Turanganwaewae

Room 9 during math centers (this is only a portion of the class)

Hello friends! Today was my 2nd day in Room 9-with Mrs. Scott and her lovely year 2 and 3 class. There are 28 students in the class and lots of names and faces to remember. The title of my post is actually the team name of several of the rooms at Pomaria, and it means standing for character. I love the theme and how the teacher's incorporate it throughout the day, as they also do with the school-wide theme of respect. Mrs. Scott is still getting organized and doing testing for setting the students up in groups, which is a great blessing for me to see because as a first-year teacher I need to know how to do the testing and grouping that teachers are expected to master. In my first practicum I only saw the teaching and the routines being used perfectly, but here in New Zealand I came into the classroom in the 3rd week of school, so testing, grouping, and routines are still being set up.

Mrs. Scott is so helpful and willing to answer all my questions-she's taught for 37 years and has a load of experience and told me that if I ever want to teach, just to let her know. I'm going to give my first lesson tomorrow-practicing writing the letter 'd.' I might ask to read a story to the children too just so we can get more of a bond. I'm already getting to know some of the students and their interests as well-I made a goal to get to know 5 kids a day a little better-just talk to them and ask them questions about their likes. This goal came from reading another girl's blog who is in New Zealand and wrote about how she gave attention to a misbehaving boy and he responded so well. I noticed today that even just by listening to the student's share their stories of the movies they watched, and what spiders or bugs they killed, gave me a stronger bond with the children.

Today was a bit longer because for me, even without the after school faculty meeting, but I still learned a lot and saw how the students are collaborating well in their play groups. Right now there aren't any math centers, so the students just take out the math blocks and frogs and such and make rows together or build block buildings. Even though it doesn't seem like they are learning, Mrs. Scott told me that they are naturally learning how to cooperate with each other and make inferences on how to build the blocks. It was also wonderful to see them get to excited about the numbers when I asked them to count how many objects they were playing with.

One boy, Lathan is so adorable, he has no front teeth and he just smiles at me all day and loves to show me his work. He is just a joy to be around because he is so sweet and willing to please. There are a few children who I can tell don't like me, like Salvannia, but I am going to work on making a relationship with him and talking to him about art, which is something he likes. I can't reach them all, but I do want to get to know them. There is one down-syndrome girl in our class, Taniya, and she is a joy to be around. I am learning how to talk with a child who is downs and ESL, and even though she is smart, I can't understand her a lot of the time, but I feel that we have a bond and she gives me multiple hugs a day. Normally there is a teacher aid in the morning, but in the afternoon Mrs. Scott and I work with her. Today I took away the crayons so that she could do a little writing, but she hated that and started to cry, which made me feel awful, but being the super forgiving girl that she is, we were friends again. It's so great to see the rest of the class respond positively to her and play with her. I think of all the friends my brother has and how grateful I am that they were better than me and showed Jason how much they loved him. That is something I can work on-showing Jason how I do care for him.

The girls always give me hugs, and on Monday I was told how pretty I was and how they loved my eye make-up. I could definitely get used to that treatment! Overall, it's a challenge but a joy to be around them and I am excited to get to know them well enough that I can put a name to the face, but after day 2 I am doing pretty well. Just got to say their names with confidence. It'll be a long day tomorrow, with school from 8:30-3 pm, and then a team meeting at 4, and meet the teacher night at 6, put it's all worth it. I actually like how Mr. Choronmanski (the principal) is treating us like real teachers and requiring us to go to the meetings and such-it prepares us for the very near future of our lives as teachers.

Love from Ms. Mills