Monday was a holiday in Dunedin (Anniversary Day) so we played tourist for the day. It began with a tour of Cadbury World (yum!), then we traveled up the Otago peninsula to visit Larnach Castle (with its dramatic story), the Royal Albatross Centre (adult albatross' have a 9 foot wingspan, but the juveniles we saw were still fluffy), and my favorite—Penguin Place. Penguin Place is a conservatory for the endangered yellow-eyed penguins as well as a hospital fo...

I've taken every spare moment to walk around town, explore, read, and talk to people so I haven't blogged very much. Sorry! Here's a quick one to let you know what we've observed after many school visits. Early Childhood Education centers are outstanding! The teachers have the same (well, similar) training to primary and secondary teachers, so they provide wonderful environments for learning for little ones. Primary schools (grades 1-8) are very student ce...

The principals (yes, there are two) at the primary school we visited today had a great approach to leadership. One of their comments was, "One size fits one." It's their approach to Special Education, to gifted education, to caring for every student, and to caring for every staff member. It became obvious as I walked through classrooms that the "one size fits one" philosophy permeates the school. The furniture in the classrooms was mixed—each room had a var...

The first settlers came (to what is now New Zealand) about 700 years ago in canoes from (what is now) Hawaii. They set up many tribes on both the north and south islands. Captain Cook was the first explorer to stick around after he met the warring locals and claimed land for England in 1769. British citizens trickled in. The English missionaries learned to speak Te Reo (the Maori language) and therefore educated about Christianity in Te Reo. In 1840, the Tre...

"Kia ora" we heard as we walked across the expansive University of Auckland campus for teacher preparation. We were going to be welcomed in the traditional Maori ceremony, or "powhiri," before visiting immersion and traditional Early Childhood Education Centre (ECE) today. We were greeted by the men who direct each ECE and told what to expect. While we stood outdoors in the humid air and conversed, some of the three-year-olds from the Maori immersion ECE climb...