New Zealand schools are labeled according to the SES of its area. The higher the decile, the more money; the lower the decile, the less money. Colwill Primary was a decile 3 school, so definitely one of the lowest. They send us to these lower decile schools on purpose because JJ said that if we can successfully teach the lower decile students (who are notably difficult) we can easily transition to teach the higher decile, but it doesn't work vice versa. One of the teachers at Colwill, however, suggested that we should at least go observe a higher decile school. So, our principal set it up for us to visit Hobsonville Primary School today, which is a decile 9 school. It ended up being such a wonderful day! The principal and deputy principal were SO nice and welcoming; they had scheduled out a whole day of events for us. We were able to observe all of the different levels in either maths or literacy, and I loved it. It was so refreshing to actually see well-behaved students, teachers who didn't yell at the students, and well-planned and well executed lessons. We had heard so much about New Zealand's wonderful literacy program, and while we saw some of it at Colwill, these classes were thriving off of its implementation. We also had heard great things about their maths groups, but we didn't ever see them at Colwill. It was great to actually see these maths groupings being successfully carried out. The staff was all so friendly, coming up to us and asking questions (something that only happened occasionally from a few of the teachers at Colwill). We learned so much, and we weren't even there for the whole day! I'm so grateful we were able to go, probably most importantly because it gave me lots of hope for the success of my own classroom this fall :)
Today was a big day: I cleaned out my drawers and the closet. I haven't fully packed everything (we still need to do laundry tomorrow), but by this time tomorrow I will be! I still can't believe it's all coming to an end. We started talking about all the "lasts" we have to do tomorrow, but Kerry surprised us with a "first" today instead of a last...a drive through New Zealand in his rental convertible Volkswagen!
Jess was going to come over for our last bowl of Hokey-pokey ice cream, and instead of letting her walk over like usual, Kerry suggested we go pick her in the convertible! His car is getting fixed, and he LOVES any excuse to drive this one around with the roof down. It wasn't the warmest of nights (we are definitely starting to feel the chill of autumn!), but with the heat blasting and the seat heaters on, it was wonderful. We even took the scenic route home to make our convertible adventure last a bit longer. SO much fun!
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