I don't think I have added any photos of my new music room - which I share when I am not using it. The walls are concrete so not much I can do in terms of decoration, but I did give it a good tidy up and am pleased with the space I've created.
My timetable for school is varied and quite honestly- pretty crazy! I turned up on Monday morning having planned only my music teaching. The teachers I go in and relieve for are supposed to give me planning- and I suppose to a certain extent they do give me 'planning' as I enter their room, but it is unlike the planning that I am used to! I had year 2's first up Monday morning (our year 3's) and taught half an hour of music (which was really fun- lots of singing and action songs) and then poetry. I was given a focus of similes and a poem. Problem was- there was not *one* simile in the poem. It was however, full of onomatopoeia so I focused on that- thank goodness for having enough knowledge of language features!
I then took them outside; yes- outside, for PE. Easy stuff but oh so cold! I still feel reasonably shocked that the boys and girls change for PE in the classroom- I hadn't been forewarned of this so asked the children if this is where they normally get changed- as they stared back at me with confused expressions... In their underwear!!! The funniest part was when Blake (a naughty boy who I suspect is special) was sitting in only his tighty whities on his chair- not moving. When I questioned why he was not changing into his PE "kit" he said "I forgot it Miss". I think he thought doing PE in his underwear was the go... Interesting. I actually had to turn around as I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face!! The rest of the day was a breeze - but then came teaching the year 4's (our 5's) who are at this stage my favourite class. I was asked to teach a lesson on the 10 Human Gods of Sikhism. A topic I knew nothing about. As in I have obviously lead such a sheltered life that I had not even heard of Sikhism as a religion. When I asked the teacher what he could tell me about the topic so I had a little prior knowledge he said he had no idea. Great. All's I can say is thank goodness for three things:
•A quick thinking brain.
•A smartboard
•YouTube!!!!
Tuesdays see me in Nursery (3-4 year olds omg!!!) from 8:30-11:30am. I can say this; they are adorable, they are fun... but they are exhausting!!! I was knackered! Hats off to pre-school teachers!!! I finished the day back in year four teaching science and history- and having a blast. I showed them Murrays Bay Intermediate's website at the end of the day. They wanted to know what schools in NZ were like. We looked around the panoramic views on the site- when it came to the music room there were kids in the photos not wearing shoes. Oh my. The year 4's could not believe it. They actually asked if we wear shoes in NZ!! Haha. They also thought the school field was a park- and couldn't understand how if you wanted to get from a classroom to the gym or the Music room you actually had to go outside. Here, you can get everywhere without going outside. It was really very funny.
Wednesday is my least favourite day. And it was my hardest. But it was "hump day" which made it more bearable! I am the release teacher who releases anyone who needs it for Wednesday mornings- which is fine. In the afternoon I have year 6 music then year 3 music. Both classes of which were badly behaved and didn't follow instructions and all clearly have a negative attitude to Music. I will change that.
Thursdays I do one-to-one tuition for writing which I loved! I worked with five students during the day who are in year five but working at a year 2 level in writing. It was really rewarding and a nice and easy day. Another man is employed to come in on a Thursday and do the same. His name is Mark and he is from Invercargill. He sounds like Rhys Darby- no jokes!! I'm looking forward to this Thursday to see if the kids I worked with last week retained any of what we did!! I might be doing one-to-one with the year 6's on Fridays too- watch this space. On Fridays at the moment I teach one of the reception (new entrant) classes in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Planning was jotted down on scrap bits of paper but it was nothing special and not very detailed...as in it said things like: "Maths. Counting." But again I sucked it out of my thumb and managed fine. The teaching assistant in the afternoon had observed me teaching maths with a group of kids. She commented to me that I must have taught this age a lot. I said no. First day. Haha. She said she was really impressed how I taught them maths and seemed to be naturally good at it. I think I thank my mother for that skill. And having young nieces and nephews!
Friday night I crashed. I had been fighting a head cold or something all week and paracetamol was my saving grace to survive the week! On Saturday, Bryce and I went to Shepherd's Bush to the BIGGEST Westfield shopping centre I've seen in my life. Designer brand after designer brand and just amazing. We were there the entire day hahha!! I bought a dress for work and a couple of other things. We went to the movies which was inside the mall- we saw "The Kings Speech" which was fabulous- what an amazing job Colin Firth did! I recommend you see it!
Today I took the day off school. I have been fighting the head cold thing which has since moved to my chest and is affecting my asthma so it was time to see a Doctor. Lucky for me there is a Doctor surgery down the road from our new flat. Unlucky for me we don't live there until this weekend- it took me an hour and fifteen minutes just to get there. Feeling dreadful, I then had to register and have a full-on physical exam before seeing a doctor. Urine test and all. I felt like they were testing for drugs lol. Being I'm on "The street where I'll live" I thought it a good idea to take a few pics. It is just a three minute walk to the station. And will be a ten minute ride to work- amazing! Bring it on!!
So there were two rather random things that happened today. The first? An elderly man, pants around his ankles peeing against a phone box in broad daylight - what the?
The second- a rough looking lady on the train on the way home who decided that 1pm
on the train was the perfect time for a can of Guinness. Although she hadn't bargained on it exploding and spraying others on the train on opening it as she cursed "feck". My Guinness? My goodness!! I guess she was lucky her can came with a free 13.5% extra. LOL.
Cheery bye :)
My timetable for school is varied and quite honestly- pretty crazy! I turned up on Monday morning having planned only my music teaching. The teachers I go in and relieve for are supposed to give me planning- and I suppose to a certain extent they do give me 'planning' as I enter their room, but it is unlike the planning that I am used to! I had year 2's first up Monday morning (our year 3's) and taught half an hour of music (which was really fun- lots of singing and action songs) and then poetry. I was given a focus of similes and a poem. Problem was- there was not *one* simile in the poem. It was however, full of onomatopoeia so I focused on that- thank goodness for having enough knowledge of language features!
I then took them outside; yes- outside, for PE. Easy stuff but oh so cold! I still feel reasonably shocked that the boys and girls change for PE in the classroom- I hadn't been forewarned of this so asked the children if this is where they normally get changed- as they stared back at me with confused expressions... In their underwear!!! The funniest part was when Blake (a naughty boy who I suspect is special) was sitting in only his tighty whities on his chair- not moving. When I questioned why he was not changing into his PE "kit" he said "I forgot it Miss". I think he thought doing PE in his underwear was the go... Interesting. I actually had to turn around as I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face!! The rest of the day was a breeze - but then came teaching the year 4's (our 5's) who are at this stage my favourite class. I was asked to teach a lesson on the 10 Human Gods of Sikhism. A topic I knew nothing about. As in I have obviously lead such a sheltered life that I had not even heard of Sikhism as a religion. When I asked the teacher what he could tell me about the topic so I had a little prior knowledge he said he had no idea. Great. All's I can say is thank goodness for three things:
•A quick thinking brain.
•A smartboard
•YouTube!!!!
Tuesdays see me in Nursery (3-4 year olds omg!!!) from 8:30-11:30am. I can say this; they are adorable, they are fun... but they are exhausting!!! I was knackered! Hats off to pre-school teachers!!! I finished the day back in year four teaching science and history- and having a blast. I showed them Murrays Bay Intermediate's website at the end of the day. They wanted to know what schools in NZ were like. We looked around the panoramic views on the site- when it came to the music room there were kids in the photos not wearing shoes. Oh my. The year 4's could not believe it. They actually asked if we wear shoes in NZ!! Haha. They also thought the school field was a park- and couldn't understand how if you wanted to get from a classroom to the gym or the Music room you actually had to go outside. Here, you can get everywhere without going outside. It was really very funny.
Wednesday is my least favourite day. And it was my hardest. But it was "hump day" which made it more bearable! I am the release teacher who releases anyone who needs it for Wednesday mornings- which is fine. In the afternoon I have year 6 music then year 3 music. Both classes of which were badly behaved and didn't follow instructions and all clearly have a negative attitude to Music. I will change that.
Thursdays I do one-to-one tuition for writing which I loved! I worked with five students during the day who are in year five but working at a year 2 level in writing. It was really rewarding and a nice and easy day. Another man is employed to come in on a Thursday and do the same. His name is Mark and he is from Invercargill. He sounds like Rhys Darby- no jokes!! I'm looking forward to this Thursday to see if the kids I worked with last week retained any of what we did!! I might be doing one-to-one with the year 6's on Fridays too- watch this space. On Fridays at the moment I teach one of the reception (new entrant) classes in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Planning was jotted down on scrap bits of paper but it was nothing special and not very detailed...as in it said things like: "Maths. Counting." But again I sucked it out of my thumb and managed fine. The teaching assistant in the afternoon had observed me teaching maths with a group of kids. She commented to me that I must have taught this age a lot. I said no. First day. Haha. She said she was really impressed how I taught them maths and seemed to be naturally good at it. I think I thank my mother for that skill. And having young nieces and nephews!
Friday night I crashed. I had been fighting a head cold or something all week and paracetamol was my saving grace to survive the week! On Saturday, Bryce and I went to Shepherd's Bush to the BIGGEST Westfield shopping centre I've seen in my life. Designer brand after designer brand and just amazing. We were there the entire day hahha!! I bought a dress for work and a couple of other things. We went to the movies which was inside the mall- we saw "The Kings Speech" which was fabulous- what an amazing job Colin Firth did! I recommend you see it!
Today I took the day off school. I have been fighting the head cold thing which has since moved to my chest and is affecting my asthma so it was time to see a Doctor. Lucky for me there is a Doctor surgery down the road from our new flat. Unlucky for me we don't live there until this weekend- it took me an hour and fifteen minutes just to get there. Feeling dreadful, I then had to register and have a full-on physical exam before seeing a doctor. Urine test and all. I felt like they were testing for drugs lol. Being I'm on "The street where I'll live" I thought it a good idea to take a few pics. It is just a three minute walk to the station. And will be a ten minute ride to work- amazing! Bring it on!!
Our street sign :) Welcome home... for a year ;P
Looking down the street towards our place. If you can see the blue rimmed doorway in the middle of the photo, our flat is on the left of that.
Our front door - yussss! Oh and credit *must* go to Courtney Herbert who told me about this amazing photo app for iPhone... such cool shots it takes! Cheers Courtz xxx
The second- a rough looking lady on the train on the way home who decided that 1pm
on the train was the perfect time for a can of Guinness. Although she hadn't bargained on it exploding and spraying others on the train on opening it as she cursed "feck". My Guinness? My goodness!! I guess she was lucky her can came with a free 13.5% extra. LOL.
Cheery bye :)
oh you write so well!!! Loving the stories....feels like we are there with you!!! Are you allowed blue tak on the walls? Maybe ask for some cork boards to be put up? costs I guess!!! Did your flat come with furniture or are you gonna be bed hunting and sofa hunting? Cant wait to see photos of the inside.... it looks amazing from the out.
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