Kia ora Nora

My two week break is almost over. On Monday, I’ll be joining my year 2s again. I have planned for them to make a wrist watch this coming week so, they can practice telling time. Also, I will be teaching them some French (just have to stay one chapter/step ahead of the students). I have a French song that I will be teaching them in the morning this week. I am mostl excited for the writing unit I have planned for the class. They will be penpals with a Canadian school. Just telling them that they would be writing to students in Canada made them very excited and curious about Canada.  Unfortunately, I found out yesterday that I have  acute bronchitis. I was having severaly painful headaches, feeling exhausted and weak. The doctor gave me antibiotics to help clear up the bronchitis  and paracetamol for my headaches. Drinking lots of liquids and considering buying a cheap humidifier for my room to speed up my recovery. I can’t really afford to be sick right now. Four weeks til...

It is exactly 1 month and 4 weeks till I land back home. I'm really excited to be almost complete my teaching training. I have two more assignments left to submit and 4 weeks of placement to go! Currently, I am half way through a two week break from placement. Which is wonderful, time for planning lessons and finishing my assignments. I am not enjoying teaching year 2. I definitely, am not feeling the magic and connection that I have with teens. I don't like having to give specific instructions to the year 2 students about EVERYTHING! Typical Day in Year 2 "You take your piece of paper with your flower on it and you cut it out like this." Ms. N "I don't have scissors?" Tommy "Tommy, you can share with a friend." Ms. N "I'm bad at cutting Ms." Sammy "That's okay, give it your best try!" Ms. N *Sammy comes up to me with his flower cut in half* "No, worries Sammy we will tape that up and it will be good as...

Hi Everyone, This is the last week of classes. Many assignments are due this week so, its been filled with late nights, unhealthy food choices and tears.   Tomorrow, I get to meet to my year 2 class and my two teaching associates. Year 2 in New Zealand is  the eqivalent to Grade 1 in Canada. It will be quite the change from teaching year 7/8. The school is about a 45 minute bus ride a way. The class is a single cell opposed to a collabertive learning enivornment which I taught in last time.  I am looking forward to placement, it officially starts next Monday. My time in New Zealand has flown by. I'm trying, even in these stressful times to enjoy my life here and take in as much as I can. Really, looking forward to returning home this December and relaxing with my family and cat soon.  Hugs, Nora 

I survived and passed first semester and placement. I'm starting my last semester of teacher's college tomorrow. The classes this semester are: Professional Studies Visual Art Drama/Dance Math Literacy Music  Guitar Workshops This program is preparing me to be an excellent educator, however it is very stressful and I know for the next four months I will not have a lot of down time. There really is no time to catch your breath in this program. The assignments are very different than essays I had at University in Canada. They are very hard to understand understand what the professor wants you to write about and I find they take me a long time to write and then I'm rushing last minute to hand them in on time. I did have a wonderful experience during placement. I was at a school a 10 minute walk away from my house. My associate teacher who is basically trains me and evaluates my teaching was a smart, kind, fun and over all incredible person! It was a collaborat...

I have been neglecting my blog because I’ve been up to my eyeballs in classes, group projects and homework. I am enjoying the program but I am finding it very academically demanding and time consuming. I have the following courses and workshops each week: Learning Languages  Nga Ahuatanga Maori Nga Ahuatanga Maori Workshop English Literacy and Mathematics Education 1 Literacy workshop Mathematics workshop Professional and Educational Studies Professional and Educational Studies Workshop Science Digital Literacy Technology Science Workshop Technology workshop One day classroom observation at a Primary School (All day Thursdays). I am thrilled to say I handed in my first assignment so, I just have to keep being focused and productive and I’ll be okay. People have been asking me to go on trips with them for Easter and on the weekends but I do not have time to do that. I am allowing myself to go listen to a speaker with my Kiwi friend and then have lunch with h...

Monday January 29 th 2018 I celebrated my 31 st birthday last Friday. I treated myself to brunch downtown at a café called, “Therapy.” I had French toast, iced coffee and a flat white. I am drinking a lot of iced coffee here as it’s very hot out and I’m constantly walking places. French Toast from Therapy    Flat White from Therapy  I returned to campus from downtown at 3pm because Mike the CanTeach advisor wanted us to socialize with the off residence students. Mike brought New Zealand apple cider for everyone to enjoy and chicken flavoured chips. I must say the chips are very tasty despite it being an odd flavour of potato chips. The social was great because I met more students who are in the Primary teaching program with me, Thus far, I had just met students in the Secondary teaching program and I won’t have any classes with them. There was also a Primary and Secondary graduate of the program there to answer any questions we had. I spent som...