Farewell Kahu 5

Today was my last day teaching at Ranui Primary school. It was definitely a bitter sweet day. I honestly cannot believe how FAST my 6 weeks of practicum teaching flew by. Surprisingly I held it all together and only got choked up a couple of times, but was able to keep in my tears the whole day. It was actually yesterday morning that I lost it haha. 

Yesterday, my kids starting singing their morning wiata, like we do everyday, and I just completely lost it. It took everything in me to not let the tears spill out. Of course with my luck, that was the day I was to be observed by Ramona....let's just say it did not go over very well. The kids were all wound up from doing fitness right before Ramona came to observe me, and they were not wanting to sit still and do math. So my lesson didn't go over very well, and I was already on the verge of tears from knowing that I was leaving the next day. Because of all these emotions mixed into one, when I got with Ramona after my lesson to debrief, I completely LOST IT. I just kept crying and crying and crying and could not stop (99% of it being that I was leaving my precious kids the next day). 

It was actually quite funny because I got Ramona crying along with me. There we were, two American's sitting in the kids library crying. It was funny. When I got back to class my students were like, "Miss Welch why are your eyes so puffy and pink?" I told them jokingly, because there was no way to cover up my eyes, that I got sunburned and that my contacts were hurting and making my eyes red. They didn't believe me. The rest of the day was pretty hard to get through, and I kept thinking to myself. . . ."how in the world am I ever going to make it through tomorrow? I haven't even said my goodbyes yet haha."

I woke up today though feeling great and ready to say goodbye to my class. I had prayed and prayed the days before that I would be ok on my last day, and I felt peace as soon as I woke up. I was happy and knew that my kids were going to be ok once I left and that I would be ok too. And that's how the whole day went and felt. 

I was happy,

I didn't cry, 

I took in every last smile and memory possible from each of my kids, 

I said my goodbyes, 

I gave lots of hugs, 

I said lots of "I'll miss yous", 

I ate lots of food, 

I watched my kids perform my hip hop dance for the last time,

I received lots of beautiful gifts from Mrs. Tararo and my students, 

and I said farewell to Kahu 5 

I will miss these kids so much. (Sheena, Aroha, Sene, Frevanie, Alexia,
Quavana, Tiare, Alex, Ilaisaane, Taumatua, Tevita)

I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but my instructor's kids, Tiare
and Atticus, were able to be in my class during my whole practicum. That is
Tiare in the pink shirt. It was fun to be able to teach them along with my
NZ kids! (Alexia, Sene, Ilaisaane, Tiare, Quavana)

LOVE my Kahu 5 boys....they always brought a smile to my face!
(Kenny, Amon, Alex, Tevita, PJ, Dyllin, Quavana, Tiare)

Some of the notes I got from my students :)

Ilaisaane gave me that blue shell necklace. It was her
necklace that I saw her wearing EVERY day at school.
I told her she should keep it because it is her favorite,
but she could not wait to give it to me. "It's my present
to you Miss Welch." She hugged me at least 500 times
throughout the day and begged me not to leave. I
almost cried because she kept getting teary-eyed!

Frevanie, Eliza, Quavana, Sheena, Inga.

We brought banana cake to share with the staff during morning tea. Mrs.
Tararo brought the chocolate cakes to share too. 

"Shared Lunch". All the kids in my class got to bring in a treat to share with
everyone. Then before lunch, we all sat together and munched on a
"shared lunch" together. I have never eaten so much banana cake in
my life. It is yummy!!

Last day of culture practice for me. All the kids did my hip hop dance for
me a couple of times. I can't believe how fast they learned it and how
WELL they can do it! :)

Definitely a highlight of my teaching experience!

I LOVE MY NZ KIDS!

Then they performed the haka afterwards :)

My culture group, Mrs. Tararo, and I

plus Brittany, Brooke, and Margo

Mrs. Tararo gave me a going away present. She gave me
a shirt and this REAL green stone/jade Maori necklace.
I cannot believe she did that....the people here are always
so giving of everything! I have been WANTING this
EXACT necklace but real green stone/jade start
around $50 and can get up into the $200's. So I
wasn't planning on getting one. Thank you Mrs.
Tararo. 

Mykayla, Dyllin, and Alexia. Dyllin literally melts my heart. His smile
is the sweetest thing I have ever seen. He is the sweetest little boy
and would always come in smiling away at me everyday. Whenever
he'd ask me stuff he'd always end with his cute smile and a laugh. I
literally would smile EVERY time I saw Dyllin because he had
such a loving, kind, happy, and sweet spirit about him that made me
want to be a better person.

All of the Senior (year 5/6's) School.

Me and my class, Kahu 5. They will always have a place in my heart!!

Mrs. Tararo. I love her! She is such a giving and loving person and I have
learned a lot as I have been able to teach with her!

Last time at Ranui.

Farewell our favorite NZ primary school. 

Chris Kell. He was one of the other Senior school teachers. We ate morning
tea and lunch with him everyday and boy was he funny! I worked with
him often since he worked with Mrs. Tararo at times. Oh Chris, Chris, Chris.
How I will miss your sarcasm and calling me the "E-meri-can". 

Love my kid in my class Alex. What a BRIGHT and good kid.

Last walk home! We had to cross under this fence everyday.

It was really good that we were able to end the day on a happier, more
exciting note. We all met up at the theater and saw Hunger Games
together. It was SOOOOOO GOOD!!! Ah I loved it! It was just like
the book. I'm glad we got to end the day happier than the goodbyes!

Best goodbye of the day was definitely from this boy in one of the other senior classes. He came up to me and said, "Goodbye Miss Welch. When you get back home can you say hello to Usher for me?" Oh how I love New Zealand kids! :) :) :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These are most of my students. You can see a glimps of Dyilln's cuteness in this video!! I love NZ kids accents :)