Tënä Koutou

Room 28's Recipe for Success!
29 fabulous students all for me to teach!

Tënä Koutou (Hello to more than two people in Maori). Maori is one of the official languages of New Zealand. It is incorporated throughout the society in many ways: the town names, street signs, and the names of the teams at our school. Pohutukawa is year 1 and 2 (equivalent to our Kindergarten-1^st grade), Nikau is year 3 and 4 (grades 2-3), Koromiko is year 5 and 6 (grades 4-5) and Totara is year 7 and 8 (grades 6-7). I am teaching Koromiko, in Room 28 with Rebecca May. So they are roughly 9 and 10 years old. There are 29 children in the class with a good mix of boys and girls. They are a great bunch of kids, with a big range of abilities. We have a lot of independent and self-motivated learners, and then a few children that require a lot of assistance both academically and with their behavior. The class loves doing art and playing sport. They are a very active bunch of kids but also work very hard in the classroom. We teach every subject for the students, so there are no ‘specials’ teachers for music, art, or physical education. It’s a lot more planning and a lot more time with the students but its fun to plan and to integrate all of the specials into our content subjects.

Swanson School consists of about 10 buildings, each with 2 to 4 classrooms that surround a playground and basketball court. There are fields in back used for playing sports, a soccer field, a rugby field, and a junior (or Pohutukawa) field. It's so nice compared to schools in the US because we get so much fresh air all day walking places and keeping doors and windows wide open! There are many small cultural differences that surprised me at first, for example many of the children are barefoot all the time. This is not because they cannot afford shoes or have lost them; it is simply part of the culture to not wear shoes. I also was quite surprised when a few cats popped into our classroom, but soon discovered that they live at the school and it is common for them to pop into rooms as they please. Spelling also sometimes throws me off seeing words such as organisation, cosy, and Mum. Its all very interesting and exciting for me!

I love living here with Rachel and David! David right now is practicing loads for his guitar audition for University (Uni as they call it here). He is very stressed and focused because they only accept 6 guitarists per year. David and I have heaps (lots) of conversations about America, New Zealand, traveling, music, and loads more. He is a great host brother! He and I are trying to plan a trip towards the end of my stay once he’s completed his exams for college (high school).

Tea is everything here! I have drank more tea in the past week than I have in a lifetime! Tea for breakfast, morning tea, lunch tea, after school and staff meetings tea, afternoon tea, dinner tea, tea before bed; heaps of tea! Tea is drunk here far more often than coffee in America. I don’t even think office cubicle workers could imagine putting down as much coffee as we do tea! Much to the distress of my fellow Luna workers, coffee here is no more than instant powder and vending machines.

I already have a flight booked to Wellington for the weekend of November 16 and this weekend Rachel, Sarah, and I are heading off to climb Rangitoto. Later tonight Sarah is coming over and we are going to plan the rest of our weekends here. They are so valuable and will go quickly!! On our list of things to do are Black Water Rafting in the Waitomo Caves, Rotorua, the Bay of Islands, and of course Zorbing! So we are off to plan our fabulous trips for the rest of our stay here in New Zealand! Have a lovely day and enjoy some tea!