Monday: Monday was my first day at Heretaunga college, and it was a whirlwind. Classes run from 8:50 till 3:15. I arrived around 8am in order to meet my cooperating teacher, at this point I still didn’t know who my CT was or what classes I would be teaching. All weekend I had been quite nervous, but finally being in the school I was mostly excited. My CT turned out to be not only the head of the English department but also a great fit for me. She is laid back, slightly scattered, super funny, and really cool. She has 4 classes, two of which are the same prep, so if I take over her full load I will only have 3 preps to do. I could go on for pages about the craziness of my first day, but the biggest thing I am going to have to get used to is the timetable (schedule of which classes are when). In the US you have a set schedule for periods 1-6, so even though the schedule might differ based on the school or the day your 2nd period will always be the same class, say 10th grade English. Here it is a bit different; you have a set layout of periods 1-5(called spells). Every day is the same schedule, but while on Monday your first spell might be level 9 English, on Tuesday that class might be your 3rd spell. Some days you might have only 3 classes with 2 free spells, other days you might have all 5 spells full. It’s quite interesting but also very confusing, the advice given to me was “Don’t lose your timetable!”
Tuesday: I met the rest of the classes my CT teaches. By the end of term I will be taking over all of her classes. These include a year 13 English class, which is similar to a grade 12 class in the US, a year 12 communication class which is an applied English class, and two level 9 English classes which are the equivalent of 8th grade English. I am excited about the range of levels I will be teaching, it will definitely keep me on my toes. I got home a bit early today so I thought I might go for a walk and explore a bit, but the weather had different ideas.
Wednesday: Today I shadowed a level 9 class to get a better idea of different classes at the school. On their timetable today was English, Health, German, Science, and their form class, which is essentially a homeroom type class. What I found most interesting was the form class. On Wednesdays form class is used half for assembly time and half for house meetings. There are four houses in the school, and they compete against each other for points. At the house meeting they were organizing students for upcoming challenges including a Fear Factor type competition and a Ready Steady Cook (a British iron chef-type program) competition.
Thursday and Friday: The rest of the week went smoothly, I still am mostly observing and helping students one-on-one. Here, as promised, are some pictures from my ride to school.
The first part of the drive is going through rolling hills with sheep everywhere.
Then it becomes very dense greenery sort of like in washington but with palm trees peppered throughout.
Not too bad for a ride to work.
