First Day At The AmstelmeerSchool

October 13, 2009 23:05

It was wonderful to be at the Amstelmeerschool.  As I rode my bicycle up to the building, a student was waiting for me and took me to the entrance.  I saw a bunch of familiar faces that I reconized from Skyping over the past month.
 
After my tour of the individual classrooms, I visited a gym class.  It was an exciting day for the kids because an electronical fitness company was showing them different video game based exercises.  They had Wii fitness pads, stationary bicycles and Dance Dance Revolution pads all hooked up to giant screens.  Every single student was really into trying it all out!
 
 
 
With the help of a teacher in Group 6B (Fourth Grade), I was able to talk with a class and show them images of New York City, P.S. 89 and the students in my class.  They were surprised and excited to hear familiar words like Harlem and Brooklyn; to learn that many names in New York have Dutch roots.  They were extremely attentive and asked a bunch of questions:  "How many kids are in your class?" "How many boys?" "How many girls?" "What does your school look like?" etc.  Here is a photo of Group 6B.
 

 
I also spent time today planning for an English lesson that I am going to teach with Kiren (the English teacher) to Group 7 and 8.  It was interesting to sit and plan a lesson with another teacher; to talk about what we both thought was important, what might work and why.
 
Alex and I ended the day with a discussion about how our schools address the needs of thier many different learners.  Alex stressed how important differentiated instruction is at his school.  He said he noticed this happening extremely well in the CTT classroom he visited at P.S. 89.  Alex realizes how hard it is for a single teacher to do this for every lesson and provides each grade cluster with a person who is dedicated to preparing the necessary tools/materials for this type of instruction.  Each classroom also has a space alocated for small group instruction to take place. During this discussion, I agreed with Alex that it is difficult for one teacher to do and explained  how P.S. 89 uses the extended day program to make additional time for small group instruction. 
 
I am already discovering that our schools have many similarities and differences, but it's clear that we both have the same goals in mind.

The Job Swap is an initiative of the Henry Hudson 400 Foundation and BKB, in cooperation with the NY400. The Wildcard contest is organized together with newspapers Het Parool (Amsterdam) and AM New York (New York).