When students hand you lemons, grow trees!

A student brought in about 12 lemons from her tree. I was lucky enough to get 4! I used 3 and with the last one I collected the seeds, ate the lemon, and then youtubed how to start the seeds.

 I started them today so I will post how they progress in the next few weeks. I hope they work out. If they do, I think I will plant them in little pots and give them to the Aussie teachers I work with as farewell gifts. Who doesn't want a lemon tree?  They are expensive to buy and I think people will like the thought and care put into this.

An idyllic scene in Yass on the way to Cowra, like a historical Australian painting,

Japanese Gardens, Cowra NSW, A beautiful Saturday afternoon.

61 days of school left but who's counting?

Well as much as I love it here, I am looking forward to going home. My colleagues in Canada have started school and I am missing the buzz of activity and the excitement of having the new school year start. We are in the middle of term 3 with a 2 week holiday just around the corner. I hope to go north for this one, maybe to Green Island and Thursday Island. I haven't finalized that yet but have some leads.

Mainly I am looking forward to teaching the way I 'normally' teach. It has been such a huge learning curve coming to a new school and it has been difficult adjusting to teaching in a new way. It is always comfortable to do something the way you have always done it so this has been a great experience trying something new and seeing possibilities and learning from them.

I am sure that most of my Canadian Colleagues on Exchange feel the same.  The holidays are great and the weekends are fabulous but marking Art essays really takes the spark out of it for me.

That is all. Just wanted to  share that. I have a lot of essays to mark this weekend and I'm not looking forward to it. I am going to Cowra to check out the Japanese Gardens there for something to do with other Canadian friends here. I am sure I will post pictures. Maybe on Sunday I will go to the Walk in Aviary or one of the Art Galleries.

My class is going to write their in-class essay in about 10 minutes. I feel quite sick for them and myself.

Melbourne Fieldtrip

In Melbourne with the Visual Art 11 students, checking out the David Bowie show, The many lane ways and street art, and The Lion King, and so much more...