Today was what I consider the official ‘first day’ of school. The kids were there. No meetings or sitting around listening or getting stuff ready for when the kids turn up. No. Today, the kids turned up, and all the preparation is tested to breaking point. Have you got all their lockers ready? Are you organised enough to not only get them to sort out their year’s supply of books and pencils into some sort of order, or remind them of all the regular school rules they’ve learned by rote, but can you remember how to sit down in front of two score odd kids and get them to sit and listen?

I mean… that first half hour or so is when you either win them over or spend the rest of the year playing catch up, eh? How did I manage it? The same way I handle it each year.

I made myself look silly. In this case, mentioning something along the lines of behaving, or if your mum’s anything like mine she’ll bash you. Got a giggle.

Then I completely won them over by showing them how I can pull my thumb off. Always a winner. Any teacher that can pull body parts off and reattach them MUST be cool, eh?

Makes them think twice too, when I threaten them later with ripping off their arms and hitting them with the sloppy end. Cos if I can put my thumb back on without a mark, a nine year old’s arm can’t be too much of a jump, eh?

Okay. Besides that, there was serious stuff too. The kids wrote me between half a page to a page about their holidays in about twenty minutes in generaly silence, and then I threw a spelling test on them first day up, so they should realise they’re gonna be doing work as well. It’s not just Mr V making himself look a dill so they all want to come to school each day in case Mr V does something else silly.

Mind you… getting them there is more than half the battle, eh?

Lots of sun, lots of lamb and lots of cricket this weekend.

Australia Day was Saturday, a nice, warm day with a chance of rain all across the district, except wherever we were, which would have been useful while we were being beaten at cricket in the afternoon. Shouldn’t complain though… it was a nice day! The morning was the annual walk around the local town, then off to play cricket. Beaten, but that’s not really news this year.

Sunday though, the state team (Victorian Bushrangers) played South Australia out here in an official match. I believe they send them out to a regional location once a year to spread the game to the grassroots level. Got in for free as part of my local club (along with the other local clubs) and raised money selling icecreams and drinks all day. Victoria had a good win, but the entertainment came from the drunk ten metres further along who decided to do a nudey run across the oval. He ran back along the gravel path around the boundary in bare feet, got dressed again, and continued drinking. Apparently his mates bet him $20 to do it. Nine of them. So he made $180. Nobody seemed to worry though, as the security or police never bothered to chase him.

Mind you… if any of my school kids were there, I know what their show and tell is gonna be come Wednesday morning!

Caught up with one of the kids there too, a young feller who’s doing his last primary school year at another local school instead, which was a shame. Good to catch up with him though. You’re not officially supposed to be friends with the kids, but there’s always a few you get closer to than most. I can see the reasoning, but a good friend’s not something to just toy around with, eh?

A new storyline begins today (January 27th), or more appropriately, progresses the current story further, after the School Spirit Special strip just before Australia Day. Wendy’s old school photo has disappeared from her gravestone, and she’s off to find the boys to get them to help her find it again.

Unfortunately, the boys are already playing cricket that day…

A Day at the Cricket

Today’s strip is another School Spirit Special - a larger strip than the regular ones. Another ‘Australian History and Culture’ strip, the sixth in this series. It focuses on the Rum Rebellion, the two hundredth anniversary of which is on this year’s Australia Day on the 26th.

That’s Miss Conway on the left, too. In case someone’s wondering who this woman is.

School Spirit’s Rum Rebellion

A curious mixture of realising I need to get the classroom in some sort of order before the kids get back next Wednesday and a rather lengthy sense of boredom sitting at home saw me while away most of yesterday afternoon back at work. The cleaners had paid a second major visit to the room since I had last been in just after New Year’s and had moved all the piles of stuff I was still to sort from the back half of the room into the main area of the room so they could clean the lino floor. No worries, except those relatively neat piles were stacked on tables and chairs and my desk. So five hours later I emerged having inhaled several cubic metres of dust and sporting a nose that was running faster than a kid tied to the school bus. I also came across the box of a dozen sets of playing cards, as well as about five other decks that didn’t fit into the box. So I sat down to sort them out. Well, that killed two of my five hours right there. Now we have twelve complete decks of cards, and a pile of extra cards taller than the box they all live in. So many extras, yet not enough of the right cards to make another deck. I think I might just sit those twelve complete decks up on the shelf, tell the kids they are there, and then not let them touch them again. I was starting to relish the boredom I had been feeling back at home before the cards were all sorted. Anyway, the afternoon proved productive as the kids’ locker tubs now have bright blue on orange name tags contacted onto the front, their little name tags I use for all sorts of random draws are laminated and chopped up in a little plastic bucket, and the tables are now relatively clean and all the piles of unsorted stuff have now been either sorted and put into appropriate places, sorted and put into inappropriate places until I can find an appropriate place for them later, or unsorted and hidden in the supply cupboard in the back room. I’m thinking of taking a photo of the room, because experience tells me that it will not get cleaner and more organised than this for the rest of the year, so I might as well enjoy it while it lasts. Which will probably be until this Wednesday. Yep. The day the kids turn up.

As a teacher in a relatively small town (there’s about eight primary schools, so I don’t know most of the kids, but I seem to know enough of them), there’s always a pretty good chance that, come holidays, each time you wander down the street to grab some food to fill the pantry, you’re going to run into one or three kids or families. Some will holler out your name in greeting in the loudest voice they can muster, waving furiously as though their pinky finger has just been bitten by a dirty great yabbie who just won’t let go. Others will hope you didn’t see them and cross the plaza floor to walk on the other side, keeping their head down and intently studying the posters of women’s products stuck to the shop window.

Once a term or so I’ll get my hair cut in the cheap joint in the local plaza, right out the front of the main shop. The lady who cuts my hair happens to be the mum of one of the kids I had the pleasure of teaching last year, so at least we have something to chat about. She wants some dirt on him, so I make something up and ask the poor little bugger about the outcome on Monday morning. All good. Today was no exception.

This is also the kid who turned up just before school photo day with his hair in a mohawk. Funny thing is, it suited him and didn’t really stand out as much as it would on other kids. He carried it well and didn’t make any fuss at all over it. It was just his hair, nothing more.

I knew it was his birthday in two days time (with some kids you just remember their birthdays) so I brought that up, get mum to wish him a happy birthday for me. No worries. He’s at his Dad’s at the moment though, so she’ll let him know when he gets back later in the week. Good thing I reminded her about his birthday though, because it’s the same day the school opens before term for parents to pick up their kids’ school supplies. Well… that’s where we hatched our plan.

When he gets back home at the end of the week, ready to get presents from this half of the family, he’ll be handed a great big box wrapped in nice paper. When he opens them, he’ll find this year’s school supplies. My little parting shot at him.

We’ll have a laugh about it when he finds me in the schoolyard again. That’s the way it should be.

There’s just over a week to go before the school year starts for 2008. It’s about this time that most of us think about wandering into the classroom from time to time leading up to that first day to start getting bits and pieces ready. Fiddle around here and there, straightening stuff up, putting labels on the kids’ lockers. The more done in this week, the less worry on that one day of work we have without the kids. After that first day, the kids are here and it’s all hands on deck, hold on tight and we’ll see you in the staffroom at the end of the day. The first beer might be free, after that, it’s regular prices to raid the fridge.

Mind you… I’ve been ready to head back to work and get involved with the kids for the last week already. Probably says something about me, but that’s okay. To be honest, this has been the first holidays I think I can remember when I’ve managed to walk around town fairly regularly without ANY kids actually meeting me and calling out in public. Not that I don’t mind that, it just usually happens five times every day I drive into town.

Anyway. Time to start getting the house in order so it’s at least liveably clean before the first term starts up.

And fiddle with the School Spirit webcomic. I’ve managed to put the holidays to good use and have a backlog that will see the strip through almost to the end of term one, so it’s not a mad rush to get any more done right at the moment. I can take it easy for a while now.

Right. I’ll wander back and put something else up if anything vaguely important happens in the next few days.

Cheers.