Putting Things In Perspective

Wow! We are already to the final third of our time here in New Zealand and things are winding down fast! Our regular schedule is becoming less and less regular as the end of the school year here brings more and more “out of the classroom” activities and presentations to go to. Tomorrow, for instance, I will be assisting in our Western District Athletics Day at the local Trust Stadium. It is a day where all schools in the local area get together with their best athletes in Levels 4, 5, and 6 and compete in Track and Field Activities. Some of my class will be there, amongst about 75 other students from Swanson School. I will be helping to make sure the children get to the right events on time and helping with crowd control in the stands. Should be interesting!

As for the rest of the week, my class will be learning a little bit about our Thanksgiving history and traditions in America. I have brought a storybook from the states and am baking a pumpkin pie for my students to sample on Thursday. We will also be making handprint turkey art projects in class.

The newspaper is nearly finished; it is in its final stages. The children have worked exceptionally hard to produce their articles and they are very proud of their work. We also continue to learn math, our music for the Christmas Concert, and are practicing line dancing. Teaching 26 students how to dance in synch is not necessarily an easy task, that’s for sure. It is exhausting rather, but so worth it because we have a lot of fun.

This past weekend, Laura and I spent some time roaming around Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city. We had a great time shopping, visiting Te Papa National Museum, riding the cable cars, walking through the botanical gardens, and seeing some of the parliament buildings. I also took a ½ day Lord of the Rings tour where we visited some of the movie filming locations. It was wonderful!

As the title of this entry says, things are really coming into focus for the rest of this school year. I’ve worked really hard with my students and we have done a lot so far. I am also able to clearly see what our goals are for the next few weeks as things are wrapping up.
That’s all for now I think…I have some pumpkin pies to make!

Cheers!