"The Waub"

Hey Y'all, Brett here,

Today is the first day of summer holidays here in Canada. After taking a position as an EA (Education Assistant) at Waubaushene Elementary School at the beginning of March, I have finished what was one of the most challenging jobs I have held to date. Although the pay was less then a teaching position, I was pleased to have a full time position, as opposed to being a substitute teacher and not knowing where I would be from one day to the next.

"Waub" is a small community about 30 minutes north of where we live in Barrie. A drive that was particularly treacherous when I started in winter. My role was to work with students at educational risk, whether that was due to learning difficulties, special needs or behaviour. The other side to my role was lunch supervision and yard duty, 12 times a weeks. The teachers contract states that they can only do 80 minutes of duty a week. So that left me with 290 minutes of hell! Lets just say that, in Aussie terms, the kids were a bit "feral".

Yard Duty
The school board has a policy that students have to be brought inside if the temperature drops below a certain level. That level just happens to be -26 degrees Celsius... So if its -25 you’re still out there! So I would put on my thermal socks, snow boots, snow pants, fleece jacket, winter coat, beanie/toque, gloves and hood. Then I’d go out onto the snow covered school yard to break up fights and stop kids from throwing snowballs at each other. Highlights included watching a 14 year old boy pick worms up off the ground, brush the dirt off, then suck them up like spaghetti.

Lunch Duty
20 minutes, 100 kids, 1 gym and me. By far the hardest single task that I have ever undertaken was supervising 4 classes of students aged between 9 and 14. My main objective was to keep students safe and the gym relatively clean. Students hurling food from one end of the gym to the other compromised both of these. Some of the most memorable moments included being told by a grade 5 kid to "Change your tampon", getting called a "Dirty hoe" and watching a 12 year old boy lean over some soda-pop that had spilled onto the floor and then proceed to lick it up like a dog.

Of course, it wasn’t all bad. There were a lot of really great kids who would do their very best to say "G’day Mate" and would enjoy chatting to me about some of the differences between Australia and Canada. The staff members were also great and I enjoyed being one of 6 males on a staff of 10. I was fortunate enough to attend some interesting field trips including Elmvale Jungle Zoo, Ontario Place and Wye Marsh, and experience being part of the Canadian school system.

The one thing that I will never forget about Waubaushene was working with one of the funniest and most interesting children I have ever had the pleasure of teaching. I spent most of my time working one on one with a very special boy with Autism. Everyday he would make me laugh with his wit and his alternative view of the world but it was his obsession with vacuum cleaners that was most amusing. It was all about the vacuum. "Hey Mr. P, What kind of vacuum do you have?", "I’m gonna vacuum you up!" "Why did the vacuum cross the road?" were typical of the conversations we would have on a daily basis. It was his sense of humour, stories and laughter that helped me to get through the fights, swearing and worm consumption.