First, I want to say that what I've been indicating as differences in the schools here in NZ does not necessarily mean all schools run like that, but that's how Thames runs. For example, I was talking about Thames has six days with a different schedule on each day, but that isn't true for all schools here in NZ. One of the teachers was talking about how some of the schools go on a ten day schedule, so they have certain classes one week, different classes the next week, and then start over. It's pretty interesting. Also, Thames has staff meetings every day in the morning for about half hour or less each morning. School doesn't start until 8:45 in the morning, so it's really not too bad going to them. I like it because they talk about important things going on each day and throughout the week, and it lets teachers give an announcement to the entire staff at once if they have something to say. I know some teachers would hate having to go to meetings every day, but I actually don't mind them (but that could be because they have free coffee and tea each morning and all day in the staff room). One thing I'm still not used to is that they call math "maths" like plural, so it kind of sounds like they are speaking with a lisp. I'll probably be saying it when I come home, so everyone is going to think I'm crazy!
So far, I have worked in small-ish groups in the classes I'll be teaching. In my Year 11 class, they are studying right triangle trigonometry, coordinate geometry, and bearings. Because half the class was out on a kayaking trip, I worked with half the class on a practice assessment for two days while the cooperating teacher worked with the students who had been gone. I mostly just answered their questions while they worked on the exam, and then I would go over some of the problems with the entire class. It was a little difficult because I had to provide justification for all of my steps and some of their terminology/rules are said differently, so I had to make sure I was explaining to the class what I meant in each case. Eventually we were able to clarify everything so I know how I'm supposed to explain the rules and what terminology to use! Although I still haven't met the whole class quite yet, I know about half of the students now, and they have already heard me do work on the board up front, so it has been a nice first step in beginning the teaching progress in this class. I'm still not quite sure what the plan is after the students take their exam, so we'll see where it leads.
In my Year 12 class, they are working on applications of quadratic equations. There are about five "excellence" students who are beyond the level of the rest of the class, so I have been coming up with some extension problems for them to work on, and I basically worked with these students in class on these problems. It was nice getting to know a small group of students first before diving into the whole class. On Tuesday, I got to teach a lesson! After my cooperating teacher realized on Monday that my experience at Thames was my last experience before getting my license, he asked me Monday if I wanted to just start the next day, so I said sure why not? All I had to do was come up with some questions dealing with consecutive numbers (ex: two even consecutive numbers multiple to 156, what are the two numbers?) and then do some examples on the board and then have the students work on some. It was the first time the students had heard me present anything to the whole class, and they behaved very well! My cooperating teacher just sat back and observed, and he said I did a pretty good job! It's nice to just dive right it to working with the whole class and coming up with lessons rather than just sitting and observing. Tomorrow I get to teach the class about area and perimeter problems, so that should be fun! The big unit I'll be teaching in this class will be on negative and fractional indices and logarithms, so I've had to begin preparing for that.
Finally, I have a Year 9 class that I will be working with. This is the class I went to the Roopu Day Out with on the second day I was at the school, so I was able to start getting to know some of the students. I have also been going to their Roopu (like a homeroom after lunch) class with their Roopu teacher (who is a history teacher at the school) to continue working with and getting to know these students. Right now, these students are working on integers (mostly adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing negative numbers), so I have been walking around and helping students with their worksheets to begin with. Starting next week I'll be teaching many different things! I'll be teaching ratios, percentages, standard form (or scientific notation), and rounding. I have a busy week ahead of me!
It's been really nice working at this school because so many of the teachers are extremely helpful and friendly. It has been cool working with three different cooperating teachers (since they are all different for each class I teach). Petro's class is the Year 9 class that I have. It will be great being able to observe three different teachers do their lessons, and it will also be helpful hearing criticism on my own teaching from three different perspectives. I look forward to working with all of these teachers in the weeks to come!
Side note, sorry no pictures in this post. Just wait until the next one...Hobbiton!
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