My Final Evaluation, written by Mr. Bob :)



PLANNING: Once again you had planned all activities with meticulous detail. It was obvious in your planning that you already have the ability to anticipate what the children require and what difficulties they are going to experience in attempting to achieve the objectives. You have a wonderful understanding of the pupil capabilities.
I am aware of the long hours of preparation time you are putting in to your teaching and, of course when you get a class of your own and become more experienced the detailed writing of the lesson plans will not be required. You will, however, always be aware of the intellectual processes required in planning and that training is priceless.
METHOD: I was very impressed with your actions when a pupil hurt herself as she was coming in to the class. You immediately, and quite spontaneously, went to the child’s aid and then you automatically took over the control of the class while the teacher took the injured child to get further attention. The maturity and professionalism of your reaction was excellent.
Your placement of the children around you as you called the roll (in Maori) and then the discussion of the reasons why some of the children were sick, was well done. This was then followed by the reading of the story of “Mr McDoodle and the Scooter” and various questions about the author, illustrator, plot and theme.
OBSERVATIONS: I very much admire your teaching ability. In the first lesson that I observed some time ago, I made some suggestions regarding your questioning technique. You have taken the criticism well and have worked on improving it. I cannot fault it now. I loved the way that in the teaching of reading you showed you are deeply conscious of the importance of shaping the development of the whole child - of the sensitivity towards others, of the need for conservation, of the need for cleanliness of thought - of moral development - and yet not overtly covering this ground.
Your voice control and eye contact, the gentleness of your approach to classroom control and the development of rapport are exceptional.
Congratulations on the previous work that you have done. Your thematic approach to learning is wonderful: Mammals of the sea, Dive into Poetry, Catch a Great Book, Writing About the Sea projects have been very successful.
CONCLUSION: I cannot find fault with your progress. You are developing into an exceptionally capable teacher and, particularly because you show you like all children and have the ability to develop a warm rapport with all cultures, you will find teaching a wonderful career. My only suggestion is that when you have a class of your own, remember to protect yourself by not spending all your time at the school! It has been a pleasure to work with you. Best wishes for the future.
J. R. de Lautour

The Perfect Evening

After the host family left, I sat down for dinner at 5:30 right on the couch and ate three bowls of Special K and some lovely grapes...and some peanuts and raisins. Awesome. No butter involved. Thank God!

And while I ate I watched the Gilmore Girls, which I just realized was on here. Sundays at 5:30...odd. But it didn't start at 5:30 because they start shows here pretty much whenever they want.

Then I sat here online and read people's online journals, looked up information about that Kerry guy running for president (ugh), looked up stuff about that teacher consortium, talked to Jeff for once, we complained about missing our "significant others" and I argued how my situation is worse than his (because I'm selfish that way) and I watched this show about the secrets of psychics. Big fat liars I tell ya. Goodness. I'll have to cancel my appointments with my psychic. Kidding, just kidding...no psychic for me.

I'm being supervised for the last time tomorrow and I don't think I am really all that well prepared. But I stopped caring about three days ago. Lesson plans are just about pointless. I want to go home.

I'm sorry, I'm just PMSing. I'll be nice and positive in about...five minutes :)

This day went so freakin' slow. Is it April 15th yet? Sigh...

Lastnight Holly and I went to this dance fundraiser thing where this band played "Rock and Roll" and old couples danced with each other. It was really fun, believe it or not. They played Elvis songs and some other country songs that are before my time. Then the band stopped and they played Outkast. THEN these people dressed up like the Jackson 5 and it was...scary, to say the least.

Anyway, 18 more days till I come home.

Hi!

Here are some interesting things I'd like you to know.

1. We played that sea turtle game we learned at Project Learning Tree, Veronica! It was awesome and the kids LOVED it! I didn't think 6 and 7 year olds would really get it, but they truly enjoyed it.

2. My cooperating teacher offered to take me to Wellington over Easter! I'm really excited, not about going necessarily because I might not go, but just because she asked me because that means she must like me! Yay!

3. My first full control week is over....it was chaotic at times, a little stressful, but it was basically all around good. But I do REALLLLY HATE that we don't have math textbooks! Arrrrrrggghhh!!!

4. My supervisor is coming for the last time on Monday, and all my evaluations are done otherwise. Saweet. I got off so easy by coming here. Sorry about that one, Muskie student teachers...

5. Winey is getting married in about 2 months. Holy moly. I am so, so excited. It's the first person in our high school clan to get married off, so I am just ecstatic and still in a state of shock. I just can't get over those high school memories and perceptions we had of things...and if we've grown up and changed a lot, or hardly at all? Or if we're REALLY old enough to be ADULTS?! Of course we are... But I guess it's just that realization that wow, adults never really knew what they were doing, either did they? So, I guess I'm all right. I think we're all all right, our little Grace Brethren clique. We turned out pretty well. I just can't wait to see Laura, Chelsea and Emily pregnant! Hahahahaha. They will be just adorable.

Well, my full control days are going really well. Teaching comes very naturally, I think...and it's actually pretty easy. The preparation isn't all that easy, but the teaching part is. The kids are adorable and love learning about the sea (ocean).

Waitomo Caves

Yesterday Holly and I took a trip to Waitomo Caves, which is about 3 hours to the east (and practically on the other coast because the country is so stinkin' small!). We got their five hours early (we left at sunrise just in case we got lost because Holly's sense of direction is even worse than mine!), so we decided to take a trip up the road to see what we could find to do. So, we at a little cafe and then went off to Hamilton, which is about an hour away. So we walked into this one place and discovered...ohmigosh...it was a mall! Tears of happiness began to well up in my eyes, but since we had only 20 minutes to spend in the mall, there was no time to cry! We went to a surf shop and I bought a purse and a pair of board shorts for Sara.

We made it back to the caves a couple minutes late, but no worries...kiwis are pretty laid back about that sort of thing. So we piled into a 4x4 with 4 English tourists and 1 New Zealand tour guide and drove to this little shack about 10 minutes away. There we put on our gear: "togs" (swimsuits), wetsuits, socks, "gumboots," a helmet with a light on top of it, a huge battery back on our backs (for the light), and a harness with some huge honkin' carabiners. I only sang "Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!" three or four times (trying to limit the annoyance level of the media influenced Americans). The wetsuits were still wet from the last people that wore them, the helmets were probably lice-infested, and my socks were soaked before I even put the boots on. Do you know how much I hate wet socks?

Anyway, it was all right. Unsanitary, but all right. We hopped back in the 4x4, drove another 10 minutes, and arrived at some hole in the ground. Ahh, it was the caves...

So we hooked ourselves up and rappelled ("abseiled") down into the caves. Sweet. Then we walked up the caves a bit, through about 2-3 feet of water with these lights on our heads. It was like Pirates of the Caribbean again (where's Johnny Depp when you need 'im? Orlando wasn't there, either. Darnit.). So the we finally hop into our inner tubes and float down these caves, and after a while we turned our lights off and floated through. It was cool because there were all these glowworms everywhere, so it looked like thousands of blue stars were all around us.

Now let me tell you about glowworms. I don't think we have them in the United States, but I could be wrong. I've never seen them. They glow because they're actually larvae of some weird sort of fly and the glowing is some sort of gastric acid in their bellies. Sick sick sick, right? Well, it looks cool anyway.

The caves were really cool with all their stalactites and stalagmites and so on, too, of course. Yes it was all very awesome...probably the best thing I've done here so far. When we were done, we had to do a little rock climbing out, which was actually a lot easier than it looked...because you know how cave walls look all slippery. But actually, the way the caves were formed was pretty cool because the rocks had formed little things that were just like handles. Sweet. It was a little complicated being in a wetsuit that was too big and a wetsuit jacket that was too small with gumboots on that were really uncomfortable and offered no support...but oh well, it was cool anyway!

That whole ordeal took about 5 hours and then Holly and I headed home. We had a busy day. Daylight savings time just ended (we had "Fall back") so I am now a whopping 19 hours ahead of all of you, sadly...

Today was beautiful. It was about 80 degrees...I slept till 11...I got up, sat in the sun and read my book, and made fresh squeezed lemonade (Brigitte and Russel had never had it). I ate some homemade plum pie (mmmmh!) and then I went kayaking. Then I did my laundry and hung it up on the line (which is a real pain), and then I went to the movies with one of the other teachers to see Cold Mountain. Good movie!

Kayaking is way fun and I hope to do more of that. Boy are my arms sore.

And I was just reminded that I gotta go take my clothes down. Sigh.

Lesson of the Day: Don't watch romances when your boyfriend is thousands of miles away. :-(

Well, I'm spending my Friday night coloUring, pasting, writing lesson plans, stapling, making bulletin boards, and so on...

Boy things are a real pain when you don't have overheads and textbooks. I will be so happy to see an overhead when I get home, someone might have to hold me back...

I ate at KFC for lunch. It's just down the street from school. It's pretty much just as gross as it is at home...
Ahhh...I just love the taste of America.

Well, sorry it's been a few days. I was sick and lost the bike...I didn't really LOSE it; it's just that my cooperating teacher had to bring me home on Friday and so I didn't get to ride it home, and then it's been rainy...so you see, I don't have the bike anymore. Hopefully I will have it again tomorrow.

My weekend in Rotorua was awesome. We saw all these geysers that explode about 30 feet in the air constantly, boiling mud, a recreated Maori village, Maori art, kiwi birds, a Marae, and I took a dip in a real geothermal pool. The geothermal pool was gross and it made me all itchy. I saw a farm show, where these awesome sheep dogs rounded up sheep, Sarah milked a cow, Kurenn and Sarah fed the baby lambs, and I spent a good five minutes petting the sheep dog and missing Charlie! Charlie! Can you believe that I miss him? I went to this park where they had these gigantic rainbow trout (which some people find fascinating) and I climbed on some extinct animal called a moa. The moa wasn't real. It was just a cement thing, but they are--I mean, were, really tall. You should have seen me getting up on this thing. It was ridiculous, my butt sticking out in the air because I got stuck (it's hard to swing your leg over their big humps on their backs, you know) as all these Asian tourists walked by, speaking in Japanese. I'm not sure what they were saying, but I could take a good guess!

Japanese: Cha chi chong chi yong yi so jung we chi chong chi ko yosaba timo chacha mo yinga ling langa.
English Translation: Look at that slutty American girl's underwear sticking out as she climbs up on that moa. Whatta freak. You can tell she's an American. Look at that booty!

This weekend Holly and I are going to the Waitomo Caves. That means we get to rappell down in these caves with lights on our heads and be surrounded by thousands of blue lights (which are actually real live glowworms!). It's an experience of a life time. At least it better be.

Anyway, it might be a while before I post again. I'm so busy I barely have time to go to the loo!

Thursday, March 11, 2004

Oooh two posts two days in a row! It must be a record! I will hopefully have more computer time now that I have a bike because I can arrive to school early and use the NICE computer in the teacher workroom. Guess who I got a call from yesterday? Sarah! Sarah, as in, one of the other 3 Muskies here in New Zealand. Kurenn, Sarah and I are going to meet in Rotorua this weekend! Is that exciting or what? So, even though Kurenn, Sarah and I were never really best buds in Muskieland, it's like here, we are just totally pals. I mean, we were acquaintances at school you know, but now it's like, helloooo Muskies!!! Yay!

I don't know yet what we'll be doing in Rotorua, but I will post that later. It will hopefully be great. I've been waiting for some adventure since I flippin' got here... Kurenn's a daring one, so we'll see what we talk each other into....

Well, computer troubles are at an all-time high right now, but things are really great otherwise!

On Monday, Brigitte tells me, "OH!" (she always does that and makes me think that White Island, the volcano off shore, must be exploding or something) "You have a parcel!" And then she went to the post office to get it for me the next day, and I opened it right away, seeing that it was so obviously from Veronica because of her pretty writing and all that. Plus her name was on it. My "favourite" thing in the box was the Cosmopolitan magazine that has SEX printed on the cover about a million times. Nice one, V. Hahaha. My students loved the baseball and thought it was the coolest thing in the world since they hardly ever see those here. I thought about bringing the Cleveland Cavs thundersticks to school but decided that might be a little too awkward, and I don't want my little kiwis thinking all Americans walk around banging blow up sticks together. Thank you Veronica!!!!!!!! It was the perfect thing at the most perfect time!

In other news, I am preparing for my two weeks of full control of the classroom. Finally! I am so excited. We're doing a big unit on the sea. I'm narrowing it down to dolphins and something else...seals, maybe. We're going to write poetry and focus on comprehension strategies and vocabulary acquisition. So, I was thinking, "Hmmm...what will I do for maths?" And well, the good thing is that I can do whatever the heck I want because we don't have textbooks or a set curriculum. The sucky thing is...I really have to think hard about what I'm going to teach and I really don't know for sure if the kids have the prerequisite skills. SO IF I EVER HEAR ANY OF YOU AMERICAN TEACHERS COMPLAIN ABOUT TEXTBOOKS, I'm just gonna laugh at you.

I think it's safe to say that I definitely think America has the best education system--textbooks, standards, and all. Teachers don't know what to teach here! They try to teach things without the students having the prerequisite knowledge. It's amazing the things you take for granted.

BIG NEWS: I have acquired FREEDOM!!!! Well, for one thing, I seriously go around everyday with the song "Oh, beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain..." in my head. But, on the same note, I really have acquired freedom because my cooperating teacher, who is just awesome, by the way, loaned me her bike for the rest of my stay! I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy, you don't even know! This means that I don't have to try to walk or run all the time for exercise (which is either painful or boring), AND I can go where I want when I want. Praise the Lord.

My cooperating teacher is hardcore, by the way, about fitness. She told me, "When I got this bike, I brought it home and said to my husband, 'Okay, I'm off to Wellington." Wellington is eight hours away by CAR. She's nuts like that. She's about 50 years old, too, and is always kayaking and biking and running marathons. It's insane. But she's so great.

Today we went to Touwhare Pa (too-farrray paw). A pa is sort of like a cross between a Native American camp site and a castle. The Maori people, years ago (like 400 years ago), built their "pas" on these mountains, usually with the ocean on one side, and flat ground on the other. This pa we went to today had ocean on one side, the harbor on the other, and flat ground towards the bottom. The flat ground at the bottom was used for growing food (in fields, called paddocks here). Then, up higher, was a fenced-in place for the people's little huts. Then, up even higher, on another level, was a fenced in place where the chief was. If someone invaded, the people could throw ("chuck") things at their invaders from up above, they were protected from both sides, and the harbor (harbour) and fields provided good food.

You should have seen the view!!!! It was gooooorrrrrrrgeous. Bright blue water, huge green hills...just like the postcards and the pictures. Ahhh... And, I forgot my camera! hehehe. sorry. A camera couldn't have captured the beauty anyway.

After the Touwhare Pa, we went to the beach and swam for a bit. And that's what we did all day.

I have a future olympic swimmer in my classroom, so he went into the "big kids" swimming competition yesterday. He was a little intimidated, so I went with him to the town pools for this big swim meet with the whole "junior" level kids (8-11 year olds). Kurt won every race he was in! I am so proud. AND guess what? I had to swim too! I was in a teacher and parents vs. kids relay. We won. And that's what I did all day. The day before we had the little kids swimming competition, and that's pretty much what we did all day.

So basically, we hardly ever have school! But don't worry, during my week of full-control, I will be working these kids hard. :)

I still miss you all so very much! Peace and God bless.

Well, computer troubles are at an all-time high right now, but things are really great otherwise!

On Monday, Brigitte tells me, "OH!" (she always does that and makes me think that White Island, the volcano off shore, must be exploding or something) "You have a parcel!" And then she went to the post office to get it for me the next day, and I opened it right away, seeing that it was so obviously from Veronica because of her pretty writing and all that. Plus her name was on it. My "favourite" thing in the box was the Cosmopolitan magazine that has SEX printed on the cover about a million times. Nice one, V. Hahaha. My students loved the baseball and thought it was the coolest thing in the world since they hardly ever see those here. I thought about bringing the Cleveland Cavs thundersticks to school but decided that might be a little too awkward, and I don't want my little kiwis thinking all Americans walk around banging blow up sticks together. Thank you Veronica!!!!!!!! It was the perfect thing at the most perfect time!

In other news, I am preparing for my two weeks of full control of the classroom. Finally! I am so excited. We're doing a big unit on the sea. I'm narrowing it down to dolphins and something else...seals, maybe. We're going to write poetry and focus on comprehension strategies and vocabulary acquisition. So, I was thinking, "Hmmm...what will I do for maths?" And well, the good thing is that I can do whatever the heck I want because we don't have textbooks or a set curriculum. The sucky thing is...I really have to think hard about what I'm going to teach and I really don't know for sure if the kids have the prerequisite skills. SO IF I EVER HEAR ANY OF YOU AMERICAN TEACHERS COMPLAIN ABOUT TEXTBOOKS, I'm just gonna laugh at you.

I think it's safe to say that I definitely think America has the best education system--textbooks, standards, and all. Teachers don't know what to teach here! They try to teach things without the students having the prerequisite knowledge. It's amazing the things you take for granted.

BIG NEWS: I have acquired FREEDOM!!!! Well, for one thing, I seriously go around everyday with the song "Oh, beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain..." in my head. But, on the same note, I really have acquired freedom because my cooperating teacher, who is just awesome, by the way, loaned me her bike for the rest of my stay! I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy, you don't even know! This means that I don't have to try to walk or run all the time for exercise (which is either painful or boring), AND I can go where I want when I want. Praise the Lord.

My cooperating teacher is hardcore, by the way, about fitness. She told me, "When I got this bike, I brought it home and said to my husband, 'Okay, I'm off to Wellington." Wellington is eight hours away by CAR. She's nuts like that. She's about 50 years old, too, and is always kayaking and biking and running marathons. It's insane. But she's so great.

Today we went to Touwhare Pa (too-farrray paw). A pa is sort of like a cross between a Native American camp site and a castle. The Maori people, years ago (like 400 years ago), built their "pas" on these mountains, usually with the ocean on one side, and flat ground on the other. This pa we went to today had ocean on one side, the harbor on the other, and flat ground towards the bottom. The flat ground at the bottom was used for growing food (in fields, called paddocks here). Then, up higher, was a fenced-in place for the people's little huts. Then, up even higher, on another level, was a fenced in place where the chief was. If someone invaded, the people could throw ("chuck") things at their invaders from up above, they were protected from both sides, and the harbor (harbour) and fields provided good food.

You should have seen the view!!!! It was gooooorrrrrrrgeous. Bright blue water, huge green hills...just like the postcards and the pictures. Ahhh... And, I forgot my camera! hehehe. sorry. A camera couldn't have captured the beauty anyway.

After the Touwhare Pa, we went to the beach and swam for a bit. And that's what we did all day.

I have a future olympic swimmer in my classroom, so he went into the "big kids" swimming competition yesterday. He was a little intimidated, so I went with him to the town pools for this big swim meet with the whole "junior" level kids (8-11 year olds). Kurt won every race he was in! I am so proud. AND guess what? I had to swim too! I was in a teacher and parents vs. kids relay. We won. And that's what I did all day. The day before we had the little kids swimming competition, and that's pretty much what we did all day.

So basically, we hardly ever have school! But don't worry, during my week of full-control, I will be working these kids hard. :)

I still miss you all so very much! Peace and God bless.

Hi! This weekend I went shopping in Tauranga and got 3 new shirts and 2 things for Jordan and Sara, and we stayed at Pukehina Beach at these people's beach house...it was gorrrrrrgeous...and we got lost on our way back from Tauranga (roads are really poorly marked) and ended up in Rotorua! Rotorua is really out of the way, too. Check out a map for that one. It's a good thing the country is small.

I did a lot of homework at the beach house and then on Sunday when I got back my host family took me and the Japanese girl, Reoko, horseback riding! It was beautiful! My horse was a big doofus at first but he and I bonded and towards the end we were all right. My back and my thighs and my butt are sooo sore! I've been running, too! Yeah, running, for real, for like 20 minutes at a time! I realized that if I jump on Brigitte's trampoline for 5 minutes before I run, my knees are good and warmed up and it doesn't hurt so badly. So yeah, that's the news of the day!

Love you all and miss ya lots!

I'm sorry a million times for not writing! But...it is through no fault of mine. Internet difficulties, for one thing, and the other day I wrote a really long entry and it got deleted somehow! Arrrgh! So, I'm playing it smart and saving things on Word first, before I publish it to here. So I guess I'll write a lot and you can pretend it's like, a week's worth.

Te Marae

We went to a Marae on Tuesday with all the "Team 2" classes (all the 5, 6, and 7 year olds). A Marae is a Maori meeting house, in case I haven't told you that before, and they have a Powhiri (welcome ceremony) for us this time. Except it was really, really lame and they didn't even have a kuia (an old lady to call us on to the Marae), and since they didn't have a kuia, it really confused us, which means we did things the wrong way...I don't know. It's all very political. The Marae was pretty cool, nevertheless, and I got to see some pictures of really old people (ancestors), some flax weaving things, bone carvings, wood carvings, and the whole lot. It was mostly pretty boring, but it's kinda interesting once I look back on it, now.

Te Marae Camp

Shwew. I just got back from an overnighter with 70 five and six year olds. It was really fun. I taught the kids how to play elbow tag and that clapping game where you say "Down by the banks..." They loved them both and wanted to play that stupid bullfrog game all stinkin' day. Geez. I didn't know it would be that popular. I think I lost my voice on the last "ding-dong" that I said. I actually did get to sleep at about 11 and slept pretty well. I was terrrrrrrified of getting lice (like at camp two years ago) because our beds were smashed all together with all these little kids and I KNOW one of the kids at least did have lice, and who knows if they got rid of it. I will die if I get it again. It's such a stinkin' pain!

The Cyclone

There was a cyclone last weekend! We got the tail end of it, which means it rained and rained and rained. That's all it's been doing here, really, but today and yesterday were super nice days, thank goodness. Finally. Anyway, the ocean was just treacherous. I have never seen anything like it and apparently no one else here has either. There were these "freak" waves that would come out of nowhere up to "six metres" or something just crazy like that, you know. And so my Idaho pals and I decided to go swimming on Sunday once the rain cleared up. It was insane. There were waves coming from the ocean (you know, the direction they're supposed to come from) and waves coming from the beach, too! It was so strange...and all these waves coming from ALL directions, huge ones, one right after the other. On Sunday, these two 31-year-old experienced surfers disappeared. And I know the fathers of both of the guys. Small country, you know. Anyway, I didn't die, and we didn't go out deep or anything...I didn't even get my hair wet. So no worries. I was all right.

The Japanese Student

There is a Japanese student staying with us right now. She's been here for about a week or so now. She's 14 or 15 years old and with the rest of her school. She's really cute and I think I'd really get along well with her if we could even slightly understand what the other is saying. So, our little flat here is very multicultural right now.

This Weekend

This weekend I'm going with Holly and some friends of hers from Montana to Tauranga and Mount Monganui. We're going to climb a mountain! I'm excited for some physical activity, but I am really sad I haven't gotten to have any REAL adventures rock climbing or backpacking or kayaking or skydiving...all the things I wanted to do. I still want to go skydiving but I'm not sure with my surgery scar still being a bit tender. Hmmm. What's the worst that could happen??? :) Don't answer that question!

HOME

On the 15th of March, there will only be 4 weeks (one month) left until I come home!!! I am soooo excited. Now understand that I am trying to enjoy it here while it lasts, but gosh almighty I miss home and, mom, I never, ever, want to live here, so don't worry! It's a nice place to visit, but I love America way too much now, more than I ever thought I could!! Why? Because we have orange cheese, good salad dressing, Campbell's Soup, Smucker's Jelly, cornbread muffins, Lucky Charms, graham crackers, biscuits and gravy, soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies and...

all of my wonderful friends and family members :)

I miss you guys and will love you even more than I already did (if that's possible) when I get home!