Karori Normal School

I haven't had a chance to blog about this school. We went there on Tuesday, the day before I left to come home.
It was a Decile 10 school in Wellington.


We visited two classrooms. The first was doing guided reading. The class was doing a unit on the body. Around the room, some students were working on posters about the body, some were playing games on the computer, and some were on the carpet with the teacher. The second class was working on supporting statements with evidence. They read a passage and highlighted the evidence in the text. Then, they had to come up with their own evidence that supported the statement that the teacher gave.

Most of the day was spend in meeting chatting with some of the staff. The principal gave us general information about the school. The school theme was challenges. Instead of portfolios, they students had reflection books. They did unassisted writing at the beginning and end of the term. They selected what other pieces they wanted to go in their books. We also met with a woman who worked with the teachers and wrote lesson plans for the term. She gave us a copy. They were plans of what should be covered by a unit but a teacher could adapt the plan for his/her classroom.

We visited the library which was very cool and inviting. We ended the day with a meeting where we told them a lot about how Kentucky education is.

After the school we went to the Te Papa museum. It was very cool learning about New Zealand and seeing all of the artifacts. Our flight to Auckland was at 9:30. We had to change out tickets because they were accidentally scheduled for Wednesday instead of Tuesday. Luckily that was easy to fix and we arrived back in Auckland.