faulker065

Happy New Year from Sydney! Hello Friends, We made it to Sydney, and we love it!  Here is a photo of us as we were saying "goodbye"  to our home for one year! We arrived in Sydney on Tuesday (29 th ) just over an hour late, so that was really not too bad.  It is a LONG plane ride, but we were lucky and got two seats each on the last two rows on the far right rear of the plane.  I slept about 3 of the 14.5 hours.  Mitch watched 5 movies!  We only had a couple of challenges on the way over – first in Las Angeles we walked from the arriving domestic terminal straight to the international terminal which we thought was the obvious choice.  As it turned out our plane to Sydney from LA left out of Terminal 4, so we had to back track about 20 minutes.  The positive was we got in some fast paced steps that we would not have gotten otherwise.  Then, I temporarily misplaced my passport for about 5 minutes!  I have a new travel shoulder purse which ...

Happy December to All! I am pleased to share some news with you.  As you know, I will be away for 2016 on an International Educator Exchange.  I will be working at an elementary school in New South Wales, Australia.  My exchange partner is a marvelous professional educator! Here is a bit about Ms. Nemeth and her background: Helen has a wealth of experience (taught for 29 years) at the primary school level in New South Wales, Australia.  She has taught all subjects to students from Kindergarten – Sixth Grade.  Most recently, she is serving as the Kindergarten-Year Two Assistant Principal at Beaumont Road Public School in Killara, NSW. Here is what Helen says about her teaching skills:  “ My teaching skills have been developed through a broad range of teaching positions.  I enjoy the challenge of creating positive, innovative, fun and meaningful learning environments through teaching the Six Key Learning Areas:         ...

Happy Thursday, December 10, 2015! Time is drawing near for me to leave for Australia for a year.  I have been busy finishing up commitments at school and attending night concerts of our band, orchestra, and next week our Morning Glories Choir.  If you will recall, last week I discussed the school where I will be working, Beaumont Road Primary School in the suburb of Killara north of Sydney.  This week’s blog is focusing upon where we will actually be living in Australia.   Located about 15-20 minutes from Beaumont Road School, the Sydney suburb of Hunters Hill, NSW will be my hometown for 2016.  Here is a description of the area as told by Helen (my exchange partner). “Hunters Hill is a leafy suburb on the lower north shore of Sydney.  It is an old established part of the city with a village atmosphere.  The Joubert brothers were the founders of Hunters Hill, consequently the name of the street.  Their original house with stables (which is now a ...

Hello Elementary Friends, Over a year ago in December 2014, I threw my hat in the ring to be considered for a year long international educator exchange for 2016.  This is an opportunity that I have considered and even dreamed about for several years.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the chance that I have had to work in educational systems in two different states, so the idea of learning about and working within an educational system internationally is especially intriguing to me!  The State of Colorado has an organization called Colorado International Teacher Exchange League (CITEL).  Here is a link to their website.  Colorado International Teacher Exchange League I applied with this organization and through the application process I had the opportunity to be considered for exchanges within Australia or Canada.  Mitch and I discussed it at length and decided that if we were going to be gone for a year we might as well go all the way to the other side of the worl...