The Raven and the racists! Just another day in the classroom....

I sat to take the roll this morning and there wasn't a spare spot on the carpet as they called out after the other, "here", "present", "good morning". Within seconds of completing the roll the floor was nearly empty as 19 of them excited the room leaving 11 in my presence. It was athletics day and they were off to compete.

I looked at this small group, while they looked back at me and smiled. What fun would we get up to today? :)

Firstly they agreed that it was time to be reacquainted with Raven! (just don't tell the other students who weren't there ;) )




We had the pleasure of meeting the author Wendy Orr during our writers festival, she was lovely and answered all the questions our budding writers could have possibly come up with :). We got to know Raven just before Wendy's visit and she's had our hearts pumping ever since! Even on the days when my cold made my voice nearly disappear they insisted that I read! I'm a sucker for a good book so you wouldn't have to think to long on what my reply was.

Soon enough it was time to get into the lesson of the morning. Heavy stuff, but we were up to this part of Australia's history...The White Australia Policy.
After trying to work out just what that meant we then watched and discussed a documentary brought out by ABC1 ( http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ptxlehKaBE4) .

Out of the 11 children in the room there were only 3 present whose ancestors have been in Australia for three or more generations. Many of my students have a recent history of immigration themselves. One of the things i I love about teaching children is their honest reactions and opinions of things occurring in their world. They are not afraid to say when they believe something is stupid or wrong or racist. They are not tainted by other peoples views and opinions and even if they are they still have the naivety of youth to believe that out of all opinions there's is the only one which is important anyway ;).

There was some wonderful dialogue while learning this morning, about how unfair it was that families were ripped apart and migrants were refused entry to Australia because they could not pass the immigration dictation test. A test that was designed specifically to fail them!

We were so engrossed in the discussion that rather than stopping just before the bell we were rudely interrupted by it.

As I walked out of the classroom behind them I couldn't help but wonder at the kind of peacefilled, equality driven world we would cohabit if we were governed by the rules and viewpoints of children!

The rest of the day was a lovely blur of real life maths, cooking toffees, designing posters and windy yard duty hugs and chats with little Preppies who walk along side me making the time fly by.

Our small, quiet group was bombarded at days end by a gaggle of sweaty, happy students with ribbons of first, second and third hanging from them. We smiled, congratulated them and caught up on their days events before.....

Is that the bell already???

The best thing of all is that we get to do it all over again tomorrow...on a Friday! our crazy canteen day where we serve nearly the whole school our prepared lunch order menu and make a squillion dollars for graduation ;).

What was your day like?