A long time coming

I apologize for my absence but life has become very crazy since I have taken more responsibility in the class. My two weeks of full control turned into three due to my teacher's kids being sick. But I was excited to have the class to myself and everything went really well.

My time in New Zealand is quickly coming to a close and I am not ready to leave. I am excited to see my family and friends but I am not ready to say goodbye to my new friends, school or my "New Zealand family."

Last weekend I was able to travel to Rotorua with Heather and Cynthia and we had a blast. Although it did smell like rotten eggs when the wind blew in the right direction due to the sulphur but I got use to it after a while. Heather and Cynthia decided to enjoy a mud bath while I enjoyed the sights and shops of the city. (Paying to sit in mud is just not my cup of tea, lol) We ended the day by taking part in the "Maori experience." We went to a village and learned more about their culture and enjoyed an authentic Hangi feast. My favorite day was Sunday because we went to visit the Shire! If you are unfortunate enough to not know what the shire is, it is the place where the hobbits from Lord of the Rings lived. We visited the Shire at the perfect time because they are fixing the site up for the upcoming Hobbit movie. Unfortunately though I am not allowed to discuss what they told us or upload pictures because it is a working movie set. You will just have to visit Matmata and the Shire for yourself :)

In other news my netball team won the semi finals tonight J

Netball

I have decided to introduce you all to my new favorite sport, netball. Chrissy (from my home stay family) has been nice enough to let me play with her team on a weekly basis. The closet sport we have to netball is basketball but there are a lot of differences. Some of the rules for (indoor) netball:

1) You can not step once of have the ball (only pivot)
2) You can only hold onto the ball for 3 seconds before getting the whistle blown at you
3) You can only shoot if you are attack or center
4) Your feet have to be at least 2-3 ft away when defending the shooter (you can put your arms up to defend as close as you want as long as you are not touching the other person.)
5) The positions are: 2 on Goal attack, 2 on defense (can not cross half court) and 2 Centers(an exhausting position b/c you run up and down the court a million times!)
6) No jewelry or long nails allowed while playing (if your nails are too long they make you wear gloves, and yes they do check)

I absolutely love this game and will be sad when I leave and can no longer play but I have loved playing with the Chrissy's team. We have only won one game but we still have a lot of fun. Except when the umpire constantly blows the whistle on me (half the time I don't even know what they are saying or what I did wrong). I just look at my team mates and they just tell me what to do with the ball. :)

 

                                            

 * Goal















*This is not my team but this is what the courts look like we play on.







In other news, Friday was the last day of term 3 so we now have a two week break! (Yah!) In a couple of days myself, Heather and Cynthia are going on a road trip farther north to check out some beaches. I am really excited to see other parts of New Zealand. Hopefully, I will make it to the south island eventually.

Teaching

As the weeks pass I am taking on more and more in the classroom, and I love the challenge! So far I am teaching a math and reading group everyday. I am doing the morning and afternoon "wrap-up stuff" and coming up with lessons for science. I was observed this week by a professor from the local college and she thinks I have "mastered" guided reading (yah!) she also said I have a good "authoritative" teacher voice. This was all a relief to hear!

Teaching math (or maths as they say) has been the most challenging for me. (Probably because math is and has always been my worst subject!) Their curriculum is very different but I think after a couple of weeks I have finally become accustomed to it. We just wrapped up fractions, decimals and percentages in my group and I could not be happier, I think teaching fractions is the worst! But I have done no permanent damage to the kids and I think they might have actually walked away understanding fractions a little better ;)

Last weekend I went with Dave, daisy and Eden to a local aquarium to check out all the cute (and creepy) underwater creatures! We saw penguins, squid and huge manta rays!



The Amazing Race....

Last weekend was another great weekend! I was able to see another part of Auckland because of the "amazing race." Every year the teachers from Gladstone that want to participate get sent out into the city dressed as crazy people to be the first ones to the final destination. What is the prize that all of the teachers crave? Drum roll please....the honor of planning it for the following year!) So only the teams that are oober competitive actually try and win because honestly who wants to plan the thing. (Too much work) Well my team had the best intentions of coming in second but we were just too talented and came in first. At least I don't have to worry about planning next year ;) On Sunday Dave, myself and the girls all went to M.O.T.A.T (museum of technology and transportation) it was really cool. I learned a lot of New Zealand history, went on an old school trolley and rode to Saturn (via motion simulator). We ended the day with a delicious dinner made by Dave's stepmom and dad and sadly watched on as the lady ferns were defeated by Australia (netball).

I started teaching math this week and it went so much better than expected. The kids are working on fractions and that is not the easiest thing to teach. So I was thrilled that by the end of my lesson the kids were asking for extra problems! That was a confidence booster!
There is one kid in my class that is continuously cracking me up. The class was just about to finish writing when he asked me to read over his paper. While reading I noticed he was mixing up “to” and “too” I pointed this out to him and his response, “O, well I just can’t be bothered with that it’s just too confusing.” I tried my best to stay “professional” but I couldn’t hold back. I died laughing and told him that he would just have to be “bothered” and learn the difference before he could publish.

I will end this post with new kiwi words and phrases: (Without thinking I now use most of these words, if not the kids at school laugh at me :)

Sweet ‘as’ or funny ‘as'
Crikey, just like the crocodile hunter use to say it!
Mate/ friend
Plaster/ band-aid
Biscuit/ cookie
Chips/ fries or regular “chips”
Torch/ flashlight
Runners/ tennis shoes
Jandals/ flip flops (in my first post I accidently said jangal)
Full stop/ period at the end of a sentence
Jumper/ jacket or sweater
rubbish/ trash

Rebekah

p.s. keep Christchurch (south island) and the surrounding towns in your prayers they were hit with a 7.1 earthquake last Saturday, thankfully no deaths but a lot of damage was done!

A kiwi school

I am starting my second week at Gladstone and I love it! It is a little intimidating though because there are so many differences. For instance:

1) they don't test the kids (standardized or just a regular math test) they rely on homework/classwork to check for understanding.
2) You will never see the teacher "teaching" in front of the class for more than 10-15 minutes a day. They only work in small groups, so the kids really work well by themselves. For math my teacher has the students broken up into three different groups (low, middle and high). She will see at least two of those groups a day. When they are not with Ms. Oates they are working on activities and centers (rarely worksheets). This method takes ALOT of planning and really good class management but Ms. Oates has perfected it and it works great! It should be interesting when I take over ;)
3) Some of the kids don't wear shoes to school! Weird right?!? But this is normal even when it’s freezing and raining outside!
4) The teachers have a morning tea time (for 25 minutes) and a 45 minute lunch break where they go to the teacher's lounge and don't have to worry about kids! (unless they are on duty) The teachers lounge is really nice! They have microwaves, sinks espresso/coffee/ hot chocolate maker, my favorite :) and a dart board.
5) The kids have a lot of freedom during lunch. They first have to eat their lunch for a minimum of ten minutes and if they are done with lunch they can play on the fields or play ground or they go to their sport practice. (They teachers on duty have to walk around and supervise)
6) My class is also learning Maori. That should also be interesting when I take over! I can barely speak New Zealand ;)

I am sure I will think of more to tell you about Gladstone but that is it for now! This past weekend an amazing teacher (who is also from the U.S) took me and the other COST student to a wonderful lunch and then to another volcano (there is 50 in Auckland) where we got to see an amazing view of Auckland and some little lambs! I will post pictures later. We finished the day with some good ole' southern comedy! We watched the blue collar comedy tour (or something like that… I can't remember the exact title) It was the one with Jeff Foxworthy and the guy who played Mater! Until next time!

Hei konā rā (Goodbye)

Kia Ora!

Well, I have finally sat down to start a blog. Hopefully I will keep it updated. I have been in New Zealand for about 5 days and I am LOVING it! I adjusted surprisingly well to the time change, I have just been going to bed around 8 which is about 4 hours earlier than usual! I started my internship today at Gladstone and I am in year 5 (that translates to 4th grade for us) My cooperating teacher is amazing, I am going to learn a lot from her! I will tell you more about the school in a later blog.

New Zealand is like America in a lot of ways but there are a lot of differences. They are very "green." You will never see plastic bags or bottles. They drive on the opposite side (so confusing). Their police officers do not carry guns on them. Everything is very expensive! Examples: gas- $8 a gallon (yikes!!!), soft covered book- $30 a hard- $50, food- everything is about $2-3 more (some even more). Oh, and everyone is always running, even in the cold rain! Now that is dedication.

Different vocab and phrases:
jangals/flip flops
toilet/ restroom
lollies/candy
souviet/napkin
rubber/eraser
tog/swimming suit
boot/trunk
nappy/diaper

Those are just a few! Well it is almost past my bedtime so I must go! ;) I normally go to bed before the four year old! That is how sad I am!

~by the way "Kia Ora" means "hello/be well" in maori