Kirwee Model School - NE - year 1 (FLE)
I was terrified before starting my placement at Kirwee Model School, going into a new entrance class I knew the tamariki were going to be so small! It took me about a week before I felt like the new entrance class at Kirwee was one of the best places to be. With an incredible associate who had a wealth of knowledge to share I was ready to learn everything I could. As my associate was greatly experienced in developing student teachers skills, I was thrown in very quickly.
The term's focus was the Kirwee whole school production of Video Game Generation in week nine. I was hugely excited when I found this out and I soon found myself running daily production dance practices and helping my associate working with the junior production choir.
In between production madness, I developed hugely through my teaching and learning experiences. I was challenged to focus on positive praise to gain ākonga attention and in response, ākonga knew and showed those behaviours expected. It wasn't long until positive praise was something which naturally followed. I was introduced to learning through play in the afternoons and exploring maths and number knowledge through games and activities during our daily mathematics programme. During this time I attended a staff Professional Development session run by the University of Canterbury around teaching fractions (which I have used since in classrooms). Within our learning space we would sing songs, dance and read stories to transition between learning activities. I loved using my strengths in these areas to engage and focus tamariki ready for their next task.
During this placement, I was able to lead learning during Tongan Language week and Te wiki o te reo Māori! We included these celebrations within our classroom by learning and using greetings from these languages, learnt new information about the countries, the important parts of their culture, sang songs, learnt important phrases and we shared our learning with others.
Reflection and inquiry were important parts of my learning through this placement. My teaching as inquiry focus was engaging ākonga during reading time. This was achieved through using Miss Bee's friend Buzz the bee as an incentive for those ākonga engaging in the lesson and achieving the learning objectives. Each day Buzz would be looking for something specific and for the ākonga achieving this, they would have Buzz as a reading buddy for the rest of the lesson. This worked well and engaged all but one of the ākonga. For the individual who was still struggling, I needed to use creative ways of engaging her in her learning. I would plan specific learning activities to introduce new words and concepts to her before we read a text. I also ensured that she had the opportunity to read along with a recording of the text a second time before she took it home to cement the learning which had taken place that day.
Another highlight was Friday Fun Day! We started each Friday by doing art. I loved seeing the ākonga engage with numerous visual art activities and was excited to plan my own activity at the beginning of Spring and through reading the Margaret Mahy classic story "The Witch and the Cherry Tree". We went out and looked at the blossoms around the school and the shapes of the blossom trees. Ākonga then created their own blossom trees which we then displayed in the entranceway of the classroom to share with whānau!
My placement at Kirwee helped me to explore my philosophies of learning. Working collaboratively in this space I experienced the importance of being prepared for leading learning and communicating well. I found that reflection was a key to success and that it was ok to try new things and that even if a lesson didn't seem successful that there was always something to learn from to improve for next time. I grew through the feedback offered to me in this caring and safe learning environment.
The quote that kept me going on this placement was "It is always a good day at Kirwee" - Leonie Weavers.
