Opposite ends of the world... in more than one way.

So I walked to school my first day, thinking it would take about 10 minutes. 25 minutes later, in my heels, I finally arrived, sweating something fierce, and the deputy principal came and found me. He gave me a little tour of the school and all that and then said, "So.. you play trombone in the band, huh?" and I responded "Yup!" thinking that I must have said something about it when I introduced myself to the school. He then said, "Yeah... I definitely googled you. And I found your picture on the band website." HA! At least he's honest about it...

I met up with my teacher, who does a lot of work with inquiry, and she took me to her room. I saw MAYBE ten chairs and asked how many students she had and she told me THIRTY. Where did they all sit? On the floor, on the couches, in the padded bathtub, pretty much anywhere they wanted! I was absolutely flabbergasted by their respect for their teacher as well as their good behavior. She did not have to scold ONE student all day long. Whoa... it blew me away! Some of my favorite questions from my kids so far:

• So, you're from America? Because you sound a lot like some people on an American show I watch. (hahaha)
• Do you know Miley Cyrus?
• Can you please tell me some jokes?? I don't think Kiwis are funny AT ALL.

A few minutes before school was over on Monday, the principal pulled me out again just to have a chat about what I want to get out of my experiences here and all that.. it was incredible. He made me feel so important and that my opinions and learning are so valued. THANK YOU!

Then I came home and began my training with a whopping 20 minute run. It was a pretty nice run and I'm going to be doing the same one again today. Then I did some grocery shopping, had some dinner, watched Pacific with my family, and by then I was so beat, that I went to bed!

Yesterday was a lot of the same. The kids are so cute and are willing to talk to me and include me. Today I'm going to be brave and bold and march right into the teacher's lounge during lunch and introduce myself to some people. It should be a good time! I'm also just about ready to start teaching some. However, today is a little different. There's an assembly in the morning, and then the students spend the rest of the morning doing "enrichment" (They get to choose whatever topic is offered that they want and then go and do it!) I can't remember if it lasts all day or just the morning.... but there's a Spanish enrichment, which I pretty much am obligated to go to, haha.

My favorite quote of this week so far came from my principal when he was chatting with me:

"We teach to IMPROVE, we don't teach to PROVE." That pretty much explains everything in my classroom. Teachers, you know how we have 6+1 Traits? My teacher didn't know that that existed, so by simply doing TONS of research, she came up with her OWN assessment tool for writing. BINOCulars. I was blown away... She does SO much for those kids, it's simply incredible. I can't wait to see more and learn exactly how she does it all!

Although this new classroom is new and different and exciting, I am feeling a little bit out of my element, which is good to acknowledge, but is also kind of hard! We'll see how it all goes :) Over and out!