You truly never know what to expect when you go into a school week. Every day is a brand new experience and you may think that you have a perfect week planned out, but there is always something that seems to happen and change your plans. Well, that was my week in a nutshell. I thought I had a wonderful week planned but children can easily change what you thought was perfect.
On Monday, I explained to my students that we were going to be learning even more about America over the week. I think it is important to understand the history of every nation, especially one that you are going to be learning about, so I took time to inform my students. Monday was spent talking about currency because the kids were really confused about pennies and dollar bills. In New Zealand, the smallest coin that they have is $0.20 and the smallest bill that they have is $5. They use $1 coins and $2 coins. So on Monday, we made sure to tackle the money side of things.
The day seemed to be going great until all of the sudden it wasn't. It is amazing how quickly things can shift in a classroom. One minute you think that everything is hunky dory and the next minute you have students acting like wild animals. Because of the crazy shift, Monday ended on a somewhat negative note (sadly) with students having to work completely silent because they couldn't seem to handle talking.
Tuesday came and the kids were acting much better. It was like I had a whole different class! We got to watch some Schoolhouse Rock and learn all about American history. They all loved the clips and were singing along once they caught on. We had a very watered down discussion about American history and what has happened over the years. Basically, we touched on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, slavery, and the nation today. Even though it was brief, the kids seemed to really love it.
Wednesday was a special day in New Zealand because there was a solar eclipse that was happening. Kids were able to buy glasses to see the eclipse and we took time out of our day to talk about it. It was one of the most amazing sights that I have ever seen and I wish I could have taken a picture of it. Unfortunately, there was no way to get a picture of it because you could only see it through the glasses.
Today is Thursday and we had quite the busy day. My co-op was sick today so I was on full control (which isn't anything new) but I had no supervisor watching me today. It was just me and the kiddos. Needless to say, I was extremely nervous about my first day ever without having someone at least popping in and out to how I was doing. However, the day went smoothly. We had our typical first block with maths and reading. Block two then came and I ended up dropping all of my plans because as a class, we were having some problems with respecting one another. Because of this, we spent an entire block on building a community and learning more about one another. It seemed like it helped but we will see tomorrow. For our last block, we talked all about body language as it pertained to our unit on communication. The kids were really interested in what was going on.
Tomorrow is Friday and I have more of a relaxed day planned. We have a syndicate assembly in the morning and we are going to be learning more about America. Hopefully, all of our time spend on building a classroom community will have helped!
This weekend, Miranda and I are going to an aquarium with my co-op Amanda. I am really excited to see the penguins!!! Then on Sunday, we are participating in a 6k run that goes all around Auckland. It should be a really fun and exciting weekend!
Kia Ora and until next time- (This is from the Maori language and means be healthy/well)
Elizabeth
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