So it has been almost one week in New Zealand and as always during this time I’m having mixed feelings. The culture shock here has not been as great as the last time that I was abroad. Swanson, the city where I am staying, feels a lot like rural England to me, so it hasn’t taken too much time to get acquainted with things in general. Thank god for sleeping pills because I slept most of the 12 hour journey here and didn’t experience too much jet lag.
Our town is very quaint. I’m staying a five minute walk from the school, which is very convenient. It is nice because many people also live close to the school. The other student teacher from Wisconsin, Meagan, lives just down the road with one of the teachers, and a few of my students also live in the area. My host family is one of the families who and the school. Jan’s son (my host mom) is 6 years old. He is really funny and very curious about me and conscientious about where I am at all times. He still has not caught on to my name though, so I often here things like, “mom, where is the student teacher going” or “mom, what did you just say to the student teacher?” It is quite funny how curious he is. I was talking to Brian on the phone a few days ago and playing mindless games on my computer while doing so. All the sudden I felt a presence and thought the cat had come into my room. I looked next to me and there was Cory, chin propped in his elbows, watching my game. He is very into my comp
uter, I-pod, and chewing gum of all things. He is always asking me to use those three things. So far we've also had a few visits to the different beaches since we came on a holiday weekend--but it is very windy and kind of cold at the moment, so we didn't stay longer than to snap a few photos. Once again I get a D for my packing skills and I've been permanently living in my brown fleece (thank god for last mintue stops at Target!). 
I’m both excited and nervous about teaching my class. The classes here are mostly two grades combined. I have 11 and 12 year olds or years 7 and 8 as they say here. They had a holiday on Monday so I am just starting day three of classes. It has been a very interesting experience so far, but I’ve been told by many that I’m in a difficult class which of course makes a shy person like me immediately scared. However, some of this has diminished since talking to the some of the student. Yesterday at lunch a group of them swarmed me and began asking all sorts of questions about the United States—have I seen famous people, what’s my first name, do I see snakes where I live, do I go camping where I live, have I been to New York, etc. There interest made me excited and also to share with them a PowerPoint that I made about home. And I’m definitely glad to see that my previous worry that I wouldn’t understand them with their accent is not true J.
It was also great to see that the activities in my class are all student centered activities. It is like many of my classes and textbooks from last year at Stritch have come to life. I’m seeing differentiation, multiple intelligence incorporated, and lots of student choices. For example, I was amazed by the preparation the teachers put into getting ready for their country exploration. They are using Inquiry methods for teaching at Swanson and right now my class is in the Acquiring Knowledge phase. The teachers in this grade level made bulletin boards for various countries/continents around the world. The students are currently on a “Swanson World Tour.” They each were given a passport that has their name and a place for each area of the world they visit. It is their job to go to a board and grab an “itinerary” which is a sheet with questions that they will learn by reading different parts of the board. Then when they have finished that and any activities that are associated (i.e. in Africa they make beaded necklaces, in Japan they do writing on tissue paper), they have to make a postcard home and tell the person they are writing to about the things they learned in the area of the world that they just visited. Then they also have to down a question about something more that they would like to know about this area of the world. When these are both done to the teacher’s satisfaction, she stamps their passport and they are able to move on to another board/part of the world. From here they will move on to researching one of the five questions they ask. It is really great to see the students all independently working at different points in this process. I’m only worried about the classroom management that goes into keeping many of these students focused. There definitely seem to be some students who use this independence to their advantage and are doing other tasks. This will definitely be a challenge for me and a difference from my last placement where there was no tolerance for this.
Our town is very quaint. I’m staying a five minute walk from the school, which is very convenient. It is nice because many people also live close to the school. The other student teacher from Wisconsin, Meagan, lives just down the road with one of the teachers, and a few of my students also live in the area. My host family is one of the families who and the school. Jan’s son (my host mom) is 6 years old. He is really funny and very curious about me and conscientious about where I am at all times. He still has not caught on to my name though, so I often here things like, “mom, where is the student teacher going” or “mom, what did you just say to the student teacher?” It is quite funny how curious he is. I was talking to Brian on the phone a few days ago and playing mindless games on my computer while doing so. All the sudden I felt a presence and thought the cat had come into my room. I looked next to me and there was Cory, chin propped in his elbows, watching my game. He is very into my comp
uter, I-pod, and chewing gum of all things. He is always asking me to use those three things. So far we've also had a few visits to the different beaches since we came on a holiday weekend--but it is very windy and kind of cold at the moment, so we didn't stay longer than to snap a few photos. Once again I get a D for my packing skills and I've been permanently living in my brown fleece (thank god for last mintue stops at Target!). I’m both excited and nervous about teaching my class. The classes here are mostly two grades combined. I have 11 and 12 year olds or years 7 and 8 as they say here. They had a holiday on Monday so I am just starting day three of classes. It has been a very interesting experience so far, but I’ve been told by many that I’m in a difficult class which of course makes a shy person like me immediately scared. However, some of this has diminished since talking to the some of the student. Yesterday at lunch a group of them swarmed me and began asking all sorts of questions about the United States—have I seen famous people, what’s my first name, do I see snakes where I live, do I go camping where I live, have I been to New York, etc. There interest made me excited and also to share with them a PowerPoint that I made about home. And I’m definitely glad to see that my previous worry that I wouldn’t understand them with their accent is not true J.
It was also great to see that the activities in my class are all student centered activities. It is like many of my classes and textbooks from last year at Stritch have come to life. I’m seeing differentiation, multiple intelligence incorporated, and lots of student choices. For example, I was amazed by the preparation the teachers put into getting ready for their country exploration. They are using Inquiry methods for teaching at Swanson and right now my class is in the Acquiring Knowledge phase. The teachers in this grade level made bulletin boards for various countries/continents around the world. The students are currently on a “Swanson World Tour.” They each were given a passport that has their name and a place for each area of the world they visit. It is their job to go to a board and grab an “itinerary” which is a sheet with questions that they will learn by reading different parts of the board. Then when they have finished that and any activities that are associated (i.e. in Africa they make beaded necklaces, in Japan they do writing on tissue paper), they have to make a postcard home and tell the person they are writing to about the things they learned in the area of the world that they just visited. Then they also have to down a question about something more that they would like to know about this area of the world. When these are both done to the teacher’s satisfaction, she stamps their passport and they are able to move on to another board/part of the world. From here they will move on to researching one of the five questions they ask. It is really great to see the students all independently working at different points in this process. I’m only worried about the classroom management that goes into keeping many of these students focused. There definitely seem to be some students who use this independence to their advantage and are doing other tasks. This will definitely be a challenge for me and a difference from my last placement where there was no tolerance for this.
Other subjects are also student centered as well. In fact, the students don’t even have textbooks. In spelling each student gets their own list of spelling words based on words they got wrong in a test they were given. The students have a list of possible choices for activities that they can do (they do about 8 activities with the words each week) with these words and are tested on them Friday. These activities are even in three levels based on the students’ level. Finally, homework is given on Mondays and the students are supposed to independently work to complete it by Friday. Mrs. Thompson, my cooperating teacher, has two different homework levels. For those students who are exceptional in their quality and timeliness in homework, they have a choice of doing a different homework sheet with more enrichment activities. I’m very excited to be a part of all the great things going on in this classroom.Last night Meagan, the other student teacher, and I started planning our weekend activities for the time in which we are here. Upcoming activities include going to these caves and rafting inside them and my favorite, seeing Lord of the Rings tour Hobbiton. That has gotten me also excited as I look forward to getting out and seeing different parts of New Zealand. This weekend I'm going out for dinner with my host family (Jan) and her friends. Then Saturday morning we are going to take her boyfriend's spinning class which should be a nice change from running up the steep hills surrounding Swanson.
Then Megan and I are off to Auckland for the day to see what the city has to offer. We haven't been there except for flying into the airport, so it should be fun to explore. Finally, Sunday I’m taking a day trip with Meagan and her host mom, Rachel (Cory’s teacher at school) to Raugitoto Island. Hopefully the weather will warm up and cooperate!!
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