New Zealand Adventures

This week was so busy!  But even with homework and school, we still have so much fun!  How could I not be so incredibly happy that I am living in New Zealand and it's summer here?? I love it.  I am so blessed to be here.  

Saturday:  We were originally supposed to go to Piha beach, but because of the weather, plans were changed, and instead we went to the Auckland War Memorial Museum and Kelly Tarlton's, this cool aquarium kind of place that is along the waterfront underground.

I cannot believe how fast this week came and went...I have been living in New Zealand for 3 1/2 weeks now!  But I am so happy to say that we are done with classes!  I still have one more big assignment to do for social studies, and we have a lot of assignments to do while we're in the schools, but no more sitting for 6 1/2 hours every day!  Even though I have really loved all our classes.  And Dr. Jacobs says that we had the 'best of the best' for our teachers. I believe it!


This week was Social Studies and Science.  It is amazing how much you can learn in just six days.  I am excited to take everything I have learned and bring it into my own classroom.  Alexis Siteine taught us Social Studies, and Ian Milne taught Science.  We did so many fun science experiments with him that we now have as resources for our classrooms!  It was a lot of fun to watch him do the experiments too, because you could just tell how passionate he was about primary science education.  I just finished my personal philosophy paper last night, so I don't feel like saying everything I learned again! haha.  But he was great.  

On Monday it rained for the first time since we have been here!  It's been raining all day today also, and last night.  But I have to say, I love falling asleep to the rain!  Anyway, so this week:

Only five more days of class!  I can't believe how fast these  2 1/2 weeks have come and gone...I can now definitely understand how I am going to look back when I home and not even believe that I was here for so long!  Katie and I were talking about this yesterday a little bit-we feel like we're kind of in a dream, like this isn't real life.  But it IS!  We live in this amazing country, and we are already having wonderful experiences that I will never forget.


This week was Math Monday through Thursday.  I thought class would be more like 305 and 306 in Provo, but it was completely opposite.  Up until this point in my class experiences in Provo, I feel like we have learned not just what math material we will be teaching, but learning WHY it works.  So those classes were a ton of explaining and writing about math problems...not so fun.  But I can see how it was important for us to truly understand the math and not just the algorithms, because our students need to be able to explain what they are doing when solving math problems.  And I know that I was not taught math the way it should be taught...I learned the algorithms without the understanding behind them.  And because I learned that way, I truly believe that is why I suffered so much in Calculus!! But it's good, because now I know the RIGHT way to teach math!  Anyway, I know this is not exciting for anyone else but me, but I wanted to just review for myself what I learned from Helen.  There is so much information that we crammed in in just four days, so I wanted to sum up some of the things I want to remember.  


Helen gave us 300+ resources of games, activities, and tons of ideas for the classroom to help us teach math.  And during class, we learned about all the resources by doing them ourselves...there were times when I was like, ok shouldn't we be taking notes, or having quizzes, or something?? I guess I was just looking for the 'class' part.  BUT then I was thinking about it, and I am going to be a teaching children.  I will be teaching place value, addition and subtraction, basic multiplication...I'm teaching material that I already know and understand.  I should be learning about the most engaging, exciting ways to teach that material to my students.  And what better way to learn how to engage my students than to do the activities myself, right??  So I embraced the fact that I was rolling dice and adding to ten...and we just had fun with it!


This is kind of off the subject, but Dr. Jacobs taught us a few weeks ago how WE are in charge of our education.  I am so excited, but also so sad to see the end in sight of my college education...I will be teaching children, but I won't be taking classes on campus and taking tests, and doing homework...and as much as I talk about how much I don't like tests and homework...I am going to miss that so much!  But I am in charge of my own education.  And when I become a teacher, I will still be learning!  Every single day I believe I will learn something new from my students.  And as Dr. J said, we will have the second greatest job in the world--the first teaching Children's Literature...the class he teaches at BYU :)  Anyway, I am just so excited to be able to apply everything I learn into my own classroom and teach my own students!  


Things I learned this week:

• "One of the greatest fallacies in education is that all learning comes from what has been taught" -Dewey
• Key Competencies: Managing Self, Thinking, Participating and Contributing, Relating to Others, Using language, symbols, and texts
• Be a model and example to my students- *Walk the talk*
• Children need to learn to justify, clarify, and prove.  They need to be able to explain their thinking, or else they never will really have an understanding of the material.
• New Zealand framework...Helen gave us all these books filled with information about the stages of development children will be in...they are priceless.  
• Give the students time to think!!
• The Teaching Model (Book 3) Taking existing knowledge and strategies...using materials, then imaging, then number properties...which results in new knowledge and strategies! over and over...
• It is so important that I use correct math language...this was a realization we all had this week!  It surprised me how bad I was...like saying fourteen thirty-two instead of one thousand, four hundred thirty-two...we did a lot of modeling/teaching to each other, and Helen corrected us a few times and stressed the importance of modeling to students to correct ways!
• Modeling Books...teaching in centers, just like Guided Reading groups, but with math.
•  In the early stages, it is crucial to assume that students do not know anything!  Make sure that they have a full understanding before moving on!  Fill the gaps that are missing before moving on.
• Display my students work, not my own! *Student Voice*
• Importance of Rich Tasks:  Body Gardens, Tappa Designs *Picture down below* 
• Checklists- Teach the students to manage themselves.
• *Work smarter, not harder*

January 16, 2011


This weekend has been so great.  On Friday, we finished up our Literacy and Assessment classes!  We start the Math class on Monday, and only have it for four days!  But that's 6 1/2 hours of math for four days...we can do it!!  Dr. Jacobs told that Helen Walters, the woman who will be teaching us, is so great and we are going to learn so much from her.


After we finished up class, we headed back to Alice's house, and on the way Carla and Noah found us and picked us up!  Alice had surgery on Friday, so her daughter Dana (Carla's twin) was there just to make sure everything was ok.  Katie and I got to meet Dana and her three adorable kids.  Alice really has the cutest grandchildren!  Dana left after a little while, and Katie and I finished up some homework, cleaned our room and bathroom, and then walked with Carla and Noah up the street to get some take aways for dinner. (fast food pretty much)  I am starting to catch on to all the lingo... Anyway, so Katie and I had our first fish and chips experience!  Talk about greasy! haha.  But it was delicious!  I definitely do not plan on having that for a loooong time though...


Earlier in the week our group had decided that we would go to Mission Bay, a really pretty beach right outside the city, where you can tandem bike, kayak, paddle board...just lots of fun things to do.  Because Alice had taken us into the city, Katie and I had a pretty good idea of where Mission Bay was, and somehow we got the responsibility of figuring out the buses and everything!  So Friday after dinner, Katie and Noah were playing hide and go seek while I was on my computer on the bus website figuring everything out.  We planned out the day and our bus route, and Katie emailed everyone all the information.


Saturday morning I got up and went for a run and worked out for a while, then showered and we met everyone at the bus stop near our house to catch the 9:14 am bus into the city.  At 9:15 I started to get nervous, just hoping the bus would come and that I had not failed everyone in my planning! haha.  But everything worked out perfectly!  The bus came, we got our $14.50 Discovery day pass for the bus, and took the bus into the city!  We got off at Britomart, which is basically the main bus station in the city, and had to catch another bus to get to Mission Bay.  But we made it!!! I was so happy and relieved.  I don't get stressed out too easily, but I was definitely stressed, just hoping I had planned out the buses right.  But Dr. Jacobs told us that the only way to really have the experiences we want is to do things ourselves! So we did!  And Katie and I are definitely confident in abilities to get around now :)

At Mission Bay we all laid out for a while, and then the majority of the group wanted to walk down about 20 minutes to another bay where they hired kayaks.  I kind of just wanted to relax on the beach, but then Nancy and I were talking and decided that we wanted to do something on the water.  I looked out and saw this guy paddle boarding!  It looked so fun.  I wanted to do something that I had never done before, and I have been kayaking a ton in Florida, so that's why I originally stayed behind.  But then the four of us who had stayed behind walked to meet the other girls.  And we got to paddle board!  It was only $15 for an hour of paddle boating, and we had so much fun!