South Island Trip – Day One

I am BACK !!!

I dearly missed having my laptop while I was away at the South Island. In fact, I missed having a computer so much that I was willing to pay $4 NZ to use an hour of internet at the hostel I was staying at.
Anyway, let’s discuss more important things like what I did during my break on the South Island .

First of all, I had a lot of fun down there. It was nice just to relax and have a break from schoolwork. To be honest, it feels somewhat weird to be back and preparing to do actual work instead of touring the country.

Instead of posting all ten days in one go, I will post one day of my trip per day. So today will be about the first day in the South Island:

First day (30 January 2012)
I got up at unearthly hour of 4:15 AM. Yep, 4:15 in the morning! I wasn’t very happy about waking up at that time. Then the taxi picked me and my roommate up at 5, and picked some other girls from our BYU study abroad group along the way to the Auckland Airport. Once we got to the airport we waited around for a while since our plane didn’t leave until 7 something. On the plane, I simply just read a book that I bought specifically for the trip. It’s called Switched (YA fantasy novel, it was not the best YA book I have read but it passed the time ).

Here is the picture of the plane that I took with my group to get to Queenstown –

Here is what I saw outside of the airport –

After landing, we soon left the airport to drop our stuff off at the hostel, which was the X Base. It was located near the main part of Queenstown so I was in walking distance of the touristy stores. That wasn’t really a good thing because I walked around for a couple of hours and basically finished my souvenir shopping. In the end, I spent a lot of money on gifts.

After my short shopping spree, my group and I went to a place called Shotover Jet. It was SO MUCH FUN!! I highly recommend it even though it is pretty pricey. If you are wondering what it is click on this website – www.shotoverjet.com – and click on “watch our video” to see what the ride is like.

Here is a picture of me on the boat –

After having fun on the Shotover Jet, we drove over to Arrowtown which is near Queenstown. It is a small historical mining town. Apparently, there was a scene from the Lord of the Rings that was filmed there (the Ford of Bruinen that is located in Arrowtown was where Arwen carried Frodo across the river on horseback with the Ring Wraiths after her). I didn’t see it because I was distracted by the library located there so I decided to read books instead. In my defense, I was tired from traveling and getting up too early in the morning .

After that we went back to the hostel. I think I just read until it was time for dinner – it was around 7 PM. We went to a Chinese restaurant and it was really good. I tried to use chopsticks for the first time (I usually just opt out and use forks, but this time I decided to at least try to use them) and since I didn’t starve I figured that I was successful in using the chopsticks.

Here is a photo I took at the restaurant (it is the scenery I saw outside of my window) –

Well that was my first day in the South Island so stay tuned for the second day of my adventure in the South Island!

Another week of my adventure in NZ

I apologize for taking forever to put up a new post. I got extremely busy with…well with everything – school/homework, having fun in NZ, being lazy in general and going to sleep early (I don’t know what is in the NZ air but I have been going to bed early AND sleeping extremely well that I don’t want to get up in the mornings) .

Also, my roommate’s laptop decided to give up the ghost (aka die, perished, terminated, ceased to exist) on her so being the nice roommate I am, I am sharing my laptop with her. So I decided to get a head start on my homework today so she can get her things done on my laptop tomorrow.

After a few hours of doing evil homework, I decided that I desperately needed a break so here I am writing a new post.

Before I dive into the main body of the post here are some pictures of the place where I am going to have my classes (this is the same place I go to for church on Sundays).

Now here’s the real post:

The past week surprisingly was a lot of fun. I used the word “surprisingly” because I had my maths class. I normally DETEST maths (I actually do enjoy algebra and trig…BUT that’s it for maths ) and maths class was awesome!

Did you know that math can actually be a lot of fun?

I didn’t.

In maths class we played games that were related to math, integrated math into literacy, history and science, and we even did art that involved math.

We even learned how to write upside down! That is something I need to work on . I challenge you readers to think of reasons why it is important for a teacher to know how to write upside down.

Here is my picture of my first attempts at writing upside down:

I learned so much about how to teach math in the elementary classroom that would make math be fun and engaging for students as well as educational. My math professor was kind enough to allow me and other students to download all her math games for various grade levels and other important information for teaching math to elementary school students.

Down below are some pictures I took during math class:

this is an example of integrating math with literacy

this is an example of integrating math to literacy since we were drawing out how tall the Giant was from Gulliver’s Travels

this was meant to help us to learn how to teach place value to students

this integrated math and science since we were learning about force and motion – we had to see how blows to took to get a rubber band, a paper clip, a marker, and a leaf from Point A to Point B.

I was sad when Thursday rolled around since that was the last day of maths. We spent most of the time working on our Tapa design (I am not really sure what it is supposed to mean so you can Google it ). It was TONS of fun but it took forever to do.

Here are the steps to do the Tapa design:
1. Create a design on scratch paper.
2. Decide the color scheme. The colors were black, brown, and white.
3. Put the design on the final paper.
4. Use a black permanent on the things that you wanted black.
5. Crumple your paper up.
6. Iron your paper so it would be flat (it would still have all the wrinkles).
7. Use a piece of cloth to spread the brown dye all over your paper.
8. Let the brown dye dry.
9. Get some bleach and Q-tips.
10. Use the Q-tips to spread the bleach on the parts that you wanted white.
11. Let the bleach dry.
12. Viola – you end up with a Tapa design

Here is the picture of my Tapa design:

Now I am currently taking my last two classes – social studies and science. I am also working on an online class – CPSE 300 – which is a lot of work. Then I will be FREE!!

Well, I will be free for two weeks then I will be in the practicum .

I wanted to end my post saying that I went horseback riding for the first time yesterday! Before then I just saw horses at a distance.

It was lot of fun to my amazement.

But now I have a really bad sunburn on my neck and chest area where my shirt didn’t cover. Of course, I totally forgot to put sunscreen on those areas. Now I have an obvious outline where my shirt was .

Such is life. Hopefully it will turn into a tan !

Back to the actual horseback riding experience –

My horse’s name was Daisy and she was behaved for most of the time on the trail. I had to show her who was in charge when she wanted to stop and eat. It was not the time to graze on the yummy grass, but to follow the other horses.

At some point, Daisy just decided to trot. That didn’t feel that great to my inexperienced body. After a couple of minutes, I got her to stop trotting so we can continue on a walk – that didn’t bother my body so much (now it hurts to sit due to the trotting lol ).

Also, at one point we were going down a steep hill and Daisy just stopped.

I was terrified out of my mind.

I DESTEST/LOATHE/HATE heights and here I am on a horse, stuck on a steep hill. I started begging her to go, that I didn’t want to be stuck there rest of my life, and I finally remembered to kick my heels to prod her to go.

Eventually she moved again.

Needless to say, I was ecstatic.

At other points of the trial we went on sides of cliffs and I was about ready to be sick. I couldn’t close my eyes since I was on a horse and I couldn’t look to the side since that didn’t help. I was very glad to get back to flat land.

Overall, riding Daisy was fun but I wanted a flatter trail – a really flat trail.

Maybe next time I go horseback riding it will be on the beach because that should be flat .

Sorry for the lack of pictures of me on a horse back because I was too busy staying on the horse and not being sick on the heights that I didn’t have time to take photos. I will look around to see if my friends took photos of me .

Cheers!

Kia Ora!

Kia ora!

That is a Maori greeting of hello. In New Zealand the official languages are English and Maori so I thought it would be fun to use the word in my post .

Today is Friday for me so that means I can sleep in tomorrow! I love the weekends because I get a break from being in class all day. Tomorrow the only thing that I have planned is going to an Italian restaurant called La Porchetta since it is my roommate’s birthday and she wants lasagna for her birthday. That should be fun .

Hopefully it will be sunny tomorrow so I can work on my tan as well .

Now I am going to change the topic .

Apparently I did not update my blog enough times nor emailed my mom often enough, which caused my mom’s worry button to turn on. The reason why I have not been posting that much is due to the fact that I am just attending classes so nothing exciting is really happening at the moment.

Then she informed me that she wanted to know more about my schedule for school as well as what I am learning in class. Thus, this blog post will be based on my classes (if you don’t want to read about this then skip down to photos ).

I start my day with my alarm blaring at 6:45 am. Half asleep, I turn that alarm off and I promptly go back to sleep (I have a couple of alarms because I take forever to wake up enough to roll out of bed). Then my alarm blares again at 7:00 am. Sometimes I will actually get out of bed after that alarm and start getting ready for school. But more often I will just hit the snooze button and steal 10 more minutes of sleep THEN get up.

I am not a morning person.

I do all of the necessities a person needs to do in the morning, which includes making my lunch. After getting ready for the day, my roommate and I will leave the flat at 7:40 and walk to where we have our classes (if you don’t remember, my classes are located at the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints church building, which makes sense since this is a BYU study abroad ). Once we get there we help set up the tables and chairs. Then the school day officially starts at 8:00 am.

Here is the general outline of the school day:
8:00-8:15 am: devotional
8:15-11:30 am: Morning class
11:30-12:15: Lunch break
12:15-3:30: Afternoon class

For the past week (as well as the first 2 school days – we started school on the 5 January) the Morning class was Assessment and the afternoon class was Literacy.

Today was the last day of Assessment and Literacy . Starting on Monday, I will start my Maths class (it is called Maths done here in NZ), and Maths class will be during the morning AND afternoon classes. This should be interesting since Maths is not my absolute favorite subject and I will be doing it all day. At least I will be done with that class sooner than later . Maths class will only occur on 4 days (16 Jan. to 19 Jan.).

However, let’s go back to Assessment and Literacy classes.

The assessment class was a good class – I learned a lot even though we are moving at a really accelerated pace. The main thing to know about assessment is there are many ways to assess students, and it is not always formal (formal meaning a test or a final project in a unit). It is important for teachers to regularly assess their students to see if their students are actually learning and understanding the things the teachers are teaching. The main topics that we covered in class were evaluation (different types of evaluation), establishing a framework for evaluation, ELL considerations (ELL = English Language Learner; basically this was how to make accommodations in assessment to help those students so we won’t set up to fail on the assessments), Performance-based assessment (this actually covers both product and performance based assessment; product is like a portfolio or a written work while a performance is an oral presentation; there are many examples of both kinds of assessments!), purpose of grading and CPASS orientation (CPASS evaluation is how student teachers are graded on their teaching), and grading systems and designing a gradebook (we need the gradebook for practicum so we can practice the things actual teachers do).

Most importantly in assessment class, I learned what assignments I need to do in the Practicum (when I practice teaching in a real classroom, this will be 13 February to 22 March – I won’t be teaching on Fridays though). Those assignments include a Contextual Factors paper (this will help me see how the macro factors like community, school environment, geographic location, etc… impacts the students learning within my classroom), making at least 4 lesson plans (lessons that I will actually teach in the classroom; hopefully I will be teaching more than just 4 lessons during the 6 weeks I am in Practicum), CPASS evaluation (when the BYU professor in charge of this study abroad will come to observe me teach one of the lessons that I have prepared and then she will provide me with feedback what worked, what didn’t work, and some ideas on how to improve for next time), a journal (6 entries, at least one per week – based on what happened in my Practicum classroom), anecdotal notes (at least 3 entries per student; this is to help me to see how the students are progressing in class), and retrieval notes (this is basically record keeping of the students’ scores, attendance and conduct – just to practice since I will need to know how to do this once I start my student teaching in the Fall).

Literacy class was also an enjoyable class. It was taught by native New Zealander whose real job is actually teaching literacy to elementary students who are struggling with literacy. She really knew her stuff about literacy. We learned how to teach vocabulary to students, different approaches of literacy and writing that we can take in the classroom to teach about those two things, the reasons why some students struggle with literacy, and how to accommodate the students who are struggling. Those were just some of the things we covered. One of the most important things I learned was it is important for the teacher to read aloud to his/her students regularly so I am determined to do just that in my own classroom.

Well that’s that for my Assessment and Literacy classes.

Next week I will write about my Maths class .

I am changing the topic once again .

My sister, Lucy (that is her pseudo name that she uses on her own blog which is called An Ordinary Mom), helped me figure out how to post pictures on my blog. So here are the photos I promised .

My Journey to NZ part 2 and more!

If I have to describe NZ in one word, I will choose the word BEAUTIFUL!

I have only been in NZ for 4 days but from what I have seen it is really beautiful here. It is really green here so it is similar to Seattle in that regard (Seattle was the first place I saw that was really green because I grew up in LA where green was limited to lawns).

I am definitely glad to be here and I am not sure if I want to leave NZ after I am done with my study abroad program .

I apologize for taking forever in posting my second part of my journey. In my defense I was busy doing things I needed to do . Also, I was going to post something earlier but I decided to do it later since we had our first weekend outing today. Before I discuss that I will go back to my second part of my journey. (I apologize for any grammar mistakes ahead of time – I am tired because I have been out and about all day long).

My second part of my journey to NZ (from SFO airport to Auckland International Airport) was LONG!!! Luckily, the plane got to Auckland ahead of schedule because I was ready to get off the plane after 12 hours of sitting in the economy section of the airplane.

I was able to sit with people from my study abroad group so it was less boring that it could have been . On the Air New Zealand airplane we were able to watch free movies so I took advantage of that. I watched “Footloose” (the new one – I never saw the original one; this was enjoyable and I liked the soundtrack), “The Help” (this was the second time I saw it and I love this movie – it is really good!), and Quest for Camelot (I love this movie and I was in the mood to watch a kids movie ). Some of the other movies that were offered included “The Secret Garden” (I was going to watch this but I ran out of time), “Cowboys and Aliens”, “Unknown”, “Kung Fu Panda 2”, “The Shawshank Redemption”, etc.. (I can’t remember the titles of the other movies).

Besides watching movies, I read “The Help” and I desperately tried to fall asleep. By the time I finished “Quest for Camelot” I was so tired but I couldn’t sleep! I can sleep in cars just fine, I can sleep on trains, I can sleep on the floor if need be but for some reason I am not able to fall asleep on planes. It is quite annoying. Needless to say once my plane landed in Auckland, I was bleary-eyed and exhausted.
It didn’t take that long to clear customs simply because we landed at 4:15 am so it was not crowded. Once people were cleared through, our homestay families (for the NZ study abroad we are staying in the homes of people in the Auckland area instead of staying in a dorm; I actually like this because it makes this trip more authentic) picked us up.

My homestay mum Susan (I changed her name) is really nice. She took my roommate and I to a bakery to get some breakfast (by this time it was around 6 am). She then took us to her place and we are staying in her downstairs flat which consists of 2 twin beds; a kitchen area that includes a toaster, a microwave, dishware, silverware, a fridge and freezer; a bathroom; two nightstands; a t.v.; and a desk. It is quite cozy – just big enough for our needs. Then we unpacked and rested. Around lunch time Susan took us sightseeing.

I was going to show you some photos that I took while sightseeing, but I need to figure out how to upload photos onto the blog first so photos will be in the next blog post – sorry about that!!!

Susan has been kind enough to make dinner each night. So far I liked all of her dishes that she cooked. Before I came on this trip I made it my goal to at least try all of the food I encounter because it is part of the experience. Thus, I had some food already that I was pretty adamant about not touching back in the States. To my dismay I found out I actually like those foods. Some examples include salmon, kumara (NZ sweet potato), strawberries, kiwi, peanuts, and raspberry jam. Also, each meal consisted of some type of vegetable or fruit so I am definitely eating healthier, which is a good thing. Maybe I can finally lose some weight .

Classes started on the next day – 5 January. Classes for my study abroad program are located at one of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints chapels in Auckland. This particular chapel is 15 minutes away if I am walking. I am in class from 8 to 3:30 with a break around 10 ish (NZ people call this morning tea instead of recess), and lunch break at 11:30 to 12:15. This translates into a long day. After school I walk back to my flat with my roommate. Then I do my homework. I haven’t done much exploring yet – that comes later when classes are over (classes are done by the end of January thankfully then I am all done with classes ).

Today was a lot of fun. We went to one of the many beaches near Auckland. Sadly though, it was raining the whole entire time at the beach. The water was quite warm surprisingly but the outside temperature was cold. I took my camera with me but of course I forgot to charge it up so it was dead. Thus, no pictures of the beach. The first thing I did when I got back to the flat was to charge up the camera’s battery so next time I got out I am ready to take tons of pictures . The beach was beautiful though and I did get a chance to collect some very pretty seashells .

Thankfully, we didn’t stay at the beach that long (it was freezing) then then we went to a place called Waiwera Thermal Resort where they have hot springs so all of the pools are naturally heated. The pool I stayed in the longest was 40 degrees Celsius which is 104 degrees Fahrenheit. IT WAS AMAZING!! I was finally warm again! Also, there was a movie pool, which was meant for kids and their parents but it was still fun to watch the movie. At that pool I watched the last 20 minutes of “Hoodwinked Too” which was interesting. If you ever have a chance to visit NZ you definitely should go to Waiwera Hot pools – definitely worth the cost.

Well that’s it folks – you are now caught up in what I did so far in NZ. I am exhausted so I am going to go get ready for bed.

Are you wishing that you are in NZ yet ?

Well stay tuned for upcoming adventures.

(It is pouring outside!!)

Cheers!

My journey to NZ part 1

Hello everyone !

I am finally now sitting down at the gate waiting to board the plane. Thankfully, the SFO (San Francisco) airport was not confusing so I was able to find the place to check in easily enough. Now I am just waiting to get the 13 hour flight over with. At least I am sitting down with some friends .

Here is my journey so far:

• go up early this morning to take a shower
• double checked that I packed everything in my suitcases
• then got dropped off at the LAX
• checked in my suitcase at Southwest counter
• waited to board the plane so I read 60 pages of the The Help
• got on the plane and read The Help the whole entire time
• landed at the SFO airport
• went to baggage claim and got my suitcase 40 minutes later
• took the elevator to the AirTrain
• took the Blue line AirTrain to International Terminal G
• find the check in counters and realized Air New Zealand counter won’t open til 3:30 PM so I read The Help some more to pass the time (I am now half way done with the book )
• went in the line to check in my suitcase and it took forever
• finally found some of my BYU group that is coming down to NZ as well
• found the gate
• found some food – fries and Dr. Pepper (I LOVE Dr. Pepper )
• now waiting at the gate and updating my blog after weeks of neglect

My day is boring so far but at least all of these is helping to get closer to my destination !! After 8 months of waiting I am finally heading to NZ !!

As soon as possible I will post part 2 of my journey to NZ.

Cheers!!

Hello world!

Well world, I finally caved in. I am actually going to write a blog. I never thought I would ever do a blog – after all who will read it? Besides my family and close friends who have nothing else to do in their busy lives? My life is nothing extraordinary. I grew up in LA, part of a wonderful close-knit family, and currently working on an Elementary Education major at Brigham Young University (for more details on my life go to about me tab).

Then my life changed.

By having a blog, I will be able to easily communicate to my family, friends, and those who are simply curious about my upcoming adventures in New Zealand. That’s right I am going to NZ. I will be down there for four months (a whole semester). By going on this trip I can finally cross visiting New Zealand off my quite lengthy bucket list . Since I am from a large family it would have literally taken hours emailing people in my family and friends about my life in NZ so a blog is the better option. With just one blog post I can let everyone who knows me know how I am faring. I believe in keeping life as simple as possible at times.

The reason why I am going to NZ is school related – it is part of a study abroad program offered at BYU and I was lucky enough to be accepted. While I am down there, I am going to take some classes, travel the islands, practice student teaching for 6 weeks, and swing over to Australia for a couple of days. It is literally a dream come true. This adventure will start on January 2, 2012 so only a few more weeks left!

If you are interested in learning about my adventures in NZ and beyond, stay tuned!