WOW!!!!! WOW!!!!! WOW!!!!!! That is how I feel everyday here in New Zealand. This country is absolutely beautiful, the people are so kind, and the school staff is so wonderful to work with.
First off....SCHOOL
We have only been in our school for a week, and I already am in full control. The students in my class were so excited to have a teacher from the United States, and they were very interested in learning about where I am from. At Swanson Primary School the main subject focuses are on reading, writing, and maths. We also do work with science and social studies throughout the week.
Typical School Day:
8:25 All Staff Meeting
8:55 School Bell Rings
9:00 Mat Time
-Morning Roll
-Must Do's
-Book Reading
-Poem and Literacy Functions
*after students are done with their must do's they have free choice and while they are playing they get pulled for reading, writing, and homework
10:50 Clean Up
11:00-11:40 Morning Tea
11:45 Maths
-Timed Fact Sheet
-Fact Competition
-Measurement exercises
-Must Do's
*during this time students are also getting pulled for reading, writing, and homework
1:00 Clean Up
1:10-1:50 Lunch/Recess
1:55 Grab bags and book bags
-Hand out notices to go home
2:00 Milk and Story
-Activity
2:55 Bell rings for end of school day
Since I just started doing full control in the classroom, I have started to plan fun activities based on our planet unit for science. Tomorrow I am excited because the students are making "Build a Aliens". I cut out different shapes in colored paper and they are going to design their own alien. After they are done they will have a chance to fill out a sheet that tells all about their alien, and we will hang them up in the class. We are also using play dough to create the planets in our solar system.
Writing so far has been my favorite subject to teach. The "writing table" is shaped like a bean and I sit on one side in the middle so I can see all the students around the outside. The neat part is that the table is a big dry erase board so I can help students to spell out difficult words and help them with letter formation. It is a great way to work with multiple students at once, because I can write down a word on the table and then move on to help the next student. Between the two year one classes in our little building I have about 55 kids that I write with everyday. Sometimes it is a bit difficult to squeeze them all in, but I have gotten better with timing.
Now, going back up to the title of my blog, I am so grateful that I was able to come to New Zealand. I have only been here a little over a week and I already know that this has been the best decision of my life. Not only is the teaching experience empowering and motivating, but the attractions and culture of New Zealand is so interesting. There are so many great things to do while we are here. Now that we have been here a week we already have every weekend filled up until the day we leave.
An Overview of our events:
-Bethel's Beach Exploration
-Going up North with our supervisor to watch a Marathon
-Mount Maunganui
-Wellington trip
-Hobbiton
-Kelly Tarlton's underwater adventures
-SURFING
I am most excited about going surfing, because I have always wanted to try it out. It works out great because my cooperating teacher lives right on the ocean in Piha and he runs his own surf school, so he is taking us for the day to teach us how (don't worry there will be video).
I want to give a shoutout at the end of my blog today to my parents, family, and friends for helping make this trip a reality, because traveling half way across the world is not cheap by any means.
First off....SCHOOL
We have only been in our school for a week, and I already am in full control. The students in my class were so excited to have a teacher from the United States, and they were very interested in learning about where I am from. At Swanson Primary School the main subject focuses are on reading, writing, and maths. We also do work with science and social studies throughout the week.
Typical School Day:
8:25 All Staff Meeting
8:55 School Bell Rings
9:00 Mat Time
-Morning Roll
-Must Do's
-Book Reading
-Poem and Literacy Functions
*after students are done with their must do's they have free choice and while they are playing they get pulled for reading, writing, and homework
10:50 Clean Up
11:00-11:40 Morning Tea
11:45 Maths
-Timed Fact Sheet
-Fact Competition
-Measurement exercises
-Must Do's
*during this time students are also getting pulled for reading, writing, and homework
1:00 Clean Up
1:10-1:50 Lunch/Recess
1:55 Grab bags and book bags
-Hand out notices to go home
2:00 Milk and Story
-Activity
2:55 Bell rings for end of school day
Since I just started doing full control in the classroom, I have started to plan fun activities based on our planet unit for science. Tomorrow I am excited because the students are making "Build a Aliens". I cut out different shapes in colored paper and they are going to design their own alien. After they are done they will have a chance to fill out a sheet that tells all about their alien, and we will hang them up in the class. We are also using play dough to create the planets in our solar system.
Writing so far has been my favorite subject to teach. The "writing table" is shaped like a bean and I sit on one side in the middle so I can see all the students around the outside. The neat part is that the table is a big dry erase board so I can help students to spell out difficult words and help them with letter formation. It is a great way to work with multiple students at once, because I can write down a word on the table and then move on to help the next student. Between the two year one classes in our little building I have about 55 kids that I write with everyday. Sometimes it is a bit difficult to squeeze them all in, but I have gotten better with timing.
Now, going back up to the title of my blog, I am so grateful that I was able to come to New Zealand. I have only been here a little over a week and I already know that this has been the best decision of my life. Not only is the teaching experience empowering and motivating, but the attractions and culture of New Zealand is so interesting. There are so many great things to do while we are here. Now that we have been here a week we already have every weekend filled up until the day we leave.
An Overview of our events:
-Bethel's Beach Exploration
-Going up North with our supervisor to watch a Marathon
-Mount Maunganui
-Wellington trip
-Hobbiton
-Kelly Tarlton's underwater adventures
-SURFING
I am most excited about going surfing, because I have always wanted to try it out. It works out great because my cooperating teacher lives right on the ocean in Piha and he runs his own surf school, so he is taking us for the day to teach us how (don't worry there will be video).
I want to give a shoutout at the end of my blog today to my parents, family, and friends for helping make this trip a reality, because traveling half way across the world is not cheap by any means.
Here is a picture of the Trust Stadium. On Monday we took the whole school here and had an all day Athletics day. The students competed in track and field events to earn points for their teams. I was in charge of discus. It was a beautiful day and the students had a great time.
Here is the beautiful view from the top of a cliff at Bethel's Beach.
This is my favorite picture so far, because the background was so beautiful. It reminded me of a scene you would see in a movie.