Hmmmm...you may be wondering what in the world does Whae even mean. My students called me "Whae MacKenzie" which means female teacher in Māori. I have been learning bits and pieces of the Māori language everyday and the classroom is filled with laughter from all my students laughing at me as I try to pronounce Māori words. Let me tell you--these kiddos are the best teachers out there and have been so helpful and patient with me as I am learning. They may laugh at me, but they also help correct my mistakes! I had no idea how much the Māori language was actually used in the classroom until I arrived. My co-op uses it in his classroom much more than the other teachers at school as he is trying to become bilingual himself. It is such a neat thing to experience. My co-op is absolutely phenomenal and has been a huge help so far.
Today, he was gone so I was able to take over the classroom for the full day. I LOVED IT!!!! We started practicing our songs for the Christmas Concert in December. Yes, we were singing Christmas songs as the sun was shinning in 66 degree weather-- I'm not complaining at all. The days seem to go by so so fast because we are constantly up and moving and doing a variety of activities. A typical day at Swanson looks like this:
-We start out with a staff meeting everyday at 8:20
-Bell rings at 8:35, but students don't need to be in their classrooms until 8:55
-8:55-9:15 we work one on one with individuals on letter sounds, sight words, spelling & math facts (other students have free play inside or outside if they are not working with a teacher)
-9:15-9:45- Morning Routine(calendar, days of the week, months of the year, alphabet, and story)
-9:45-10- Brain Snack
-10-11- Learning Room--reading in small groups (if students are not meeting with a teacher they have free play)
-11-11:40- TEA TIME (My favorite--lots of yummy coffee or tea to choose from)
-11:40-12- Math
-12-12:50 -Learning Room--Writing in small groups (if students are not meeting with a teacher they have free play)
-12:50-1:10- Oral Langauge
-1:10-1:50- Lunch
1:55- Pack up bags and Peer Read
2:10- Milk Break
2:15 -End of the day activity
2:30-2:55 Parents pick up children during this timeframe whenever they choose.
School has been so much fun these last couple of days and I am loving every moment of it. When I was working with a writing group I was reminding a student to use periods at the end of his sentences and I quickly found out that they do not call them periods(they think of something else when they say the word "period") and instead they call them full stops. Another student during writing asked me I could pass her the rubbers and I looked at her very confused...they call their erasers rubbers in NZ. My host family & I had some good laughs that night at dinner after I shared these stories with them. Again, there is never a dull moment in our classroom.
Last night we took a walk after dinner and guess what... WE FOUND NZ CHOCOLATE. Seriously, it is amazing. There were so many flavors we all had a hard time choosing which flavors to get. For those of you who know me, know that I am obsessed with chocolate and it's my go to. NZ chocolate is something everyone needs to taste, I wish I could ship a piece to everyone reading this right now because it is that yummy!
This weekend we are venturing out and taking the train to Downtown Auckland. We are going to check out Britomart which is filled with tons of shops and yummy restaurants. I cannot wait to explore--we have heard it is beautiful!! If Sunday turns out to be a sunny day we are going to head to the beach with our host family. The beaches here have black sand---how cool is that??? I will definitely post pictures after this weekend for all of you to see. We have a long long list of places we want to go while we are here so hopefully we can check many of them off the list. 8 weeks seems like a long time, but really it's not!!! We are going to cram in as much as we can to make the most of our time!
