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 .