Recent Changes

For the international interns-what was your initial impression when you started at your school in New Zealand or St. Croix?
Greetings from New Zealand! This is the start of my third week of interning in the schools. I am at Owairoa Primary School in a year 1 (kindergarten) classroom. Like Shannon said on the Summer NZ interns page, I am very surprised at how independent year 1 students can be. It is crazy to me that when the teacher says clean up they literally clean up the entire classroom within minutes. It is hard to even get second graders to do that back home. I think it makes it much easier for the teachers with the kids being so independent. Also, for the most part, the kids are really well behaved. Of course there are still a few that act up. I enjoy having three blocks of instruction time, each being an hour and a half because it makes the day go by quickly. Tea time is definitely an added bonus as well. I enjoy getting cookies and having a short break to just relax for a little while. I think it is pretty interesting that the entire school goes by the same exact schedule with the same tea break, lunch/recess time, and instruction blocks. So far I have enjoyed my experience and hope that the remaining 5 weeks in which I will be interning will be just as enjoyable.
Michelle Dadourian

For the international interns-what was your initial impression when you started at your school in New Zealand or St. Croix?
Greetings from New Zealand! This is the start of my third week of interning in the schools. I am at Owairoa Primary School in a year 1 (kindergarten) classroom. Like Shannon said on the Summer NZ interns page, I am very surprised at how independent year 1 students can be. It is crazy to me that when the teacher says clean up they literally clean up the entire classroom within minutes. It is hard to even get second graders to do that back home. I think it makes it much easier for the teachers with the kids being so independent. Also, for the most part, the kids are really well behaved. Of course there are still a few that act up. I enjoy having three blocks of instruction time, each being an hour and a half because it makes the day go by quickly. Tea time is definitely an added bonus as well. I enjoy getting cookies and having a short break to just relax for a little while. I think it is pretty interesting that the entire school goes by the same exact schedule with the same tea break, lunch/recess time, and instruction blocks. So far I have enjoyed my experience and hope that the remaining 5 weeks in which I will be interning will be just as enjoyable.

St. Croix Country Day School
Hello from St. Croix!

Now that I have been here for almost four weeks I can say I am starting to get a better handle of the island way of living. The school that I have been interning at is a wonderful place to be. A large portion of the school day the Kindergarten students spend outside. Each of the classrooms are open and do not have AC which can be very hot at times, however I never have the feeling of being couped up inside all day as the windows are open allowing fresh air to flow through! In Kindergarten the teachers have designed the curriculum focusing on mainly students learning through discovery and play. Also it is a Virgin Island's law that students Pre-K and K have an hour rest time each school day. Something else that I find very unique here at the school is that each grade has a swim day and they go to the pool on campus for swim lessons. Students at very young ages are great swimmers here! The school population even though it is private has a very diverse population of students as well as faculty. The faculty has been welcoming since day one and I am so grateful for this. Another major difference here is how much the parents are involved in their child's education. Especially here in the Kindergarten through elementary age. Here in the Kindergarten we have had many parents that arrive each day with their children who stay to watch what they are learning in their class. Many parents question the teachers practices and feel that they know what their child should be learning at this point. I feel that this school allows children to be children, and some of the parents want to push their children way before they really ready. I feel that I have gone from one extreme to the other because the schools at home you never would even here from many childrens parents. This has been a great learning experience so far!

I am soooo glad it is going well. :) Hope you enjoy your entire stay. You are lucky to have such a wonderful and educational experience :) be safe!
Sara
*
Hey Everyone! I'm adding on to Sam's because I'm not sure how else I would write on here! New Zealand was an experience of a lifetime! I learned so much in the 5 weeks! Before I left, I thought 5 weeks was a long time. Boy was I wrong! I could have stayed there for months and soaked up everything I wanted to. I was placed in a year 1 classroom (a kindergarten class) with Kay Morris. I was at Point View Elementary School. We were a decile 10, which means it is one of the richest public schools. That was a HUGE change from growing up in PG county and teaching here in Wicomico. There were parent volunteers every morning and afternoon, full staff support, plenty of relievers (subs), their fundraisers made hundreds of thousands of dollars instead of just hundreds, etc. It was like night and day. But the biggest difference was the students independance. My students were 5 years old, just like the average kindergarten student over here. But they were expected to behave a certain way and they did. I remember my first week there, it was raining outside. Normally, the students go outside to eat and then after the 20 min bell, they could play for a 40 minute recess. So I figured that during lunch, we would have to sit inside with the students and eat our lunch, then have indoor recess with them. But this was not the case, We were allowed to eat in the Cafe like every other day. So then I naturally thought relievers were in covering for the teachers. But no, not relievers. Year 6 students were sent down to the lower years to watch our kids for us! No adults in the room, just 10 and 11 year old students. It was amazing. Trust had been placed in the year 6 students as well as my year 1 students. They were expected to behave and they did. It was just unreal! That would never happen here. There must always be an adult in the room in public schools in America. That is just one example of the difference between my school in New Zealand and most schools I have encountered here. Like I mentioned before, I had a great time experiencing New Zealand's culture and schools. I would go back in a heartbeat! If anyone is ever considering traveling there or studying abroad there, please do it! Take out loans, beg and borrow, get money somehow! Its an eye opening experience and one that will help me when I become a teacher!
Hope this wasn't too long or boring! I'll write some more cool/neat experiences soon!
Shannon

NZ Schools!
This week was my first week of school in New Zealand. I am placed in a year one class at Cockle Bay Primary School. My class is really complicated though. It is a mixture of a foundations and a year one class. I hope I get this right while trying to explain it. A foundations class is for students who are just starting school. In NZ, they enter school when they turn five, despite what time of year it is. This week we got three new students and the school year is almost over! The students enter my mentor’s classroom and they stay with her to adjust to school then move onto another year one class whenever my mentor thinks they are ready to move on. There are seven other year one classes. My class has about thirty students (and more to come as they turn 5!) and the other year one classes have about eighteen students each. My class also has all the special needs students. It is a lot to adjust to!

The students are remarkable though. Even the ones who just entered school are very independent and knowledgeable. Some of these five year olds have better phonemic awareness than our first graders. Also, they write more in their journals. My class does a lot of group work since it is so large and the children, for the most part, work well together. The teachers have very high expectations of them. Sometimes they seem harsh, but I think that is what makes the students so independent.

The school itself is set up very different from American schools. The classrooms are separate buildings, like portables, but not as cheap. Then there are courtyards, a hall, an outdoor stage and a main office/staff room. They have tons of playgrounds all over the school! All students have fitness everyday for 15-20 minutes. My class is currently training for a cross-country race. We also have morning tea from 10:40-11 am. All students go outside to run around and have a snack, while teachers go to the staff room for a snack and tea or coffee. Lunch is from 12:30-1:30, the students eat outside on the sidewalks (or footpaths as they are called here) then once they have eaten enough food (teachers walk around and give them the go ahead…at least with year one students), they get to go play. School starts at 8:45 and ends at 3:00. I love this schedule, the students aren’t pounded with instruction, they still get to be kids, and they are still seem to be more advanced than American students.


Enough about the school...my homestay family is amazing!! A young couple with a five year old boy (who also happens to be in the class I am interning in). So far, Lindsay, Michelle and I have been to Australia! Sydney and Melbourne. It was absolutely unforgettable!! Tomorrow we are going to Waiheke Island and we are going on a vineyard tour! On Sunday, we are going into the city of Auckland to explore. We are doing both with the other American interns we met (two from Pennsylvania, one from Michigan). I'm loving it here!

I’m not sure if this is where I’m supposed to be writing but I will write it here anyway because this looks like a good place. New Zealand was an amazing experience that I would repeat any day. I wish I could have stayed longer. I was at Wakaaranga School which was a year 0 to year 6 school. I was in Janet Goosens year 3 classroom, the students were 7 and 8 years old. I loved it over there because yes they still have to make sure their students are achieving and learning but there wasn’t as much pressure. The students there have a lot more expected of them and they meet and exceed those expectations. The school day started at 830 and at 10 we had morning tea where everyone took a break for 30 minutes then we had class from 1030 until 12 then everyone had lunch until 1 and then we had class for the rest of the day. By having these two breaks in the day it helped the students stay focused because during those breaks they had a snack or lunch and then went outside and played. This play time helped them to get their energy out so when they came back they were ready to focus and learn. I didn’t have trouble when I was there getting the kids to listen or pay attention to the lesson they were mainly focused during class time and I feel it was due to these breaks. I also thought it was amazing that when the kids went outside for these breaks there were a few teachers on duty to make sure no one got hurt and to be there if there was trouble but there was rarely trouble. Most of the time the kids did what they were supposed to do and what was expected of them without even being asked. I think it was amazing that they had such high expectations and the students met them so easily. I wish we had these expectations here for our students!
Sam
Sam,
I am soooo glad it is going well. :) Hope you enjoy your entire stay. You are lucky to have such a wonderful and educational experience :) be safe!
Sara