School Observation: Raroa Intermediate School

Good morning, teacher

I had my first experience observing a NZ school yesterday. I have observed schools before but that was in Malaysia. In NZ, the school is different, the system is different, and so, getting to see for myself how teaching and learning is done in here was really exciting. I always knew the way they teach and learn in NZ is different from Malaysia-I just didn’t know how different it was.

First of all, I LOVE the huge classrooms! When I think about my classrooms when I was in school back then, I remembered it to be small, hot and crowded. But the school that I went to yesterday, the classrooms are huge. They are big that you can even put couches at one corner for the children to just chill. The desks are not arranged facing the blackboard, like it is in Malaysia. The children have more mobility in class; they can choose to do their work on the couch or at their desk or with a friend from the other side of the classroom. I think if Malaysian schools were like this, all you will get is a noisy classroom with no work done. The particular classroom that I was assigned to even has a flat screen TV for educational purposes which I think is really cool. The walls are decorated so beautifully with their artworks and essays and I think if I had a class like that back then, I would really look forward to go to school everyday. It’s cheerful, spacious and fun-it just feels like home.

The student-teacher relationship was also very interesting. I remembered being terribly scared of some of my teachers that I didn’t look forward to go to school back then. Sometimes, I even wished for the teachers to be sick so that I won’t have to go through ‘hell’. But the classroom that I was assigned to, the children seem to love the teacher a lot. She is fun and energetic, and always have these cool activities to keep the mood up. Even though she was not strict, they still respect her as a teacher. She still holds the power.

The way the lessons are taught however, were a bit weird. Over here, one teacher is assigned to one classroom and that teacher is in charge of everything; Math, English, Arts and even P.E! And not all the children were taught at the same phase as everyone else in the class. They basically learn at their own phase. One student could be doing page 400 while another one could still be at page 350. In some lessons, different groups would be doing different things. During literacy yesterday, there were about 5 different groups doing 5 different things! I have no idea how the teacher keeps up with what they are learning, but it seems to be working! The particular class that I was in seems to be really good at math! They have this warm up session where they have to answer 20 math questions in under 2 minutes and the fastest person who gets it all correct, wins. The record yesterday was 41 seconds for adding and subtracting, and 34 seconds for multiplication and division.

So, yeah, that was basically what I saw yesterday. I’m really glad that we were given a chance to experience seeing how schools work over here. It’s very different from Malaysia, but I think the Malaysian education system has a lot of good points too. If not, I don’t think I will even be here in NZ right now if the education system failed me. :-p

What I must remember myself when I become a teacher:

1. To set classroom expectations from the first day of class.

2. To be as fun and exciting as I can.

3. To make the classroom as comfortable as possible (this is going to be hard considering I will be sharing the classroom with at least 5 other teachers)

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Later that night, my girls and I had a small potluck! It’s been ages since our last potluck so it was really nice to get together like that again. Last night’s potluck was the biggest we’ve had so far. We ate 5 ½ pot of rice, 4 different lauks (Shufaiha made Kari udang, Jo made rendang ikan?, Zaty made sambal ikan bilis and I made bebola daging masak kicap) and Che Nazira made the delicious custard pudding. We finished everything last night!

All I do is eat.

Hah! I've figured out a way to stop me from eating too much and gaining the weight that I don't need this winter!

Fasting!

Heee ;-P

I'm feeling way better today and my response paper is finally looking OK (I just need to come to the Tuesday lecture and check if what I wrote is what I'm supposed to write about...). I got my sleep last night :) :)

Oh, Jo called last night, turns out I don't have dance practice 4 days per week. I have one tomorrow and another one on Wednesday. I'm not sure about next week, I've got to look at the schedule.

Umm. I have a bunch of new movies (well, not new 'new' but movies that I haven't seen before) but I can't watch it until I get all my assignments done! I can't wait for my mid semester break :) :)

Ta for now

My response paper doesn't seem to be responding?

I change my mind about not updating...the weekend has been very stressful for me and I just need to relax...

I'm supposed to write my response paper for MDIA102. I have been trying to write since Friday but so far I haven't even finish writing my introduction... I'm super worried right now. Haven't slept since Friday. My presentation is on Wednesday and I have two more assignments due the week after that. I've been eating a lot and drinking way too much coffee. Uni life is not so great for me right now. I hope things will get better after the mid trimester break!

Anyway, despite all the stress caused by Uni, I still had a pretty awesome weekend with the girls. We all got together on Friday night to celebrate Che Nazira's 21st birthday! That night we just ate, talk and went crazy :) Took loads of photos and videos :)

Cake!

:)

Gangsta!
Last night, we went to see 'Strike percussion' somewhere in town. I forgot the name of the place. Initially, I wasn't supposed to go since I didn't buy the ticket for that performance. I bought 'Romeo and Juliet' instead and that one is in August. But Laila emailed Jo a few weeks ago telling her that she accidentally booked two extra tickets and was wondering if I wanted to go and I immediately said yes :) Strike percussion was amazing! I can't even find the words to describe how I felt when I saw it. But yeah, I don't regret going at all even though I have a response paper to write.

So, that is basically how my I spent my Friday and Saturday. It's Sunday today and I think I'll be in my room struggling to write my response paper. Thank God class is at 2 p.m tomorrow! I can finally get some sleep before the week starts! It's going to be hell of a busy week. Dance practice is from Monday to Thursday until the performance. But that's OK since I really enjoy dancing...it really makes me forget about other stuff.

I think...

I'm going to stop blogging for a while. I need a break. I really want to write about the things that's been happening these past few weeks but I can't. I don't want to hurt anyone. I tried a few times but can't seem to find the courage to click on that button that would publish the post.

Dance

The Chinese dance is much harder than I thought. When I first looked at the video, I thought "This shouldn't be that hard" but it is! I'm still having problems with the double jump at the end and I can't seem to make my fan to open and close gracefully. I hope I'll get better at it soon! I have Mangunatip practice later today. It's been so long since I last practiced so I really hope I don't forget the steps! I hope the boys will show up today...Yesterday's Indian dance had to be canceled because no boys showed up!

4.09 a.m

I fell asleep last night...wait, no, I decided to just go to sleep last night even though I was very conscious that I have to prepare for my media tutorial. Media102 scares the hell out of me! While the lectures are very interesting (you should see my notes!), the assessment part is too much for me. Thank god I'm only doing 3 courses this semester...
I have to pass media I have to pass media I have to pass media I have to pass media....

My sleeping pattern is becoming weirder and weirder. Some nights I don't sleep at all, some nights I sleep but would wake up at 3-4 a.m. I'm not sure what's wrong with me. But so far, I still manage to wake up early so I guess it's OK.

I'm participating in a new type of dance, the chinese dance. We've just started practicing yesterday and so far it is OK. I still have problems in some of the moves though, especially the part where I have to jump twice to the side. I hope I get that one right soon! The girls have been very patient in teaching me all the steps! I have another dance practice for chinese dance today and mangunatip tomorrow :)

I really really need to start on preparing for media tutorial tomorrow.
Wish me luck!

Just be happy for me, that is all I ask.

I was smoking hot last night... ;-)

One week into my 2nd semester and I'm still not ready! I've been playing way too much and now I need to start focusing again! So far, this is how my schedule for this semester looks like:

I still have one more tutorial that I need to insert in this schedule. It will be on a Thursday but the time is not confirmed yet. I have a lot of empty slots and I hope I will use it wisely this time. Oh, Jonathan finally agreed to let me take MDIA102 instead of CUST131. Thank you Jonathan. I know I will probably regret not listening to you but I really appreciate that you let me do this. I will try my best to score MDIA102. It's going to be a lot of work, I know, but at least I won't blame you if I screw it up.

We had "Rugby night" last night. All the TESOL students (and their friends) got together and watched Rugby at the bar up in Uni. It was really nice :) Since I am not a fan of rugby, I decided to stay outside and barbecue the food. It was a challenge getting the chicken and meat to cook! At first we thought it was because of the wind but it wasn't! It was actually the gas. Anyway, everything that could go wrong that night went wrong but in the end we managed to cook the food (not all).

--- I actually had so much more to write about but halfway through writing this entry, my smoke alarm went off. I had to wake Joey up because I freaked out. The stupid alarm won't stop making this annoying loud sound. It took us at least 10 minutes to figure out how to make the stupid thing stop. We took down the smoke alarm, took out the battery and now I have "go to reception and report to maintenance" in my list of things to do. Great! I can't believe I pay $210 every week for this place.

I have to go now. I need to take a shower, I still smell of barbecue smoke from last night.