Teaching Debuts

This past week has been quite hectic with a lot of stuff happening, so excuse the long delay; I've been very busy.

I got involved again with the Christchurch Cadet Corps (Army is not used in any corps titles), located near the now decommissioned Wigram Airfield. The officers were surprised/pleased to see me again after my 8 month absence. The corps ranks were slightly bigger this year, hovering around 45 on paper. It was quite amusing to see the NZ style of drill, which is much different than Canadian. At the moment, I've been helping out with the administration, as well as showing potential new recruits what to expect should they choose to join.

After a week & a half of observing & assisting, I was given the opportunity to instruct my Y13 Music class about the musical characteristics of the Baroque Era. Overall, the lesson turned out quite well in my mind. I first introduced myself as Mr. D, said every student's name as a review & proceeded with the main topic. After identifying & explaining the different characteristics, I instructed the class to analyse a Baroque vocal piece and an instrumental one. I had planned to introduce the musical forms but I ran out of time. The musical forms will be for Monday's lesson. After that it's on to the Fugue.

I've also gotten heavily involved with the extra-curricular music program, devoting my time across three bands during lunchtime. The first is the jazz band on Monday where I advised & assisted the percussion section. The band is currently tackling the classics like 'Satin Doll'. On Wednesday, it's the newly formed ukulele band. Yes, that's right, I'm now the proud owner of a dark blue ukulele. And it only cost $40NZD! A ukulele fad seems to have swept through the school, with the band having close to 50 players, including 8 teachers. The main music classroom was filled with students & teachers with ukuleles of different colours: red, light & dark blue, brown, yellow, pink, purple, orange, yellow, and black. There even was a yellow Spongebob Squarepants ukulele. What have I got myself into?

And finally, on Friday, it's the orchestra. The string section includes first/second violins, violas, and cellos. When it was time to play the Cirque du Soleil compilation piece, my associate, Shane Morrow, had to answer an important phone call. After Theresa, the other music teacher, tried to conduct the piece (she's mostly vocal based), she handed the task over to me. Without hesitation, I was up at the podium, my own wand in hand, conducting, advising, and fixing the parts that sounded sloppy. It was also difficult for me at one part of the piece because the time signatures kept alternating. After some trial & error, I realized that it would be easier to conduct the section in 1. The resulting sound was favourable. From what I could, the students & music teachers were impressed by my conducting abilities, and that I also paid attention to the details.

Students got to sleep in on Tuesday & Friday because the first two periods were needed by the teaching faculty. On Tuesday, there was a teacher's union meeting at Town Hall, and Friday morning was a Professional Development morning for teachers. For the PD morning, I sat in on a class that taught teachers how to create an effective PowerPoint presentation. Despite my previous knowledge of Microsoft's PowerPoint software, it didn't hurt to get a refresher and some advice. Bottom line, keep the presentation simple & use many slides if you have to. Don't cram everything onto one slide.

Wednesday's (24th) junior & senior assemblies were more energetic this week because of Pasifika Culture Week. Around this time in New Zealand, festivals are held to celebrate the culture of Pasifika countries, such as Samoa, Fiji, Tahiti, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea. So after the announcement about the upcoming Earth Hour was made, the principal announced the Pasifika student group to perform their 15 minute routine for the juniors & seniors, the same routine they were going to perform at the town hall celebration. I sat in for both assemblies, and watched the performance twice. It was quite an impressive mix of song & dance. Using my digital camera, I filmed the second performance given in the Assembly Hall, packed with senior students.

Unfortunately, due to the uploading size restrictions with BlogSpot, I can't upload the entire 15 minute video as one. I'll have to do it in segments. Please excuse the slight blurriness of the vids; I was standing at the back of the Assembly Hall with my camera on full zoom. Enjoy.

And lastly, the theme for Friday's after school teacher's party was Hawaii. Joyous Hawaiian music filled the teacher's lounge, as teachers brought out trays of tropical fruits, and Hawaiian pizza. I spoke chatted with many teachers, as I munched on the finger food & sipped Chardonnay. Later on, delicious BBQ'd pork loin was served. What a way to finish the work week & begin the weekend!

The Riccarton Way

Riccarton High School is located roughly between St. Thomas of Canterbury College & Villa Maria College in the Christchurch neighbourhood known as Ilam. The school is the learning centre for 1,010 male & female students, meaning this is my first co-ed teaching placement. (St. Thomas is all boys & Villa Maria is all girls). Unlike in Canada where everything is in one giant edifice, a school in New Zealand is spread out across a collection of buildings, resembling a university campus.

Riccarton's facilities are contained in 22 separate buildings, each dedicated to an area of study, administration, or maintenance. The library building is co-owned by the school & the city, thus allowing the public to access its resources as well. For physical education, students have the gym, 3 tennis courts, and a huge open field to play rugby, soccer, and cricket. There's even a building dedicated to detentions. Most students do their best to avoid being sent to building D5.

I'll admit that I was a little nervous on the first day because of the unexpected, but my previous teaching experiences quelled my nerves. There would be 8 student teachers in total at Riccarton during this placement: 3 Canadians, 1 from Bangladesh, and 4 from across New Zealand. As a whole, our knowledge spanned the subjects of music, history, social studies, Maori studies, math, biology, and technology. For me, I would be involved with the school's music program, officially called Performing Arts.

We, the student teachers, were greeted by the Deputy Principal, Fred Kramer, who gave us a tour of the school. After the walk, we settled into the boardroom where we were given 'the rundown' of how things worked at Riccarton.

As I mentioned before in a previous post, the attitudes of male & female students are the same when they're learning separately. Put them together in a co-ed situation and that's when you get the boys acting all macho, trying to impress the girls, and the girls acting all . . . um, girlish, I think, trying to impress the boys. Until I teach at other New Zealand schools, my observations will remain disproven.

The weather has been cold in the morning, warm by noon, and then cold at night. Sometimes the wind likes to surprise with sudden strong gusts. We also had one heavy rain storm without lightning on Wednesday morning. Come to think about it, I still need to buy an umbrella.

After following a year 10 class for the first two days (and meeting all the teachers), I was assigned a year 9, 12, & 13 music classes for my teaching placement. For the rest of the week, I would be printing class lists & walking around class, guessing & learning all the students' names. It's challenging to learn so many names, but the good news is that many students have the same name. Likewise, the students needed some time to pronounce my name correctly, and guess where I came from. (I was surprised to hear a student suggesting I was from South Africa). As for those students who couldn't pronounce my last name? 'Just call me Mister D.,' I advised.

For St. Patrick's Day, I wore my green tie. The students had their dress up day (called Mufti Day) on Tuesday, many coming to school wearing green civilian clothing. I even saw one male student walking around with green hair. After school, I celebrated the day with a great Irish intellectual: Guinness.

Aside from that, the music department received a large shipment of ukuleles yesterday and has been handing them out to teachers & students who paid $40. Shane Morrow, my music associate, is starting a ukulele band and there's already around 30 students & 6 teachers involved! Well, at least it's not an accordion or bagpipe band. Since I've started playing on the guitar, I guess I can expand on the ukulele.

On Friday, after school, there was a small party held in the teacher's lounge to celebrate the end of the week. There were plenty of finger foods; crackers, brie cheese, chips, grapes, salami, sliced pickles, and sliced honeydew & pineapples. What stood out the most was the alcohol bar. I'm not sure, but I don't think alcohol would have been allowed if this sort of function were held in a Canadian school due to safety concerns (not having teachers drinking while students are still on school grounds). Naturally, I stayed, ate some food, had a Corona, and chatted with several teachers & the principal, before bidding everyone a wonderful weekend.

With Week 1 observation over, I eagerly wait to begin teaching the Riccarton Way on Week 2: Commitment, Honesty, Respect, Excellence.

Home Sweet 2nd Home

Disembarking in Christchurch filled me with feelings of deja vu. The terminal looked the same since my first visit back in 2008. Getting through customs wasn't a problem except the customs lady asked several more questions about my study & which schools I had taught at (St. Thomas and Villa Maria) before. After picking up my suitcases from the baggage carousel, I made it through the last x-ray security checkpoint and was cleared to exit. I was somewhat surprised to see the terminal expansion project (bigger parking garage, better looking entrance, etc.) still underway after I had left 8 months ago.

Because I was still wearing my winter clothing, I was sweating heavily when I left the terminal. The weather was sunny with a high of 20 degrees, a far cry from the minus 3 degrees when I left my hometown of Ottawa. I quickly found a taxi, dumped my luggage in the back, and got in. Oh yeah, I reminded myself, they drive on the left side of the road, like in Britain, Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong. Yup, the layout of the city hadn't changed that much since my last stay. Endless rows of bungalows, with the occasional corner store & gas station, lined the main street that Alexei, the Russian taxi driver, drove me to the university, as he made small talk along the way.

The familiar university buildings stood in the background as I was dropped off with my luggage at the Ilam Village office to check in & pick up my keycard. After filling out the check in form, the female resident representative led me to my room which was located in the flats that were designated as Kowhai. These flats can hold six people, and comes equipped with a large kitchen, washer & dryer, and a big washroom that holds two toilets & two showers (all in smaller separate rooms of course). My room is the same size as my previous room in the Hinau flats except the kitchen is much bigger, at least twice the size of the Hinau kitchens. And to top it all off, we each have our own separate phone & number. When I was flatting in Hinau, my roommates & I had to share the same phone.

Just as the resident rep left, two of my previous roommates, Heather & Ben, appeared and cheerfully greeted me. They were glad to see me and that I was able to stay in the same flat as them. My other three roommates were Sarah (Heather's cousin), Corey, and Neil. After a long interesting discussion, I made it back to my room to unpack & settle in. The welcome bag from the Ilam staff included a mug, laundry bag, wall planner, and a map of the city's bus routes. Once everything was in the closet and on the proper shelf, I collapsed on the bed I made. The mattress was quite comfortable as I stared at the ceiling and breathed a sigh of relief.

I'm home.

The rest of the week would go by in a blur, devoted to completing enrollment at the University of Canterbury Registry, shopping for food, buying some extra formal clothing for my teaching placement, and walking around town. The following week, starting on the 15th, I would begin my teaching placement at Riccarton High School. I can't wait.

I Didn't Exist . . . Again

The flight from Vancouver to Auckland was scheduled to be a long & arduous 14 hour journey. If only Air New Zealand had faster planes. Can't someone design a modern Concorde? Well, at least I had an aisle seat - easier access to the washroom. As well, I would spend this flight aboard a Boeing 747 for the first time. What a moment to cherish. After an hour of boarding, the white aerodynamic beast roared down the slick runway & lifted into the night sky.

What's great about the Air NZ entertainment systems is that you don't have to sit through 5 minutes of previews. You have libraries of movies, tv shows, and music to access at your fingertips. I decided to start off the long flight by watching the movie 2012. I won't spoil anything & just say that I expected better, a lot better. Pacing & plot development, those sort of things. Thankfully, I was able to laugh off my disappointment with the comedy film The Hangover, and then finish off with the classic action flick Die Hard. Dinner was a choice between chicken and beef. I chose the beef dish with complimentary white wine.

The rest of the flight was mostly a blur because I kept lapsing in & out of consciousness. Sleeping in the sitting position is tough for me. I tried dreaming that I was sleeping in first class but it didn't work. As I tried to get some rest, the 747 crossed the International Dateline, leaping into the future. We left Vancouver on March 7th, but crossed the dateline into March 9th. A second void was created in my life. I, nor the other passengers existed on March 8th, 2010. The first void was July 4th, 2008.

Somehow, I had gotten some shut eye because I was alert when the pilot announced that we were about to land. It was still dark outside when the 747 touched down in Auckland. If there were still people sleeping, then the pilot did a good job waking them up because the landing was hard & sudden. I know for a fact that several passengers around me jumped at the sound of the loud boom!

With the plane safely docked with the air bridge, I disembarked into the Auckland terminal thinking whether to shout, 'I'M BACK!' or get into the security checkpoint line. Due to my tiredness, I chose the latter. Luck was with me again because on the flight, I was told that I no longer had to pick up my luggage in Auckland & transfer it to the Christchurch flight - that would be done for me. As well, I wouldn't have to go through customs until I arrived in Christchurch.

The wait for the Christchurch flight was only an hour & there weren't that many people travelling at this early hour. Plus, we were transported to the plane via bus, so I briefly got the opportunity to step onto the tarmac. Once again, the plane lifted with ease into the morning sky & made its way south, towards my final destination; Christchurch. I wondered what to expect?

Back To Middle Earth

Wow, it's hard to believe that it has come to this so fast. Feels like just yesterday I had arrived back in Canada to take a break from my New Zealand studies. But now the time has come, after many months, to return to Middle Earth to complete my Graduate Diploma in Secondary Teaching. The next four months are going to be hectic, rewarding, and memorable.

So much has happened since my last post in June 2009: the end of the 2000s decade; the release of James Cameron's Avatar (now the highest grossing film of all time); the devastating earthquakes in Haiti & Chile; and the Vancouver Olympic Games, just to name a few (Crosby! Crosby! Crosby!). To the examples I just mentioned, I'll just say: the first decade of the 21st century was interesting, I still need to go see Avatar, Haiti & Chile need aid and time to rebuild, and the Olympics were quite magical, despite several setbacks.

The Canadian Team did more than just go for the bronze. They also went for silver & gold, and managed to win the most gold medals by a single country in the history of the winter olympics! Canada certainly owned the golden podium.

I found myself paying a lot of attention to the Games, via TV, newspaper, magazine, and the Internet. And after all that, I still can't wrap my head around how scoring works in curling? The women's hockey team beat the living daylights out of every opponent, while for a time, it looked like the men's hockey team would be eliminated before making it to the final. Thankfully, the ymade it to the final match between Canada & USA. The game was intense and it almost ended at 3rd period if the Americans hadn't tied the score just seconds before the end of the 3rd period. I'm glad that Canada had Sidney Crosby to end the dispute in Overtime. And when he scored that golden goal, 34 million Canadians were on their feet chanting his name. From beginning to end, the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games brought Canadians & their patriotism together.

Anyway, after spending several days with family & friends, I woke up on the early morning of the 7th, had a quick breakfast, and checked my packed luggage. After 3 checks, I bid farewell to my mother, and was driven to the airport by my father. At the airport, my father wished me well just before I entered the terminal.

The first flight was a 4 hour hop to Calgary that passed by with relative boredom. The plane was packed but at least there were no crying babies. Once in Calgary, I walked around & sat for 4 hours, waiting to board my flight to Vancouver. I have to admit that if you don't have a book or laptop to keep you occupied, time will advance ever so slowly. Finally, the long wait was over & I was on my way to Vancouver. This time, the Air Canada plane was only half full, meaning a more quiet & relaxing flight. Too bad it only lasted an hour.

Vancouver was surrounded by fog & rain when the plane touched down on one of the runways. Once off the plane, I had no choice but to walk a long distance to get to the international section of the terminal. Thankfully, I didn't have to manually transfer my luggage to the Air New Zealand flight. During the 3 hour wait, I bought some Tim Horton's donuts & an Ice Capp and enjoyed the consumption. After that, I would have to survive without Timmy's for four months!

On a side note, I was surprised to see a bottle of French Champagne Cognac (aged a century) on sale at a Duty Free store for $34,000! I thought Duty Free was where you could buy cheap alcohol? I wondered what the price would be at an ordinary liquor store.

See you on the other side!