School has finally started and just like that the first week is already over! I feel so comfortable in my classroom and love the children that I’m working with. And although I was skeptical about the collaborative classroom model, but now I have fallen in love with it. Noise is hardly a problem, even though it’s open wall classrooms. There is so much support, and it’s helpful that the three teachers in my classroom are so kind and have high expectations for me. I love that I get feedback from three people, with three different perspectives. Along with that, in NZ, you have the kids all day long. Students don’t leave for specialist for a prep time. So not only do you teach Math, Reading, Science, and Social Studies; you also teach Music, Art, Phy Ed, and STEM.
Luckily with the collaborative model, we can tailor our teaching to our strengths. Today I started teaching dance. My cheerleading has come in handy for this! Students got to pick between dance, drama, or music. So most of the kids in my group are super interested and motivated.
Thursday I start teaching math. Thursday I’ll also be full-dive into my edTPA, which is essentially an over 30 page written response portfolio showcasing my math lessons to prove that I am qualified to receive my teaching license. After I get this done, I can focus my energy in being present for my student teaching and fine-tuning my skills.
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On Saturday I went with my housemate, Mikki, on trips to two different cities. Mikki is undeniably herself. She wears big glasses, floral dresses with black New Balance tennis shoes. And she loves Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. So we went to Hobbiton! We woke up at 4:30 to get a ride with one of Kristine’s friends who could drop us off at Hobbiton en route. To be honest, I only watched the first Lord of the Rings movie when I found out I had a placement in NZ. But I had an appreciation for the movie, with it’s soothing music and beautiful scenery, but I had even greater appreciation for the actual Hobbiton.
It’s like walking into a different world. There are so many intricate details to the set that it looks real. Even more impressive, everything is built to permanent building code, because after the success of Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit filmmakers knew that fans would want to come and visit the outdoor set. As an added bonus, they give you all inclusive hard cider and beer at the end of the door in the Hobbiton pub.
After eating lunch at the most amazing Indian restaurant I’ve ever been to, we took a bus to the city of Roterora. We rented a private sulfur pool at a Polynesian Spa for the night. It was actually cheaper to get a private pool rather than the public pools because we only got the one sulfur option, rather than being able to go into different sulfur and acidic pools. With our skin feeling soft and muscles loose, we checked into our hostel. It was our first time ever staying at a hostel. I love how communal it is. For $16 each, we got beds in an 8 bed dorm sleeping with people from Guatemala, Columbia, Germany, and Idaho.
The person from Idaho greeted us right away because it was obvious that we were new to hostels. As we heated up our leftover Indian food in the communal kitchen, she sat with us and told us all about her journey. She is 52 years old and was stuck by herself in a three bedroom house and was feeling at loss for purpose in life. So she sold her house on a whim, most of her belongings, and paid off her debts. She put money aside in a high interest savings account for retirement, a rainy day, whatever. But then she still had plenty to travel all over Europe for 9 months. In Europe she backpacked, went to multiple West End performances when she rented a flat in London for a month, and went to several bar crawls. After that, she came directly to NZ to travel the islands for 6 weeks. She already has a job lined up for when she’s done, but instead of going back to Idaho she’s going to work in Anchorage, Alaska.
Lights out at 10:30pm. I slept amazing, regardless of my $16 bed for the night being hard as a rock. After eating at a Korean restaurant for breakfast, we got on the city bus to go to Rainbow Springs Nature Park. The park houses mostly endangered and threatened plant and animal species of NZ. We even got to go to a Kiwi bird hatchery (but couldn’t take pictures!) After walking the trails for hours, we went back to the city center to get on a bus back home, feeling tired and fully content. Our weekend getaway cost each of us less than $150 in total, for everything. Mikki and I are hoping to go on trips about every other weekend, but our priority is getting our portfolios done as soon as we can.
josie's musings 