Life in our Outback Schoolroom ! Four girls and 2 Home Tutors !
The school day begins for George and I when we walk about 200 metres from our house to the schoolrooms. Once more .... no driving, no traffic, no stress ! (George will teach in the schoolroom until lunch time before leaving to spend the rest of the day doing some gardening and preparing the evening meal for everyone.)
Below :The view from the corner of our verandah past the helicopter shed across to the main house yards where the schoolrooms are.
The first duty is to switch on the two computers used for on-air lessons and login to The Learning Place of the Queensland DET to access Collaborate which is the forum for online learning. This enables us to access the forums with the least amount of difficulty. As on air lessons require a phone link and computer link we are able to have two students on air at a time as we have two phone lines. We can at times when absolutely necessary have a third lesson occuring using one of our mobile phones.
Below: Shows the new schoolroom being built. This has been built as an addition to the original schoolroom behind it. The old room is being used for the second on air lesson, it has a reading corner, creative art and writing areas. The new room is being used as the main teaching room. The photo also shows the use of George's mobile for a third phone link and the SODE teaching screens during on air lessons. Once more we are grateful for a wonderful working space.
There are no school uniforms out here, just whatever they feel like wearing ! Sometimes this may
even be dress-ups and never any shoes. Their feet must be as tough as nails as they run all around the station with bare feet. The eldest has been training for a 3 km cross country course and completes the circuit in bare feet.
During the week students in Yrs 3 - 6 have the option to have English and Maths four days a week, and Reading three times. History and Science are offered once a week on air. Each lesson is one hour. Yrs 5 and 6 also have a language lesson, Japanese. Prep/K to 2 have one on air lesson a day, either English or Maths and a couple of reading sessions a week. Other subjects like HPE, Art, spelling, handwriting, writing, citizenship etc are taught by us from DE curriculum packages. The girls do not attend all the offered lessons as having four girls in the schoolroom there is sometimes clashes with lessons and for some subjects like science it is better to teach them off air ourselves.
At 8.30 each day their on air lessons begin. Collaborate has already been opened on the computer and we wait for their teacher to place their lessons up on the screen. At this point all that is left to do is phone in to the DET, dial the teacher's lesson code, and wait for the conference style lesson to begin. Once begun the students and teacher converse on air and use a main room for lessons, and breakout rooms for individual work and feedback. The teacher uses a video option to be able to be seen during the lesson, as can the students. The students are able to complete work directly on the screen which can be saved by the teacher. They are able to interact with their classmates and teacher through the phone and on screen.
While two of the girls are on air we have the opportunity to teach a lesson to the other two.
At 9.30 the girls will switch over so we quickly log out from the first lessons, hang up the phones and begin the login process for the computer and phone again !
At the end of smoko the bell is rung for the girls. The girls can hear this from anywhere in the home paddock areas and come running ready for their second session from 11 until 12.30 /1pm depending on the day. Usually they need to clean up as often they have been climbing trees, digging holes,
building cubby houses, playing in the chook house or sheds, or just running around barefoot in the black soil and red dirt.
With four girls in the schoolroom and up to 11 on-air lessons a day the girls are on and off air from 8.30am to 3pm. It is a very busy full on day for everybody but we always make sure we down tools by 2.30 in time for some outdoor games, art, craft, cooking in the station kitchen with George or just a walk down to the river. Fitness and directed play is not as big a need for these country girls ! Their favourite out of school games involve building cubby houses all over the yards both on the ground and in the trees, pretend play and lots of running around barefooted. They also have time to ride their motor bikes and help with mustering on the weekends. All the girls are great cross country runners and the eldest is off to zone cross country !
The girls schoolwork arrives in mail bags which can be brought in by the postie ladies twice a week with our grocery and bread orders. Or we pick them up in the SODE (school of distance ed) mailroom when we go to Emerald for mini school in the middle of each term. We are supplied with curriculum books that include a student's unit workbook/guide, a home tutors unit guide, a unit disc and a pack of resource books. These are included for english, maths, science, history, geography, pdhpe, art and manual arts. They are also available through the online Learning Place. The teachers usually supply Work Rate Calendars for each 5 week unit.
Each day the girls take photos of their work in each area with the iPad and email them to their teachers to use as a record and for feedback.
The girls have opportunities to catch up with their teachers and friends during the year at different events. Each term Emerald has a 5 day mini-school in the middle of the term which the whole school attends. Many of the families and home tutors including us camp out at the Outstation which is a hall on the school site. We also attend 2 cluster days towards the end of each term which are held at a families property. It is our families turn to host this in a fortnight so watch out for a blogpost on that ! We are also off to the schools Athletic Carnival in Rockhampton next week, a trip of 5 or 6 hours for one day ! These days enables the girls to spend time with their friends and cousins who also attend.
Other events include Home Tutor Workshop week, sports and swimming carnival days, trips away with the school for Yrs 4, 5 and 6, and Graduation.
The girls also attend other events, often sporting ones hosted by local schools and community groups. Travel may be as little as an hour away or as much as 6 hours away.
They also enter art and craft work into the local show with success.
The life of a Home Tutor is never boring !!
By Lynne
2 comments:
You are both doing such a wonderful job as tutors! It must be so much more rewarding seeing the growth in those girls that you work so closely with rather than a full class. What experiences you are having as well! They are lucky to have you both. Sounds so much less stress than my job! Thanks for sharing your blog, I enjoy reading about life outback! Keep up the good work!
Thanks for sharing your work as tutors. You are doing such an interesting job! It must be so rewarding working with the 4 girls and seeing their progress during the year. Your work would be far less stressful than a mainstream classroom. You certainly are having some wonderful experiences and are doing such a great job! Keep up your great work. I love reading about life in the outback!
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