Half way there!

Half way there! What a week it has been. So many ups and downs.  Lets start with the downs.  This week I have struggled with classroom management.  I felt just a bit lost at what to do about a boy that doesn’t really respect teachers, especially myself being a new teacher he tends to give me a lot of attitude.  I am struggling with the noise level when I am doing groups.  During reading time I take a group on the carpet and then the other students do their work at their tables.  I let them talk but I don’t really know when to say quiet down, because most of the time they are doing the right thing but then at other times they aren’t.  It is a struggle to work with one group but have to still keep an eye on the rest of the class.  Thursday went much better though.  There were about 7 less kids though and that made a HUGE difference.  My class is about 24 students which is not very many for New Zealand, there are usually 28-30 students in a classroom.  I think that is part of my management issue is the range of different students. Especially the different students at varied levels of learning.  But I am working through it and Thursday was definitely a confidence booster!

As for the ups! This weekend was so much fun! Friday, Rachel and I went to the supermarket to get our Thanksgiving meal food for this Thursday! Which I am quite excited about.  Then yesterday I went to the Wellington Phoenix soccer game against an Australian team.  They tied the game, pretty good game.  Then today I went to Muriwai beach with Rachel and Ken.  It was amazing! Such a beautiful site.  Then we took a big bike ride through a pine tree forest.  Which led us to another part of the beach where there is black sand!! It was amazing just to see a beach without houses and people everywhere.  With huge sand dunes and massive waves.  Then we had a great picnic lunch and enjoyed the scenery.  Its hard to imagine that my times is half over here.  It has been an amazing experience! This week I will be teaching my students about Thanksgiving! I’ll let you know how it goes!!