School Stuff...

Well, we have come to the end of our first week of work. I couldn’t believe my luck when I heard that I only had to teach 9 Year 4’s! How hard could that be?! I arrived Monday morning and quickly I was given my Year 4’s with their desks, a teacher’s desk and a lockable cabinet. A library shelf was wheeled in, complete with a random array of English Sunshine books and three fans due to there being only one wall with windows. Then I was left to it.

The kids can mostly speak English, with the exception of maybe one, and another who can understand some, but who is very reluctant to speak it. As for the others, well, they’re pretty good at spoken English but are very nervous to write. They can recite the alphabet, but cannot put sounds to letters. And while they’re Year 4, it is going to be more like teaching five year olds to write. As for their skills writing in Tokelau… I have no idea! I suspect I will end up spending more time teaching myself how to teach juniors and ESOL that spending too much time training the other teachers!

After a while I managed to track down a box of crayons stashed away in the back of one of the teacher’s cabinets; they were my saviour! I set the kids off drawing a picture of themselves to be laminated onto the back of their essential English words list. The kids are all very likeable but a few can be a bit too cheeky at times and getting them to finish their work quickly was an up-hill battle at times.

By Wednesday I was exhausted. The classroom was a heat trap and I don’t think I have ever sweated so much in my life! The kids were noisy and off-task most of the time and time felt so slow! While the kids were driving me crazy I did feel really sorry for them! Imagine, at 8 years old, being thrown in with a foreign language teacher, who runs different routines and in stiflingly hot weather! The poor kids were probably exhausted too.

Anyway, it was nothing that a stern word from the deputy principal couldn’t sort out on Thursday! Matt came along to class to help for the day too, which took the pressure off me a lot. I’ve begun to develop some routines so the children know what to expect each day and at home in the evenings I have become well aquainted with my trusty laminator making lots of basic classroom resources. So far: Monitor chart, Essential Word lists 1 and 2 flash cards, board games for lists 1-3, maths bingo cards (a real hit!) tens frames, number flash cards, number fans and “Today is/tomorrow is/yesterday was” poster, days of the week cards and some consonant blend cards, number charts, bubble puzzles, four sets of ‘loopy’ and a family of facts game, ‘Beans’.

Eventually I hope to have so many games and activities that the children can do a lot independently while I work with small groups of three at a time for maths and reading. At the moment they are very reliant on me and I must hear a hundred times a day, “Teacher! Teacher!”.
It was a nice way for the week to end when Timu arrived in with two coconuts and a massive yellow-finned tuna for us! With there being no freezer at school I sent it home with another child to give to Matt who was in a meeting at the high school with the principal!

Matt is currently the PE teacher and part time Year 4 teacher aide! He’s trying to avoid teaching English and Music! Every second Friday he is in charge of teaching the whole high school PE and Health, and he has a Year 11 class on Monday mornings.

Settling in

We have had a quiet first few days, acclimatising and getting to know a few locals on Fenua Fala. We have met a lovely family from Kiribati, the grandfather is a teacher at the high school, his son-n-law is the baker and his daughter, Manuia, is in my Year 4 class. This morning she arrived at our doorstep with a loaf of fresh bread and with a promise of fish this evening and then took me to school.
I was the first to arrive at school at 8am. Eventually the school boat arrived at the teachers and students wandered into the leafy, tropical school grounds. I met Livi, the Deputy Principal and he showed me around the school. I was introduced to the children and we started getting some furniture into the classroom.
It will be interesting, my journey of becoming a Year 4 teacher, especially since all of the students are English as a second language, but it will be made easier with the fact I only have nine students! My first problem was how to group the desks… I know how to group 30, I know how to group 24, I could even manage 12, but how do you group just 9?!!!
I survived the first day, the children leaving to catch the school boat at 1.20pm, and the teachers leaving at 2.20pm. Hmmm… I could get used to this! I know have the key to the school, as the Deputy knew that tomorrow I would be the first there to open up.
Matt’s been busy at home and out and about on Fale today; going to the bank, and shopping for cleaning product to scrub the VSA house.
We have had the choice of two houses on Fenua Fala. The palangi-style VSA house, next to the breezy lagoon, or a more traditional house, further back from the lagoon. The VSA house is in a shambolic state, but is a much cooler option with fewer mosquitoes. The traditional home is very clean and tidy, with a bigger water tank, but is in a heat trap and has far more mosquitoes. After much toil we’ve chosen the breezy, cockroach ridden, mildewy mess.

Busy times...

It is the end of a very hectic week! Along with thirty portfolios on the way, we've also had to juggle blood tests, chest x-rays, dental appointments, full medicals and copious vaccinations at the travel doctor. I'm so lucky my principal was happy for me to take any time I needed to squeeze in these appointments to my week.

The week before last included three day in Wellington attending the VSA pre-departure briefing. Was so amazing to meet all of the other VSA volunteers heading off to other amazing places such as Tanzania, the Solomons, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Cambodia, to do equally amazing jobs: Landscape gardeners, teachers, youth workers, librarians etc.... Was great to meet the UNIVOL volunteers, graduates from Otago University heading off to Tanzania and Vanuatu. What a great opportunity for them!

At the end of each day we were all inspired and exhausted! There was so much to discuss and think about: international development, capacity building, how to keep ourselves safe from all sorts of creepy crawlies, snakes, malaria and other diseases... luckily many of these aren't on Tokelau. We do however, have to try and de-mosquito our home... we will be exposed to the beautiful mosquito that carries dengue fever. We also discussed some of the many situations we may find our selves in such as civil unrest, cyclones and any other potential disasters that mean we may have to evacuate. I think we feel as prepared as we can at this stage.... Mental note: must remember to findout cyclone emergency proceedure when we get to atoll!

Any spare time I have is spent getting quotes from jewelry suppliers and researching Dremel tools. I'm pretty excited about the opportunity to spend less time running the treadmill in the rat race and nurturing my creative side. I can't wait to learn the Tokelaun art of weaving.

All going to plan, this coming week we will get the all-clear from both of our medicals. I'm just pleased that I passed being able to touch my toes! I just can't wait to find out what our living situation will be like!

Yippee! Tokelau here we come!!!!

Two months after applying for the Teacher Trainer and Primary Teacher position on Tokelau, Matt and I have been accepted by Volunteer Services Abroad, and are looking towards our future: two years of living on the remote Pacific atoll of Fakaofo.

Tokelau is a New Zealand dependency, reached only by a 30 hour boat journey from Apia, Samoa. We're lucky; of the three atolls, ours is the closest to Samoa; the others, Nukunonu and Atafu, are up to three days on board.

We head off sometime early in 2009. This week we have a four day briefing in Wellington to learn a whole range of skills to survive in a remote and often challenging environment. We know that the two years ahead of us won't always be easy, so we are glad that we will have each other for support!

While on Fakaofo we both hope to study extramural through Massey; I hope to begin my Masters in Education with a focus on education in developing countries and Matt will hopefully be able to find something environmentally related.

We are currently trying to compile a list of what we might like to take with us. We figure that if we take a laptop we can load it with movies and I plan to take my jewelry making tools... what little I have! I have placed an article in the Silversmiths Guild newsletter to see if anyone can help with donating to me some tools they no longer use. Fingers crossed this all goes to plan, as other wise I'll not be able to make jewelry for two years!

With four weeks of school left in which to get my assessment done, along with having to pack up my class, the house, go to Dunedin for Xmas and then head up to Blenheim, life is seeming pretty hectic!

I just can't wait to arrive in Samoa and begin our big adventure! I'm hanging out for 'island time'!