I have to start off by saying that I'm writing this sitting on the beach over looking Half Moon Bay which is right off the coast of Auckland and feeds into the Pacific. Still in the dead of "winter" and it's about 70 degrees with the bright sun setting over the water which is easily warmer than it was in Cape Cod a few weeks ago. It's no wonder Kiwis are viewed in such a happy light. . If I lived here I wouldn't have a complaint in the world!
Today I had another fabulous day of school observations as I attended each level of schooling throughout the day (primary, intermediate, and high school). I started my day at Mellons Bay Primary and sat in on a Year 1/2 class ( k-first graders). There are some combined classes like this in the school which helps with categorizing students based on age.
Before the class began, the teacher asked the students to guess where I was from... answers that included Africa, England, and Australia :) The morning meeting confirmed that all young students are in fact the same- very curious.. lots of questions at every opportunity! During class, a student shared his "All About Me" poster as the students practiced writing sentences. First they wrote a sentence about what they liked about the poster and then they wrote a sentence about what they liked about the student who was presenting. I enjoyed the teachers positive behavior method where students were given the okay to put up a frog or lily pad next to their name when they had behaved especially well. It was a clever way to quickly and efficiently reinforce positive behavior without disrupting the class. Next we travelled to the multipurpose room for PE where the students participated in the gymnastics stations that we discussed yesterday. It was a great lesson that I diligently collected the plans for and will definitely be using back at Calvert.
After morning tea I headed over to Bucklands Beach Intermediate School which holds about 600 students in Year 7 & 8 (12/13 year olds). I received a quick run down of the PE/ Health and Sport curriculum from the Sport Director (AD) Stacey K (great name!). She explained that they try to integrate the subjects as much as possible and showed some of the detailed lesson plans that they use. Her role is more of an admin for sport and she's responsible for planning out all PE and Health lessons and delivering them to the homeroom teachers to use.
I had the special opportunity to help out with a school Cross Country race which was held at the nearby high school (called McClans College- I snapped a picture of their uniforms for comparison). They have a few of these races throughout the year for students to improve their fitness- an idea that I'm hoping to bring back to Calvert!
The views from the high school were incredible! ! I was stationed on the course near the soccer fields and could not stop taking pictures and basking in the beauty of the view of the bay. The kids did great job with the very hilly course that was almost 4k.
Tonight, I'm having dinner at Mrs. Elliott's house - the teacher who so graciously planned my time here in Mellons Bay. I'm excited for some authentic NZ food and a chance to chat with her family about the remaining stops on my trip.
I included a few pictures of houses around here to give everyone an idea of why I need to save about a million $$ to move back. Hopefully they'll reverse the recent law banning foreigners from buying property by the time I'm rich!
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