I love my class so much!
Today we finished filming our clip... I only arranged with my sister to do this on the weekend, so there was no way to let my kids know... I just hoped they would sense it and bring their costumes.
Two of them did! haha.
This afternoon while we tried to scrounge some costumes for the mini-actors who had to do their scenes, the kids were meant to be waiting on the verandah. The kids who'd already finished their scenes were working inside on finishing off a bunch of work.
My favourite moment of the afternoon was when 2 of my boys got bored of hanging outside doing 'nothing' (you know, sitting around chatting to your friends can be terrible) came up to me and said, "Miss F, can we please go inside and do some work while we wait?"
Oh dear...
ooooh! And on Wednesday it's Market Day again! Market Day is probably my favourite day, other than the day I make my kids make their own sandwiches... (seriously it is sooooo funny!)
Only 4 more days and 11 parent-teacher interviews until the holidays! woo hoo!
In other news it's less that 3 months till I move across the world...
- Tickets are all booked
- I almost have a family lined up (after 2 interviews on Saturday...eeek!)
- I have booked in my US Visa interview...don't get me started on US Visas...to get the PIN number (I know the N in PIN stands for 'number' but I still feel like it needs number after it, sorry!) for the 'account' I had to create to book the interview online cost $14. pfft.
- All of our accommodation and tickets (including Disneyland) for the 1st week have been booked!
- Most of my spare-room has been cleared out
- My fridge has been de-kayed (if you knew my fridge, this is pretty crazy!)
- I got my official letter of leave today
- The last sleepover in my cute house has been planned...it probably includes 'Japanese Candy'
- I've almost updated my ipod (I am hopeless at this...I think all my music is from 1997-1999)
- My hair is cute
See... pretty much ready to go...
Monday, September 19, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
The Hairdresser Appointment
So...
Today I got back from 24 hours straight with our Year 3s and 4s. We had an overnight excursion to Taronga Zoo. Sooooo much fun! But ever so exhausting!
I was in that place of sleep-deprivedness (ok so I am super exaggerating about the lack of sleep I had, I just don't cope well without my 8 hours) where negativity was filling my head... tiredness, loneliness, jealousy, rejection, self-loathing. These things love it when I'm tired, and I was so fragile that I was almost in tears over super insignificant things. When I got home at 3.30 I could have gone straight to bed, but I had an appointment at 4.30 to get my hair done. And I don't cancel appointments (most of the time).
Well, my hairdresser is amazing. I'm so glad I went. She has this way of drawing out the best in people, not only by cutting and colouring hair to suit the features of each client, but also in talking about life. She is not like those gossipy hairdressers I have been to before, she's upbeat and can find the good in everyone and everything.
We spent 3 and half hours talking and sharing pictures about Canada and Vietnam and orphans and work and art. I love the way that she is so enthusiastic about things, she has the biggest heart and through conversation with her I found myself talking about the amazing stories of inspiration, hope and joy from the last two days, rather than the negative things I was pondering on earlier in the afternoon. She didn't belittle anything that anyone said and constantly wanted to hear more of our heart, our dreams and our work, speaking life into the things we spoke of. Wow! It amazes me, the difference in my attitude before and after that appointment.
I want to be one of those people, that draws out the best in people, that helps them find the joy within them. the "seasoned with salt" people. I used to think salt was the flavour... that as Christians we were meant to add the flavour to the world. But salt's job is to draw out the flavour of others:
Besides contributing its own basic "salty" taste, salt has many benefits . It brings out natural flavors and makes foods acceptable, protects food safety by retarding the growth of spoilage microorganisms
I think maybe this is what the Colossians 4:6 verse was talking about:
"Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." That in conversation we should draw out the positives, the flavour of the other person. Oh I want to be like that!!!!
It was a great evening, one of those God moments!
Oh and I also got cute new hair :-)
Today I got back from 24 hours straight with our Year 3s and 4s. We had an overnight excursion to Taronga Zoo. Sooooo much fun! But ever so exhausting!
I was in that place of sleep-deprivedness (ok so I am super exaggerating about the lack of sleep I had, I just don't cope well without my 8 hours) where negativity was filling my head... tiredness, loneliness, jealousy, rejection, self-loathing. These things love it when I'm tired, and I was so fragile that I was almost in tears over super insignificant things. When I got home at 3.30 I could have gone straight to bed, but I had an appointment at 4.30 to get my hair done. And I don't cancel appointments (most of the time).
Well, my hairdresser is amazing. I'm so glad I went. She has this way of drawing out the best in people, not only by cutting and colouring hair to suit the features of each client, but also in talking about life. She is not like those gossipy hairdressers I have been to before, she's upbeat and can find the good in everyone and everything.
We spent 3 and half hours talking and sharing pictures about Canada and Vietnam and orphans and work and art. I love the way that she is so enthusiastic about things, she has the biggest heart and through conversation with her I found myself talking about the amazing stories of inspiration, hope and joy from the last two days, rather than the negative things I was pondering on earlier in the afternoon. She didn't belittle anything that anyone said and constantly wanted to hear more of our heart, our dreams and our work, speaking life into the things we spoke of. Wow! It amazes me, the difference in my attitude before and after that appointment.
I want to be one of those people, that draws out the best in people, that helps them find the joy within them. the "seasoned with salt" people. I used to think salt was the flavour... that as Christians we were meant to add the flavour to the world. But salt's job is to draw out the flavour of others:
Besides contributing its own basic "salty" taste, salt has many benefits . It brings out natural flavors and makes foods acceptable, protects food safety by retarding the growth of spoilage microorganisms
I think maybe this is what the Colossians 4:6 verse was talking about:
"Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." That in conversation we should draw out the positives, the flavour of the other person. Oh I want to be like that!!!!
It was a great evening, one of those God moments!
Oh and I also got cute new hair :-)
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Rehearsals
Today my class practised their 'Safety Dance' ready for our filming on Friday.
My mini-director, L, has choreographed the whole dance routine himself and it's super cute. However, everytime he has practised the dance with the class he has changed it slightly, so by today there were 26 different versions of the dance. L and the other 25 kids were getting super frustrated. Although there were no angry words spoken, I could sense we were heading into dangerous territory. L was becoming a bit snappy, his actors were no longer enthusiastic about their performance, he noticed their every flaw and could not see how this was ever going to work. Eeek!
I took control.
I praised the director and reminded the kids of the amazing work he had done. As a class we drew up a picture of the steps (boy some of those steps were hard to draw), in order, and the number of beats we needed to count in our heads. I prasied their amazing efforts. I reminded them of the goal, of filming day - a mere 3 days away. I told them that L and I would be looking for people who were trying hard to follow the plan with energy and enthusiasm ( a bit of bribery). Suddenly morale lifted, the dance looked brilliant, the class were excited, encouraged and encouraging "L, I am having the best time! You have done such a great job organising this!". Wow! Crisis averted! Such a great reminder of the way clarity, encouragment, praise (and bribery) can give you much greater results than nagging and crankiness.
L's eyes were wet with tears, he turned around to me and said "Miss F, I don't know how you put up with us every day, this is hard work!" Mawww! High praise!
I can't wait to see their film clip come together and be part of L's first film! Seriously, this kid is going places, look out Hollywood/Broadway/Olympics (he has a few options up his sleeve).
My mini-director, L, has choreographed the whole dance routine himself and it's super cute. However, everytime he has practised the dance with the class he has changed it slightly, so by today there were 26 different versions of the dance. L and the other 25 kids were getting super frustrated. Although there were no angry words spoken, I could sense we were heading into dangerous territory. L was becoming a bit snappy, his actors were no longer enthusiastic about their performance, he noticed their every flaw and could not see how this was ever going to work. Eeek!
I took control.
I praised the director and reminded the kids of the amazing work he had done. As a class we drew up a picture of the steps (boy some of those steps were hard to draw), in order, and the number of beats we needed to count in our heads. I prasied their amazing efforts. I reminded them of the goal, of filming day - a mere 3 days away. I told them that L and I would be looking for people who were trying hard to follow the plan with energy and enthusiasm ( a bit of bribery). Suddenly morale lifted, the dance looked brilliant, the class were excited, encouraged and encouraging "L, I am having the best time! You have done such a great job organising this!". Wow! Crisis averted! Such a great reminder of the way clarity, encouragment, praise (and bribery) can give you much greater results than nagging and crankiness.
L's eyes were wet with tears, he turned around to me and said "Miss F, I don't know how you put up with us every day, this is hard work!" Mawww! High praise!
I can't wait to see their film clip come together and be part of L's first film! Seriously, this kid is going places, look out Hollywood/Broadway/Olympics (he has a few options up his sleeve).
Sunday, September 4, 2011
A Rant about Visas
Visas.
Visas are not fun.
This weekend, between painting, meeting the cutest new baby, celebrating my dad, threading, leading kids' church and washing my clothes (eeek still need to hang them out), I have been researching visas for my year in Canada.
I found out earlier this week that America is trickier than I thought it was. Because i'm just passing through I thought I could just use a Visa Waiver (RRP $14). But nope! Even if I spend 1 day in the US, because I am staying in Canada for over 90 days I need to get a proper US Visa, complete with official interview in Sydney etc (RRP $175 plus trip to Sydney etc). Oh America you are funny. The funnest bit is that I can download, to help me, a guide to filling in the visa application for only $48! Baargain!
I also need to get a Canadian visa which is roughly the same price (but I am going to live there for a year, so I don't mind so much)... but with it I need to include a police check. of course. I just had one of these done for my Nanny application, but I can't reuse that one because they wanted a NSW Police check, but Canada wants a National check. uh huh... (at least the federal one is cheaper!)
There endeth the rant.
3 months and 9 days to go. Not long nowwwww!
Also, I realised yesterday that I don't get to see Autumn again until next September. Weird!
Visas are not fun.
This weekend, between painting, meeting the cutest new baby, celebrating my dad, threading, leading kids' church and washing my clothes (eeek still need to hang them out), I have been researching visas for my year in Canada.
I found out earlier this week that America is trickier than I thought it was. Because i'm just passing through I thought I could just use a Visa Waiver (RRP $14). But nope! Even if I spend 1 day in the US, because I am staying in Canada for over 90 days I need to get a proper US Visa, complete with official interview in Sydney etc (RRP $175 plus trip to Sydney etc). Oh America you are funny. The funnest bit is that I can download, to help me, a guide to filling in the visa application for only $48! Baargain!
I also need to get a Canadian visa which is roughly the same price (but I am going to live there for a year, so I don't mind so much)... but with it I need to include a police check. of course. I just had one of these done for my Nanny application, but I can't reuse that one because they wanted a NSW Police check, but Canada wants a National check. uh huh... (at least the federal one is cheaper!)
There endeth the rant.
3 months and 9 days to go. Not long nowwwww!
Also, I realised yesterday that I don't get to see Autumn again until next September. Weird!
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