One thing that I've found fascinating while working in New Zealand has been the fact that in primary school (or elementary as we'd call it in the States) swimming lessons are compulsory. It makes sense with New Zealand being a country surrounded by water, but it has been an adjustment for me as a teacher. I've had very little experience teaching any type of PE and no experience with teaching swimming. Yet, as a student teacher at Frankton School my responsibilities included teaching swimming lessons.
While the first couple of lessons were somewhat rocky, I actually grew to really enjoy teaching swimming. It was very different from everything else we did during the day and it added a bit of fun and excitement to the day. Plus the kids genuinely loved it!
Along with lessons came the annual Frankton Swimming Sports competition. Once a year, students from Frankton take a trip to the nearby intermediate school to borrow their much larger and deeper pool. Here students who are proficient at swimming are able to try their hand at competing in races. There are also fun and silly races for those students who are not so good at swimming.
We had about 5 of our students who competed in the championship races which included freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and a medley race. Three of them made it to the final races where one of our students managed to get 2nd place overall in the breaststroke.
It was a really fun day, and allowed me to see an event that I wouldn't ever have seen in the US elementary schools I usually work at in landlocked Utah. The opportunity I've had to try my hand at teaching swimming has been one I will never forget.
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