So I have now been at the school for four days. It has been fascinating learning about how their education system works compared to ours in the US and Minnesota. Over here in NZ, the students focus on the NCEA. The students must gain credits at the three different levels offered, and these are usually obtained throughout Years 11, 12, and 13. These credits are obtained through taking classes, and they can even be gained through certain training or work experiences I think. You must have a certain amount of credits to get into University. I was told tonight that students do not "graduate" from high school like we do. Instead, they get records based upon the completion of these NCEA credits, and these records are used in order for students to get into University and to even be considered for many jobs, so they are kind of a big deal for these students. The students are assessed either internally or externally. Internally is basically how we do testing in the States. The teachers provide students with tests after a unit, and then the teacher decides on the level of understanding of the student. Externally is kind of like an AP exam because the students do not really take large assessments throughout the year, but then they must sit through an assessment at the end of the year to gain their credits. Students can have a score of: N - Not achieved, A - Achieved (this score basically says that the student is competent and can do the work), M - Merit (this is a little above just normal understanding of a topic), and E - Excellence (this means that the student truly understands all aspects of a certain concept and is really good). As far as I know, getting an Achieved is sufficient for most Universities and jobs, but obviously Merit or Excellence is better. The students get placed into houses (and can gain house points based upon doing things well at school which I think is amazing because it makes me feel like I'm at Hogwarts!). Each student is placed in the house in which all of their relatives were in (even cousins and extended family) which I think is awesome. There are about four high schools in the Coromandel Peninsula, and students can choose which to go to. Thames is one of the bigger schools, so some of the students travel an hour each day to get to school! That's dedication. The students at this school (along with many other schools in NZ) wear uniforms. They are similar to the kinds of uniforms we would see at a private school in MN.
I'll be teaching three classes. The first class is a Year 9 class. Right now they are working on rigid motions of shapes, so they are working on reflections, rotations, and translations. I'm not sure exactly what concept I'll be teaching them yet. Another class I'll be teaching is a Year 11 class. Right now, they are working on trigonometry and the Pythagorean Theorem. I have been able to work with about half of the students on problems and questions which has been nice to slowly get to know the students. The last class I'll be working in is a Year 12 class. These students are currently working on quadratics. I have been working with some students who are above the regular class who are working on "excellence" problems. Once this unit is done (in about a week and a half), I will be starting to teach a unit on logarithms! I have never taught logarithms, but luckily I have done some work with them as a ULA and in my first 8 weeks of student teaching. I look forward to working more in these classrooms!
On Tuesday, I was able to do something called Roopu Day Out. This is for all the Year 9 classes (two go at a time for one day, and then other classes go on different days). This is basically like a team bonding for the class. Year 9 is the first year that students are in high school, and since they begin their school year in January, this is a good way for students in the class to get to know each other since they are in literally every class together for the next five years. (I don't know if I mentioned it in my other post, but like I said one teacher will have the same class for math each year, this same class also takes social studies together, English together, etc. so they are with each other a lot). We took a bus about fifteen minutes away to a facility that is normally used as a church camp. The students did some team bonding activities, and then they got to do various activities such as shooting, spider web, flying fox, archery, a water slide, and kayaking/swimming. It was a lot of fun getting to know the students in this way, and I got to go with the Year 9 class that I will be teaching. It was a great way for me to see my students out of the classroom to get to know them.
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| This is where students got to practice shooting (with adult supervision of course!) |
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| This is the flying fox. It is essentially like a zip line. Students sit on a seat and go down this cord, and at the other end is a tire in which students try to reach. Then they come back down and need to run the seat back up to the next person. |
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| This was the little area in which the students could swim in. It's just a little open area in the middle of a river which gets pretty deep in the middle. |
Other than this day out, I had some pretty normal days at school. The updates will keep coming as I experience them! I will say I am loving the interval break after period 2. It is a great way for teachers to go down and have a cup of tea or coffee (which is drank ALL THE TIME here) and to socialize. Plus it gives the students a quick break as well. I was talking to a teacher who thought it was crazy that we didn't have a break until lunch time back in MN. Anyways, that's all for now. Cheers.
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