Ker-thud

I am EXHAUSTED.

I was at school from 8:15 until 5:15 today. About a third of the time was spent on a staff meeting, and the rest of the time I was trekking around between my classroom and the various resource rooms, or clambering up and down off cupboards and desks to put posters up on my walls. I’m beat.

I’m now definitely installed as the Year 5-7 teacher, and I’ll have sixteen kids, currently aged between 9½ and 11½ . I’m also the Class Music teacher for everyone from Year Two upwards: the year 2-4 teacher can’t do music and I’d rather not do Phys Ed whereas she’s very sporty, so I’ll take all of our classes combined for music and she’ll take all of our classes combined for sport, thus giving each other some free time as well.

I’m feeling extremely relieved because the first day was nowhere near as nerve-wracking as I expected it to be. The new principal is fantastic and supportive and as new to Little Country Town as I am, which is great; the other two teachers are just lovely; and the support staff are terrific. I met one of my students, a new girl who was just enrolling today, so I’ll have one familiar face in the classroom on Monday. And I’m now somewhat organised, have some resources to play with, and can get started on making my classroom work. Phew!

But I’m so, so tired!

I still have a very sore throat and a swollen gland in my neck, although I think the gland is a bit less sore and swollen today and I didn’t need as much medication today either, which is a very good sign. It will probably have cleared up completely by the time my doctors’ appointment on Monday rolls around lol. Both Mum and S were panicking that I might have glandular fever (S because two of his previous girlfriends have had it so he’s scared he’s an asymptomatic carrier; and Mum just because she’s a worritt!). But from what I’ve read I’d have lots of swollen glands, exhaustion and fevers with glandular fever. I haven’t had a fever at all as far as I know, and I’ve had my normal levels of energy and have been pretty much carrying on as normal despite the painful throat. So I’m pretty convinced that it’s just tonsillitis or strep throat. Hopefully the doc can make it go away if it doesn’t go on its own!

And in other good news, the education department start paying me a week today. Imminent starvation averted! Lol

Eeeeep

Over the last couple of weeks, several people (non-teachers) have asked me whether I had all my planning done for next term. I've hedged every time because frankly, while I've got a full set of ideas about what I want my kids to achieve this term, I don't want to get into the lesson-by-lesson planning until I've got a clearer idea of how this class and this school are going to work.

And now I'm so glad I didn't put weeks of work into that sort of planning, because it seems I'm switching classrooms!

This afternoon I went to have coffee with Amanda and Carline, the other two teachers. Amanda has about 5 years’ experience and has the K-1 class, whereas Carline is a graduate like me and had been given the 5-7 class. Almost as soon as I sat down we got on to the topic of the fact that Carline is feeling panicked about that class and that the new principal (unexpectedly new!) had suggested that we could swap classrooms.

Now, I really wanted the middle group, but I’ve actually had no experience with kids that age, whereas I had two pracs with year 6/7 classes. And I could see in Carline’s face how much the class was worrying her. So I said on the spot that I’d swap, and she was so relieved that she hugged me, even though I’d only met her 5 minutes earlier!

I’m happy enough with the swap – years 5, 6 and 7 students can be pretty cool and you can do a lot more with older classes – and I’m very relieved that I haven’t wasted masses of time planning for a group I won’t be teaching. The planning I have done is perfectly applicable to the group I’ve now got as I’ll just make the assignments harder and the artworks more complex, and so forth. I hadn’t spent any money on resources yet either, apart from one book which will now seriously help Carline so I don’t mind that so much. And I’ve also gained a little, as some maths books that Mum had bought in case 9yo-brother needed them when he was older are now the perfect age for the kids in my classroom.

But, woah. Change of mindset required, and I start work tomorrow!

For the next two days I’ll be at the school with the other staff getting the place ready, then I’ve got the weekend to tie up any loose ends and spend time with S, and then . . . I’m teaching.

*trembles*

Jemmy Cuteness

Yesterday when I was in the bathroom getting ready for bed, Jemima came into the room, miaowed at me, then jumped into the (empty) bathtub and lay down. I went to stroke her, but she took a swat at my hand so, being a good owner, I went to get a toy to tempt her with and my camera to photograph her with :-D



Don't be fooled by the angelic look of this pic, she was in a seriously cranky mood lol.



It looks like she's pouncing on my runaway tube of exfoliating scrub here, and ignoring the ball completely . . . she was ignoring the ball but there's actually a tiny spider under her paw. A minute later she tried to eat said spider and apparently didn't enjoy the taste or sensation, because she pulled the funniest "blech!" face I've ever seen on anyone, cat or human! Sadly I failed to capture the moment on film.

I’ve just got back . . .

. . . from spending the weekend with S in Perth. It was my first night away from Little Country Town since I moved in, and I was nervous about how Jemima would go alone overnight. She seems fine (but very happy to see me!) and the house is all exactly as I left it, so I guess she did alright.

It’s nice to be home, and nice that Little Country Town already feels like home, even though I’ve been here less than a week. I’ve done my best so far to adopt the house and the town, and I feel like the house has adopted me and the town is working on it (I’m now recognised immediately by the folks at the post office, petrol station, hardware and supermarket, and I’ve met one set of neighbours). And slowly but surely I’m falling in love with the beautiful aspects of this place – the quietness, the incredibly vivid stars at night (hardly any lights, so they’re just spectacular), and the amazing flocks of galahs or cockatoos (I haven’t got close enough to know which yet) that fly over the town and roost in the trees just outside it at night. And I’m still enjoying the feeling of driving along the open road between golden fields of wheat and gnarled old salmon gums.

Every now and then this place makes me catch my breath and sigh with delight. I think being here will be ok :-)

But the downside to being back is that I miss S like crazy. We’re going to see each other every weekend, but the weekend we just had together was so wonderful and cozy that it was very hard on both of us when I had to leave. I keep reminding myself that next year we’ll be able to live together – with the help of luck, providence or stubbornness – but this year is going to be tough.

I’m trying to think positive – focusing on the good weekends, not the loneliness in between.

PS: It is apparently physically impossible for me to drive past a wheat field with a windmill in it without starting to whistle or hum the theme music from "Twister", which features a lot of that kind of scenery. *shrug* . . . at least it's beautiful music!

Ohhh *sigh of relief*

After a good half-hour session with an extremely canny and helpful troubleshooter at iinet, I now have broadband. Nice, fast, willing-to-load-stuff broadband. Ooh it feels good!

Well, I'm back

My broadband is on already . . . but I'm not on it, because the damn modem isn't talking to the computer. I’ll be on to the ISP’s support line tomorrow, but until then I’ll just have to put up with their dial-up service. Which is actually not so bad, I have to say.

S stayed with me for two days to ease the transition, and I miss him dreadfully now that he’s gone home again. I wish he could stay here with me. We’ll visit a lot of course and it’s really not far (less than 2 hours’ drive) but . . . I wish he was here!

Life here so far has been interesting. I’ve seen an echidna in the wild for the first time ever, I’ve driven to and from Perth and Little Country Town more times than I care to think about, I’ve discovered a river I’d never heard of before, and I’ve learned what the weather reports really meant when they talked about “scattered/isolated showers and storms” - I’ll post a pic later, there’s nothing quite like seeing a single thunderstorm cell all alone in an otherwise blue sky! I’ve learned that every shop in town (supermarket, hardware stores, petrol station, chemist, post office) carries cutlery, crockery and various other homewares. The bigger hardware also carries basic workmens’ clothes and major appliances like fridges and stoves o_O If you want to rent DVDs you go to the petrol station. It’s like an alternate universe, but it’s peopled with friendly folk and so far I’m enjoying myself.

I’ve had to go into the post office three days running to ask for stuff (there’s no postal delivery so I had to get a PO box, for a start) and I’ve now made friends with the girl who runs the post office. It’s a one-couple operation, so the post office closes for an hour each day for lunch. Cute!

That’s all for now, I’m starting to ramble . . . expect many pics and excited updates to come! 

Watch This Space

I'm all packed up and ready to go this evening: the moving van is arriving tomorrow morning to take all my worldly possessions to my new home in Little Country Town.

I'm very tired from packing, unaccountably weepy and just wanting the move to be over so that the settling-in and putting-down-roots process can begin.

I'm going to be offline for up to two weeks while the phone company gets my internet connection sorted. There's a Telecentre in the town so no doubt I'll pop online from time to time but I don't know whether I'll post until I'm settled in.

So . . . wish me luck, and I'll be back as soon as I possibly can, no doubt with some stories to tell about this weird new country town experience.

*HUGS*