Last day of Term 1

Where did 10 weeks go. Seriously what the heck happens to time when you age. I remember as a kid a week seemed to last forever, heck bedtime seemed long. Now as an adult time flies by me at top speed.

Term 1 has been in no uncertain terms awesome. We had parent/teacher/student goal setting/interviews on Monday and Wednesday and the feedback i have received has been awesome. Parents say kids who last year were down are coming home talking about stuff going on at school. Better yet, both the girls and boys are going home and talking about the stuff they do with Carly in Language (and they don't hate it!).

I was worried about giving out writing assignments with due dates (i only handed out 3 in my defence)because that is not what Montessori was about but both the kids and the parents are loving it because a lot feel worried that their kids won't be ready for state high school so deadlines for them are helping their kids get ready.

Parents say the classroom culture/environment is way healthier this year. My teaching partner R. says he is loving the way we are getting to all the kids in both language and in math. As one teacher last year doing both he felt it was a lot and some stuff was getting missed.

We even had a talk about next year and he was surprised/eager to find out that i would be interested in teaching next year. we are at 33 kids (32 now, D. in Year 8 left for USA on Friday) but next year we'll be at about 38-39 kids. He said we should try and get stuff sorted before he leaves in June for his training. Fingers crossed and all that sort of stuff.

my only downside this term was trying to match up my Montessori literacy with the state curriculum for my Literacy Check in week 9. R. keeps telling me not to worry, i know i got some stuff spot on, but i know i'm going to get a slap on the wrist for some other stuff. The reading records i should have done in term 1 i have no excuse for, i'll do those in term 2 but some of the other stuff like spelling assessment just isn't done in Montessori. R. says "don't worry" but i just tell myself to plan for it next term, try and show some improvements from the comments i'll get and move on.

If there is a tearful post about the curriculum hates me later this month, that means i got a lot of comments on stuff i need to change...here's hoping it won't be that bad.

The Fire starter

HOLY SMOKES!!!

my mom sent me this little tiny fire starter. It essentially a piece of metal striker and an artificial flint. Works when wets, sparks 3000C, starts fires easily, etc.

Well fire making with spindles and hearthboards had gone OK with smoke and punk (ash ember) but no fire. Likewise real flint and a metal striker had produced really hot sparks but no fire. I felt like we needed closure on the fire making so when that fire striker showed up i knew it was a sign.

Now i know my mom meant for me to use it in camping (and trust me i will) but i felt like it might work for the kids for the closure. So i started with an assorted age group of 4 kids and 40 minutes later i was forced to dump my 2 buckets of water (see I'm a prepared safety-oriented teacher) onto their fire. SUCCESS!! the year 8 boys also succeeded and so did the next group. in fact this thing is so awesome I'm thinking I'll need another one for two reasons: 1) it works so freaking well, 2) it may be good for 3000 strikes but with large groups of kids using it for fire-making its starting to wear down.

The year 8 boys are already trying to think of ways to convince the principal to let them have a bonfire down in the courtyard next term. Hmmmm, i see persuasive letter writing, planning (ie. contacting fire department to get a fire permit), cooking (they want to cook on it), etc. hmmm i smell project.

Dear mom, when you find another one of those, please purchase and hold it for me until there is another mailing to NZ. Love Carly.

Montessori Retreat

So poorly planned on my part i admit but i had a paid for Montessori retreat in Upper Hutt the same weekend J and B came from Christchurch. Blaise, bless him, was a real trooper, taking up the bulk of their entertaining while i was at the retreat.

Did i mention he is awesome? he is.

The retreat was different then i expected. i've attended government retreats when i worked back in Canada for Multiculturalism. There is a lot of food, networking and some useful training or really good conversation. Knowing that i guess i should have been prepared for this weekend but i guess i was just expecting workshops.

the cabins were rustic but at least i got the top bunk ^^
The food was plentiful and quite good in my opinion. I _LOVED_ the networking. i learned so much about Montessori teaching just through casual conversation between the other attendees and myself between regular scheduled stuff and meals.
The moderator is one of the most turned on, knowledgeable woman on Montessori according to all the attendees. When she runs a workshop at a conference you want to be in it. She has the manuals memorized, can come up with a solution to almost any class problem, etc. I'm sad to say though i didn't come away with much from the scheduled stuff. I am now hooked up to a google group for Montessori teachers in NZ and i found out about an awesome book for presentations and projects.

I don't know, i guess i was expecting something more like a workshop. One of the teachers in my school (but in the class next door) mentioned i should definitely go to the conference in April 2010 (which is workshop oriented) but i pointed out i don't know whats going to happen beyond December 2009 with my position. Well that is a long-term thing.

I was glad to get home i enjoyed the house warming bbq Blaise had arranged. didn't i tell you he was awesome!

the first week of school

Just a quick note for those back home.

so the first three days of school went well. i've taught some lessons, met the kids, i have most of the names down though a couple are giving me issues.

this week i'll start my language lessons, i have a meet and greet the parents on thursday which i'm panicking about but R. says is no big deal. easy for him to say, he's been there years :P

there was a school picnic tonight, called off a wee bit early when it started to rain but i got to meet one or two parents, R.'s wife and general hang with the teachers in a social setting.

oh and as an added bonus i'm getting relief work. so last week berhampore (the school i work at) offered 4 days in february all at once, sadly i could only take 2 as i'm at camp for two of the days with my class kids. so this week i'm relieving in my own class for R. He had a good laugh at that one, easiest relief work ever. then today at lunch i got a call from Newtown (they are the other school who gave me tonnes of work last term) and i'm heading there this friday to do the latest batch of new entrants (the 5 year olds). about 4 hours after i said yes, berhampore called me again and asked me if wanted R.'s class again on friday...NUTS! well i can't complain about being booked for work full time.

Ki ora the people back home.

Setting up a classroom

So any teacher reading this will understand this title.

R. and I have re-arranged furniture, put a pile of stuff aside for a run to the Tip (dump). I've worked my way through the writing materials, resorted them from the early chaos of last year and thought about a few things i'm going to need to get that area up to snuff.

I'll need to tackle the bookshelf next week and i need to find cushions...yes cushions, big ones for the floor. The reading area is seldom used but the corner didn't have much there to get interest so i've been updating, reno-ing, and trying to figure out how to draw them over there.

a nice thing about Montessori, they have a budget, so i'm told i can buy stuff...huzzah!!!

R. and I are trying to figure out our first 11 days of school, we need to do what is called the Great Key Lessons which talk about universe formation and humans. 11 days only you say? yes because the whole class is going on a camping trip Feb 18-19th. this job keeps getting better.

still need a key and alarm code...keep you all posted.

Carly's Kiwi Job

Well good news everyone! i got a job as a teacher here in New Zealand.
I was offered the 0.5 (1/2) time position at the Montessori school that i posted about early in the blog. This job for 6 weeks during June/July will become 1.0 (full time) while the teacher, R., goes off for training in the US. Also the principal of the school offered me first pick of any and all release/training/relief days for the rest of the school's teachers.

so R. and I worked out that i'll work in his classroom all day Monday and Thursday and from 9:00-noon-ish on Tuesday. Its kind of neat as well because my family and friends know how obsessively i love books. Well R. offered me the entire Language Arts (reading,writing,oral) program to do what i wish but he wanted to use Balanced Literacy. Funny enough i was trained in ... balanced literacy. R. will take all Maths but we'll keep each other in the loop so that i don't lose all my math skills. The other subjects we can do what each of us wants because in the Montessori class you don't do whole class instruction but do small group seminars on a particular topic. "today we're going to look at chemical reaction of baking soda in a variety of liquids" or "i'm going to give a french lesson at 10:30". all in all i'm very excited.

Alternate schooling methods

So as you are aware i'm relief teaching here in Welly. and there is a lot of variation. there is basically a scale system called a Decile rating of 1 to 10. a 10 school is the best, the cream of the crop, they have a devoted art week, multiple computers in each room, a laptop cart and usually mostly white anglo-saxon pupils. The opposite end of the scale is the 1 and 2 where the students are usually more ethnic, lower socio-economic status, more behavioural and less supplied in terms of school equipment (in Ottawa we call those Beacon schools). So i've worked the range of decile 4 through 10; yes there is a difference.

At one of those 4s though there is a Montessori school. the staff jokes that the Montessori is how they stay open because of the funding it gets. so i've relieved a few times in there...its different. i'm not going to bore you with details but the basics boil down to this:

1) students choose what to learn, then do it
2) teachers teach them how to use the development math tool for say counting, just enough of an explanation to peak interest then stand back and let them use it for days and observe.
3) it encourages and has a practical hands on living aspect, there is a mini-kitchen so they can learn to cook, clean, etc.
4) oh and they encourage them to go outside a lot to exercise and plan small group trips off of school property without adults.

suffice it to say that i'm impressed, Blaise is impressed and though children are not yet on our list of "to do" things yet we both see Montessori as an option.

ok back to the point i was trying to make. a few years back some of the kids asked for (in a business proposal btw) an expresso/barrista machine like every coffee shop has. they got it too, its considered practical and hands on. these kids then proceeded to start a coffee delivery business to all the teachers in the school. so mrs. A wants a flat white at 10:20, mrs. B wants an expresso at 11:30, the kids in room 4 order four hot chocolates at lunch, etc. Because the Montessori kids are allowed to move freely in and out of their class as part of their education, they can do this delivery service. its $2 for anything and let me tell you they make a good Mochachino. then they keep banking/accounting records of all their sales and they use the proceeds to fund camp trips or charitable donations (the class agreed to use the funds to buy a goat last year for a village in Africa). There is currently a science project going on growing cultures because one of the boys who does this had concerns about the cleanliness of his coffee machine so the teacher brought in culture mediums in petri dishes and he's started a 2 week project testing his machine and other areas of the class for cleanliness by doing mold cultures. Oh i suppose i should add these particular coffee kids are boys between the ages of 10 and 11; and one of the guys has been doing this since he was nine. did i not say Montessori was neat!

So i've been raving to Blaise about this and today the school had a craft/fund raising sale call Knack. The Montessori kids who do the coffee were invited to set up shop on the stage. They were there last year and they did so well they were invited back this year and got a sponsor who gave them all the coffee for free this time.
So we went in and purchased two drinks, my Mochachino and for Blaise his standard flat white. Blaise had to admit that it was a very nice flat white. The guys let us take a picture for posterity.

Meet the barristas of the Montessori program.

I'm a teacher!!!

Ok thats misleading. i was alreay a teacher, what i meant to say that i am now a registered New Zealand teacher. The NZQA paperwork turns out was completed end of September (27th) but for some reason i didn't receive my report till October 17th. However as a result of this unexplained delay by the time i got my report the Teacher's Council had my report for 2 weeks and they had been finalizing my registration.

So as of Friday October 17th, you can find me on the registration files with the Teacher's Council as a Provisional Registered New Zealand Teacher. Provisional means i need to get 2 years of experience before i can apply for full registration; all new teachers here in New Zealand fresh out of Teacher's college are also considered provisional.

Well you say, that sounds nice but what does that mean.
It has a two-fold effect. first off with provisional registration it means i can now teach for as long as i want, up till this point i was limited to 10 full days/20 half days of relief work. if i used those up before becoming provisional i would have to stop relieving until my registration came through. so now i can do relief work with no limits.
secondly (and this is the big one) i am now allowed to apply to permanent jobs. so on Monday i plan to hit up the Gazette for the new posts and start applying for permanent jobs. there are quite a few with the phrase "beginning teachers welcome" so i might as well try. it would totally be amazing if i could get a job for january. ^^

the first day of relief or here is some stuff i learned

So the first day of relief is over. it was educational, no pun intended. for example i must remember to take into account the slight variations on the english language.

"once I have checked your work please put it in the bin" (and then i pointed to the bin). this worked fine until i forgot to point to 'the bin'. turns out the previous children were to polite to mention it and just put the book where i pointed. this young lady though got quite upset "i don't want to put it in the bin". its just over there i responded, put it in the bin. "why do i have to put my book in the rubbish", she was quite upset now. right so the correct phrase is not "put it in the bin", or "put it in the basket" its "put it in the box". the other two mean trash to them.

so there was the newbie mistake of the day. now for teachers coming over here i have learned something important. yes you need to go through the NZQA and register with the Teachers Council. but that's about it, TeachNZ website says nothing more than that. so when the school asked me for my MoE number i went blank; i hadn't read anything about that.

MoE number is the Ministry of Education number. you need to put it on all the paperwork. do not panic if you do not have one; after a frantic call to the ministry at 4pm on Friday it turns out that the MoE number is automatically generated the first time your pay info comes through the system. so on Monday when the school enters my name and bank info for my relief pay I will have a MoE generated.

also i have decided that Year 2-3 is more my thing...the new entrants are...well its more like kindergarden but you have 6 years olds who go completely limp and refuse to acknowledge you when they don't want to do something. if you are looking for an Ontario grade 1 type class you may want to stick to Year 2-3 over here.

Things i'm taking home after 1 day:
1)my Maori is going to need a massive jumpstart,
2)they don't have 100s carpets (never heard of them),
3)teachers physically take hand (ie. i saw a teacher grab two boys, pull them apart, drag them both to the door and order them out to run 5 laps; they were 6, i was a little shocked),
4)teachers touch and hug kids all the time.

the other thing which really blew me away was the trust. a child in my class missed leaving with the group for after school soccer. the other teacher scolded her for goofing with friends instead of going to line up for soccer and said "well i guess i'll have to drive you up". i said (i was curious) how far away was the stadium and she turned to me and said "oh not far, could you walk her up the hill"....hold up you're going to just hand me a child and tell me to take her to where she needs to go, no calling parents, needing a note and all that jazz....YES!!!!! finally a country thats not so overprotective it seems stupid.
turns out her older brother missed the group too, he ended up grabbing her instead but still i was blown away by the different attitude.

what i took away from today. keep an open mind, everything is different enough here so be prepared for anything.

update on relief teaching

and i got a phone call at 4:30pm today asking me to sub tomorrow. and i'm also on the hook for an activity.

i just made a mad dash down to the library for books on Canada. time to pull out the little random fact booklet project.

oh and i thought i should mention something to the teachers who read this. kiwi teachers get 3 weeks a year of sick leave but there is something else thats going to make you drop everything and move here.

if you catch an illness from one of the kids in your class you call in sick but it is not counted to your sick days. nope not making this up, talked to a guy who does teacher payrolls. teachers here end up with months and months of sick leave because they don't have to count the stuff they catch in class. as an end result a teacher nearing retirement with 4-6 months sick leave finds an accomodating doctor who says "too bad you are too ill to work for the next 4-6 months, you had better take time off" and bam they use their sick leave and oh look i'm retired.

Relief teaching or subbing in NZ

so since monday i have been calling schools, asking if i could stop by and drop off a cv, meet a principal, take a quickie walk around, etc.

now everyone we've spoken to said "oh yeah we need teachers". was this an over generalization?

wednesday at 2:30pm the school i visited monday called me up and asked me to do a year 2-3 group October 30th. today i visited another school at 10am and as i was walking out the door the staffing coordinator i met not 5 minutes before said "hold up are you free ...let me get my book". so in a 10 minute span i got another days work on November 4 with years 5-6.

um ok ^^ i can deal with this. one thing that i didn't know though was that it appears i'm on my own for activities, at least for the Berhampore school. i'll have to check Te Aro.

In Ontario if you sub the teacher leaves the day plan which has the duties, notes, a scheduled class day, including which books to do, math pages, etc. looks like i'm on my own for coming up with activities to get me from 8:50am-3pm. this could be fun/scary...

Island Bay

So i've spent the last 3 days going to schools introducing myself to principals, dropping off CVs, and expressing a general interest in relief teaching (subbing for those of the CDN persuasion). Children and teachers are awesome everywhere but i was a little shocked at how barren some of the classes i've seen are.

i mean i came out of teacher's college being hammered into the idea that "print rich" environments were the way to teach. it was balanced literacy, student work, diagrams, word walls, etc.

so today i went to see Island Bay school...PLEASE GOD I WANT A JOB THERE!

ok lets go back a step. first off the classes are beautiful, full of fun stuff both student created and educational. 2nd off, organic garden of native plants...which leads into the specialized art teacher who takes each class for two solid days a term and does art using said native plants and animals.

they do swimming lessons as part of school curriculum, swimming! they have a nice library, the school is built over 3 different areas due to the hills which sounds complicated but its so nice and breezy and open, nothing cramped. the town of island bay itself is pretty, its older home but unlike some neighbourhoods its well maintained and lots of plantings and trees.

oh did i mention its a community of artists. it turns out that NZ curriculum basically states that the community chooses what the children should learn, then the teachers incorporate it as much as they can into science, language, math, etc. so in a community of artists its no surprise that they want their kids to experience it in as many mediums as possible. one class was making designs for/and cutting out material for soft toys...did i mention they were all 7 years old?

i could go on and on. island bay is definitely the suburb that has impressed me the most. i'm going to throw blaise onto a bus and bring him down there today or tomorrow, he has to see this place.