Tuesday, June 30, 2009
New Zealand: update 3
I must make 2 corrections to this video post. 1: There is no second post. I just never got around to recording the second section, so this is all there is. 2: Able Tasman is not in the southwest corner of the south island, it is in the very north. The park I was thinking of is Fjordlands nat'l park, which I do hope to make it to.
Friday, June 26, 2009
"Living in South Auckland" - An Essay by Mr. Auimatagi (Year 8, De La Salle College)
Living in South Auckland can be called home. But our home can be called a ghetto. It's New Zealand's side of the GHETTO! This side is the south side.
Living in South Auckland is quite easy. ONLY if you know what to do. We have the so called good guys that save the day, and then comes in the bad guys when they wander around and attack innocent people in supermarkets, stores, and homes. But we cannot forget the UGLY GUYS these kind of people probably can do do worse by means that they are known for their mistakes or attacks, or what they have done.
We have gangs that can do much more worse than the ugly guys, that's why South Auckland has a bad reputation for their behaviour on the streets of our community, even public places like the liquor store, down at Otara or Otahuhu where they got robbed in the middle of the night. So South Auckland is famous only for things that can harm the children of our own generation.
And here we are left with the good people in our suburbs and homes, they are trying to clean up the mistakes that we have made wrong about. They are trying also to set a good example of children trying to do the same, like not to steal, join in gangs and kill other people not doing drugs and a whole lot more.
You and me can also make a difference. We can make some changes in our !!LIFE!!
Living in South Auckland is quite easy. ONLY if you know what to do. We have the so called good guys that save the day, and then comes in the bad guys when they wander around and attack innocent people in supermarkets, stores, and homes. But we cannot forget the UGLY GUYS these kind of people probably can do do worse by means that they are known for their mistakes or attacks, or what they have done.
We have gangs that can do much more worse than the ugly guys, that's why South Auckland has a bad reputation for their behaviour on the streets of our community, even public places like the liquor store, down at Otara or Otahuhu where they got robbed in the middle of the night. So South Auckland is famous only for things that can harm the children of our own generation.
And here we are left with the good people in our suburbs and homes, they are trying to clean up the mistakes that we have made wrong about. They are trying also to set a good example of children trying to do the same, like not to steal, join in gangs and kill other people not doing drugs and a whole lot more.
You and me can also make a difference. We can make some changes in our !!LIFE!!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
NZ update 3
Hey Everyone,
I'm posting this blog in text format for a friend who is suffering from slow internet syndrome, a disease I have been all too familiar with the last few summers at Mountain Sky (though it was a disease I gladly contracted).
It was a pretty eventful week, so I feel like it warrants an update a mere week after the last. But first, happy shortest day of the year! Ok, so it might be the longest day for the vast majority of readers (perhaps all?), but nonetheless, I consider it a personal holiday ;- ). The winter weather here in Auckland is mild. Night temperatures are usually somewhere in the freezing range, and if the sun is out, daytime temps are generally around the low- to mid- 50s. The mornings tend to be the only unpleasantly cold time of day, and only because the transition from a warm bed into a cold, dark morning is always a bit of a shocker.
Since it has been an eventful week, I will now commence to tell you about it, starting with Tuesday and Wednesday. Unfortunately, Tuesday and Wednesday were not the happiest of days for me. They began optimistically; I went with the year 11 class on their retreat. The retreat is supposed to be what retreats generally are, a brief time away from the usual environment to come together as a class, focus on faith, on brotherhood, and for these boys, who only have 2 years left before they leave school, to think about their personal values and where they are heading in the future. Unfortunately, I do not believe a single one of these boys came away having consciously reflected on any of these issues. These boys have somehow, over the course of their schooling, managed to leave behind all semblance of concern for school. They do not respect the institution, the staff, or the concept. To them, school is simply what they do every day, it has no bearing on their 'real' lives. Consequently, the retreats (half the class Tuesday, half the class Wednesday) were more like preparation for being a monkey trainer than like being a leader on a retreat. I was a mere cat-herder at best. Trying to get these boys to focus, to be respectful, or anything of the sort, often seems like a mere waste of time. Andrew Malele, the campus minister who was in charge of the retreats, is an old boy of the school, but even he can't seem to center these boys long enough to ask them to critically think about anything. I know in all schools there are significant numbers of kids with similar focus / behaviour issues, but it feels like De La Salle has an abnormally high concentration. Some blame the socioeconomic situation of most of the attendees (DLS is the poorest high school in New Zealand) but I think it’s more than that. It feels more like it comes from the culture. Somehow, these kids see it as alright to be failures. Many of them cannot pass the unit standard tests (the lowest level of qualification) for their grade level, and the vast majority could not earn an "Excellent" on the NCEA test (the most rigorous test) for their grade level. One of the worst things about the retreat situation for me is that I work with about 50 of the year eleven boys over the course of the week in their maths classes, and I now find that I have trouble taking them seriously. It is a sickness of the mind I will have to overcome, because I know I will not be successful at all with them if I cannot look at them as at least capable, even though they are unwilling. The challenge is to engage them in the work, somehow...
But moving to more pleasant things.
Wednesday evening brought a great change from my disgruntled and discouraged attitude of the afternoon. I offered the calculus class the opportunity to have evening study sessions for review of the material from the beginning of the year (derivatives, complex numbers, all that good stuff) because the vast majority of them did not pass their internal exams last week. Out of 18 students, 12 chose to show up at school at 6 PM on a Wednesday, and when 7 PM rolled around, they asked to stay another half hour. These students demonstrate to me the payoff of teaching. They are actually interested in learning, in doing well, and some of them may even go to University, which is a rare accomplishment for boys from this neighborhood. They felt like they gained from the study session, and I don't mind working with them at all, so we are going to make it a regular, twice-a-week occurrence. Every Monday and Wednesday at 6 PM, this group of young men is going to meet me for Calculus, and I can honestly say I am excited about it. Even in writing about it, the thought has lifted me up substantially from the disappointment I was remembering in the previous paragraph.
Thursday was uneventful, but Friday proved to be another good day, and finished out my week quite nicely. Viliami, the teacher I am working with most, had to miss third and fourth period, so I taught his classes. Legally, I can't have a class all to myself because there are required qualifications for substitutes, so there was another 'teacher' in the room. Regardless, I gave the lecture, went over the example problems, and assigned the homework for an algebra class and the calculus class. It was pretty exciting, and went quite well. In fifth period, to top up the academic day, Viliami and I team-taught his year 9 pre-algebra class, which was just fun. They are an energetic group, a little hard to keep on track, but once you have them, they do pretty good work and can actually get excited about maths, though I'm sure they don't realize it.
Finally, the weekend. I was blessed this weekend in that Viliami, after 5th period, invited me over to meet his family and have afternoon tea, an invitation I excitedly accepted. 20 minutes later, I hopped into his car with my backpack full of camping gear (which he was definitely not expecting). He lives in Hillsborough, which is about a 45 minute drive from the school. Another half hour or 45 minutes past his house is the entrance to Waitakere Regional Park, where there is over 280 km of walking track. I joined Viliami's family for tea (he lives with three daughters, his wife, and one son: a LOT of girls!), then, instead of having him drive me back to DLS, asked if he would give me a ride in the direction of the park. He took me all the way to the entrance, and I walked from there. It was a good weekend of random exploring (I had no map) and beautiful weather. There was no rain, so I stayed dry, and by Saturday afternoon, I had made it all the way to the far side of the park, to Anawhata Beach, a beautiful little cove at the bottom of some impressive foothills (small mountains?). The beach was gorgeous, with a great surf to break the silence, and the sun warming my face. I spent Friday and Saturday nights sleeping in the bush, which is surprisingly difficult here because the bush is so incredibly thick, and caught rides back to Mangere today. Overall, I probably walked about 30 miles, and it was a very good weekend. The last thing I have to do is prepare my lesson for the calculus class for tomorrow (I think Viliami might just have me teach it for the rest of the term, which would be cool) and get some sleep.
I hope you all have enjoyed this written post, and please check back for more in the future.
One last thing: Don't forget that today is Father's Day! Call your dad and tell him nice things, he will surely appreciate it.
~Alex
PS. I’ll put up pictures from my weekend in the next couple days, so keep an eye out.
I'm posting this blog in text format for a friend who is suffering from slow internet syndrome, a disease I have been all too familiar with the last few summers at Mountain Sky (though it was a disease I gladly contracted).
It was a pretty eventful week, so I feel like it warrants an update a mere week after the last. But first, happy shortest day of the year! Ok, so it might be the longest day for the vast majority of readers (perhaps all?), but nonetheless, I consider it a personal holiday ;- ). The winter weather here in Auckland is mild. Night temperatures are usually somewhere in the freezing range, and if the sun is out, daytime temps are generally around the low- to mid- 50s. The mornings tend to be the only unpleasantly cold time of day, and only because the transition from a warm bed into a cold, dark morning is always a bit of a shocker.
Since it has been an eventful week, I will now commence to tell you about it, starting with Tuesday and Wednesday. Unfortunately, Tuesday and Wednesday were not the happiest of days for me. They began optimistically; I went with the year 11 class on their retreat. The retreat is supposed to be what retreats generally are, a brief time away from the usual environment to come together as a class, focus on faith, on brotherhood, and for these boys, who only have 2 years left before they leave school, to think about their personal values and where they are heading in the future. Unfortunately, I do not believe a single one of these boys came away having consciously reflected on any of these issues. These boys have somehow, over the course of their schooling, managed to leave behind all semblance of concern for school. They do not respect the institution, the staff, or the concept. To them, school is simply what they do every day, it has no bearing on their 'real' lives. Consequently, the retreats (half the class Tuesday, half the class Wednesday) were more like preparation for being a monkey trainer than like being a leader on a retreat. I was a mere cat-herder at best. Trying to get these boys to focus, to be respectful, or anything of the sort, often seems like a mere waste of time. Andrew Malele, the campus minister who was in charge of the retreats, is an old boy of the school, but even he can't seem to center these boys long enough to ask them to critically think about anything. I know in all schools there are significant numbers of kids with similar focus / behaviour issues, but it feels like De La Salle has an abnormally high concentration. Some blame the socioeconomic situation of most of the attendees (DLS is the poorest high school in New Zealand) but I think it’s more than that. It feels more like it comes from the culture. Somehow, these kids see it as alright to be failures. Many of them cannot pass the unit standard tests (the lowest level of qualification) for their grade level, and the vast majority could not earn an "Excellent" on the NCEA test (the most rigorous test) for their grade level. One of the worst things about the retreat situation for me is that I work with about 50 of the year eleven boys over the course of the week in their maths classes, and I now find that I have trouble taking them seriously. It is a sickness of the mind I will have to overcome, because I know I will not be successful at all with them if I cannot look at them as at least capable, even though they are unwilling. The challenge is to engage them in the work, somehow...
But moving to more pleasant things.
Wednesday evening brought a great change from my disgruntled and discouraged attitude of the afternoon. I offered the calculus class the opportunity to have evening study sessions for review of the material from the beginning of the year (derivatives, complex numbers, all that good stuff) because the vast majority of them did not pass their internal exams last week. Out of 18 students, 12 chose to show up at school at 6 PM on a Wednesday, and when 7 PM rolled around, they asked to stay another half hour. These students demonstrate to me the payoff of teaching. They are actually interested in learning, in doing well, and some of them may even go to University, which is a rare accomplishment for boys from this neighborhood. They felt like they gained from the study session, and I don't mind working with them at all, so we are going to make it a regular, twice-a-week occurrence. Every Monday and Wednesday at 6 PM, this group of young men is going to meet me for Calculus, and I can honestly say I am excited about it. Even in writing about it, the thought has lifted me up substantially from the disappointment I was remembering in the previous paragraph.
Thursday was uneventful, but Friday proved to be another good day, and finished out my week quite nicely. Viliami, the teacher I am working with most, had to miss third and fourth period, so I taught his classes. Legally, I can't have a class all to myself because there are required qualifications for substitutes, so there was another 'teacher' in the room. Regardless, I gave the lecture, went over the example problems, and assigned the homework for an algebra class and the calculus class. It was pretty exciting, and went quite well. In fifth period, to top up the academic day, Viliami and I team-taught his year 9 pre-algebra class, which was just fun. They are an energetic group, a little hard to keep on track, but once you have them, they do pretty good work and can actually get excited about maths, though I'm sure they don't realize it.
Finally, the weekend. I was blessed this weekend in that Viliami, after 5th period, invited me over to meet his family and have afternoon tea, an invitation I excitedly accepted. 20 minutes later, I hopped into his car with my backpack full of camping gear (which he was definitely not expecting). He lives in Hillsborough, which is about a 45 minute drive from the school. Another half hour or 45 minutes past his house is the entrance to Waitakere Regional Park, where there is over 280 km of walking track. I joined Viliami's family for tea (he lives with three daughters, his wife, and one son: a LOT of girls!), then, instead of having him drive me back to DLS, asked if he would give me a ride in the direction of the park. He took me all the way to the entrance, and I walked from there. It was a good weekend of random exploring (I had no map) and beautiful weather. There was no rain, so I stayed dry, and by Saturday afternoon, I had made it all the way to the far side of the park, to Anawhata Beach, a beautiful little cove at the bottom of some impressive foothills (small mountains?). The beach was gorgeous, with a great surf to break the silence, and the sun warming my face. I spent Friday and Saturday nights sleeping in the bush, which is surprisingly difficult here because the bush is so incredibly thick, and caught rides back to Mangere today. Overall, I probably walked about 30 miles, and it was a very good weekend. The last thing I have to do is prepare my lesson for the calculus class for tomorrow (I think Viliami might just have me teach it for the rest of the term, which would be cool) and get some sleep.
I hope you all have enjoyed this written post, and please check back for more in the future.
One last thing: Don't forget that today is Father's Day! Call your dad and tell him nice things, he will surely appreciate it.
~Alex
PS. I’ll put up pictures from my weekend in the next couple days, so keep an eye out.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
New Zealand Photos
Click on the slideshow to view photos from New Zealand in a new window. Enjoy ;- )
Saturday, June 13, 2009
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