Kiwi Crossing

I had my first day of New Zealand student teaching today. It was a lot of fun getting to know the kids, teachers, and schedule for the day. Our day started with a welcome ceremony that is traditional to the Maori culture in NZ. It is customary that only men speak, so my teacher had to do part of the ceremony. After he speaks it is also customary that his highest level of friends would sing and dance, so my class also had to do a song and dance in front of the whole school. They were all very nervous for this in the morning but it went very well. The whole ceremony was done in Maori language, so it was very difficult to know what was going on but it was still interesting and did make us feel very welcomed at the school.

When we returned to our classroom we did a short lesson of maths- not math, it has to have the s- but because of the ceremony it was cut short today. After maths, we have fitness, which is when the teacher takes the students outside to do some sort of activity which forces the kids to run around and do other physical activity. Today my class did a relay race and then played a game similar to 4 corners. During this part of the day, all of my tag related camp games will probably come in handy. This only lasts for 15 minutes before we go inside and have reading for an hour. The students then go to interval, which is similar to recess except that all of the teachers go to the staff lounge area and they have tea, cocoa, or coffee and cheese and crackers or fruit.

Much of the day is very similar to schools that I have worked in. It is still strange to see most of my children without shoes on, but I’m sure I will get used to it. I, of course, was already asked how old I was, if I had any pets, and if I have a boyfriend. These always seem to be on the list of things children want to know about someone new. I also had a few students swear in the classroom today but this is apparently ok. This will also take some getting used to, but for now I think its kinda funny. Overall, day one went really well and I am super excited to get to know the kids better.