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!
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