Sunnybank & Brenda Parkes ...

We flew out of Sydney in the early evening & arrived in Brisbane that night. But, you know me, I was too anxious to just stay in the hotel and go to sleep so Daniel, Kyoko & I went to some sort of Belgian bar and mingled with the locals while drinking Belgian beer. Not necessarily my favorite beer, but when in a Belgian bar ...

On our first full day in Brisbane we had an observation scheduled at Sunnybank Hills Normal School. The principal, Pam Pearson, was wonderful and gave us a prep on the school, took us on a tour, and then to our observation of the kindergarten classes. I love school observations and classroom interactions so I was so excited to see what was going on & hopefully play with some kids.

First of all, the dynamics of this school are amazing. 1,050 students (ages 5-12), 29 mainstreamed students with special needs, 75 different nationalities, 100 staff members, 42 classes, 20some buildings, all on one amazing campus. I kept thinking about the comparison to Freeburg ... 90some students, a higher percentage of mainstreamed students, minimal diversity, maybe 15 classroom staff, 4 classrooms, 1 building. Neither being better than the other, just different.

Walking through the campus was amazing. I love being outside and I love giving my students the freedom to choose where they feel most productive, whether that be indoors or out. So walking around Sunnybank I had some serious twinges of jealousy at not only the beauty of the grounds, but the amount of children doing everything from reading to painting to building outside. Not to mention that it's still winter (although the temperature in Brisbane was definitely on the ups compared to New Zealand and Sydney - & it wasn't raining!!).

Walking around campus:

How amazing is this? Seriously.: Daniel, doing some 007 move when no one was looking. We may have been working, but we were still having fun ... and lots of it.

It was kind of like every grade had their own section made up of 2, 3, or 4 separate buildings. And most of the buildings had these fun paintings on them that, if I understood correctly, were done by grandparents and parents of former and current students.

These first graders were eating lunch outside:

I'll give you one guess as to what building this is:

That's right, it's the music building ... fun, huh?:

If you look closely you will see this creepy, weirdo snake/lizard. I was a little creeped out, I'm not going to lie. Daniel was too. :)

After our tour we had time for some classroom interaction in the prep (aka kindergarten) classrooms before our literacy lesson observation began. I instantly fell in love with these kids (go figure) & their classroom. I couldn't help it. They were adorable ... I know I say that about almost all of the kids I work with, but these kids will forever have a special place in my heart. My heart has a lot of kids in it because I'm pretty sure I've said that one before too. :)

First of all, they had ALL of this outdoor space ...

These kids were working on math outside ...

And there were easels outside if they felt so inclined to paint ... A little girl named Tara painted this kangaroo. How adorable. It's true - cool kids are named Tara.

The inside of the classroom was so child centered and covered in children's work and the students had so many options and a two hour play block and minimal behavior issues and the whole time I kept thinking, "I wonder if they want to hire me".

They were studying the Olympics (mind you this was almost 3 months ago ... geez Tara) and learning about China. A curriculum that was derived from the students' interest in the games.

An example of Ethan's Olympic writing at the emergent level:

And then these kids asked if I wanted to play Chess with them. Obviously I did and the game was hilarious. There were 3 boys and 1 girl and their understanding was minimal, but they played the entire game so seriously and without any arguments, despite the fact that none of them were following the conventional rules of Chess. I couldn't figure out their rules, and honestly I don't think they understood any of their rules other you move after I move, but they were all engaged and serious. I was dying laughing on the inside because it was so adorable, but just as serious as they were on the outside. I asked one of the boys who taught him how to play Chess and he said, "No one taught me. I'm just smart enough to know how." :) Ok buddy.

I took this short video of their game ... Just watch these outrageous moves.

Click here to watch!

And look how the game ended ... all that randomness:

Apparently Chess (& Checkers) is a hit though because they are currently working on building this life sized Chess board OUTSIDE. Go figure. How awesome is that? Like making Chess come to life for the kids. I'm jealous. I wanted to play on it.
I was really sad to leave the classroom and my new sweethearts but we were invited to watch none other than the one and only Brenda Parkes model a literacy lesson just for us. Once again, I don't expect you to understand my excitement but just know that it's not everyday Brenda Parkes drops everything to meet with a group of educators to model literacy teaching strategies. She's amazing.

Brenda Parkes herself:

Answering questions and reading Who's In The Shed?

After we were finished in the classroom Brenda Parkes met with us exclusively to share her wisdom and her story. She's an internationally known author who has written so many children's books, particularly for shared reading experiences, and a few professional development books for educators. Her ideas were practical and her story was inspirational. What an amazing experience.

We all sat around in awe of her while she explained her reasoning behind the wording, illustrations, text features, and the meaning of her stories:

The whole crew with Brenda Parkes and her story The Four Boxes, based on a Japanese folk tale.

This was our last work assignment of the trip and when it was over it was so bittersweet. On one hand it was nice to not have any planned work related activities for our last day in Australia, but on the other hand the experiences that we did have were amazing and felt like once in a lifetime opportunities. The trip was coming to and end, but I wasn't quite ready to leave.

much love

-tara-

xx