Things Overheard in an Australian High School

For the past few months, I have been spending about two days per week doing CRT work at a local high school. As if it's already not difficult enough to be a substitute teacher for adolescents ages 12 to 18, teaching in another country adds a new dimension to the job. I've been fortunate to become a "preferred" CRT teacher for this local school, so that means I'm one of the first people that gets called if they need substitutes. What that also means is I have subjected myself to filling in for all subject areas, so I've taught Wood Tech, Media, Maths (way too many times considering I'm terrible at math), and Year 8 Italian, to name a few. I thought you might be interested in learning a few things about how school is different in Oz compared to the United States, so I've created my own top ten list of things that would help you survive in the classroom if you decided to "have a go" at teaching these lovely Aussie children.

10. High school here is, in fact, called College. For example, instead of attending Westminster High School, I would have attended Westminster College. If students graduate high school (they can legally drop out after Year 10, I believe), they go on to "Uni", or University, though the longer version of the word is rarely used here. Students do understand if I use the term "high school" and I think that has a lot to do with the fact that they are familiar with the American educational system due to watching television shows and movies.

9. To get into Uni, students do not take the SAT or ACT. They have exams in each subject, collectively called the VCE, throughout the course of Years 11 and 12 (some accelerated students can start taking VCE exams in earlier grades). Those scores are compared with other students around the state and they basically get ranked by their test scores, similar to how the SAT scores work with percentiles, I think. All students must take VCE exams if they want to graduate from high school, even if they do not plan on attending college. I still have much to learn about VCE testing, but from what I gather, what you do in Years 7-10 doesn't matter that much because it's all about how well you do on your VCE examinations. I was told by a Year 12 class last week that sometimes in lower grades students do not even receive letter grades, just marks such as satisfactory or unsatisfactory, but I have not yet confirmed that finding.

8. If a student asks if an assignment needs to be done in grey-lead, they are asking if it needs to be completed in pencil. I found this term commonly used in the university class that I taught this semester as well!

7. There are several breaks during the course of the day and they are wonderful! At the school where I teach most often, there are two 47 minute classes in the morning followed by a 20-ish minute break for snack/recess, two more classes followed by a 47 minute lunch, and then two final classes before the end of the day. Sometimes those "two" classes are actually a double of the same subject. There is also a 20 minute period of "sustained silent reading" or "SSR" after the recess period in the morning, and the students seem to adhere quite well to the rules of being silent and having something to read (teachers must read as well...no grading or internet searching allowed during SSR).

6. Hamish is a very popular name and it's pronounced HAYmish, not HAMish.

5. Aussie children, and many adults, cannot distinguish between the Canadian and American accent. And apparently it is rare to be an American CRT, as many of their foreign teachers have been Canuks. Admittedly, I can not differentiate between the Australian accent and the New Zealand accent, but I'm getting better, I think!

4. When a student asks their classmate for a "rubber", they are talking about an eraser. Pencils (or grey-leads!) don't seem to be manufactured with erasers on top here, which I find very strange.

3. Study up on the NBA, because that is pretty much the only U.S. sport these Aussie children care about. I've tried to explain many times that college basketball is far superior to the NBA, but usually that just causes blank stares.

2. A marker is called a "texta". A white board marker can, according to the students, be called a marker, but a marker that you might color with or a Sharpie, for example, those are textas.

1. Be prepared to answer the question "is college really like it is in the movies, like American Pie"?! I find that is a difficult question to answer. College/Uni lifestyle seems much different here than at home. Many students live with their parents and commute, because some universities have very little on-campus housing. I sometimes think that my Australian students seem to overlook the fact that occasionally college students in America do go to class and they must actually pass all of their classes in order to remain enrolled in college. They tend to focus on the frat parties, sporting events, and Spring Break trips that they see on television instead.

This is by no means an inclusive list, but it will help get you started. While you are working hard to remember these items, you should know that they do not use the word "schedule" here, but "timetable" instead. Be sure to get up-to-date on your technology too, because attendance is taken using your own personal iPad (quite a nice perk if you ask me)! Also, be sure not to use the terms freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior, because the students will surely look at you like you have a second head.

The "bright" side of getting up early to go to work. :)