Endings

How can it be week 7 already?  With only one more day left in Room 7 I am really feeling bittersweet.  The students have finally realized that I am leaving and have become extra "hugy" these past few days.  Yesterday, my students (well their parents) brought food in for a potluck lunch today and one of my student prayed for me in assembly on Monday as a beginning of my farewell week.  I have been so blessed to be a part of Room 7.  Mrs. Sellar has been an absolutely wonderful mentor teacher!  She has given me full reign in the classroom and her constant humor and encouragement have been so appreciated.  It still hasn't fully sunk in that I am leaving early Saturday morning.  I started packing tonight and am still in denial that I leave so soon...also in denial that I have fit everything back in my suitcases (I will be enlisting the help of my host siblings to help zip everything).

I already said goodbyes to Sarah and Vincent (host Mum and Dad) because they are currently on a business trip in the south island.  They gave me an awesome Kiwi Ukulele book so the pressure is on to improve my ukulele skills.  So for the rest of my time here it is just me and the "kids".  Our huge Friday night plans include takeaways, packing, and a movie...can't get much better than that.

Prayers are appreciated as I say my goodbyes to everyone at school tomorrow, it is truly going to be an emotionally rough day.  Everyone here has accepted and loved me right from day one, walking away is going to be hard...but I will just have to come back to see everyone and finish the last few things on my Top 10 list. God is good.

Bach

I don't mean bach as in Johann Sebastian Bach, I mean bach (pronounced batch, originally a shortened form of Bachelor Pad) as in family holiday home.  This past weekend I was lucky enough to go with my host family to their bach up North around the Doubtless Bay area.  Even though we have now entered the season of fall and tree leaves are changing their colors, we were blessed with absolutely beautiful weather during our time in Northland.  I was pleasantly surprised by just how deserted the beaches were up North.  The picture on the right is taken at the beach visible from my host family's bach.  Willa seized the opportunity to get in some practice time on the surf board while I practiced my shark look out skills.  I am proud to say that we were both rather successful in our duties.  It was wonderful to leave the city and just relax for a while.  I had wonderful intentions to complete loads of grading and planning for the week, but instead I took time to relax (which is something that I really haven't done much of these past seven weeks).  I finished the book Tuesdays with Morrie and highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't already read it, very inspirational.



There isn't much to say about the trip, other than the scenery and beaches were absolutely breathtaking and the company was a pleasure.  I also introduced Willa and Theo to Apples to Apples (I brought the game along with me) and enjoyed a few games on Saturday night.  A stop to rinse all of of the salt water in Coca-Cola lake (pictured below) on the way home is a tradition.  I read that peat and tannins have darkened the color of the water so even though it looks orange, red, and deep purple it is actually quite clear and clean.  I was mesmerized by the intensity of the colors.  The 4 1/2 hour drive back home allowed for some decent napping and a chance to regret teaching the Cow Game to Willa (for those of you that know how to play there were no visible cemeteries from the road so the game became rather pointless). Fresh Margherita pizza and Aloe were the reward for making it through the weekend.

A highlight of last school week was when Christinia and Svenja (Student Teachers from Germany) took control of the class for a period.  They taught Room 7 their colors in German and had everyone color these wonderful "color by german word" masks.  It was such a clever idea and the students loved it so much that I think I might have to do something similar with them this week to help them learn the Maori words for their colors.  Tomorrow morning I am leading the high school student devotions and I am really excited to share how God has worked through the passions and desires of my heart to bring me to where I am today.   I had my fair share of apprehension and fear before leaving, but I was constantly reminded of this new favorite Bible verse.  "For God did not give us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and of a self-discipline." - 2 Timothy 1:7  God has been so faithful to me during my time here in New Zealand.

I can hardly believe that this is my last week in Room 7!  Saying goodbye is always bittersweet.  I feel like this quote really sums it up, I am not sure who said it but I love it none the less.  "You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place.  Like you'll not only miss the people you love but you'll miss the person you are now at this time and place because you'll never be this way ever again."  Prayers would be appreciated for all of the goodbyes that I will be saying these next few days.

P.S. Liz Lovejoy and Rebecca Kammer (Friends from Mount Vernon Nazarene Univeristy) just left to do their student teaching in China!  Follow their adventures at http://chasingchopsticks.blogspot.co.nz/ and http://chinain8.blogspot.co.nz/

Rotorua

This week I was blessed by having Mrs. Hart (Home Ec Teacher) take me down to Rotorua to see the sights and smell the sulphur.  I am continually blessed by the staff at Hebron Christian College.  Mrs. Hart said that she had people take her on an amazing trip when she was in America and would love to repay the favor.  I am so incredibly grateful to be able to go on this trip.  Rotorua is a fascinating place and I am so pleased that I was able to experience it before I head home.  I look forward to paying it forward someday and taking someone else on a wonderful adventure.  Our travel plans were rather last minute (made on the bus ride home from camp), but everything went smoothly from gorgeous weather when rain had been forecasted to little traffic on the roads to delay our journey.  The trip could not have been any better.

For most of you that don't really know what Rotorua is, let me quickly explain.  The city of Rotorua is widely known for its geothermal activity (mainly geysers and hot mud pools).  Fault lines under New Zealand are the cause of this intense geothermal activity.  At some points in the city molten lava is just a mere four kilometers under the surface.  Rotorua has also been nicknamed the Sulphur City, because of a rotten egg smell, caused by the hydrogen sulphide emissions.  It definitely isn't the best smelling city, but it sure has some beautiful works of nature.  While in Rotorua I saw some real life Kiwis (the bird not the fruit), ate a hangi (Maori style of cooking food in the ground), relaxed in a mineral pool, and belted out the Halleljuah Chorus in the car with Mrs. Hart.  

Another week of full control in Room 7 has nearly come to a close.  I didn't realize how much I missed being in Room 7 (I had the week off for camp) until I stepped off the bus at school returning from camp and found both legs being immediately embraced by the little people of Room 7.  It is hard to accept that next week will be my last week here.  I have grown so attached to everyone at school and at home.  Mrs. Sellar has been a wonderful cooperating teacher to work with, she has fully trusted me and given me complete control of the classroom.  She also never fails to encourage me and fill me with praise.  Encouragement from such a master teacher as her is not received lightly. :)  The picture on the right is of a recent science experiment that took place in Room 7.  Our focus in science has been on metals and we recently discovered that metals are good conductors of heat.  The experiment had us placing objects, with a little slab of butter on the outside end, into a bowl of super hot water.  If the butter melted we then knew that the object that the butter was on was a good conductor of heat.  Never before have I seen children more eager to stare at butter melting.

My latest great accomplishment is baking this delicious pavlova!  The pavlova is a pretty iconic pudding (dessert) here in New Zealand and cooking a pavlova was an object written on my Top 10 list by my host Mum.  A pavlova is similar to a giant meringue, just a little softer on the inside.  This one is topped with homemade whipped cream, a lemon sauce, and fresh passion fruit.  It would not have been a successful baking experience if it wasn't for my host Mum, she really guided me through the recipe and clued me in on all of her tips.  The real tests comes when I return home and attempt to make a pavlova all by myself.  When I think about returning home I struck with just how bittersweet my thoughts are.  I eagerly anticipate seeing my family and friends again (I do miss you), but I am also realizing just how hard it is going to be to leave everyone here.  It fascinates me how quickly we can make connections with each other and become so attached.  The only thing that I can do is make the best of my remaining time here and begin planning my return trip (this time dragging along some friends so that they can experience it along with me).  

Camp

Archery practice

Well, I survived camp with the high school students!  I am extremely grateful to be able to get to know the high schoolers a little better and had a blast at camp.  This outdoor education camp had a nice mixture of outdoor activities and devotions led by an amazing missionary couple.  I noticed a few more cultural differences while on camp mainly related to safety.  During camp I went ziplining across a lake with nothing but my upper body strength to keep me from crash landing on the ground or plummeting into the water without a life jacket.  There were no detailed emergency medical forms, no harnesses, just a towel to wipe the sunscreen off my hands and 9 high school students cheering me on.  It was exhilarating and terrifying, I think I did more stepping out of my comfort zone at camp then my students did.  There is so much to write about and I am too exhausted to decompress it all now so I will stick to a lists (my type A personality is sneaking out a little bit) of pros and cons of being a teacher on camp.

Supervising sand volleyball, teaching is a hard life

Pro:

-First in line to eat

-Allowed otherwise forbidden phones/iPods 

-Morning and Afternoon tea

-You get to make up the rules/decide what is and isn't ok

-Ability to force students to climb a three meter wall while you just cheer them on and take pictures

-Students who come up to you and ask you to pray for them (so humbling) 

-A private loo and shower with no queue 

-Senior boys who take your dirty dishes away without your asking 

-Forcing students to clean toilets and take out rubbish while you supervise because they woke you up at 3:45 in the morning with their loud talking

-Students asking you to join them in the talent quest/play a game of pool/never ending friends to play with 

Con:

-Sleeping in a cabin with 40+ teenage girls

Tramping up the mountains...with cows

-Toilet cleaning duty

-Losing your voice 

-Having to wake up before the students do...and then waking them up 

-If I have to hear one more story about your boyfriend or the boy you have a crush on I might start to cry

-Being responsible for the massive number of students that happen to be injured under your supervision 

-Giving the modesty talk to a roomful of teenage girls 

-Students in your group that tell you if you die while zip lining across a lake they will just leave your body in the water

-Students think you know everything (and come to you at night with a wet mattress expecting you to magically make it dry)

-Being woken up at 3:45 by girls talking on the other side of the cabin

All in all, the positives outweigh the negatives. :)  

Hobbiton

Thursday was another full on day of teaching and it went pretty well (said Margaret Sellar who sneakily observed me teaching a lesson when I wasn't suspecting it).  My students are so eager to learn and are really wonderful children!  Having a class size of only fifteen has been wonderful  Classroom management isn't really an issue at all (granted that is a combination of both my strict/high expectations and small class sizes).

On Friday I had the opportunity to time and participate in Swim Sports for students Year 4-13.  I was assigned to the Blue House (which was obviously the best house to belong to aka Gryffindor).  Just as I  began to fill with pride for the Blue House and started to think of some great chants I was whisked away to time individual lanes.  I haven't been to many swim meets (so I have a lack of background knowledge to compare to), but these kids were great swimmers!  I heard a statistic that there are approximately 70 drowning deaths a year down here that could be prevented if the person had known how to swim.  It only makes since that because of Auckland's easy access to water students should receive swim lessons in school.  The kids were all completely comfortable in the water.  I don't think that I represented team USA and Michael Phelps too well when I swam as part of the teacher relay for the final event of Teachers vs. Parents vs. High School students vs. Middle School students...but I am from Ohio...we aren't too well known for our swimming abilities.  During my afternoon tea break on Friday (the perks of being a teacher = students bringing you tea and hot crossed buns while you are working) I spent a nice amount of time talking to Paul Norell who just started teaching at Hebron Christian College on Monday.  If you don't know the name Paul Norell you might know the name of one of the characters he portrayed...the King of the Dead from the Lord of the Rings.  Yes, the King of the Dead is a teacher at my school...pretty intimidating stuff, maybe I should have him run my detention.  While Paul and I were chatting he asked me if I was interested in visiting Hobbiton.  Uhhhhh...YES!  As it turns out he was leading a group of people from a cruise on a tour down to Hobbiton Saturday morning and there was extra space if I wanted to join, free of charge.  The plans were made to meet at down at Princes Wharf at the cruise ship in the morning and the deal was sealed.

This brings us to Saturday, the day I visited The Shire.  My host Dad dropped me off down at the wharf early Saturday morning and I met up with Paul and everyone from the cruise ship where we hopped on a charter bus and enjoyed the two hour drive down to Matamata.  I learned a few new things about Auckland from our bus driver along the way, like the fact that Auckland is only 1km wide at it's skinniest and 11km wide at it's thickest point.  The best part about traveling with an established tour was the fact that we didn't have to wait around to buy tickets or for the next bus into Hobbiton we simply drove in past the line of waiting people.  The walking tour through Hobbiton lasted around 1 1/2 hours and was absolutely breathtaking.  It is truly like walking into another world.  I was awestruck by the attention to detail that was put into everything from thousands of fake leaves hand painted for the fake tree behind Bilbo Baggin's hole (pictured to the left) or the fake moss applied to the fences to make them appear more aged than they truly are and the hobbit sized clothes hanging on lines.  Our tour ended at the Green Dragon Pub where we were served a delicious lunch.  I had a very enjoyable time talking to everyone from the cruise (I must have lowered the average age by a few decades) who came from various sides of the world including England, Canada, Australia, and even one American as well.  In the end, I was thoroughly impressed with my trip to Hobbiton.


Today (Sunday) I was able to join Vic, (one of the teachers at Hebron who is actually originally from California) Christina, and Svenya (two students teachers from Germany also at Hebron) to the church that Vic attends regularly.  I continue to feel so blessed with the community at Hebron, so many of the teachers have reached out to me and eager to introduce me to new people and places.  After a wonderful church service followed by a heavy lunch at Vic's house I returned home for Theo's 12th birthday party.  Nothing like sitting in the backyard eating fresh fruit and meringues in the sun to make a Sunday truly relaxing.

This week is bringing a new adventure that will separate me from technology for a few days.  Tuesday through Friday I will be accompanying the Senior High students as they go all go to camp!  Being placed in the primary department I have little interaction with the high schoolers so I am both excited and intimidated to spend this week with them.  I am only comforted in know that the teacher cabin that I will be staying in consists of some pretty awesome staff!  I will also be privileged with leading a group of students through all of the activities during the duration of the week, this will give me many great opportunities to build relationships with the scary students who seem to be twice my size.  Prayers are appreciated as I am sure that I will be exhausted by the end of camp!

Soloing

Friday night was an extremely quite one in the house.  Levi, Theo, and Willa all went to spend the night with respective friends and Toby was working until midnight…so it was just me and the host parents.  After school I went for my daily run, but it turned into a walk after I got a pretty terrible case of shin splints…I think it means I should just be swimming in the pool more often.  :)  My host family has an Irish man currently working on building a little retaining wall behind the pool for a raised garden bed and we all ended up in the kitchen Friday night eating carrots (my host Mum recently bought a 40 lb bag of carrots because they were on sale for $8 so we are now required to eat a carrot with every meal).  It was a gold mine of wonderful accents in the kitchen Friday night that we talked until 9 at night munching on carrots until our stomaches urged us to eat a proper meal.  Dad, you would have loved dinner!!  We order multiple different curries from a nearby Thai takeaway and watched British talk shows in the Black Room while trying to cool our burning mouths (that Thai food was hottt).  

Saturday was a whole not of nothing.  I sat around and relaxed the whole day with the host family while writing lesson plans.  It is sometimes hard to remember that I am here for student teaching so my real focus has to be my classroom.  I watched another classic New Zealand movie, Boy.  It is a wonderful combination of humor and grief, I would highly recommend it!  

Sunday started by sleeping through my alarm and being awoken by my host Mum yelling my name and asking if I was ready to go on the weekly walk up Mt. Albert with the dog, Oscar, and some of her friends.  I scrambled to get dressed and joined them for a cup of coffee before the walk.  I then joined one of my host Mum's colleagues (who is my age) and her flat mate on a quick trip to a nearby beach.  It was wonderful to just relax on the beach and read a  book.  It has been a really beautiful day, gorgeous sun and a cooling breeze.  

Monday was my first day of solo teaching and I let myself get frustrated over little things and didn't focus on the positives which made it a rather rough day.  I spent a good bit of my Monday evening reflecting on what I could change to make Tuesday better and it really ended up in my attitude.  Teaching is exhausting and I must accept the fact that I must rely on God's strength not my own.  All day Tuesday I focused on the positives and prayed for a lot of patience and had an absolutely amazing day in the classroom!  Wednesday was exactly the same.  I had the fun experience of teaching Art for the first time (with my focus on special education I haven't had an opportunity to teach any specials).  I also had the opportunity today to talk with two other international student teachers who are at Hebron Christian College from Germany.  We are working on organizing a trip down to Hobbiton together sometime very soon!! God is so faithful and I am being reminded of his faithfulness daily.  

Valentine

Teaching is exhausted.  It is Friday night and I have been forcing my eye lids open, just to realize that it is only 11:30pm.  I am not really a night owl by any means, but this is too early to feel this exhausted.  This week, as a teacher, has been very rewarding for me.  God has given me a true passion and gift in teaching and I have received some very uplifting observation assessments from my cooperating teacher and my supervisor!  This news has really encouraged me and even if I am completely drained by Friday night, I know that I am doing something right throughout the rest of the week.  Room 7 is the best class is the whole school and I don't think that anybody could convince me otherwise.  On Thursday, I lead the class in a song during our devotions time.  I should point out that while I am rather confident in my singing, I have little confidence in my ukulele skills (I started playing a little over a week ago).  My kids were so forgiving of my strumming mistakes and awkward pauses throughout the song and they just gleefully sang out the lyrics.  I really enjoyed our time in song and hope to continue to incorporate more and more music throughout the day.  I can hardly believe that I start my solo teaching/full control this coming week!  I really look forward to learning right alongside my students.  

Wednesday after school there was a staff meeting all about Autism and Aspergers.  Being a double major in early childhood and special education I was quite excited to learn more about their views on the autism spectrum and learn more about how they treat disabilities in the schools.  I can't really say that I learned any new information during the presentation (which is probably a shout out to MVNU's wonderful Intervention Specialist program), but I did love the analogies and simulations that were used to present the material in slightly different ways than what I was used to.  The school that I teach at does have IEPs, but they write them for both students with disabilities and gifted students.  The IEPs don't look anything like our twenty page forms, but I really like how they write out individual plans for gifted students.  I myself am guilty on putting a majority of my attention in the classroom on the students who are struggling because that is my passion, but this experience has been a nice reminder that I have to push my students who are advanced with the same urgency.  

Another highlight of my week was Valentine's Day.  Vincent had an awards ceremony that he had to attend for work Thursday night so Sarah decided to take all of us kids to the beach.  Levi drove us over to Muriwai on the west coast (the west coast has beautiful black sand beaches, I have never  seen anything like it before).  We bought some fish and chips when we arrived at the beach and had a lovely dinner by the ocean.  I tried also tried Kiwi food that I didn't like for the first time...muscle fitters.  The texture was just a little too much for me.  As the sun was setting we took the quick five minute hike up the coast for an amazing view of the gannet colony.  Gannets are seabirds and at this colony there are approximately 1,200 pairs of gannets that nest here on two islands from August to March.  The smell wasn't too enjoyable, but the view of the Tasman Sea was wonderful.  We finished our hike right as the sun slipped under the horizon and then decided to we should probably head home, it was a school night and none of us had done any work yet.  

Gannet Colony in the background

I really look forward to starting my full control on Monday, prayers are appreciated, I know it will be more tasking than I realize.  Must go write lesson plans and submit job applications.  Be prepared for ridiculous stories about students in upcoming posts.