whether this is because the teachers only selected 'good' kids, I don't know, but regardless, it has changed my perspective.
We will start mentoring hopefully next week, and visit the kids at school once or twice a week throughout our holidays.
I've also had the opportunity to start mentoring at a different school, Macarthur Anglican School, which is a sister school in the same association as PAC, where I went. I got an email from uni offerring spots in the program, and immediately sent my application. Turns out, being enrolled in a teaching program does wonders for your resumé! I got picked straight away. I'm really excited to be working with a very different group of kids to those that I am currently.
So, that's a quick catch up on what I'm up to.
Tomorrow (Friday) I'm having my girl friends over for a sleepover! I need it. We need it. It shall be good. I'm looking forward to some down time!
Semester One, complete!
These past 10 weeks have gone so fast, I can barely believe the first semester is over. I now have the rest of May, the whole of June, and two weeks of July off! So much spare time, I won't know what to do with myself!
Of course, there are a few uni-related things I have to finish up before the semester is over. We have a workshop on behaviour management to attend, and we have to make a presentation on what we have learnt through working with our community service agencies.
The fact that my group hasn't actually started mentoring at our school yet is a bit of an inconvenience, but we have still had a few opportunities to meet with the kids and get to know them.
I have to say, the main thing I have learnt is not to judge people by their post code. The area within which the school is located is one of particularly low socioeconomic status (how's that for a university term?!) and has quite a bad reputation.
BUT, the kids and parents that I have met from the school are all fantastic. Whether this is because the teachers only selected 'good' kids, I don't know, but regardless, it has changed my perspective.
We will start mentoring hopefully next week, and visit the kids at school once or twice a week throughout our holidays.
I've also had the opportunity to start mentoring at a different school, Macarthur Anglican School, which is a sister school in the same association as PAC, where I went. I got an email from uni offerring spots in the program, and immediately sent my application. Turns out, being enrolled in a teaching program does wonders for your resumé! I got picked straight away. I'm really excited to be working with a very different group of kids to those that I am currently.
So, that's a quick catch up on what I'm up to.
Tomorrow (Friday) I'm having my girl friends over for a sleepover! I need it. We need it. It shall be good. I'm looking forward to some down time!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Catch up
Just a quick post- because I am at uni and am about to go to a lecture in 10 minutes.
I have been absolutely smashed by uni work. With two weeks to go, it seems like they have hit us hard with assignments. I have to do lesson plans, presentations, group work, make a website, write essays... the list goes on.
Last week I didn't even venture out of the house unless it was for uni. I spent the public holiday Monday literally holed up in my house all day. I didn't got to dancing that day... or the next... or the next. I even skipped Bible Study. I was so snowed under. Comer the weekend, I was exhausted. I got home after work on Sunday afternoon and had a nap with the intention of waking up around 5.30pm in time to go to church... and it just didn't happen. When I woke up, it was dark. But it felt so good to sleep!
Now, I have a little break from assignments (and I mean literally a few days' reprieve), so I'm back in the world a little bit. Yesterday I was at Kingswood campus all day for a skills day for Year 9 kids as part of the community service we have to do in our degree. It was actually quite fun to hang out with older kids and get to know them a little bit. Since they're pretty unfamiliar with the campus, we organised an "Amazing Race"-style challenge where they were put into teams and had to find certain locations using cryptic clues. My team won! We got in trouble for running inside though... haha. But it was worth it!
Tonight my Bible Study is going out for dinner and then to see Iron Man 2 at the movies. On Saturday night we went to Jenny's house and watched the first Iron Man whilst making homemade pizzas, and we all liked it so much that we agreed to go and see the sequel tonight! Hopefully it lives up to the hype!
I have been absolutely smashed by uni work. With two weeks to go, it seems like they have hit us hard with assignments. I have to do lesson plans, presentations, group work, make a website, write essays... the list goes on.
Last week I didn't even venture out of the house unless it was for uni. I spent the public holiday Monday literally holed up in my house all day. I didn't got to dancing that day... or the next... or the next. I even skipped Bible Study. I was so snowed under. Comer the weekend, I was exhausted. I got home after work on Sunday afternoon and had a nap with the intention of waking up around 5.30pm in time to go to church... and it just didn't happen. When I woke up, it was dark. But it felt so good to sleep!
Now, I have a little break from assignments (and I mean literally a few days' reprieve), so I'm back in the world a little bit. Yesterday I was at Kingswood campus all day for a skills day for Year 9 kids as part of the community service we have to do in our degree. It was actually quite fun to hang out with older kids and get to know them a little bit. Since they're pretty unfamiliar with the campus, we organised an "Amazing Race"-style challenge where they were put into teams and had to find certain locations using cryptic clues. My team won! We got in trouble for running inside though... haha. But it was worth it!
Tonight my Bible Study is going out for dinner and then to see Iron Man 2 at the movies. On Saturday night we went to Jenny's house and watched the first Iron Man whilst making homemade pizzas, and we all liked it so much that we agreed to go and see the sequel tonight! Hopefully it lives up to the hype!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Graduation Photos
Yesterday I had the graduation ceremony for my Bachelor of Arts.
Of course I took tons of photos!
Shaking the Chancellor's hand.
Of course I took tons of photos!
Shaking the Chancellor's hand.
Outside after the ceremony
With my mum
Posing with my degree!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
About
About to go pick my grandparents up from Sydney Airport- they are flying in from NZ for my graduation. So are my Dad and my other grandma (and they all read this blog so I better give them a shout out!)
Yesterday I went over to my friend Elise's house. She had her graduation ceremony this past Friday. She went to the University of Sydney, so her ceremony was a bit more traditional (think Harry Potter-style, in a huge Great Hall, with candelabras and all the trimmings).
I don't think mine will be like that.
I'm pretty sure ours is in the university gym.
OR an auditorium of some kind.
But still- no great hall. I don't think the University of Western Sydney even owns a great hall.
It's just not the way we roll.
Yesterday I went over to my friend Elise's house. She had her graduation ceremony this past Friday. She went to the University of Sydney, so her ceremony was a bit more traditional (think Harry Potter-style, in a huge Great Hall, with candelabras and all the trimmings).
I don't think mine will be like that.
I'm pretty sure ours is in the university gym.
OR an auditorium of some kind.
But still- no great hall. I don't think the University of Western Sydney even owns a great hall.
It's just not the way we roll.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
It's that time again
I'm at uni, with a three hour break.
Do you feel like this is the only time you ever hear from me?
:)
Last week was Mid-Semester Break at uni, which tied in with Easter as well. Having a whole week off was soooo nice! Sleeping in, not having to rush out the door, doing whatever I wanted for the day = bliss!
That's not to say I wasn't busy. I spent a lot of time with my friends, we had a spontaneous pizza and movie night and then on another night we played board games and watched DVDs. This is how my friends and I are - we'd rather stay in than go out ANY day!
On Good Friday, after I went to church in the morning, Mum and I decided to go for a drive. It was "go-for-a-drive" weather. We had plans to go to Wollongong, but after getting on the freeway and seeing the traffic backed up for like 5 kilometres, we turned around and headed in the other direction. We ended up at Pancakes on the Rocks in Parramatta (yum!) and then we got home in time to see a movie. We wanted to see Dear John, but we missed the only session it was on, so we saw The Last Song instead. They're both movies based on Nicholas Sparks novels, so in my opinion it didn't really matter which one we saw!
By the end of the movie, I was in tears. It was SO sad. I won't spoil the ending, but oh my goodness it was a tear jerker.
Then again, that could just be because I'm a "feeler". At my friend Laura's dinner party on Friday night, the 5 of us (Laura, Keisha, Elise, Claryse & me - Laura's dad calls us "The Desperate Housewives" haha) were talking about whether we're think-ers, feel-ers, or do-ers.
We all know each other so well after having been friends for so long, that most of the time it was unanimous. Laura and I are both feelers. But we differ in that I'm a feeler, then a thinker, then a do-er, meaning I feel things first, then I think about them, and then I act. Laura is much more of a do-er than I am :)
I'm a ponderer. I think about what I'm thinking about. (We call that "metacognition" at uni)
But regardless of all that, first and foremost, I am a FEELER. Big time. Emotional, romantic, deep and meaningful. That's me.
I love hanging out with my friends who know me so well. The 5 of us can talk for hours, without even realising that time is passing. It's true. It happened on Friday night. Before we knew it, it was 2am, and everyone else had left hours ago. I love that :)
(I'm all about the smiley faces today!)
Later on the weekend (on Saturday) I hosted a Baby Shower for my dance teacher with some other girls from dancing. It was so fun to see the hall all decked out in pink, and full of yummy food. (I may have gone on a baking binge a few days before...)
Yesterday, on Monday, I had to work all day, but it was worth it because of the public holiday rates :) We were surprisingly busy... well not busy, but constant, which was surprising because in a small little shopping centre like ours, public holiday usual equals deserted. So that was a pleasant surprise.
However, before I knew it, it was the end of the Easter long weekend and back to the real world - uni.
Waking up early this morning was not fun, but it's only another two weeks before we are on break again. I can't wait. But in the meantime, I have a few assessments to get back to... the life of a uni student!
Do you feel like this is the only time you ever hear from me?
:)
Last week was Mid-Semester Break at uni, which tied in with Easter as well. Having a whole week off was soooo nice! Sleeping in, not having to rush out the door, doing whatever I wanted for the day = bliss!
That's not to say I wasn't busy. I spent a lot of time with my friends, we had a spontaneous pizza and movie night and then on another night we played board games and watched DVDs. This is how my friends and I are - we'd rather stay in than go out ANY day!
On Good Friday, after I went to church in the morning, Mum and I decided to go for a drive. It was "go-for-a-drive" weather. We had plans to go to Wollongong, but after getting on the freeway and seeing the traffic backed up for like 5 kilometres, we turned around and headed in the other direction. We ended up at Pancakes on the Rocks in Parramatta (yum!) and then we got home in time to see a movie. We wanted to see Dear John, but we missed the only session it was on, so we saw The Last Song instead. They're both movies based on Nicholas Sparks novels, so in my opinion it didn't really matter which one we saw!
By the end of the movie, I was in tears. It was SO sad. I won't spoil the ending, but oh my goodness it was a tear jerker.
Then again, that could just be because I'm a "feeler". At my friend Laura's dinner party on Friday night, the 5 of us (Laura, Keisha, Elise, Claryse & me - Laura's dad calls us "The Desperate Housewives" haha) were talking about whether we're think-ers, feel-ers, or do-ers.
We all know each other so well after having been friends for so long, that most of the time it was unanimous. Laura and I are both feelers. But we differ in that I'm a feeler, then a thinker, then a do-er, meaning I feel things first, then I think about them, and then I act. Laura is much more of a do-er than I am :)
I'm a ponderer. I think about what I'm thinking about. (We call that "metacognition" at uni)
But regardless of all that, first and foremost, I am a FEELER. Big time. Emotional, romantic, deep and meaningful. That's me.
I love hanging out with my friends who know me so well. The 5 of us can talk for hours, without even realising that time is passing. It's true. It happened on Friday night. Before we knew it, it was 2am, and everyone else had left hours ago. I love that :)
(I'm all about the smiley faces today!)
Later on the weekend (on Saturday) I hosted a Baby Shower for my dance teacher with some other girls from dancing. It was so fun to see the hall all decked out in pink, and full of yummy food. (I may have gone on a baking binge a few days before...)
Yesterday, on Monday, I had to work all day, but it was worth it because of the public holiday rates :) We were surprisingly busy... well not busy, but constant, which was surprising because in a small little shopping centre like ours, public holiday usual equals deserted. So that was a pleasant surprise.
However, before I knew it, it was the end of the Easter long weekend and back to the real world - uni.
Waking up early this morning was not fun, but it's only another two weeks before we are on break again. I can't wait. But in the meantime, I have a few assessments to get back to... the life of a uni student!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Happenings
Wow, a lot has happened in the 9 days since I last posted.
(Yes, I totally just looked up on my blog when I last posted, and counted backwards.)
Sorry to leave you in the lurch- I've been pretty busy!
(The only reason you're getting a blog post out of me now is because instead of being at dancing, I'm babysitting my dance teacher's kids, and all 3 of them are currently asleep. Or very good at faking it. I have my eye on the middle one, their 5 year old daughter, because out of all of them I reckon she's the one who could pull it off.)
Anyway. I've had some good news and some bad news in the past few weeks.
In the very bad news department, on Sunday I found out that one of my good friend's Dad died very suddenly and unexpectedly last Friday. For as long as I've known him (and that would be about 12 years) he's battled cancer and needed kidney dialysis regularly, but apparently he was the healthiest he'd been in a long time when he had what is thought to be either a stroke or a heart attack. His death is a blow to the entire family of my friend, and to everyone who knew him.
He always called me "Pinky" because of my love for all things pink, and I now feel a little bittersweet when I am reminded of that.
In other news, I found out that I wouldn't be able to work with the St Vincent de Paul Society anymore for my agency placement. The training days they have requested unfortunately fall on a Thursday, a day I have classes; and a Saturday, which is the day of my graduation ceremony!
Instead, I'll be working with Fast Forward, which is a program run by my university in low socioeconomic status schools. Since I joined the program pretty late, I didn't think I'd get to sign up in a school near my area, but I actually did!
I will be mentoring students who are enrolled at Bidwill High School. This particular school is in a pretty rough area. Bidwill is dominated by public housing and is associated with social and economic problems. There is a significant crime problem and riots have been common in the past.
The main reason Bidwill has been chosen as part of the Fast Forward program is that the program's aim is to encourage high school students to go on to complete tertiary education. We mentor kids with the aim of motivating them to go to uni. This is particularly important in Bidwill, where out of 2500 residents, less than 180 go beyond secondary education to university.
Fast Forward's ambition is to "raise participant's aspirations for the future". Since these days jobs that don't require a university degree are few and far between, I'm excited to work with these students and encourage them to enrol in university after they finish high school.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't also a little terrified.
Upon telling a few friends from church that have been to the area that I'm "going to Bidwill", the first things they said were
"Do you have a bulletproof vest?"
"Your car will probably get robbed"
and
"The guys will probably be rough on you".
Yikes. And they're sending 3 of us girls to this school.
By ourselves.
I'm trying not to be too judgmental or have too many preconceived ideas about the school before I've even walked through the gates. But it's hard.
I'll keep you posted.
:)
(Yes, I totally just looked up on my blog when I last posted, and counted backwards.)
Sorry to leave you in the lurch- I've been pretty busy!
(The only reason you're getting a blog post out of me now is because instead of being at dancing, I'm babysitting my dance teacher's kids, and all 3 of them are currently asleep. Or very good at faking it. I have my eye on the middle one, their 5 year old daughter, because out of all of them I reckon she's the one who could pull it off.)
Anyway. I've had some good news and some bad news in the past few weeks.
In the very bad news department, on Sunday I found out that one of my good friend's Dad died very suddenly and unexpectedly last Friday. For as long as I've known him (and that would be about 12 years) he's battled cancer and needed kidney dialysis regularly, but apparently he was the healthiest he'd been in a long time when he had what is thought to be either a stroke or a heart attack. His death is a blow to the entire family of my friend, and to everyone who knew him.
He always called me "Pinky" because of my love for all things pink, and I now feel a little bittersweet when I am reminded of that.
In other news, I found out that I wouldn't be able to work with the St Vincent de Paul Society anymore for my agency placement. The training days they have requested unfortunately fall on a Thursday, a day I have classes; and a Saturday, which is the day of my graduation ceremony!
Instead, I'll be working with Fast Forward, which is a program run by my university in low socioeconomic status schools. Since I joined the program pretty late, I didn't think I'd get to sign up in a school near my area, but I actually did!
I will be mentoring students who are enrolled at Bidwill High School. This particular school is in a pretty rough area. Bidwill is dominated by public housing and is associated with social and economic problems. There is a significant crime problem and riots have been common in the past.
The main reason Bidwill has been chosen as part of the Fast Forward program is that the program's aim is to encourage high school students to go on to complete tertiary education. We mentor kids with the aim of motivating them to go to uni. This is particularly important in Bidwill, where out of 2500 residents, less than 180 go beyond secondary education to university.
Fast Forward's ambition is to "raise participant's aspirations for the future". Since these days jobs that don't require a university degree are few and far between, I'm excited to work with these students and encourage them to enrol in university after they finish high school.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't also a little terrified.
Upon telling a few friends from church that have been to the area that I'm "going to Bidwill", the first things they said were
"Do you have a bulletproof vest?"
"Your car will probably get robbed"
and
"The guys will probably be rough on you".
Yikes. And they're sending 3 of us girls to this school.
By ourselves.
I'm trying not to be too judgmental or have too many preconceived ideas about the school before I've even walked through the gates. But it's hard.
I'll keep you posted.
:)
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Southern
You may wonder why you're hearing more from me lately... especially on Tuesday afternoons.
It's because I have a three hour break between my classes!
And there's only so much reading and quizzing that a student's mind can take!
Being at my new campus has it's pros and cons- and this is one of the latter. It's not like my old campus where I was only 15 minutes away from home and would drive back and forth easily on my lunch break.
Nope, it takes me anywhere between 45 minutes and an hour to get here (and that's if I'm leaving in the middle of the day! If it's like today, and I have a 9 o'clock lecture, it can take me 2+ hours!)
There is a shopping centre about 20 minutes' drive away, but today I just feel like hanging around campus. My friends all have classes at the moment, so here I am, checking in with you all.
(On another note, my friend Keisha and I are always saying that we were born in the wrong place- we should've been born in the southern states of the US so we could say "y'all"!)
So, what have I been up to?
I had a great weekend, filled with activity as usual. (You may have seen my post on making a bulletin board below.)
I worked on Sunday, and even got called in to work yesterday afternoon as well. We absolutely smashed our sales targets on the weekend, but Monday was s-l-o-w and pretty tragic dollar-wise.
I've been dying to see Dear John at the movies, and was meant to go with Mum on the weekend, but I got home Sunday afternoon and crashed on the couch. I managed to sleep for an hour, which is very unlike me! By the time I woke up it was time to go to church, so there was no opportunity to go to the movies.
There are so many movies out at the moment that I want to see! Dear John is one of them, but I've also been meaning to see Valentine's Day (I know, it's a bit late since it's now the middle of March!) and I also want to see Remember Me.
I mentioned a while ago that last weekend Keisha and I saw The Blind Side, which was a fabulous movie about a Southern woman and her family who take in a homeless high school student and help him go on to become a famous NFL player.
We LOVED it.
Our favourite quote:
Leigh Anne Touhy: If you so much as set foot downtown you will be sorry. I'm in a prayer group with the D.A., I'm a member of the NRA and I'm always packing.
Gang member: Whatchu packin? A .22? A little Saturday night special?
Leigh Anne Touhy: Yep. And it shoots just fine every other day of the week too.
We were laughing and laughing in this scene.
Love that she notes she's in a prayer group first, before she even mentions that she carries a gun!
It's because I have a three hour break between my classes!
And there's only so much reading and quizzing that a student's mind can take!
Being at my new campus has it's pros and cons- and this is one of the latter. It's not like my old campus where I was only 15 minutes away from home and would drive back and forth easily on my lunch break.
Nope, it takes me anywhere between 45 minutes and an hour to get here (and that's if I'm leaving in the middle of the day! If it's like today, and I have a 9 o'clock lecture, it can take me 2+ hours!)
There is a shopping centre about 20 minutes' drive away, but today I just feel like hanging around campus. My friends all have classes at the moment, so here I am, checking in with you all.
(On another note, my friend Keisha and I are always saying that we were born in the wrong place- we should've been born in the southern states of the US so we could say "y'all"!)
So, what have I been up to?
I had a great weekend, filled with activity as usual. (You may have seen my post on making a bulletin board below.)
I worked on Sunday, and even got called in to work yesterday afternoon as well. We absolutely smashed our sales targets on the weekend, but Monday was s-l-o-w and pretty tragic dollar-wise.
I've been dying to see Dear John at the movies, and was meant to go with Mum on the weekend, but I got home Sunday afternoon and crashed on the couch. I managed to sleep for an hour, which is very unlike me! By the time I woke up it was time to go to church, so there was no opportunity to go to the movies.
There are so many movies out at the moment that I want to see! Dear John is one of them, but I've also been meaning to see Valentine's Day (I know, it's a bit late since it's now the middle of March!) and I also want to see Remember Me.
I mentioned a while ago that last weekend Keisha and I saw The Blind Side, which was a fabulous movie about a Southern woman and her family who take in a homeless high school student and help him go on to become a famous NFL player.
We LOVED it.
Our favourite quote:
Leigh Anne Touhy: If you so much as set foot downtown you will be sorry. I'm in a prayer group with the D.A., I'm a member of the NRA and I'm always packing.
Gang member: Whatchu packin? A .22? A little Saturday night special?
Leigh Anne Touhy: Yep. And it shoots just fine every other day of the week too.
We were laughing and laughing in this scene.
Love that she notes she's in a prayer group first, before she even mentions that she carries a gun!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
A week in the life of a university student
On Tuesday I had uni. Starting at 9.00am, I have my Educational Psych lecture which goes for an hour and a half, followed straight on by my Primary PD/H/PE lecture (luckily it's in the same lecture theatre, so we don't have to move. But it is annoying to have to sit in the same chair for 3 straight hours.)
I have an hour break for lunch from 12.00 - 1.00, then it's my Classrooms Without Borders tutorial for two hours, straight into a lecture for Education, Knowledge, Society & Change, and then a mad dash down to the sports hall for an hour each of PD/H/PE prac and theory, finishing at 6.00pm.
Then I hop into my little red car, usually wait 10 minutes to be able to actually get out of the uni car park, only to get stuck in traffic as soon as I pull out onto the main road. Then sit in more traffic at the lights. Then sit in more traffic on the freeway. Rinse and repeat.
On Thursday I also had uni. My first class was a tutorial for E,K,S&C that started at 10.30am. I left home at 9.20, stopped to get petrol (it seems I have to do this every 2 days now I'm travelling so much!) and then got to uni 10 minutes early, which was good because I had no idea where the classroom was. I got to the building, and started looking for signs or directions to classroom 23.G.20 (Building 23, on the Ground floor, classroom 20).
I couldn't find it anywhere. I walked from one end of the building to the other. Three times.
There were signs to direct you to classrooms 1 - 18, and then for classrooms 25 - 35. But nothing in between.
By now it was 10.30 on the dot. I end up walking to the enquiries desk and asking the lady there where the classroom is, and she is very nice and gives me directions.
Turns out to get to this particular classroom, you have to walk out of the building and the entrance to this one room is around the side.
Logical.
So I keep walking, following the path until I find a classroom full of people. The sign on the door says "EC 1" (many of the buildings used to be labelled this way, so now there are two ways of naming the rooms, just to make it more confusing).
I walk in, trying to be quiet and find a seat. The tutor comes over to me and welcomes me to the class. She was really nice.
And then she starts explaining the experiments we'll be working on.
Huh? I didn't know the School of Education ran scientific experiments in their classes. I didn't even think it was in the curriculum.
So I ask her what class this is.
Brain and Behaviour.
Neuroscience.
Yeah. I walked into the smart brainiacs (literally) classroom and then looked like an idiot when I had to walk straight out again.
Back to the lady at the enquiries desk.
I tell her I couldn't find it. By now I'm so late for my class that I'm stressed. She gives me pretty much the same directions, but I thank her anyway because she was nice.
Even if she laughed at my inability to find said classroom.
I walk back around the building, trying to find a different route because I don't want the Brain and Behaviour class to see me wander past again.
Because nothing says "I'm a student new to this campus and I have no idea where I'm going" like a person wandering aimlessly around looking for signs on classroom doors.
I stealthily avoid being seen by the B&B class, and figure I may as well just keep walking until I come face to face with a gate or a fence or some sort of boundary.
Eventually, I'm walking across a lawn and then I see it.
EC 2
a.k.a 23.G.20.
I walk in, again trying to be quiet and I'm successful until I sink gratefully in to the nearest chair.
And wouldn't you know it, it's a kiddie chair and I sort of fall into it and make a noise because the drop was longer than I expected.
Nevermind. I'm practically sitting at shoulder height to the table, but all that matters is I made it.
All is good until about halfway through the class when I look at the girl next to me who is eagerly filling out a peer evaluation sheet for the group presentation we have just heard.
At the very top there is a space where you fill out your name, group and the tutorial time.
She has written, very prominently I might add, "10:00 - 12:30".
Umm... really?
I swear it started at 10.30.
But then I remember one of my friends saying this class did go for two and a half hours.
So 10.00 would make sense.
I spend the rest of the class trying to figure out if the class really does go for two and a half hours, and if that means instead of being 10 or 15 minutes late, I was actually 40 or 45 minutes late.
The peer presentation evaluation sheet didn't lie.
The class totally started at 10am.
I was 45 minutes late.
*smacks hand into forehead*
The funny (or not so funny, depending on which way you look at it) thing is, this isn't the first time this is happened to me.
The week of orientation, I arrived 5 minutes late to a session and found my friend sitting in the stairwell of the lecture theatre. We both commented on how early people must have gotten there, since there were no seats left ans she had gotten there 5 minutes early, and I only 5 minutes late.
Towards the end of the session, one of our lecturers goes on a big rant about how rude it is to arrive so late, etc etc.
My friend and I are walking out, going "What was she talking about? No one arrived half an hour late! Most people were early!"
And then a guy from our class starts laughing and tells us the session started at 9.00am, not 9.30. Because he is laughing so hard, we assume he's joking and we're all "As if! It did not!"
And then he says "Well, check your piece of paper if you don't believe me."
We do.
It started at 9.00.
I was 35 minutes late.
Oops.
My friend and I are still laughing at that one.
Wait until I tell her about my solo effort.
I have an hour break for lunch from 12.00 - 1.00, then it's my Classrooms Without Borders tutorial for two hours, straight into a lecture for Education, Knowledge, Society & Change, and then a mad dash down to the sports hall for an hour each of PD/H/PE prac and theory, finishing at 6.00pm.
Then I hop into my little red car, usually wait 10 minutes to be able to actually get out of the uni car park, only to get stuck in traffic as soon as I pull out onto the main road. Then sit in more traffic at the lights. Then sit in more traffic on the freeway. Rinse and repeat.
On Thursday I also had uni. My first class was a tutorial for E,K,S&C that started at 10.30am. I left home at 9.20, stopped to get petrol (it seems I have to do this every 2 days now I'm travelling so much!) and then got to uni 10 minutes early, which was good because I had no idea where the classroom was. I got to the building, and started looking for signs or directions to classroom 23.G.20 (Building 23, on the Ground floor, classroom 20).
I couldn't find it anywhere. I walked from one end of the building to the other. Three times.
There were signs to direct you to classrooms 1 - 18, and then for classrooms 25 - 35. But nothing in between.
By now it was 10.30 on the dot. I end up walking to the enquiries desk and asking the lady there where the classroom is, and she is very nice and gives me directions.
Turns out to get to this particular classroom, you have to walk out of the building and the entrance to this one room is around the side.
Logical.
So I keep walking, following the path until I find a classroom full of people. The sign on the door says "EC 1" (many of the buildings used to be labelled this way, so now there are two ways of naming the rooms, just to make it more confusing).
I walk in, trying to be quiet and find a seat. The tutor comes over to me and welcomes me to the class. She was really nice.
And then she starts explaining the experiments we'll be working on.
Huh? I didn't know the School of Education ran scientific experiments in their classes. I didn't even think it was in the curriculum.
So I ask her what class this is.
Brain and Behaviour.
Neuroscience.
Yeah. I walked into the smart brainiacs (literally) classroom and then looked like an idiot when I had to walk straight out again.
Back to the lady at the enquiries desk.
I tell her I couldn't find it. By now I'm so late for my class that I'm stressed. She gives me pretty much the same directions, but I thank her anyway because she was nice.
Even if she laughed at my inability to find said classroom.
I walk back around the building, trying to find a different route because I don't want the Brain and Behaviour class to see me wander past again.
Because nothing says "I'm a student new to this campus and I have no idea where I'm going" like a person wandering aimlessly around looking for signs on classroom doors.
I stealthily avoid being seen by the B&B class, and figure I may as well just keep walking until I come face to face with a gate or a fence or some sort of boundary.
Eventually, I'm walking across a lawn and then I see it.
EC 2
a.k.a 23.G.20.
I walk in, again trying to be quiet and I'm successful until I sink gratefully in to the nearest chair.
And wouldn't you know it, it's a kiddie chair and I sort of fall into it and make a noise because the drop was longer than I expected.
Nevermind. I'm practically sitting at shoulder height to the table, but all that matters is I made it.
All is good until about halfway through the class when I look at the girl next to me who is eagerly filling out a peer evaluation sheet for the group presentation we have just heard.
At the very top there is a space where you fill out your name, group and the tutorial time.
She has written, very prominently I might add, "10:00 - 12:30".
Umm... really?
I swear it started at 10.30.
But then I remember one of my friends saying this class did go for two and a half hours.
So 10.00 would make sense.
I spend the rest of the class trying to figure out if the class really does go for two and a half hours, and if that means instead of being 10 or 15 minutes late, I was actually 40 or 45 minutes late.
The peer presentation evaluation sheet didn't lie.
The class totally started at 10am.
I was 45 minutes late.
*smacks hand into forehead*
The funny (or not so funny, depending on which way you look at it) thing is, this isn't the first time this is happened to me.
The week of orientation, I arrived 5 minutes late to a session and found my friend sitting in the stairwell of the lecture theatre. We both commented on how early people must have gotten there, since there were no seats left ans she had gotten there 5 minutes early, and I only 5 minutes late.
Towards the end of the session, one of our lecturers goes on a big rant about how rude it is to arrive so late, etc etc.
My friend and I are walking out, going "What was she talking about? No one arrived half an hour late! Most people were early!"
And then a guy from our class starts laughing and tells us the session started at 9.00am, not 9.30. Because he is laughing so hard, we assume he's joking and we're all "As if! It did not!"
And then he says "Well, check your piece of paper if you don't believe me."
We do.
It started at 9.00.
I was 35 minutes late.
Oops.
My friend and I are still laughing at that one.
Wait until I tell her about my solo effort.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, February 19, 2010
It's been a while...
I know, I know, it's been a while since you've heard from me.
I kept thinking I need to update my blog, but I feel like I have nothing worthwhile to say.
(On a sidenote, my friend Elise & I were discussing our different personalities- she always says "I think..." and I always say "I feel..." I'm definitely a feeler.)
I have been busy however.
Last week I had my first trip to Bankstown for an academic advising session at uni.
The week before, Mum & I had taken a little tiki tour to Bankstown.
Tiki tour (noun):
taking the roundabout way to get somewhere
And I didn't like what I saw when we got there.
The university campus is in the middle of an industrial area, and I don't know if it was the lack of green or fresh air or what, but I had a massive reaction which basically resulted in me throwing an adult version of a temper tantrum and telling Mum "I don't want to come here!"
Um yeah. I kind of don't have a choice in the matter.
It's Bankstown or bust.
So, Monday morning rolls around and I have to trek out to Bankstown in time to be there by 9.30am. I set my alarm for 6.30, but as always happens, refuse to get up and end up being late. I didn't leave the house until 7.10am. You would think leaving nearly two and a half hours of travelling time would be enough.
But if you thought that, then you obviously haven't experienced the phenomenon that is called Sydney Traffic.
I barely get onto the freeway, 15 minutes from my house, and it's gridlock.
All
the
way
there.
Fun fun fun. Nothing stresses me out like traffic. City traffic especially.
Add to the mix the potential of running late?
Let's just say I wasn't in the best of moods.
Turns out, I get there a full 45 minutes early. By some sort of miracle, I have time to spare.
So, I decide to head to the nearest shopping centre. I've got 45 minutes, might as well acquaint myself with the area. Turns out, I've been to this particular mall before, because we have had dance eisteddfods at the town hall across the road.
Feeling all confident, I plug the location into Tom Tom and head off.
Except I miss a turn.
Now I've only got 20 minutes to spare before I have to be back at uni.
No worries. I can totally make it.
Except the car park's packed and I have to drive all the way up to the top to find a park.
And then I have to find a Commonwealth Bank ATM to take money out.
And then I freak out because someone told me that this particular ATM has been fitted with a card reader scam thing, and so I want to take all my money out of my account so 'they' can't steal it, and this takes time.
And then I have to find the Muffin Break, and hope to goodness that they sell gluten free muffins, because otherwise this whole exercise has been a complete and utter waste of time.
(They do.)
By the time I speed walk back to my car, it's like 9.25am. The session starts at 9.30.
And I'm 15 minutes away.
Stress mounting, I navigate my way back (okay, Tom Tom does it for me).
I pull into uni, and of course, of course, the car park is full.
At this point, I seriously considered damning it all to hell and driving straight back home.
But I was like No, No, I did not drive all the way out here just to drive straight back.
So I swing into a car park that is seriously like two hundred metres away from the building I need to be in, and speed walk to the lecture hall that the session is in.
I walk into the room behind another girl who was in the same predicament; thankfully she went first because there's nothing like opening the door and having two to three hundred pairs of eyes swivel to check you out as you walk in all non chalantly and try to find an empty seat anywhere.
(I hope by now you get the sense of what it's like to be a university student- fraught with challenges to your self esteem haha!)
I tell you all of this for one reason:
So you can empathise with me when I tell you this next part.
I sit down, get out my notebook and pen.
Forty-five minutes later (and this was supposed to be a two hour session), I haven't learnt anything new.
They basically re-hashed everything they told us in a letter they sent out in December. Except they had a slideshow to go with it.
Two hours of traffic, one round of getting lost, two rounds of driving in vain to find carparks, many hours taken off my life from stress... all for a mandatory information session that told me nothing new.
It must have been a test of dedication. Let's test these post-grad students, make sure they've got the patience to be teachers.
There's a slight chance I may have failed.
I kept thinking I need to update my blog, but I feel like I have nothing worthwhile to say.
(On a sidenote, my friend Elise & I were discussing our different personalities- she always says "I think..." and I always say "I feel..." I'm definitely a feeler.)
I have been busy however.
Last week I had my first trip to Bankstown for an academic advising session at uni.
The week before, Mum & I had taken a little tiki tour to Bankstown.
Tiki tour (noun):
taking the roundabout way to get somewhere
And I didn't like what I saw when we got there.
The university campus is in the middle of an industrial area, and I don't know if it was the lack of green or fresh air or what, but I had a massive reaction which basically resulted in me throwing an adult version of a temper tantrum and telling Mum "I don't want to come here!"
Um yeah. I kind of don't have a choice in the matter.
It's Bankstown or bust.
So, Monday morning rolls around and I have to trek out to Bankstown in time to be there by 9.30am. I set my alarm for 6.30, but as always happens, refuse to get up and end up being late. I didn't leave the house until 7.10am. You would think leaving nearly two and a half hours of travelling time would be enough.
But if you thought that, then you obviously haven't experienced the phenomenon that is called Sydney Traffic.
I barely get onto the freeway, 15 minutes from my house, and it's gridlock.
All
the
way
there.
Fun fun fun. Nothing stresses me out like traffic. City traffic especially.
Add to the mix the potential of running late?
Let's just say I wasn't in the best of moods.
Turns out, I get there a full 45 minutes early. By some sort of miracle, I have time to spare.
So, I decide to head to the nearest shopping centre. I've got 45 minutes, might as well acquaint myself with the area. Turns out, I've been to this particular mall before, because we have had dance eisteddfods at the town hall across the road.
Feeling all confident, I plug the location into Tom Tom and head off.
Except I miss a turn.
Now I've only got 20 minutes to spare before I have to be back at uni.
No worries. I can totally make it.
Except the car park's packed and I have to drive all the way up to the top to find a park.
And then I have to find a Commonwealth Bank ATM to take money out.
And then I freak out because someone told me that this particular ATM has been fitted with a card reader scam thing, and so I want to take all my money out of my account so 'they' can't steal it, and this takes time.
And then I have to find the Muffin Break, and hope to goodness that they sell gluten free muffins, because otherwise this whole exercise has been a complete and utter waste of time.
(They do.)
By the time I speed walk back to my car, it's like 9.25am. The session starts at 9.30.
And I'm 15 minutes away.
Stress mounting, I navigate my way back (okay, Tom Tom does it for me).
I pull into uni, and of course, of course, the car park is full.
At this point, I seriously considered damning it all to hell and driving straight back home.
But I was like No, No, I did not drive all the way out here just to drive straight back.
So I swing into a car park that is seriously like two hundred metres away from the building I need to be in, and speed walk to the lecture hall that the session is in.
I walk into the room behind another girl who was in the same predicament; thankfully she went first because there's nothing like opening the door and having two to three hundred pairs of eyes swivel to check you out as you walk in all non chalantly and try to find an empty seat anywhere.
(I hope by now you get the sense of what it's like to be a university student- fraught with challenges to your self esteem haha!)
I tell you all of this for one reason:
So you can empathise with me when I tell you this next part.
I sit down, get out my notebook and pen.
Forty-five minutes later (and this was supposed to be a two hour session), I haven't learnt anything new.
They basically re-hashed everything they told us in a letter they sent out in December. Except they had a slideshow to go with it.
Two hours of traffic, one round of getting lost, two rounds of driving in vain to find carparks, many hours taken off my life from stress... all for a mandatory information session that told me nothing new.
It must have been a test of dedication. Let's test these post-grad students, make sure they've got the patience to be teachers.
There's a slight chance I may have failed.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Freedom
So that's it. I've officially finished my Bachelor of Arts as of yesterday.
Today's my first day of freedom :)
(That'a smiley face on the end, in case you didn't knowDad I mean, anyone)
Last night, after I finished my exam, I waited to feel some sort of euphoria or excitement. And I got nothing. Maybe it hasn't sunk in yet. Maybe once I get the official "Yes, we're really letting you graduate, and here's the piece of paper to prove it" then I'll be excited.
For now, I'm enjoying sleeping in, not being as stressed, getting to enjoy the hot summer days we have coming up.
I've also been trying to catch up with each of my 5 best friends, since we all get a little crazy busy towards the end of the semester and don't see each other as much as we'd like to.
Have I mentioned how successful we all are?!
Elise finished her Medical Science degree at the University of Sydney and just got accepted into Medical School!
Laura finished her Bachelor of Communications at UWS and just started a very grown-up marketing job in the city.
Claryse is part way through her Arts degree, and is looking to transfer to study Dance Education at Macquarie Uni next year.
Keisha has had a very lucrative job at the Australian Taxation Office for a few years now, and recently got promoted, is getting married in April and is looking for a block of land to start building a house.
And then there's me, finished my Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) degree, and starting my Masters of Primary Teaching next year!
Today's my first day of freedom :)
(That'a smiley face on the end, in case you didn't know
Last night, after I finished my exam, I waited to feel some sort of euphoria or excitement. And I got nothing. Maybe it hasn't sunk in yet. Maybe once I get the official "Yes, we're really letting you graduate, and here's the piece of paper to prove it" then I'll be excited.
For now, I'm enjoying sleeping in, not being as stressed, getting to enjoy the hot summer days we have coming up.
I've also been trying to catch up with each of my 5 best friends, since we all get a little crazy busy towards the end of the semester and don't see each other as much as we'd like to.
Have I mentioned how successful we all are?!
Elise finished her Medical Science degree at the University of Sydney and just got accepted into Medical School!
Laura finished her Bachelor of Communications at UWS and just started a very grown-up marketing job in the city.
Claryse is part way through her Arts degree, and is looking to transfer to study Dance Education at Macquarie Uni next year.
Keisha has had a very lucrative job at the Australian Taxation Office for a few years now, and recently got promoted, is getting married in April and is looking for a block of land to start building a house.
And then there's me, finished my Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) degree, and starting my Masters of Primary Teaching next year!
This is the most recent photo I have of all of us - from our graduation in 2006! I know - terrible! I'll have to take a new photo of the 5 of us, but here's Claryse, me, Elise, Keisha & Laura.
(Except imagine Elise with shorter hair, Keisha with red hair and Laura with long blonde hair, because that's how they look now!)
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Validation
My friend from uni sent me this message on Facebook & it almost made me cry (I'm emotional like that). I just thought it summed up the past 3 years so well.
There've been moments when I've had enough and contemplated quitting uni. There've been moments when I've doubted my calling to be a teacher. There've been moments when I wished I'd just gone straight into an Education degree instead of Arts (Psych).
But this just validated all of those experiences...
"Just wanted to say a bit of congrats for finishing your arts degree! So proud of you for getting through the whole 3 years even though you were so anxious to get to something else, and sometimes it felt like the time was just crawling a...long. Well done Miss Parata, we should go out and celebrate.... cheesecake? icecream?"
(She knows me so well! Cheesecake makes my heart smile.)
There've been moments when I've had enough and contemplated quitting uni. There've been moments when I've doubted my calling to be a teacher. There've been moments when I wished I'd just gone straight into an Education degree instead of Arts (Psych).
But this just validated all of those experiences...
"Just wanted to say a bit of congrats for finishing your arts degree! So proud of you for getting through the whole 3 years even though you were so anxious to get to something else, and sometimes it felt like the time was just crawling a...long. Well done Miss Parata, we should go out and celebrate.... cheesecake? icecream?"
(She knows me so well! Cheesecake makes my heart smile.)
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Shout it from the rooftops!
Just felt the need to shout it from the rooftops tonight:
I finished uni today!!!!!!
(Even this doesn't do my excitement justice!)
I finished uni today!!!!!!
(Even this doesn't do my excitement justice!)
No more classes.
Bachelor of Arts (Psych), you will be missed.
Master of Teaching (Primary), let's get acquainted!
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