Almost time to leave….

Well here we are, it is finally the day we need to pack up and head back for Vermont.  It is only 2:19 pm right now and our flight leaves at 10:45 pm, but we need to be at the airport no later than 8 pm.  Today was a relaxing day that included being able to sit by the beach for a few hours and I was even able to have pizza for the first time on the trip before I returned home to start packing up which is where I am now.

Although the trip was amazing and I learned a lot of great things about education, I am definitely ready to be home and be part of Sterling again!  I have missed the daily routine, you all (the students) and of course the teachers.  It will be great to get back into the swing of things and see everyone on Monday.

Well I must go so I can go pick up a few things for you guys before I leave tonight!  Hope you are all doing well and I will check back in when we arrive in the United States so you know we are home safely 🙂

Pictures and Update

Behind me is a massive crater from Mt. Roskill, a dormant volcano!

Picture from the basketball game last week

Another picture from the game

They learned Newton’s laws too, but used Angry Birds!

Here is one of the students projects, looks just like the game 🙂

Another project

We were driving and saw an amazing view so we got out and took pictures, amazing mountains in the background

Here I am trying to hug the tree to put into perspective how big it is! It is also more than a thousand years old.

Here is a picture of Ms. Kalman and I at the top of Cape Reigna

Here is another picture of us on 90 mile beach. It’s funny that it is called 90 mile beach because it is only 64 miles!

Here is the largest canoe in the world as noted by Guinness Book of World Records and it can carry over 100 people!

A picture from our boat ride

Dolphins!

More dolphins! Shortly after this picture, I got some gear on and jumped into the ocean and swam with them!

Hello everyone!  Hope school is going well and you are getting back into the swing of things.  I heard Monday was a bit challenging, but you all dealt with it with a great deal of maturity.  Anyway, as you can see we had a busy weekend going on boat rides, hiking and doing a lot of sight seeing.

Monday we visited another school that is K-8 grades and only has 120 students in the ENTIRE school! And there were only 19 kids in 6-7th grades combined! Pretty amazing isn’t it? Sterling has almost 100 students all by itself! What was most interesting about the school was that it was right next to Mt. Manaia, which is a little more than 1,500 feet tall.  The 6-7th students use the Mountain as the base for their studies and are always outside learning and interacting with the environment.

Do you think we should use our environment in Vermont more as part of our teaching? If so, what are some suggestions for the way we could use the environment?

I hiked Mt. Manaia and made it to the top in only thirty minutes.  Which I was told was a pretty good time.  It was very steep and I ran about half of the way up which was very tiring, but I wanted to push myself so I set my goal to make it down in half the time and I made it down in just under 16 minutes! Not bad 🙂

Seeing the dolphins on the boat ride was amazing! I had only seen dolphins once or twice before in my life and had never been so close I could touch them.  There are such fun animals to watch as a few of them jumped out of the water together and flopped on their side or something like that.  I did not get pictures of that however, because I was in the water swimming after them!

Well one more day visiting a school tomorrow and then Friday (your Thursday) we are going to go shopping and lay around at the beach before our flight takes off at 10:45 PM.  I will most likely post before then or when we land in LA.  Hope you are all doing well and hope you miss us as much as we miss you!

Mr. LaFountain

 

Bay of Islands

Wow! That is all I have to say.  Today we left at 7:15 am and went on a bus tour to the northernmost point of New Zealand’s North Island.  We stopped when we got as close to the northern point as we could and we were able to take some pictures and enjoy the view.  It was very breathtaking.

Here is a view from the bus as we were driving

View from Cape Reinga

Cape Reinga

View from Cape Reigna where the Tasman Sea and

Pacific Ocean meet. Where they meet is the white spot in the middle of the waterSecondly, we went swimming in the Pacific Ocean.  I will add pictures of that later because I do not have access to them, but I can post pictures about what we did next! We went sand dune sledding! It was very scary at first, but then I just did it and it was an amazing experience.  It was just like sledding in the snow, but on sand and in shorts and a t shirt!

Here is a picture of the enormous sand dunes

Another picture of the sand dunes before we climbed up and went down!

Here is an action photo going down the dune

Natural arch in the ocean, absolutely breathtaking.

Another picture of the natural arch

 

Well here are the pictures that I can post so far. I most likely will not have internet for a few days, but I will fully update the blog Tuesday night (Late Monday night for you all in VT).  Tomorrow we are going on a boat to possibly swim with the dolphins tomorrow at 7:15 AM sharp and the next day we are travelling south to Whangerai to check out another school and then we are hiking Mount Manaia.  So I will have many pictures to add when I obtain internet again!  Hope everyone is enjoying their break, it’s almost time to get back to work! For you guys anyway 😉

Mr. LaFountain

It’s Ms. Kalman!

Hi everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful break. Mr. LaFountain and I have been having a great time touring the schools here in New Zealand. Here, middle schoolers stay with the same teacher all day long, just like in elementary school. They could not believe that American students saw 4+ different teachers in one day! Do you have any questions you would like us to ask the students over here? They were very curious about American cafeterias, because they do not have school lunch or cafeterias here. All students bring their lunch and eat it outside. The students had lots of questions for us about the American way of life, and it made me think about our own culture in a whole new way. It’s really cool to get to see similarities in differences between our lives and the lives of students and teachers here in a new place.

Another interesting thing about the schools here is that they all have gardens (Mr. LaFountain posted the pictures!) that the students take care of. What a great idea! And all of the students wear uniforms every day. What would you think of that????

Is anyone reading any good books over break? 🙂 I am about to read the second Hunger Games book. Happy vacation!!!!!!

The weekend!

Hello Everyone!

We are currently visiting one last school before we head up to the Bay of Islands in the very norther part of the North Island.  Very different from the United States, the further north we go in New Zealand, the hotter the temperature.  While we are in the Bay of Islands, we may have a chance to swim with the dolphins!  I have never done anything like that so it would be completely amazing, especially considering I’ve only seen a dolphin a few times in my life!

Here is what popped up when I googled Bay of Islands! Hopefully this can be some of what we will see 🙂

In case you were wondering exactly where Bay of Islands is, I uploaded this map

Last night my home stay family took me to an Australian League professional basketball game.  It was awesome to see how different the style of basketball is from the NBA.  The was actually pretty good and they won by about 20 points.

Also, before the game, Ms. Kalman and I were able to walk along the waterfront in downtown Auckland and we took some excellent photos which I will upload as soon as I can after the weekend.  There were so many incredible views and the people were so nice.

Mr. LaFountain

 

Photos!

Hello all,

Here are a bunch of pictures from our first few days here in Auckland, New Zealand.  Hope you enjoy and please feel free to comment as I enjoy hearing your thoughts 🙂

Mr. LaFountain

Look at the hills! New Zealand is built on 52 different volcanoes and one is in the very back of of the picture (in middle)

Beautiful archway leading into a park with rose gardens 🙂

Here is a picture of some of the flowers in the garden

Here is an up close picture of one of the bushes. So pretty!

As you walked through the park, the pathway led to this beautiful view from the hill and a small beach

Three students I saw walking past a school who were climbing a tree and were happy to pose for a picture. They also said “America is awesome!”

Very old school picture (1927) from a New Zealand museum

More recent school picture, from 1990 I believe. Notice many of the schools have uniforms!

A stuff Polar Bear at the museum! It was incredible! His paw was as big as my face!

Here is a stuffed Musk Ox. Incredible to see in person how big it was.

Students take care of a school garden which they use afterward at school or take home. Pretty neat stuff.

Some tomatoes coming in!

Here is a picture of most of the garden. It is not small and takes a lot of work!

Here is a space in the nature trail at the school where a class can be held outside

Here is a great quote along the nature trail. Don’t litter!!

They planted a tree in our honor. Two students made a speech and the principal did a little ceremony. Tradition and ceremonies are very important here, similar to what we learned with the Native Americans, remember that stuff?!

Here is a picture of me and a teacher from VT on the nature trail with the students who showed us around the school

Here is a picture of all four of our student guides.

Here is a picture of a stuffed elephant from the museum, his name is Rajah

Here is Rajah’s story if you can read it

Here is Hobson Bay which I found our first day here and took a job along.

Here is another picture of the view from my jog

Day 1 and School Visit

Hello Everyone!

So our first day in Auckland was amazing. There is so much beautiful land and views.  It is truly incredible to walk around and see all the different buildings and different views from tops of different hills.  New Zealand has a lot of hills and in some respects reminds me of Seattle, Washington for those of you who have been there before, BUT Seattle is nowhere near as beautiful.

The first school we visited was Blockhouse Bay and it was incredible to interact with the students and talk to the teachers.  There is a real sense of community and connection to the land.  In fact, the school has their own nature trail with various types of native trees and bushes.  Within the nature trail are a couple of areas for the teachers to bring class outside, so they can have class outside whenever they want.  There is a group of students who are actually responsible for the school garden and once the vegetables are ripe, they negotiate with teachers how to use them.  For example they may use them in cooking class and decide what items they are going to make.

Got to go to school!  Will be on later to add photos!

Mr. LaFountain

 

Arrived safe and sound!

Hello Everyone,

We arrived at 7 AM New Zealand time on Monday.  New Zealand time is 18 hours ahead of Vermont (eastern standard time).  So when we landed it was 1 pm SATURDAY for you guys!  I know it all makes sense somehow, but it is mind baffling to me.  We have the day to ourselves so I went for a run and Ms. Kalman went to find some yoga!  Well it is off to find some lunch, I will check back in later tonight.

 

Mr. LaFountain

New Zealand

For those of you who are not sure where New Zealand is, here is a map showing it is next to Australia!