Hi all,
Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Over the past couple of weeks I've mainly just been living daily life in Auckland. While the weather has definitely been getting colder, it has been really great! There are a couple things that really stand out over the past few weeks so I will just go through by topic:
May is New Zealand Music Month! There have been a lot of concerts, workshops and music festivals throughout New Zealand to celebrate New Zealand music and I have been lucky enough to go to two great events! On Monday May 13 my program organized a trip to an Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (APO) concert. The concert was called "Age of Poets" and was really great! Before the concert we went to a lecture given by the conductor which was really interesting and definitely gave me insight into the concert! Then doing and in the middle of the concert, there was free food and drinks which were good! The concert took place in Auckland's Town Hall and it was a wonderful venue for the concert. Then the following Tuesday, May 18, there was a free concert given by the APO for NZ music month! It was once again at the town hall and once again fantastic! The first piece was composed by a 16 year old who had won a competition and was really great. After his piece was performed, he was interviewed on stage which was really fascinating. Then the next piece had a marimba solo and was so great! Before the piece was performed the composer was interviewed and I felt I got so much more out of the piece from listening to the composer first. The marimba was just awesome! It is such a cool instrument! After intermission there was a organ concierto which was also amazing! The composer was also the organ soloist, and he was also interviewed on stage before the performance which was again really intersting. The organ in the town hall had just been remodeled and has over 5,000 pipes! I have never seen such a huge organ!! They are even offering "organ tourism" where you can walk through the pipes, which I am considering doing since it sounds incredible. Anyways needless to say, NZ music month was a huge success for me!
Last weekend I went to the French Market in Parnell (which is only about a 15 minute walk from me). There was so much food it was great! All of the booths had tons of free food to taste! I bought a great loaf of kumara bread, a delicious eggplant/tomato hummus, danish, New Zealand cheese and a crepe! The market is open every weekend so I plan to go a lot in the next few weeks!
Two Big Feeds: Here in New Zealand they call food gatherings "Big Feeds" and over the past couple of weeks, I have had two of them! A couple weeks ago everyone on my program decided to have a pretend Thanksgiving (since it is the equivalent of November here). Everyone brought a dish to the potluck and it was so delicious! I made squash pudding and it was a big hit! Then last week was Shavuot and I went to a local family's house for dinner with one of my friends here. We had a reverse meal, so we had a great dessert filled with cheesecake (a classic) and creme brule first, followed by schnitzel and a great salad. Lots of good "big feeds" here.
Mission Bay is about a 40 minute bike ride from me and is honest the best bike ride ever! It is completely flat the entire way and is right on the edge of the beautiful water! My friend and I biked there for the first time last sunday and spent a really nice leisurely day around Mission Bay. There is a little beach there which is nice and has a wonderful lookout of Rangitoto. It also has some shops and restaurants and the best ice cream ever! It is called Movenpick ice cream from Switzerland and is so delicious! On Sunday I had the vanilla brownie ice cream, in thier handmade cones which was so good! Then on Thursday my class went to Kelly Tarlton's Antartic Underwater Experience (which is basically an aquarium - see below for details!) which is located about a 10 minute bike ride from Mission Bay. So after my class left, one of my friends met me and we biked out to Mission Bay again and had a caramel apple cake with chocolate ice cream on the side - yum! On the way to Mission Bay, on the recommendation of my co-staff, we stopped by the Michael Savage Memorial which kind of looked like the Washington monument. It had an awesome view of the harbor, city, Devonport and Rangitoto. Then yesterday I ended up out there again (more details below) and had chocolate ice cream in a cone. Basically I've had Movenpick ice cream 3 days in 1 week - a little excessive, but so delicious. You could say that I'm pretty much obsessed with Mission Bay and Movenpick!
Saturday the Auckland Uni Canoe club put on an "Amazing Race" (like the TV show) around Auckland! You had to be in teams of 4 so me and 3 of my friends decided to compete! We decided to do the competition on bikes because the bus system around Auckland is really wacky and we would have ended up waiting for more buses the majority of the day. Also, it was a beautiful sunny day out - perfect for biking! The other girl on my team also has a bike here, and the two guys rented them from the NextBike company (there are bikes around Auckland that you can rent). We started the race in Cornwall Park - right near where I work. We first had to rent the bikes, which ended up being a little crazy since the place where we usually pick the bikes up didn't have any bikes (I guess other people rented them). We eventually found two bikes for them, but it got a little tight! Anyways, we finally made it to Cornwall Park feeling like we had already competed in part of the race! The three judges first gave us some instructions then had us line up and handed us our first task. We had to do a variety of races on the field: wheelbarrel race (which I am officially awful at), crawl like a crab, run like a bear, leap frog and just a running relay. Then after we finished that we grabbed our second task: go to the Auckland Museum. However, since we were biking and had an advantage (since we didn't have to wait for buses) they told us that we had to go around a round about route, and then go to the Museum. So we did that and made it to the Museum around when the other teams did. Once we made it to the Museum they gave us our next task: to run through the Auckland Museum and take pictures next to 4 objects. We had to find and take a picture with a stuff elephant, a weta (a bug), a piece of Asian pottery and a rifle. After we found and photographed those, we got our next task: to go down to the duck pond at the Auckland Domain (in the same area as the museum). When we got there we received our next task Pig or Dig: we had to either eat raw animal organs or dig through a bucket of white rice to find 4 grains of brown rice. We chose the DIG option and it was so frustrating! We eventually found it, but it was hard work! Then we received our next task: to take the ferry to Devonport and take 4 pictures there. Since two members of my team had already spent money renting a bike for the day, we asked if it would be possible for us to take a penalty and skip that task so we would not have to pay to go to Devonport. They said that was fine and to just go to the ferry terminal in 2 hours. So during the meantime we ate and just hung out in the Auckland Domain since it was such a nice day out! When we made it to the ferry we received our last task: to take pictures with various things, collect a casino chip and coaster and then ride up Mount Eden (which is really high!) and go back to Cornwall Park. The coaster we had to get was out in Mission Bay, so our team decided that rather than finishing we would just go to Mission Bay and hang out there, because there was no way that we were going to ride up Mount Eden! So we rode out to Mission Bay and spent a lovely couple hours there on the beach and getting ice cream. We rode back to Auckland as the sun was setting and it was just beautiful!
Over the past couple of weeks, my attention has also largely been placed on my internship. I really love the experience I have been having there! As part of the coursework I need to do for the internship, I have to do some sort of field research. My friend who is also working at Carlson (but at a different school) and I decided that the best way to learn about Carlson is to interview the people who work there! So I interviewed my head teacher and together we interviewed the deputy principal of the school. These interviews were both so fascinating! I just finished trancribing the interviews, and in addition to putting them in my internship portfolio, hope to use them for my education research class at Brandeis next year. They are really fascinating interviews if any of you would like to see them. Below are my recent bi-weekly reports:
Tuesday May 11
Today I noticed a huge difference between a New Zealand and US classroom and it all centered around the outbreak of lice. During morning fitness one of the other TAs noticed that one of the children had lice eggs in his hair. She just went about picking and killing them off, and the rest of the class went on as normal. I was so surprised by this. What I remember from a lice outbreak in first grade is the entire class having to get checked, the whole day being devoted to lice and many notices being sent home to parents about it. As a staff, we did not even talk about it or alert the parents. I found this to be very strange (and of course felt itchy for the rest of the day). I guess it must go along with New Zealander’s more laid back attitude. Other than that, we had a staff meeting during jolly phonics which was again very interesting. We talked about some of the children’s individual learning styles which was really great to hear about. One of the children, J, is more of a visual learner. My head teacher told us that last year they had a specialist come in to observe and he told her that J gets overwhelmed when too much auditory information is given to him, so it is best to keep things as simple as possible. While it is important to tell J about what is coming next (so that he will not be surprised), we should only tell him things once so that he can process it himself without getting overwhelmed. We also discussed another child who I had been working with that day during the academic block, S. I had mentioned that I find working with S to be difficult since she does not have a good way to communicate and it is hard to tell where her gaze is directed. My head teacher said that most teachers and therapists have this problem with S, so we then spent time discussing what we think is best for S to get out of school. After talking about different factors, we decided to try reading her stimulating stories since her auditory processes work much better than her vision, so we will see how that goes. We also talked about the comment that a physio made the previous day. She said that she was really impressed with the way we were running the classroom and that if she had a child with cerebral palsy, she would want her child to have us as teachers. It was such an awesome thing to hear, and my head teacher said that was one of the highlights of her career!
Thursday, May 13
Today was another typical day in room 2 in the Carlson Oranga classroom. We followed the usual routine of going from fitness to academic block. During the academic block I was working with two kids which was a bit more challenging. They are supposedly at the same level academically, but one of them has a communication device he can use while in the standing frame, while the girl cannot use her communication device while standing. It was hard for me to work with both of them at once, since they each required such different types of help. It was also hard to have one of them give an answer, without giving it away to the other child. It was strange because normally the girl goes into her chair halfway through academic block so that she can use her communication device, but this did not happen today. Hopefully it will happen again soon, because she is able to exhibit much more of her knowledge when using the device. During staff morning tea, there were a lot of Carlson staff there and we had a pretty interesting discussion. One of the teachers who is based out of Carlson was saying that she feels that the kids are not having enough time for academic work, because so much time is spent on physical activities (such as toileting, eating and physio work). I have thought this same comment so many different times and found the way the discussion unfolded to be very interesting. My head teacher responded to her by saying that she thinks that if the kids get very focused amount of learning sessions then they are learning a lot. She said that she only really works with one child for a full 7 minutes each day, and believes that to be very sufficient. I found this comment to be strange, because if she really believes this then why would our academic block be one hour? The whole thing was kind of strange to me, because I really do feel that aside from that one hour academic block in the morning, the kids are not getting much academically out of the day. Between morning tea and lunch we usually have “topic work” but this is normally a group discussion or arts ‘n crafts activity related to sea animals. The discussion just reinforced my thinking that the children are not getting as much out of each day academically.
Tuesday May 18
Today was a day of walking! We only had four kids in today so after fitness we decided to use the hoist and R got to walk around the room! I was helping him out and it was a lot of fun – he was really getting the hang of stepping forward, but it did take a lot of physical work on my part. It was great to see him standing tall, deciding where he wanted to walk and actually stepping to get over there. I think it gave him a sense of control and power, which he is usually upset about lacking. Later on in the day, I walked with another kid, J, back from the bathroom. He has a lot more control over his body, so it was interesting to contrast his motions with R’s. Also today we learned about jellyfish and made “recyclable jellyfish” which the kids then got to throw around which was great. After morning tea two of the kids got really upset when we turned the TV off, which started a bit of an uproar in the classroom. In the afternoon we had Jolly Phonics. Today a letter was finally sent home about the lice problem, since another kid has it, I think they are still making way less of a big deal about it then they would in the US.
Thursday May 20
We took a field trip to Kelly Tarlton’s underwater Antarctic experience today! It was a lot of fun and went really well with our sea-creatures unit! The kids were really excited and it was a great experience. Right when we entered there was a polar challenge to stick your hand in freezing cold water for 30 seconds (I couldn’t last more than a few seconds) and the kids squealed at touching the cold water. Then there was a truck that roams around the Antarctic that some of the kids got to go in, which they absolutely loved (especially one of my kids who loves “The Little Yellow Digger” book). We had a stingray encounter where we saw a huge stingray be fed. Then we went on in “snow-cat” trucks to see the penguins. This bit was especially fun. A bench had to be taken out of the snow-cat to allow room for two of the wheelchairs (the other children were taken out of their wheelchairs and sat on the benches) and it was great! It was basically like a ride for the kids through an Antarctic storm to reach the penguins. We were really close to the penguin tanks and could see them swimming and diving into the water. Then around the bend we saw them getting fed which was awesome. The kids really seemed to enjoy it, although some of them enjoyed just being on the ride more than actually seeing the penguins. From the penguins we moved on to the shark tank. It was really cool because there is a moving walkway that you go on and there is a tunnel of fish and sharks all around you. The kids really loved it and got to point out all the different sea creatures. From there we took a pseudo elevator (which was really just like another ride to the kids) up a flight of stairs to see more animals. We saw eels and crayfish being fed and lots of brightly colored fish and seahorses. The kids were able to use their devices to call out what the different animals were. After that we left Kelly Tarlton’s for lunch. We were going to walk to Mission Bay, but about halfway there my head teacher decided that we didn’t have enough time to go all the way. However, we were right on the water and had a nice spot for lunch. The only funny thing is that since we were just off the road, a ton of cars saw us and would look at us as they went by – oh well. The kids enjoyed their lunch and the speech language therapist who came with us picked up some fish ‘n chips from the famous “Fish Pot” for lunch – it was delicious. Some of the kids even tried some chips and loved it. It was a really great day!
Monday May 24
Today and last Friday were both great days at school. On Friday one of my kids who is kind of verbal said my name! It was so exciting and I seriously almost started crying! He said “Lala help me!” I really almost fell on the floor from being so excited. Also on Friday I was reading a story to some kids at the end of the day. The books I were reading were the “big books” that we have in the classroom which all have these lines that repeat. So I decided to use a recording switch device that we have to record part of the story and then let the kids press the switch so they could participate in the story telling. It was so much fun and the kids seemed to enjoy it! It was very easy to use so hopefully I will use it again in the future. One of the kids loved it so much, and since he was the last one to be picked up, we decided to put him in his powerchair and have him drive around the classroom going towards the switch. The switch proved to be an excellent motivator for him to drive! Then when his Mom came, she was really impressed and asked if I would mind keeping it up to bring him out towards the car. So by using the switch as a reinforcer, he drove himself all the way down the hallway! It was really impressive and exciting! Today I was working with the child who is kind of verbal and he did some great work on math. We were sorting objects by color and working on his fine motor skills to pick up the objects. The physio was there as we were working and she suggested trying to stand on a different side to encourage him to lift his head up and reach across his body. It just reinforced for me that everything is connected when working with these kids (and probably kids in general!). We then shared news and it was time for me to leave. Over the past few weeks I’ve noticed how much more comfortable I’ve gotten around the kids, staff and classroom in general. I feel that I am more able to take charge and don’t look as much for reassurance from the other staff to make sure that what I am doing is right – it’s a really nice feeling.
And last but not least, here is the link to the professional pictures that were taken while white water rafting in Rotorua. Yes, someone on my raft did fall out, but she is okay! Hope you enjoy the pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/LSOL817/RaftingPictures?feat=directlink
Sending lots of love from Mission Bay!
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
ROTORUA
Hi all!
This past weekend BU took our entire group to Rotorua and it was amazing! Rotorua is about 3 hours from Auckland and is one of the biggest tourist destinations in New Zealand. It was a really incredible trip and I hope I'm able to convey to you all how great Rotorua really is:
We left Friday morning at 9am on a bus and took off for Rotorua. We had lunch in the town of Rotorua and took in the amazing lake. Rotorua has 12 lakes around it. Then we took the gondola up and went LUGING for a couple hours! Luges is similar to go-karts but there is no motor or wheels. You are basically in something like a sled and it has a lever where you can control your speed and steer. It was a lot of fun! We got a five pass and there was a cool chair lift that took you up to the top again after each run. There were three different tracks: scenic, intermediate and advanced. I did all three but intermediate was by far my favorite. The view up there in general was just spectacular and it was a really nice time! After that we headed back on the bus to the supermarket and then went to Blue Lake Holiday Park where we stayed. We stayed in cabin rooms which were pretty nice, but did not have bathrooms in them. The Holiday Park was right on a lake (blue lake) which was really beautiful. For dinner we had a BBQ sponsored by BU which was great. It got pretty cold at night, but it was fine if you layered up. After dinner a bunch of us went on a night hike around the lake which was really amazing. At the other side of the lake there was a beach so we played a few games and races which was fun!
Saturday morning a bunch of us used the free kayaks and kayaked around the lake. It was really incredible and calm out there - a perfect way to start the day! We then all piled into the bus and went to see the mud pools. The mud pools were so awesome! They were way too hot to go in and slightly smelled but they were bubbling up and it was really cool. Then we went to Waiotapu geothermal wonderland. This place was so awesome!! Wai-o-tapu literally means "sacred waters" and after seeing all of the amazing geothermal formations there I totally believe it. Rotorua is known for it's geothermal activity (and is the reason why there is a smell surrounding it) and this place totally showed why Rotorua is famous for it. There were SO many different geothermal pools there it was amazing! The variety of the craters, colors and waters was insane, especially in such a close area!! From the champagne pool to the brilliant green pools it was truly amazing. All of them were bubbling and steam was rising - it was just so cool! It truly was a geothermal "wonderland." After that we went to Lake Rerewhakaaitu for lunch which was pretty. Then we were picked up for our Mt Tarawera 4WD/hike tour! We were picked up by a tour company in a few four wheel drive vans and driven to the top of a volcano. We then got out and hiked around the volcano and had such incredible views! Then we ran down the crater which was CRAZY and so much fun!! Then we hiked through the center of the crater and back up the top. It was a really awesome trip! Then we went back in the vans to get to our bus which took us to the hot pools! It was basically a river which is where a hot spring intersects with the cold river so you could move around until you found a good temperature - it was so nice especially after the 1.5 hike! Then we went back, had another BBQ, played some cards and went to sleep!
Sunday we packed up all of our stuff, hopped on the bus and went White Water Rafting on the Kaituna river! This was really incredible!!! We were split up into 2 groups and I was in the group that got to go rafting first! We were put into 4 boats (each with 6 people) and had a guide. After putting on wet suits, we all sat in our boats. I thought I was in the last row, but our guide made us turn around and I was in the front! I was pretty scared but ended up having a blast! After we went over the basics, we were off into the river! As the person in the front, I had to set the pace for how the rest of the boat was rowing - it was hard work but good! We first went over a 3 meter drop and then a 1 meter drop which was a lot of fun and dominated a lot of rapids. Our guide was kind of crazy and made us keep paddling back into the rapids, but it was really great! Then we went over a 7 meter waterfall which is the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the WORLD!! It was SO much fun!!! After the waterfall we had some more little drops and rapids. At the end our guide brought us to this rapids and had us stick our faces in it which was cool! By the end we were all soaked but so happy! It was a really incredible experience. After we got back the second group went. After quickly drying off, we were able to walk along the Okere Falls walk and watch them go down the river. It was so cool watching them do what we had just done and to see rafts actually going off the 7 meter waterfall! Once the second group got back we headed back on the bus. An hour into the drive we stopped in Matamata for lunch which is the home of Hobbiton from Lord of the Rings. They took down the whole set, but it's still pretty cool that Hobbiton was filmed there. I got some good pancakes and we headed back on the bus for Auckland.
It was a truly incredible weekend and I had so much fun! While the photos do not accurately portray the beauty of Rotorua, here is the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/LSOL817/Rotorua02?feat=directlink
The whole program bought a disc of the photos from white water rafting. I haven't gotten the disc yet but once I do I will upload all of those for you to view too!
Sending love from the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world!!
This past weekend BU took our entire group to Rotorua and it was amazing! Rotorua is about 3 hours from Auckland and is one of the biggest tourist destinations in New Zealand. It was a really incredible trip and I hope I'm able to convey to you all how great Rotorua really is:
We left Friday morning at 9am on a bus and took off for Rotorua. We had lunch in the town of Rotorua and took in the amazing lake. Rotorua has 12 lakes around it. Then we took the gondola up and went LUGING for a couple hours! Luges is similar to go-karts but there is no motor or wheels. You are basically in something like a sled and it has a lever where you can control your speed and steer. It was a lot of fun! We got a five pass and there was a cool chair lift that took you up to the top again after each run. There were three different tracks: scenic, intermediate and advanced. I did all three but intermediate was by far my favorite. The view up there in general was just spectacular and it was a really nice time! After that we headed back on the bus to the supermarket and then went to Blue Lake Holiday Park where we stayed. We stayed in cabin rooms which were pretty nice, but did not have bathrooms in them. The Holiday Park was right on a lake (blue lake) which was really beautiful. For dinner we had a BBQ sponsored by BU which was great. It got pretty cold at night, but it was fine if you layered up. After dinner a bunch of us went on a night hike around the lake which was really amazing. At the other side of the lake there was a beach so we played a few games and races which was fun!
Saturday morning a bunch of us used the free kayaks and kayaked around the lake. It was really incredible and calm out there - a perfect way to start the day! We then all piled into the bus and went to see the mud pools. The mud pools were so awesome! They were way too hot to go in and slightly smelled but they were bubbling up and it was really cool. Then we went to Waiotapu geothermal wonderland. This place was so awesome!! Wai-o-tapu literally means "sacred waters" and after seeing all of the amazing geothermal formations there I totally believe it. Rotorua is known for it's geothermal activity (and is the reason why there is a smell surrounding it) and this place totally showed why Rotorua is famous for it. There were SO many different geothermal pools there it was amazing! The variety of the craters, colors and waters was insane, especially in such a close area!! From the champagne pool to the brilliant green pools it was truly amazing. All of them were bubbling and steam was rising - it was just so cool! It truly was a geothermal "wonderland." After that we went to Lake Rerewhakaaitu for lunch which was pretty. Then we were picked up for our Mt Tarawera 4WD/hike tour! We were picked up by a tour company in a few four wheel drive vans and driven to the top of a volcano. We then got out and hiked around the volcano and had such incredible views! Then we ran down the crater which was CRAZY and so much fun!! Then we hiked through the center of the crater and back up the top. It was a really awesome trip! Then we went back in the vans to get to our bus which took us to the hot pools! It was basically a river which is where a hot spring intersects with the cold river so you could move around until you found a good temperature - it was so nice especially after the 1.5 hike! Then we went back, had another BBQ, played some cards and went to sleep!
Sunday we packed up all of our stuff, hopped on the bus and went White Water Rafting on the Kaituna river! This was really incredible!!! We were split up into 2 groups and I was in the group that got to go rafting first! We were put into 4 boats (each with 6 people) and had a guide. After putting on wet suits, we all sat in our boats. I thought I was in the last row, but our guide made us turn around and I was in the front! I was pretty scared but ended up having a blast! After we went over the basics, we were off into the river! As the person in the front, I had to set the pace for how the rest of the boat was rowing - it was hard work but good! We first went over a 3 meter drop and then a 1 meter drop which was a lot of fun and dominated a lot of rapids. Our guide was kind of crazy and made us keep paddling back into the rapids, but it was really great! Then we went over a 7 meter waterfall which is the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the WORLD!! It was SO much fun!!! After the waterfall we had some more little drops and rapids. At the end our guide brought us to this rapids and had us stick our faces in it which was cool! By the end we were all soaked but so happy! It was a really incredible experience. After we got back the second group went. After quickly drying off, we were able to walk along the Okere Falls walk and watch them go down the river. It was so cool watching them do what we had just done and to see rafts actually going off the 7 meter waterfall! Once the second group got back we headed back on the bus. An hour into the drive we stopped in Matamata for lunch which is the home of Hobbiton from Lord of the Rings. They took down the whole set, but it's still pretty cool that Hobbiton was filmed there. I got some good pancakes and we headed back on the bus for Auckland.
It was a truly incredible weekend and I had so much fun! While the photos do not accurately portray the beauty of Rotorua, here is the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/LSOL817/Rotorua02?feat=directlink
The whole program bought a disc of the photos from white water rafting. I haven't gotten the disc yet but once I do I will upload all of those for you to view too!
Sending love from the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world!!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
ANZAC day and more!
Hello!
Hope you are all enjoying the spring weather in the US. Since I've been back from Australia the weather here has been pretty sunny which has been great! However, fall is definitely in the air! Today my co-workers were absolutely freezing and were going on about how winter is definitely here, which made me laugh since it was just in the low 60s. There are definitely different expectations of what winter is over here. Anyway, here is a bit of a recap about what I have done since Australia:
Sunday April 25 was Anzac day which is pretty much the equivalent of Memorial Day in the US. Here is some history about Anzac day (from www.anzac.govt.nz):
On 25 April 1915, eight months into the First World War, Allied soldiers landed on the shores of the Gallipoli peninsula. This was Turkish territory that formed part of Germany's ally, the Ottoman Empire. The Allied forces encountered unexpectedly strong resistance from the Turks, and both sides suffered enormous losses (a third of New Zealand soliders died).The forces from New Zealand and Australia, fighting as part of the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps), played an important part in the Gallipoli campaign. New Zealand soldiers distinguished themselves with their courage and skill, establishing an enduring bond with the Australians they fought alongside. Although Anzac Day, the anniversary of the first day of conflict, does not mark a military triumph, it is a reminder of an important episode in New Zealand's history. Great suffering was caused to a small country by the loss of so many of its young men. But the Gallipoli campaign showcased attitudes and attributes - bravery, tenacity, practicality, ingenuity, loyalty to King and comrades - that helped New Zealand define itself as a nation, even as it fought unquestioningly on the other side of the world in the name of the British Empire. After Gallipoli, New Zealand had a greater confidence in its distinct identity, and a greater pride in the international contribution it could make. And the mutual respect earned during the fighting formed the basis of the close ties with Australia that continue today.
Anzac day is celebrated in both New Zealand and Australia. While the reason Anzac day was created was primarily for the Gallipoli war, today is serves as a general memorial day for all New Zealanders who have served and are serving in the army. I went to the Auckland Domain for the parade and memorial service and found it to be really interesting. NZ's armed forces are quite small so I was not sure what to expect. First there was a parade when all veterans marched into the domain. Then there were a few speakers and songs. Some of the service was in Maori and it just reminded me of how much Maori is a part of the national identity.
Everything else in Auckland has been going pretty well. My class is really interesting (but still really overwhelming with the insane amount of people - I thought I would be used to it by now but am still surprised). In my tutorial (discussion group) last week, it struck me how New Zealanders are much less inclined to speak out in group discussions. We were broken into small groups to discuss a hand-out and I felt like I kept jumping in to answer different questions, while the NZ-ers in my group, liked having more time to think about the questions and would then raise their comments in a much more laid back manner. This just reinforced what I had noticed in my geography class and at my internship. It's very different then what I have experienced in US classes. The UniLodge where I stay has been putting on some cool events for us which has been great. They took us Paintballing which was really fun (but also kind of painful) and just started offering free swing dance classes which was a ton of fun last week.
My internship has also been going really great! Here are my most recent reports:
Monday, April 19
Today was the first day of term 2. It was really nice to see the other teachers and the kids after being away from them for two weeks! We have a new teacher aide in the classroom who is really nice, and it’s great not being the newest member of the staff. Since it was the start of the new term, my head teacher did some reorganizing. She adjusted our schedule a bit so that we have a lot more time for learning math and English in the morning. To prepare for this I helped her organize the children’s boxes so we would be set to go. She had printed out a specific learning plan for each child for both math and English. They had these last term, but I had never seen them. It was interesting to see what each child’s specific goals were and what skills they are working towards. After fitness I worked with one child on English and was able to ask her specific questions to fulfill the activities on her goal check-list. For example, I asked her specific questions about what was happening on each page of the story and she would respond to these yes/no questions by raising her eyes or not. Then we moved on to math and I worked with the same girl and another child. For math we worked on counting numbers 1-30 using a communication device and flash cards. Then we split up and I scrambled up numbers 1-5 on a board. The child I worked with had to say what each number was on his device and then reorganize the numbers into the right order. Since he did so well on this activity, we then repeated the activity with numbers 1-6 and then 1-7. It was a really good activity. We then worked on vocabulary for a bit before morning tea. After play time, we each shared news about what we did over the vacation. Some parents had recorded what their child did on a communication device, whereas others wrote in the “news” journal and others printed our photos and wrote paragraphs. It was a lot of fun to hear about what each child did over the holidays.
Thursday April 22
Carlson Oranga classroom 2 is definitely in the swing of term 2 now! After fitness we went right into math/English. I worked one-on-one with a child and followed her personalized lesson plan pretty closely. For math we worked on organizing numbers in their correct sequence and figuring out which numbers go before and after each other. For English we worked on identifying core vocabulary pictures. Using the personalized education plans during this time of one-on-one learning is much more helpful than what we did last term. With their education plans in front of us, we can go through each activity and it gives more structure to the time that we are working with the kids. After that we had morning tea followed by play-time. Then we did topic work. During topic work the new topic for the term was introduced: sea animals. Each child was given a book from the national library about sea animals to look at. The child would then tell the other children what their book was about and the other children would get to look at the book. After lunch we worked on the computers. I was with a child who used a touch screen computer to match numbers with objects.
One thing that I have been thinking about a lot while at my internship, and specifically today, is how much the children gain from the activities we do with them. Their education plans make the education time we have with them much more effective, however I wonder how much the kids pick up from our cues vs. what they are learning. From what I have observed all of the teachers want the students to succeed. Much math and English work is done by asking students to choose between two or three options, and I’ve been noticing that many teachers can’t help but inflect their voice at the correct answer. While the teacher does not mean to do this, I think it comes from wanting the child to succeed and is just something that happens naturally. However, I wonder if the child is learning to look for these social cues and is not learning the actual material. Hopefully it is a mix of the two, but it is something that I will continue to be looking out for.
Monday April 26
Today was a fairly typical day. We were missing one child but all teachers were in. The focus has still be on getting the kids on the mats for fitness earlier so that they can move to their standing frames and move onto the academic portion of the day quicker. One of the kids is supposed to move to her standing frame first so that she has enough time in it, so that she can move from the standing frame to her chair during the academic block since she is only able to use her communication device while in her chair. Something that struck me today which I thought would be interesting to discuss here is the varying level of parental involvement with each child. Five of the six children arrive and are picked up from school via taxi driver. The other child’s mother brings and picks her son up every day. Not only does this mother provide her own son’s transportation but she toilets him in the morning and has a whole routine with him while at school before leaving. She has made an effort and knows every staff member by name. Every Monday for news she sends in a whole paragraph describing what her son did over the weekend with a few pictures attached and different ways for her son to construct sentences about his weekend activities. I heard from one of the other teachers that she used to live in Wellington and moved to Auckland specifically for the Carlson school. This level of involvement and commitment to her son’s education is really amazing and I find it to be very inspiring. Another child’s father comes in to feed her everyday during snack time. Some of the other parents write weekend updates in their “news notebooks” but I think the mother who I first described really goes above and beyond. She even printed out sea-animals for our sea animal unit we are covering in class. One of the children in my class goes to Wilson Home at least once a week every week. I am still not sure exactly what Wilson Home is but it seems to be a place that parents can send their children with special needs overnight. The teachers in my classroom do not speak highly of this place. While every child in general has varying degrees of parental involvement in their lives, it just makes me think that the progress that each child in my class makes must have a lot to do with what happens outside of the classroom.
Tuesday April 27
Today was another full day! We were able to do fitness relatively quickly today and had almost a full hour for academic block. I was working with one child on math with ordering numbers. He seemed to have trouble getting the concept, and my head teacher came over and explained the importance of modeling and repetition when working with the children. She put the correct number sequence on top of the whiteboard and had the child use that as a reference while ordering the numbers in the mismatched sequence. Then we worked on which numbers come before, between and after each other. We did topic work on sea animals where we painted our own crabs. We discussed how crabs have 8 legs, 2 pinchers and can be a red/orange color. In the afternoon we had a staff meeting which was really interesting. We discussed the children’s Individualized Education Plans. Each child has a new IEP every year, and this IEP is reviewed every 6 months. The head teacher, occupational therapist, speech/language therapist, physiotherapist and parent all go to the IEP meeting to create each child’s IEP. After looking over some of the IEPs, we discussed the changes that have been made for this term. The head teacher discussed how her main emphasis is on making sure the children finish with their fitness and move onto the academic block so we have an entire hour for math and English. We have been able to do most of the academic work in a one-on-one fashion, which has been really good. She went over how to do some of the different activities. It was really interesting hearing what the children’s skill levels actually are. She said that repetition is really key when working with the kids and also using consistent wording so that the children understand what you are asking of them. She said a lot of the time it may seem like you are just having conversations with yourself since you are asking questions and answering them yourself, but that the children get a lot out of it. One of the other TAs asked why we don’t always work with the same child to really get their learning style down. The head teacher said that it is really important for the children to work with different TAs everyday so that they get used to working, communicating and being comfortable with different people, since this is what they are expected to do in the outside world. She also said reading to the children is really good for them during transition time – which has been something that I have been doing very frequently. It was really good to have a meeting with all the staff and see how we all think the term is going!
Monday May 3
Since there are two new TAs at Oranga, we had a new staff meeting to go over how to physically work with children. This was a really great session led by the head physio at Oranga and I learned a lot. First she discussed the importance of making sure that as staff we take care of ourselves. She said that we need to be aware that we are doing physically demanding jobs and to ensure that we are not hurting ourselves. She gave us some back, abdominal and other exercises to do to strengthen ourselves and stretch out. We then discussed the necessary steps to lifting a child and doing other physical movements with them. She first had us sit and talk through the different steps that we take to stand up. It was a very interesting activity because I did not realize how many things I just automatically do and take for granted when I move. She then had each of us pretend to be a child and she came over and helped us stand up. She then pretended to be a child and we helped her stand up. The amount of support that she gave was incredible and I could tell really makes a difference. The goal is more to be moving with the child and having them do as much as they can themselves. A key part is making sure the child knows what you are expecting them to do and that you are wording your requests effectively. After that we went through the necessary steps to roll over and basically talked about the sequences that infants take from rolling to sitting to crawling to standing. Most of the children in our classes have not made it through these levels due to their physical disabilities. It was a really incredible session but just scratched the surface. She said that she hopes to lead more sessions for us soon. After the session I was hyperaware of my own movements and posture.
Tuesday May 4
The first thing we did today was weigh all of the children. Apparently every term every child must be weighed so that the base school has current weight on record. This is in case of emergencies if a child has to go to the hospital and is unable to be weighed in a timely fashion (since it takes a long time to weigh each child). The children would have to be weighed in their chairs and then their chairs weighed alone to see how much each child actually weights. The weight was all given in kilograms so I am not sure what each weight means, but the children I thought weighed the most do. The rest of the day was pretty standard. We made “fat fish” during topic time to continue our “sea animals” topic. One of the children was crying for most of the day. He was obviously upset about something but could not communicate it. At the end of the day during “Jolly Phonics” he was crying a lot so one of the teachers asked me to take him out. I tried reading to him but his screams were disrupting others so they asked me to take him outside. I just walked around with him for the remainder of the day. I tried talking to him but felt pretty uncomfortable because I was not sure exactly what I should be doing. He cried on and off for the rest of the time, but was okay when watching other children outside and when walking around. I just felt unprepared for this since I did not know how to help the child and wished that the head teachers had given me more direction. This child in general often feels left out and is constantly trying to get others to pay attention to him and look at what others are doing.
Hope all is well with you!
Hope you are all enjoying the spring weather in the US. Since I've been back from Australia the weather here has been pretty sunny which has been great! However, fall is definitely in the air! Today my co-workers were absolutely freezing and were going on about how winter is definitely here, which made me laugh since it was just in the low 60s. There are definitely different expectations of what winter is over here. Anyway, here is a bit of a recap about what I have done since Australia:
Sunday April 25 was Anzac day which is pretty much the equivalent of Memorial Day in the US. Here is some history about Anzac day (from www.anzac.govt.nz):
On 25 April 1915, eight months into the First World War, Allied soldiers landed on the shores of the Gallipoli peninsula. This was Turkish territory that formed part of Germany's ally, the Ottoman Empire. The Allied forces encountered unexpectedly strong resistance from the Turks, and both sides suffered enormous losses (a third of New Zealand soliders died).The forces from New Zealand and Australia, fighting as part of the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps), played an important part in the Gallipoli campaign. New Zealand soldiers distinguished themselves with their courage and skill, establishing an enduring bond with the Australians they fought alongside. Although Anzac Day, the anniversary of the first day of conflict, does not mark a military triumph, it is a reminder of an important episode in New Zealand's history. Great suffering was caused to a small country by the loss of so many of its young men. But the Gallipoli campaign showcased attitudes and attributes - bravery, tenacity, practicality, ingenuity, loyalty to King and comrades - that helped New Zealand define itself as a nation, even as it fought unquestioningly on the other side of the world in the name of the British Empire. After Gallipoli, New Zealand had a greater confidence in its distinct identity, and a greater pride in the international contribution it could make. And the mutual respect earned during the fighting formed the basis of the close ties with Australia that continue today.
Anzac day is celebrated in both New Zealand and Australia. While the reason Anzac day was created was primarily for the Gallipoli war, today is serves as a general memorial day for all New Zealanders who have served and are serving in the army. I went to the Auckland Domain for the parade and memorial service and found it to be really interesting. NZ's armed forces are quite small so I was not sure what to expect. First there was a parade when all veterans marched into the domain. Then there were a few speakers and songs. Some of the service was in Maori and it just reminded me of how much Maori is a part of the national identity.
Everything else in Auckland has been going pretty well. My class is really interesting (but still really overwhelming with the insane amount of people - I thought I would be used to it by now but am still surprised). In my tutorial (discussion group) last week, it struck me how New Zealanders are much less inclined to speak out in group discussions. We were broken into small groups to discuss a hand-out and I felt like I kept jumping in to answer different questions, while the NZ-ers in my group, liked having more time to think about the questions and would then raise their comments in a much more laid back manner. This just reinforced what I had noticed in my geography class and at my internship. It's very different then what I have experienced in US classes. The UniLodge where I stay has been putting on some cool events for us which has been great. They took us Paintballing which was really fun (but also kind of painful) and just started offering free swing dance classes which was a ton of fun last week.
My internship has also been going really great! Here are my most recent reports:
Monday, April 19
Today was the first day of term 2. It was really nice to see the other teachers and the kids after being away from them for two weeks! We have a new teacher aide in the classroom who is really nice, and it’s great not being the newest member of the staff. Since it was the start of the new term, my head teacher did some reorganizing. She adjusted our schedule a bit so that we have a lot more time for learning math and English in the morning. To prepare for this I helped her organize the children’s boxes so we would be set to go. She had printed out a specific learning plan for each child for both math and English. They had these last term, but I had never seen them. It was interesting to see what each child’s specific goals were and what skills they are working towards. After fitness I worked with one child on English and was able to ask her specific questions to fulfill the activities on her goal check-list. For example, I asked her specific questions about what was happening on each page of the story and she would respond to these yes/no questions by raising her eyes or not. Then we moved on to math and I worked with the same girl and another child. For math we worked on counting numbers 1-30 using a communication device and flash cards. Then we split up and I scrambled up numbers 1-5 on a board. The child I worked with had to say what each number was on his device and then reorganize the numbers into the right order. Since he did so well on this activity, we then repeated the activity with numbers 1-6 and then 1-7. It was a really good activity. We then worked on vocabulary for a bit before morning tea. After play time, we each shared news about what we did over the vacation. Some parents had recorded what their child did on a communication device, whereas others wrote in the “news” journal and others printed our photos and wrote paragraphs. It was a lot of fun to hear about what each child did over the holidays.
Thursday April 22
Carlson Oranga classroom 2 is definitely in the swing of term 2 now! After fitness we went right into math/English. I worked one-on-one with a child and followed her personalized lesson plan pretty closely. For math we worked on organizing numbers in their correct sequence and figuring out which numbers go before and after each other. For English we worked on identifying core vocabulary pictures. Using the personalized education plans during this time of one-on-one learning is much more helpful than what we did last term. With their education plans in front of us, we can go through each activity and it gives more structure to the time that we are working with the kids. After that we had morning tea followed by play-time. Then we did topic work. During topic work the new topic for the term was introduced: sea animals. Each child was given a book from the national library about sea animals to look at. The child would then tell the other children what their book was about and the other children would get to look at the book. After lunch we worked on the computers. I was with a child who used a touch screen computer to match numbers with objects.
One thing that I have been thinking about a lot while at my internship, and specifically today, is how much the children gain from the activities we do with them. Their education plans make the education time we have with them much more effective, however I wonder how much the kids pick up from our cues vs. what they are learning. From what I have observed all of the teachers want the students to succeed. Much math and English work is done by asking students to choose between two or three options, and I’ve been noticing that many teachers can’t help but inflect their voice at the correct answer. While the teacher does not mean to do this, I think it comes from wanting the child to succeed and is just something that happens naturally. However, I wonder if the child is learning to look for these social cues and is not learning the actual material. Hopefully it is a mix of the two, but it is something that I will continue to be looking out for.
Monday April 26
Today was a fairly typical day. We were missing one child but all teachers were in. The focus has still be on getting the kids on the mats for fitness earlier so that they can move to their standing frames and move onto the academic portion of the day quicker. One of the kids is supposed to move to her standing frame first so that she has enough time in it, so that she can move from the standing frame to her chair during the academic block since she is only able to use her communication device while in her chair. Something that struck me today which I thought would be interesting to discuss here is the varying level of parental involvement with each child. Five of the six children arrive and are picked up from school via taxi driver. The other child’s mother brings and picks her son up every day. Not only does this mother provide her own son’s transportation but she toilets him in the morning and has a whole routine with him while at school before leaving. She has made an effort and knows every staff member by name. Every Monday for news she sends in a whole paragraph describing what her son did over the weekend with a few pictures attached and different ways for her son to construct sentences about his weekend activities. I heard from one of the other teachers that she used to live in Wellington and moved to Auckland specifically for the Carlson school. This level of involvement and commitment to her son’s education is really amazing and I find it to be very inspiring. Another child’s father comes in to feed her everyday during snack time. Some of the other parents write weekend updates in their “news notebooks” but I think the mother who I first described really goes above and beyond. She even printed out sea-animals for our sea animal unit we are covering in class. One of the children in my class goes to Wilson Home at least once a week every week. I am still not sure exactly what Wilson Home is but it seems to be a place that parents can send their children with special needs overnight. The teachers in my classroom do not speak highly of this place. While every child in general has varying degrees of parental involvement in their lives, it just makes me think that the progress that each child in my class makes must have a lot to do with what happens outside of the classroom.
Tuesday April 27
Today was another full day! We were able to do fitness relatively quickly today and had almost a full hour for academic block. I was working with one child on math with ordering numbers. He seemed to have trouble getting the concept, and my head teacher came over and explained the importance of modeling and repetition when working with the children. She put the correct number sequence on top of the whiteboard and had the child use that as a reference while ordering the numbers in the mismatched sequence. Then we worked on which numbers come before, between and after each other. We did topic work on sea animals where we painted our own crabs. We discussed how crabs have 8 legs, 2 pinchers and can be a red/orange color. In the afternoon we had a staff meeting which was really interesting. We discussed the children’s Individualized Education Plans. Each child has a new IEP every year, and this IEP is reviewed every 6 months. The head teacher, occupational therapist, speech/language therapist, physiotherapist and parent all go to the IEP meeting to create each child’s IEP. After looking over some of the IEPs, we discussed the changes that have been made for this term. The head teacher discussed how her main emphasis is on making sure the children finish with their fitness and move onto the academic block so we have an entire hour for math and English. We have been able to do most of the academic work in a one-on-one fashion, which has been really good. She went over how to do some of the different activities. It was really interesting hearing what the children’s skill levels actually are. She said that repetition is really key when working with the kids and also using consistent wording so that the children understand what you are asking of them. She said a lot of the time it may seem like you are just having conversations with yourself since you are asking questions and answering them yourself, but that the children get a lot out of it. One of the other TAs asked why we don’t always work with the same child to really get their learning style down. The head teacher said that it is really important for the children to work with different TAs everyday so that they get used to working, communicating and being comfortable with different people, since this is what they are expected to do in the outside world. She also said reading to the children is really good for them during transition time – which has been something that I have been doing very frequently. It was really good to have a meeting with all the staff and see how we all think the term is going!
Monday May 3
Since there are two new TAs at Oranga, we had a new staff meeting to go over how to physically work with children. This was a really great session led by the head physio at Oranga and I learned a lot. First she discussed the importance of making sure that as staff we take care of ourselves. She said that we need to be aware that we are doing physically demanding jobs and to ensure that we are not hurting ourselves. She gave us some back, abdominal and other exercises to do to strengthen ourselves and stretch out. We then discussed the necessary steps to lifting a child and doing other physical movements with them. She first had us sit and talk through the different steps that we take to stand up. It was a very interesting activity because I did not realize how many things I just automatically do and take for granted when I move. She then had each of us pretend to be a child and she came over and helped us stand up. She then pretended to be a child and we helped her stand up. The amount of support that she gave was incredible and I could tell really makes a difference. The goal is more to be moving with the child and having them do as much as they can themselves. A key part is making sure the child knows what you are expecting them to do and that you are wording your requests effectively. After that we went through the necessary steps to roll over and basically talked about the sequences that infants take from rolling to sitting to crawling to standing. Most of the children in our classes have not made it through these levels due to their physical disabilities. It was a really incredible session but just scratched the surface. She said that she hopes to lead more sessions for us soon. After the session I was hyperaware of my own movements and posture.
Tuesday May 4
The first thing we did today was weigh all of the children. Apparently every term every child must be weighed so that the base school has current weight on record. This is in case of emergencies if a child has to go to the hospital and is unable to be weighed in a timely fashion (since it takes a long time to weigh each child). The children would have to be weighed in their chairs and then their chairs weighed alone to see how much each child actually weights. The weight was all given in kilograms so I am not sure what each weight means, but the children I thought weighed the most do. The rest of the day was pretty standard. We made “fat fish” during topic time to continue our “sea animals” topic. One of the children was crying for most of the day. He was obviously upset about something but could not communicate it. At the end of the day during “Jolly Phonics” he was crying a lot so one of the teachers asked me to take him out. I tried reading to him but his screams were disrupting others so they asked me to take him outside. I just walked around with him for the remainder of the day. I tried talking to him but felt pretty uncomfortable because I was not sure exactly what I should be doing. He cried on and off for the rest of the time, but was okay when watching other children outside and when walking around. I just felt unprepared for this since I did not know how to help the child and wished that the head teachers had given me more direction. This child in general often feels left out and is constantly trying to get others to pay attention to him and look at what others are doing.
Hope all is well with you!
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