Dibbo's Canadian adventures

Every teacher did something. They weren't necessarily bludgened into doing this extra activity but saw it as a necessary extension of thier teaching. Their were a lot of lunchtime clubs. The library teacher ran a 'garage band' club which was based on digital music software for students to compose their own music score. They could write their own opus. Other clubs included the chess club, a drama club, a writers club, a year book club, a photography club and others I can't remember. This club/extra activity stuff was not just an extension of primary school as high schools did the same thing. (look at american ra ra cheer squad type movies). Speaking of which, one can't forget the sporting clubs and school bands which operated every lunchtime and after school. Margaret had 2 school bands. When you consider we were a school of 400 consisiting of a year 7 & 8 cohort that is amazing. We had 70 students in the year 7 band and 70 students in the year 8 band. ???!!!%$/?? What. Most Aussie schools struggle to get 20 members 7 to 12 and sometimes rope in primary children. This also continued in the high schools by the way with similar numbers. Volleyball and basketball were really big and no wonder when you consider the winter climate where most sports were conducted inside. I ended up helping the volleyball teams by being the referee on all interschool competitions.

I had to teach at Margaret and the tradition was for Vice Principals to teach art. This was mainly due to the fact that the school counsellor was art trained and had to have RFF so to make sure all students experienced art the VC filled in. As it turned out I had two fabulous art teachers who had the curriculum totally organised and I stepped into a great program and learnt heaps considering I had not taught art ever in my life. I did have the opportunity to vary the curriculm so got a bit of woodwork stuff thrown in by introducing Aboriginal art into the course. The kids researched Australian Aboriginal art and looked more specifically at dot painting. My Aussie program variation involved students designing their own dot painting artwork on a boomerang! I bought some plywood and cut out some boomerang blaks where the students sanded and filed the boomerang into a shape that could be thrown. They then transferred their artwork onto the boomerangs before we went out into the field and threw them. So out into the freezing cold snow we went to throw the boomerangs. It was fantastic as 90% of them worked. Of the failures I usde the excuse that it was too cold in Canada for them to fly as the best conditions were in a hot Australian climate. Even Em/Kez n Steve joined in on the act by visiting the school to tell some tall stories about Kangaroos hoping down George street. Steve had a crocadile back scratcher that created much interest.

I met up with some good mates at the school and had some wonderful times comparing Australian and Canadian culture and lifestyles. They did promise to come visit one day but the days, months and years keep ticking by without any sign of a Canadian out n about in Oz.