Should Dance replace powerpoint?

This week Huia has been busy on practicing our moves for production. Dance is a really powerful form of communication. Have a look at this video. What do you notice? How do you think the video relates to creativity? Do you think dance should replace powerpoint?

Passion Projects - half way point

This week marks the half way point for this term's passion projects.

Some of you have made some amazing progress, like Zoe who was able to have a go at covering a cake in fondant and decorating it.

We will be having a passion project expo on Thursday of the last week of term.

How are you going on your passion projects?

What is your goal for this week?

How are you documenting your progress?

Ashton Kutcher Speech - Teen Choice Awards (HQ)

The teenchoice awards are awards where teenagers vote on their favourite movies and TV awards.

Ashton Kutcher recently gave some awesome advice (with a bit of coarse language) on life.

Not being afraid of hard work, being thoughtful generosity and having courage are values we should all live by.



Have a think about your week.

What have you worked hard on this week? What were the results of this hard work?

Being thoughtful. How have you been thoughtful towards others this week? Have you had some moments when you needed to be more mindful of others people's feelings? What will you change next week to be more mindful of others?

Having courage. Alongside doing well in your learning, I hope you leave Room 15 with the courage to follow your own path in life. Is there a time recently when you were faced with a popular choice and the right choice? Which choice did you make? Were you happy about it? What did you learn as a result of this choice?

Our Japanese explorers

Michelle, Zane and Elizabeth are extremely lucky to be heading off to Japan tomorrow.

I'm sure that the students will have lots of fun and I must admit that I'm green with envy at all the adventures the students will have.

You can keep up with the adventures of the 2013 Japan exchange over here!

Another set of Earthquakes

Wellington had another set of earthquakes this weekend start just before school ended on Friday.

Unfortunately I was sick in bed but luckily I leapt into the doorway when the shaking started. As the rumble grew bigger I heard the smash of glass in my kitchen and my bookcase tumbled over.

After the earthquake, Wellington was choked by traffic and there were people swarming around in the street.

I stayed in my apartment and watched the scene from above.

Lots of my friends came to visit because they couldn't get out of the city and the day turned into an impromptu party.

How were you effected by the earthquake?

Did anyone from your family get stuck in Wellington?

Have you talked with your family about what you might do if your parents are stuck in Wellington? Why do you think it might be a good idea?

Pictures from the past

Earlier in the term we looked at a photo from the french artist Villemard. He made a whole lot of postcards of life in Paris in the year 2000 from way back in 1910.

Make a quality comment

Think about

Your noticings, your wonderings, what makes the images seem futuristic but also set in the past.

Swimming!

For the last few weeks room 15 has been swimming at Tawa pools. Some of the students have made some amazing progress during their lessons.

What have you enjoyed about swimming?

Have you improved your swimming technique? How so?

What have you found challenging in swimming?

Why do you think it is important to learn to swim?

ASB get WISE

Last week Room 15 has a visit from Vane from the ASB get wise programme.

The students learned about the difference between credit cards and debit cards.

What makes a good savings goal - who remembers what C.A.T stands for?

What were your takeaways from the session?

What do you think is good debt?

What about bad debt?

What questions would you be asking if you were to get out a loan?

Meditation

Exercises that involve concentration like yoga, tai chi and meditation can help you to become more mindful people.

Being more mindful means that you are becoming a lot more aware of how your choices impact on yourself and those around you.

How are you becoming more mindful.

Think about…

Your behaviour
The way you speak and treat others
How you feel in class
Your relationships with adults

Make a quality comment to tell us what you think.

Quality Comments

Hi Room 15
Lets share the love and give our quadblogging some comments. Perhaps you could look Malteser cake maths from 8C and Food technology.

Halo Trust

We were very lucky last week to have the Halo Trust come and talk to us about the effect that rats, stouts and possums are having on our native birds.

What did you think about the presentation?

Has it made you think differently about our native birds?

Playing to your strengths

The purpose of Room 15's passion projects is to give you time in school to turn your hidden interests into talents you are known for.

When you go to college, you get to make a lot more choices about what subjects to study before you go out into the world

You'll have lots of people telling what they think you should be doing. But it's really important that you know your strengths so you can choose your own path.

Organising bits of paper is not a strength of mine so working in office (which I did for a few years) wasn't a good fit for me. I was really unhappy in the office and these days I feel a lot better going to work.

I still have to organize bits of paper as a teacher (and it's something I still need to work on) but these days I spend more time coming up with ideas than organising paper the balance is better.

This year I've had some amazing opportunities like going to Bali with Apple and Sydney with Google by following my passions and backing it up with hard work.



What are some of your strengths?

How do you play to them in the classroom?

How will you play to them in life?

What are your weaknesses?  How will you manage your weaknesses?

What are your takeaways from this video?

Our earthquake experiences

One of our quadblogging buddies, Alice, recently asked Room 15 who wanted to know how Room 15 are feeling after all the Earthquakes in Wellington.

Over the school holidays Wellington experienced hundreds of earthquakes. The largest earthquake was a 6.4 magnitude  quake that happened just after 5 last Sunday.

I live on the fifth floor of an apartment  near Te Papa so the shaking was pretty intense. All the cups fell off the shelf onto to the floor and broke which was very scary. The next day, Wellington was a ghost town as many businesses were shut. 

Since the big earthquake there have been over 1,000 earthquakes. Most of them are too small to feel but there have been a few good shakes.

What did you do during the earthquakes?

Was your family effected by the earthquakes?