My second week at Swanson has been very eventful! We started out the week planning for novel studies. We have rearranged the reading groups and now have only three instead of five. We will be reading the books The Twits, The Killing Sea, and The Whale Rider. I have taken control of The Twits group and have done heaps of planning with various questions and activities for my group to complete. I am very pleased so far with the progress we're making with The Twits book. Two of our students are low readers and find reading to be a struggle and a pain rather than a joy. However they have begun reading The Twits and now I have trouble breaking them away from the book! I love it!
On Tuesday I had a great experience! Rebecca and I took the Touch Team to a tournament at Waitakere College. Touch Rugby is similar to Rugby without the contact. It was a very interesting day taking 25 students, all very roudy and athletic students, to the tournament. There were about 10-12 other schools there all with 2-3 teams each. We split our students into three teams and then entered them into either the A or the B grade. I was with the Swanson Touch Team A all day. They played fabulously! We had 4 games; we won one, had one draw, and then lost two. The students had a blast! At the end of the day we received the award for Best Sportsmanship! I was very impressed and pleased with our students. It was a great experience for them and I'm sure they all slept soundly that night after a full day of Touch. Today had another first for me as well; my first time being insulted for being American. I know that most people are not fond of Americans right now, and Dr. Delano had even prepped us for not being patriotic and not being surprised if you are insulted, but its still rather shocking the first time it happens. This woman had just come up to Rebecca and I and raved about how well behaved and how well mannered our students were. We were very pleased to hear this about our students at Swanson so she and I started chatting. After a few moments she asked me what my accent was, and I said I'm American. She replied, "Oh that's a shame because you have such a pretty face. Well have a good day and good luck to your school!" I stood there silent, not really knowing what to think of the matter. She hadn't said it as a dig or a mean comment, but more so just said it as a well known fact. Later that day I told David what had happened and he told me to tell people that I am from Canada instead, to which I laughingly replied "ya der eh!"
Wednesday night we had a staff meeting which I had the opportunity to be involved in. Rebecca and another teacher, Julia, had gone to a course about Developing a Thinking Culture in the Classroom. They came back to the staff meeting prepping a lesson to the teachers about what they learned. It is an awesome concept of transforming the classroom from being teacher oriented to being student focused. The teachers are seen as facilitators and we encourage the students to ask questions that are not just questions but that are worthy of investigating to deepen understanding. I was able to assist Rebecca and Julia in their presentation which was a good experience for me to get up infront of the staff and present. I enjoyed it and will be bringing the resources back home with me as well.
Now Rebecca and I are working hard to get our worm farm up and running. We have ordered a thousand worms and tonight will be picking them up to add. This worm farm has Tiger Worms which are compost worms. They do not live in gardens because they are not earthdiggers. These worms will thrive in compost with leaves, cardboard, and heaps of fruit and veggie scraps. Though these worms cannot live in the garden, the "worm tea" (worm excresions) they produce makes a fabulous fertilizer for gardens. This worm farm project will be teamed up with the next unit we are beginning: A Room28 Veggie Garden! I am exstatic for this unit because I will be the one taking over and planning all of the activities and lessons we will be completing. Mr. McLachlan, the principal here at Swanson, is donating 3 large tractor tires for us to use. We are hoping to get everything underway by next week and cross your fingers that we will have veggies to eat by the end of the term!
I have found working with the older students is more challenging for me than working with the Kindergarten class at Aldo. However, I believe its more difficult simply because I haven't done it before. Though I love my Kindergarteners, I am enjoying having more class discussions and working on bigger, broader tasks with the older students. They add a new dynamic to the classroom atmosphere since they are more capable than younger students. I am enjoying the challenge and I'm sure I will be sad to leave my students here in Room28.
Sarah and I are off to Rotorua this weekend with her host family. Rotorua is another Maori word, Rua means two and Roto means lake. We plan to go to a Maori Culture Experience as well as check out the thermal pools. I'll have plenty of pictures!
On Tuesday I had a great experience! Rebecca and I took the Touch Team to a tournament at Waitakere College. Touch Rugby is similar to Rugby without the contact. It was a very interesting day taking 25 students, all very roudy and athletic students, to the tournament. There were about 10-12 other schools there all with 2-3 teams each. We split our students into three teams and then entered them into either the A or the B grade. I was with the Swanson Touch Team A all day. They played fabulously! We had 4 games; we won one, had one draw, and then lost two. The students had a blast! At the end of the day we received the award for Best Sportsmanship! I was very impressed and pleased with our students. It was a great experience for them and I'm sure they all slept soundly that night after a full day of Touch. Today had another first for me as well; my first time being insulted for being American. I know that most people are not fond of Americans right now, and Dr. Delano had even prepped us for not being patriotic and not being surprised if you are insulted, but its still rather shocking the first time it happens. This woman had just come up to Rebecca and I and raved about how well behaved and how well mannered our students were. We were very pleased to hear this about our students at Swanson so she and I started chatting. After a few moments she asked me what my accent was, and I said I'm American. She replied, "Oh that's a shame because you have such a pretty face. Well have a good day and good luck to your school!" I stood there silent, not really knowing what to think of the matter. She hadn't said it as a dig or a mean comment, but more so just said it as a well known fact. Later that day I told David what had happened and he told me to tell people that I am from Canada instead, to which I laughingly replied "ya der eh!"
Wednesday night we had a staff meeting which I had the opportunity to be involved in. Rebecca and another teacher, Julia, had gone to a course about Developing a Thinking Culture in the Classroom. They came back to the staff meeting prepping a lesson to the teachers about what they learned. It is an awesome concept of transforming the classroom from being teacher oriented to being student focused. The teachers are seen as facilitators and we encourage the students to ask questions that are not just questions but that are worthy of investigating to deepen understanding. I was able to assist Rebecca and Julia in their presentation which was a good experience for me to get up infront of the staff and present. I enjoyed it and will be bringing the resources back home with me as well.
Now Rebecca and I are working hard to get our worm farm up and running. We have ordered a thousand worms and tonight will be picking them up to add. This worm farm has Tiger Worms which are compost worms. They do not live in gardens because they are not earthdiggers. These worms will thrive in compost with leaves, cardboard, and heaps of fruit and veggie scraps. Though these worms cannot live in the garden, the "worm tea" (worm excresions) they produce makes a fabulous fertilizer for gardens. This worm farm project will be teamed up with the next unit we are beginning: A Room28 Veggie Garden! I am exstatic for this unit because I will be the one taking over and planning all of the activities and lessons we will be completing. Mr. McLachlan, the principal here at Swanson, is donating 3 large tractor tires for us to use. We are hoping to get everything underway by next week and cross your fingers that we will have veggies to eat by the end of the term!
I have found working with the older students is more challenging for me than working with the Kindergarten class at Aldo. However, I believe its more difficult simply because I haven't done it before. Though I love my Kindergarteners, I am enjoying having more class discussions and working on bigger, broader tasks with the older students. They add a new dynamic to the classroom atmosphere since they are more capable than younger students. I am enjoying the challenge and I'm sure I will be sad to leave my students here in Room28.
Sarah and I are off to Rotorua this weekend with her host family. Rotorua is another Maori word, Rua means two and Roto means lake. We plan to go to a Maori Culture Experience as well as check out the thermal pools. I'll have plenty of pictures!
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