This weekend involved a lot of time together on the bus. I have to admit that I can be a little cranky when I'm forced to spend large amounts of time in a confined place. This weekend was no exception.
We left Auckland early Saturday morning for the Otara Markets--we had been promised that these markets would be amazing and satisfy all of our souvenir shopping needs. Sadly this was the best thing I saw at the Otara Markets.
After the markets it was off to Rotorua, sight of amazing geothermal activity and home of The Fo. The Thermal Wonderland was pretty spooky to see (and to contemplate what it would have been like to be the first people to come upon it and wonder what on earth was going on). The Fo, on the other hand, was hard to shake. Anyone who has smelled hot springs before should have an idea what I am talking about but as far as I can tell there isn't a word in English to explain the reek that pervaded Rotorua. Chantel taught me the very useful Spanish word, fo, which can only be said as if you are spitting it out, to describe the smell.
Images of The Fo.
After a smelly night filled with shocking British television, we left early Sunday for a monster road trip to Wellington. We spent nine hours on and off the bus driving through very lovely country but it is possible that my previously mentioned crankiness might have interfered with my enjoyment of the day.
This is an image of Huka Falls on the Waikatu River. Apparently people kayak through this water. Tiffany, our tour guide, said it is great to see but there have been some fatalities.
Mt. Ruapehu, one of the many breath taking photo stops on our journey South.
Monday we got to start the day late which was such a treat. I slept in a little, went for a stroll until I found a good cafe, had a lovely long breakfast (French toast with bananas and bacon, not, as I thought, on the side, but both on top of the French toast), and then did a little shopping. We spent the afternoon at the Ministry of Education where I started to get a few answers to my questions about transformative pedagogy (although nothing satisfying yet). I keep hearing the same name, Russell Bishop, mentioned when I ask questions about changing pedagogy to meet the needs of Maori students and he is at Waikato University in Hamilton. Unfortunately, we aren't visiting Hamilton. During my last day in Auckland I met another Fulbright Scholar who is also at Waikato doing work on restorative justice in the schools. I’m looking forward to learning a little more about his work as well.
After our time at the Ministry of Education, we went to the US ambassador's residence for a cocktail reception. I've never met a US ambassador before so I was pretty impressed until I learned that he got the gig because his company gave $500,000 to W's election campaign. It was a lot like a normal party where you don't know a lot of people and have to make small talk, only this time I had to make small talk with people who use napkins that are embossed with the seal of the United States of America. We did all get our photo taken individually with the ambassador in front of a big American flag. And he gave us NZ/US flag lapel pins.
Me, Ann, Chantel, and Cindy at the ambassador's. Notice that we were only served clear beverages due, I assume, to the white carpet.
Me and the ambassador, Charles Swindels.
Tuesday we spent the morning learning about current political issues in New Zealand and then visited Parliament in the afternoon (for a good source on NZ current events visit stuff.co.nz). Some shocking facts about NZ government as best I understand them: New Zealand doesn't have a constitution. There is only one branch of government that includes both the legislature and the executive branch. As a result, from 1975 to 1984 the same man, Robert Muldoon, was both Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance. Because there is no constitution, the judiciary system has no authority to overturn decisions made by the legislative arm of the government. On the bright side, a politician can't raise more than $20,000 NZ for a campaign so MPs aren't beholden to corporations in the same way US politicians are.
Chantel, Darla, and I had a meeting with a woman from the Ministry of Education after our tour of parliament. As we have been visiting schools and hearing people from the MoE talk about the national curriculum, we have had a number of questions about what students read in literature classrooms that no one has really answered. New Zealand has a national curriculum but it is written in terms of learning outcomes rather than specific content that must be covered. This has meant some really weird things for language arts/literature classrooms.
To begin with, English falls under the curriculum area Language and Languages so is lumped in with any foreign language learning and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL, or ESL in the states). This lumping together creates problems for both English language instruction and other language instruction, as you can well imagine. From what I can tell from my conversation with the MoE today, English education (of the language arts variety) is much more focused on literacy than any meaningful experience with rich and diverse texts. It isn't until years 12 and 13 (11th and 12th grade) that the learning outcomes begin to talk about students experiencing a variety of meaningful texts. Shakespeare is the only compulsory author and he must be taught in year 13.
All of this focus on literacy is very well intentioned and focused towards kids who are not engaged in their schooling—the thinking is that if teachers work to find out what kids are interested in and structure their literacy education around those texts, the kids will be more engaged and successful. This all makes sense on one hand, but I think the exciting, and challenging, part of being an English teacher is finding a way to introduce texts that kids might never encounter but can still relate to if they are approached in the right manner. I also resent the assumption that in order for students to relate to a text is has to be easily accessible--that's why kids read books with teachers!
We left Auckland early Saturday morning for the Otara Markets--we had been promised that these markets would be amazing and satisfy all of our souvenir shopping needs. Sadly this was the best thing I saw at the Otara Markets.
After the markets it was off to Rotorua, sight of amazing geothermal activity and home of The Fo. The Thermal Wonderland was pretty spooky to see (and to contemplate what it would have been like to be the first people to come upon it and wonder what on earth was going on). The Fo, on the other hand, was hard to shake. Anyone who has smelled hot springs before should have an idea what I am talking about but as far as I can tell there isn't a word in English to explain the reek that pervaded Rotorua. Chantel taught me the very useful Spanish word, fo, which can only be said as if you are spitting it out, to describe the smell.
Images of The Fo.
After a smelly night filled with shocking British television, we left early Sunday for a monster road trip to Wellington. We spent nine hours on and off the bus driving through very lovely country but it is possible that my previously mentioned crankiness might have interfered with my enjoyment of the day.
This is an image of Huka Falls on the Waikatu River. Apparently people kayak through this water. Tiffany, our tour guide, said it is great to see but there have been some fatalities.
Mt. Ruapehu, one of the many breath taking photo stops on our journey South.
Monday we got to start the day late which was such a treat. I slept in a little, went for a stroll until I found a good cafe, had a lovely long breakfast (French toast with bananas and bacon, not, as I thought, on the side, but both on top of the French toast), and then did a little shopping. We spent the afternoon at the Ministry of Education where I started to get a few answers to my questions about transformative pedagogy (although nothing satisfying yet). I keep hearing the same name, Russell Bishop, mentioned when I ask questions about changing pedagogy to meet the needs of Maori students and he is at Waikato University in Hamilton. Unfortunately, we aren't visiting Hamilton. During my last day in Auckland I met another Fulbright Scholar who is also at Waikato doing work on restorative justice in the schools. I’m looking forward to learning a little more about his work as well.
After our time at the Ministry of Education, we went to the US ambassador's residence for a cocktail reception. I've never met a US ambassador before so I was pretty impressed until I learned that he got the gig because his company gave $500,000 to W's election campaign. It was a lot like a normal party where you don't know a lot of people and have to make small talk, only this time I had to make small talk with people who use napkins that are embossed with the seal of the United States of America. We did all get our photo taken individually with the ambassador in front of a big American flag. And he gave us NZ/US flag lapel pins.
Me, Ann, Chantel, and Cindy at the ambassador's. Notice that we were only served clear beverages due, I assume, to the white carpet.
Me and the ambassador, Charles Swindels.
Tuesday we spent the morning learning about current political issues in New Zealand and then visited Parliament in the afternoon (for a good source on NZ current events visit stuff.co.nz). Some shocking facts about NZ government as best I understand them: New Zealand doesn't have a constitution. There is only one branch of government that includes both the legislature and the executive branch. As a result, from 1975 to 1984 the same man, Robert Muldoon, was both Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance. Because there is no constitution, the judiciary system has no authority to overturn decisions made by the legislative arm of the government. On the bright side, a politician can't raise more than $20,000 NZ for a campaign so MPs aren't beholden to corporations in the same way US politicians are.
Chantel, Darla, and I had a meeting with a woman from the Ministry of Education after our tour of parliament. As we have been visiting schools and hearing people from the MoE talk about the national curriculum, we have had a number of questions about what students read in literature classrooms that no one has really answered. New Zealand has a national curriculum but it is written in terms of learning outcomes rather than specific content that must be covered. This has meant some really weird things for language arts/literature classrooms.
To begin with, English falls under the curriculum area Language and Languages so is lumped in with any foreign language learning and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL, or ESL in the states). This lumping together creates problems for both English language instruction and other language instruction, as you can well imagine. From what I can tell from my conversation with the MoE today, English education (of the language arts variety) is much more focused on literacy than any meaningful experience with rich and diverse texts. It isn't until years 12 and 13 (11th and 12th grade) that the learning outcomes begin to talk about students experiencing a variety of meaningful texts. Shakespeare is the only compulsory author and he must be taught in year 13.
All of this focus on literacy is very well intentioned and focused towards kids who are not engaged in their schooling—the thinking is that if teachers work to find out what kids are interested in and structure their literacy education around those texts, the kids will be more engaged and successful. This all makes sense on one hand, but I think the exciting, and challenging, part of being an English teacher is finding a way to introduce texts that kids might never encounter but can still relate to if they are approached in the right manner. I also resent the assumption that in order for students to relate to a text is has to be easily accessible--that's why kids read books with teachers!
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