Today was my first school visit! I'm still trying to figure out how much it's appropriate to write about it online. I'm going to refrain from saying anything that would give away the identity of the school, although that feels really unfun, cause the uniqueness of the place is what makes it so interesting.
Today I spent most of the day at a school for students in year 9-13. I learned that year 9 and 10 students are called "juniors" and students in years 11, 12, and 13 are called "seniors." Juniors have most of their schedule prescribed to them and seem to travel from class to class together. The seniors have a lot more say in what classes they take. They are required to take some specific courses, but also need to earn a certain number of credits through internal and external assessments in each course. I am still trying to figure out what that means and how that works.
It was a typical crazy, start-of-school-year day in a high school. I watched a Te Reo Maori class work on an art project, I saw the chaos of picture day, a short school assembly where year 9 students were told ways to get involved, and then I saw year 11 and year 13 history classes.
The most memorable moment was during a discussion of the children's book, The Rabbits, by John Marsden. It is an allegory about colonialism. When the teacher asked if it was an appropriate way for kids to learn about colonialism most kids said yes. One student said, 'No, because it didn't show any of the positives of colonialism, like if the Europeans hadn't come to Australia the Aborigines would still be eating food out of the ground and giving each other AIDS." Most of the kids gasped and one student in particular WENT OFF on him. The class erupted into side conversation and I tried to think through what he had said. Eat food out of the ground? Isn't that what we all do? How warped is this kid's thinking? And AIDS? Where did you get that from? I'm a history teacher; I've heard kids say some terrible and ridiculous things, but this is near the top in terms of ignorance and incomprehensible logic.
The teacher regrouped the class and let other students respond and we moved on. (Mostly they pointed out errors in his thinking.) In the end what I kept thinking was that I had expected more from a boy who was wearing lipstick. My bad. Gotta work on my assumptions.
Today I spent most of the day at a school for students in year 9-13. I learned that year 9 and 10 students are called "juniors" and students in years 11, 12, and 13 are called "seniors." Juniors have most of their schedule prescribed to them and seem to travel from class to class together. The seniors have a lot more say in what classes they take. They are required to take some specific courses, but also need to earn a certain number of credits through internal and external assessments in each course. I am still trying to figure out what that means and how that works.
It was a typical crazy, start-of-school-year day in a high school. I watched a Te Reo Maori class work on an art project, I saw the chaos of picture day, a short school assembly where year 9 students were told ways to get involved, and then I saw year 11 and year 13 history classes.
The most memorable moment was during a discussion of the children's book, The Rabbits, by John Marsden. It is an allegory about colonialism. When the teacher asked if it was an appropriate way for kids to learn about colonialism most kids said yes. One student said, 'No, because it didn't show any of the positives of colonialism, like if the Europeans hadn't come to Australia the Aborigines would still be eating food out of the ground and giving each other AIDS." Most of the kids gasped and one student in particular WENT OFF on him. The class erupted into side conversation and I tried to think through what he had said. Eat food out of the ground? Isn't that what we all do? How warped is this kid's thinking? And AIDS? Where did you get that from? I'm a history teacher; I've heard kids say some terrible and ridiculous things, but this is near the top in terms of ignorance and incomprehensible logic.
The teacher regrouped the class and let other students respond and we moved on. (Mostly they pointed out errors in his thinking.) In the end what I kept thinking was that I had expected more from a boy who was wearing lipstick. My bad. Gotta work on my assumptions.