Cadbury World

Today, the students enjoyed a tour around the Cadbury Chocolate Factory. They received lots of chocolates, but I don't think that they liked the liquid chocolate. I think that they thought it was too sweet!!

St Clair Beach

What a great way to spend a hot day!!

Organ Pipes

It was a lovely day to go to the organ pipes on Mt. Cargill today. For those who don't know, the organ pipes are long cylindrical looking pillars of rock that have the appearance of organ pipes. We drove to the quarry, where the carpark was and walked for about 15 minutes up hill to get to them. Since we had some time we then walked up to the transmitter station on the very top of Mt. Cargill. All of the students did the walk very well, but I think that they were all relieved to get back to the car and rest. Another great experience that the students will remember, I'm sure!

Chingford Park Team Building Activities

Today, the students left at 8:30 and did a tour of Dunedin city with the A block OP engineering students. We practised short, friendly and funny conversational openings and I could hear the students saying some of them. Mainly, these openings took the form of "gidday mate, how's it going?" and "great day for it" etc.

After the city tour the students all went to Chingford Park in North East Valley and did some team building activities. These games involved trying to get all of your team members over an imaginary electric fence by just using a plank of wood, going through an invisible maze, riding a bicycle along some unbalanced planks, making bridges to walk on, etc. The activities started around 10am and broke for a BBQ at about 12:30, then continued on until about 2:30. The weather held out, so all in all I think that it was a great day.

I plan to talk about the activities and experiences that the students had tomorrow in English class from 10-12.

TOEIC

The students did another TOEIC test last Friday (12th Feb) and the average was 629!!

This was a great achievement. The top score was 810, followed by 800. The lowest score was 450, which is still pretty awesome!!!

Cricket

The students had a really great time playing cricket today at Logan Park. We used a couple of practise cricket balls (not too hard) and played on the artificial turf. The students all said that they enjoyed the experience and some of them are practising outside the classroom as I'm writing this, now. They have to straighten their arms when they bowl - a lot of the students are bending and then throwing the ball - just like baseball I suppose (ha ha).

We're also getting ready for graduation on the 10th and 12th of March. The students are preparing their presentations and also writing about their NZ experiences for the graduation book. Here's a photo that I'm thinking of putting in the book.

Back again!!

Well, the English only classes have finished and the students are settling back into doing some engineering. This morning we went to Stewarts Coffee Factory and the Greenman Beer Factory (don't worry, they didnt' have anything to drink!).

Both of the factories were really informative and gave the students a look at some local talent.

Tomorrow, we're going to be going out onto Logan Park and playing some cricket. The students have already said that they find cricket boring, but nobody has actually played it - I hope that they change their attitude from tomorrow.

There is a video conference with KTC this Friday from 1-3ish, so there is no class in the morning. It is going to be open day at KTC, so any prospective students and parents will be having a look at how classes are taught here at the Poly. The students in KTC will also be asking questions to the students here. This is a very interactive time for both KTC and OP. I hope that it goes well.

The students are also doing well with their English. The TOEIC average score for the test last Friday was 561. This is the highest so far and still with 4 more tests to go!!

I'm also going to be planning a trip to Cadbury's factory in the next week, so I'll keep you posted about this.