Mr. White's 2008 New Zealand Experience Blog: Teaching Experiences

After leaving the Coromandel Peninsula I made my way back to Auckland and to Albany Junior High School to finish up the last two weeks of my overseas teaching experience.

For my last two weeks I am working in the Maths learning area at the school. The mathematics courses in NZ are presented in six "strands" each of which reflects a particular aim of the curriculum. These strands are mathematical processes, number, algebra, geometry, measurement, and statistics. Not very different from the American mathematics curriculum I am used to teaching. The big difference at A.J.H.S. is how the students are distributed into classes. Students are banded by their achievement level for each maths strand into different classes. The reason for this is that certain students develop faster in all aspects of mathematics than others in their peer group. In this case students move from different leveled classes based on what their previous academic knowledge for that strand (topic) was.

For example: If student James White tested moderately over the algebra strand in year 7 he would be in a level 2 or 3 class for learning that strand in year 8. If he had tested strong on the strand he would be placed into a level 1 class, if he tested poorly he would placed into a level 4 class. This allows students and teachers to address the difficulties faced in learning each strand with the entire class, rather than just the bottom third for example. Students can test out of levels and move up to meet their achievement level quite easily. Students also have different classmates as they move through the curriculum strands thoughout the school year. It seems to be a bit harder for scheduling the classes and maybe a little more work for the teachers, but from what I have observed it is very beneficial for the student learning and achievement.

This week I have been working with students in all years 7,8,9,10 in classes from all levels 1,2,3,4 and observing Mrs. Jan Thomas (Head of Learning Area - Mathematics), Mrs. Paige Bayliss, Mr. Dave Clayton and Mrs. Maureen Robinson at the school.

I also had a chance to chaperone a field trip to the Goat Island Marine Reserve. I took a bus with a class of year 9 (8th grade) students from the school on Tuesday about an hour north of Albany. This term these students are learning about the Huraki Gulf region in their Social Studies course and to start the unit they learned about the marine life that is found there. We were outfitted with wetsuits, snorkels and fins to swim around the island, thanks to the Sea Friends organization. On our snorkeling trip we saw lots of fish (snapper, grouper, goat fish), jelly fish, and kelp in the water and some students even said they saw a sting ray. Here's a couple of pictures from our snorkling trip.