Kiwi School

Ok wow. I know it has been way too long. It takes a long time to type up one of these blogs and for those of you who don’t know me so well, I procrastinate… pretty badly. I always say, “Today! I will write a blog!” and as you can see by looking at it, something else came up. For example; I decided to not watch TV tonight so that I would come into my room and sit on my bed and write one. (looking back, it's taking me a week to write this ;))

School began the 25^th for us. I am at The Terrace School in Alexandra, New Zealand. I am in the Early Entry level (similar to Kindergarten) with Mrs. Anderson! It is a beautiful outdoor corridor school. I will take some pictures and post sometime I have a few. A few of them are for my mum because there are lilac bushes everywhere! And they remind me of her :)! Here is a picture of me in front of the school sign. I will take more of the outside and inside too. 

It was really cool the way that the school welcomed us at the primary school. There was a Maori welcome ceremony!! Really cool! (hopefully I can figure out how to upload the video below. The school all went into their new Hall (we would call it a gym) and waited. The Maori dance class sang a Maori song and we were called into the gym from where we were waiting with Mr. Murphy’s and his senior 7/8-year class into the Hall. He was the one that would speak on our behalf, as it is not customary for women to speak at such gatherings. Then our principal Gary Anderson gave his Mihi (or ‘about me’ type of welcoming speech) and so did Mr. Murphy; he introduced us. We then gave forth an American flag as a gift to the school. Once again females are not permitted to speak and one of the senior boys set the flag halfway between us and the school and anther boy picked it up. I wish I could remember what the Maori word was for what we did next. We walked around to the group with the senior boys, the girl who welcomed us, and Gary and other leaders in the school. We shook hands with one hand and grasped their arms with our other and then you put your noses together and symbolically share a breath. It is a symbol of peace to share a breath with another person or people group. It is considered rude to not partake in this welcome. They raised our flag next to theirs. There are two shorter flag poles and a taller one in the middle. Our American flag and the New Zealand flag are on the shorter poles as they say two countries at peace should not be raised to different levels. So, naturally the ALL BLACKS Rugby flag took the taller pole! :) Here's a picture. 

It was a really neat experience to be a part of. The culture here is really beginning to embrace the Maori people and traditions. I am told that the relationship between the explorers and the native Maori people was similar to the one between our own explorers and native people group, but on a much lesser scale. There was much less destruction and they treat each other (generally speaking, but as always, there are exceptions) with much more respect than we treat our own. It is really really cool. Mrs. Anderson, my co-operating teacher, uses many Maori phrases in her classroom. Some are instructions like stand up, get into a circle, or she uses colors, she greets them and dismisses them in Maori, and also many songs are in Maori. We are learning to sing Silent Night in Maori! It's so beautiful. Maori is a beautiful language! VERY hard to read, the pronunciations are NOTHING like you would think. 

Besides that I have been picking up some reading groups, I currently have four, maths groups (yep it's maths, not math) I have two of those. I also lead a large group once a day for handwriting. Today I began to lead the morning session as well. Ann Pierce, our Iowa State Supervisor, has come and just left this morning. It was a good visit! She said things were going well and I am progressing normally, so that was good to hear. It is good. Next week is Maori week so we will be learning a lot about Maori and I am really excited to learn more about them. 

Last week was a good/crazy week for me. Ellen's teacher Ann Condor invited us over for dinner on Tuesday night. She roasted us lamb! It was soooo good! We ate really well for the first time in a long time and it was deeelicous! The next night was the night that Ann Pierce came into town and picked us up for a delicious dinner in the neighboring town of Clyde. It was really good!! The very next night, we took our teachers out to a nicer dinner at Monteiths. And it was SO good! We ate so well this week. And it was really fun to hang out with our teachers and talk and get to know them outside of school, and it was a really cool thing that Iowa State did for our teachers. Not only are they taking on student teachers, but we are student teachers who don't know the curriculum, nor how a normal day is run. Then on Friday, Ann offered to take us out AGAIN! So nice of her! I think I gained 5 pounds haha! We made her a homemade dinner on Monday to thank her and it was really fun. She brought us a few groceries and we played dominos afterwards. It was a good way to end the visit!

Speaking of differences, I will tackle a little bit of the differences. It is hard to put into words but I will try. It is a year round school and I am here for the full final term. The children here start when they turn five. So I started the term with 20 children and I now have 25 and one more starting on Tuesday. It was really weird to think about, but I do like it. They stay in the Early Entry classroom until Mrs. Anderson thinks they are ready to proceed to year 1-2 classroom. She said that it was usually about two terms. It was an adjustment, because Mrs. Anderson and I are constantly re-teaching routines. I was doing that in my special eduction inclusion preschool too, but it's a bit different because it will be this way always. I don't mind it at all, and I think it is actually really cool. So they start when they turn five, adjust to the school setting and learn some reading, maths, handwriting, and many life topics and when they are ready they are sent on! It is good because there are older role models there that assist the few children that are new at a time. There is never a whole class of 30 starting at the same time. The class may get that big, but it is gradual. Then the grades 1&2, 3&4, 5&6, 7&8 are in the same rooms taught by the same teacher. So when they move on from early entry, they stay in that room for two years and you kind of have the same situation. The older children coach and set the example for the newcomers. I haven't experienced it but the other girls say that it is really awesome. This way you can teach them to their individual needs even more so than at home. I have around 14 reading groups in my class! It is crazy awesome how individualized it is here. It is a lot of work and thinking but just think of how much more meaningful the learning is to the children. It's really cool.

Well that is about it for the update about school! I will upload the video of the Maori welcome when I find my flip :P I think I know where it is, but I have to go look for it! Shoot me any questions that you may have and I will try to answer them! The next posts will be about our beautiful Doubtful Sound trip and our most recent trip to Queenstown which was suuppper fun! :D  Miss and love you alllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please send me love!!