I spent most of the day stuck in a room filling out paperwork and looking outside where the rain was coming down from a very leaky sky. Sounds like the makings of misery, but it was great instead. It was great because it was a training session for CRE that SG and I attended. CRE is short for Christian Religious Education and it's a program in Australian public schools, which sounds quite foreign to this American ex-education major. Christian religion? In public schools? Believe it.
They stopped the program a few years back but reinstated it when they realized the kids they were graduating were missing some of the values that CRE used to instill in them. The program works like this. If there are trained teachers available, the school is supposed to allow them to have a CRE program in the normal school day. The kids can opt out of the class if their parents send a note, so it's not compulsory.
As CRE teachers, we get to teach the Bible and character lessons, but no preachy converting allowed. That's fine by me because most people don't like that anyway. I am SO excited to be back in the classroom. I realized this today when our training manual had things like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, learning styles, and lesson plans in it.
I love being in the classroom. It's that thing that makes my blood pump, besides that heart/electromagnetic stuff. Combine that with my love for God's Word and boyoooo, lookout, rambunctious teacher coming your way. I mean, it shrinks under the shadow of my love for Christmas and cows, but being in the classroom is definitely a highlight of my life.
Hopefully, SG and I will get placed at the elementary school that is closest to the church, which is central to everything we do. Excited excited excited. Did I mention I'm really excited to be in the classroom again? I spent four years getting ready to be in a classroom and then I up and went to Australia. Here's my chance at practicing classroom management, differentiated instruction, and all that other teachery mumbo jumbo. It makes me want to my school supplies and teacher bags and dry erase markers. Mmmm classroom.
If everything works out, we'll teach starting next semester, which basically begins in March, until the end of June. They seem to have a great curriculum that's full of ideas and resources and covers the Bible in a way that gives kids a sense of chronology. AH. Can't wait.
Love,
LMS
They stopped the program a few years back but reinstated it when they realized the kids they were graduating were missing some of the values that CRE used to instill in them. The program works like this. If there are trained teachers available, the school is supposed to allow them to have a CRE program in the normal school day. The kids can opt out of the class if their parents send a note, so it's not compulsory.
As CRE teachers, we get to teach the Bible and character lessons, but no preachy converting allowed. That's fine by me because most people don't like that anyway. I am SO excited to be back in the classroom. I realized this today when our training manual had things like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, learning styles, and lesson plans in it.
I love being in the classroom. It's that thing that makes my blood pump, besides that heart/electromagnetic stuff. Combine that with my love for God's Word and boyoooo, lookout, rambunctious teacher coming your way. I mean, it shrinks under the shadow of my love for Christmas and cows, but being in the classroom is definitely a highlight of my life.
Hopefully, SG and I will get placed at the elementary school that is closest to the church, which is central to everything we do. Excited excited excited. Did I mention I'm really excited to be in the classroom again? I spent four years getting ready to be in a classroom and then I up and went to Australia. Here's my chance at practicing classroom management, differentiated instruction, and all that other teachery mumbo jumbo. It makes me want to my school supplies and teacher bags and dry erase markers. Mmmm classroom.
If everything works out, we'll teach starting next semester, which basically begins in March, until the end of June. They seem to have a great curriculum that's full of ideas and resources and covers the Bible in a way that gives kids a sense of chronology. AH. Can't wait.
Love,
LMS
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