It was the last Indonesian day for the term today. The senior room printed out and then presented their brochures to the class, which meant that several of them wound up trudging over to their actual teacher and explaining to her why they felt that they didn’t need to do any work in Indonesian. I then spent the last ten minutes of the class explaining how to approach a task like that in future. So we talked about thoroughly understanding the question/directions for the task, planning out how to approach it, taking notes and organising information, and then making sure their finished project actually meets the requirements. I also stressed to them that the writing is almost ALWAYS more important than the pictures they copy and paste into it!
The other classes played Binatang Bingo, which was actually pretty fun for the most part. (Of course the same class I always struggle with was a problem!) It’s a nice way to finish the term I think, doing a game that incorporates some Indonesian but is really just fun for the kids. I hope it goes some way towards making them think positively (even just a tiny bit) about learning a language.
Troy came up to school with me at the end of the day so we could do Jericho’s teacher conference. It was great, he had a lot of pretty impressive work in his portfolio and he showed it to us and told us all about it. He really has so much creativity, and is developing such a quirky sense of humour. His teacher loves having him in the class (which I knew, when they were dividing up the grade 4 kids for the two classes she really wanted him in hers) and really stressed to him how much she enjoys having him and how impressed she is with the effort he always puts in to his work. It was just a really nice little chat with all of us, and I think it probably meant a lot to Jericho.
Really, my afternoon was all about Jericho – first the interview and then driving him to hockey training. He’s really quite fun to talk with while we’re driving along. It turned out to be a waste though, as by the time we got there the rain was bucketing down and the field was kind of flooded so they called it off, and Jericho and I just turned around and drove straight back home today.
Emma has finished her semester of Materials Tech, which for her was working with plastic. I have to admit, as she has discussed this subject with me over the term I have been rather suspecting that her attitude to it is much the same as my attitude to woodwork was, back in the day. Today, when she brought home the moneybox she has been attempting to make, she confirmed it. I spent a whole semester doing woodwork and came home with half a spoon, Emma’s spent a whole semester on acrylics and has come home with half a moneybox. Half of an ugly moneybox, and she is utterly contemptuous of it.
And here’s a photo of Jericho with a guinea pig on his head, because why not?
Feeling the Sun From Both Sides 