Teaching & Travel (to Rotorua)

Teaching

I have really been enjoying being at Cockle Bay and being with my year ones! I really love the community at the school. The teachers have all been very nice and welcoming. I have had the chance to work with a few different reading groups on my own. Today I was also able to work with one of the math groups. It went over really well and the children and I both enjoyed it. I learned about a new strategy for developing a sense of number, or imagery, that was interesting to me and seems like a fabulous idea. The children start off by using their fingers to count for addition and subtraction, then you transition them to doing it behind their backs, then finally with no fingers at all. Doing it this way helps them to be able to imagine their fingers, which in turn helps the children to “see” the numbers.

In the mornings the year one children have fitness. All of the year ones go outside at the same time and split into groups. The groups are just as big as a class, but it just mixes the children up. They do all different things. My class ran, skipped, jumped, and galloped back and forth. I love that they were able to be outside for the beginning half of the day, and that they were able to be barefoot if they wanted to be. I even took off my shoes! But that was because my shoes were getting wet from the grass.

Today a student presented me with a list of words that he made at home. The list was of words Americans spell differently. The titles were “American spelling” and “correct English spelling.” I will add a picture of it soon, but forgot the list at school!

.................................................

Travel

This past weekend I was given the chance to go to Rotorua with the principal of the school (not the one I live with, he's the DP), his wife, and my friend Heather. He was visiting family and offered to give us a ride down there. Rotorua is about a 3 hour drive south of where I am staying. It is a beautiful area and has a large Maori village (I'm not sure if it is considered a "village"). It also has natural hot springs and bubbling mud pools which are created from geothermal heat. Once we got there, he took us around to a few places.

Geothermal hot spring

Blue Lake

 A redwood in the redwood forrest! 

One of the places he took us to was a Maori village where we met to Maori men and talked with them for a bit. Turns out he knew the one man, Shaloh's, cousin. He showed us what looked like a sewer lid and pulled it back for us. Inside was boiling water! You could also see water bubbling up from the cracks in the cement. 

Many of the Maori people living there also have a bath house. The water in the bath house is a naturally heated geothermal tub of water. They also use the geothermal heat to cook food and heat their homes.

It is so hot and volcanic around that area, that bodies actually have to be buried above the ground. If buried under the ground, the would cook from the extreme heat. The whole area also smells like a combination of a lit match and hardboiled eggs. That is because of the sulfur being emitted continuously.

One of the Maori men that we met, Shaloh, took us on a hike and told us a few things about the Maori culture. One of the things he did was teach us the Maori greeting that is "the most personal way to greet someone, other than kissing them." To greet someone in this way you stand facing them, hold their right hand with your right hand, and place your left hand on their shoulder. The other person does the same. You then lean in and touch your forehead and nose together once, then a second time. The second time you hold, then take a deep breath in together. The word for this greeting is "hungi." I felt a little uncomfortable doing it, but it also felt very close, personal, and even calming. It is definitely worth a try!

The entire weekend was fabulous! We ended up staying in a great backpacker. It was really big and we shared a room with two girls from Germany. They told us that they had just finished up their studies for primary education. It was so exciting to talk with girls in our same position, but from another country. It is fun to see how similar you can be to someone, regardless of culture or the country you are from! 

Just a few more pictures from our trip to Rotorua...

Zorbing!!

Yoga on the beach with Shaloh, just for fun :) 

Marks in the stone from where the Maori people used to sharpen their tools a long time ago!

"Harakeke" or flax. The Mauri use this to weave with. 

 

The covering of a walkway, made to resemble the bottom of a Maori canoe. 

I am slowly beginning to figure out the busses around NZ!

Sheep! I still need to touch one!

"Mamaku" or black tree fern.

Waiting for the bus...

Hot springs! 

Some different things

One word; Milo.

Milo is a drink similar to hot chocolate (but better) that I have discovered and love! I have no idea if we have it in the US or not.

Two words; canned chicken.

I mean really, that’s where its at! Do we have canned chicken in the US? My first encounter with it was here, and it really is good! I’ve had it on a salad and on a sandwich. Its good any way you eat it.

I have also noticed that the yogurt here tastes slightly different and I like it more! I don’t know what it is, but it’s just better.