Pictures of the place I taught today

ioreks_mom · 11-19-2009, 06:53 PM

My friend has sole charge of small primary school in a tiny outport here about 50 minutes from where we live. She had meetings today and yesterday so I was called in to sub. I was super nervous to sub there because it is just me!! Well, she does have a part time secretary who is there Monday-Wednesday so she was there with me yesterday but not today. There are 5 students! One in kindergarten, 3 in grade 2, and one in grade 3. They are just the best kids. I really enjoyed my time down there. So, besides having a great school with great students the scenery is breathtaking! I couldn't take pictures of it all because I was driving and the roads are so narrow and twisty that it was not safe for me to pull over. It is right on the ocean and there are HUGE rocky cliffs everywhere - you can't even get a radio signal there!

This is the view right next to the school - the school is literally right to my right when I took this picture

close up of the cliffs

This is the entire school, there is one classroom which acts as the gym, a small library/computer room, and the classroom, bathrooms (obviously!), and an office/staff room

- more -

ioreks_mom · 11-19-2009, 06:54 PM

This is a picture from the teacher's desk down the hall to the other end of the school

What other school has a view as beautiful as this??

This is the view leaving the school. The whole town is surrounded by little coves. The houses are built right on the rocks and their backyard is the ocean. So beautiful!

I am going back again next Monday.

Thank you for looking

meghf · 11-19-2009, 06:56 PM

Beautiful!

ioreks_mom · 11-19-2009, 06:58 PM

I think so too!

There is also a waterfall that comes over the top of the cliffs that you see right when you are coming into town. If I can I will stop on Monday to get pictures. If I could move there and not have to drive an hour just to get groceries I totally would move!

Dakota Spirit · 11-19-2009, 07:03 PM

Very pretty! I would have like to be able to look at that outside my school windows instead of roads and buildings all those years

I bet it was nice only having a few kids you could focus on, too. I'm curious though, since they are in different grades how DO you teach them all in one class? Is it more of a 'they work on their own thing and you help them' type situation or are the lessons somehow tailored to a varying audience?

ioreks_mom · 11-19-2009, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dakota Spirit

Very pretty! I would have like to be able to look at that outside my school windows instead of roads and buildings all those years

I bet it was nice only having a few kids you could focus on, too. I'm curious though, since they are in different grades how DO you teach them all in one class? Is it more of a 'they work on their own thing and you help them' type situation or are the lessons somehow tailored to a varying audience?

Teaching multi-grade is a very common thing here since there are so many small towns that are too far away from each other. The school is only K-3 because the older kids are able to be bussed further so they can go to a neighboring town.

When you teach multi-grade generally you introduce a subject to them all and do a lesson. Then you give the older students more advanced work dealing with the topic. Like today the students were working on place value and using base ten blocks so the grade 2's had 2 digit numbers and the grade 3 had 3 digit numbers. With things like math and science this is not always possible so what I would do is introduce something to one grade at a time. Like I would give the grade 2's and 3's practice work while I taught a lesson to the grade 1's and then the next day the grade 1's would get practice work while the grade 2's got a lesson etc. Today the grade 2's and grade 3 had reading buddies while I worked with the kindergarten student on his math. With Language it is usually much easier since most of the outcomes are similar, just more advanced. It is a lot of work, but living in a small town means this is most likely what you will have to do.

Shauni'sMom · 11-19-2009, 07:34 PM

Lovely photos - lovely view! I see you're in Newfoundland - where abouts is this school? (I will admit I have a lack of knowledge of NL, but I've been there a few times and have totally fell in love with the province. Up until a few months ago, I was moving there when I finished school.)

ioreks_mom · 11-20-2009, 05:21 AM

It is in Nipper's Harbour. It is north central Newfoundland. I am originally from the west coast of Newfoundland, Corner Brook, but I am really loving it here in central.

Leroy&Lucy'sMom · 11-20-2009, 09:55 AM

What an amazing place to live. I know there are downsides to every place, but man, that view is definitely worth it....so you had to drive an hour to sub? Do you usually have to drive so far to work?
Thanks for sharing the views.

ioreks_mom · 11-20-2009, 10:00 AM

I don't usually have to drive that far. Today I am subbing at the high school in the town where I live and it is literally 3 minutes walk from where I live (great when I am taking the dogs out in my pj's and the kids walk by

!) My husband drives about 35 minutes each way to teach. There are many small towns (22 I think) around here and about 5 or 6 schools with only 2 here in town. I might be the only sub that is not a retired teacher who is willing to drive out to the schools! I think that there are only about 2 or 3 other subs here. I am super busy!

Spirit_of_Cotons · 11-20-2009, 03:35 PM

Wow talk about remote and look how small that school is! The pictures are very nice and I bet sometimes the kids get distracted with all that nice scenery out their window. I know I'd be distracted! Lol.

Many schools, as far as I know, put different grades in each classroom. When I was in high school I would be a freshman with seniors in the class as well, as with 10th and 11th graders too. And our school was bigger too.

So when you went in, did you have work and then play or just have fun?

ioreks_mom · 11-20-2009, 03:51 PM

There are a lot of schools who do multi-age classrooms and multi-grade even when they don't have to. A lot of people think that it is better for the students to be in a multi-age/grade classroom. When I was in grade 3 I was in a grade 2/3 split class and I lived in downtown Toronto. There were plenty of students to have separate classes!

We did work and then we had fun when the work was done!

The students don't get distracted by the view because they see it every day

I, on the other hand, was distracted since I don't get to see the beautiful cliffs all the time!

Shauni'sMom · 11-20-2009, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ioreks_mom

It is in Nipper's Harbour. It is north central Newfoundland. I am originally from the west coast of Newfoundland, Corner Brook, but I am really loving it here in central.

Very cool!! I've only been on the east coast (St. John's area), but I will definitely be going back one day to check out the rest of the province!

ioreks_mom · 11-21-2009, 05:12 AM

Oh, the west coast is so much prettier! (I am not biased or anything

) But really, if you do come back I highly recommend going to Gros Morne. It is on the Northern Peninsula and if I could live there I would never leave!

It is funny because Nipper's Harbour looks a lot like the east coast with all the exposed rock and stuff. The rest of the island is green and tree covered, I promise! Heehee!

Elana55 · 11-23-2009, 11:35 AM

One Room Schools used to be the norm in the US but then they built bigger schools and bussed the kids and eventually centralized the schools. Some kids get lost in a big system like that.

The advantage of a one room school is that everyone learns a lot. In the US it was common for the teacher to have older students help teach and tutor younger ones. You really learn a subject if you have to teach it!

My ex husband got a Phd in Geophysics years back and he started his education in a one room school.

ioreks_mom · 11-23-2009, 02:09 PM

There are still a lot of one room schools here in Newfoundland because of all the tiny outports. The government decided that children in the primary grades are not allowed to be bused more than 25 minute (I think??) so there are schools that are like this one K-3. Then there are schools like where my DH works that has 33 students from k-12. They are 6 or 7 km too far from the school here in town so they are not allowed to be bussed that far. The town we live in is building a new school that will be just within the busing limit for my DH's school so they will move there then. The ground was only broken for this school in the fall.

I agree that you learn more about something if you have to teach it. I believe in using this technique while teaching but I do not believe in getting the students to regularly teach their peers. These students in this school (there are 5 of them) work together and I believe that this helps with social skills and helps mature the younger students faster. I have been in kindergarten classes where the students were still like they were on the first day of school, maturity wise, 1/2 way into the year. Here the kindergarten student is very mature (as far as a 5 year old goes) and knows a lot more due to being in the class with the rest of the students.

Shauni'sMom · 11-23-2009, 09:08 PM

I really want to go see Terra Nova and Gros Morne! They're on my 'must do' lists when I head to NL again. You're making me want to go back right away!

ioreks_mom · 11-24-2009, 04:53 AM

You should come back right away