New Zealand Adventures

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!

January 12, 2011
I absolutely love this quote.  For our Assessment class, Brother Jacobs had us read a BYU Speech by Gregory Clark entitled "Some Lessons on Faith and Fear".  I learned so much from this.  In it, he shares the quote "It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is.  It all works out.  Don't worry." from Gordon B. Hinckley.  It is so simple and so powerful.  But basically from the speech I gained a better understanding of faith and fear.  Fear works directly against our faith.  I really like how he says that fear has the power to eventually cancel out the faith that would enable me to move ahead with confidence, knowing that with the Lord's help I can change myself and even the circumstances around me for the better.  And faith has the power to overcome and even eliminate fear.


This experience, though I know it has only been one week, is going to be one of the hardest experiences, but also one of the best.  I am so happy to be here, but I am ready to be adjusted and just used to everything.  I am out of my comfort zone, that is for sure.  My life has drastically changed from my life in Provo.  But I know that this is a good thing.  I know that when I have faith in my Heavenly Father and know that he is with me, I can overcome any fear I have.  I cannot live in fear.

Katie and I just finished our first workout in New Zealand! haha.  We asked Alice if there were any streets that we should avoid, and her daughter Carla (Noah's mom, who is absolutely hilarious) laughed as she simply said "West Auckland?!" I guess I should have assumed that we are not in the best part of town, as we get the chance to teach at Decile 2 schools, when the schools here are ranked from Decile 1-10, with low being the lowest socioeconomic status.  But this part of the experience!  I can't wait to teach in a school where they don't necessarily have the resources that I will have teaching in the US.  It is going to be so great!  Anyway, so Alice told us about a loop that brings us right back to her house that was about a mile and a half that is on all main roads.  We ran that just once, and then did this awesome Nike Training workout that is an app on Katie's Itouch.  We were drenched in sweat, but it was so fun and felt SO good to get some energy out after being in class all day.  


When we came back inside, we decided that since it is our second day here, we are going to say 2 things that we miss about home, then 4 things we love about being here.  Every day we'll add one more thing about home that we miss, but double what we love about New Zealand!  So I said that I miss the normalcy of being in Provo, walking to campus, knowing my way around, going to the gym, doing my own grocery shopping...just my comfort zone!  I also said I miss the convenience of a cell phone.  BUT there are so many things we are loving!  We love our homestay.  Alice is just wonderful.  She has done so many things in her lifetime.  I really hope that I can look back when I am a grandmother and be so proud of my accomplishments in my life.  I know that this experience will be one that I will look back on for the rest of my life.  I love the weather- seriously, I was out running in shorts and tank top...and it is light here until like 9pm! I love it.  I also love how laid back class is going to be.  Obviously there will still be tons of work during the practicum and especially during these first three weeks of classes, but class is going to be so fun.  I am learning things that I love and am really interested in.  Today we learned so much about the Maori culture, and it was so interesting.  The schools we will be teaching at are all very multicultural, with a lot of Maori influence.  We'll catch on to everything soon enough, but today we learned so much.  And Alice is teaching us a lot.  Noah is just 3, and goes to Pona, like our preschool, except it is a bilingual school, where he learns Maori.  He is so smart!  We're even learning a lot from him :)


I wanted to write about my first day here in New Zealand!  It was an absolute whirlwind of a day!  I do not even remember laying down, I fell asleep so fast.  In general I do usually fall asleep fast, but holy cow, I do not think I moved a muscle in the night.  And Katie and both we wide awake at 6 am...hopefully it won't take too many days to adjust.  But we met Alice at the airport, dropped our stuff off at home, picked up Noah (she watches her grandson often), went to grocery store, went and bought a blow dryer...just a lot of little things.  We had lunch, corn fritters, chutney, toast, lettuce and tomato, then spent the afternoon unpacking and getting organized.  For dinner I had roasted lamb!! I really liked it!  We had the mint sauce and everything!  It was so good.  And Noah just entertains us through every meal.  He is so adorable.  I need to get a picture with him soon...


A few things I learned today:
Jangles = flip flops
Give way = Yield signs!
Ka Pai = good, well
Powhiri = welcome ceremony - we will have our very own Powhiri once we start teaching!  The schools welcome us as their manuhiri = visitors!  It is a really neat ceremony.  


and so much more...


But here is where we are living! :)

After 18+ hours of traveling, we are finally here in Auckland!  I am so grateful that everything went so smoothly throughout the entire process.  Flying to Los Angeles by myself gave me a lot of time to reflect on this past year, and think about what I want accomplish in this new year.  I can't believe it is 2011!  But I am excited to see what is coming...and I get to start off my year experiencing New Zealand.  That is pretty incredible.  It was a great flight though.  I sat down, and the girl who was sitting next to me sits down and asks me if I had seen Chris Brown in first class!! He was on my flight from Atlanta to LA!  I wanted to get up and check it out, but there were so many people still trying to board.  But that sparked our conversation, and she was so fun to talk to.  She is originally from Africa, but is in her 3rd year of Dental school at UCLA.  I told her that I was on my way to New Zealand for a study abroad, and she was telling me about how in Africa when all the high school kids graduate, it is totally normal and acceptable for them to take off a year to travel the world before they begin college.  I wish the US was that way!  How amazing would that be?  But she was so nice and we had some really good conversations throughout the flight.  The five hours went by really fast.


Once I landed in LA, I had to check back into Air New Zealand.  There was only one agent checking people in with tons of us waiting.  I got to talking with this man standing behind me, and he was just hilarious.  He had been spending the past month in LA with his grandchildren, but was born and raised in Australia.  He talked my ear off the whole hour or so we were waiting to get checked in.  I also got to see Hannah and Kara who are a part of the group!  I think that is when it all started to really hit me...taking off in Atlanta I felt like I was just heading back to Utah again for school...but now I was getting ready to board a plane for Auckland, New Zealand!


It was so nice to see everyone at the gate!  And to compare seat assignments and everything.  I got to sit by Katie (my wonderful roommate) and Diana, who is so sweet.  It was fun getting to know her a little better.  It is going to be fun to look back and see how close we all became throughout these three months.  The flight was great though!  I don't know why I was so worried about it.  We took off, were fed about an hour into the flight, then I took my Simply Sleep, brushed my teeth, and I was out for like 6 hours! Then off and on for another 2.  Then we had breakfast, I watched a movie, and we landed in Auckland!  It was so great.