Patamahoe Primary

Picture 1: activity chart
Picture 2: Students artwork
Picture 3: PMP room
Picture 4: Patamahoe logo
Picture 5: student artwork

Today was our first day in the schools. We attended Robert and Sofya's school, but they weren't there today because of the funeral. At the beginning of the day the principal, Mr. Gordon, sat down with us and gave us an overview of the school and some of it's programs. He was really helpful, and he is even going to try and order some NZ curriculum books for us for free. The first classroom that I went to was the Year 1  new entrance classroom. Since every New Zealand students starts on their 5th birthday, the students are at very different levels in the classroom. The teacher, Mrs. C., did a great job of teaching them basic skills. The classroom was decorated really well and was very fun and inviting. The teacher did stations with the students. One station was reading with her on the carpet. Another was painting a bee worksheet to practice the letter b. There was also a reading station and a station with letter blocks. One thing I was really impressed with was how she called the students to morning tea. She would clap the number a certain number of times, and the students whose names had that many syllables in them were allowed to go. One student was in a group by herself. When it was her turn to have the station with the teacher, she practiced a book and she read to the class at the very end of the period. She was very involves and sat on the ground with the students. The classroom was very organized and the students really knew what to do. I was surprised that they actually did the work in the stations without the teacher keeping them on track.  A parent came in to help clean and the teacher informed me that a lot of the parents were responsible for making a lot of the laminated cards and other things in the classroom. It is very good to have parent involvement int he classroom!

At ten thirty we had morning tea. Everyone in the schools stops for tea, and the children snack and play on the playground. Brittany, Dr. Fernandez , and I had our tea with the teachers. I had some delicious frosted cookies with my tea. After tea, Brittany and I observed the other Year 1 classroom. Once all the new entrance students are ready to move on they go to that classroom. Depending on their ability, some students spend over a year in year 1 (a full year in Year 1 plus half a year or so in the entrance Year 1 class) and some students accelerate to the regular Year 1 classroom pretty quickly after entering school. This class was doing something similar to the first class I observed. There were a lot more stations. The stations that I can remember were reading with the teacher, playing a game on the computer, putting cards with nursery rhymes on them in the right order, word bingo, playing a match game with food items, and reading big books with pointers. The kids were really interested in the games at their stations. Once everyone had been to every station the teacher sang as they cleaned. she sang "Do your ears hang low" and "Head shoulders knees and toes" in Maori. All the kids made their way to the carpet as she sang and then they read an alliterative book as a class. The teacher did a good job of stopping at harder words and relating the words to real life. Her classroom was really decorated and there was A LOT of student work displayed.

We had lunch while the kids played recess. I was surprised that the students are given 50 minutes to play. New Zealand schools definitely value fitness and activity. After lunch, Mr. Gordon explained to us the special education programs at the school since Brittany has a focus in special ed. We also learned about a program for all Year 2 and 3 (grade 1 and 2 in the U.S.) students that focused on motor skills. It is set up in an old church and parents volunteer to oversee it twice a week. There are five different stations that focus on different areas such as flexibly and coordination. There also work on fine motor skills. Four of the five stations switch and there are a hundred different card with different activities on them. The fifth station is always an eye tracking stations. Students lay on the ground and the volunteer moves a ball over their head to see if they can follow it. Mr. Gordon explained to us that there is research that students' peripheral vision is decreasing because of the increase of TV watching and video game playing. There is not a program like that in America, but I thought it was a great idea. It could definitely provide good information about students and could help discover problems that may prohibit learning.

The third class I observed was a Year 4 (grade 3) class. The students were working on writing more descriptive sentences. They had to use adjectives to write sentences. This classroom was not very decorated. Also, some students finished very early and moved on to other projects while some students did not finish the first worksheet. A few students were called to do a game that was teaching them how to type. The teacher did not go around a check to make sure students were working, and they would not let me help them finish their work. The teacher ended up on the floor with the early finishers helping them color circle drawling with warm or hot colors. Some students were working on collages about certain events in their lives. They were drawling and cutting letters out of a magazine, and the pictures were very creative. Overall, I felt like the teacher was not focusing on the right students. There was not much organization as there were four different assignments being conducted at once. Although many of the assignments were interesting, I felt that many students were being left behind.

Overall, it was a great first day full of new information. Some of the interesting things I noticed were that the students did not wear shoes in the classrooms and that the teacher were never at their desks. In one classroom, I couldn't even locate a teacher desk. If there was a desk, a student was usually sitting there and playing a game on the computer for one of the stations. In the U.S., teachers always have a desk in their classrooms. The teachers were all very hands-on and interactive which the students. They wore really laid back clothing and often sat on the floor with the students. I am excited to observe a intermediate school (or middle school) to see if they have the same type of atmosphere or if they do the same type of grouping activities as productively as the primary schools. I really like the idea of cooperative learning, and it is really beneficially in the middle grades.

After the schools we stopped and did a little shopping in Pukekohe. Of course, we want to a cafe. Dr. Lindsey treated us to celebrate that she recently got tenure. I ordered a rocky road treat which was like a brownie with fudge, marshmallows, and nuts. It was very delicious. I have never seen so many cafes in my life! There were probably 5 of them in the strip malls that lined the streets. There shops there were a lot more inexpensive, and I think we are going back on Wednesday since we are going to a school there. Tomorrow is Koru full primary school. That means that it goes up to Year 7 and 8 (grade 6 and 7). I hope it will go as well as today did!