Hokey Pokey

Today:

Today was my first full day in school! It was a teacher only day where the teachers broke up into groups to share their inquiries from the past year. From what I could tell, each teacher formed a question to focus a personal inquiry around (for an example, meaningful use of technology or engaging children who are exceptionally advanced in reading) then kept a record of things they did to pursue that inquiry, as well as evidence from what they did with the children based on their inquiries. 

It was interesting for me to hear what the teachers chose to do an inquiry on, and how that inquiry effected their teaching in the classroom. I have been noticing that, although I am very far away from home in a completely different country, the questions and concerns of teachers are the same. Teachers have the same goals for their students and face the same challenges. In that sense, it was just like being in a school back home. Overall though, people here really do seem to be happier! Maybe it is because New Zealand is too beautiful for anyone to go around acting grumpy.

 This is only a small part of the outdoor area

This is my classroom!

Though another reason that the people seem to be happier here might be because they have one of the most fabulous ice cream flavors here, hokey pokey. I had my first bowl of hokey pokey tonight after a yummy dinner made by my host family. The older of the two girls explained the flavor of ice cream to me. It is vanilla with some little toffee balls in it, and the flavor was invented in New Zealand. For that reason, hokey pokey ice cream is special and must be tried! If you are interested in knowing more about it, you can follow this link --> Hokey Pokey ice cream

Yesterday:

Yesterday was exciting, but for different reasons than day before. My NZ family was gone for the long weekend and they got home yesterday! Even though I only met my host family the day before they left for the long weekend, I still missed them! They have been so wonderful and I couldn't have imagined a better family to be placed with. I feel so comfortable with them and really feel welcome here in their home. I was also happy to get some cuddle time with the girls!

Some pictures of my room :)

When they got home, I met Mark's (the dad in my home stay family) parents. They stayed for dinner and we got Chinese food. His dad was very nice and had a lot of interesting things to say! I had a good time talking with him. 

The Chinese food looked just like any of the Chinese takeout we would get at home, but it all tasted so much better! There were little dumplings that  looked just like crab rangoon, but they were more like a combination of crab rangoon and potstickers or dumplings. The outside was crunchy like crab rangoon, but the inside was the same as a potsticker or dumpling. 

Another NZ term for you to think about:

- Bench

More unrelated but interesting things:

- All of the outlets have switches on them! So just like normal there are two spots to plug things in at each outlet, but then both of those have their own little switch next to it. Since I am not used to that I keep forgetting to turn them off. Even worse though, I have forgotten to turn them on and left my laptop completely dead, thinking it had been charging.