Coromandel!

Hi there,

Hope you are all enjoying the start of spring in the Northern hemisphere. It is actually approaching the end of summer down under and fall is threatening to appear any day now. Due to this, this weekend six of us decided to go to the Coromandel which is world reknown for it's amazing beaches.

Coromandel is located about 2.5 hours from Auckland and is a peninsula (pronounced "penishular" here). Driving up on friday was a little crazy with traffic and the roads are really windy but it was completely worth it! We stayed in the upper-mid part of Coromandel in a town called Whitianga. Our backpacker was called the Cats Pyjamas and had lots of character. After making some pasta and broccoli for a very late dinner that we had picked up along the way, we went to the beach which was a two minute walk away. The beach was on Mercury Bay and we walked around for a bit before heading to bed. Saturday we got up nice and early and made some eggs before driving out to the start of the Cathedral Cove walk. Driving to the start was absolutely beautiful because it was the first time we had seen Coromandel in the daylight. The rolling hills contrasted with the water was absolutely beautiful. The sun came out as we were driving and stayed out all day which was amazing! Anyways we made it to the carpark and then started our 45 min walk to Cathedral Cove. The walk was really beautiful between the water and mountains. We then made it to Cathedral Cove and it was absolutely breathtaking - SO gorgeous!! There were really cool rock formations everywhere and a huge rock that had a hole in the middle of it to walk through to get to another beach which had more rocks and beautiful water. Apparently this is the place where part of "The Chronicles of Narnia" was filmed but I've never seen it. We went swimming, explored caves, dove off of rocks and just relaxed in the sand for most of the afternoon. Then we walked back to the car and drove off to Hot Water Beach. Every day an hour on either side of low tide you can go to this beach and dig your very own hot water pool. We rented a shovel from the dairy (convenience store) and headed off to the beach. After first digging in the wrong spot (apparently being 10 ft off makes a huge difference) we went to the right part and started digging however another group was just leaving their hole so we jumped into theirs. If you just sink your feet into the sand it gets SO hot! It was so nice and relaxing, especially with the whole hole dug up so that the hot water was everywhere. On Sunday we went to Cooks Beach which was also so nice and hung out there for a couple hours before coming back to Auckland. It was such a nice and relaxing weekend with beautiful weather, water and beaches. I love Coromandel!

Here are the pictures if you want to see for yourself: http://picasaweb.google.com/LSOL817/CoromandelNZ?feat=directlink

The other exciting thing to mention from this weekend is that when I came back to Auckland my roommates and I made foccacia and baked ziti from scratch! It was so delicious!

Alright now onto the Carlson Oranga school update!

Thursday, March 18
Today was the day of BINGO! Almost every activity we did was somehow incorporated into a bingo game theme. I don’t think this was intentional, but it ended up being a neat way to structure the day around. After fitness and math (counting) we moved onto English. To get the teachers to recognize words, we played a game of bingo where different children’s abilities were utilized. Each child was given a game board of five cards that had a name of an object and the associated picture. However, the children who have devices were not given cards and instead they were the ones “calling out” the card picked. This way the children who have devices were able to work on recognizing the card, finding it on their device and calling out for the other children so they would know what card was being called. The children with the playing cards were able to see if the card called matched any of the cards on their game board. It was really interesting and a good way for children of different levels to practice different skills. After morning tea we did a different game of bingo but this time using animals. Again it was fascinating for me to see how the children were all able to play one game but each used his or her own skill sets to make it possible for them to play.
Another interesting thing that I learned today has to do with NZ culture. At the end of the day one of the teachers in the room next door asked how old I am, which led to everyone announcing their age. Some of the people working at the school were younger and older than I expected. Some of the teacher aides were younger than I am which led me to realize that they probably did not attend university. I think the since I am constantly surrounded by university students (both where I am located in Auckland and back in the States) leads me to think that everyone goes to university, but this is clearly not the case. Furthermore, some people who I thought were younger already have children of their own. It just made me realize again what a different environment I am in at school and the diverse group of people that I work with, which makes it all much more interesting!

Friday, March 19
Today was Parasport Day! Once every year the children take part in Parasport day. It is pretty much the equivalent of a small scale Special Olympics. The event took place at Mt Roskill primary school and was such an exciting day! Children from all different schools in Auckland attended the event. All the children had some type of special needs but whose classrooms were located in mainstream schools. The kids in my classroom were all so excited. They got to see children who were in their classroom the previous year but have since moved on to other schools. The fun environment was very contagious! We first assembled for the official opening where the people who put the program together talked. We were split up into circuits, which were further broken down into teams. The circuits were done by age and ability and the teams were further broken down into ability. We then had our circuit activities where each circuit group had four activities that the teams rotated through. The “elephant” circuit that I was at had an obstacle course, ball toss, bean-bag toss and ball game. There were five children in my team (two from my classroom) and each of the children had a teacher who was helping them. In addition to the five children and five adults, there were four children from the Mt Roskill Primary School who were the team leaders and buddies. At each station these four mainstream kids would cheer the children on and got to know them a bit. There was a bit of interaction, but I wish there would have been more because I think that my kids would have really liked it. Each activity in the circuit was run by two children at the intermediate school. They did a good job but probably should have known a bit more about the types of disabilities and the actual abilities that each child had. The circuits were a lot of fun though and the kids really enjoyed it. We then had a break for morning tea before moving onto the track event where each team raced against each other. Then we had closing ceremonies and a picnic lunch. After lunch everyone left, except for our classroom. We spent the afternoon with different special needs classrooms at Mt Roskill. Most of the classrooms had more behavioral and emotional problems, which was pretty familiar to me, and it was amazing for me to see those kids interacting with my own. One of my girls was playing hide and go seek with one of the girls in the classroom (with a bit of my assistance) and it was incredible to watch these two girls who are very different from each other and each with their own obstacles coming together and playing. It was a really incredible day and I am happy that I was able to observe and be a part of it. I was able to see mainstream kids interacting with my own as well as children with various special needs interact.

Monday, March 22
Today we joined the primary school for an assembly by the Duffy organization. The Duffy organization provides free books to children in New Zealand. They prepared a special assembly at school where they had one of their role models present. The role model chosen was a celebrity who has been in TV, movies and musical plays. She spoke to the children about how reading is a big part of her daily life and did some demonstrations including acting and singing. It was a lot of fun! Then they called up one child from each classroom and presented him/her with a book. The Duffy organization did a great job with the assembly and instilling the importance of reading in every child. It was also interesting to just be at an assembly with the mainstream children and see how a New Zealand primary school operates. They had some children who are in their last year of primary school lead the assembly by introducing the people and songs. There was a lot of singing and I got to hear the school anthem which is all in Maori, with hand motions! It was very interesting to watch. After the assembly we went back to the classroom and heard about each child’s weekend. Some children used their devices to tell about the activities they did during the weekend whereas others parents had recorded (either using a device so we could hear their voice or by writing) what the child had done. Then each child received two free books from the Duffy organization and we spent the rest of the time reading the books and presenting the books to the rest of the class. It was a really fun morning!

Hope you enjoyed the update!