Starting to Adjust?

Well I've been at Swason for about a week and a half. I've been trying to take in as much as possible, but it really is so much. I'm working with a whole new age group, one I have little experience with, in a whole new school,  with a whole new teacher, in a whole new country! A lot to take in. Everyone is very welcoming of the three of us from the states. That is making it easier to slide right into things. But there certainly are struggles as well. There are so many elements to the classroom that I have never had to deal with before like homework, independent work time, higher discipline issues, more assessment, and much more. Year 5&6 in New Zealand is very different than Kindergarten in the US I can tell you that.

But while observing my cooperating teacher and trying to understand how he runs his classrooms I noticed a few things that jumped out at me. He keeps his classroom very structured and set in routine. Since this is towards  the end of the school year for this group, they are set in their schedule and I am the one adjusting to it. While with my Kindergarteners I was teaching them the schedule and they were adjusting. I really had to learn to be the new person. Both my co-op teacher and I made it very clear to the class that I am still learning about teaching and that they are here to help me too. 

I also was able to notice how much assessment he uses within the classroom.  Which is really great for me because I really don't have a lot of experience with assessment beyond observation since the majority of my time spent in classrooms has been with young children. My teacher keeps a very organized running record of each students reading level. I was able to sit in on him evaluating a student that way. He tries to assess a student each day, so that he is constantly getting an updated review on where each student is with their reading. This also allows him to continue to challenge each learner.  He also does a great job using formative assessment. My students just finished up working on poem books, and he called each student over individually to conference with them one on one about their progress and things they should continue to work on. I really liked how he said that in New Zealand assessment is really used FOR learning instead of OF learning. That really shows that the basis of their educational system is about supporting students' learning instead of just tracking student learning.

One thing that really stood out to me was all of the differentiated instruction we have in our classroom. We have groups for everything! For pretty much every learning area (math, spelling, reading) there is a red (low), blue, green, and gold (high) group. Generally grouping student by ability level is generally a good thing because it allows the teacher to do lots of small group work to focus in on areas of weakness and continue to push groups to the best to THEIR OWN ability. But part of me wonders if my class is too focused around ability level. It is very clear in my classroom who is in the high groups most of the time and who is in the low groups. And that really has an impact on who they're friends with and who they relate to. The groups sit together so that is who they are generally surrounded by, so it makes sense that they would naturally grow to be better friends with those students, but my classroom has become quite cliquey from my perspective, and it kind of worries me. I also think that students would benefit from being grouped across ability levels so that different strengths  are shown and higher ability levels learn to teach their peers while the lower students learn how to learn from their peers. And we have done this a little with our technology challenge groups (more on technology challenges in future blogs), but I think more could be done.

Another thing that I think is really evident at Swanson is a value being put on breaks from learning to give students a break and allow them to come back into learning refocused. There are two breaks within the day. Morning tea is at 11am and then get 40 minutes to play and eat a little and lunch is at 1:10 where they get 45 minutes to play and eat the rest of their lunch. That is so much time compared to America recess, which is being eliminated more and more. Also in our first block of teaching time which is 2 hours, we take a short break in the middle to do some sort of fitness whether it be a quick run around the grounds or a game. It really allows students to get their blood flowing and brains focused back in on learning.

Well that has been quite a bit of reflection on my first week and a half at Swanson. Next week I'm going to be doing more teaching, so more to come about how that all goes.

On a slightly different note, Kristin, Beth and I had a lovely 3 day weekend (it was New Zealand's labour day) in Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsula. We saw some absolutely phenomenal scenery including Cathedral Cove. It was all simply breath taking.

And so it begins...

Well here I am. In a new country. Things are different yet the same. We arrived in Auckland after an hour delay in LA and a 12 hour flight. Which would have been terrible if the flight was like our flight from Chicago to LA (cramped and uncomfortable), but really our flight to Auckland was as delightful as it could be. The food was delicious. For dinner (which we ate at approximately 3:30 WI time) we had a chicken pasta, salad and raspberry chocolate dessert along with a glass of wine. And then for breakfast I had a fruit platter (which was fresh and delicious), a muffin, yogurt, and tea. After I ate my dinner I slept for around 5 hours. Then I began to partake in the in flight entertainment. I first watched Sherlock Holmes, and then an episode of Big Bang Theory followed by How I Met Your Mother.  All wonderful. So really I have nothing but praise for Air New Zealand. 

We were greeted with open arms by our 2 host families at the airport and then drove home. Rachel, my host mom, took us on a walk around Swanson, which really is no more than a wide part in the road, but it is a nice little area, and then we walked around Swanson School. It isn't set up like any school I've seen in America. There are separate buildings surrounded by a courtyard/playground area. So you really have to walk to get anywhere in the school. Then we really just spent the rest of the day chatting with Rachel. Beth and Jan and Cory (her host mom and brother) came over and we chatted some more about our travel plans and such. Later than night we met Ken, Rachel's partner who is also very nice. But Kristin and I went to bed early because obviously we were quite tired.

Then Kristin and I got up the next morning to make our way to school. We picked up Beth along the way since she lives only a few houses away and walked to school (which is along only a few minute walk away). We met Rachel in her classroom and she introduced us to each of our cooperating teachers. I met my cooperating teacher and we began to talk about his classroom and how he structures it. The classroom is very set on routine and since I don't really know the routine yet I felt a little overwhelmed with the whole day. There are just those things that normally won't be upsetting/stressful, but when you are in a situation where you are out of your element and feel kind of confused, you can get quite stressed. But I'm sure that in time I will learn their routines and be able to follow along and help much more than I was today. Although I am still feeling a little anxious and nervous about school, I'm trying to stay positive and see it as a learning experience. I also keep reminding myself what Debbie Faase said in seminar that sometimes you learn the most by working with at teacher who you don't necessarily see eye to eye with in their teaching styles because you learn what you would change. 

All in all trying to look on the bright side of life (cue whistling). Kristin, Beth and I also planned a weekend trip for this upcoming weekend to Whitianga and the Coromandal Peninsula. We are very excited about that. We think we are definitely going to need that traveling excitement after a week of transition and exploration of our classrooms.

There are times when I still have to remind myself that I am in New Zealand! I still get blown away with that fact often. Truly incredible. 

The Final Countdown

Well it is getting closer and closer to that time. I only have 3 days left in Kindergarten in the US before I fly across the ocean to teach in Year 5 and 6 (American 4th and 5th grade) in New Zealand. I spent a lot of time packing this weekend. I still have a lot of editing of what I packed and last minute additions, but still I'm feeling reasonably ready to go. All of the teachers at Cormier (my US placement) keep asking me about my trip and are very excited for me. They can't wait to hear all about it when I get back. I'd love to be able to give a little bit of a seminar/class to the staff about what I learned while I was there. 

I've prepared a few lessons so that if I get put on the spot to teach anything, I won't get too stressed out trying to think of what to teach. Most of them are pretty general, but I really like them. I prepared quite a few icebreaker activities that I've had stored in the back of my mind after a summer as a camp counselor and a year as an FYE mentor. In addition to that, I've prepared a Thanksgiving unit, where I'm going to be focusing on being thankful during the holiday season. I also found two general friendship type lessons. One just being a book share where students form small groups to share their favorite books and then rotate so that they get to learn all about everyone's favorite book. I also have another one called Friendship Glyphs. That one is where they are drawing a picture of a person, but how they draw it depends on information about themselves. For example, if their birthday is in Jan they have red hair. Then you put them all up and students have to use the key to figure out whose picture is whose. I also prepared a math lesson about how long would it take to get here if I rode my bike, if I drove a car, if I took a train... Lastly, I came up with a cool goodbye unit where I show them all the places I traveled in New Zealand and then my students need to come up with a place where they would want to travel in the United States. And they do research and prepare a presentation on the attraction. 

Well, I'm almost ready to go!