My Diary at Palmerston North

30/09/2009
This is my first Tuesday in Massey University!. When Hugh told us to write a journal diary every night, I felt so happy. I know my weakness in English is writing is writing (and listening too!). I need a new change in my way to study English because I am not a language lecturer. I am a lecturer in social studies education especially Economics Education in my university.

Today I took a bus alone. My mother gives me complete directions. Even though Phill gave us our individual map, my mom still worries about me getting lost here. But it is all right, I can reach the Main Terminal in Main Street and meet my mates there.

Hugh encouraged us to be brave and active in language study. Should ask and ask every thing to practice our listening. In my opinion, reading The Dominion Post, a newspaper available free here on the campus is necessary to improve my vocabulary.

Dr. John Clark, an Associate Professor, explained The NZ’s educational system briefly, This class was held after Hugh’s class. I think this system is arranged by highly academic people, who arrange a whole system completely. Compared to The Indonesian System that is still under construction with changes made by every Minister of Education, Education System here looks more stable. But I guess that now, we Indonesian have a good educational framework. It was done after a political change from Soeharto’s regime in 1999.

We almost missed the bus to The Main Campus (number 12). We wxcited with John’s speech but The Indonesian Ambassador, Amris Hassan, MA and The Pro-vice Chancellor were waiting for us to make an official greeting. After the meeting, Phill showed us the Main Campus facilities and guided us to open a bank account there. This was my first Tuesday at Palmy !

01/10/2009
Wednesday was a sunny day in the beginning. I felt good because my body was acclimatizing with this weather. Some of us opened their jackets in class and just used a t shirt. Of course they do that because class has a heater tool.

Hugh continued his lesson about learning English. It’s important for me, because I am not an English speaking person even though I had studied English for years. He told us about language learner should to have an open mind. At that time he asked us to read a presentation titled: An introduction to Education in New Zealand.

Every body read pieces of those handouts and then Hugh corrected our spelling directly. Before this, Hugh and Kay explained to us about Educational System in New Zealand. It was quite useful to us because we can know deeply about some of terms or new vocabularies about The New Zealand Educational System. I can pick up similarities there. A high class school required more money from the students. It is happening in Indonesia. We parents are asked to pay some money, that’s called as “donation” here.

Dodi explained to us about the home stay contract then, I understand it because he told with Indonesian. Then we went to The Library of Hokowhitu Campus of Massey University. Barbara, a staff member here, guided us through the content of this place.

I realize that New Zealand is a place for people from many countries. Barbara came from South Africa, On the bus I met some students from Korea, Japan, Africa, China and Middle East.

Here in New Zealand, a Kiwi Country, Phil told us some accent and words of English in Kiwi’s way. It was interesting for us because we did not know it before. It was interesting!

02/10/2009
Palmerston North in the morning is so quiet but actually the activities have already started. My host father woke up at three thirty. He went to work at four a.m. Like some parts of Jakarta, birds sing in the morning. While I walked to the Bus Stop Station some neighbours of my host family arrived and left home.

I always meet some one at the bus stop. An old man carries a hand bag from the video rental. He probably works there. When I said “Hi!” to him, he just looked at me. In some minutes after, he asked me a question. ”How old are you?” . I replied: “I am 35”. He nodded his head to me. I think to my self may be he thought that I look younger than him.

In class, Hugh taught us about some new vocabulary and language lessons from our essays. We Indonesian have at least three languages: native language, national language and international language. So, to study English for us is to make change of mindset. Even though we have studied English from secondary school, we still not good English speakers.

Class finished at twelve, we went to the Main Campus to have lunch there. The cafeteria was clean and it provided us with boiled water and an Oven to heat our food. Then we went to The National Bank branch, to sign an Account Opening Agreement. Some of us put money in our new bank accounts to make us safe in the city.

We met some Indonesian students on the Turitea campus. Radit, Aulia, Putri and Rendi. They were very kind to us. Aulia or Ape (his nickname) talked about some tips to live here. We went to The Islamic Center in this place to do praying Dzuhur. Then Ape accompanied us to Downtown and showed us Second Hand Shops, a souvenir shop and movie theatre here,




04/10/2009
I have been in Palmerston North for a week. I felt different weather here. In Indonesia the same place to feel this weather could be on the top of a mountain. It’s windy and cold.

In my stay here, I want to improve my English. My IELTS score for overall is 5.5. May be after this course it could be increased to 6.5 or 7. I think I should study hard to get a new ban, because English is my third language after Sundanese and Bahasa Indonesia.

I teach Social Studies in Teacher’s College in my country. So, I want to know deeply about the Social Studies Curriculum and other things around it. A lecturer said about integrated lessons in the class. In the next days, I want to explore techniques and strategies of integrating some lessons in a class.

Beside teaching, I am responsible for e-learning management in my university. We use MOODLE software to build an e-learning environment. I heard that Massey University uses WebCT for learning management system software. I really want to know, how WebCT is managed and some features of it.

I have got a Master Degree in Social Studies in Yogyakarta State University. Now I look for opportunities to continue my study here. I am interested in Sociology of Education too, especially in society’s change caused by educational system change. Also, I still want to learn about my opportunity to study here next semester or next year.


06/10/2009
This Monday was a felt very cold. I wore thin trousers from my country. Even if I can protect my body, my feet were not protected. At the bus stop in the city I met Steve, my mate from Manado. He felt cold too. I heard from the news on the T.V. that the temperature was 4 degrees celcius in the morning. There is still a lot of snow in the North Island of New Zealand.

The Guest Lecturer today was Dr. Margaret Walshaw. She presented a theme “Evidence based teaching strategies (based on case study from a math’s class)”. She is an expert on curriculum and mathematics. In Indonesia, math is a quite difficult lesson for students. Margaret told us, how to make a good practice in Math’s teaching. There are ten fundamental principles / cornerstones for Math’s class. She told us about Math’s Head Department in the school. Indonesia Education System hasn’t got this position, only just for high school class.

After the lecture, we took a photo with Margareth. Some friends from Mathematics Department asked for her e-mail address and her office phone number to discuss some are of maths.

Then, we went into the City. We went to some shops to explore new experiences there. Some interesting shops for us are cash Converter, $ 2 shop, Chinese Shop, and Dick & Smith Electronics.

07/10/2009
Yesterday, we went to Nga Manu to see special animals and plants of New Zealand. We were accompanied by our teachers, Hugh and Kay. We saw the national treasures of New Zealand. Bob guided us with an explanation about Kiwi and Tuatara. Kiwi is a nocturnal animal. So, when we went to his cage, we couldn’t see him in the dark room. Kiwi’s egg is big for her body shape. Kiwi eats some insects.

Tuatara was another special animal we found here. It is related to dinosaurs which are already extinct. Tuatara is like a lizard but has some unique characteristics. He could reach a good age until one hundred and eight years.

When we did bush walks, we were really happy to know how people protect the environment. We Indonesians had a lot of bushes, jungles, and forests. But we didn’t protect them as well as here. We burned the forests for making a farm or a field. Some people like environmentalists and farmers are aware about how to take care the environment. But most of farmers and villagers just think only for their daily needs.

Bob showed us amazing creatures, giant eels. Black eels come from other places around New Zealand. He fed the Eels with chicken and another food.

We got many photographs during this trip. A kind of narcism we did. One day we will see this beautiful scenery again or never at all.

08/10/2009
Wednesday gave me a different experience. I could not find my ID card. The ID is Massey’s Temporary Student. I am worried about it and searched for it in every place in my room. Desperately I counted my coins to pay the bus fare. The money was enough for it. But when I opened my cell phone, fortunately the card was inside its glove. As a result of my careless, I had to wait a long time for the next bus coming to the Main Terminal.
When I arrived at class, they had just been dismissed. I follow them to CUPEL’s Staff Room. We had a morning tea with the staff there. There was a lot of talking. Our guest lecturer, David had an Australian accent but we quite understood what he was talking about. Clearly he described New Zealand Curriculum briefly. There were a lot of questions, but David always consistent with his lecture’s theme. So, not all questions were answered. He did not answer questions about practices in the Curriculum.

A Potluck Tea was held at The Rugby Institute. I came late to the potluck because my host was not good at map reading and not a good driver. After an accident in which her hand was broken, she didn’t drive for eight months. So, she rang Jenny to guide the way to the location.

I tasted varieties of food there. I didn’t eat too much because I worried about my stomach. It was a nice party and we had nice games. We learn Kiwis culture with multicultural dishes.

09/10/2009
Yesterday I was not late again. I found the bus at the right time. I met my friends at the Square and went together to Massey University at Hokowhitu. That day we had a class with a lecture from Primary School teacher, Andrew Salisbury. Before it, Hugh told us new vocabulary; that is mnemonic. Mnemonic was a way to memorise easily by making an acronym of the words, sentences, or concepts. To make a good goal, we have to be SMART: Specific/Simple, Memorable, and Attainable/Achievable, Result oriented, and Time bound.

Andrew told us about the New Zealand Curriculum. He talked about The Whariki concept, Vygotsky’s social constructivism, Zone of Proximal Development, key competencies, environment, scaffolding and so on. It’s quite interesting because he was a practitioner who did it in his class. He knew the concepts and is capable of implementing them.

Phil came after lunch. He asked us about our feeling in the class and in the home stay. He described some agenda for next days. Cendra would told us about the Indonesian Nite at Indonesian Embassy in Wellington. Then we went back home. Before that we spread around the shops in the city, buying some things or just looking.

11/10/2009
Yesterday was the beginning of last term for New Zealand’s Schools. I found a new experience during my journey. Buses contained many students. New Zealand schooling has 4 terms. Every term has 10 weeks on average. The students use different uniforms. Some of them look like Harry Potter’s uniform. They spoke Kiwi English very well. I did listen ti their speaking during my trip home. I quite understand some words and lost some words. Even they spoke fast with short sentences. I saw different ethnicities of students. Citizens of Palmerston North came from all over the world. They studied here to gain a prospective future with New Zealand Curriculum System.

Jan Chapman continued the lectures by describing Classroom Management in New Zealand. New Zealand’s Classroom Management takes from experiences of New Zealanders and their cultural heritage; British System of classroom management hundreds years ago. It’s different to Indonesia which establishes consistent classroom management just from 1970s.

The class listened to Jan’s description carefully. Some practices were quite new for Indonesian classroom management. Jane gave us group discussion session during lectures by dividing us randomly using numbered cards. I did not understand some words from Jan’s presentation. I hoped to know it by asking Hugh or checking my dictionary.

Higher Education Directorate of Ministry of Education asked us for a first week report. I did the report after the class was dismissed. I got resources from my notes and my papers collected from lecturers. I have not finished my report yet. I will continue it in the classroom because some important points could be found at New Zealand Curriculum book.

10/10/2009
Dr. Seuss books are popular books for story telling. Hugh taught us how to study English rhymes with one of his books. We were excited to know that. Our language has different rhymes in it. Phil continued the class by some announcements about our program. He gave us papers to send to our home stay in case they did not open their e – mail.

On Friday night, Ridwan sent me text about going to Islamic Centre on Saturday afternoon. There was an invitation from the Manawatu Islamic Centre on Cook Street to have a barbeque party. Suhendra’s host kindly brought a minivan car to take all friends at Amberley Ave with his van. We met some brothers and sisters from Asia, Africa, Europe, and New Zealand. After praying Dzuhur, one of the Islamic Centre staff announced that the agenda was postponed to next week because the weather was not good. That’s not a good news, but after that, Anti, Suhendra’s host invited us to her house.

In a group of eight we went to her house. We stopped at Moshims Shop to buy some meat and other things. Moshims shop was a chain store provided halal food fpr muslim in Palmerston North. We held a party here with Latif, Anti’s son. Latif’s sons and daughters were also invited to this party. This family are New Zealander, but they were previously from Fiji but their first country was India.

19/10/09
On October 19 afternoon we had a class with Bobbi Hunter, a lecturer of Massey University at Auckland. She brought us to an interesting discussion about co-operative grouping: theory and practice. There is a lot of grouping in New Zealand Classes.

Grouping is used in NZ’s classes almost in every activity. Teachers had to observe student’s ability and attitude before grouping is conducted. Different goals need use different groupings. I felt to be a good teacher here, I should think deeply about my lesson plan before the class began. Certain subjects are better explained to a class as a whole group and certain tasks referred to be done individually.

Co-operative learning by grouping could generate student skills: leadership, negotiation, thinking, mental skill, describing, speaking and so on. A teacher at Tiritia School said that teachers must know what students want and think! With this condition, teachers and students enjoyed the class and had right aims.

Friday morning we visited Tiritia school by bus. It is located near Massey Universiity. Glenys Edmonds, the principal, welcomed us with open arms. As told by Phil, the school was preparing for their Annual Lamb, Calf, and Pet Day on next Saturday. We found grouping conducted in all classes.

Some students made creative cakes with ornaments. At year 1 and year 2 classes a teacher and three parents helped students to color the drawing of Gingerbread Man. Class fulfilled by students creation and learning resources. The shape and condition of the classes were more casual than we had in Indonesia. Social skill were taught well here. Students replied to our questions confidently. Mrs Edmonds described the school management of this deciles 10 school after our observation.