Christmas Time!

This week at Swanson Primary has become less and less formal in terms of teaching. School for Swanson, and all of New Zealand Primary Schools ends on December 17. I have had the privilege of seeing the students of Rm 34 through many interesting changes. This week my coop and I were told that we would need to move classrooms - moving from our current RM 34 to Rm 6 in preparation for next year. Next year, because of reduced enrollment, Swanson school will be loosing four of their prefabricated classrooms. Therefore, the entire school is undergoing a major change that will shift the rooms around into the permanent classrooms that had previously been used as storage rooms. This movement means that I have had the unique experience of teaching and cleaning a room at the same time. Since our new classroom has been empty for the majority of this year, we were told that we needed to start moving so that the teacher moving into RM 34 would be able to start moving herself as soon as possible.

This week was also the week for the school Christmas concert. For this concert each class prepares a song that they will sing with another class. Rm 34 was paired with RM 33, and we decided that we wanted to do something different so we did a parody of Krytonite that I created called Santa Man. I then organized the choreography for our second, fun song, Walkie Talkie Man. During this song, we had one student who was dress in a Santa suit dancing to the music during the verses in a taunting manner. He was then chased by various groups of students in their pajamas to give the effect that they had been waiting for him to arrive and then catch him unaware. The concert was originally scheduled for Tuesday evening, but it was cancelled and moved to its rain date of Thursday. That was an interesting experience for me, because I have never seen a Christmas concert performed outside. However, on the rain date of Thursday, the concert had excellent weather, slight cloud cover and a gentle breeze. We had asked to be last in the rotation so that we could leave everyone with a happy and fun last piece, and that is exactly what the students did. Simply put, they were fantastic. The entire crowd was laughing and enjoying the students performance. I was so excited for them, because they worked so hard for the past week to meet my standards of perfection. It was extremely exciting for me to see my effects with the students turn out so well. I had many students and parents come up to me after the concert to tell me how much they enjoyed either performing or watching.

I am coming up on my last week at Swanson, and I could not want to stay more. I have loved every experience with the students. I hated hearing the students ask me when I was leaving because they were hoping that I would be their teacher next year - not just the students in my class, but students from the four other classes in Koromiko. I know that when I first came to Swanson, I was not sure that I would like the Primary level. However, my experiences have taught me a valuable lesson - never judge a class of students before you actually meet them. There are so many experiences that I have had at Swanson that have taught me so much about what Primary school truly is. I love being able to get to know a class of students so well and watch them change and improve before my eyes - it is a unique experience. I look forward to next week at Swanson with both excitement and dread. Excitement to see the students for another three days and dread that we only have three more days. However, I also am looking forward to my return to the states where I can share my experiences and become a better teacher because of everything I have learned.

I've been burned

This has been a great week for me at Swanson Primary. On Tuesday, I participated in Athletics day for the Henderson area school district. I ran the marshaling for the track meet, which involved me getting all of the schools runners ready for the race and give them their lane assignments. The Athletics day was for children 8-11, and they participated in a variety of events extremely similar to a track meet for Middle or Intermediate Schools in the States. I spent most of the day out of the cover of a classroom, and even though I have taken to putting on sunblock as a part of my morning ritual, I still fell victim to the NZ sun. I have had a first hand experience that has helped me to understand why the students at Swanson are required to wear a hat whenever they are outside. The sun ate through my sunblock, even though it was SPF 45. I definitely am glad that towards the end of the meet the clouds blocked most of the sun. 

Because of my role in the Athletics day, I was able to get an intimate understanding of how differently sports are run between the US and NZ. For example, this entire Athletics day was run by teachers even though it was held at Trusts Stadium (a major stadium in the area). I am used to my Catholic school way of running events where parents run a majority of the sports activities through a school sponsorship. Here in NZ to get the same type of experience the students would need to join a club team that has no affiliation with their school. I was able to understand just how much influence sports have on Americans in general, and I was excited to see how involved the teachers of NZ get with sports and physical activity. For example, I started running a unit of ultimate Frisbee with my students. I am expected to join in with my students, and in fact they quite enjoy both beating me or winning along side of me. It was quite an interesting experience for me to walk into my classroom today and be greeted by four students with the same question, almost like it was rehearsed, "Can we play ultimate Frisbee, again?" I was excited that they had enjoyed this sport since not many of them had never heard of it. 

Unfortunately for my students, today was a testing day for the Algebra unit. I do not have all of my Rm 34 students in my Algebra class because of grouping, but I was able to input the scores for the students who were in my Algebra class, and most of my students improved drastically. My students started in my maths (math for those in the states) at or below the NZ mean for their age. Once I was able to input all of their scores most of my students are now well above the NZ mean, with some students scoring as being proficient for freshman or sophomores in high school. I cannot wait to tell these students how proud I am of their achievements, and how glad I am that their hard work has paid off. I told the students that every one of them could improve and every single student did.

For next week, week 9 of 10 at Swanson, I have many different projects to finish: claymation movies (one more lab day should do it), inquiry into communication (to be finished by Wednesday), and a written narrative to add to and explain their visual claymation narrative (due on Thursday). My students are also excited about our Christmas concert on Tuesday of next week. I have two songs planned for them, "Christmas Time" a parody of "Kryptonite" (3 Doors Down) with my lyrics, and "Walkie Talkie Man" (Steriogram) where we have a Santa being chased by three kids around the audience with three dramatic air guitarists playing the solos on the stage while the rest of the students sing. I have had such a fun time planning for this Christmas concert and my teacher has been so excited that I have taken over the practicing, songwriting, and choreography for our two numbers. I can now see the benefit of all those years of show choir in high school. I have really enjoyed the excitement my students display at the fact that they get to go last, sing a song that is not tradition, and rock out on stage. I am looking forward to showing off what my class can do.

I've found the End of the Rainbow

First, let me start this post by apologizing to all those who read this blog for the late nature of this update. I unfortunately lost Internet connection on Thursday here in NZ (or Wednesday for my States readers). I have restored my Internet connection so I am writing to update you on my seventh week here in NZ at Swanson Primary. 

The first three days of week seven were quite ordinary, or at least that is what I have been told (I have not had many days here at Swanson without something interesting happen. I was able to plan for those three days in a "normal" manner without needing to plan for extra activities. To start off the week, I was able to plan for Maths during our middle block for the Maths rotation (a grouping by ability). Maths this week focused on simple equations of the form x + 15 = 39. I was also able to plan for students to have time for Reading tasks each day of the week. I currently have two group of my top students working on book reports (started by my teacher before I arrived). I then planned lessons for my lower reading groups. The bottom group had two days with me and the next highest had one day of direct instruction. During these groups, we focused on making inferences and connections, using the text to find evidence to answer questions about the text. To round out the day, I planned time for the students to work on their individual written narratives based loosely on their claymation story lines. I spent time with the students first discussing what are the components of a good narrative, then the students worked individually to complete a narrative scaffold with the main details of their story. Once the students have their scaffold completed they will write a draft of their story from the scaffold and have it checked by me. I have then offered to given them tips to improve their narrative before they hand in a final copy to me. 

However, this week went extremely interesting when Thursday arrived. Because my cooperating teacher runs the cool schools program many students in Rm 34 are involved. In fact, only 6 students out of 28 are not involved in some manner, either through peer mediation or road patrol. At the end of the year, those students who are peer mediators or on road patrol are taken to Rainbow's End, a theme park in South Auckland, 45 minutes from the school, and due to the large amount of participation from my class, I was asked to accompany the students. I had a wonderful time, and so did my students who delighted in dragging me onto various rides with them or their groups of friends. Minus the headache I received after having my body scrabbled in something called Power Surge, I had a wonderful time interacting with the students and teachers outside of the classroom. 

However, this previous weekend I received a visit from my family (parents and brother) until Saturday, which meant that on Sunday I had even more condensed planning to do. This week is promising to be quick out of the ordinary, since Monday is CRT for myself and my teacher. However, I still need to plan everything for my reliever to do with the students. Tomorrow is Athletics day, or Track day, for those in the States. I needed to make sure that I split my class up equally into the rooms of teachers who are staying a Swanson, plus I needed to create a work packet for my students. I have been asked to run the sprints for this event because of my previous experience with track in high school. I am looking forward to being on the other end of the spectrum, going from student/athlete to teacher/coach, something I have always wanted to do.

Full Control Has Begun

I have just started my full control this week on Tuesday. I could not be having a better time. Well, maybe I could, but I am just so excited with my own progress and the development of my students in Rm 34. On Friday, the students had one of their final work days on their Claymation projects, and those projects are looking simply amazing. All except one group of students has taken their pictures for their visual Claymation narrative. The students have been having a great time making their background and characters for their short films. I could feel the excitiment in the room as the first group took their pictures and put them on the computer. Using the advance button, the students were then able to get a rough idea of how their final film would look. I was proud of my students for being willing to take charge of every aspect of their film - from the storyboard, to background and character creation, to photography, and placing the pictures on the computer. I cannot wait to see their final Windows Movie Maker films after our lab day next week.

When I first heard that I was placed in a 5/6 grade classroom, I was nervous because I had always felt most comfortable in a high school situation. However, right now I am simply enjoying every minute of my experience with the students and faculty of Swanson Primary. I am so thankful for this experience, and I can only wish that more student-teachers will choose to travel to a different country and experience the truly unique experience of teaching around the world. I love and enjoy my experience. I look forward to school each day, and hate when the week is over. I know now that I am meant to be a teacher, but more importantly that I can be a teacher anywhere I would like.

I am looking forward to next week, but also dreading the end of the year. Since taking over weekly planning for the past two weeks, I have become intimately familier with how little time I have left. However, I also have so many opportunities for unique experiences as the school year comes to a close here in NZ. Next week, I will be going to Rainbow's End on Thursday (a theme park) as a result of my cooperating teacher's involvement with the Cool Schools Initiative (a peer mediation program). The students who participated in this program are rewarded with an end of year trip to Rainbow's End. Since all but five students from my class are involved, my coop and I were asked to go along with the students. Yay, for experiences only possible in a primary school environment.

A Field Trip to MOTAT

I have just finished my third week in Swanson School, and I am still enjoying every minute of my time here in NZ. This week involved me taking a trip to MOTAT with the students to begin our unit on communication, comparing communication, in all its forms, from the past to the present with some general predictions about the future. This unit will be coming into full swing during our next week where it truly becomes an inquiry unit. It was an interesting experience for me to lead my class (RM 34) on this field trip, because I was able to understand what my fellow teachers were telling me when they said that a field trip day is more draining than a day of teaching, but the planning is so much easier. During this field trip, I needed to keep my 26 pupils together as a group and get them to the different activities that the MOTAT staff had planned on time. I also needed to deal with behaviors that only were only displayed when the students were not in a classroom setting, i.e. I had a student crying face down on the black top because he did not get his way. I should note that this student is 11 and a sixth grader. 

I have also been so excited to take control of more and more of the class management. I now am responsible for about 75% of the class, including planning and teaching. I will be starting to take over more of the class for our English narrative unit and planning for the four different reading groups that my cooperating teacher has had set up since the beginning of the year. My cooperating teacher has also said that she is feeling that I am able to handle being in room 34 by myself, and has been taking opportunities to make up testing with certain students from before I arrived, since she knows that I can handle the class. 

I know that I have been learn so much from my cooperating teacher, especially in the area of behavior management, which I consider to be more than just classroom management. She has previously taught in schools that have made behavior management a main focus for their teachers. She is constantly offering me constructive hints which I quickly try to incorporate into my teaching. By her own admission, my classroom and behavior management skills have drastically improved. I knew that the students would test me as soon as I started standing in front of the room. In fact, the students have even tried to play my coop and I off of each other, but by maintaining classroom behavior expectation those attempts have failed and ceased. The students are becoming accustomed to seeing me as their teacher, and they respond quickly and without question to instructions I give them. 

I have also taken over my coop's role in our athletics rotation for the Koromiko classes. I have been coaching a group of students in the long jump, which has been exciting for me because of my experience in track both with watching and with participating in triple jump. The other teachers of Koromiko are starting to wish that I could take their place for things like shot put, discus, or even sprinting because of my more recent experience with track. I have always thought that I would like to be a coach of basketball, but this rotation has led me to understand that I would also like to and be able to coach some of the field events for track and field. It is a wonderful experience to me to be able to meet the students in situations outside of the classroom. Swanson Primary does not have the sports programs as do people in the States, so this is a great opportunity for me to connect with my class and other class in our rotation outside of the classroom. 

Starting Week 3

I am about to start week 3 for me at Swanson Primary School (week 5 of the final NZ term). During this week, I have may interesting school activities planned. On Tuesday November 11, New Zealand celebrates Armistice Day, which signifies the end of hostilities on the Western Front during WWI. The students and I will be walking to our local RSA (Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association) to represent Swanson Primary in a memorial celebration. Then on Thursday, the students have a previously planned field trip to the Motat (Auckland's Museum of Transportation and Technology). Also starting this week is an Algebra (Pre-Algebra in the States) tumble, where the students have been pre-tested and placed into general ability groups with a specific teacher. I have then taken the ability group for my cooperating teacher, and using the information from their pre-tests, I determined the gaps where the students will need instruction. I have started planning Focus Groups of students to hit specific learning objectives after a broader lesson in presented to the whole class. I have also started to really get deeper into my English technology lesson on Claymation, which combines narrative style in a visual form with elements of technology, specifically Windows Movie Maker. I have already been teaching parts of a narrative with the students and controlling the reading groups, of which two are doing book reports, and two groups are working on making connections between different texts in their school journals (short stories for younger readers). Next week I will be almost taking full control of teaching the students due to the Maths (mathematics abbreviation in NZ) rotation and the Arts rotation for the students of Koromiko. In the arts rotation, I am working on improv techniques with my groups of students. I have spent the first two classes with room 34 testing various improv games with the students I know best. Next week the classes will rotate so that the students will have a chance to experience different parts of the Arts (music, drama, painting, etc.). I am looking forward to all of the interesting experiences of this week, and I will post more on those experiences later in the week.

Swanson Primary Initial Notes

I have just finished my first week at Swanson Primary. I have been enjoying myself so far - it has been and interesting week. Monday was Labor Day in NZ and on Tuesday and Friday there were relievers in for my cooperating teacher Mrs. Francois. I was able to use those opportunities to jump right in along side of the substitute teachers to get involved in the class. For example, I took control of two groups for Reading on Friday and led them through a lesson on conjunctions and quotation marks. The reliever and I felt that it would be easiest for the two of use to take half of the class each. I was able to take the students who were struggling with their reading skills because I felt like I could help them. I had such a fun time learning with the students, because I was able to gain some initial impressions about how the students learn best, as well as what types of techniques do not work for certain students.

While being at Swanson Primary, I have also begun to understand some of the basic differences between NZ schools and those in which I have grown up. For example, my new favorite time of the day is morning tea, which takes place at 11:00am each day and lasts for 45 minutes. During this time, the students are given 10 minutes of sitting and eating time. After that period, the students are released for play time. Because of morning tea, lunch has been moved to 1:00pm. and it is run in a similar manner with 10 minutes of sitting and eating followed by play time.

Another large difference between Swanson Primary and American schools would be the dress code for teachers. Teachers do not have to really dress up much, in fact most teachers will dress casually, i.e. in jeans or shorts. I should note that right now in NZ shorts are a blessing since it is quickly approaching summer and the school does not have a completely enclosed space. Swanson is set up in a manner where two classrooms or a block of class rooms are joined to each other, but those blocks are not joined in one cohesive whole. Stepping outside of your classroom means stepping into the open air outside of the school. (Picture to follow).

Another major difference is that the school year is coming to a close. Due to the fact that NZ seasons are opposite of the season of the Northern Hemisphere, the school year starts in February, near the end of summer, and ends in December, before Christmas. The school year is separated into four ten week terms in between which there is a week break. A small interesting fact is that students are taught from a young age to where hats whenever they go outside because the sun is extremely brutal in NZ.

I look forward to my next week, where I will continue to integrate myself into RM 34.