Froctober Edition II

Well its here again, time to share another special event. If you missed last weeks, then not to worry, you can check it out here. Last week I re-capped an African Jewelry Party. This week I'll be re-capping an event I held at school last term-Father's Day Morning Tea.

I'm on the mental health and wellbeing action team at school, seeing I'm the Chaplain it kind of only seems appropriate. One of the things we discussed earlier in the year was the need to have our students parents involved more at our school. So I thought it that at both Mother's and Father's Day we could invite parents to our Chapel services and have a special morning tea for them. We have two campuses, so its quite a lot of work having to do it for both Upper and Lower Primary, however it was well worth it. 

Today, as I said I'm going to re-capp our Father's Day Morning Tea and Chapel Service. We had a cowboy themed morning tea. We made a video about a 'Super Dad" that we showed at Upper Primary and we had the class leading worship share things they love about their Dad during Lower Primary's Chapel service. We then had the service as usual, which was really great to have our Dad's along to join us for praise and worship and the message. It was great to see our students interact with their parents in a positive setting at school. 

Unfortunately because I was 'running' the event I didn't get a whole lot of pictures to share, and because it's a school event, I wouldn't be able to share photos of the kids anyways. But you will get the idea; 

PICS

The middle photo on the bottom is from Lower Primary Campus and the rest are from the Upper Primary Campus

TIPS

1. A tip in knowing where to start when planning an event is honestly to have a "theme" that you can work with. Once we had the western theme, we knew what foods to serve that would tie in with it.
2. RSVP-we decided to scrap the idea of having an RSVP to the even as we felt it may inhibit those Dad's who decide to come at the last minute due to the fact they didn't RSVP. We really wanted as many Dad's to come as possible so we just left it open ended and I think this worked the best for this kind of event. At both morning teas we had enough food and in fact some children even brought food for us to serve up.

TRICKS

1. For Mother's day we made our whole chapel service focused on Mother's, however for Father's Day we decided to just keep Chapel as normal but just add something small during the service to honour the Dad's. If you are holding a special event alongside a pre-existing event then it's up to you to decide how to integrate the two. The Mother's Day Chapel and Morning tea was a blast, but having our Dad's come to our normal services was just as great and I think its safe to say they were both equally blessed by our efforts
2. For almost every special event I hold I go to this site: Hostess With The Mostess Seriously if you have not checked this site out, then you must. It has amazing ideas for almost every occasion you would want to celebrate. Check it out.  

The Father's Day morning tea was a highlight for me this year, seeing our kids serve their Dad's food and spending time with them was just precious.  Look forward to sharing with you about another frock-worthy event next Thursday!

TESOL

 Why hello there,

I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I sure did (apart from the fact that I got sick on Saturday night and work starts again tomorrow). My wonderful weekend consisted of a bike ride by the beautiful gold coast shores, a swim, a 30th birthday party and going to some local markets. Delightful indeed. 

In light of our October Monthly Hero sharing how she is an English teacher in the country she lives in. It got me thinking a bit about teaching English. Through many of my overseas experiences if you speak english it automatically qualifies you to be an "english teacher". I have run english classes and even english camps in Thailand, Turkey, Palestine and India. It is a little daunting at first, however after a while I really enjoyed it. I know teaching english isn't for everyone, but I thought I'd share a few thoughts on it as opportunities to teach english are fast becoming available here in Australia just as much as internationally.

Here are pictures of students at a school we taught english at in Thailand

Here we are being thanked by the teachers for teaching english

In Australia we have over 13 000-14 000 refugees enter our country every year. I'm not going to touch on the complexities of the issues surrounding refugees. I just wanted to highlight that with the influx of refugees it presents us with some really great opportunities to love our community in really practical ways. One of those ways is helping them with their english speaking. 

Teaching English may sound a little too demanding but it's not as in depth as you may think. In some instances teaching english may involve assisting children with their homework, or helping adults with basic computer skills or filling out application forms etc. Or if you have a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) certificate then you could apply to actually teach english classes which range from beginner to advanced depending on which you prefer. 

There are so-many community organizations within your own home town (probably) that are crying out for volunteers to come and help refugees. Helping them to learn english is meeting one of their most fundamental needs as they migrate to a foreign country trying to make a brand new start form themselves and their family. 

If you are interested in getting a certificate there are courses available online or you can normally find some run in local TAFE's or places within your community run in a traditional classroom setting. My husband and I started an online one however only got half way through before moving back to India. Once we were in India our internet connection was not strong enough to connect properly to the course. So, you do need to make sure you have access to fast internet if you want to take the course online. 

Once you have a TESOL certificate you can also apply for jobs internationally to teach english. The opportunities and adventures are endless. 

Here are some links to online courses and further info. if you are interested in learning more about TESOL.

Online TESOL Courses

What is TESOL?

Hope you have a great week.

NAIDOC Week

This week in Australia it is NAIDOC week. NAIDOC stands for the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee.

NAIDOC began in the 1920's through Aboriginal groups wanting to raise awareness to the Australian community about the poor treatment of Indigenous Australians within the community.

NAIDOC Week is a time for all Australians to both recognize and celebrate the contributions of Indigenous Australians to our society and to participate in community events to take steps toward greater unity in our nation.  

For more info. take a look at the NAIDOC Website and to locate an event in your area check out this page.