Frankton School Swimming

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.

Fridays

As it turns out, Fridays turns out to be rather interesting days here at Frankton Primary. Every Friday the school provides an opportunity called Maori Gate where students who desire to learn and/or retain the Maori native language can go to receive instruction. This however means that a lot of students are absent from their regular classes on Friday. So in order to keep them from falling too far behind, most teachers don't teach a lot of new material. Instead they review or extend current material, or they do fun activities.

This last Friday my class got to do something really fun with their younger "buddy" class. As you know, it's currently Summer here in New Zealand, and as the Sun was shining bright and hot we all went outside and played on Felicia's water slide!

We spent an hour outside playing. It was a really fun time and the kids absolutely loved it. It was really just a black sheet of tough plastic, some dish soap, and a hose, but man was it FUN!!! 

Of course, the boys got really into it and decided to get a running start on their slides to see how far they could get...

others took it a little slower...

but everyone had a blast!!

New Zealand Schools

Over the last couple days I have had the privilege of being introduced to my new school and students here in New Zealand. It all started Monday morning when Denise took me in to her office at Waikato University to meet with her boss Mark. Mark is the head of the student teacher placement department and was kind enough to set up the meeting to get me familiarized with the NZ school system and curriculum.

I was very intrigued by many of the things that Mark told me about how things are run. In NZ they do not have school districts the way we do. The NZ government sets standards and (to a degree) curriculum, but then each individual school acts separately with its own individual board of trustees. They are somewhat akin to charter schools within the US.

In addition, NZ’s funding structure is also rather different. Each school is given a decile ranking based on the average family income, wealth of the area, and types of employment within the school’s boundaries. Lower SES means a lower decile and higher SES means a higher decile. Low decile schools then receive the most funding from the government and higher decile schools receive less since parents are able to contribute more to their own schools.

One last thing I found interesting is that in NZ students start school on their 5^th birthday. Instead of there being a “cut-off” they join the school as a “New Entrant” right at age five and attend a special room in the school until they are ready to move to the main school grades.

After meeting with Mark, we went to the school where they took me through a traditional Maori welcome ceremony called a Powhiri. At the beginning I waited by the entrance to the school grounds until one of the female faculty members called to me in Maori to invite me in. As I entered, I was led to the school hall where the students were singing in Maori as I was seated. Then Mark and one of the male faculty members did an exchange where they spoke back in forth in Maori. Mark told me beforehand that they would be exchanging information about the school and myself and that the faculty member from the school would formally extend me an invitation to join their school. In between their exchanges the student body sang traditional Maori songs. It was really neat and special and I felt really honored and welcomed by everything they had put together.

Entrance to School Grounds

I have discovered since then that including teaching about Maori culture and language is part of the national curriculum. At Frankton, where I am, the teachers are all required to teach the students Maori songs and poems, most signs include both languages and the teachers themselves will often give simple instructions (such as “sit down” or “line up”) in Maori instead of English. I have found it to be a really neat experience to see how they blend the traditions and heritage of the Maori people into their everyday school experience.

The Students' "Mihi". Everyday one student takes a turn presenting it to the class. It is a Maori way of describing one's genealogy or place within the community.

I have found many other things about their schools that are fun and different from the US. For example, at Frankton shoes generally seem to be optional. Most students take them off in the morning and leave them in their cubbies until they leave in the afternoon. None of the teachers seem to care and the students all seems very used to it. Also their school is built very differently. Instead of one big building their campus is made of several small building that house different age groups as well as a building for the library and one for the assembly hall. In between most of the buildings are large grassy areas for students to run around and play in. I have also noticed that many of the architectural aspects that I noticed in Denise’s home stay true such as their propensity for having lots of large windows.

My Classroom

Play Area and Other Buildings

One thing I found interesting in their curriculum is that swimming is an almost compulsory part of elementary education. At Frankton (and, from what I've heard, most schools) they have their own swimming pool and every day each class is required to go out for 20 minutes and learn and practice swimming. It makes sense when you remember that they live surrounded by ocean, but it is still very different to think that I have to make it a part of my day.

Lastly, I thought I would bring up that in the morning they have a half hour break that they call “morning tea time”. The students are released to play and have a snack while the teachers are invited into the staff room. There the school provides mugs, milk, and hot water (which comes from an installed water heater just for this purpose), and the choice of coffee, tea, or Milo (a malted barley drink) for the teachers to enjoy. I think it is a really fun idea and I get the feeling that I will enjoy it a lot during my time here (especially when they provide cookies as well)!

Give It To Me Straight

Anyone who has known me for very long should know how much I value people who are honest and upfront with me. People who beat around the bush or try to "protect" me by keeping things from me are frankly put: annoying haha. So one thing I absolutely love about Chinese people is how down right blunt they can be. What I've grown to learn is that the more honest with you they are (sometimes even bordering on what we might consider rude in our culture) the more it shows they care about and love you. Now these are my kind of people.

To demonstrate what I'm talking about I want to share a fond memory of mine with you:

Not too long ago I was sitting in one of my ELE classes waiting for the bell to ring so I could start. I usually like to arrive a little early so I can say hi to the kids and just get a chance to play and chat with them a little before we start. In this particular class there is a girl named Cindy who I love dearly. She is ridiculously smart, spunky, active, and sassy. She came up to me and silently looked at me for a moment before saying in the sweetest little voice, "Teacher, I think maybe you are a little bit fat... but I like a little bit fat!" Then she gave me the biggest hug, kissed me on the cheek and sporting that adorable smile I love so much skipped back to her desk.

It was the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me :D

Government Calling

A little fact you may not know about the school I teach at here in Changzhou is that it is in fact an experimental school. In being so they are allowed to branch out beyond the strict guidelines set for other schools and kind of do their own thing. However, in order to gain such a standing they have to submit to a yearly inspection to check up on their progress. It was our luck that this years inspection happened to be this last week. As part of the inspection we ILP teachers were asked to be part of a performance that many of the teachers and students would be putting together for the government officials who would be coming.

On previous occasions we had performed a "fashion show" for the kids to the popular Lady Gaga song Bad Romance. It basically consists of us strutting our stuff across the stage dressed in wild attire and then doing a little dance number. It's definitely a crowd pleaser especially since LG is kind of a big deal around here. They also wanted to take 8 of us and teach us an extra dance to a Chinese song that is very well known called Mo Li Hua. It's a love song that they say every Chinese child knows. It was a couple dance so our four boys participated and then four girls one of which was me.

One of my favorite things about our performance this last Wednesday was waiting down below the stage with the kids. They asked us to be down there right after lunch but as it turned out we had a good while until the show actually started. So to pass the time we played with all of the kids who would be doing their own numbers for the show. Now surprisingly enough one of the favorite pastimes of the children here is getting into pretend "gun fights" with us foriegn teachers. They consist of each side dipping into their personal arsenal of rifles, grenades, rocket launchers, and pretty much any other conceivable weapon, and shooting deadly missiles at each other while dodging behind pretend fortifications, dying multiple times and occasionally coming back as brain eating zombies to chase down the offending party. Yeah, you can say it, we have the coolest kids ever I know ;)

We also played a fun version of rock, paper, scissors that the kids taught us which involves attempting to stomp on the losers feet, and we taught a group of them how to play ninja which they very much got in to. The show itself was fun and it went well, but my favorite memories will forever be of those two hours just goofing off with those sweet kids.

In addition to the performance the school requested that three of us ELE teachers teach a lesson in front of the officials. Previously I was asked to teach a lesson in front of a bunch of the school's teachers as an example of how ELE works so I was not surprised when they asked me to be one of the teachers for the visit. I love my ELE classes so I wasn't too nervous, but the class I was going to teach was not one of my regular classes and the teacher over them told me that they tended to be more quiet and shy, so that made me a little more apprehensive. Luckily, the Chinese teacher for the class asked me to come the night before to meet the kids and introduce myself so that they would know me when I came to teach the next day. It was the best thing they could have done. I had a ton of fun just goofing off with the kids and talking to them for a good half hour. Turns out they are hilarious kids and one boy turned out to be a kid I had seen around campus who always tries to break your hand when he high-fives you. He's my favorite ;)

The next morning I arrived just before 9 o'clock and all the kids got super excited when I walked in the door. They kind of made me feel like a celebrity. Since I was already so at ease with them the lesson went super well. I went around and high-fived kids who were doing really well so they all participated and weren't nervous at all. It was one of my favorite lessons I've ever taught. Afterwards one of the lady's from the government came up to me with a big snile on her face and started talking to me in Chinese which another teacher quickly translated for me. The lady said that she though I was an amazing teacher and that it was obvious that the kids really loved me. She said she recognized me from the performance the night before and thought I was a very happy and upbeat person. She even asked if she could take a picture with me.

The next day at lunch one of the school coordinators who works with us named Anna came up to me and told me that everyone was talking about how amazing my lesson was and how all the kids loved me. She told me that I should consider coming back to China to be a paid teacher someday. Later the Chinese teacher over the class I had taught (April) told me that her kids had told her that they thought I was crazy and that they absolutely loved me. It was kind of a really good week :D

And you know, when Anna was talking to me about being a teacher someday I told her I might just have to consider it ;)

A Taste of Home With A Chinese Twist

In case you didn’t know before here is a little tidbit about me: I LOVE HALLOWEEN! It is honestly one of my favorite holidays. The thought of missing out on it was the most depressing part of being over here until I discovered that the school likes to celebrate the American holidays as a way of teaching the kids about our traditions. So, needless to say, I got a Halloween!! It was the most hilarious and just fun and exciting Halloween ever.

It started out with the school informing us that we wouldn’t be teaching that Monday and that we would be required to be in the school lobby at 7am sharp dressed up and ready to go.

We spent the first little bit running around helping to finish decorate the school. Then we were given Halloween make-up kits and went around to the classrooms and painted the kids faces. I had a small tube of fake blood and the kids loved it!! They were so adorable and so excited about the holiday. After we finished all the kids headed out to the track where they had a costume parade and I got to find a bunch of my students and we all danced around. At one point I got mobbed by a bunch of Kareena’s girls who I adore.

When we got back to the classroom we played games with the kids as they went around yelling “Trick-Or-Treat!” to every person they came across, even each other! It was so much fun. I played an intense game of musical chairs with one group of kids who were some feisty competition. I gotta say… I love those kids! After lunch they put on a Halloween fashion show which was super hilarious. I have never had a better Halloween in my life. Just being here and spending the whole day goofing off with my kids was the most perfect way to spend a holiday!

This is a couple of the Chinese teachers who are assigned to help us out. The one in red is Serena and the one in black is Phyl. They are both adorable and very sweet, although like any of the teachers we've met here, they can be super scary when they need to be. :)

Katelin is like my twin sister that I never had. I may just cry when she heads back to Missouri after the program.

This is my adorable boy Andy, he is a super sweetheart.

Kareena's girls whom I love and adore!!

Musical Chairs!!

A little sword fight I came across during game time.

A Little Pressure

So apparently I'm a really good teacher. Or at least my head teachers think so. Which I've decided has proven to be good thing and a not-so-good thing haha. I always get really good evaluations every week and my head teachers like me and don't have to be on my case or anything.

However, a little while ago they were approached by the school who asked them to pick an ELE teacher to be watched as an example for a bunch of the Chinese teachers as well as our ILP teachers. You guessed it...... they chose me haha. So I had to prepare a "perfect" lesson and teach it to the kids in front of 30ish people. It didn't help my nerves that I was given very little detail on the age the kids would be until the day before the lesson.

When last Thursday came around I was rather terrified. Especially when I walked into that classroom and saw all the people with notebooks and pencils in hand just staring me down haha. The lesson I taught was on summer and I taught the kids about hiking and the beach and surfing. I had a power point and I taught them a song and actions to the vocab words. At the end I played some review games with them and then they drew some pics of what they like to do in the summer.

When I was done I was barraged with people (ILP and Chinese teachers) who told me how I did an amzing job, and I was an incredible teacher. It was pretty cool. That is until I was told that because I did so good they wanted me to do the whole thing again for another group of Chinese teachers the next day. There was just no escape. So I did and once again I was told that I did a good job. I'm certainly glad it's over though. It was a stressful few days.

Teaching: The Not-So-Good Times

Alas, with every good things comes the bumps along the way. I figure I should share the hard times with all of you along with the good. I love my kids, but it's been a bumpy start for sure. For one my homeroom class has 11 kids which is more ten it should. The kind of teaching we do is designed for small groups of kids (usually around 8 and no more than 10) so that teachers can give every child the individual attention they need while still keeping the others under control and entertained.

My kids are cute, but they can sure be little hellions sometimes. Tony likes to fight with other kids and when "The Girls" get a little too high and mighty it's hard to bring them back to earth. Not to mention the second I turn my back to help a kid who's struggling a bit, all Hell breaks loose. In my rotation, all three of us agree that my kids are the hardest class we teach and we spend so much energy just trying to keep them in order, that it's hard to really get to teaching them.

One of the worst moments was this last thurs when I was bringing them back into my room for closing and they passed the kids leaving and suddenly started a fight, which I only managed to break up cause I yelled really loudly and started banging the storybook I had against my hand. It was kind of a nightmare moment for me. I and the others in my group have decided to get together to come up with a plan for dealing with them so we can be consistent and get this behavior curbed now before it gets any worse. Hopefully we can get it under control, cause it sure is exhausting.

Teaching: The Good Times

Oh how the days seems to fly by and drag on all at once. Sorry It's been so long since I've posted but it's been a busy life over here across the sea haha. I must say that children can be such a joy and yet such little terrors all at once :) After my first day of school I knew I'd have my hands full this semester. I just finished my first full week of classes and boy was it hard. However, it was also very fun and rewarding.

First let me give you a short rundown on how our teaching works. In our group we have 18 teachers and then 2 head teachers that run the show. Each of the teachers teach 1 primary class and then either elementary, basic reading, or ELE. Primary classes are mon-thurs from 3-5 and are our main focus. 3 teachers teach the really little beginning class, 9 teach the 2nd year kids and 6 teach the third year kids. I'm a 3rd year teacher.

The teachers are divided into groups of three called "rotations". Each teacher has a certain area that they teach English in such as shop, arts and crafts, kitchen etc etc. I teach Drama :D. So throughout the two hours of class, the three teachers rotate their homeroom kids between each other so each group gets three lessons every day. In class the kids are presented with the English language in the context of the activities.

My homeroom class has 11 beautiful kids that I adore... most of the time ;). Maggie, May and Alice are the three amigos. They are the cutest little girls but can be very feisty, and can have little attitudes at times. Jack is my little man, with the big personality. He's the shortest one in class, but he sure makes himself known. Tony is my shy guy, I have to coax him a lot to get him talking, but he responds well to praise and just takes a while to warm up.

This last week we had a blast in class. My classroom is decorated with a fish theme. Before classes started I found a set of paper fish cutout and just ran with it. So on Monday I took all my kids "fishing" and they each caught their own fish to put their name on and use as a name tag on their token bags. (The kids earn tokens for using certain types of language that change from lesson to lesson). Tuesday we talked about the moon and outer space and built a "rocket ship" out of our chairs and some construction paper so that on wed we could fly to the moon. On our way we battled asteroid fields and then searched for moon rocks after landing. Thursday I read my kids the story of a boy who thought an alligator lived under his bed. I brought a blanket and pillow and some costumes and had the kids hide under the blanket as one pretended to be an alligator and then we set a trap to catch it.

My kids got a kick out of all my lessons and I gotta say I sure did too ha ha. I'm really looking forward to more fun with them and I only hope I can keep up with them. They're all so smart!!

First Day of School

Wow what an adventure! There is really no better training for this stuff then just getting out and doing it! All day Wednesday we had training meetings to get ready for our first day of classes on Thursday. I was also given my teaching schedule. I teach primary classes from 3-5 mon-thurs and ELE classes on fridays from 8am to 1:40.

Thursday morning I woke up bright and early, my lesson plan in hand, thinking I was ready and prepared and it was going to go great. I was a little nervous, but fairly confident. Then...... reality set in. At 2:50 we all met by the chinese teacher's classrooms. There's a big statue there in the middle of the courtyard. As the kids began to line up we all soon realized that we were going to have a lot more kids than originally expected. A typical ILP class size is about 8 children. Ours ended up being ten and a couple teachers had 11 or 12. However, i must say that the kids were absolutely adorable...... most of the time :). As I led my kids to our classrooms two of the girls walking next to me said "Teacher, teacher! What is your name?" after my response they exclaimes, "Teacher Lorilei, your hair is so beautiful!" and proceeded to talk about all the different colors they saw in my hair. It was the cutest thing!

At the start of all our classes we have "Opening", where all the students in the classes on our floor stand together in one room and we talk about the day of the week and the weather and the time and we sing a song. We're supposed to have lines for all the kids to stand on in their classes, but due to some miscommunication we didn't have enough lines which made for a very hectic start. Getting everything going took more time then it should have so we were running very late on our schedule. We split into our separate classes and i led my kids to my room (which i had decorated earlier that day). I had a line on the floor with different color fish for them each to line up on while they waited for me to seat them. For the first few weeks we're here i'll be teaching the drama class (yipee!!! :D). We have three-teacher rotations where we all teach a different subject to encompass the English teaching we do.

The kids in my rotation have been in the program for a few years, but as I started my lesson i quickly learned just how smart they are. Most of them know a good deal of english and many of them know how to work the system very well. Also, with me being a new teacher, they tried "testing" me, to see how well I'd really enforce the rules. So as I switched between the three groups of kids in my rotation, most of class time was spent getting the kids into the routine. Although i did get a few kids to give me really good monkey impressions (which is what my lesson was about). I also learned all their names and took pictures of them to help me remember.

It was crazy and hectic, and at one point I didn't know what I got myself into, but I gotta say, I really do love these kids already. They are adorable and sweet, and although a bit manipulative at times, I think it will be a fun semester. Plus now that I've actually taught a class, I feel like I know more about how to prepare for these kids. I can't wait to teach again on monday and hopefully things will run much smoother :)

Zaijian!