Just Another Day in Paradise

Tena Koutou!
("hello" in Maori to a group of 3 or more people)

I thought I would begin this blog with the greeting I use everyday in Room 15. Once all of our students have settled in at their desks, I begin the day with the phrase "Tena Koutou Tamarikima". That means "Good day children!" They in turn respond, "Tena Korua teachers!" Koroua is used when speaking to 2 people - in this case, myself and Mrs. Logan. The Maori language is highly incorporated into the New Zealand curriculum at Swanson school. The children are given some commands in Maori throughout the day and they are also taught basic language words like colors and days of the week. It is so neat to see a native culture so directly intertwined with the mainstream school culture.

We are almost to the end of our second week of school here in New Zealand. I have already taken over a great portion of the teaching thus far and by next week will have everything but maths. It is looking like I will then have full control right up towards the end of the school year here! I have had a lot of fun with the activities we are doing this week and an really excited to begin a big unit endeavor next week. Yesterday I showed the students a video I had made about Wisconsin. They loved it! I had put it to some line dancing music and the kids got really into it. Somewhere along in the process of showing them, the idea came up that I could teach the students how to line dance. Mrs. Logan then kindly volunteered me to also lead the students in performing said line dance for the Christmas concert in addition to my conducting of our little classroom orchestra! Oh my! Even though it sounds crazy, I am totally game - this has been such an adventure so far, I am up for trying anything! :) We then went to the lab and the students researched information about Wisconsin, directed by the webs we had made on Tuesday. Afterwards, we shared in a circle what they had found and I was even taught some new things about my own state by my class. :) They found a site that declared Wisconsin as having a state soil, a state fish,and a state rock...none of which I had ever heard of or could pronounce! We had a good laugh about that! This term focuses on a few key things. For writing, we are working on report writing, so that is where my Wisconsin report idea came from. Today the students began writng their reports and will be finishing tomorrow by editing and presenting them to the class. For reading this term, we are focused on Current Events in Newspaper articles. We will be working with key stories and doing a wide array of activities with each one. The most exciting part is that we choose new articles as they happen every few days. Depending on the article content, the students may be drawing a picture of a crime scene, writing a letter to one of the main people in the article, or answering critical thinking/open-ended questions.

Yesterday we also had another go at practicing our recorders which are getting better each day. I have also started to act like a real conductor (hand motions, counting off, having them sit up straight, get beautiful sounds out of their instrument (as beautiful as recorders can be at least!) haha) so that they will know what to expect by the time of our little concert! I never thought I would be teaching music to this extent, but I have realized that with a little passion and a courageous attitude, I can teach almost anything, and almost anywhere! Sometimes a little leap of faith can be such a rewarding experience!

After school yesterday we had some beautiful weather so Laura and I decided to go for a magnificent 5k trek up around a hilly part of Swanson. We had some spectacular views of rolling, forest-covered hills, sheep herds, and of Auckland City in the distance. Then Rachel and her partner Ken took us to a pub/cafe in the little town of Ponsonby which is right outside of Auckland. We watched Cam (Rachel's son's friend who is boarding at Rachel's house right now) and his band play some lovely jazz music as we enjoyed a glass of delicious New Zealand wine and sat talking for a few hours. It was quite nice!! The funniest thing happened though on our way there. We were walking down the sidewalk towards the cafe and saw a restaurant called "Wisconsin Burgers - The world's best burgers!" We took a commenorative photo of course, and made a promise to make it back there at some point to try it out!

Today at school, my cooperating techer and I sat down to plan some things out for next week. We put our brains together and caame up with a rather exciting idea for a huge, several-week-long class project. We are going to be writing a class newspaper. This will cover our aforementionned writing and reading term content areas for a few weeks, as well as give students a chance to practice inquiry and work together to create a final project. They will be working in groups to create articles in categories such as education, politics, environment, crime, health, etc. and will need to conduct interviews and research around the school. They will need to create catchy headlines, taglines, and photos to catch their audience's attention. Some may be funny and some more serious, but the end result will be a Room 15 Press Gazzete that may be distributed throughout the school for a little enjoyment! The students will need to work hard and well together to make this happen but I have high hopes for them as they are highly motivated students. We will also be continuing on with maths (number revision and geometry), music, science topics, and maybe even some art. I am so absorbed in what I am doing already, I just love it! I already feel right at home at Swanson School and cant wait to see what the next few weeks bring!

This weekend our plans are as follows: Friday night we will be heading into Auckland City area with Jan for dinner and drinks because she has a work get-together to go to. Saturday, Laura and I are taking the train into the city and roaming about for the day. Then on Sunday, Rachel is taking us "tramping" on a magnificent trail up in the mountains near Bethel's Beach where we will be trekking behind waterfalls, having a picnic, and looking out over the treetops - it should be fantastic!! Well, I have a lot of lesson planning to do so that is all for now... take care everyone!

Cheers!