The Rosella Class at St. Lucy's

 

A Class Of Energy, Joy, and Light for Five Weeks

Rosella:

One of six species of Australian parrots. They inhabit forests, woodlands, farmlands, suburban parks, and gardens. Rosellas have long broad tails, patches on their cheeks and are very colorful.

While that is all well and good, the word Rosella means a bit

more than just the parrot. The Rosella Class is the classroom where I am spending every Monday through Friday at St. Lucy's!

St. Lucy's School

As most of you know, I will be spending several weeks at St. Lucy's. St. Lucy's is a lovely school founded in the Dominican tradition and is where classrooms are filled with students of many different disabilities and ages. St. Lucy's is a primary school which in Australia means that the students are in years K-6. St. Lucy's was originally founded as a school for children who were deaf or had hearing difficulties and developed into a school for children with any disabilities more recently. The children have many learning opportunities, settings, and lots of time for play! I will go more in-depth in the future, I've only been here for two days so I haven't had the chance to experience all of the lovely opportunities that await!

If you want to learn more about St. Lucy's on your own: www.stlucys.nsw.edu.au/ 

The front gate that welcomes you to St. Lucy's!

Days 1 & 2

In order to get to St. Lucy's from our homestays, Becky and I travel for about an hour by train. We meet at the Strathfield train station when it is convenient and board the T1 line, we cross the harbour on the bridge (with a gorgeous view of the Opera house) and exit the train at Wahroonga station. From there it is a quick walk to St. Lucy's. For my time here, I'll be in the same classroom in order to be able to build a rapport with the students in my class closely and really be able to serve them.

The class that I will be spending time with is called the Rosella Class. St. Lucy's names the classes following a theme. This year's theme is Australian animals, hence the class being named after a parrot! Some of the other classes are called Joey, Koala, Dingo, Wombat etc. It's super cute because the kids are all so proud of their class names!

 Mrs. Vanessa Dillon is the fearless teacher of the Rosellas. Each day, Vanessa leads the nine young boys through a schedule that is filled with many different learning opportunities and activities that are suited for each child. My class has nine boys whose names are: Christian, Leif, Matthew, Michael, Luke, Massimo, Harvey, Nathan, & Lachlan. I've only been in the classroom for two days, but I am starting to learn each of the boy's gifts along with difficulties. I am looking forward to learning what works well with each of them to have a happy and successful learning experience!

 By the second day, some of the boys are warming up to me. The bonds that mean they'll trust me are of utmost importance to me as I really want to be able to make an impact in these young boys' schooling! These boys are all bundles of joy and light and I can't wait to unlock these gifts! Well, that's enough for now...

Until next time, Go Friars and Go Rosellas!