Visit From Davo and Miss W

Today we were lucky enough to be visited by Australian teacher and Edublogger, Miss Wyatt and her Tasmanian Devil friend, Davo. They are on a 2 1/2 month holiday driving around the United States and Canada to visit friends and blogging classrooms. Mrs. Schmidt started to consider moving to Australia when she found out that Miss W is being paid by her school while she is on this holiday. Australians in a service job for 10 years get 90 days of paid leave and then 9 more days a year for every year after that.

Miss W and Davo taught us many new things about their country. We learned about how Tasmanian Devils are an endangered animal. They are dying off from a disease called facial tumour. We talked about other Australian animals like the kangaroo, wallaby, koala, wombat, cockatoo, and possum. Miss W said that she passes a wooded area on her way to work everyday and she has to be careful not to hit the wallabies bouncing on the side of the road. They will also come up to your door sometimes looking for food. If you want to feed them, do not give them bread. It can give them a sickness called lumpy jaw. If you were to meet a kangaroo in the wild, you should not approach it as they are as tall as people and can be dangerous. Miss W is luck enough to have a flock of cockatoo birds who visit her yard often. We were surprised to hear that there are no squirrels or chipmunks in Australia.

We enjoyed seeing a map of where she lived, asking questions about Australia and sharing facts about Pennsylvania with Miss Wyatt and Davo. We logged onto her blog and left comments, looked at some of the 600+ photos on her Flickr stream, and wrote our own blog posts about Australia. You can view our movie below for more photos and to see the presents Miss W brought us. We gave her a small Liberty Bell, a Phillies hat, some Hershey chocolate, and a mug and pens from our school. We also had a little party to share local food with her. She tried a hoagie for lunch, Philadelphia soft pretzels, and TastyKakes.  Click the link to see how we enjoyed the Vegemite that she brought us.

It was so neat to learn about Australia first hand today. Thanks again for coming Miss Wyatt and Davo!!

6 thoughts on “Visit From Davo and Miss W

  1. Dear Mrs. Schmidt’s class,

    Wow, that’s a very special visit! It’s not everyday that you get a visitor from another country. Miss Wyatt and Davo are having themselves quite an adventure! I have to agree with Mrs. Schmidt. Australia sounded like a wonderful place to visit before, but working there seems to have its benefits too! Learning about a different country directly from someone who lives there sounds fantastic.

    I had to smile when I read that you shared TastyKakes. 🙂 Our family is from Pennsylvania, so we are familiar with that yummy treat!

    Your wonderful teacher left us a message on our blog, so I thought I’d pop over to say hello. If you do try the Family Feud, please let me know how it goes.

    Sincerely,
    Mrs. Moore
    Techie Kids

  2. Hi everyone,

    It must be a great opportunity to be able to learn more about Australia from the people there. Books just can’t give us information off hand. You must have benefitted from the visit. =.=

    Thank you, Mrs Schmidt, for giving me the website for Wordle. I’m looking forward to learning so much from all of you. (Then, I shall teach my children.) Thanks again.

    Sophia

  3. Dear Mrs. Schmidt and class,

    My mom read your post to me, and I was sad to hear about the tasmanian devil having a sickness. I got to watch your video here and the one above from the other class. I also learned about submarines on BrainPop. Did you like the vegemite? Is it salty like soy sauce, or salty like sea water?

    From,
    Em

  4. Thanks for visiting Em. I’m glad you enjoyed the BrainPop movie. We love Moby the robot. Vegemite sure has an interesting taste. The kids said it tasted salty like sea water. I think I like Nutella or Peanut butter on my toast instead.

  5. Drear Students,
    Thank you for sharing all the wonderful information. I learned a lot!
    I was a teacher but we didn’t have the technology that you have today.
    You are lucky to have Mrs Schmidt who is really good at it. Isn’t she great. I think so, I am proud of her, she is my niece.
    Mrs. G

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