perfectly delish.

And so it's all over and done with.

Shared the wonderful story of Thanksgiving with my class.

Check.

Partook in the traditional Pumpkin Pie with Room 1 students in a bit of a twist.

Check.

Accomplished 3-D shape perspective drawing.

Check.

Bumped students up to the next step in the narrative-writing process.

Check.

Set everything up for tomorrow's Athletics for Years 7 & 8 at the Waitakere Stadium.

Check.

Attempted and succeeded our first solo Thanksgiving meal with Alissa.

Check and Check.

And now, after a full day of teaching, an evening of cooking, and delightful company for feasting I'm completely zonked for any bit of energy I might be able to scrounge up.

It's off to bed for me for now. I know I'm going to need every bit of energy for tomorrow as I'm helping Hayley (the other Totara team teacher member) with taking our wonderful students over to the Waitakere Stadium. I'm hoping my students are doing the same so they're rearing and ready to go to show us what they're made of tomorrow at all the track & field events.

There's also the little tid bit of helping out a little bit tomorrow morning to get everything set up for the Talent Show coming up next Tuesday evening. Alissa and I are in with Robin, one of our deputy principals, and decorating the stage and hall for the major event.

More to come on all the nitty gritty details potentially over this weekend when my brain isn't about to shut down on me after an exhausting day.

Cheers & Happy Thanksgiving to all!

insanity.

The other night I sat on Rachel's floor with my geometry materials spread out all around me, working through everything to figure out a plan for the next few weeks. While looking at what I could do with my students to cover geometric transformations, I thought it'd be a good idea to just look at the overall scheme of the next few weeks just to see how many sessions of what I had to plan for. As I gridded out the piece of paper in front of me and began to pencil things in, a realization hit me harder than a brick. 3 weeks left. 3 weeks until we're on that plane headed across the timeline back towards the wintry northern hemisphere. This is sheer insanity.

Amanda and I discussed all the plans for the next couple weeks in a general sense, and it just seems so strange that the end of the year is so nigh. I'm planning the rest of my geometry unit - working out what each of the groups needs to be sure to get through as we wrap up our final maths bit. For reading, our groups are each still working on individual tasks. My highest group, Tawa, finally has their novel in and are ready and rearing to get into it. While I'm slightly doubtful whether or not we'll be able to get through every single bit I wanted to with them, I have no reservations about if they'll be able to actually finish the book. It just seems so strange after all the time that I've been here that things are finally beginning to tie off all their loose ends. While it feels like we've been here an eternity, it all seems to have gone to by way too soon.

I know I'm speaking as though the school year ends tomorrow, but in school terms (with everything we have going on over the next few weeks) it will feel like tomorrow.

As I was planning the other night, I've come to realize just how excited I am about the narrative assignments the class are working on. After having studied the various bits and pieces of narratives over the better part of this term, they've finally moved on with their groups onto picking up the quill and scribing their own stories. While some have come up with ideas that had to be questioned, and others have encountered numerous difficulties with other ideas, they're all plodding ahead. Once we're done with the actual writing of the full-fledged narratives, it's on to figuring out just how they want to present their tales of wonder. Some already have their hearts set on movies, while others a play or drama. Some have an inkling of doing a puppet show of some sort, or just moving onwards

So much to do in what seems like so little time.

But I guess for now, the key thing is to keep a good focus and just keep on trucking with the school business. Alissa and I have also thrown a good old American Thanksgiving into the mix as well. A bit of my spare time has been allotted for hunting for all sorts of traditional recipes and ingredients to match up with them. It will be more than interesting to see how it all works out, but, one thing's for sure, our New Zealand families are definitely in for an EPIC night.

Until next time, cheers!

here goes everything.

I'm convinced that with the end of this week, the end of all weeks normal is coming near. I know I've mentioned this quite a bit over the past couple of posts, but there's really so much going on with end of the year events over the next couple of weeks. As I've been planning for next week over the past couple of days, I'm realizing that pretty much half of next week is spent doing various activities that are sort of outside what normally qualifies as teaching. For all of Swanson, New Zealand's Life Education program is here over the next week or so doing various programs for the students depending on their years. The Totara team still has two sessions for Out of the Shadows this week, dealing with drugs and substance abuse. So setting aside 2 sessions for that, in addition to time being taken out to prepare the years 7 and 8 for the leavers' assembly coming up in week 9, and I'm left with just some minimal planning to take care of for this week.

While at times like this it doesn't seem to be too much planning for the next couple of days - it's actually taking me much more time to plan these lessons than those for my other placement. I'm really finding myself all over the place in terms of what I'm teaching. I'm finding myself planning four different reading lessons for each day of reading that we have. This comes alongside three math lessons for each day of maths, as well as multiple writing sessions throughout the week, several special topic sessions, sprinkled here and there with fitness, spelling, and other miscellaneous tasks.

I'm actually really excited for the upcoming reading session this Monday, since the novel Castaway will finally be arriving for my Tawa group. We've been intending to start our novel study with the book for the past week, but due to some problems, we've been waiting for its arrival to school, which has been horribly delayed. There's also the upcoming bake sale that my other Rimu reading group has been working to set up. It started off after a reading we did about Tsunamis and kind of branched off into a follow-up activity trying to think of ways to create our own tsunami-relief efforts. So expect me to be wringing my hands, waiting to see how it goes over and hoping that we're able to pull it all off in order to get some money to send off to the Red Cross relief effort for victims in Samoa.

In a way, this entire upcoming week is going to be fairly exciting, not only with reading, but also with the upcoming Athletics day that qualified years 7 & 8 will be going to this Friday at Waitakere Stadium. After various trials for track and field over the past couple of weeks, it's time for the Swanson student to show off their mad talents.

As for now, my brain can't quite handle the excitement, so I'm off to catch some z's and get some rest before another jam-packed day. The life of a teacher is definitely anything but dull.

Cheers my blog-followers!

hormones.

It really shouldn't be something that I forget. These kids are going through puberty and it's so blatantly clear nearly all of the time just how hormonal they all are. They're all int hat wonderful stage where they're changing faster than they can realize what exactly it is that's going on. With some students it's so much more intense, while others seem to not have even entered the glorious stage or they've already been there and done that. It's made for a few interesting moments where, girls especially, come up to me in an emotional fuss over some of the simplest things. While this along with the energy highs definitely make for some moments I never had in my high school placement, I'm actually finding more and more that I really enjoy working with this age group.

I'll admit that it's been a bit of a challenge adjusting to some of the things that are going on in regards to the classroom itself and everything that's just going on school-wide for the end of the year. Challenging as it may be, however, I'm learning so much more than I ever really expected. With the divisions going on in the classroom for each subject, it's really like teaching multiple different classes all wrapped into one. This definitely makes planning a little time consuming and thought-provoking. When it all clicks into place though it's definitely more than worth it. It's kind of sad too, because it seems like just when I'm starting to really get into the swing of things, the term's wrapping up faster than I can say "boo."

With Week 6 just about halfway through it's down to just about 3 weeks left in the term. While it may seem a lot of time at one moment, the reality is that it's going to pass me by before I even know what happened.

Here's to, not looking forward, but, rather, living in the moments at hand.

Cheers!

Despite how slowly this week is going, it's ridiculous to think about how quickly time is going by. We're nearly on to week 6 already out of what's really going to be an eight week semester. We do have our weeks nine and ten, but there seems to be so much going on with end of the year wrapping up that I don't think much actual curricula will be being taught during that last week and a half. Even before those last days, we still have so much that has to be mixed in with what's being taught in the classroom. Though I expected it, especially with having one of the senior classes of the school, it's surprising how so many things need to be fit into our already busy schedule. My biggest challenge I'll be working with over the next couple of weeks is simply having to fit all the pieces of this magnificent time puzzle together.

Energy levels definitely seem to be running high this week, something which is normal towards the end of the year. This week, though, seems really bizarre in some strange way that I can't put my finger on. It's almost as though absolutely no one can really focus on any one task. I've been having a grand old time keeping everyone in the class as much on track as humanly possible. I'm finding this group to be a most interesting one to work with. They're all such characters in their own ways that each one is so easily capable of making me bust out laughing at the most random of times throughout the day. I absolutely love them all. Of course, they have their moments, but I'm finding that all the smaller hilarious/touching/random bits outweigh the others by so much.

After prepping the students for their measurement posttest, it's off to take that tomorrow morning. While the students catch a little bit of a break between the two units, for me, it's off to plan the next couple of weeks of geometry. This week's kind of dwindling down so there's not a whole lot of chaos going on right now. With planned parenthood coming in next week to teach the kids about puberty and Life Education coming to teach them about drugs and substance abuse, next week is bound to be nothing short of amazingly busy. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

energy buzz

One huge thing I've noticed in the change from high school to middle school age students is the energy level difference. High school students still have that teenage energy buzz going, but the younger students seem to have an excess. Tuesdays are always kind of a nice day because it gives the students an opportunity to get out of the normal classroom setting and into really hands-on activities with their Tech lessons. I have noticed, however, that once the energy levels get up during the time spent on the bus between Tech and at Tech, they don't really come down all too easily once the students are back at Swanson and having to settle back in. I understand exactly what the students are experiencing, having gone through it plenty of times myself back in my day. I have a feeling these transition days will be one of my tougher spots over the next few weeks of total control.

I actually just introduced a bit of an art unit that the students will be working with over the next couple of weeks. They will be working with a bit of an investigation of the various art movements and creating trivial pursuit type games with their new found artistic knowledge. I explained the different aspects they need to look into (style, subject, genre/movement, mediums, instruments, etc) with a twist on tying it into music and the various genres. I have to admit that I absolutely cracked up when some of the students were baffled by some of the older examples of music I played. They were spot on with identifying all sorts of style characteristics and classifying the genres, but were at a loss of who some of the artists were. It's amazing how, over the past couple of weeks here, I've really started to feel older than I thought I was.

So far, not too bad, but tomorrow's another day, so we'll have to see just how much the students were able to hold onto from today. This week seems a bit slow so far for everyone, but I'm pretty sure things will definitely start to pick up really rapidly over the next couple of days and weeks. Looking ahead for planning during our team meeting today, I started to realize just how many days over the next couple of weeks are actually spent working on various other tasks. Working with the years seven and eight, it seems like there's almost more on the plate in regards to miscellaneous duties than actual class time. With all this in mind, it's definitely going to be interesting trying to tie everything together cohesively over the last half of the term. I'm especially, excited for the beach education day on November 30th. It should be a handful with having to take the entire Totara team to Bethels Beach - but I'm really interested to see just what's in store with this program. It's intended to teach the students all they ought to know about how to be safe at the beach. I guess I'm most interested to see how receptive the students are to it more than anything else.

I think I might have to call it quits for tonight though. After hitting the pool with Rachel for a little exercise tonight and two days into my full control, I'm sapped for energy. So this is me signing out for the evening.

animation time

After only posting text for the previous blog posts, I figured it's about time for a little bit of a change of pace. I've just finished my weekly/unit plan for my upcoming first week of total control and I need something to occupy me until I head to bed for the night. As overwhelming as all the planning is sometimes, it's amazing how calming it is to just see everything fit together in a basic, loose schedule for the time to come. I find it a little bit shocking too how so many small miscellaneous tasks seem to fill up so much time that I would otherwise be planning activities for. I can almost feel the next couple weeks whizzing past me already. All planning aside, here's a little multimedia taste of some of the things I've been withholding for the past couple of weeks...

I have a bunch of pictures from MOTAT, the Museum of Transportation and Technology from about three weeks ago. It was really a fun time for chaprones and students alike. I don't think the students truly realize that they're learning while they're there, it's more a chance for them to just get out of school and into some sort of adventure. I'll have to check into some things at school before I can post some of my pictures up here. Despite how large of a group we had with all the different students from both classes, it seemed that everyone was on their best behavior.

Last week and the week before we had been doing a bit of a bike safety unit for the Totara team with an ex-police officer who came in to teach the program. I'll have to upload pictures from that potentially later as I've just realized they're saved at school and not on my laptop. It was really just a lot of fun to see the students enjoying themselves on bikes and trying hopelessly to avoid "breaking" any road laws. I found it extremely helpful too as it helped me figure out some of the technicalities of driving on the other side of the road as they tend to do down here in the land of Kiwis.

Another tidbit definitely worth sharing from last week is the little "Jump Jam" session we had last Friday in honor of World Teachers' Day. Janet & Barbara choreographed and organized the whole ordeal, along with the help of wonderful Tracy who's always running around taking care of the tech happenings at Swanson. I'm crossing my fingers that this link works so that you can share the wonders of Swanson School's amazing dance stars.

Hands Up for Learning

I have to apologize for not getting any pictures up here sooner, but hopefully with a spare moment or two this weekend I'll get a chance to update a little bit more on what exactly has been going on around here over these past jam packed weeks so far. More to come at a later date....this will have to suffice in the meantime.

most curious.

It's funny, but not once since I started have I thought about something that would otherwise be blatantly obvious. I'm pursuing my certification in secondary education with a concentration in history and Spanish. Yet, here I am, teaching just about everything but. I guess I just picked up everything that I was handed and began to run with it. Mathematics? Reading? Writing? Athletics? Sure, bring them all on. Maybe, just maybe, that could explain why I was so overwhelmed in the first place. These areas aren't supposed to be my areas of expertise, but I'm amazed at just how comfortable I feel in all of them. It's even more surprising due to the fact that I haven't really had any guidance yet on how to manage all curricula at once.

Aside from this grand realization, everything's really been picking up over the past bit of time. It's only about halfway into week three, but it still seems like time is whizzing by already. As I sat with Amanda the other day to plan out the basics for the rest of the term, it really struck me that every single minute I have is going to be occupied with something or other. When that happens, time always manages to slip away some how.

I'm really starting to feel the clicking into place with my class. I know that just when things start to go their smoothest, it's going to be the end of it all, which kind of breaks my heart. I've had several students come up to me and ask me when I leave, thinking that I'm here for the next year or so. I've only been met with sad faces when I tell them I'm only here for the rest of the term. It's amazing how quickly bonds form with students just slightly younger than those I was working with before. It's really quite an eye-opening experience working at a primary school with the other half of the age spectrum. It still has its little snags here and there, but it's really a fun, intimate environment.

With full control coming into my hands next week, there's definitely a lot of work in the process and in the future. I only wish there were more hours in a day, but I'll take what I can get. Here's looking forward to new experiences, busy days and nights, and working my butt off like there's no tomorrow. For now though, it's off to count some Kiwi sleeping sheep so I'm well rested for tomorrow.