Long weekend in Wellington

My school board kindly gives us all a 3 day weekend once a year. I flew the hour down to Wellington, New Zealand's capital city, to meet up with a friend from Christchurch (an hour south again). This dear friend actually used to be a penfriend of mine from Boston, MA, USA and we first met at my wedding 23.6 years ago! We've met in Boston, the UK and Australia over the years and she has now lived in NZ for 12 or so years.

This was the view from our air b'n'b - right on Cuba Street - the best location!

 I was so delighted to go and visit NISA - it's underwear made by former refugees in Wellington and I own quite  a few items of theirs. Such a good cause. https://nisa.co.nz/  Perfect for Christmas gifts - I've bought underwear for the entire family. Quite neat to see where they sew everything! I was part of their crowd fundraising event to get special machinery to enable them to be able to sew men's underwear.

 my favourite tea shop... TLeaf  Another great place for Christmas gifts...

 We went here for dinner... i'll psot photos of that another time... WOW !

 Nisa underwear i bought... all made here in Godzone.

 Wellington city... on a harbour - a fab walking city. Can't beat the cafes .

LOVE the city - i lived there while at Library School in the 1990s. It was SO fab to catch up with my friend April - another post to come! New Zealand travel is so goo d- my 3rd trip this year around my own country.

last month

 This is my "Northeasterly" sock wool remnants blanket. I am enjoying knitting it a lot. Some of this wool I was gifted a year or tow back by the lovely Christina from A Colourful Life.

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 This kept students entertained the other day - I must remember to use it daily. Good practice.

 I'm collecting Christmas picture books - in a few more weeks I'll wrap them up and students can take turns at unwrapping one day to read. We finish school on December 12, so I will start Christmas stuff in a month for so (although one told me on Monday there was only 70 odd sleeps to go! We countdown for student birthdays etc!).

 And the cutest rubbers from KMart for maths. I don't buy much these days - if I am shopping it is for classroom supplies...

 I've been clearing out my house.... huge piles of books to Hospice. Mint condition fiction and some mighty good stuff. I've also donated stuff to two school libraries.

 And was a bit mortified at the state of my current school library, so went shopping for them (donation from me).

 Well the school teacher, ex-librarian HAD to have the Gruffalo pyjamas from Peter Alexander....

 We baked coconut bread at school during Tongan Language Week. It was yum!

I'm off school for a few days - off to doctor shortly - not a fab start to term 4 when there is so much to do.........

WOW... things carry on....

I'm still here! I'm posting a lot more on instagram these days (kimberleyatk).

It's the school holidays - the "holidays" every 10 weeks or so save me as a teacher! From this Monday, I've only 9 weeks left of my first school year teaching! (New Zealand schools start the school year from January 29 this year and finish anywhere from Dec 12 - my school - to December 20 - each school makes its own decision!). It has been the most incredible journey and i've learnt a TON! I do love the NZ system - I'm in a single cell classroom (becoming uncommon as walls are disappearing across classrooms and there can be any number of students in a huge space with multiple teachers teaching - team teaching) and have my own group of students and do our own thing. I can pretty much teach how and what I want ( there is a curriculum, but how I choose to teach it is up to me and my students too, as they get a say as well!). It is awesome. It is HARD! It is the HARDEST thing I've ever done in my life. 60-70 hour weeks are a killer - I'm working on getting that down - I'm glad I've teenagers/one adult "kid", as crikey, how any teacher with their own young children does it, is beyond me! It is your LIFE! It seems like it is your ENTIRE life!

I'm not looking forward to the 9 weeks with testing and reporting and my own assessment stuff... I got up to 24 students, but am down to 15 now, which is awesome, but I am constantly thinking how to move them up (lots of our students come in at a 3 year old verbal/ developmental age, low social skills etc) - there has been MAJOR progress, but still not where they should be. But then I also think, why on earth are we making 5 year olds read and write?! It is crazy! European students don't start till they are 7 and they end up at the same place as our kids.... sigh. I have to do my job...

This is my classroom which I re-set up 2 days ago....

There has been a TON of knitting since June... not a lot done before that while I got my brain around teaching and the massive career change I had made... This is my northeasterly blanket using odds and ends of 4 ply...

 hats for a winter trip over the seas coming up...

 a cowl....

 another hat...

 me in my Tongan clothing and mu newly finished Flax jersey...

 Another flax on a hospital floor - yeah- we've had quite the year with the 18 year old DAMN lucky to be alive after SEPSIS and appendicitus....

I'll do my best to keep blogging again.... hope all is well with all....