A Busy Week!

A busy week followed my busy weekend.

Teaching

This week was my first week teaching. It has been a lot of fun! As I have mentioned before, I hadn't been able to incorporate a lot of technology into any of my field experiences yet because of the lack of technology in the classrooms I have been in. Now that I have it available I am trying to take advantage and get used to using it since I have enough experience without it. My lessons this past week have been in maths focusing on geometry - points, space, lines, angles, that sort of thing. Many of the students aren't familiar with geometry at all so I have to introduce it in a very basic way, but they are doing a good job! We use Geometer's Sketchpad to practice the concepts and that gives some them some quick and easy hands on examples. This coming week I will add humanities to my lessons (geography and history). In my year 7 class we are learning about the exploration of Australia. Back before the world knew for sure about Australia they used to have an idea of "Terra Australis Incognita" (unknown land of the south). Since they had much of the Northern hemisphere mapped out they figured that there had to be a large landmass in the south to balance out the earths land. It turned out that they discovered that there were two more continents - Australia and Antarctica. In year 8 we will be looking at Medieval times. I will spend most of my time teaching about the Battle of Hastings and the Bayeux Tapestry which gives one side of the story. I have spent that last few days looking into this time in history, its very interesting! I have so much to learn!

Valentine's Day

Happy Belated Valentines Day to everyone! I hope that you all had a good one! I got surprised with flowers in the teacher work room during recess time. Ben sent me a beautiful bouquet of daisies. The flowers came with a card, but the guy who wrote out the card must have signed his own name because it said "Love Lewis"! Hahahaha! The message was definitely Ben, just not the name! It was pretty funny :-)

National Sorry Day
(info from Wikipedia)

On 13 February, it was National Sorry Day. The official day had been held each year on 26 May since 1998. It had never been declared a public holiday. Some background to Sorry Day: "National Sorry Day was instituted, to acknowledge the wrong that had been done to indigenous families and so that the healing process could begin. Sorry Day is also in remembrance of mistreatment of the Aboriginal people and not only to the children involved in the Stolen Generation. " The "Stolen Generation is the term used to describe the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by Australian government agencies and church missions, under various state act of parliament, denying the rights of parents and children by making Aboriginal children wards of the state, for a hundred year between approx. 1869 and 1969. It was asserted that these children of mixed descent were sometimes not accepted by their communities and were therefore at high risk of harm, especially where the father was absent. The policy typically involved the removal of children into internment camps, orphanages and other institutions.

The Australian Parliament has accepted that this was human rights abuse and on February 13, 2008, the federal government of Australia issued a formal apology to the Stolen Generations.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd put a motion to the Parliament of Australia.

"I move:
That today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.
We reflect on their past mistreatment.
We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations—this blemished chapter in our nation’s history.
The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.
We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.
We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.
For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.
And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.
We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.
For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.
We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.
A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.
A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.
A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.
A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.
A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia."

This reminds me a lot about the history of the U.S. It reminds me that governments make mistakes, people make mistakes. Some of these mistakes are hard to fix and can never be undone. It takes time to heal. The hurt and bitterness of those who were targeted is completely justified. Just makes me think...