Caulfield Junior College

Caulfield Junior College and my bike. My room is above the sign.

 My classroom as I found it.

 The library/resource room.

The staff room.

Wednesday, January 27^th.

Up early, got organized and rode my bike the 25 kms to school. It took just over an hour to get there. The route is along the Napean Highway, but it's a city highway including traffic lights and it does have a service road beside most of it so I can distance myself from the traffic. I think riding to work was probably faster than people driving as the traffic was very heavy due to the train construction.

I met Amanda, the principal and Megan the office administrator. We gathered in a large room where we had meetings until lunch time. Lunch and morning tea were catered, so I bought my salad for nothing. There was sushi, chicken breast, brie and avocado on French bread, sandwiches, and lots of fresh fruit including yellow watermelon.

The afteroon was given over to team meetings. My team leader is Don and there are 7 of us on the grade 3/4 team including two immersion teachers. I am teaching in a 'biome'. This is a really unique setup. I start the year with 23 kids and teach them in English. My partner Claire teaches 22 in French. Then the next week I get the her 22 students and Claire gets my 23. So in essence I teach the same thing for two weeks. I will have kids who are Australian English speakers who are learning French in this type of immersion and there are French nationals here to learn English in their immersion situation. In addition there is a high Jewish population who take Hebrew classes after school. There are specialist teachers for art, music and gym.

Carol and I have a steep learning curve ahead of us in the next few weeks. It was interesting to hear about the budget shortfalls and the cutbacks, reminded me of home.

Don helped me move desks into my room which had been the music room last year. At the end of the day Stuart, the technology technician, brought me a computer and set it up for me. I also have an interactive data projection system. We talked for a bit and told me of some of the politics of teaching here.

When he left at 6:00 I decided to ride home, in the rain! I got good and wet but at least it was not cold.

I ate my salad at home and watched Milos Raonic beat Monfils.

I'm sure that most of this was not very interesting for non teachers, but this is why I am here. I have to work. So most likely once I settle into routines I will not be posting much during the week and will focus on the activities on the weekends.