Victoria University and Karori Normal School

Yesterday we spent the day at Victoria University and had the opportunity to talk with lecturers and advisors (advisors are paid by the Ministry of Education to go to schools to help with different areas of the curriculum, in this case, literacy. They are welcomed by schools and are not seen in any way as being people sent in to "fix" things or judge them). We looked at a couple of literacy courses, and I was quite impressed at the amount of material they are able to cover in a relatively short time. There was some disappointment expressed that Victoria had cut the number of hours required fori literacy education, and we heard that repeated in the school. It seems that the lack of literacy education in this university is being definitely noticed in the schools (the decision to cut literacy classes was not made by the lecturers in the College of Education; it was made at a much higher level). It made me feel fortunate that we in Morehead still have a good hunk of literacy in our curriculum However, when looking at the course outlines from Victoria, I wonder if perhaps we could do more? Karori Normal school is a full primary, decile 10 school. It has about 710 students right now, but this will climb to about 780 by the end of the year. There are a lot of younger staff at this school which is both a plus and a minus. It's a plus because they can be moulded into what the school wants, but it's also a minus because they've missed a lot of the PDs (the ones held in previous years) and therefore the school must spend more money getting all the staff trained in the same areas. We went into a couple of classes, and yet again I was impressed at the way New Zealand children are able to articulate their learning. They know why they are doing things, what they need to work on, how they need to work, and seem to genuinely "own" their learning. I have asked a lot of children what they are doing and why, and not once have I heard "I don't know" or "Because the teacher told us" or "Because it's on the test". This has probably been perhaps the thing that has impressed me the most. After leaving Karori Normal, we visited Te Papa, the museum of New Zealand. I could have spent a long time there because there is so much to see. Afterwards, we drove around the waterfront, visited a sheepskin warehouse, had dinner, and returned the rental car. We're now in the airport awaiting our flight to Auckland.

Diocesan School and onwards...

Well, it's been extremely difficult to get online over the past few days, so I think we've all got a bit behind in our posts. I want to talk a bit about Diocesan before moving on. Diocesan is an all-girls, decile 10, private school in Epsom, Auckland. The roll is about 1450, with students from New Entrants to Year 13. We mostly focused on Years 7-13, specifically on an area called the LEC (Learning Enhancement Center). I was most impressed with this. The LEC deals with all kinds of learners: those with identified needs, those with as-yet unidentified needs, gifted students, and self-referred students. In other words, ANYONE who wants or needs enhancement with their learning. Girls can make appointments and receive help in any area, often in literacy related things (e.g. reading and understanding science texts). Some girls are part of a literacy program that they can elect to do in place of one of their subject options, others make appointments to see an LEC teacher at appropriate times. The gifted program was neat. I got to see about 12 girls in Years 7 and 8 working on an inquiry project about creating technologically based clothing. The girls had already discussed the ethics involved with this, and were now designing an outfit that would suit a particular group of people. They had a kind of design brief, but they had a lot of freedom. The discussions the girls had (they worked in pairs) were outstanding. Here's the really interesting thing. The girls in the group can be selected through testing, parent ID, teacher ID, or self-appointment. The program is always run as a high level gifted program, so any girl who really doesn't "fit" will drop out after a short while. In other words, it is a program available to all, focussed on gifted (not bright learners), and seems great fun. Some of the girls in the group are not in the top groups at school for math or English, but are working with the gifted - because they are. I thought this was fantastic! h After Dio, we took a plane to Christchurch where we spent the night in jail. I shared a cell with Jody, and the girls were next door. Next day, we took a train trip to Greymouth and it was amazing. Such scenery!! We spent the following day in Greymouth and Jody and I rented a car to drive up the coast. The girls opted to stay behind and go to the beach. We drove up to the pancake rocks and then to a seal colony just south of Westport. It was a fantastic drive (ranked one of the 101 (?) things to do before you die by the BBC!!!). Saturday had us returning on the train and again spending the night in jail. On Sunday we went up the East Coast by bus (the train is not operational because of the earth quake), then over the Cook Strait by ferry. We spent the night in a motel and today we went to Victoria University. Had a great day talking to different people who work there, including several advisors. We learned a lot, but I can't go into it quite yet as we're all attempting to share the same Internet code! LOL

Rotorua and Waikowhai Intermediates

On Friday, after visiting Royal Oak Primary, we drove to Rotorua where we spent the weekend. We stayed in a large, beautiful home on the shores of Lake Rotorua, and it was very peaceful. We didn't all do the same things, so I'll let you know what I did. On the Saturday we drove around the town looking at some of the boiling mud and water pools. The earth's crust is very thin in Rotorua, so there's a lot of geothermal activity. After lunch we drove south to a river (off the main road) which was hot! I enjoyed sitting under the waterfall and digging my toes into the pumicey bottom. The stones were hot and the lovely hot water was like a massage. After the swim, we drove home and changed for the Maori hangi which also included a tour of a constructed village and a concert. I loved it. We were driven back to our car on a bus, and the bus driver was pretty cool. He sang songs and drove around a roundabout several times as we all sang "She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes". The next day I went luging with my family and Jody. It was so much fun! There are three different tracks and you speed down them on a sort of go-cart thing. When you get to the bottom you catch a ski lift back up to the start. Oh, to get to the luge, you go up on gondalas which give an amazing view of Rotorua and the lake. After the luge we returned home for an hour or two before heading off to the Polynesian Spa. I stayed with my sister and her family which meant we could only go in three pools (one was a fresh water warm pool, and two were sulphur pools). The pool had a policy that children under 8 had to be accompanied by their parents IN THE SAME POOL! So that sort of spoiled the trip. We wanted to sit in the hot pools while the kids (who are great swimmers, btw) used the big (and much cooler) pool. We were only 2.5 meters away, but that wasn't good enough. Personally, I thought that was a stupid rule; I think that the basis for accompanying a child should be ability to swim, not age. But, noone asked me. After the pools, we got some fish and chips and went back to the house to eat them. After a dose of House I went to bed. Next morning we went to Rotorua Intermediate where we were greeting with a Powhiri. It was amazing! I filmed the haka which the kids performed, and we sang our song. Then we were taken around the school, visiting lots of classes before the end of the day. It wish I could say a bit more, but my brain is really tired. In fact, all of me is really tired. I took lots of photos though, so when I go back through them I'll be able to say more. Today we went to Waikowhai Intermediate. This was the school where I did my first two years of teaching, so it was really nice to go back there. They showed us lots of different literacy lessons, including work with grammar and word study, word detectives, guided reading, SRA, and Rainbow reading. Again we saw a lot of group work, and while it is true that there was off task behavior, I think it was tough for the kids having all four of us in the room. My gut tells me that the off task behavior was tolerated more simply because the teacher wanted to show us how s/he conducted reading and didn't want to waste time. I could be wrong, but I did note that most of the kids had evidence of quite a bit of work in their exercise books, indicating they are definitely on task quite a lot! We drove home after school, and I immediately started booking all the travel and accommodation for the next few days. We are heading to Christchurch tomorrow (and will have limited internet access for the next 6 days or so), so that should be interesting.

Glen Eden Intermediate

Yesterday was Glen Eden Intermediate School's day. Originally, I was going to go to Avondale (because I used to teach at GEIS), but Jody went instead. It was actually a blessing in disguise because I was able to catch up with a few people I used to teach with. It was SO much fun reminiscing and talking about old times! We went into several different classes and saw some interesting programs. A couple of classes were involved in inquiry learning (a New Zealand focus) and were asking questions, researching, and preparing presentations. They had good scaffolding available, so it wasn't just a case of "Look up things about Endangered Animals and do a presentation on it". Rather, they had to develop questions and subquestions, then talk to their teacher about which ones to choose before even thinking about starting (oh, brainstorming topics came first). I was impressed with how interested and involved the students were. We also saw a lesson on alliteration and assonance. The teacher was focusing on making the students' writing more powerful. After discussing this, they all went outside and wrote a passage describing place (i.e. where they were). I was impressed with the writing I saw... very descriptive indeed. In the afternoon we visited a class which was doing what the teacher called "Book Clubs". This involved the students being separated into two groups of girls and two groups of boys. Each group had a different book that catered for their interests and reading levels. I was really impressed at the conversations that insued. Book clubs isn't the same as Literature Circles, but there are similarities.

Piha and other interesting places

In case you are interested, we are currently staying at my sister's beach house in Piha. Here's a weblink you can follow to read more: www.piha.co.nz The big rock in the middle of the beach is called Lion Rock because... well, that's what it looks like. The surf at this beach is usually very big, and there are lots of drownings here... however, it's important to note that these drownings never take place within the flags (i.e. those who don't swim between the flags are the ones who are likely to drown). Another website of interest is www.kaurilands.school.nz - this is the school we visited today. You'll get a feel for a New Zealand school by taking a peek! :-)

Wednesday

Blog March 29, 2011 It’s been a busy few days. On Monday we went to Waikato University, and I enjoyed it. We were able to attend a mass lecture as well as a tutorial, and then visit all the resource areas of the university. These included a new library, a School of Education library, a graduate/lecturers’ resource center, a university bookstore, and a teacher-type store. The lecture reminded me of my own training where we sat in large lecture rooms to receive information, but the tutorials were a little different. In my day, we spent our time in tutorials discussing what had been taught in the large lecture. At Waikato, it was more a mini-lesson about an aspect of the lecture. The tutorial I attended was about guided reading and was quite informative. Waikato University has recently been ranked alongside Columbia University, and the lecturers expressed feelings of pressure they faced in order to meet the research demands placed on them, ultimately by the Ministry of Education. I was interested to hear that the government puts a cap on how many students can be in any one program, so they have recently been turning away approximately 1 in 4 applicants for the School of Education. Waikato seems well resourced, and certainly it is a very pretty campus with ponds and ducks, trees and pathways. It also seemed very large, especially when one tried to walk from one end of it to another with a very painful back! We drove back to Auckland at the end of the day, doing a “short” detour to Cambridge where we had dinner. (The short detour took us about 100km out of our way! Oops!). We arrived back in Auckland not long after nine pm, and I can tell you I was exhausted. I’m finding that driving is really rather stressful, especially because so much has changed and I have to keep focusing on staying on the left side of the road – not to mention some of the road rules are different from the USA, so I’m trying to compartmentalize my driving thinking! Anyway, on Tuesday we went to Bruce McLaren Intermediate. This is a relatively small school of about 300. Not too many years ago it had a roll of 600 but there has been rather an exodus to a couple of the more middle class (read: white) schools in the area. A big pity really because the school itself is a pretty nice little school with really good leaders. The principal seemed particularly intelligent, forward thinking, and analytical to me. The school is about one third Maori, one third Pasifika, and one third Pakeha (white). There are quite a few other nationalities represented too. More than half of the Pasifika students are from Samoa. They have the standard classes as well as technicraft (woodwork, metalwork/electronics, food, clothing, art, and craft). There are also two “independent learning” classes which comprise children who are self-directed. The idea, I believe, is to extend these students. There is an ESOL class (where they also learn French), and a special needs class (very low level learners) that moves back and forth from mainstream classes depending on the subject (usually PE and technicraft). It seems as if the NZ government is not going to fun these classes past the end of this year. I watched one interesting class whereby the teacher had played the students a song by an Australian singer/writer about the First World War. They then had to develop “freeze frames” around the lyrics. First, they were given some metaphorical examples from the text and had to freeze frame these (e.g. “living the life of a rover”), then they got themselves into groups and had to freeze frame the story in sequence, focusing only on the main points. The students really seemed to enjoy this; a lot of talking was going on, and certainly a lot of text checking also. After school, there was a staff meeting which I also found interesting. They had a person speak to them about a writing program that’s going to be instigated in their school soon. It was interesting to me because some of it sounded like the USA… focusing on the group just below average, having a special teacher come in to the school to show them “how to do it” Today, Wednesday, we went to Kaurilands Primary School. The assistant principal for the senior school (Years 4-6) was a lady I used to work with several years ago, so it was good to catch up. We were able to reminisce a bit! Kaurilands is one of the biggest New Zealand primary schools at about 700. It is a decile 8 school, but it is also somewhat multicultural. The school is on beautiful grounds, and the students have great places to play, including a stream (they're allowed to play beside it and jump over it but not to play IN it - I could well imagine that if there was a stream running through an elementary school in Kentucky, it'd be walled off. Would that be a correct assumption?). There's lots of native trees and bush on the property which is fairly large. All the classrooms lead outside, something that has been common to all the schools we've been to, and this allows students to work outside as well as in. New Zealand students definitely get much more time outdoors than Kentucky students do.

Saturday

Today is a wet, overcast day, and noone wanted to travel out to Piha, so my family went alone. The team spent the morning enjoying the peace; I slept! Then we drove into Waiuku for lunch and a little bit of shopping. Tomorrow we intend to drive down to Hamilton because we're due at Waikato University at 8:45am. I'm looking forward to spending time there, particularly as we have met up with two of their graduates, and they were very positive about their program. I'm hoping we'll pick up some good ideas, as well as perhaps unlock a few more "secrets" as to why NZ does so well in the reading department.

So far, my ideas include (and these are just ideas, so feel free to do some research about them!): a shorter day (9-3 with two good breaks - usually a 20-30 minute morning tea and play, and a 45-60 minute lunch and play), a connected curriculum approach (integration of the curriculum is HUGE here), constant differentiation and group work (not everyone is expected to be at the same level, and there can be as many as 7 groups in one class), inquiry based teaching (the student takes control of their learning - although we haven't seen this in ALL schools), and literacy rich classrooms (yes, even in the upper grades there is a huge amount of student work up on the walls, library areas, etc...). So far I haven't seen a single basal reader or anthology in a classroom - all reading is authentic. Worksheets are rare; in fact, the principal at Maraetai Beach School told us she'd BANNED them in her school.

So, that's my thinking so far. I'm sure there's more, but that will have to do for a rainy afternoon in Auckland, New Zealand! :-)

Waiau Pa School

It's quarter after four, and I think it's safe to say that our whole team is exhausted. Kelli was sick overnight, Jody missed dinner and slept for about 12 hours straight, and I was sleepy most of the day. Brittany taught her two lessons today, and she did a good job. One of the boys in the first class (science) told my sister that she should adopt some of Brittany's teaching strategies! (Of course, it would help you to know that the strategies to which he was referring was the use of Mars Bars to teach about tectonic plate theory!).

Waiau Pa is a high decile, country school that goes from Year 0 to Year 8. The population of the school is a little under 400, so it's a small school. The students seem pretty well behaved, and seem to benefit from a lot of out-of-school experiences such as music and dance. They seemed confident and eloquent. Many of them spoke to us and asked questions.

I was talking to the caretaker at lunch time and mentioned that we keep snakes. He said there was a turtle in Room 4 and that I should visit, so immediately after lunch he escorted us to the room where I met the teacher. She stopped the class and had me up the front answering questions about snakes and turtles. The kids had done a lot of research (so had the teacher) because they had a red-eared turtle in their classroom called Myrtle. Apparently Myrtle came from another teacher and was supposed to have been a female. The room 4 teacher had done some research and concluded Myrtle was a male. I was able to confirm that - Myrtle is most definitely a very healthy male turtle!

I was impressed at the questions the students asked. They asked about all sorts of things including why Myrtle stretched out his arms, and dug in the stones. It was a pleasure to be in the class (I think it was a Year 5 class), and I told the teacher they could email me any questions they might have (of course, I'll probably pass most of the questions on to my reptile-guru husband!).

After the turtle talk, we watched a "Rock Star" competition with a Year 7 and 8 class. They were focussing on risk taking, and the teacher had challenged them to get up and sing in front of the class. He was really encouraging and supportive, and there was quite a lot of talent in that class. Several students sang, and you could tell it was not easy for them all. One of the boys (seemed like a troublemaker) got up and sang and was amazing. He has a wonderful voice. It made me sad to think that in some Ky schools where they have dropped music because of funding problems, these kids just don't get to shine. :-(

Maraetai Beach School

Imagine standing at the door of your classroom and having a view of the beach, ocean, and distant islands! This is the view many of the teachers at Maraetai Beach School have every day. Maraetai Beach School is a decile 10 school (highest socioeconomic indicator), and is set in beautiful grounds. It caters for year 0 (new entrants) to Year 8 (the Years 7 and 8 students were at camp today), and the principal is a former literacy advisor, so she was great to talk with. Her assistant principal was really keen on writing, so she added a lot of information to our collection too.

We began in a Year 0 class, and worked our way up to Year 6. The school works, as have all the schools we have thus far visited, via inquiry. The students therefore take ownership of their learning and literacy is woven into all they do. We watched more group work where each group did something different including computer work, board games (Upwords, Junior Scrabble), small whiteboard work, reading plays from school journals, and working with the teacher for example.

We watched one teacher teaching his class a song - they sang, played the xylophones, and the recorders all to the same music. It was very interesting. He also had a times table competition in groups - the kids really seemed to enjoy that.

After visiting the classes, I spoke to a beginning teacher. It was her release day (every beginning teacher in NZ gets one day per week release in order to visit other classrooms, other schools, plan, meet with tutor teachers, attend PDs, or go to beginning teacher meetings), and she was using it to plan. She went to Waikato University and spoke very highly of her training. We will be visiting Waikato on Monday.

Then we spent more time with Lesley and her assistant principal of the junior department, Tamara. They are keen to host some of our Kentucky students! That was wonderful news! Perhaps we can use Maraetai in future classes.

Pukekohe Intermediate School

Today was our first intermediate school - a school catering for Years 7 and 8 only. We arrived at 9am and we shown into a classroom with a Canadian teacher. She even had a Canadian flag hanging at the window. Her class was focusing on the school theme: PB4L (Positive Behavior for Learning) and she read them a "big book". After reading the book, the students had to take a perspective and write a diary entry from that perspective (the story was about a lion who let a mouse go, and later when the lion was caught in a trap, the mouse chewed a hole in it for the lion to escape from). Three of the students shared their stories.

Next, we went into the room of an Australian teacher. This class was looking at poetry, specifically, "The Witches" by Roald Dahl. They seemed to have a good idea of different poetic devices prior to reading the poem.

The third class was an accelerated class of Year 7s, and here we saw Literature Circles being run as they should. There were about five groups, all reading different books, and the teacher was completely hands off. We all wandered around and watched the groups, and all were on task and working well. I talked to one group who said they enjoyed literature circles, but that they would prefer not to change roles every day (I mentioned this to the teacher who said she was going to ask them for feedback later and that she thought what they said was good to know and was able to be changed. I liked her flexibility and openness). They said that they didn't read the book out of class because it would spoil the book, but that the discussion director would take the book home the night before to organize the questions.

Our next stop was the bilingual, or probably more accurately speaking, the Maori enrichment class. This was comprised of a larger group of students (33, I believe) who had applied to be in the class. They were not all Maori children by any means, although there were at least two children who were fluent in Maori. I spoke to one young lady who was so very eloquent. She said she was happy to be in this class because they studied other cultures and that this was the only way the world would know peace - understanding other cultures. She was a Year 8 student.

After seeing this class, we went into the reading intervention room where we were given an overview of what happens. It was really very interesting, and certainly warrants further study. The teacher uses NLK - neural linguistic kinesiology - meaning that before each session she has the kids perform exercises to music, exercises which demand cross body movements (she spoke about Brain Gym here). She firmly believes that this is what helps children the most. After the exercises, she works on their reading and handwriting. Again, she believes that getting children to write cursively improves their reading because they see words as whole things rather than individual letters. I think this deserves some research. She showed us her results, and she claims most students make about 4 years progress in 6 months with her. I hope the others blog more about this because I am sure to have forgotten something. I am, however, looking forward to reading some research about these ideas.

Our next move was to the staffroom where we had our home-brought lunch of rolls and cheese. While we were eating, I heard the sound of the kapa haka group and dragged everyone to the hall, telling them they would never have experienced this before. So, in we went and watched the group practice for the Polynesian Festival to be held this Sunday. It was fun.

Koru

Our second day at schools, and what a day it was! We left home at 7:30, thinking it would take about 35 minutes to get there, but it took about an hour because of the traffic... which was bad. Then, when we got to the school, I couldn't work out how to get in, so we ended up driving past and then doing a U-turn and going back. You had to drive up to a speaker (sort of like a drivethru), say who you were, and then the gate was opened automatically. We parked, and then made our way to reception. On the way, kids called out "there are the Americans" and one asked us if we knew KFC. It was both funny and touching. We felt almost famous!

We were escorted into a room that was to become our base for the day, and Carolyn (a deputy principal) began by talking to us a little about the school and about the day. We met the principal and then began a walk through the school. It was amazing! So much was going on. For example, I watched a very small part of a science/literacy/inquiry lesson where the teacher had four pots and four flowers in front of the class. Everyone sat on the floor (this was grade 7) and he talked about hypotheses. He asked if anyone had seen the word, then asked if anyone thought they knew what it meant. He talked about the word, asked about the number of syllables in the word, and clapped it out. The kids then went back to their seats to write out their own hypothesis (what will happen when I put the flowers in the pots and then add dye to the water?).

The classrooms were full of interesting work, hanging from the rafters, from clotheslines, on the walls, and on the boards. The rooms were bright and airy, and the kids seemed so happy to be at school. Lots of smiles and laughter. It was really a joy to be there.

We watched a young girl in Reading Recovery. She was 10 years old and had just started school (apparently there had been immigration problems). What a trooper! She had five people watching her, plus the reading recovery teacher and it only put her off for a few minutes. It was amazing to see the progress she had made in such a very short time. (Usually, Reading Recovery is aimed at 6 year olds, but Koru uses it for older children who need it, particularly those who enter school late). I think I really want to learn more Reading Recovery techniques because they seem excellent, and I think they'd be good for anyone trying to help children (or even adults) become better readers.

First Day in the Schools!

Hello all! Today we began our work, and it was fascinating. We hopped in the van and arrived at Patumahoe School just after 8am. This school starts early (8:20am) because it's a country school, so we had to be there a little earlier than other schools. We spent the first hour or so with the principal, Ron, who gave us a really good overview of New Zealand education, including how the curriculum is put together (there is a national curriculum but each school must make it their own. Each school must choose what to focus on and have their own plans for meeting their goals. Patamahoe's was a neat document. I wish we could have had a copy, but it was very big. Ron did give us some part of it though - he put it on a flashdrive for us). Then, Jody and Brittany went to watch Reading Recovery and Kelli and I went to a New Entrant classroom. It was neat. The teacher had four groups, and each group did a different activity. She had a board up that showed what each group was to do, and after a set period of time, she picked up a sort of rain maker type thing and let the beads drop. All the children became statues and she directed them to the next activity. You could really tell that they knew what to do.

The children working with the teacher practised all sorts of reading activities such as finding the title on the book cover and counting the words, listening to the teacher read, pointing out the words, focusing on sounds, and finding words "hiding" in words (e.g. the word "come" in "welcome"). The teacher gave a sticker to the best pointer, and was also very encouraging. Oh, she sat on the floor with the children.

All the other children stayed on task! I counted thirteen children, and they were all engaged in whatever activity they were supposed to do. Activities included sorting through large poetry cards, alphabet jigsaws, coloring in a picture of a bee (B was the letter of the day), and writing the alphabet on individual whiteboards.

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for the whole time because I needed to leave for the funeral. I drove to the small country church and sat in the front row with my auntie. The service was very nice, and apart from the first few sentences, I managed to get my "speech" out without breaking down.

After the funeral, I went back to the school and talked a bit with the principal who is going to try to see if he can get us some books. He was really helpful, and I hope we can go back there at some stage.

Then we drove into Pukekohe. I think we all wanted to just "get away" for a bit, so we wandered up and down the main street, entering a few stores as the fancy took us. We went into a cafe for a bit too... got to love those cafes!

First Sunday

Today was an extraordinarily busy day. We began by driving into town and heading up to the restaurant in the Sky Tower. This restaurant revolves so that in about an hour you see an amazing panoramic view of Auckland. While you're revolving, you get to eat! :-) I had scallops and snapper, and it was VERY GOOD!

After brunch we all trouped off with Kelli to watch her go through her bungee jump effort. First, she dressed up in the jump suit, and then she was all strapped up. At this point, she was led away. The person who took her away soon returned and led us all to the landing spot. I looked up, and suddenly the jump seemed very high indeed! One person jumped, then it was Kelli's turn. She waved into the camera at the top, even though she couldn't see us, and it was really cute to watch Robert wave back to the camera from the ground! Then we saw a small body leaning over the jumping block. There was a countdown, and then she fell. I think we all gasped or something at the same time. She sort of hung in the air for a bit, then suddenly, and very very quickly, she dropped to the ground. I tried to get photos, but I haven't yet looked at them.

We then walked down to the wharves and caught the Devonport Ferry across to Devonport where we spent a couple of hours looking at the shops. There were quite a few interesting ones almost all small specialty stores (and thus rather expensive) and Jody and Kelli both bought a couple of things.

At quarter to four we rode the ferry back, trudged back up to the Sky Tower and retrieved our car from the parking lot. I think everyone was pretty tired by this stage, so the journey home was reasonably quiet.

We were home about half an hour when my sister and I left again to visit with my auntie. My cousin's wife had cooked some delicious Thai food (she's Thai) and had left some for us, so we ate as we visited. My cousin David and his wife and three children were there, so it was a nice family time. The funeral is tomorrow, and we talked a little about it. I still don't really know what I'm going to say, but my auntie would like me to speak (and I really would like to say something) so I will do it. I just hope I come up with something I'll be happy about. We were supposed to stay about an hour and a half, but it turned into three and a half hours. I'm about to go to bed, but I figured I'd never hear the end of it if I missed a day in my blog, so here I am! :-)

Beautiful Saturday

It's now almost 8pm, and we're all tired, somewhat sunburnt, but very content. We had a wonderful day. We left the house around 10:30am and made our way to the supermarket (again) where we bought bread, cheese, ham, and chips for lunch. Then Martin (my brother-in-law) drove us all to the lighthouse at Manukau Heads. My aunt and some of my cousins came too, which was really nice.

We had to climb quite a few steps to get up to the lighthouse itself, but the climb was worth it. Of course, the young, fit ones leapt up all the steps. The view from the top was spectacular; we could see the Tasman Sea, Manukau Heads, Manukau Harbour, and a lot of beautiful farmland. We then drove on down to Orua Bay, a place my family used to stay for a few weeks for several summers. It's changed a bit, but it's still a neat looking place. There was a wedding taking place, so I wandered over to look and struck up a conversation with three older ladies who had also wandered over to look. It turns out they live in Orua Bay, and I told them how my family used to visit. They tried to work out which house we had rented for those holidays, but weren't sure, so I walked back to the house of one of the ladies, met the husbands of two of them, and they all discussed which house it could have been. Finally, one of the ladies, Dot, brought out a large aerial picture that had been taken quite a few years ago, and I was able to point out the house. It isn't there any more, which was a little sad, but it was nice to see. Dot also had a photo from many years ago which showed the old jetties (I used to fish from one of them!) and the house! She printed off a copy of the house (well, she photocopied it in colour on photo paper, which I thought was really nice). Dot's sister said she thought she had an aerial picture, and she would look when she got back to her house. If she has, she send she'd send it to me. How friendly they were!

After Orua Bay, Martin dropped Bryony and me off at my auntie's house where we helped with the eulogy for my uncle. I have said I want to speak at the funeral on Monday, so I'll be thinking about what to say for the next day or two.

We left my aunties, picked up some stuff for dinner at the supermarket (yes, again!!!) and came home. Dinner was burritos, Bryony-style. Now I'm sitting in the dining area, listening to people talking, and writing this. Tomorrow is Sky Tower and ferry day, so it's another early night (I'm still jetlagged - I think we all are).

Saturday Morning

Hello! After a good 12 hours sleep, I feel ready to face the world again! It's a beautiful, hot day and we're going to the beach with a picnic lunch. The girls are doing an amazing job entertaining the two childruren, and we were able to sit down with Bryony to plan meals for the week. It is getting confusing "translating" things from NZ money to US money, as well as measurements (metric here - I'm comfortable with metric but my cohorts are not!).

I mentioned we visited Patumahoe School yesterday to pick up the twins. It's actually the first school on our list to visit, so we introduced ourselves to the principal (who is really nice!) and took a few photos. I am so looking forward to being IN the schools!!

In New Zealand At Last!

It's Friday evening, and I'm sitting in my sister's living room listening to her and typing this. I am so tired! I haven't slept for about 48 hours - I really wish I could sleep on planes! I am sure the others will tell you all about our flights, so I'll just focus on a few things.

We left Lexington a few minutes late, and after a problem with my ticket (we vbelieve the lady at the ticket counter actually messed it up) - which was fixed thanks to my iphone! Of course, when we were IN Lexington, someone discovered that they were wearing one running-type shoe and one scuff-type shoe. Completely different colors! Let me tell you, you CANNOT BUY SHOES at Lexington, Chicago, OR Los Angeles Airports! :-(

We arrived this morning, and we were met by my sister, Bryony, and the rental car people who set us up with a van for the duration. Then we drove on to her place (and I managed to stay on the left side all the way!) where I immediately dived into the shower.

Next, Bryony and I went to my Aunt's place. My uncle died two days ago, and he is at my aunt's place. It was very sad because I was SO hoping to see him when I got here. However, my cousins and many of their children were there, so it was a really lovely family type experience (apart from the sadness of it all). I guess if my Uncle Eric could not live long enough to see me again, at least I get to visit and attend the funeral.

Bryony and I bought ham, tomatoes, bread, and hot cross buns which sereved as lunch for everyone. While I was gone, they'd showered and freshened up (even thoiugh they all slept on the plane!!!). The girls and Jody were introduced to Feijoas, which they really liked (Bryony has a couple of trees laden with them so there's no shortage!).

Close to two pm we drove to Patumahoe School where we met the principal and a few teachers, and collected Sofya and Robert (my neice and nephew). Off to a shoe store we went, where I decided to be radical and buy two shoes that actually match!!! Haha! We hit a computer store to get a router (so we can all use our laptops) and a sim card for Brittany. Then it was off to the food store where we got a few supplies, including a bunch of mussels which Martin (Bryony's husband) cooked. I got to take photos of Brittany, Kelli, and jody being initiated into the true kiwi method of shellfish eating!

Now, as I type, Kelli is playing Cranium Junior with Sofya and Robert, and Brittany is engaged in chat with Martin about earthquakes. Jody is reading email, I think. After dinner, I'll be crashing!!!!!

Will try and write again sooner now that we have the router up and running.

Tomorrow is Friendly Skies Day!

I am sitting in my office, and it's 5pm. I had intended to try and get home early, but clearly that hasn't happened. I have spent today doing various little things so that I'm ready for tomorrow. Now I just have to remember to take everything home that needs to be taken home; I don't intend to come into work tomorrow.

I heard back from Canterbury University today, and regretfully they can no longer host us. It wasn't really a great surprise to me, and I think we were all mentally prepared for that answer. I don't think it will stop us from going down to Christchurch though (unless, of course, they have another earthquake). I am sure we can perhaps organize something else in the vicinity (perhaps with schools instead of the university). We have to be flexible! Maybe we can even use the two days as "relaxation days" - we haven't built a single relaxation day into our schedule so we may need one by then! It might be a good time to process some of our data.

Anyway, even though we're leaving tomorrow, it still really hasn't sunk in. I'm sure it will be very different in the morning when the panic sets in as I realise I haven't packed properly or something! :-)

Final Weekend!

I started packing yesterday; it was a brave start but I didn't get too far. I've never been someone who enjoys packing much. Usually I throw things together at the last minute! That won't really do for this trip because we'll be gone for quite a while. On the other hand, New Zealand does have stores!

So, where are we on this trip. Well, we had our last meeting on Friday and went over observation checksheets that we'll be using in the classes, as well as important things such as where and when we'll all be meeting on Wednesday. I also reminded everyone that bringing "raw" foods, plants, and wood into New Zealand is a huge no-no (I'm sure noone wants an instant fine for doing that!). It seems as if everyone has their finances sorted out with a healthy mix of cash, credit cards, and travellers' checks, so that is very good!

We have one school left to hear from as regards final arrangements, and as soon as we hear from them, Brittany will do the final updates to our schedule. If we don't hear from them, we'll call when we get into the country.

Jody and I met with Brittany, her parents, and Justin on Saturday afternoon. I had a really nice time getting to know them and am really impressed by the support they're giving Brittany. I think I should have adopted them myself earlier on in the trip planning! :-) Brittany's dad gave me some very useful information about cell phones, and I am now reorganizing what I was going to do along those lines.

I heard from my sister last night who is, of course, very excited about our visit. She told me the weather is nice an warm during the day (25 C) but a bit nippy in the morning. We discussed a few details, and pretty much concluded it's all done.

So now I need to get my classes completely up-to-date, making sure everyone knows what they're doing over the second half of the semester (you do, don't you?). I am looking forward to this international interaction, and I hope it turns out as useful and interesting as I imagine (and hope) it to be!

Airline seats

A short note... through dogged determinedness, I now have Kelli and Brittany sitting side-by-side at a window on the return trip (Auckland to LAX). I know this probably sounds really silly, but I feel like going outside and yelling YES!!!!!!!!!!! now. Perhaps I will! :-)

(For those newly following the blogs, we've had our seats moved around, and in spite of calling ANZ, they told us that this was their policy and that basically, we had to just accept it. I was pretty annoyed at this, and have been periodically checking our seats to see if I could make some changes. This change may be unchanged for all I know, but at least I tried!).

It seems as if some schools in Christchurch have reopened, but with more play time built into the day. The idea is to allow the kids to have time to simply enjoy each others' company. I think that's a great idea. One school had a gumboot throwing competition after lunch on the first day with the principal kicking it off (oops, bad pun!).

Penultimate Weekend in Kentucky

Next weekend marks our final weekend in Kentucky before heading off to New Zealand. I thought I'd write something for all those who have just started reading these blogs.

The New Zealand school system could be described as 8-5 or perhaps 6-2-5. Children start school on their 5th birthday (they don't HAVE to, but it is generally expected) and enter a New Entrants class. This is also known as Year 0. When ready, they move into Year 1 (equivalent to the US Kindergarten), and after that they progress pretty regularly, year after year, into the next class. Each class level is called a "Year" and you can roughly translate the Year into a Grade by subtracting one. In other words, Year 6 is equivalent to Grade 5.

Elementary schools are known as Primary Schools and usually go to Year 6. Some include Years 7 and 8 and will then be called "Full Primary Schools". More commonly, students in Years 7 and 8 will attend an Intermediate School. Technically, an intermediate school is a primary school. This intermediate school experience is widely considered to be the most rewarding of all school experiences. You are supposed to never forget your intermediate expoeriences because it is there that new and interesting opportunities will be offered. These will include technology subjects, "shop" type subjects, practical-type subjects, opportunities to engage in different sports, cultural clubs, interest groups, and outdoor education among other things. Intermediate schools actively strive to provide students with new and mind-opening experiences.

After intermediate school, a student will attend a secondary school. This comprises Years 9-13, although some high schools, especially independent or country schools, may include Years 7 and 8. During these five years, students are considered "Juniors" when in Years 9 and 10, and have a fairly standard curriculum to follow (English, Math, Science, Social Studies, PE, Technology). Once they are seniors, they have greater choice in their curriculum. For example, in my own case, in Years 12 and 13 my subject choices were English, Math, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. PE was still compulsory in Year 12, but it was in the form of a choice of activities such as badminton, squash, scuba diving, grass skiing, judo etc...

Most intermediate schools are grouped in teams, but the teams are a little more self-contained. A group of four classes could be grouped, with the teachers sharing planning and field trips, as well as outdoor education camps, but each teacher is more likely to teach their own class for all core subjects. Sometimes teachers will swap classes, depending on their own personal strengths, other times not. Most often, teachers will swap for subjects such as music, PE, and Maori language.

Our research will take us into some full primary schools as well as intermediate schools. I am anxious to see what changes have been made since I left 11 years ago.

That's all for the moment!

We're into March!!!

On Monday, it hit me that we were in March. MARCH! Suddenly, I felt the weight of the whole research trip on my shoulders! Today marks the two-week-to-go mark. We're now down to the details part - exactly how to get to the airport, where we'll meet... that sort of thing.

I have made the links to our blogs available to both EDMG 306 classes, so I'm really looking forward to seeing some interaction take place with questions flying. I have really high hopes that this will be an amazing learning experience for everyone concerned, including those still studying in Kentucky!

Greg has most of the finances available, so I'll be gathering up the Visa cards and travellers' checks soon. I am looking forward to having everything together in one place (MY place! LOL). I read that the New Zealand dollar dropped this morning due to the reserve bank possibly deciding to lower interest rates (following the Christchurch earthquake). This is good news for us as our money will be worth more.

That's about all for now. :-)

Gathering Gifts

Jody and I have been busy gathering gifts to take with us to New Zealand. Yesterday we visited Main Street books where they were having a sale. We managed to come away with 50 lanyards, 20 car stickers, and 14 Tshirts for a very reasonable price. Then today we picked up our laptops, and while we were there, we were given a bunch of nail files, highlighters, and pens to take with us. It sort of feels like Christmas!

On the way back from IT, we stopped in at the bookstore and purchased some banners to give to the universities, and we were given some of those triangular flag thingies that were the wrong blue! We didn't mind! We're going to have to get photos of people holding all these things!

After the bookstore, we stopped in to see Greg (who was relieved that we finally had the computers - the timing was VERY close as we have less than three weeks to go!).

About the earthquake in Christchurch. I'm monitoring it all VERY closely. As long as the city is determined to be safe, we will still go. If it is not considered safe, we will change our plans and obviously NOT go. No matter where we go in the world, there will always be the possibility of a natural disaster; after all, Western Kentucky is built on a giant fault line! So, we can never make ourselves 100% safe from the unexpected. We can, however, make ourselves safe from the results of the unexpected... and we will. So, Brittany and Kelli, just be aware that safety IS our main concern. If people ask you about it, tell them we're monitoring the situation and will do what is safest. That's all we can say right now. :-)

Now we have to prepare ourselves for a singing lesson tomorrow. I wait with bated breath! :-)

Three weeks two days to go...

Well, we had our singing meeting on Friday. Not sure what to say about it other than there's tremendous scope for improvement there! :-) I have contacted Becki Alfrey, and she is going to help us! Yay!

On another note, we had news on Friday that our agreed financial plan has now been "disagreed" and we're possibly back to square one. Greg organized a meeting with Cathy for Monday (today), but when I arrived, I found out the problem is probably fixed. I'm tremendously glad about that because I had a very bad weekend as a result of the worry! On a related note, we were told we needed to fill in travel forms, so I made a best attempt today. I think I need to go to accounting school. I can't get the information for our overseas trip to fit into the neat little USA trip boxes. I ended up filling it in the best I could and delivering it to Virginia who said she'd look at it. I'm sure glad there are people around here who know what they're doing, because sometimes I feel like I'm swimming up a waterfall!

On a more positive note, my sister called yesterday, and we had a long chat about the forthcoming visit. I have to keep my eyes on the goal rather than sink in the mire of paperwork, so it was good to chat. She has all these plans for what we can do in our "down time" although, as she rightly pointed out, we don't have much (I think I may have overfilled our schedule :-(). She's found us a good deal with accommodation, so I think we'll be saving money there, and let me know that they've just had a cow slaughtered, so we'll have some good meat!

I am currently making sure that all our university contacts are prepared for our visit, then I'll be looking at making a literacy checklist for our classroom visits. I may need to delegate this task though! :-)

Presents

Just a brief update on the gift situation. Today I called Kem Tackett, and she was able to give us a bag of MSU pins (looks like maybe 250, unless the packaging was reused!). Jody and I took the laptop down to get fixed up, and I got a call this afternoon to say it was ready. We also stopped by the bookstore and talked to one of the ladies there about gifts. We left a note for the person in charge of ... gifts? ... and hopefully she will contact us soon. We saw some banners and triangular flags things that look good, and we're hoping we can get them at a bit of a reduced price.

I sorted out the caravan payment today, so we don't have to worry about that until we get there. I also emailed the lady in charge of the flat in Karori to let her know when we'd be arriving (and to see if there are sheets and blankets available - that thought occured to me recently! Had visions of having to buy sheets and other bedding! Got to set that fear at rest or I'll keep worrying!). I emailed Brittany today to ask her to email the schools (not the universities) to remind them when we're coming and to ask a few questions. I'll be getting on to the universities shortly.

I don't know if I mentioned this already, but the Hobbit is going to start being filmed next month. On our way to and from Rotorua we'll be passing through Matamata which is where Hobbiton has been built! They're presently giving tours, but those will stop on March 18 (which is when I presume filiming is going to start). Nevertheless, I hope we get to see SOMETHING as we pass through! :-)

Reading in Kentucky

Yesterday I had lunch with a colleague, and I mentioned the fact that when we looked at interventions, Kentucky's were all "store bought". She suggested this might have something to do with NCLB and the caveat that all programs used must be research based. I found this to be an interesting idea, and when I was at Boyd County Middle School today, I spoke with Debbie (who's the Grade 6 principal and in charge of RTI). I asked her what she thought of this theory, and she thought there was probably a lot of truth to it. She pointed out that yes, interventions and strategies need to be "research based" and thought that perhaps teachers were grabbing onto commercial products because that is how they advertise them. She also said she felt teachers were very stressed, more so now than in any of her previous 27 years of teaching. She said teachers were having to learn about RTI, core content standards, and something else (which I have forgotten), so they tend to just reach out for entire packets. I can most certainly understand that.

I came back from BCMS and talked with Jody. Karen had mentioned her theory of why 8th and 10th/12th graders do successively worse on international tests, and Jody said that was a well-established theory: to wit, that textbooks are introduced in 4th and 5th grades but children aren't taught to read them. In other words, they are not taught strategic reading skills. We looked up MSU's elementary education and could not find any mention of strategic reading for 3rd-5th grade. Very interesting. Of course, we'll need to check syllabi, but it does LOOK as if our elementary candidates learn reading basics, and literature, but not how to teach strategies. I hope I'm wrong, and if I am, I'll blog my "wrongness!". Middle school candidates have the "Reading in the Content Area" course as a response to this 4th grade drop off problem, but I wonder how well it's working. I am interested, VERY interested, to learn about attitudes toward teaching reading in the content area in both New Zealand and Kentucky. Honestly, we have a study of a lifetime here... so much could be done.

Anyway, today marks the one month (4 week mark) for our trip. We're doing really well with our preparations; we just need to keep learning as much as we can about Kentucky so that we'll ask the right questions and observe the most useful things. SO glad there are four of us going!!!

Post Posters-at-the-Capitol

Today it seemed everyone was exhausted. Jody was losing her voice, Brittany looked as if she'd been run over by a train, and I was having trouble staying fully awake. The only one who looked at all fresh and perky was Kelli. We're going to have to nominate her as our spokesperson when we're all tired! :-)

We all met today and completed a couple of really important tasks. We got the folders organized (to leave at various places such as International Studies and the Dean's office (we put in copies of our itineraries, copies of ID such as passports and university id cards, and copies of tickets, as well as information about our insurance and some contact numbers and addresses). It was a fiddly job, and Kelli did it well.

Brittany and I finished off the schedule. There probably are more things we could add, but right now we have all the schools, along with addresses, phone numbers and email addresses, placed in whichever day we're going to see them, and we've put in any other things we know we're going to do. It's pretty well completed. Now we just need to contact all the schools again and ask about times to meet, check again about permissions for photos and videos, and ask if there's anything we should bring/do etc... Probably wouldn't hurt to ask about lunch plans too.

I played a little with the new camera. I think it's going to be a lot of fun, and I also think we're going to get a lot of really nice shots. I'm going to have to remember to take lots and lots of photos though. I tend to take one or two only, and that can be bad if they both blur or are otherwise not too good.

I'm going to try and attach some photos from yesterday's Posters-at-the-Capitol, but I'm writing from home and my Internet is seriously misbehaving... so I'm not sure if it's work!

Posters-at-the Capitol

Wow... where to start! Fortunately, I am fairly sure that all four of us are going to blog about this event, so if I miss anything, it'll probably be in one of the other accounts.

We left Morehead early, not as early as I had hoped, due to the fact that I dropped my car keys in the snow as I walked the third of a mile or so up to my parked car. Very frustrating! However, I got into Morehead (BTW the temp was 10 degrees F), picked up the university vehicle and the other three team members and we drove on off to Frankfort. We didn't get lost much, so we managed to arrive in time for Kelli's planned visit with her legislator (or senator... not sure which one it was!). Meanwhile, Brittany and I registered and set up the poster (a complicated affair consisting of alligator clipping the poster to a board - took about one minute!). After that, we wandered down to the snack bar and picked up a drink before heading back to have our photos taken in the big group photo. This was followed by opening speeches. We talked with Dr. Andrews (our university president), and our provost, then went back to "woman" the display.

After a while, we decided to go and see our Rowan county senator, so we did. He was gracious enough to have us in his office and talk to us, and then later on he visited our display. We had our pictures taken with him. We also had our pics taken with the president and Dr. Mattingly (the MSU professor who started up the undergraduate research fellow program). Lunch was taken in the annex (which was enormously crowded), and the rest of the early afternoon was spent at the poster. We had no chairs! Probably ok for our young, fit undergraduates, but us old people were really feeling it!

Once the poster session ended, at about 3pm, we wandered up to the senate (our senator had suggested we go on up and visit the floor). We were given tags, and introduced to the senate. It was a real buzz for me! We sat down and watched/listened for a while, and then recess was called. "Doc" Blevins (our senator) called us up to the front of the room where the senate president was, and we posed for a photo which they are going to send to us. We all felt rather important! LOL.

We left after this, and drove to Lexington where we planned to find a camera. One of my colleagues (thank you Elizabeth!) had given us the name of a good store, so Kelli and Brittany sat in the back with Brittany's iphone and directed us to the store. The guys at the store were helpful, and they gave us a good deal, so we now have DSLR cameras for the trip. These will be particularly useful for the classroom visits, as well as for video recording.

Next, we stopped off at Best Buy to see about iPads, but they weren't able to do what we needed them to do with the tax, so we just left. We'll probably just order online. After that, it was dinner time and we parked ourselves at Logan's for dinner. We talked a lot about New Zealand (oh, and by the way, we listened to NZ music in the car, as well as "My Old Kentucky Home") and had a great time.

We left Lexington at about 7pm and drove home. I dropped everyone off, dropped off the car keys, jumped into my car which of course immediately started (NOT), and eventually got home around 9ish. My husband (Peter) welcomed me with the news that he had found the car keys after a couple of trips up and down the driveway, so that was a relief.

After that exhausting day, I simply crashed into bed at about that point! :-)

Pre-Posters-at-the-Capitol

Kelli and I met yesterday to work on the finishing touches to the poster that she and Brittany are presenting in Frankfort on Thursday. The finished product looks really good, and I'm sure it will spark interest with educators. We're going to have a handout with the full chart that Kelli created because it simply would not fit onto the poster! We decided to display a selection of the interventions and have the rest available to interested parties. One thing that has stood out to me as we've all gone through this poster-making experience is how much of this research is now "owned" by Kelli and Brittany. That is truly a great thing to see. I am confident that they will be able to answer all but the most technical questions, and answer them well (and as a side note, I doubt too many people will even ponder the thought of asking extremely technical questions!).

I received confirmation from one more elementary school, so I believe we've heard from all but one school now. Since I haven't heard a single peep from the one remaining school (after four emails), I think it's safe to consider that school "dead in the water" so to speak. That's ok though, because it'll be nice to have an unplanned day in the itinerary. We can use it to revisit a school, spend time working on what we've collected up until that point, or simply take a day out to rest.

I think my next task is to book us some ground transportation so that we can get to all these schools! :-) I'll do that today, after returning from having a tetanus shot (ouch) and getting some new contact lenses (yay) - all this in preparation for this great trip that's only 5 weeks and 1 day away now! Eeep!

Finances

I think we've almost finished with the major finances for this project - at least for the first part. We seem to be keeping nicely to the budget, but Greg will probably let me know today. I'll feel as if at least one weight has been lifted off my back once this is done. Greg has been an amazing help to us, and I'm so grateful the Dean put him on this task (of helping us). Once the final set of payments come through, all we'll need to do is gather gifts for those who are helping us with our work. I'm thinking that perhaps some of our representatives may have small flags or pins, so we'll ask Kelli and Brittany to follow that up.

Our second laptop still has not arrived, so we've decided that we're going to order our other equipment (part 2 of the grant) ourselves and get reimbursement. It should be a LOT faster. Only 5 weeks and 5 days to go... next month, in fact. Time is flying!

Rotorua

We heard back from a school in Rotorua yesterday; it was really exciting. The school has a lot of programs going on, and it should be really informative to visit. They also might be able to give us a traditional Maori welcome, which will be fantastic, except for the fact that we have to sing back! Now we all have to practice a song! None of us claim to be singers, so I guess we'll see what comes forth from our vocal chords! ;-)

On a sort of related note, I figured out how to scan business cards on my iPhone, so that's been kind of entertaining for me! I also Skyped a friend from NZ yesterday using the iPhone and had great sound and picture. These phones are great! :-)

We are gradually filling in our schedule; now it's down to about three schools yet to confirm, so that's pretty good. We have an alarming amount of work to do before, and during the trip, but so far I feel that we're mostly in control of it. Every time we have contact with schools, I get a rush of excitment. It's going to be amazing to see so many schools in such a short period of time. I only hope we can store all the information we get in a really good, retrievable way.

Another Phone Call... and Air New Zealand

We called Carolyn from Koru School on Thursday. Brittany has written an excellent summary of the call if you're interested in specific details. I enjoyed the call; it was interesting listening to the way reading is approached in Koru, and Carolyn really had a great grasp of the overall reading plan. I am really looking forward to meeting her in person and seeing the school.

I have booked our tickets from Auckland to Christchurch (Air New Zealand), Christchurch to Wellington (Tranzrail) and Wellington to Auckland (Air New Zealand). However, I have to say I am enormously peeved off at Air New Zealand right now. Through chance, I learned that they may have changed their baggage policies, so I looked it up. Sure enough, only ONE bag allowed (for checkin). I checked United and Qantas to see if they had changed, but no, they still have TWO bags. Further, ANZ has changed our seats! I looked at them yesterday, and Kelli and Brittany were relocated across the plane. I reorganized them, then called ANZ. Most unhelpful. Apparently, if you book together, you HAVE to sit together. Side-by-side - or else you're manually moved. It doesn't explain why Kelli and Brittany, who were side by side on the return trip from Auckland to LAX were moved elsewhere (away from a window). I have to say, I was rather annoyed, and let ANZ know both in the phone call AND in an email I sent. They changed the policy in late May, apparently, but didn't see fit to make any big announcement or anything. Oh well, we'll enjoy our flight because it'll be the last ANZ one for me!

(Off Soap Box now). Six and a half weeks to go now! Things are firming up nicely. This coming week we'll be focused on the presentation Brittany and Kelli are making at Posters-at-the-Capitol next week. Should be a good day.

Snow Friday

The four of us met today and caught up with where we're at. Brittany and Kelli have done a lot of work on their poster for the Posters-at-the-Capitol, and they only need to add a discussion, do some editing (which Jody is going to oversea) and then plan it out on a PowerPoint slide ready for printing. They have the beginnings of a great paper that perhaps KRJ might like to publish. Both Jody and I are very proud of what they have accomplished.

One thing that stood out to me as a result of Kelli's research so far is that New Zealand teachers use a lot of teacher made materials to instruct in reading. That is to say, they use non-purchased materials 64% of the time and purchased materials 36% of the time. Kentucky teachers, on the other time, use purchased materials 100% of the time. This is something we definitely will be following up with further investigation. Another thing that stood out to me (again, Kelli's research) was the difference in the focii of the interventions. Kentucky focused more on phonological awareness as an intervention, whereas New Zealand focuses more on comprehension. This is something we will keep in the back of our minds too.

Our schedule, as I mentioned in my last blog, is firming up, and I feel comfortable now that it's falling into place. We have a great range of schools to visit, and I think we're going to be overwhelmed with data once we get to those schools!

We discussed our travel, and there is unanimity in the thought that instead of flying from Christchurch to Wellington, we'll go via train and ferry. The cost is about the same, and since we have a full Sunday in which to travel, we may as well see as much of the country as we can. Brittany is going to have to bring her seasickness pills! ;-)

Our next step is to email all the schools who have firm dates and send them a couple of documents: one with information about ourselves, and the other with an outline of what we hope to achieve during our visit.

First Week of Trip!

I am delighted to say that the first week of our trip is inked in! Things are starting to look much more settled, and I'm really excited about that. We've had a lot of really helpful responses to our emails, and I feel more and more sure that we're going to have a really fulfilling experience in New Zealand.

Today I managed to get hold of some certificate holders and paper so that we can give schools a sign of our appreciation. I also ordered some flash drives - we're already collecting a lot of information and I sure don't want to be losing any. I pulled out the camera today and Brittany swept her expert eye over it this afternoon. It's a lot easier having a Brittany than reading a manual! ;-) We took photos of ourselves and wrote up a paragraph about each of us so that we can let schools know a little more about who we are. I also put together a document outlining what we would like to do when in a school or university. Jody is going to look over it and add anything I've missed.

Tomorrow we're all meeting to discuss where we're up to - at least we will be if we don't get snowed in again (it's started to snow, and the prediction is 1-3 inches... if that happens, I'll probably be stuck in my house tomorrow!!!).

New Year

The Spring semester starts on Tuesday, and that means we are heading like an unstoppable freight train to New Zealand in 8 and a half weeks! So much to do!

Our calendar is starting to shape up, although there are still some schools we need to schedule. We'll be doing some serious emailing this week for sure. We have received most of our equipment, minus a laptop, so we'll be having to familiarize ourselves with it (especially the voice recorders; these need to be "trained", with software added to our laptops for voice-to-text conversion). Now we need to hear from the second grant awarder so we can order a few other things. Eight and a half weeks!!

I've been reading more of the international research reports (TIMMS, Pirl etc... ) and it's really standing out to me that there seems to be a definite trend in all subjects. The USA is statistially significantly ahead of NZ in all 4th grade tests, but then in 8th grade there is no difference. By 10th-12th grade, NZ is statistically significantly ahead in all subjects. Why? Do NZ teachers teach more "lifelong skills"? Do teachers in the upper levels teach differently? It's not a case of money; the US puts more in that NZ does, and it's not a case of only testing the best students (the international tests addressed those problems more than a decade and a half ago, even though you'll hear people still saying "Oh well, they (other countries) don't educate ALL students" - we've got to address that as it's a copout, and simply not true.). So, what's happening? That's a question I'm taking with me to NZ. I doubt if I'll come up with a definitive answer, but maybe I'll get some ideas and insights.

Well, expect the blogging pace to pick up this semester!