First Day in the Schools!

Hello all! Today we began our work, and it was fascinating. We hopped in the van and arrived at Patumahoe School just after 8am. This school starts early (8:20am) because it's a country school, so we had to be there a little earlier than other schools. We spent the first hour or so with the principal, Ron, who gave us a really good overview of New Zealand education, including how the curriculum is put together (there is a national curriculum but each school must make it their own. Each school must choose what to focus on and have their own plans for meeting their goals. Patamahoe's was a neat document. I wish we could have had a copy, but it was very big. Ron did give us some part of it though - he put it on a flashdrive for us). Then, Jody and Brittany went to watch Reading Recovery and Kelli and I went to a New Entrant classroom. It was neat. The teacher had four groups, and each group did a different activity. She had a board up that showed what each group was to do, and after a set period of time, she picked up a sort of rain maker type thing and let the beads drop. All the children became statues and she directed them to the next activity. You could really tell that they knew what to do.

The children working with the teacher practised all sorts of reading activities such as finding the title on the book cover and counting the words, listening to the teacher read, pointing out the words, focusing on sounds, and finding words "hiding" in words (e.g. the word "come" in "welcome"). The teacher gave a sticker to the best pointer, and was also very encouraging. Oh, she sat on the floor with the children.

All the other children stayed on task! I counted thirteen children, and they were all engaged in whatever activity they were supposed to do. Activities included sorting through large poetry cards, alphabet jigsaws, coloring in a picture of a bee (B was the letter of the day), and writing the alphabet on individual whiteboards.

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for the whole time because I needed to leave for the funeral. I drove to the small country church and sat in the front row with my auntie. The service was very nice, and apart from the first few sentences, I managed to get my "speech" out without breaking down.

After the funeral, I went back to the school and talked a bit with the principal who is going to try to see if he can get us some books. He was really helpful, and I hope we can go back there at some stage.

Then we drove into Pukekohe. I think we all wanted to just "get away" for a bit, so we wandered up and down the main street, entering a few stores as the fancy took us. We went into a cafe for a bit too... got to love those cafes!