School

I decided I needed a little update of how things have been going at school. I took over the class this week on full control, although full control probably isn't a good way to describe this class for any teacher. One thing that has not changed from teaching in America is that there are always a few students that try to push the limit. I do really like my class, they are a lot of fun to work with and they are really good about sharing their ideas with the class. I have found that it is very difficult to get anything done though. They have so many extra things to get done in the week, that it has been very difficult to stick to a schedule. On Mondays we do News Buddies, where the students get to share about their weekends and we use it to work on their oral language skills, but it takes up a pretty big chunk of the day. On Tuesdays we go to the library for about an hour and then the computer room for about an hour. Wednesdays stay pretty normal and I've been getting a chance to teach some art and PE lesson. I haven't had a go at teaching music yet though, but we'll see. Thursday mornings, about half of the class goes to Junior Kapa Haka where they learn Maori songs and dances. I was able to go watch this once and got a little video of one of the songs they have been practicing. Friday afternoons are also full because we have an assembly where the teachers present certificates to any students who have done something exceptional, share artwork with the school and celebrate birthdays for the week. After this we have a teacher come in our room and teach religion for the last hour of the afternoon. As you can see with reading, maths, fitness and writing also, our week is pretty full. I have learned that it is very important to be flexible with the schedule. Just last week they told us Friday morning that they would like us to go watch the year 5/6 students in the school triathlon, so we just took out writing for the day and went to cheer on the older students.

My class has 25 students. About half of them are year 4 students and half are year 3's. There is also a pretty even split between boys and girls. They are a very competitive group of kids and like to play lots of games during out fitness time in the morning. The school has a mandatory time for about 15-20 minutes where the class has to go out and do some sort of activity that gets the kids running. Lately, I've been introducing them to some of the PE and camp games that I know and they've been enjoying playing them.

Let me know if you have any questions about the school here and I would be happy to explain more.