Before I left Portland I was talking with Jan Carpenter, Education Department Chair at Marylhurst University, about my trip to New Zealand. I was sharing with her how I felt that visiting schools and libraries in other countries (my previous experience being China) allows one to understand the cultures and values of the place. With that in mind I was hoping to somehow make some school visits during my time in NZ. It turns out that Jan has a colleague at the University of Vermont who brings educators to New Zealand for two weeks each year. Jan contacted her friend who then email introduced me to the two principals of schools in Auckland. Arrangements were made and yesterday was my first half day visit to Balmoral School.

Getting to the school involved catching the 7:30am ferry into Auckland from Waiheke, walking many downtown blocks to catch a bus out to the Sandringham area and then walking about 5 minutes to this residential school.

After signing in and a short wait, I was met by Principal Malcolm Milner. First thing’s first: tea! We met in his office and had a great discussion about the philosophy of the school, the role of politics (liberal vs conservative) on the educational system, and leadership structure of the school in terms of administration and the role of teachers in leadership roles. We were joined by Katie, the deputy Principal, who is more involved at the building level and working with teachers.

This is a public school that draws its enrollment from the local neighborhood and they just closed to transfer students from outside their catchment area. It is a combined primary and intermediate school, grades 1-8. For any of you not involved in education, here comes some ‘educationese’…the school is based in constructivist theory and using an inquiry model and philosophy for teaching all subjects. All classes are self-contained all the way up to grade 8. It took me a while to wrap my brain around this and shifting out of: ‘but when do they go to math? To science?, etc.’. Katie and I began classroom visits and were joined within a short while by Andrea whose role is much like a TOSA (Teacher on special assignment) and supports teachers on a daily basis. Schools are only in their first week of school so they’re just beginning their inquiry. My first classroom visit was to a grade 8 class (12-13 year olds) that has chosen to study bees, which has expanded to include wasps and hornets. Kids were working in groups to design the nest of whichever insect they chose, working out the math and scale of the nest and then building it out of clay or paper mache. Truly, I think they’re all doing science in these classes because science is inquiry, there’s just not a class called ‘science’. The learning is hands-on, based in play and wonder, teacher is guide and directs the questions that students ask. The direction that the teacher may have thought the course of study would go may change based on the questions students have. As you can imagine, the teacher must be flexible yet have in-depth planning ready. Classroom walls show the roadmap of the learning. Each class keeps a large journal for the year of the learning and justification for the transitions and what is taught. There are school and country standards that are met for each grade level.

At the end of class visits we returned to the principal’s office to debrief and have more tea. The whole visit was so energizing, inspiring and reminded me of my time teaching at Caitlin Gabel. I left there feeling like I want to learn more, continue the conversation find ways to implement some of their philosophy into our system. Oh, right. I’m retired…I forgot for just a moment or two. I think I’m visiting a secondary school next week. One last interesting thing: attached to Balmoral school is a children’s dental clinic.

And now to the Auckland Library. I took the bus back to Auckland and got off in a very vibrant part of town near the Auckland Art Gallery. (There will be more about the art gallery in days to come because of the ‘Manifesto’ exhibit by an artist who features Cate Blanchett as 13 different characters). I stopped in to see the library and as noted above, the essence of Auckland and New Zealand was revealed. A beautiful interior, public art, a Maori ‘room’ and an exhibit of photography from all over New Zealand.

Lunch, a walk to the ferry through downtown and another lovely day’s ends, this one with learning as the focus. Beautiful!