hi
It has been an incredible week with lots happening and yet nothing happening.
As a teacher we all know that if you leave work on the siren on a Friday and dont't come back until Monday morning you will have a busy week with late afternoons doing next day prep and marking.
No surprises then when after travelling more than 600kms in a weekend to wish my friend happy birthday that the week was going to by busy. Yep short on teachers due to camp and PD's in Perth, so we combined classes and who wasn't prepared. Yep, Me!! How to keep years 6 to 10 amused for 2 hours and make it educational was the agenda for the week.
I survived and so did the class. I averaged 7 students a day and we had some interesting moments. I focused on wood work for literacy and BTN and for numeracy time. I had 3 hours teaching everyday and duty twice a day except for Tuesday.
Friday was very exciting as we had some sport visitors who came to help improve our basketball skills.

what happens when you give the camera to the students 

Basket ball on Friday 

Meekathara

So what does a remote teacher do when they have a weekend and not a thing to do. They go and visit friends even if they are 6 hours away.
Leaving school on the siren at 2.30 stopping to help a colleague with a flat tyre  on the 100 km gravel strip before the sealed road then 50 km to the main hwy. From there its another 156 km to roadhouse then another 181 km to the turn off  my friends remote community.
Lots of wine and food and a fantastic trip to Peak Hill. At Peak Hill we looked at all the ruins of a once thriving gold mining town and watched the sun set and the moon rise.

the setting sun 

me and the moon and a glass of wine 

the rising moon 

Every teachers know that when you start in a new class and new classroom the first think you do is clear all the unwanted and unneeded stuff from your room and move your things in. the next thin you do is rearrange you seating to what you like. Well that is exactly what I did. Only my seating went from rows to groups back to rows. Yep my students did not like the groups and put it back into rows. only slightly different to what it was and we created a lounging corner where they could relax and read or whatever.

in the beginning 

as I wanted in groups 

as the students organised 

reading  corner 

reading corner

apparently it doesn't rain very often here but when it does rain it can create havoc with our roads. Creeks can flood and the road can become soft and muddy making driving difficult. Often roads are closed to prevent damage to the road from the traffic using the road when it is raining or the road still very wet. The following pictures were taken the day after the rain had stopped. The road was very busy following the handing over ceremony from the army to the community.

One of the first events that occurred when I first arrived was Naidoc Day where we celebrated all things Indigenous. The army being here also participated.
We had many events but one that I thoroughly enjoyed was rock painting.
In my class we had a selection of many different sizes and  shapes of small rocks. The students selected one then painted the rock however they liked which resulted in a vast variety of designs.

 Some of the events that took place was morning tea at the woman's centre and lunch on the oval provided by the army.
After lunch the highlight of the day the softball match between the ladies of the  army and the community. This was followed by the men's football match between community and army. 

community oval football 

 

Leaving to come north I organised an uplift with Grace, unfortunately I was not really prepared because after Grace left and I started to pack my car I found lots  of  things that could have and should have gone with the removalist. Hence a very packed car for the trip.

As with all trips north I like to have someone travelling with me and this time close friend Jenny was travelling back to her remote community so we made a convoy. 

The trip was done in two stages with a stop at Meekathara overnight and a catchup with friends. 

Once leaving Meekatharra I was on my own. Music was what I had recorded on USB or iPod, phone reliant on Telstra and often no reception. 

Hi welcome to my blog. I am very new with this. Just over 7 weeks ago I travelled 18 hours from home to a very remote community in the Pilbara of Western Australia to teach at a remote community school. Its not a very small school with about 6 teachers and several teacher assistants. This is my account of my time here.

This is my house. In many ways I am very lucky as it is right next to the school, and sometimes I am not so lucky as it is very noisy as it is across the parking lot from the local shop.