Saturday

Today is a wet, overcast day, and noone wanted to travel out to Piha, so my family went alone. The team spent the morning enjoying the peace; I slept! Then we drove into Waiuku for lunch and a little bit of shopping. Tomorrow we intend to drive down to Hamilton because we're due at Waikato University at 8:45am. I'm looking forward to spending time there, particularly as we have met up with two of their graduates, and they were very positive about their program. I'm hoping we'll pick up some good ideas, as well as perhaps unlock a few more "secrets" as to why NZ does so well in the reading department.

So far, my ideas include (and these are just ideas, so feel free to do some research about them!): a shorter day (9-3 with two good breaks - usually a 20-30 minute morning tea and play, and a 45-60 minute lunch and play), a connected curriculum approach (integration of the curriculum is HUGE here), constant differentiation and group work (not everyone is expected to be at the same level, and there can be as many as 7 groups in one class), inquiry based teaching (the student takes control of their learning - although we haven't seen this in ALL schools), and literacy rich classrooms (yes, even in the upper grades there is a huge amount of student work up on the walls, library areas, etc...). So far I haven't seen a single basal reader or anthology in a classroom - all reading is authentic. Worksheets are rare; in fact, the principal at Maraetai Beach School told us she'd BANNED them in her school.

So, that's my thinking so far. I'm sure there's more, but that will have to do for a rainy afternoon in Auckland, New Zealand! :-)