Today I got a tour of my new school! After a social gathering at a friend's house last night to meet some of the teachers I'll be working with, it was decided that they would pick me up in the morning and take me to go inside my new classroom. But first, they would deliver an extra surf board for Pat to borrow. He placed it right into the pool, jumped in, and began playing with it!
Once at school it was love at first sight! It has a fresh coat of playful blue and new walkway "roofs" for when it rains as hard as it does from time to time (six floods last year alone). It is built on a hillside, so the groups of classrooms are situated up and down different outdoor stairways. There are grass and trees along the hillside, and at the lowest level, a large play area perhaps 80 yards long includes a track field, play structure and cricket batting cage!
Maureen left me a note with the classroom key taped to it that read, "This is the key to our classroom." I took a picture of it. And I blinked back tears as I entered the hall. It's a dream come true, and that's not the last time I'll say it!
The room is smaller than Liberty's, but let's face it, Room 5 is HUMONGOUS! It has anything you might need, and an entire bin of musical rhythm instruments right outside the room. Class size, I'm told, never exceeds 24. It will be a straight 2nd Grade, which is called Year Two. Primary is called Infants. Intermediate is called Primary. A plan book is called a program. Cafeteria is Cantine. And you know I'll pronouce it all, if I remember the right term, with my crazy accent.
So together with two teachers, one new hire, and my principal, we spent two hours walking the school and discussing where it's been, where it's going, and how the school will get there. We ended with coffee at a nearby cafe, by the river, of course! (The fifth grade teacher (who reminds me of Donna Pensinger in every way) said she brought her class fishing as P.E. last year!!)
Most importantly, and wonderfully so, their philosophy at Macksville matches with everything I believe in for children and education and what I have always loved about Liberty. Not only does that make me feel so pleased and relieved for my year ahead, it also helps me know that Maureen is in a school where she will find so many similar systems in place. We both will glean from each school new ways to tweak what our original schools are working towards. I don't know if these typed words can convey my thrill of beginning in two weeks!
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