It was our first day in schools staring in Hudson, Janice's school. It was also the first day back for the children after their Christmas break. This is about five months through their school year. We were put on the school notices - this involved us introducing ourselves on a televised broadcast through the school. The children and staff all say the pledge of allegiance at the start of the day. We met so many people from custodians to a member of the District Board. Everyone was very generous with their time. The Principal (Jeff) had made sure he had been to every class and showed warmth and caring in his approach to his staff and students.
For lunch we went to a burger place. They have roasted peanuts in their shells to eat while you wait and the we headed to Hackett House, a shop that is run by Sister Cities to support the exchange programme. We met two of the lovely ladies who work there.
In the afternoon we went to Scales Technology Academy. They are an all apple school and it was really interesting to see what they are doing with technology. Dawn (who is an instructional coach like Janice) and Mike (the Assistant Principal) took us around. Every student has a laptop, classes have interactive whiteboards and document viewers.
Janice picked us up and we headed to a money machine. To our surprise this was a drive through option where you put your money card and ID into a capsule, push a button and whoosh it gets sucked up a tube and disappears. Next a voice asks how much you want from which account. The capsule then reappears with your money, a receipt to sign (and a pen to do it with) and a dog biscuit if you have a dog in the car. How cool is that.
We had a quick look at Walmart. That place is incredible. Then picked up Pizza for tea and headed back to casey and Janice's where James, Heather and Adi joined us. Adi was just a sweet heart and was very taken by the sheepskin rug. I do hope some of these lovely people we are meeting make it to NZ one day!
Some of the impressions from our school visits today.
Overwhelmingly we were impressed with how welcoming, encouraging and positive the staff were in both schools.
The level of professional conversations we had showed how passionate they were about education and the needs of children.
The two education systems are very different. It would be very difficult to transplant either countries approach in the other but we can take aspects and use them where it fits well.
Tempe Schools have a huge amount of space compared to NZ.
Every school has an instructional coach, councillor, school nurse, specialist teachers and from our perspective look very well resourced.
There doesn't seem to be a lot of art or PE.
Timetables are full with literacy and math.
There is no morning tea break and a short lunch break.
Children are supervised all the time.
The professional development model seems strong.
There is a strong emphasis on assessment and monitoring.
Teachers are evaluated regularly and are held accountable.
Many decisions about schooling are made at district level.
Primary schools don't have sports teams.
Children not achieving are well supported.
Most classrooms don't have windows.
All schools have a cafeteria and school lunches.
Interventions are run by trained individuals.
Each school has a special Ed class that focuses on a particular need eg autism.
Teachers generously share their knowledge.
Most of all, children are children the world over and teachers everywhere put their heart and soul into doing what they can to guide them into their future as whole, well rounded individuals and we saw heaps of examples of that today.
I'll try and add captions to the photos later as some really do need explaining.
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