School!

I apologize I have never been good with keeping up with my blog!

Just to give you a little bit here are my reflections I did on my first two weeks of school. Also I love to put pictures in my blog but I have been having a hard time keeping up with just getting my pictures on facebook, so check out my pictures there.

Also good news I got my interview date for Hall County a few days after I get back.... bring it on!!

Me Jessyca and Zack with a view of Auckland in the background

Week 1

School:

The schools are very different from the States as far as the environment of the school. I really like the open-air classrooms, with tons of windows, and a lot of the older part of the school has high ceilings and high windows. The principal and staff have been very inviting. The principal has gone out of his way to help us to learn about the school system and curriculum here. One afternoon he spend an hour and a half just talking with us and allowing us to ask questions about New Zealand, the curriculum, and school system. I like the idea of having the morning tea and letting the kids play outside all at the same time. This school does a great job of allowing the students to have leadership roles, in the school and in the classroom. They have their own responsibilities in the classroom such as rubbish, dishes in the teacher’s lounge, library manager etc. The years of schools are very different. They also mix grade levels together which is cool.  Also I love the fact that the kids don’t have to wear shoes around the school. I feel like it allows the children to be children. School uniforms is another thing I like that they have here. I think it helps the children not to see class, but to see each other as equal.  I like the amount of time that the children are outside. I like the fact that they eat lunch outside and have an hour of lunch and recess. I think it helps the students to be able to come back in and focus on their lessons after they have activated their brains through play.

Activities that are different here are swimming lessons, cooking class and a gardening time. All of their what we would consider specials in the states such as art, music, and computers, are incorporated into the school day. Swimming lessons was fun to watch. The teacher conducts the swimming classes, and are responsible for grading the students on their different strokes and teaching stroke techniques. 

They have a garden that is tended by the children. And they also have a kitchen in which parent volunteers help run a cooking class. The children take turns tending their box of garden veggies and fruits and then they use the harvest of their garden to cook meals. Another thing is that children are often pulled out of class for extra curricular activities such as guitar lesson, swimming lesson etc.

Day One:

We had a tour around the school from the principal. He was very welcoming and very hospitable. Then I was taken to a year 3, and 4 classroom. I observed math lesson that was scaffold really well.  Then I observed a 5 and 6-year swimming lesson, and then time in the library. It was interesting how they don’t have a librarian the students are responsible for checking in and out their peer’s books. I like how the students were leaders in that capacity.

Day two:  

I got to see literacy in the morning with year 5 and 6, which is like fourth grade in the States. It was interesting to see how much freedom the children had. The literacy lesson was short, then the students went and worked on work individually while the teacher conferenced with students. One thing I didn’t like was that the teacher wasn’t monitoring the students; she was just from her desk. Some of the students were not on task, but most of them were doing really well.

Next I saw an awesome math lesson. It was a lesson that was just the higher learning students. The teacher did an excellent job allowing the students to be responsible for their learning. He allowed then to pick working on sheet alone, a harder worksheet or work with the teacher.

Day three:

I got a chance to see younger grades today. I got to see two different classrooms today. I got to see year 2, which is six year olds. Arts are integrated so I saw children sing songs today, and got to see a student led show and tell.

I liked how the teacher let the students lead the show and tell experience. I didn’t really agree with her classroom management or maybe she was having a bad day. She was yelling at the students for just being kids. They are six and aren’t going to obey your every move. She is used to working with older kids.

I also would have love to see more monitoring the room a little bit better during center time. There were a handful of kids who were doing the opposite of what they were told to do.

The second teacher I had a great reading system set up.  The students had four rotations of centers. I really liked the centers she had. The centers were self-managing and the students had already been trained on how and where to go and sit.

Week 2

Last Friday:

We went and visited Gulf Harbor School. The school was year 1-8. The principal was very inviting and the school was a masterpiece.  It was gorgeous and super ritzy. I liked how he had the students separated not by grade. I feel it created students leadership.  The classrooms are amazingly colorful and decorated with student work. The teachers are fun and engaging with the children. The principal has been experimenting with different types of furniture and different heights. I really like the creatively designed classrooms.  Each younger classroom seems to have a theme like the island and the forest! They are so stimulating for kids and have different resources to explore that you wouldn’t normally see in a classroom, such as a tree in the middle of the classroom.

The environment of the school is just so vibrant. You can tell just by interactions at lunchtime that this school is created around fun! The day we were there the students had a netball and soccer tournament against the students. One of their values at school is fun. I loved walking into the school and wished I was a student there. I want school to be so fun that my students are disappointed when the weekend comes because they love school so much.

At recess during the game even the principal was in the game, barefoot and all. There was music blasting and children controlling the music and they had a great big dance party. During recess I started to see the passion that the teachers had for students. These teachers they choose to be here (because NZ schools can pick their own staff) and it shows in how they love on their students and its not just another job. You can tell the teachers love being at that school.

The schools values are fun, bravery, resilience and responsibility. I love their approach to education and at life.

I am hoping I can take that and apply that into my classroom, especially the fun and responsibility. I would love it if my principal would change all the classrooms so that it will be easier to support student leadership.

Week Two Parkside School

Well first day was orientation and we talked with Len about our school system and interests in the education area since we all have our own area of education.

He went and gave us a tour of base.  We also got a tour of the high school, which was good. We introduced ourselves and talked with the high school students.  We also toured the intermediate school with Craig after lunch.

Then we got to observe the intermediate school. Jessyca and I went to the library with some of the students. We got to interact with all the students and see how they are out in the community and how they interact with other people. Then we went and observed another class just a few minutes before the end of the school day.

On Tuesday we went to a seminar. We thought it was going to be something amazing, but it wasn’t as good as we hoped. These were the few notes I got from the presentation.

 Notes on presentation:

In England no university training for Sped teachers

England teacher in six months – fast tracking teachers WOAH

Easiest way is to look at it online (website)

Study Planner what you want to get to (tool)

http://www.education.gov.uk/complexneeds/ was the website she showed us.

I was kind of disappointed in the presentation. She basically used showed us the website. I feel like after 10 minutes of showing us how it works she could of let you explore, but we could only have very few laptops so I was only able to explore for a few minutes. It wasn’t what I had hoped and expected.

            On Wednesday we went to Base Parkside. I was a little uncomfortable at first, but we were in a room where the students couldn’t really walk or talk. I felt ok in that classroom because they were mobile, but I don’t think that is the place for me. Also the other classes where the students were severely autistic weren’t really for me either. The one classroom I really didn’t feel that comfortable in was where the students were nonverbal and could walk around, but I was also the most intrigued by that class. I didn’t really get in and help I did a lot of observing. But I liked that different tools and things they used to keep students engaged. I had never been in a severe and profound class before. It was a good experience just to see those students learning in their own ways.

Thursday was probably my favorite day. We got to do hippo therapy and help teach swimming lessons. When we walked in the door I was greeted with a big hug. Then all day long the sweet boy wanted me to be with him. I walked beside him in hippo therapy; he was sweet and silly. He was very good at riding horses, and swimming and was very verbal and loved to sing. He liked Maori songs. The teachers were excellent in handling the kids (although I was told the rowdiest one wasn’t there). I was very impressed. This one boy was very good at mechanical type things and after lunch me and Jessyca and him made a kite from an old umbrella. Although it didn’t really fly, it was good at gliding.

Friday we had a debriefing time with Craig about our experience.  We also got to talk to the ESOL teacher which was good, but it would have been better to see her working her magic. But she showed us some cool stuff they do which is very similar to the States. We also visited and enrichment class for Maori. I was expected a little bit more. She talked with one student in Maori, and counted once in Maori, but that was about all we saw in the hour and a half. It was quite different from the immersion class that we have in the States. Today there wasn’t really anything that made me say wow.

Over all it was a good week. Thursday was probably my favorite and those kids are more like the kids we would see in the general education classes, and the kids that we are certified to work with. I have learned and seen a lot that I want to being back. I learned the most probably just form the day visit at Gulf Harbor, but it has all been good.