NZ Music Month and Mission Bay!

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!