The time has come to turn my six weeks of travel through Hawai'i and New Zealand into a digestible project for consumption by other educators. I find the task almost impossible as I am still trying to make sense of the experiences I had this summer. What did I learn about the New Zealand education system? About Pacific Migrations? About the struggle of indigenous people to be acknowledged, respected, and treated with decency in their own country? About successful bicultural and multicultural education? What did I learn about my own country and our struggles educating marginalized people? What did I learn about myself? And, most importantly for this project, how can I turn that learning into a project that will help other teachers who have not been privileged with the experience I had to teach their students about New Zealand and further international understanding?

Some lessons I learned:

• We are more alike than we are different.
  

• I know precious little about my own country, particularly as it pertains to the annexation of Hawai /* Posts ----------------------------------------------- */ .date-header { margin:1.5em 0 .5em; } .post { margin:.5em 0 1.5em; border-bottom:1px dotted #ccc; padding-bottom:1.5em; } .post-title { margin:.25em 0 0; padding:0 0 4px; font-size:140%; font-weight:normal; line-height:1.4em; color:#c60; } .post-title a, .post-title a:visited, .post-title strong { display:block; text-decoration:none; color:#c60; font-weight:normal; } .post-title strong, .post-title a:hover { color:#333; } .post div { margin:0 0 .75em; line-height:1.6em; } p.post-footer { margin:-.25em 0 0; color:#ccc; } .post-footer em, .comment-link { font:78%/1.4em "Trebuchet MS",Trebuchet,Arial,Verdana,Sans-serif; text-transform:uppercase; letter-spacing:.1em; } .post-footer em { font-style:normal; color:#999; margin-right:.6em; } .comment-link { margin-left:.6em; } .post img { padding:4px; border:1px solid #ddd; } .post blockquote { margin:1em 20px; } .post blockquote p { margin:.75em 0; } /* Comments ----------------------------------------------- */ #comments h4 { margin:1em 0; font:bold 78%/1.6em "Trebuchet MS",Trebuchet,Arial,Verdana,Sans-serif; text-transform:uppercase; letter-spacing:.2em; color:#999; } #comments h4 strong { font-size:130%; } #comments-block { margin:1em 0 1.5em; line-height:1.6em; } #comments-block dt { margin:.5em 0; } #comments-block dd { margin:.25em 0 0; } #comments-block dd.comment-timestamp { margin:-.25em 0 2em; font:78%/1.4em "Trebuchet MS",Trebuchet,Arial,Verdana,Sans-serif; text-transform:uppercase; letter-spacing:.1em; } #comments-block dd p { margin:0 0 .75em; } .deleted-comment { font-style:italic; color:gray; } /* Sidebar Content ----------------------------------------------- */ #sidebar ul { margin:0 0 1.5em; padding:0 0 1.5em; border-bottom:1px dotted #ccc; list-style:none; } #sidebar li { margin:0; padding:0 0 .25em 15px; text-indent:-15px; line-height:1.5em; } #sidebar p { color:#666; line-height:1.5em; } /* Profile ----------------------------------------------- */ #profile-container { margin:0 0 1.5em; border-bottom:1px dotted #ccc; padding-bottom:1.5em; } .profile-datablock { margin:.5em 0 .5em; } .profile-img { display:inline; } .profile-img img { float:left; padding:4px; border:1px solid #ddd; margin:0 8px 3px 0; } .profile-data { margin:0; font:bold 78%/1.6em "Trebuchet MS",Trebuchet,Arial,Verdana,Sans-serif; text-transform:uppercase; letter-spacing:.1em; } .profile-data strong { display:none; } .profile-textblock { margin:0 0 .5em; } .profile-link { margin:0; font:78%/1.4em "Trebuchet MS",Trebuchet,Arial,Verdana,Sans-serif; text-transform:uppercase; letter-spacing:.1em; } /* Footer ----------------------------------------------- */ #footer { width:660px; clear:both; margin:0 auto; } #footer hr { display:none; } #footer p { margin:0; padding-top:15px; font:78%/1.6em "Trebuchet MS",Trebuchet,Verdana,Sans-serif; text-transform:uppercase; letter-spacing:.1em; }

  Antipodean Adventures

  One teacher's reflections and experiences as she travels through New Zealand/Aotearoa as part of the Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminar, Migrations; a journey to new understanding.

  Tuesday, November 16, 2004

  The time has come to turn my six weeks of travel through Hawai'i and New Zealand into a digestible project for consumption by other educators. I find the task almost impossible as I am still trying to make sense of the experiences I had this summer. What did I learn about the New Zealand education system? About Pacific Migrations? About the struggle of indigenous people to be acknowledged, respected, and treated with decency in their own country? About successful bicultural and multicultural education? What did I learn about my own country and our struggles educating marginalized people? What did I learn about myself? And, most importantly for this project, how can I turn that learning into a project that will help other teachers who have not been privileged with the experience I had to teach their students about New Zealand and further international understanding?

  Some lessons I learned:
  

  • We are more alike than we are different.
    

  • I know precious little about my own country, particularly as it pertains to the annexation of Hawai'i.

  • A country can control and ultimately destroy a people group by taking away their language. Consequently, language reclamation is a powerful and important task.

  • The task of making a curriculum culturally responsive requires more than the addition of bicultural (or multicultural) materials; it requires a radical redefinition of what it means to teach and learn grounded in the culture of the teacher and the students. Often this redefinition will involve compromise on both sides, but the current model of adding multicultural information into a European style classroom does nothing to empower marginalized students nor does it teach students from the dominant cultural group how to interact in a multicultural world.

  • The cross-cultural exchange made possible by Fulbright Hays summer seminars enriches the teacher's classroom not only through curricular material, but also by expanding the teacher's sphere of reference and putting a teacher in contact with other energetic and excellent teachers.

  None of these lessons easily translates into a lesson plan that can be applied in the classroom--however, all of them have ramifications for the classroom.

  This project is an online, annotated travelogue. The basic text of the project was written while I was traveling in Hawai'i and New Zealan--it was part of a blog (web blog--or online, public journal) that I kept for my students, colleagues, and friends. While I traveled I wrote honestly about the daily experiences I was having, what I was learning, and the questions that were raised by those experiences. These comments and observations were the occasion for many interesting email exchanges with people back home about the issues I raised. Since returning to the U.S., I have added links to more authoritative sources, links to video clips, more photos, and suggested readings whenever possible. I have also kept the comment function enabled on the blog. My hope is that students and teachers will find this travelogue to be a useful resource on a number of cultural topics and larger educational issues facing classrooms in the U.S. and in New Zealand. Perhaps it will inspire others to enter the conversation about what meaningful multicultural curriculum and classrooms look like.

  Saturday, September 04, 2004

  I've been home for two weeks now and it is hard to imagine that this is what it looked like outside my hotel only fourteen days ago. In fact, we were worried that we wouldn't get out of New Zealand on time because the road from Arthur's Pass to Christchurch was closed off and on all week as was the Christchurch airport. Luckily Bob, our bus driver, managed to get us to the airport in a safe and timely manner and after 30 hours of traveling I made it back home. I was very happy.
  
  
  
  School has been in session for a week now and I am still working to catch up on everything I missed in the last six weeks as well as the daily preparation necessary for teaching a new class. I'm loving teaching the seniors thus far and thought I would share with you a beautiful thing they wrote this week.
  
  In response to a question about student-teacher relationships one student had this to say:
  
  "A good teacher can make her students laugh and cry, smile and sing. She must be a great commander, rallying her troops. She must be able to touch each and every one of her students emotionally, not just intellectually. But this necessitates a willingness to study and understand her students as individuals, and not as just so many numbers or words on a piece of paper."
  
  What a worthy challenge.
  

  Sunday, August 15, 2004

  Today I went skiing for the first time ever. Ok, I tried to go skiing once, when I was 13, and I fell riding the rope tow to the top of the bunny hill, couldn't get up, got mad and stomped off the hill. I set off this morning planning to prove to my 13 year old self that I could successfully navigate not only the rope tow but the bunny hill as well. The ski resort we went to is amazing and is supposed to have fabulous view, or so I'm told. It snowed all day today and we were in a cloud most of the day so I didn't see much of the view. However, everything was very quiet and peaceful and the chair lift seemed to be a magical ride to nowhere.
  
  
  
  
  Here's the one time I could almost see the view.
  
  I am proud to say that I not only survived the rope tow, I also survived the Magic Carpet, the chair lift and even graduated to the green run after lunch. The green run was a little scary as by the time we got there visibility was so low that my instructor would say "follow me" and after about three seconds I couldn't see where he, or any of the other members of my class, had gone to. But I made it down the hill and am afraid that I have acquired yet another expensive habit.'i.

• A country can control and ultimately destroy a people group by taking away their language. Consequently, language reclamation is a powerful and important task.

• The task of making a curriculum culturally responsive requires more than the addition of bicultural (or multicultural) materials; it requires a radical redefinition of what it means to teach and learn grounded in the culture of the teacher and the students. Often this redefinition will involve compromise on both sides, but the current model of adding multicultural information into a European style classroom does nothing to empower marginalized students nor does it teach students from the dominant cultural group how to interact in a multicultural world.

• The cross-cultural exchange made possible by Fulbright Hays summer seminars enriches the teacher's classroom not only through curricular material, but also by expanding the teacher's sphere of reference and putting a teacher in contact with other energetic and excellent teachers.

None of these lessons easily translates into a lesson plan that can be applied in the classroom--however, all of them have ramifications for the classroom.

This project is an online, annotated travelogue. The basic text of the project was written while I was traveling in Hawai'i and New Zealan--it was part of a blog (web blog--or online, public journal) that I kept for my students, colleagues, and friends. While I traveled I wrote honestly about the daily experiences I was having, what I was learning, and the questions that were raised by those experiences. These comments and observations were the occasion for many interesting email exchanges with people back home about the issues I raised. Since returning to the U.S., I have added links to more authoritative sources, links to video clips, more photos, and suggested readings whenever possible. I have also kept the comment function enabled on the blog. My hope is that students and teachers will find this travelogue to be a useful resource on a number of cultural topics and larger educational issues facing classrooms in the U.S. and in New Zealand. Perhaps it will inspire others to enter the conversation about what meaningful multicultural curriculum and classrooms look like.

I've been home for two weeks now and it is hard to imagine that this is what it looked like outside my hotel only fourteen days ago. In fact, we were worried that we wouldn't get out of New Zealand on time because the road from Arthur's Pass to Christchurch was closed off and on all week as was the Christchurch airport. Luckily Bob, our bus driver, managed to get us to the airport in a safe and timely manner and after 30 hours of traveling I made it back home. I was very happy.



School has been in session for a week now and I am still working to catch up on everything I missed in the last six weeks as well as the daily preparation necessary for teaching a new class. I'm loving teaching the seniors thus far and thought I would share with you a beautiful thing they wrote this week.

In response to a question about student-teacher relationships one student had this to say:

"A good teacher can make her students laugh and cry, smile and sing. She must be a great commander, rallying her troops. She must be able to touch each and every one of her students emotionally, not just intellectually. But this necessitates a willingness to study and understand her students as individuals, and not as just so many numbers or words on a piece of paper."

What a worthy challenge.

Today I went skiing for the first time ever. Ok, I tried to go skiing once, when I was 13, and I fell riding the rope tow to the top of the bunny hill, couldn't get up, got mad and stomped off the hill. I set off this morning planning to prove to my 13 year old self that I could successfully navigate not only the rope tow but the bunny hill as well. The ski resort we went to is amazing and is supposed to have fabulous view, or so I'm told. It snowed all day today and we were in a cloud most of the day so I didn't see much of the view. However, everything was very quiet and peaceful and the chair lift seemed to be a magical ride to nowhere.




Here's the one time I could almost see the view.

I am proud to say that I not only survived the rope tow, I also survived the Magic Carpet, the chair lift and even graduated to the green run after lunch. The green run was a little scary as by the time we got there visibility was so low that my instructor would say "follow me" and after about three seconds I couldn't see where he, or any of the other members of my class, had gone to. But I made it down the hill and am afraid that I have acquired yet another expensive habit.


Triumph!

Let play time begin! We are finished with the academic portion of our trip (with the exception of one last school visit on Monday) and have safely arrived in Queenstown. Here's what I did on the


Triumph!

Let play time begin! We are finished with the academic portion of our trip (with the exception of one last school visit on Monday) and have safely arrived in Queenstown. Here's what I did on the way into town.



Although I spent a few minutes shaking my head and saying "I can't do this," once I jumped it was so calm and smooth I couldn't believe I had been nervous in the first place. Now I'm ready for the next scary thing. If you are interested in the physics of bungee jumping check this out.

For our last day in Christchurch we visited two schools. The first school, Discovery One, is a primary/middle school that operates on the principle that "children's passions should guide education." Basically, kids work on what they are interested in learning about and teachers help to guide them in that process. The principal was very charismatic and I could almost catch the vision (as well as see a number of Uni students succeeding there) but for the most part kids were running around, playing Yu-Gi-Oh, and not learning much. I sat with a five year old at tea time who let of the longest, loudest, juiciest fart I've heard in a long time. She looked up at me with a smile and said, "that was me." She then proceeded to point out all the boys in the room who are in love with her and want to kiss her. They must have been impressed with her farting.

Today we visited the office of the Ngai Tahu. The Ngai Tahu are the most populous South Island tribe and they were the first tribe to receive a settlement from the Waitangi Tribunal. The tribunal was set up to give legal teeth to the Treaty of Waitangi and to allow Maori tribes to receive apologies and symbolic restitution for the losses they have suffered since 1840. The tribunal is still actively hearing claims from a number of tribes. Because the Nagi Tahu are so numerous and received the first settlement they have done a lot of work to stop the loss of te reo Maori, especially their own particular dialect of the language. It has been interesting to see the wide diversity of Maori tribes as we have traveled through this country. I suspect it would be easy, if one didn't interact with many Maori people, to assume, like we do about American Indians in the U.S., that all tribes are the same. The truth is far more complex and the tribes vary according to geography, historical experiences, and contemporary needs. Here is a map of Maori tribes c. 1870.

While in Wellington, we visited two fantastic resources that I haven't had a chance to mention yet . The National Library of New Zealand has a large digital collection and many materials accessible online for teachers. The New Zealand Film Archive strives to collect all film recorded in New Zealand and makes it available for teachers in country. It also has short films and other interesting articles and exhibits online.

It occurred to me that I could post photos of the South Island rather than trying to describe the landscape.



Although I spent a few minutes shaking my head and saying "I can't do this," once I jumped it was so calm and smooth I couldn't believe I had been nervous in the first place. Now I'm ready for the next scary thing. If you are interested in the physics of bungee jumping check this out.

For our last day in Christchurch we visited two schools. The first school, Discovery One, is a primary/middle school that operates on the principle that "children's passions should guide education." Basically, kids work on what they are interested in learning about and teachers help to guide them in that process. The principal was very charismatic and I could almost catch the vision (as well as see a number of Uni students succeeding there) but for the most part kids were running around, playing Yu-Gi-Oh, and not learning much. I sat with a five year old at tea time who let of the longest, loudest, juiciest fart I've heard in a long time. She looked up at me with a smile and said, "that was me." She then proceeded to point out all the boys in the room who are in love with her and want to kiss her. They must have been impressed with her farting.

Today we visited the office of the Ngai Tahu. The Ngai Tahu are the most populous South Island tribe and they were the first tribe to receive a settlement from the Waitangi Tribunal. The tribunal was set up to give legal teeth to the Treaty of Waitangi and to allow Maori tribes to receive apologies and symbolic restitution for the losses they have suffered since 1840. The tribunal is still actively hearing claims from a number of tribes. Because the Nagi Tahu are so numerous and received the first settlement they have done a lot of work to stop the loss of te reo Maori, especially their own particular dialect of the language. It has been interesting to see the wide diversity of Maori tribes as we have traveled through this country. I suspect it would be easy, if one didn't interact with many Maori people, to assume, like we do about American Indians in the U.S., that all tribes are the same. The truth is far more complex and the tribes vary according to geography, historical experiences, and contemporary needs. Here is a map of Maori tribes c. 1870.

While in Wellington, we visited two fantastic resources that I haven't had a chance to mention yet . The National Library of New Zealand has a large digital collection and many materials accessible online for teachers. The New Zealand Film Archive strives to collect all film recorded in New Zealand and makes it available for teachers in country. It also has short films and other interesting articles and exhibits online.

On Saturday morning we crossed over to the South Island. Everyone promised up that the difference would be stunning, but I had no idea how immediate the change in geography would be. The South Island has mountains that run directly into the ocean so one can look out a window and see snow capped peaks as well as hear the crashing of waves. It is really quite stunning. We spent Saturday night in Kaikoura, a sea-side holiday village famous for whale watching. We woke up early on Sunday to go on a whale watching expedition with the Maori owned Whale Watch Kaikoura.

Sunrise Sunday morning.


We were not disappointed in the whale watching. We saw three sperm whales and a large pod of Dusky Dolphins as well as many interesting sea birds. Here is a photo of the tail of one of the whales as he dives to the bottom of the ocean for food. These whales have to eat a ton of food every day to keep up their body weight.

Last night we slept on the Waiwhetu marae. It dawned on me that I haven't included any photos of the whare (meeting house). This is the building where all important meetings (hui) take place and also where guests can come to be fed and sleep. The Waiwhetu marae has hosted Kofi Anan as well as our distinguished group of Fulbright scholars. Here is the entrance to the whare. At the top of the roof is a carving representing the ancestor that the house is named after. The carvings along the line of the roof are the arms of the ancestor, the door the mouth, and the window the eye. Here is a drawing that labels the parts of the whare.



Here is where we slept. Before supper (evening tea, served two hours after dinner) we had a lecture on the house and what the different carvings and weavings meant. Every carving, called poupou, represents an ancestor (at this particular house, made for many tribes to use, they are from all over New Zealand, in other houses they are just from the specific tribe that built the house). The carvings are interspersed with weaving, tukutuku, that tell stories. The carvings and weaving are bordered by kowhaiwhai paintings which are also highly symbolic. In order to carve, weave, or paint, a person has to be apprenticed to a master carver, weaver or painter and learn the proper way to do the work. All three activities are considered tapu (sacred and taboo at the same time).



After the lecture and evening tea, it started to feel a lot like a big slumber party. Cindy, Juan Carlos and I came up with a series of quiz questions for the group and hosnder/blog/2004/08/today-we-visited-office-of-ngai-tahu.html" title="permanent link">2:16 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

It occurred to me that I could post photos of the South Island rather than trying to describe the landscape.


The view from the road in front of my hotel.



View from my hotel room, 5:23 PM.


View from the Kaikoura lookout.

I am in Christchurch until the end of the week and then the academic portion of the trip comes to a close. After Christchurch we have two days in Queenstown to do tourist activities--right now I think I'm going to do a trip where you bike down a mountain into a canyon and then raft out of the canyon. Hopefully the sun will be shining next Sunday--it was below freezing in Queenstown yesterday so if it is sleeting next weekend I don't know how I'll feel about biking. After Queenstown we spend one night seeing the glaciers at Franz Joseph and then two nights in Arthur's Pass in the Sourthern Alps and then it is time to go home. I am ready to be how but am also amazed at home quickly the end of the trip is upon us.

On Saturday morning we crossed over to the South Island. Everyone promised up that the difference would be stunning, but I had no idea how immediate the change in geography would be. The South Island has mountains that run directly into the ocean so one can look out a window and see snow capped peaks as well as hear the crashing of waves. It is really quite stunning. We spent Saturday night in Kaikoura, a sea-side holiday village famous for whale watching. We woke up early on Sunday to go on a whale watching expedition with the Maori owned Whale Watch Kaikoura.

Sunrise Sunday morning.


We were not disappointed in the whale watching. We saw three sperm whales and a large pod of Dusky Dolphins as well as many interesting sea birds. Here is a photo of the tail of one of the whales as he dives to the bottom of the ocean for food. These whales have to eat a ton of food every day to keep up their body weight.

Saturday, August 07, 2004

Last night we slept on the Waiwhetu marae. It dawned on me that I haven't included any photos of the whare (meeting house). This is the building where all important meetings (hui) take place and also where guests can come to be fed and sleep. The Waiwhetu marae has hosted Kofi Anan as well as our distinguished group of Fulbright scholars. Here is the entrance to the whare. At the top of the roof is a carving representing the ancestor that the house is named after. The carvings along the line of the roof are the arms of the ancestor, the door the mouth, and the window the eye. Here is a drawing that labels the parts of the whare.



Here is where we slept. Before supper (evening tea, served two hours after dinner) we had a lecture on the house and what the different carvings and weavings meant. Every carving, called poupou, represents an ancestor (at this particular house, made for many tribes to use, they are from all over New Zealand, in other houses they are just from the specific tribe that built the house). The carvings are interspersed with weaving, tukutuku, that tell stories. The carvings and weaving are bordered by kowhaiwhai paintings which are also highly symbolic. In order to carve, weave, or paint, a person has to be apprenticed to a master carver, weaver or painter and learn the proper way to do the work. All three activities are considered tapu (sacred and taboo at the same time).



After the lecture and evening tea, it started to feel a lot like a big slumber party. Cindy, Juan Carlos and I came up with a series of quiz questions for the group and hosted our own quiz night. The categories were Language and Literature (sample question: In what Shakespeare play would you hear the line "the quality of mercy is not strained"?), Music (sample question: In what decade did Prince drive his little red corvette?), Movies and TV (sample question: Who was asked to play Humphrey Bogart's role in Casablanca but turned it down), It's Trashtacular (sample question: How many times has J Lo been married), and New Zealand (sample question: What is an "ankle bitter"?). All the teams did the best in the trashtacular category, much to their great embarrassment.

The three quiz masters.

Sample quiz question answers: Merted our own quiz night. The categories were Language and Literature (sample question: In what Shakespeare play would you hear the line "the quality of mercy is not strained"?), Music (sample question: In what decade did Prince drive his little red corvette?), Movies and TV (sample question: Who was asked to play Humphrey Bogart's role in Casablanca but turned it down), It's Trashtacular (sample question: How many times has J Lo been married), and New Zealand (sample question: What is an "ankle bitter"?). All the teams did the best in the trashtacular category, much to their great embarrassment.

The three quiz masters.

Sample quiz question answers: Merchant of Venice, 1980s, Ronald Reagan, 3, and a small child.

Thursday, August 05, 2004

Yesterday we got to visit an amazing school outside of Wellington. He Huarahi Tamariki is a school for young parents with child care on site for the mothers (and occasionally fathers) who attend the school. New Zealand has a large correspondence school for kids who live in rural areas but it also can be accessed by students like these women who find it difficult to be served by a traditional school. The school provides teachers who work individually with students on their correspondence school curriculum and they have several parenting, computer, and fitness classes that they do all together. The school was an amazingly warm and welcoming community. One of the older students was teaching a dance class to the younger students when her 7 week old baby started fussing in the nursery. One of the child care workers came and got her to feed her daughter and another student stepped up to teach the dance class.

All the girls I talked to at the school were so grateful for the opportunity to be at the school. Most said that if they weren't at HHT they would have had to drop out of school to get a job and their children would be in day care. At HHT they can see their kids during morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, and if they are nursing they are allowed to feed their babies as much as necessary. The school also helps them negotiate the social welfare system in order to get the benefits they need to stay in school.

I spent most of the morning with Maiata, who has a nine month old daughter named Naria. Maiata was working through an English packet on reading unfamiliar texts and was very excited to have me sit down and help her. While we worked she told me about her daughter and what it meant to her to be at this school. We learned later from the principal of the school that many of the students are kicked out of their houses when they get pregnant or are abused by the fathers of their babies and the school helps them find housing and get restraining orders, etc. Before we left Maiata gave me a letter and a photo of Naria. In it she told me that Naria had been without a name for a week but she finally decided to name her after her younger sister who had died of cancer at the age of 3. The visit was very moving because while these girls have had such a hard life in so many ways, the school was a place of real hope for them and it was wonderful to get to be a part of that for the morning.

Me and Maiata.

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

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, partchant of Venice, 1980s, Ronald Reagan, 3, and a small child.

Thursday, August 05, 2004

Yesterday we got to visit an amazing school outside of Wellington. He Huarahi Tamariki is a school for young parents with child care on site for the mothers (and occasionally fathers) who attend the school. New Zealand has a large correspondence school for kids who live in rural areas but it also can be accessed by students like these women who find it difficult to be served by a traditional school. The school provides teachers who work individually with students on their correspondence school curriculum and they have several parenting, computer, and fitness classes that they do all together. The school was an amazingly warm and welcoming community. One of the older students was teaching a dance class to the younger students when her 7 week old baby started fussing in the nursery. One of the child care workers came and got her to feed her daughter and another student stepped up to teach the dance class.

All the girls I talked to at the school were so grateful for the opportunity to be at the school. Most said that if they weren't at HHT they would have had to drop out of school to get a job and their children would be in day care. At HHT they can see their kids during morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, and if they are nursing they are allowed to feed their babies as much as necessary. The school also helps them negotiate the social welfare system in order to get the benefits they need to stay in school.

I spent most of the morning with Maiata, who has a nine month old daughter named Naria. Maiata was working through an English packet on reading unfamiliar texts and was very excited to have me sit down and help her. While we worked she told me about her daughter and what it meant to her to be at this school. We learned later from the principal of the school that many of the students are kicked out of their houses when they get pregnant or are abused by the fathers of their babies and the school helps them find housing and get restraining orders, etc. Before we left Maiata gave me a letter and a photo of Naria. In it she told me that Naria had been without a name for a week but she finally decided to name her after her younger sister who had died of cancer at the age of 3. The visit was very moving because while these girls have had such a hard life in so many ways, the school was a place of real hope for them and it was wonderful to get to be a part of that for the morning.

Me and Maiata.

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

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 varie 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!

Thursday, July 29, 2004

Today we spent the day at the Auckland College of Education. It was a very full day (read: I was tired at the end) but a lot of really interesting conversations were able to take place. I have been thinking a lot about the difference between an additive philosophy of multiculturalism (you add in information about different cultures, i.e. Black History Month, but don't allow the other cultures to transform the values of your educational system) as opposed to a transformational philosophy of multiculturalism (the experience, norms, and values of other cultures transform the way you teach and education ultimately becomes a vehicle for social change). The schools I have visited so far claim to be committed to biculturalism and it is clear that they teach some information about Maori culture and history, but the structures of the schools remain essentially Pakeha (European). Today I was able to ask some questions about this to people who are responsible for teacher training. Sadly, no one was really able to give me a satisfactory answer to my questions, but I will keep asking them.

Because te reo Maori ran the risk of becoming a dead language, a number of Maori medium schools (te reo Maori immersion) have opened in the last ten or fifteen years. These schools are having a lot of success in developing Maori pedagogy, teaching Maori language, and preserving Maori culture but they are essentially segregated institutions (Pakeha are welcome, but only about 5 non-Maori students attend these schools in the whole country) and it doesn't seem to me that there is much interaction between the kura kaupapa and the mainstream schoolty 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!

Thursday, July 29, 2004

Today we spent the day at the Auckland College of Education. It was a very full day (read: I was tired at the end) but a lot of really interesting conversations were able to take place. I have been thinking a lot about the difference between an additive philosophy of multiculturalism (you add in information about different cultures, i.e. Black History Month, but don't allow the other cultures to transform the values of your educational system) as opposed to a transformational philosophy of multiculturalism (the experience, norms, and values of other cultures transform the way you teach and education ultimately becomes a vehicle for social change). The schools I have visited so far claim to be committed to biculturalism and it is clear that they teach some information about Maori culture and history, but the structures of the schools remain essentially Pakeha (European). Today I was able to ask some questions about this to people who are responsible for teacher training. Sadly, no one was really able to give me a satisfactory answer to my questions, but I will keep asking them.

Because te reo Maori ran the risk of becoming a dead language, a number of Maori medium schools (te reo Maors in terms of talking about how to best educate Maori children. I'm hoping that next week when we are in Wellington and meet with another education college and the Ministry of Education I may get a few more answers.

Here is our entire group at the top of Mt. Eden, one of the many volcanoes that Auckland is built on top of. The man on the far left is our bus driver, Ken Going, who was a member of the national rugby team (the All Blacks, the name refers to the color of their uniforms, not their skin) in the 70s and was one of the first Maori players named to the team. Everywhere we go people say, "do you know who your bus driver is?!?"

This is me with Jacquelin. In the background you can see part of the Auckland skyline. She thinks the caption on this photo should be "Fulbright Scholars are always hard at work" but I want to use the caption to tell you that Jacquelin was born in Antigua, grew up in New York City, taught in Japan for the last two years for the U. S. Department of Defense and will be teaching in Iceland next year. She is so opinionated that I look like a wilting flower next to her!

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Yesterday was another school visit day. I was assigned to Alfriston College in an outer suburb of Auckland. The school was really fascinating. It's the first new public high school built in New Zealand in 25 years. As a result they have heaps of money and had lots of time to conceptualize how they wanted to build the place. The principal spent a good two hours talking to us about the school and how the architecture of the school and the grounds reflects their philosophy of learning. For instance, they believe that 25% of learning takes place outside of the classroom so the signage of the buildings incorporates all kinds of GPS locations, rulers, golden rectangles, etc.

Each year they are adding a new grade of students to the school and with each year they have to invent the curriculum for the new group of kids. Currently they only have year nine students (confusingly, our 8th grade). They have made a commitment to putting together integrated thematic curriculum units (similar to inter-disciplinary units). The school is staffed entirely by teachers who have been hired in the last year and who knew going into the job that they would be expected to teach in this style. They have 90 minutes a week to plan together as well as two full days during each school term. It sounded very promising when we talked to the principal, but conversation with the individual teachers suggested that they haven't really bought into the philosophy. For instance, the grade 9 English teacher we talked to said she hasn't been able to teach a novel yet this year (they are in their second of three terms) because she can't fit it in. I suspect a slight lack of creativity on her part, but even still, it looks like a challenging undertaking and we teachers are hard to convince to do things differently than we have been doing them for the last 5, 10, or 20 years.

The school grounds were beautiful and very artfully designed although the classrooms looked surprisingly like IKEA--sparse, Scandinavian inspired, and like they would last about three years. All the rooms are wired for massive amounts of technology and the computer to student ratio is 4:1 and all the teachers are given top of the line laptops. It was really fascinating to listen to the principal and hear him talk about shaping school culture from the ground up. After our meeting with him I wished that I could make a school of my own choosing from the very beginning. The issues of school culture that we deal with at Uni (and anyone in education deals with) sometimes feel so deeply entrenched that it would be a pretty unique opportunity to get to wipe the slate clean and start again. Of course, as these teachers demonstrated, old habits die hard.


Here is a photo of the meeting house (whare) at Alfriston College.

Monday, July 26, 2004

Had another absolutely beautiful day for our visit to an urban marae today. The urban marae was built to provide a home for Maori people who have migrated to Auckland and want to stay connected to their Maori heritage.



There are a number of programs run from the marae, including Radio Waatea, a national Maori radio station, a driving school, and a funeral home. We had the privilege of listening to Willie Jackson, a former member of parliment who set up and noi immersion) have opened in the last ten or fifteen years. These schools are having a lot of success in developing Maori pedagogy, teaching Maori language, and preserving Maori culture but they are essentially segregated institutions (Pakeha are welcome, but only about 5 non-Maori students attend these schools in the whole country) and it doesn't seem to me that there is much interaction between the kura kaupapa and the mainstream schools in terms of talking about how to best educate Maori children. I'm hoping that next week when we are in Wellington and meet with another education college and the Ministry of Education I may get a few more answers.

Here is our entire group at the top of Mt. Eden, one of the many volcanoes that Auckland is built on top of. The man on the far left is our bus driver, Ken Going, who was a member of the national rugby team (the All Blacks, the name refers to the color of their uniforms, not their skin) in the 70s and was one of the first Maori players named to the team. Everywhere we go people say, "do you know who your bus driver is?!?"

This is me with Jacquelin. In the background you can see part of the Auckland skyline. She thinks the caption on this photo should be "Fulbright Scholars are always hard at work" but I want to use the caption to tell you that Jacquelin was born in Antigua, grew up in New York City, taught in Japan for the last two years for the U. S. Department of Defense and will be teaching in Iceland next year. She is so opinionated that I look like a wilting flower next to her!

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Yesterday was another school visit day. I was assigned to Alfriston College in an outer suburb of Auckland. The school was really fascinating. It's the first new public high school built in New Zealand in 25 years. As a result they have heaps of money and had lots of time to conceptualize how they wanted to build the place. The principal spent a good two hours talking to us about the school and how the architecture of the school and the grounds reflects their philosophy of learning. For instance, they believe that 25% of learning takes place outside of the classroom so the signage of the buildings incorporates all kinds of GPS locations, rulers, golden rectangles, etc.

Each year they are adding a new grade of students to the school and with each year they have to invent the curriculum for the new group of kids. Currently they only have year nine students (confusingly, our 8th grade). They have made a commitment to putting together integrated thematic curriculum units (similar to inter-disciplinary units). The school is staffed entirely by teachers who have been hired in the last year and who knew going into the job that they would be expected to teach in this style. They have 90 minutes a week to plan together as well as two full days during each school term. It sounded very promising when we talked to the principal, but conversation with the individual teachers suggested that they haven't really bought into the philosophy. For instance, the grade 9 English teacher we talked to said she hasn't been able to teach a novel yet this year (they are in their second of three terms) because she can't fit it in. I suspect a slight lack of creativity on her part, but even still, it looks like a challenging undertaking and we teachers are hard to convince to do things differently than we have been doing them for the last 5, 10, or 20 years.

The school grounds were beautiful and very artfully designed although the classrooms looked surprisingly like IKEA--sparse, Scandinavian inspired, and like they would last about three years. All the rooms are wired for massive amounts of technology and the computer to student ratio is 4:1 and all the teachers are given top of the line laptops. It was really fascinating to listen to the principal and hear him talk about shaping school culture from the ground up. After our meeting with him I wished that I could make a school of my own choosing from the very beginning. The issues of school culture that we deal with at Uni (and anyone in education deals with) sometimes feel so deeply entrenched that it would be a pretty unique opportunity to get to wipe the slate clean and start again. Of course, as these teachers demonstrated, old habits die hard.


Here is a photo of the meeting house (whare) at Alfriston College.

Monday, July 26, 2004

Had another absolutely beautiful day for our visit to an urban marae today. The urban marae was built to provide a home for Maori people who have migrated to Auckland and want to stay connected to their Maori heritage.



There are a number of programs run from the marae, including Radio Waatea, a national Maori radio station, a driving school, and a funeral home. We had the privilege of listening to Willie Jackson, a former member of parliment who set up and now runs Radio Waatea. If we were in the US it would be a little like sitting around talking politics with Jesse Jackson or Al Franken (not the best comparison, but I'm trying). I continue to be amazed at how important everyone thinks we are and how well they treat us in return.

This morning as we boarded the bus for our schools, Chantel was singing the theme from "The Simple Life." She thought it was hilarious that I was assigned to the farm teacher. Thankfully, for everyone, I ended up spending most of the day at the main school and managed not to have to teach any agriculture themed lessons. Instead I spent part of day in Maori language and performing arts classes and the rest of the day with a lovely social studies/English teacher and his class. The kids I talked to were quite curious about America--the best question I was asked was if you could really score in America by asking someone to coffee. I assured Sheree that I had never had any luck with that tactic.


Sharee also wanted to know if I had seen the Twin Towers fall. When I said yes, on TV, she scornfully replied "we saw that."

Eric, the social studies/English teacher recommended several books and poets that I have been enjoying reading. These include Hone Tuwhare, Patricia Grace, Witi Ihimaera, Keri Hulme, and Apirana Taylor. He lent me a copy of a wonderful anthology of Maori and Pacific writing entitled Pacific Voices, edited by Bernard Gadd.

In the Maori performing arts class I observed, and then attempted to learn a waiata a ringa, action songs. The girls in the class performed beautifully and left me feeling very inept. Here is a video of Te Wakahuia performing waiata a ringa at the Aotearoa Traditional Maori Performing Arts Festival.

I did walk up to the farm and take a few pictures. The kids in the agriculture class were very sweet and also asked lots of questions about America. I showed them pictures of Uni kids and they thought they look very old for their grade! They were also quite impressed with the photo of the school I showed them. Everyone thought it looked quite "flash."


The outside of the agriculture classroom.


An ag student. She was very sad because her tomato plants had died when it frosted the other night. Her stawberries, on the other hand, were looking quite healthy.

The teachers at Northland College were overwhelmingly hospitible to us--today at lunch there was a huge "shared lunch" complete with a roasted wild boar, killed by the principal of the school. Their incredible generosity and kindness to us was quite humbling.

Yesterday was a long touring day. We got up early and got on a bus to drive to the Northern most point in New Zealand. Along the way we stopped to see the memorial for the Rainbow Warrior. The Rainbow Warrior was a Greenpeace ship that sailed around the Pacific disrupting nuclear tests. In 1985 it was docked in the Auckland harbor while protesting French nuclear tesing in the Pacific and French agents blew it up. It was a galvanizing event for New Zealanders who after 1985 signed a commitment to be a nuclear free country. On our first day in New Zealand one of our speakers characterized New Zealand as this "little country at the bottom of the world that isn't afraid to do things differently." Their willingness to be nuclear free during the cold war (at the expense of the ANZUS alliance) certainly typifies her statement.


Rainbow Warrior memorial

After a stop for morning tea and a stop for lunch, we made it to Cape Reinga which is at the very tippy top of the North Island. Interestingly, you can see the Tasman Sea meet the Pacific Ocean. It looks very choppy where that happens. It was real windy up there...


Juan Carlos bracing Lynn as she takes a photo.

On our way back from Cape Reinga we drove along the 90 Mile Beach. 90 Mile Beach is considered a "recreational highway" when the tide is low. When the tide is high, it's the ocean. It was pretty freaky to be driving on the beach as the waves crashed a couple feet away from us.


View from the bus on 90 Mile Beach.


At one point we stopped and went sand boarding. Basically, you climb to the top of a big sand dune and then rocket down on a boggie board, trying hard to keep your mouth shut so that you don't eat a lot of sand. I had a great time and after my second go I decided I would try to do a few tricks. Here is what happened when I tried tutely-beautiful-day.html#comments">0 comments

Friday, July 23, 2004

This morning as we boarded the bus for our schools, Chantel was singing the theme from "The Simple Life." She thought it was hilarious that I was assigned to the farm teacher. Thankfully, for everyone, I ended up spending most of the day at the main school and managed not to have to teach any agriculture themed lessons. Instead I spent part of day in Maori language and performing arts classes and the rest of the day with a lovely social studies/English teacher and his class. The kids I talked to were quite curious about America--the best question I was asked was if you could really score in America by asking someone to coffee. I assured Sheree that I had never had any luck with that tactic.


Sharee also wanted to know if I had seen the Twin Towers fall. When I said yes, on TV, she scornfully replied "we saw that."

Eric, the social studies/English teacher recommended several books and poets that I have been enjoying reading. These include Hone Tuwhare, Patricia Grace, Witi Ihimaera, Keri Hulme, and Apirana Taylor. He lent me a copy of a wonderful anthology of Maori and Pacific writing entitled Pacific Voices, edited by Bernard Gadd.

In the Maori performing arts class I observed, and then attempted to learn a waiata a ringa, action songs. The girls in the class performed beautifully and left me feeling very inept. Here is a video of Te Wakahuia performing waiata a ringa at the Aotearoa Traditional Maori Performing Arts Festival.

I did walk up to the farm and take a few pictures. The kids in the agriculture class were very sweet and also asked lots of questions about America. I showed them pictures of Uni kids and they thought they look very old for their grade! They were also quite impressed with the photo of the school I showed them. Everyone thought it looked quite "flash."


The outside of the agriculture classroom.


An ag student. She was very sad because her tomato plants had died when it frosted the other night. Her stawberries, on the other hand, were looking quite healthy.

The teachers at Northland College were overwhelmingly hospitible to us--today at lunch there was a huge "shared lunch" complete with a roasted wild boar, killed by the principal of the school. Their incredible generosity and kindness to us was quite humbling.

Here are a few pictures of our day on the marae. The powhiri was a pretty an am