Royal Oak Primary

Royal Oak Primary is a decile 8 school that has about 640 children. We got a chance to talk to the principal who was a very nice woman that had a lot of good plans to better the school. Our guide, Robyn, was really flexible with us and asked what we wanted to see.The school was planning a multicultural food festival which is happening tomorrow.

We got a chance to observe another reading recovery session. Then, we talked to the woman that ran the Bannatyne program. The Bannatyne program was one of the interventions I had researched so it was interesting to see it in person. The program focuses a lot on the vowel sounds. The sheets are color coded with colors that have the name of the vowel sound in them. For example, green was used to represent the “e” sound.

One of the most interesting rooms we saw was a room that was teaching literacy by using music. The children read from a book and had to sing a lot of the sentences. Also, they practiced their syllables by beating on buckets. At morning tea, we got to talk to the teacher who has seen the program have a bug impact on the students. In fact, she said that her class has made students excel enough to finish their Bannatyne program.

One of the themes that I saw in some of the classrooms was “pride in our place.” One classroom was doing rotating groups. One of the stations focused on learning about flags from countries all over the world. Other stations had children reading multicultural books and then answering questions from what they read. There was also a large focus on new Zealand and what they called “kiwiana.” The students had to answer questions about things associated with New Zealand such as pavlova, gumboots, L&P, and fijoas.

After morning tea, Brittany and I went to a Year 1 class and had a really good conversation with the teacher. Although I will not be teaching children that young, it was really interesting to hear the methods they use when children are first staring school. After that, we walked in and out of a few classes. Of course, all of the walls of all of the classes were filled with student t work.  One classroom in particular, the ESOL room, had every inch of the wall covered with a lot of interesting information.

During breaks, the students were practicing for the festival. They were doing what they called “jump jam.” Music was played, and the students did dance moves. A teacher was leading the students, and it seemed really fun.

After lunch, we chatted with Robyn and she answered the questions that we had. She showed us the program that the teachers use to  track attendance and behavior. It seemed like a great program because you had all of your information in one place. All teachers receive a laptop from the Ministry of Education and the school chooses the program that they want to use in their school out of 5 Ministry approved ones.

The day was really great and the school was very welcoming. They invited us to come to their festival, but we will be in Rotorua. After school we went to One Tree Hill. The view from the top was really amazing. On the way up there was a big field with lots of sheep. I tried to get close to some to get a picture but they all ran away from me!  We will be leaving for Rotorua this evening. Bryony found a house for us to stay in that in on the lake that had kiyaks. We won’t have internet access this weekend so I am not sure when my next blog will be.

Glen Eden Intermediate

Today, Sara and I visited a school she used to teach at, Glen Eden. It was a very big school with over 1000 students. She ran into a lot of people she knew and showed me her old classroom.

The first class we went to was an enrichment class. They were doing inquiry learning. The students were using mini laptops to do their presentations which was a very nice resource. The filled out booklets that outlined their presentation and the information on the topic they were learning about. I was very impressed with one group that was doing their presentation on water. In the booklet, they had little scripts stapled to each page. It was very detailed and they had mixed in some humor to their presentation as well. Many of the students had great presentations and were working hard on completing them.

The next class we went to was a Year 8. The teacher was a former principal who quit to go into teacher. His passion for his job was really inspiring. His children were also doing presentations over inquiry learning. He had created a packet that the stduents had to fill out about their subject. It was really detailed, and he let me have a copy. The students were in a lab working on their projects. Many of the students were off task playing games, printing pictures, or finding wallpapers for the computers.

After morning tea, Dr. Lindsey and I had a little meeting with some of the teachers. They had a lot of questions about education in the United States and we shared information about what we have learned so far. It was really interesting to hear their opinions about education in both New Zealand and the U.S.

The next class was a Year 7 English class. They were learning about alliteration and assonance because that was an area of weakness in their testing results. The teacher gave examples on the board and then the students had to come up with their own examples. Then, the class went outside on a lawn and spread out. they had to use figurative language to write a few sentences about being outside using their five senses. At the end of class, a few students shared their paragraphs and I was very impressed at how detailed they were.

At the end of the day, we sat in on a teacher doing what she called "book club." When she started the year, she noticed that the students had a very negative opinion of reading. To fix that problem, she told the students that they did not have to do any writing over their books for two whole terms. She also decided to split the genders because girls usually overshadow boys during discussions. In her class, she had two boy groups and two girl groups that were reading four different books. For their discussion, the students had to summarize what they read, make connections with the text, and then make predictions using actual or possible evidence. I found the class really interesting. I liked the idea of splitting the boys from the girls. The group I observed was a gril group and they had great discussion over their book. Unfortunately, I didn't get to observe a boy group, but Dr. Lindsey said they she was amazed at what the boys were discussing.

This has been a very fast week! Tomorrow we are going to Royal Oak Primary. After, we are going to One Tree Hill which I have been dying to go to since it shares the name of my favorite t.v. show. We won't be staying at One Tree Hill for long, because we are heading to Rotorua tomorrow night. We are stopping at a restaurant near where they are filming The Hobbit. I am really looking forward to the weekend. I plan on getting a massage and am looking forward to relaxing in the hot springs. Also, we are going to a hangi which should be delicious! I am looking forward to all of the culture!

Kaurilands Primary School

We are staying at the beach house for a few days this week so we do not have internet access. It has been quite an adventure going around the towns to try and find wifi. Luckily, we were able to find a McDonalds that has it.

The school we visited today was a decile 8 primary school. It was a very big school with about 800 students.  The school is continuing to grow each year so that had some construction going on. Luckily, the school had a lot of land. The Year 6 students were working on a field all day outside doing problem solving activities which they called day camp. Denise, who is a friend of Bryony, organized our day and was our guide around the school.

The first classroom’s teacher was on release so every Wednesday a certain aide teaches the class. The class was doing a unit on community. Today’s lesson was to learn how to  compare things. The students had learned about how school’s were 100 years ago. On the inside of the chart, they listed the things that they knew about schools from their previous lesson. Then, they read a story from one their school journals (free journals provided by the Ministry of Education) and filled in the outside of the organizer with the new material they learned. Since she does not teach the class every day, the aide uses a book that has a bunch of teaching practices with activities in it. I have seen the book many times and will definitely be getting it when I get back to the U.S.

The next class we visited was doing a unit on the brain. The class was split into groups and given a text about a specific part of the brain. Then, their groups went outside and did talking frames. Talking frames were a list of a few questions for the students that they had to discuss with their partners. The students were going to present their part of the brain in front of the class during the next class.

We also got to observe another reading recovery lesson. The teacher was doing the same thing that the pervious teacher had done. I can definitely see the effectiveness of the program and why it is such a success. We stopped in quickly to watch the school’s kapa haka group. They hired a Maori man to teach the students. Although they had just started learning it, the students did a great job demonstrating what they knew.

The school was having book week which meant that they had a scholastic book fair going on. One of the teachers in the school had written a children’s book which Dr. Lindsey and Dr. Fernandez bought and got signed. After, we went to the new entrant teacher to talk to her. She told us about the activities that she did with the new students. I saw a lot of similar methods that were used in other schools.

At the end of the day, we talked to Denise and she showed us some of the testing that the students did. It was really interesting. I love the fact that tests in New Zealand are used to access the students to make sure that the teacher know what level they are on. In the U.S. unfortunately, tests are used to grade schools and teachers. There is talk that New Zealand might be switching to this type of system but all of the schools are hoping that that will not happen.

Bruce McLaren Intermediate

Bruce McLaren is an intermediate school (Year 7 and 8) that is a decile 3. The four of us were split into two teams (Dr. Lindsey and I and Brittany and Dr. Fernandez), and we toured the school separately.  The first class we went to was outside playing a tag game with a tennis ball. We were told that the teacher takes the kids outside at the beginning of the day each morning to get them ready for the day. This class was the Year 8 independent study group which meant that they were a group that was at a high enough level to work independently so that they could get through more curriculum. When they got into the classroom, the students had to use the six letters on the board to make as many words from them as possible. Then, the words were listed on the board and the teacher asked the students to define the ones that were unusual. The students were allowed to use dictionaries and were encouraged to use them to guess words and then check them. Next, we went to the Year 7 independent learner’s class. All of the classes seemed to be working with ANZAC Day. This class was put into groups and they all had to read a piece of texts that had a war theme. They had to answer questions based on their specific text. The room was decorated with a lot of student work including letters that the students wrote to their parents from the viewpoint of a WWI soldier.

After morning tea, we visited the special education class. They were in the library. The teacher taught them the different between fiction and nonfiction books. Then, they had to select a book on their level to read during SSR. One girl asked if she could read to me. She read The Princess Diaries and I was very impressed by how well she could read. The next class we observed was in the theatre room. They had read a war poem in class. The teacher had them working in group and finding the main ideas of the poem. Once they had the main ideas, they had to create a snapshot of that idea. The snapshot was basically a pose that expressed the concept.  For example, one of the main ideas was that the boy in the poem had to go to war and some of the student were saluting in their snapshot of that idea.

We also visited the ESOL class. There was a wide range of students in that class. Their learning goal was memorizing information. The teacher put them into groups and each member of the group was given English sentences to memorize. Students who spoke very little English were given the shortest sentences. We were able to observe the students trying to memorize their sentences, but we did not get to see whether or not the groups were successful.

One thing that I found really interesting was their tech classes. First, we went into their cooking class where they were making potato wedges. The teacher explained that her goal was to teach them simple, inexpensive, and healthy recipes that they could easily make at home. Another tech class was a woodworking class. Some of the projects that the students were doing was clocks, dvd racks, or carved paddles. Many works from past students were displayed all over the room and they were very good. Then, we went to the metal shop class where they were making letters or shapes out of metal and then putting lights on it to make them light up. I also got to talk to the art teacher. Her work was decorated beautifully with a lot of student artwork. Her goal was to have the students create artwork that represented New Zealand. Going to these classes made me wish that there were similar programs in schools in the U.S. Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, these classes are the first ones to get cut.

The next class we visited was a Year 7 class. They were learning to write a persuasive essay. The teacher outlined what a persuasive essay needs on the board  and then had students work on their opening paragraphs. After ten minutes, students were selected to read their paragraph to the class. I was not very impressed with this class. There was no interaction, and it was a very boring lesson.  At the end of the day, we went to the reading room to observe rainbow reading and the 4 minute program. The 4 minute program was one of the interventions I researched so it was really interesting to see it in person.  The teacher meets with the students very briefly. They go over a word blend, give examples of words that contain that blend, and then use one of those blends in a sentence. The students choose a novel and the teacher reads the first few pages with them. They take the book home with them and they have to read more of it and then go over what they read with the teacher the next day. In the four minute program, the teacher meets with each student .

Waikato University

Yesterday, we went to a multicultural festival. I really enjoyed seeing all the unique dances and the different types of food available. Robert and Sofya performed with their class and did great. We also got to see the kapa haka group perform that we observed at the Pukekohe Intermediate the other day. Once we got back to the house, we packed out belongings and headed to Hamilton to get a hotel.

We woke up early this morning to get to the university. They had a beautiful campus with two lakes and a lot of interesting plants and trees. A lot of the building were right by the lake so you could sit or eat and have a beautiful view. The first thing we did was observe a guided reading lesson. All sophomore students have a 50 minute lecture together. Those students are split into 3 groups for tutorials which are taught by three different teachers. The three teachers also rotate the lecture class as well. I really like that New Zealand students get a lot of time in the schools. On the other hand, their degree only takes three years, so I am not sure how much more prepared to teach they are. The guided reading lecture was really good. The things that she taught are definitely concepts that we are seeing in the schools.

At morning tea, we got to chat with the tutorial teachers. One of the teachers was American, and Brittany and I compared our education with the one that she got. She was really interesting to talk to! We got to also go to one of the hour tutorials. Jody and I sat in on the one that was taught by the same woman who did the lecture. She showed a video of a teacher doing a guided reading lesson with students who were about Year 6. The stduents had to identify the types of strategies that the teacher was using in the lesson. The students did not seem really engaged, and the same students were answering all of her questions.

In the afternoon, we toured the campus. We went into two different bookstores and libraries. The education department had its own library which was very nice. Thankfully, we have the LRC at Morehead, or I would have been very jealous that they have that resource. I really enjoyed the university. I am looking forward to going to more and seeing if they also have the lecture/tutorial setup.

For dinner, we drove to Cambridge (which we thought was a lot closer than it was) for Indian food. After dinner, we had to go back through Hamilton to get home. It is now almost 10 pm which is my bedtime. These New Zealand days are very long, and I get tired really early.

P.S. UK won again! We are in the final four. I will be very mad if they win a national championship while I am out of the country!!

Go CATS!

We woke up today, and it was raining. The four of us decided not to go to the beach. Instead, we relaxed and Brittany and I did homework. For lunch, we drove to Waiuki and ate at a cafe. We headed to the grocery to pick up a few small things.

When we got back, I got on espn.go and kept refreshing the page to see the score of the UK vs. OSU game. I am definitely missing March Madness back in the states! Kentucky won which put me in a great mood! I called home to talk to my mom which was great. My dad has to work in the morning so he was asleep. He will be so excited to wake up and see that UK won.

I am hoping that the rain will stop tomorrow. Not sure what we have planned. We go to our first university Monday, and I think we are getting a hotel tomorrow night since it is pretty far away from the house.

Waiau Pa School

 Last night after dinner, I started feeling sick. I had cold chills and could not stay warm even under all of my covers. I went to sleep early and thought that I was okay when I woke up. While I was in the shower, however, I started to feel dizzy, and I ran to the bathroom where I threw up several times. Throughout the day I was feeling really weak and tired, and I did not have an appetite. I am feeling much better now, so I am hoping that it was just a small 24 hour bug.

Today, we visited the school that Bryony teaches at. The first thing I observed was a reading recovery session. It was very similar to the one I saw at Koru. The student read a new book. Then, he read his book from the day before while the teacher did a running record. After that, he came up with a sentence that he wrote in his book. The teacher sends the sentence home with the parents so that they can practice the words with the child.

While Brittany taught and Dr. Lindsey filmed it, Dr. Fernandez and I wondered in and out of classes. We went into the Year 1 and new entrant classes. The Year 1 class was making colorful pictures, and the new entrant class was coloring 3-D drawings. After morning tea, I got to spend about an hour in the New entrant classroom while they did a full reading lesson. The teacher had a SmartBoard that she used. It was very interesting to see all of the things that a SmartBoard can do. Once again, the children were grouped, and the groups moved around to different stations.

The next class I went to was a Year 5 or 6 (I'm not really sure). The class was doing a unit about rights and responsibilities, and they were working on explanations. I did not think that the lesson was some thing special. In fact, it reminded me of something that I would see in Kentucky. One thing I did like about the classroom, however, was the math work that was displayed on the walls. There were a lot of graphs and fun activities that the children had done.

After lunch, Dr. Lindsey went into a classroom that had a pet turtle. She has about 15 turtles and 300 snakes at her house, so she answered student questions about  turtles and how to better take care of their turtle. It was really interesting to listen to all that she knew, and I definitely learned more about snakes and turtles.

At 2, we went to watch the students have their "rock star challenge." The students were asked to practice a song that they had to sing in front of the class. During the hour, about 6 children performed, and I was amazed by their talents. One girl played guitar and another played electric guitar. They all sang really well too. The goal of the challenge was to get stduents to take risk and not care about what others think. The students were very brave! I could not have gotten up in front of my entire class and sang when I was in middle school.

It has been a very long week! All of us are exhausted! I am very happy to be here, and I am learning a lot from the NZ schools. I am hoping for a long relaxing weekend at the beach. On Monday, we visit our first university which I am really looking forward to.

Maraetai Beach School

I wish that I could go back in time, move to New Zealand, and go to Maraetai Beach School. It was a very nice school with a beautiful view! Who wouldn’t want to go to school on the beach? When we arrived at the school we met with Lesley Pether, the principal, and the deputy principal of the younger children. They gave us a quick synopsis of the school. It is a decile 10 school which was quite different than decile 1 school Koru. Deciles rank the economic status of a school with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. It was a very small school with only about 200 students.

The first school that we went to was a Year 2 classroom. The students read a big book aloud with the teacher. she stopped to have students recognize the beginning sound of some words. One thing I really like was that she had a wheel with "ig" on it and it rotated to put a letter in from of "ig." The students had to read the words (ex. fig, pig, rig, jig) and act them out. Afterwards, they split up into groups and did different activities such as spelling words in play-doh, reading with the teacher, and playing word games.

The second class we visited was the New Entrant class. Students were in groups all over the classroom working on different activities. They had one child who was having his first day of school, because he recently celebrated his 5th birthday. One activity had students writing get well soon cards to a character in the book that they were reading.

After morning tea, we visited a class that had both Year 3 and 4 students. This class was also split into groups (I am starting to see a theme!). Students were reading, working on their spelling lists, or playing word games. I really liked that there were 4 different spelling lists. In the U.S. all students are given the same vocabulary words even if they are too hard or too easy for them. Another surprising thing was that there was a cat in the classroom! Schools in NZ are so laid back. There was also a cat that roamed around the staff room.

The last classroom we saw was a Year 5 and 6 class. The teacher had students read silently for a couple minutes, and he called a few students to his desk to read out load to him. Students them went into their reading groups to read. At the end of the period, the students got our recorders and xylophones to practice for their upcoming assembly.  The teacher was very talented at the guitar, piano, and recorder, and his passion for music was displayed in the classroom. One thing that I found interesting was that graded work was hung up in the class. I guess that is another aspect of NZ's openness, because in America grades are always kept confidential.

After lunch, we stayed in the classroom and chatted with the principals. Lesley gave us some great resources since she was a literacy adviser for 6 years. Also, she gave us the name of a great college in Christchurch that we are hoping to visit since Canterbury University cannot host us. Overall, I really enjoyed the school. We are definitely starting to see patterns in what the schools are doing. Almost every classroom we have visited has had the students put into ability groups and the classrooms have all of the walls covered with students work and literacy posters. Also, the teachers are always on the floor with their students and never in desks.
Tomorrow is our last school of the week. It is the school where Dr. Lindsey’s sister, Bryony, teaches at. Brittany will be teaching two lessons tomorrow! I am glad that I don’t have to teacher a class while I am here. I am jealous, however, that Brittany can say that she taught in New Zealand!

Pukekohe Intermediate

Picture 1: welcome sign
Picture 2: students workbooks
Picture 3: PB4L posters
Picture 4: student egg
Picture 5: literature circles

Today, we visited Pokekohe Intermediate, a school of over 600 Year 7 and 8 (grade 6 and 7) students. There school is doing a unit called B4L which is positive behavior for learning. All of their texts had a positive message, and there were a lot of posters in the classroom that involved having good manner and values. PB4L was on display in the first classroom, because the teacher read "The Lion and the Mouse,” and the children discussed how that related to PB4L.Then, they wrote a diary dash from one of the character's perspectives. Some students read their stories aloud, and I was very impressed with their creativity. Afterwards, the children were put into groups to work on various assignments. The teacher worked with some students outside, and many of the inside students were off task.

The next classroom we went to was a Year 8 class. They were doing poetry and they read an excerpt from "The Witches" by Roald Dahl. I enjoyed how the teacher made them read the poem with a witch voice. Also, she made them take away some of the lines of the poem and write their own in. The students were able to name a lot of poetic devices prior to reading, but I wish the teacher would have had them name specific examples of those devices in the poem.

The third class we visited was a Year 7 classroom. It was an advanced classroom, and they were doing literature circles. I really liked that the students had their own wiki page. I think it would be very useful for the students and would keep them very organized. We also got to see the students’ workbooks. They were very colorful, and they showed that the students have been exposed to a lot of different types of writing. The teacher gave the children different books to choose from and they were group with the students who chose that book as well. Each students in the group is given a specific job. The students stayed on task during the class really well. I was able to talk to the teacher, and she was very nice. She even gave us a copy of a book that Dr. Lindsey and Dr. Fernandez have been trying to order.

One classroom that was really interesting was the bilingual/ Maori enrichment classroom. The students in the classroom were either frequent Maori speakers or trying to learn the language. Apart from the language, the teacher was having the students create Maori crafts and practice Maori values. Students were specially selected to be in the class. As part of PB4L, the students were learning about responsibility. As a side project, students have to take care of an egg for two weeks. Many of the students had given their eggs names and made them beds. They really seemed to be careful of what they did with their egg or who they let watch it. I also noticed that the teacher gave out sticks for students who were displaying good behavior or who participated. The same system was used when I was in elementary school.

We spoke to a lady who ran a class to help students who were behind in reading. She taught us about kinesiology which helps students relieve tension and focus. She also helps identify students with dyspraxia and Irlen's. Another big focus of her class is writing cursive. Writing words in cursive helps students realize the connection of the letters to make a word. Overall, she teachers about 40 children who are behind in reading. She tests them at the beginning and end of the year, and the tests showed that they made great progress over the year. The four of us are very interested in reading more about the methods that the teacher used, because we were not sure if we believe the amount of progress that she said the students were making.

After lunch, Dr. Lindsey to us to observe the students practicing a kapa haka. A kapa haka is a Maori performance that involves singing and dancing. It was really interesting. I took a lot of good videos of their performance. The students were practicing, because they are going to perform the kapa haka this weekend at a multicultural festiva;. We will be there watching, because Sofya and Robert are performing something with their school as well.

After the kapa haka, we left the school. We went to ANOTHER cafe (it is becoming an everyday occurrence which I won't complain about). We went to The Warehouse (similar to Wal-Mart) to get Brittany ads for the lesson she will be teaching Friday. Then, we went to buy groceries for our lunches for the next two days. For dinner, Martin grilled delicious cheeseburgers. He also cooked eggs on the grill, and I tried one on my burger. I really liked it! I can't believe tomorrow is already Thursday. The days in the school go really fast since we are taking-in A LOT of information. Today, marks one week of being in New Zealand. The time is going by very fast!