A Wonderful Week in Aussie Land

Hello everyone!

It's been a gorgeous week in Dubbo - the weather, my job and life in general!

We came out of the floods, safe for now. Wagga Wagga and Griffith (both locations where exchange teachers from Alberta are currently) are having a different story. Flooding has affected both cities and now there's a story in the newspaper about how the flooding has affected spiders in Wagga. Check out this story:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-08/spider-army-descends-on-wagga-in-flood-escape/3877566

From what I understand, the flooding will continue to affect communities throughout New South Wales as the water makes its way through various river systems in the state. I'll keep you posted.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-24/south-east-nsw-flooding---feb-2012/3857502?section=vic


Autumn has arrived!! Luckily for me, it was a cooler summer in Australia and I never got the temperatures in the 40s that everybody was expecting. The hottest temperature I saw was 37C on my second day here. Now that atutum has arrived, it's around 13C in the early mornings and at night. During the day, it's around 23-28C. Talk about beautiful weather!!

It's been an amazing week at school as well! The students and I have found our groove and we've settled into our routines and my expectations. It took longer than I expected to get settled and find my way. Being here is like being a first year teacher all over again, but a thousands times worse! After teaching for 10 years it's been difficult having to learn the curriculum all over again, learn school rules and expectations, and adapt to a whole new way of how a school works. It's frustrating sometimes because I've been teaching for so long so I should know how to do this. We are hard on ourselves and have very high expectations for ourselves. So when you have to ask how to do something that everyone else knows how to do, and it's the third time you're asking, you feel a bit less than capable.

However, after 6 weeks of school and a great week under my belt, I feel like I've totally settled in at school! I'm off this week for my first excursion (aka field trip) and my first conference. In 4 weeks we will reach our first term break, which will be a 2 week break! Until then, it's hard work in the classroom!

TGIF everyone! Have a wonderful weekend!