The Adventure Begins

Yesterday was my first day of professional development at Green Bay Primary and Intermediate School in New Zealand. Our session was on restorative justice approaches in the school, and how we deal with "punishment". It was interesting being new to the school to learn about the school values and what the school holds to be important. It was also interesting to learn what the issues have been at the school, and how the school handles issues when they arrise. Two men put on the seminar and they did a great job of keeping it fun and entertaining(a hard task to do when you are sitting for hours). It was interesting to learn more about the school that I will be spending nine weeks at, and how they run their school. We did a great deal of work with punitive, restorative, neglectful, and permissive ways of handling situations. I now more than ever know what kind of teacher I WANT to be and WILL be and how I will handle situations. I think too often teachers speak or act first and think later, and when dealing with children we must put thought into it as well. All in all, it was a very interesting day that opened my eyes to so much that I did not know prior to the development day.
Today, Wednesday, was the first official day of teaching and it was absolutely lovely! I feel so blessed to be with my teacher because she is fabulous and I know that I will learn a lot from her, and my hopes are that she will learn a lot from me as well. We got to school early which is good because I like to feel prepared and know what is going on, and set everything up before the children get there. The children got to school and were instructed to come sit on the carpet nicely. They were very good at listening to instructions and doing what was asked of them-I am curious to see if that is because it was the first day of school, of if it will be a regular thing. My teacher took attendance and greeted saying, "Good morning (student's name) and then the student responded good morning, Vivienne." They call teachers by their first name at this school, but having taught at Aldo Leopold in Wisconsin.