School and Teaching

Hannah on her first day of school. She was quite nervous, but then, so were her parents as it was a brand new experience for all of us. Since Dale and I were teaching, Hannah's Australian "grandmother", Rose Butler (also a retired teacher from Hannah's school), accompanied her to school. It took a little while, but Hannah settled in, got the lay of the land and system, and has made some good friends.



One of Hannah's Year 2 teachers, Viv Heckels, pictured here with Hannah, is quite a famous local artist. Hannah enjoys the days she teaches because they do a lot of art. It is not a subject area in which her parents excel, but clearly Hannah has a bit of a creative bent. Two of her pieces were selected out of over 800 entries submitted from Preschool to Grade 12 from all over the Toowoomba School District. The pieces were juried, so we are very proud of Hannah's accomplishments.

This is the gallery display, and Hannah's two pieces in particular.
















We are both assigned to state, or public, schools. There is an independent, or private, system that thrives here, especially at the high school level and it offers everything from Catholic schooling to schools specializing in agriculture and the bush. Children in rural areas are in the old one-room schoolhouses where a single person serves as teacher and adminstrator and all 25 students work in one room. Students all wear uniforms and, while it is not compulsory to do so and no one can technically be forced to wear one, the children do comply, though with varying degrees of compliance.

Schools are not one big physical plant but instead are divided into blocks, each one holding administrative offices or year-level sets of classrooms, for example, or teacher aide offices and resource and specialist rooms. Washrooms are in separate blocks, "bubblers", or water fountains, are all outside, as are the "ports", or racks where students keep their knapsacks (both shown in these photos). There are no cloakroom areas inside classrooms, no built-in cupboards and storage areas, and very little shelving. Kids put all their books in a tray which slides underneath their desktop. This tray is erroneously named a "tidy tray"! They also have chair bags, which are like slip covers with back pockets, and they hold texts, exercise books and an assortment of other goods from drumsticks and smelly socks to school "jumpers" (sweat tops). Cleaning staff is not under a district umbrella but instead are hired by each school and are part of a school's budget. The desks are wiped every Monday and carpets vacuumed each night with a small vacuum that is strapped onto someone's back. You can imagine what little suction power it has! By the same token, students eat outside, in covered shed areas, so there's very little mess from food in classrooms, except on inside days, and the grounds are spotless compared to home. And yes, they have plenty of crows here, too, so you can't blame it on our fine-feathered friends! Someone also has a fulltime job doing maintenance around the school, mowing lawns and keeping gardens, as well as clearing pathways with the leaf blower, doing building repairs, and retrieving balls from the roof.

There is more prep time here but also significantly more duty, or supervision, time. Toowoomba schools are also some of the few schools that still run interschool sport during school time. As such, one lunch hour per week and Friday afternoons are devoted to sport for Grade 6 and 7 teachers. Then, teachers are on supervision at all break times, which means at least one duty of 15-20 minutes per day. Ontop of that, staff meetings are weekly, and they are really professional development presentations or workshops. In addition, each teacher is expected to be a member of some sort of school-based team, whether it be for curriculum or for technology, for example, and that means a meeting at least every two or three weeks, as well!

Dale, exchanging with Phil, is in a Grade 5 class at Middle Ridge State School, and Jodi, exchanging with Jo, is in a Grade 6 class at Wilsonton State School. With a population of almost 650, Middle Ridge is considered to be a fairly average-sized elementary school while Wilsonton, at 730, is considerably larger. There are about three to three and a half classes per grade level, most intermediates having 30 in a class. There is no contract language around special needs because, much to our surprise, there is not full mainstreaming and integration. There are students who have learning challenges in regular classes, but students identified as "special needs" are in separate classes in blocks called the SEU (Special Education Unit). Both schools also have preschools which, beginning in 2007, will be changed to a year called "Prep", which will not be mandatory but will be free schooling. The government hopes to address issues around school readiness and daycare all on one swoop, I think. There is no such thing as Kindergarten here but children in Year One, or Grade One, would be Kindergarten age. They are, however, in school for a full day. Hence, our students are actually a year younger than their peers would be in the same grade back home. The Middle School model is alive and well here, but it is run as a "school within a school". Professional learning communities are also well established.

Recently, Hannah and Dale's school had a celebration of learning and community called "Feast in the Forest". Because Middle Ridge has a large forest at one side and its school vision is around nurturing the seeds of today for the forests of tomorrow, there were all sorts of activities centered on the forest and a forest theme. Jodi took the morning off and helped in Hannah's room and then met a few of her school friends. (Hannah is with Corrie-Ann and Keely in these photos.) Hannah's class, typical of a primary one, has 25 students in it. That number has gone as low as 22 and as high as 26. It's a real challenge, at the best of times, to meet needs with numbers that high, especially when they are 6- and 7-year-olds.

Faces and Places

We have been fortunate to be on the receiving end of some wonderful Aussie hospitality. Many people have been more than helpful in easing us into school and life here in Toowoomba. More than that, however, they have opened their hearts and homes to us and we have made many new friends. It has also made the transition smoother, and as time has passed we've enjoyed BBQs at peoples' houses, weekend breakfasts at cafes on Margaret Street, otherwise known as "Eat Street", casual lunches and dinners, and weekend trips in the company of warm and friendly people.
















One of those unforgettable couples is Lyn and Robyn Nuttall, pictured here with Dale. Lyn teaches Grades 4/5 beside Dale at Middle Ridge State School and Robyn teaches Art at Concordia. She is an accomplished artist herself and has some incredible multimedia pieces hanging in their home. They also took us to a morning of folk music at the local RSL Club, sort of like a Legion back home. We enjoyed some really offbeat songs and instruments. One duet, the Goodwills, we then met later over dinner at the Nuttall's house. The Goodwills have a Canadian connection, as she hails from Winnipeg. Funny how so much good musical talent comes from there! Lyn's son is also quite an accomplished singer/songwriter, and Lyn enjoys developing a website that archives songs from the 70s. In mid August we will join the Nuttalls in Noosa, the more northern end of the Sunshine Coast, for a weekend at Robyn's brother's house. It is supposed to be quite the place as Robyn's brother is one of the founding members of Flight Center. We'll know, for just one weekend at least, how the rich and famous live!

Another warm and giving family are the Rummell's: Ian, Sharyn, Elyssa and Alanna. They are a family we met because their eldest daughter, Elyssa, is in Hannah's class at school. Sharyn also teaches one day a week at Jodi's school, Wilsonton. Hannah spends two days a week after school at their house when Dale is in weekly staff meetings (yes, WEEKLY) and another day so he can get a bit of prep work done. We've shared fish and chips in Southport, Thai take-out on Friday nights, local basketball, BBQs, and some weekend time at both Surfers Paradise and on the Sunshine Coast. The picture of Hannah and Elyssa was taken at a local park, Killarney Springs, where on the last Sunday of every month volunteers run miniature steam trains around the grounds. It's a wonderful play and BBQ area and for just one dollar kids and adults can take a ride on one of these beautifully maintained trains. The Rummells are so typical of all the people we've met - genuine, funny, and outgoing. Hannah and Elyssa have become such good friends, and we have invited the Rummells to come to BC for a true ski holiday sometime in the near future.

Besides his Wallabies jersey, Dale says one other thing he'd like to bring back to Canada are our neighbours across the road, Russell and Judy Zimmerle. Russell and Judy have been a wealth of information and are great company. We've enjoyed many lunches and more than a few rugby league (a working-class version of rugby) games in front of Jo and Phil's plasma TV. We've continued the tradition of dinner and the State of Origin matches, the first of which Dale correctly predicted would be a New South Wales win. He even wore blue, NSW colours, which is like being in GM Place during playoff time cheering for the visiting team. You take your life into your own hands, I tell you! Rugby, like hockey back home, is a religion here. We also catch most of the rugby test matches together, for which Dale wore his only other jersey, an All Blacks one. Cheeky fellow. Of course, guess who won that one, too?! Besides rugby, Russell and Judy have also taken us out to Highfields for the markets, to the Cuckoo Clock shop, and to a country pub where large steaks and huge helpings of chips (French Fries) are typical "tucker".
















From special faces we move to some special places. One outing we took in Toowoomba was the Japanese Gardens. On Mother's Day, we (and the rest of the city) spent a lovely afternoon enjoying the sunshine and beautifully sculpted gardens out near the University of Southern Queensland. We look forward to visiting again once flowers are in bloom, likely to be sometime in September.

Another outing we thoroughly enjoyed was a hike, or should I say climb, up a local mountain, Tabletop. It was the last weekend Lorraine was with us and a beautiful day, so we decided to do something memorable. Tabletop is so named because it is as flat as a tabletop uptop, but the climb was no moderate hike! The only part that is flat is right ontop. It involved some trekking overtop large slabs of basalt and up the sides of steep slopes where there was barely enough room for fingers and toes. Hannah climbed like a regular mountain goat while Lorraine and I admired the large cactus and appreciated the warm weather. If hiking in the middle of winter is like this, I can't say it's a climb I'd venture to take in the height of summer. We were hot and a little sunburnt by the time we reached the bottom again, so we headed up to Picnic Point in order to take a photo of the mountain we'd just climbed and for an ice cream.

Jondaryan Woolshed

Because Jodi's class is starting an integrated unit on cotton and wool, the entire family took an excursion in order that we might learn a little about the history behind, and importance of, the wool industry in this area. Our trip was to Jondaryan, a farming community about 20 minutes' drive west of Toowoomba. The trip out was beautiful, with rolling grasslands making way to hills behind. The soil turns from Toowoomba's red earth to a blackish brown and finally to a rich, fertile black as you head progressively farther west. Once at the Jondaryan Woolshed, it is like stepping back in time.

The woolshed (main building) is still largely intact, even though it was constructed almost 200 years ago. Its metal roof, made of corrugated iron, came all the way from England with all its nail holes predrilled. During its heyday, the 300-foot woolshed held 52 stands and accommodated up to 88 shearers and numerous other workers, including roustebouts, who sorted and baled fleece. It was back-breaking work, so a special sling was devised that shearers could use in order to take most of the strain off their backs. Three-meter by one-and-a-half meter wooden tables with slats were used for sorting fleece, the underbelly fleece being the least valuable. Fleece was sorted and graded according to its crimp, strength, lustre, and colour. Back then, shearers travelled by push-bike from station to station looking for work, often travelling hundreds of miles only to be turned away.



We were treated to a demonstration of shearing, and it was quite something to see how this sheep was handled and then just lay there while being sheared. It suffered a few nicks but we were told it would be all healed by the next day because of the healing properties of the lanolin in the skin. Even after shearing, the sheep's skin is ultra soft. At one point, when the shearer was finished, he laid the sheep down and put a mass of wool over its head so just its nose stuck out. The sheep went absolutely calm, hence the expression, "Pulling the wool over one's eyes." The fastest shearers in Australia today can shear a sheep in about 40 seconds. In the olden days, using a double blade, a shearer could do the entire back of a sheep in just two clips! Hand- powered instruments turned to steam-powered ones, and then eventually to electrically- powered clippers, but the industry has not really changed much in a few centuries.

The Jondaryan station was originally 312 000 acres and had 200 000 sheep. In those days, there were no fences so shepherds tended the flock, with about 1 shepherd for every 1200 sheep. Because shepherds were often in the middle of nowhere, and were somewhat transient, they slept in carriage-like tent beds like the one shown in this picture. That's no Westin, let me tell you!

The site is like a working village. Crafters are in the woolshed, making everything from scratch. One lady was felting a bag using wool and a serated needle, a time-consuming craft that resulted in spectacular artwork, not just functional handiwork. There are also original buildings on site, including an old schoolhouse, the school master's house, a blacksmith's shop where all the wagon wheels were made, etc. We had billy tea and damper, a traditional drink and food prepared over a hot fire. Damper is like a scone loaf and is eaten with butter and corn syrup. Yum!




It was an educational and most interesting day. Weather was fine and pace was slow.

Pictures Are Worth a Thousand Words

We have selected a few extra photos to share.

Sometimes words just don't quite do it justice.

In order, they are:

The Arch - Great Ocean Road
Bird of Paradise
The Petrified Forests of Cape Bridgewater
Childers Cove - results of erosion of the limestone cliffs
Close-up of One of the Twelve Apostles
Pea Soup Beach - Port Fairy
Lifeguard Tower on Mooloolaba Beach, Sunshine Coast
Great Ocean Road - view out to the Twelve Apostles
Warnnambol Coastline
Two of the Twelve Apostles
The Grotto - Great Ocean Road
Sunset at Sea - Mooloolaba Beach, Sunshine Coast

The Sunshine Coast

The first of our three school vacations this year took us to Queensland's Sunshine Coast. First, we celebrated the end of Term 1 by NOT having report cards to do and by attending the local theatre to see a song and dance production called Sweet Charity. We were grateful for a night out, especially when it was courtesy of one of Jodi's colleagues who volunteers as an usher at the theatre. The next day, we drove two and a half hours to get to Mooloolaba, about 100 km north of Brisbane. Mooloolaba is everything Surfers is not. It has the beautiful beaches but is more family oriented. There are not many highrise buildings and the shoreline is all restaurants, cafes, and shops. Once again, we stayed in an apartment and were literally a few paces from the beach, which we visited every day. From our balcony, we enjoyed views of sailing regattas, yachts moored in the bay, kayakers, and surfers.










Hannah got her first body board and learned to surf with it. If timed right, you could catch some waves right into shore. The surf got pretty wild some days, so we had to hang on tightly to Hannah or she would have been carried by the rip. There are lifeguards everywhere but they're auxilliary members on weeknds and holidays who complement a couple lifesavers in a tower all other times. They can't possibly see everyone at all times, especially with those big swells, and I 'm not referring to the human kind! In fact, so much beach-going has gotten us motivated to run several times a week in an effort to get back into some semblance of shape!





















After a morning at the beach, things were usually getting too hot, so we headed poolside at our apartment and had lunch in the shade. Then we usually swam in the pool or lazed in the hot tub for a few hours. It wasn't until Good Friday that things got really busy, so we had the run of the place pretty much all week.


One of our day trips took us to the Australia Zoo, and it is here that we witnessed the Crocodile Hunter's entrepreneurship in full force! Immediately upon entering the zoo, we rushed to the 5000-seat Crocoseum to watch Steve Irwin's daughter, Bindi (named after a croc), and four singing and dancing Aussies called the Crocmen, do a live show before that crazy Crocodile Hunter came out and did his thing with one of the largest crocs at the zoo, Shaka. At one point, he actually jumped into the water to get the croc to follow him back into its pen. Crikey! The highlight for Hannah was the birds swooping in from every direction, right over our heads, and getting to feed the kangaroos and elephants.

Another day trip took us to Eumundi and the markets, some 200 stalls and many small shops with all manner of wares for sale. It's much like the crowds of the night markets in Taipei, only more artisans have goods for sale. You could purchase homemade soaps, be on the receiving end of a massage, or get your hair braided (note Hannah's new locks). Driving home, we made the obligatory stops at a couple tourist traps, one a ginger factory and another a macademia nut factory. The Ginger Factory did have beautiful gardens and delicious fudge, and we pretty much lunched on samples at Nutworks, the macademia nut factory. Australia now leads the world in macademia nut products, has even overtaken Hawaii. We left a little more cash poor than when we went in and a few kilos heavier, too!

After eight days on the Sunshine Coast, we took the scenic route home, over the Blackall Range and through a quaint town called Montville. The views of the Glasshouse Mountains and out to the coast were spectacular. A stop for tea and scones and, of course, more ice cream, in Montville allowed for some time to explore the many shops and artisans' studios of this little town so reminiscent of those on the Gulf Islands. The architecture is Victorian and French Provincial all mixed together, the streets are tree-lined, and the gardens beautiful. Each little alleyway or twist in the road brought enticing new sights, sounds and smells.

Just before arriving home, we made one last stop. About a month ago, one of my colleagues took Hannah and I to his sister-in-law's place in a community called Esk. Esk is about 45 minutes from us and could best be described as rural. Here, his sister-in-law, Monica Allen, nurtures, raises and rehabilitates injured and orphaned pouch animals, birds, and other mammals. Monica is one of only about 25 people in the entire state of Queensland licensed to care for koalas. Her work requires the patience, love and devotion of a saint as she must dropper-feed some babies as small as 35-40 grams that have been cut from the killed mother's pouch. Just like infants, these babies require feedings every 1 to 1 1/2 hours and others are even put in an incubator. This humidicrib was donated to Monica by the Head of Surgery at Sydney Hospital. He and his wife accidentally killed a kangaroo (many are killed by cars) and when they checked her pouch, found a joey inside. A local vet told them about Monica's and so he drove the joey to her and, finding out about her work, donated the crib after returning to Sydney.

Hannah met a resident kangaroo there, one of her namesake, actually. She is like a German Shepherd dog, lazes around on the grass and hangs out by the back door. She will always live at Monica's as her leg was badly broken and she would not survive in the wild. Two joeys we saw last time, Bart and Alfie, who were hanging in fabric pouches in the living room, are now in outdoor pens and will soon be released into the wild. Hannah especially loved one of the wallaby babies, though, as it boxed and played with her after she tried to get it to stop chewing on her shoelaces! This visit, Hannah was completely taken by another wallaby joey named Tom. Hannah affectionately named him Angel because he is, in her words, as cute as one, and he licked her fingers like a puppy. The newest arrival, a tiny pink joey, has arrived after a long ferry and car ride to be nursed back to health by Monica.