1st Day @ Ranui Primary School

I survived my first day @ the school I will be teaching at for the next 6 weeks! I loved it! Pacific Islander children are so gorgeous and I love their cute little accents.
We rode our bikes to the school – about a 15 minute ride, so not bad at all. We pulled up at 8 a.m. and everyone knew right away that we were the “American girls.” There are 2 other BYU girls along with Mekelle and I, so 4 of us altogether at this particular primary school, with each of us working in a separate classroom.
We were offered a cup of coffee/tea/milo instantly and then introduced to our classroom teachers. They drink that stuff like crazy here. My teacher met me in the staff room. Her name is Pani Tararo – I also work with her at church because she is the YW President for our ward, so I’ve known her for a few weeks. She told me to just sit down and relax for a while…..so we sat there and then it was nearing 9:00 so we headed to the classroom. Some of the girls’ eyes lit up when I walked in and they immediately came over to greet me. Mrs. Tararo had told them all about me and they had actually expected me yesterday. They were so excited that I was from America. Pani loves to talk and she just chatted with me most of the day. She’s from the Cook Islands, so speaks fluent Maori but pretty good English. She prefers to be called “Mrs. Tararo” instead of “Whaea Pani” like everyone else because she claims she is ‘traditional.’ I just told the kids to call me “Miss Homer” to follow suit – but I’m thinking that “Whaea Jayna” sounds kinda cool.
The kids were taken to a computer class for the morning and we had a minor tour of the school campus. We were “welcomed” to the whanau (family) by some of the students in a traditional Maori Prowfiri.
I thought I was going to cry, I was so touched. They sang us some really cool songs, and during one of them the boys did the hakka. So cool! After some singing and Maori-spoken welcomes, we go around and do the hongi with each person, because it was only a couple of classes. The hongi is a traditional Māori greeting, when you press forehead to forehead and nose to nose. The breath of life is exchanged and intermingled, and through this exchange you are no longer considered manuhiri (visitor) but rather tangata whenua, one of the people of the land (or family). For the remainder of your stay you are obliged to share in all the duties and responsibilities of the home people. So fascinating!
We have “Morning Tea” everyday for 30 minutes. I’m starting to like this a little too much……we drink milo and just socialize. Such a waste of time as a teacher! I was going to take some homework to the staff room to work on during it and Mrs. Tararo said, “What are you bringing your books for, it’s morning tea!” Duh. Why didn’t I realize that? It’s so ironic that the teachers complain that the workload has gotten so much bigger nowadays and they have to stay so late after school. HAHA. With an hour and a half of leisure time each day…..I wonder why this happens. I've been taught to not waste one single minute during the day, because in actuality a lot of learning can even take place in a few moments. It's just different from what I am accustomed to.

My classroom teacher happened to have “release time” for 1 ½ hours to just plan and organize stuff this day, so I just hung out with her and we chatted. The kids are still doing some beginning of the year testing, and we have 5 Year 3 students in our class, so Mrs. Tararo just had me take them outside to play while the Year 4 students took their test. So, I taught them a couple of games and let them play on the playground for the next 1 ½ hours. I was trying to be efficient with my time as I tried to come up with a mini lesson on the spot, but it wasn’t very successful. Then we have an hour for lunch. I went outside towards the end so the kids could come up and talk to me. I even got a special singing performance by a group of 3 older girls.

So, as far as my first day goes, I observed that the children did nothing but play all morning. I’m not in a Kansas elementary school anymore, that’s for sure!
We finished the afternoon off with singing Maori songs. After school, I had my first exposure to those oh-so-loved staff meetings. It lasted a couple of hours and I was bored out of my mind.
But – all in all, I had a great first day. The staff is so friendly – it's part of their culture here also, but I think they are just as eager to hear about our “American lives” as the students are too. The fact that we’re AMERICANS is such a fascinating thing to everyone here - I think mostly because of television. What they see is all they really know about us. They think everyone is rich and famous there.

Mrs. Tararo needed to take care of some things so she just told me to talk to the students for a few minutes. I just told them they could ask me any questions they wanted.
Here were my favorite ones:
“Have you been on American Idol?”
“Have you been on TV before?”
“Have you been to Las Vegas?”
“Have you been to California?” (I got a lot of “awwws” after responding to this one).
“Do you know the President?” ( I told them he was my neighbor…)
“Have you been married before?” (I can never quite dodge the relationship questions….)
“Do you know how to speak American? Do you know how to speak USA?”

I also managed to memorize everyone’s name, except for 2 of the boys – only because I had to idea how to pronounce them. There are about 19 kids total right now – 8 girls and 11 boys. They are so diverse – Samoans, Tongans, Fijians, Maoris, and even a boy from Zimbabwe and one from Czech Rep. It’s so great.

Some additional good news: We got wireless internet at our house!!! WAHOO! I’ve missed it SO much. And, I went to my first Zumba class later that night. It was a blast!!