Everyday Leadership

As we head into the last few weeks of the year the topic of leadership is coming up a lot in out class.

Room 15 has been lucky to have some fantastic leaders this year from our Year 8s. Some of the students have had formal roles like student councillor or sports committee but there have also been a lot of students who have stepped in the class making sure that our class runs smoothly.

 Year 7s you have big shoes to fill next year.



I had a lollypop moment regularly on the train. The train conductors in the morning are always so happy and crack a few jokes. It always makes me smile even on a cold, rainy day.

Have you had a lollypop moment? Did you the tell the person that the effect of their kindness or goofiness had on you?

How can you give people the lollypop moment that Drew talks about in the movie?

Words of Wisdom for Year 6s

My room
In my house
Somewhere in Wellington
New Zealand

Room 15
Tawa Intermediate School
Tawa
Wellington

25/11/2012

Dear Room 15 Students

In case you haven't guessed already this week we are practicing the art of formal letter writing. Although most business is conducted via email these days it is still important to know how to write a formal letter for job applications or perhaps in support of an application.

Your task for the week is to write a letter imparting your words of wisdom for the Year 6s coming to Tawa Intermediate School.

Because we haven't posted on our blogs in a couple of weeks I think it is important to go over good posting. Your letter should make a positive connection with the reader (and a reminder anyone can read your work). Don't give out too much information (notice how I used my room, in my house, somewhere in Wellington and sign off using only my first name).  You also need to show that you have used all the key elements of a formal letter.

Formal letters have key elements that must appear in order.

• Your address.
• The recipient’s address (who you’re sending the letter to).
• The date
• The salutation (Dear so and so)
• The opening paragraph (why you are writing)
• A couple of main points
• A closing paragraph
• The closing greeting (your sincerely if you know the person, yours faithfully if you do not)
• Your signature/name.

So a reminder you are writing a letter to the incoming year 6s about your words of wisdom on how to make the most of intermediate school. I hope you enjoy this weeks task and I look forward to reading your letters.

Yours sincerely

Stephanie

Buy nothing day?

I heard on the radio that Saturday was International Buy Nothing Day. I didn't do so well as I needed to buy ingredients for my sister's wedding cake. I bought a lot of stuff but then I baked the cake with my sister so that was fun as we don't see that much of each other.

Did you or your family go shopping on Saturday?

Did you stop to think about what you might be doing if the shops weren't open?

When I was your age, the shops were closed every Sunday and didn't stay open late at night. Since 1990 shops were allowed to open 24 hours a day except on Christmas day, Easter Friday and Sunday, as well as half of ANZAC. Day

Who do you think benefited from the shops being shut once a week?

Who might not be so happy with the shops being shut once a week?

What would happen if the government announced that shops were forced to shut once a week?

Death by powerpoint

Have you seen some terrible PowerPoint presentations?

Have you created some terrible ones too?

What are the main messages in this video?

How can you improve your communication skills?

Our Milk bottle igloo opening

After many, many weeks our milk bottle igloo is finally complete. So room 15 decided it was time to celebrate with a shared lunch. First, Britt and Nikita gave a speech to welcome everybody.

 

Then we asked Mr Buncks, the technology teacher, to cut the ribbons.

 

 Then it was time to feast.
 

The students did a stellar job of organizing the ceremony. They planned and executed the lunch except for the Rainbow Cake.




Now we have something fun and fuctional in our class made out of recycled objects.

From Trash to Fab - Middle Earth style

One of our home learning tasks for this term was called from Trash to Fab. The brief was to take an item that would otherwise be thrown away and make it into something awesome. Here our resident Tolkien  fan Sammiiee has taken an old piece of carpet and some egg cartons and turned it into a map of West Middle Earth.  Awesome work Sammiiee!

Power of intorverts

Mrs Moran found an interesting speech (and book) about the power of introverts. Introverts are people who tend to quiet and enjoy doing activities by themselves rather than in big groups.

In contrast, extroverts tend to enjoy social activities and are a bit louder.

We can all sometimes be introverts and extroverts.

Susan Cain, the speaker, thinks that schools aren't very welcoming to introverts.

Are you more of an introvert or an extrovert?

How do you think schools could be a more welcoming place to introverts?

Celebrating the Solar Eclipse

We were lucky in Room 15 to have a cracker of a day for the total eclipse. Although Wellington is a bit far South to enjoy the full effect, we had some fun using old and new technology to help us enjoy the event. 

Nate is enjoying the skyview view app on the ipad.

 
 Skyview is an augmented reality app which overlays graphics onto the scene in front of us.

 After morning tea, we ventured up to Tawa college for some more viewing.  Tawa college had some filters to view the eclipse.

Tawa College also had some proper telescopes for the students to look at the eclipse.

This is the most complete eclipse New Zealand will see until July 22, 2028. Hard to believe that the students will be almost into their 30s by then!

How we start our day in Room 15

Our day in Room 15 usually starts with 'stuff to do.' Sometimes there might be chores or projects to work on. We take a break for roll and notices and then head off to work.

How do you start your morning in your school?

Algebra problem posing

This morning room 15 had a go at problem posing.  The class broke into groups and then had to clear  five levels maths problems to be declared the winner.

There was a twist. In order to clear the level, the group had to ask the right questions to unlock some key information for the problem.

• What were some things you found easy?
• What are some things you found difficult?
• What would you do differently next time?
• How did you work as a team? How could you improve your team work?
• What did you enjoy about the activity?
• Do you think we should try problem posing again?

Milk Bottles Advertisment

Room 15 is in a bind. We are trying to make an igloo out of milk bottles but we have run out of milk bottles. We ran an advertisement at assembly asking the school for help. Cheers to Lachlan, Nick, Jonno and Elizabeth for the advertisement. I hope we get some more milk bottles into school!

A scrapbook arrives from #globalclassroom

We finally got around to opening our mail from yesterday and were surprised to see the global scrapbook had arrived. The scrapbook has been on a bit of journey visiting Romania, Israel, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia before arriving in Room 15. 

At the moment Room 15 is learning more about the countries in the scrapbook before deciding how we will represent our class, school, neighbourhood, city and country before the scrapbook makes its next stop in... Indonesia!

Exciting stuff!  

Mail in Room 15!

This afternoon our class received a package from Western Australia. Our class was very excited to find out what was inside but unfortunately the bell went before we had a chance to open in it.

I wonder what is inside.

Similes and Metaphors

WALT: Use figurative language in our writing.

 This week on our work on writing we will be writing a recount of camp using similes and metaphors. Similes and metaphors are great ways to help add detail to your descriptions and make your writing more interesting to the reader.

 A simile is a direct comparison of one thing to another. You can spot similes easily because they have "like" or "as" or sometimes "if" or "than" in the sentence. E.g Usain Bolt runs faster than a car.

 A metaphor is a bit trickier. Metaphor is when you use two nouns and compare or contrast them to one another. e.g Time is money. Popular music uses a lot of similes and metaphors in the lyrics.

Can you spot any in Katy Perry's song firework?

Camp

Hi First Fifteen

Wasn't camp an amazing experience? Boisterous,  exhilarating and treacherous would be my 3 words to describe camp.  Here's some photos of our amazing time at camp.

My highlight would have to be Stephen losing his voice. It was fun to make him repeat everything over and over again.

 My lowlight was when I fell out of the raft. Brrrr! Was that water cold!

Probability

Room 15 is away at camp this week.

In the meantime please enjoy our video on exploring probability.

Conquering Fear

Like the rest of the class, I'm really excited to be going to camp next week.

One of the big 'lessons' of camp is conquering fear.

A little bit of fear is good. It helps teach us empathy (being aware of others feelings) and also protects us from danger.

But sometimes fear can stop us from enjoying life.

One of my great fears is snakes.

When I was in Malaysia, I decided to conquer my fear of snakes by visiting the snake temple in Penang. One of the staff offered chance to hold not one but two snakes. I felt really nervous but closed my eyes and breathed deeply.

The owner of the snakes told me to imagine the snakes are like really expensive handbags.

Have you ever a conquered a fear? What did you do to help push through your fear?

How can we support other students when they are facing situations they are afraid of at camp?

Term 4 week 1 work on writing

This week's work on writing.
Is something you'll be liking.
Try a limerick
And be very quick
So hop to it and don't be biting!

Welcome back to school for term four. This term we are studying poetry so to get things started let's start with limericks. A limerick is a witty and nonsensical type of poetry from Ireland. You can see from my example that the first, second and fifth lines of the stanza rhyme. So too do the third and fourth lines.

Limericks also have a special rhythm to them which we will discuss in class.

Final Week's work on writing for Term 3

WALT:  write a piece persuasive text.

This week you are going to respond to an article in the media. Before you write your post, you need implement the 3-2-1 Fun reading strategy. Then you need to write a piece which either agrees or disagrees with the article.

Your post needs to have:

Introduction - a hook into your story. Appeal to the audience's emotions or put them in that situation.
3 main points - each point should have a separate paragraph.
Conclusion  - why you think you the way you do and link back to your introduction.

You also need to provide a link to the article that you are responding to in your post somewhere.

Nikki, Helen, Lachlan and Nikita really nailed last week's structure so if you are unsure go and take a look at their work for examples of what you need to be looking for.

Here are some things you might want to write about:

There were a lot articles about education this weekend due to National Standards data being released.

A newspaper article claims that texting and slang are effecting students ability to write.

Titahi Bay Intermediate just down the road from us claims national standards could cause children to give up on school.

Other things you might want to write about.

Should junk mail be banned?
Do you think the All Blacks can continue their winning streak?

Remember you need to base your argument around the idea of sustainability - the ability to keep something going.

Being nice

Why do you think someone organized this? 
What might they have been hoping to achieve?
Do you think they really have to tell people to “say something nice”? Why?
What effect would a strategy like this have at TIS?
How have you been nice to people this week?

Fonterra Science Roadshow

Room 15 joined Pouakai syndicate today for the Fonterra Science Roadshow.  We learned a lot about the difference between physical and chemical changes as well as bases and acids.

Shavee is having a peak in one of the microscopes. I wonder what he can see.

What was your favourite exhibit?

Do you remember what the difference is between a physical and chemical change?

What's in Room 15's lunchboxes?

What's in (or not in) kids' lunchboxes is the cause of a lot of debate in our country at the moment. Some of our reading groups have been looking at how food in schools relates to our topic of sustainability.

One of our reading groups watched a Campbell Live story where a journalist compared lunchboxes at a poor and rich schools. We were shocked to see that so many New Zealand children don't eat lunch. During the reading group, Brad suggested that we do the lunch box experiment in our class.

Just before lunch Room 15 students got out their lunchboxes and put ticks or crosses next to our lunches to show if the students had eaten breakfast.

 

We had a few students away at the music festival so there were only 22 students here today. 

Our survey results

According to Wikipedia our school is a Decile 8 which means our school is located in a relatively wealthy community. However not everyone in our class had eaten breakfast and some students had already eaten all their lunch.

What does school lunch look like for the students in your class?

Work on writing starting 17/09

Hi Room 15

Our WALT for this week's work on writing is persuade others.

Learning how to write persuasively is an important skill and not just for

Introduction - this is the place where you hook people into your argument.

3 main points - Three key arguments as to why you are are right. You should talk about the other side and talk about why they are wrong.

Conclusion - Link back to your introduction.

Brad wrote a fantastic piece on facebook earlier this year which follows this basic template. You can read his post here.

Your post needs to be at least 3 paragraphs and no more than 800 words and is due in by THURSDAY.

Your topic should be related to sustainability and you need to take a stance on an issue.

Stuck for a topic? Here are some ideas:

Food in schools. Last week, food in schools was very topical. Should the government provide money for food in schools? (sustaining our bodies).

Should Te Reo be compulsory for students to learn? (sustaining our culture)

Rubbish - should our school ban wrappers and gladwrap from lunchboxes? (sustaining our environment)

How much rubbish is there @ TIS?

Room 15 began our unit on stats by conducting a statistical investigation into the amount of rubbish in our school.

Introduction

With over 500 students bringing their lunch to school, that's a lot of wrappers, bottles and food waste coming into our school. Most students put their rubbish in the bins but there is still a bit of rubbish around the school. But how much litter is there at TIS? Room 15 set out to find out the location and types of rubbish found. 

Data Collection

From Tuesday to Thursday last week our class measured up 2m squares at seven separate locations around the school. We used squares so that we could compare the amounts of rubbish in different areas in the school. The class then counted the amount of and different types of rubbish in the school twice a day, once before morning tea and then again after morning tea.

Location of Rubbish

According to our results, the quad and the PE shed are areas where there is a lot of litter with the PE shed having an average of 16 pieces of Rubbish in the square and the Quad having 14 pieces of the Rubbish. The PE shed square included a rubbish bin which indicates that students are not putting their rubbish in the bin properly! 

The place with the least amount of Rubbish was out the front of Room 15 with an average of only 3 pieces of rubbish found over the three days. There also wasn't very much rubbish found behind Room 15 which is out of bounds to students at lunch time.

Different Types of Rubbish

Wrappers and gladwrap was the most common types of rubbish found in our survey.  37% of the total amount of rubbish that Room 15 counted was made up of wrappers while gladwrap made up 17%. Foodwaste only made up 10% of the rubbish that we found.

Conclusion

We found a large amount of rubbish in our school with more rubbish found after morning tea than before. The small amount found behind Room 15 shows that most of the rubbish found in our school is from TIS students rather than the wind blowing it down from the College.

The quad and PE shed are areas where more bins could be placed. We also think that TIS students need to make sure that they are putting their rubbish in the bin. A campaign could be used to reduce the amount of wrappers that students bring to school. The school could also investigate the use of a worm form to reduce the amount of food waste.

In conclusion, there are different ways that we can keep our school free from rubbish.

What is success?

What successes have you had this week?

What do you think makes a successful student? How are they successful?

Can you even measure success?

This week's work on writing - Punctuating dialogue

Hi Room 15
This week we are still working on punctuating dialogue. We are going to try another Tail Trail. You need to choose a buddy that you have yet to work with this term to be your tail trail buddy. Please write your names up on the board.

Please remember:
1. "Use speech marks to show your reader where the characters starts and stops talking,"
remarked Stephanie.
2. "Also don't forget to add a comma, question mark, exclaimation mark or full stop before you close the speech!" reminded Stephanie.
3. "Finally don't forget," said the teacher.
"Start each character on a new line! grumbled the students.

Bar Camp

Another fantastic Bar camp from Room 15 last week.

I think you are right, Friday is a better time for bar camp. It's a shame we can't use the courts due to other class's PE sessions.



Here's a planning doc for this week's Bar Camp. I will be in Auckland on Friday so the class needs to be super-organized if you want to make the camp successful.



Someone also needs to take responsibility for being the Bar Camp recorder. Leave a comment below if you think you might a person who can help.

Tenacity - how have you show this quality lately?

A few weeks ago I went with one of my friends to see the movie First Position. I'm not a big fan of ballet but the film was more about the journeys of  half a dozen dancers aged 11-17. The film followed the dancers' preparation for a major competition.

We often think of dancers, especially ballet dancers as being gifted. But is that something you are born with or do you think it is something you work at?

One of the qualities of a great dancer that is mentioned in the film is tenacity, the ability to keep trying even though a task might be difficult.

How have you show tenacity in your learning lately?

This week's work on writing - Punctuating dialogue

Your task for the week is to write a dialogue.

As we discussed in class, you can choose what form your dialogue takes.

You could have people insult each other or perhaps decelerations of love. The important things are that they are fictional (i.e made up characters) and should swear.

I've written an example below the photo.

"Who you calling stripy?" growled Tigger.

"You foul-mouthed miscreant!" snarled Horangi.

"I'll eat you and your mother too," sniggered Tigger, "lets get ready to rumble."

"I pity the fool who tries to take on me," scoffed Horangi, "you're going down."

The speech marks show where a person starts and stops talking. Each new character starts on a new line.

Barcamp - unconference

We had

Basketball
Minecraft
Moviemaking
Mythical creatures drawing group
Netball
Rugby kicking

What did you learn from BarCamp? What did you teach others from BarCamp?

I learned how to build a house in the mindcraft group and then how to shoot a basketball correctly from Ram.

Here are some important questions to answer:

What are some improvements we could make to the experience?

How can we document our learning?

How can we measure our progress?

Work on writing week starting 27/08

Hi Room 15

For the previous five weeks our class has been learning how to play Ki o Rahi from the wonderful folks from the Wellington City Council.

Your choice is to either write a post on how to play Ki o Rahi or you can write a 'did you know' post about the game.

The blog post must be published before Thursday. You can find the booklets at the front of the class to help you with your work.

I also have a video of us in action which you can use in your post as a digital learning object.

Helping out Mount Scopus

Hi Room 15

6 Daled, a Year 6 (New Zealand Year 7) class, at Mount Scopus in Melbourne is currently preparing for their big exhibition of learning at the end of the year. I'm not sure what an exhibition is so perhaps someone could ask the class on their blog.

Some students in the class are researching issues and need some help.

As a pay it forward, can you please answer two student surveys.

The first is Cyber-bullying.

The second survey is on disabilities.

I am sure the students will be grateful for our help.

This week's work on writing

Do you remember last year when it snowed in Wellington? I found this really cool video of snow in Cuba Mall. You can write about your memory of the snow or you can write about the snow as if you are one of the people in the video.

Your learning intention is to use well-chosen verbs in your post.

e.g Instead of writing, "It snow in Cuba Mall."
You could write the, "Snow fluttered through Cuba Mall."

Be sure to embed the video in your post. You can hit share and then more and you will see the Blogger logo. Click on the blogger logo and a new window pops up for you to write your post.

Talking Italian with Gloria

Sarah currently has an exchange student staying with her from Italy. Gloria generously gave up an afternoon to talk to us about life in Italy. She also taught us the numbers in Italian up to 20.

Thanks Gloria.

An awesome day for Room 15

Students having their picture taken out front by Dominion Post.

It was a busy day for Room 15 student submitters Jade, Stephen, Lachlan, Helen and their documentary/PR person Giorgione. MPs, reporters and even an ambulance were all part of our exciting day.

Students being interviews by print media.

We were a little nervous leaving Linden as the train was already a little late. At Tawa one of the passengers on the train was having heart problems. We had to wait for a long time for the ambulance to come and wondered if we might be late.

Lachlan being interviewed by TV3

When we arrived at parliament, there were some reporters from the Dominion Post and Kapai Mana news there to talk about our submission. The students were full of nervous excitement but they waited patiently to have their turn.

Our four submitters in front of the committee.

The room slowly filled up with media and finally the four brave students got up to speak in front of the MPs. All the preparation paid off and the students spoke loudly and clearly about each of their topics. The MPs had lots of questions for the students which and they answered superbly.

Jade, Giorgione and Helen having a break.

After the students finished they had a lot of interviews with different media. It was pretty cool to talk about all the cool stuff Room 15 does online.

In the afternoon Kris Faafoi, our local MP, took us to take a look around parliament before we headed off to lunch at (ssssh!) McDonald's (sssh!) and then back to school .

The submitters should be proud of themselves and Room 15 you should be proud of your representatives.

A big thank you to Lachlan's parents as well as Jade's brother and sister for coming along to support the submitters. Also a huge thank you to the MPs for listening to us and asking such a great

What a great way to finally finish our topic of citizenship.

Kris Faafoi showing Mrs Stuart and the submitters some of the sights at parliament.

Wikki Sticks spelling

Wikki sticks are small bendy bits of yarn coated in wax that bend and stick into different shapes. Elizabeth had a go at bending the sticks into different words she's found around the place.

Can you guess what they are?

Our blogger of the week

Last week Room 15 was tasked with a making a blog entry that started with the words on your marks, get set go.  There were some pretty cool entries but I think Sarah deserves the title of blogger of the week for her effort. Be sure to  leave Sarah a quality comment.

Tawa Intermediate Students: We’re too young to vote but we still have a voice

12 Year old Tawa Intermediate students Helen Oliver, Stephen Dyoco, Jade Gibbons-Lawrie and Lachlan Patterson might not be able to vote but on Wednesday they will giving a verbal submission before Parliament’s education and science select committee inquiry on digital learning.

“Schools these days aren’t just about listening to the teacher drone on for ages about why pi equals 3.1415927,” said Year 8 student Lachlan, “Teachers use hands on learning to help students learn.”

 “As part of our school-wide topic on citizenship our class decided that we wanted to make a submission to the inquiry because we want more digital learning and more comfortable classrooms for students,” said Year 8 student Stephen.

“So we made a video and put it on youtube for the MPs to see. We were pretty proud when chairwoman Nikki Kaye commented on our classroom blog”  said Year 8 student Jade.

 “I’m feeling nervous about speaking in front of the MPs but I’m excited about making New Zealand schools better and more comfortable places to learn,” said Year 7 student Helen.

 In preparation for the submission the students visited Amesbury School, skyped Room 21 at Point England school in Auckland where the students have 1:1 notebooks, and met with lobbyist Mark Unsworth.

The students submissions will be speaking to their submission at 11.45 on Wednesday August 15 in Parliament Room 3.

You contact us through our teacher.

Mark Unsworth's Visit

The submission students with Mark Unsworth

Yesterday the student submitters had a very exciting visit from a lobbyist called Mark Unsworth. He came to help us with our verbal submission to the education and science select committee.

Mark's firm works with a lot of big businesses like Air NZ, Coca Cola and Telecom. Usually clients would have to pay but Mark was very kind and gave us some advice for free. Mark told us about what it is like to go in front of the committee of MPs and helped us with our speeches. He also asked some questions that the MPs might ask, so we were ready for anything they might throw at us.

Mark was very helpful and we are very thankful for his help and the free pens.

Thanks Mark.

By Lachlan, Giorgi, Stephen, Helen and Jade.

Point England Skype visit

Students submitters

Today our student submitters Giorgione, Jade, Helen, Stephen and Lachlan had a skype visit with Room 21 from Point England school. Point England school is pretty amazing because each student from year 5 up has their own netbook.

We asked Room 21 questions about their use of netbooks.  Room 21 told us that they use netbooks for their writing, making movies and maths games. 

Their parents pay fifteen dollars a mouth for three years and then the students have their netbook for life.

I really like the idea each kid having a netbook. Netbooks can make learning easier and help us use technology in the classroom.

Thanks to Room 21 and Miss Lagitupu for helping us with our submission.

3-2-1 Fun!

One of the reading strategies we have been working in Room 15 is 3,2,1 Fun! Sammiiee made a short film to explain more about it.

Thanks Sammiiee!

Amesbury Visit

Jade and Stephen checking out the storage at Amesbury

Today the student submitters went to Amesbury  School to see modern learning in action.

We saw some cool furniture and technology to enhance their learning in a fun environment.  Amesbury had some really cool leather seats and tables that the children can choose to use or they can sit on the floor. They have choices to sit where ever they want.

We liked that the students can make their own schedule but there are also requirements to do like one reading one writing and one maths so kids and teachers are on track. Students also had I-time for independent learning.

We would like to thank Tara for showing us around the school and our principal, Mrs Stuart, for taking us there.

Stephen, Jade, Lachy, Helen & Giorgione

Our Olympic Interviews

Last week I spotted an awesome idea for an Olympic-themed blog assignment from 4KM and 4KJ  over in Geelong in Australia, interviewing famous Olympic athletes. While 4KM and 4KJ had an Australian theme some of our class decided to research other famous Olympians.

 Can you please post your interview to your individual blog. If you need help you can talk to Lachlan or Giorgione.

As a bit of feed forward some of the camera people need to stand a bit closer to their subjects (the people they are shooting) and also be careful not to shoot your films anywhere where there is a lot of wind blowing (easier said than done) as you can't hear some of the interviews.

Ram and Shavee

Sammiiee, Sarah and Sally-Ann

Brad and Fraser

Josh and Jono

Logan and Nikki

Michelle and Lele

Brit and Giorgione

Nick and Michael

Helen and Elizabeth

Stephen and Lachlan

Arohatia Te Reo - Our submission for Maori Language Week

Tawa Intermediate held its first ever Arohatita Te Reo competition. The brief was to design a learning resource for others to learn Te Reo or about the Maori language.

We thought carefully about what some learning needs are around the school.

At our assembly last week we noticed that while many students didn't know the colors in Te Reo so Stephen, Lachlan, Shavee and Ethan helped produce a song based on from the lyrics to Ma is White.

There were some pretty cool entries from Sammiiee and Helen who made a Te Reo mobile and Giorgione, Nikita, Brit, Sarah and Jade who made signs for all the classes at Tawa Intermediate in Te Reo.

Student government in action

Every week our representative to student council, Stephen, represents room 15's voice at Tawa Intermediate's student council. He reports back to us and as can you can see from the picture he takes his job very seriously.

Our awesome student submitters

Back in Term 2 our class made a video submission to the Education and Science select committee Inquiry on Digital Learning. Now finally the committee is hearing verbal submissions our class gets a chance to have their say on digital learning.

Because our class only has 5 minutes to speak, we couldn't take everyone who wanted to speak to parliament.

On Friday we decided on what we were looking for in our representatives. We decided our representatives needed to be confident public speakers,  answer questions well, made a good contribution to our video submission, manage their time effectively and cope under pressure were what we were looking for in our representatives.

Interested students then had the weekend to prepare before making a presentation on why they thought they would be an awesome representative for our class. To add to the pressure we invited our principal Mrs Stuart along to see the presentations. The the class, our principal and teacher then graded the students on each of the criteria.

After much deliberation and scoring Lachlan, Stephen, Giorgione, Helen and Jade have been selected to be verbal submitters. Giorgione won't be speaking but she is helping with our work and is going to make a documentary about our experience so that others can share in our learning.

Congratulations to those selected and a huge thank you to the students who tried out.

Ki-o-Rahi

Room 15 have had Tom and Denise from Wellington City Council come to teach our class more about the traditional game called Ki-o-Rahi. The game is a mixture of netball, rugby, dodgeball and handball. Here we have a group of defenders who are trying to keep the Tupu safe from attack. Our class has another three weeks of Ki-o-Rahi. Fingers crossed the weather gets better so we can head out onto the field.

Room 15 Rocks Assembly

On Wednesday our class was put in charge of the school assembly.  We put a lot of work into our assembly and I was proud of our contribution.

Pouakai don't just have an assembly, we have the assembly. A huge thanks to everyone, and I do mean everyone, who participated.

I'll post some of our videos up over the coming days but for a start here is the wonderful banner which was painted by a number of students in our class with a hosts and techie Lachlan.

Knowledge or imagination?

Play hard or play fair?

I saw this picture of facebook. The girl on the right was in last place in a race when she caught up to competitor on the left who was carrying an injury. Instead of running past her to avoid the last-place finish, the girl on the right took her competitor's arm around her shoulders, carried her 30 meters, and then pushed her over the finish line before crossing it. 

When you compete do you think it is better to win or to play fair? Do you think the girl's decision to help might have been different if she was coming first?

Holidays

Hi Class
Welcome back to the third term. I can't believe we already half way through the school year! Over the holidays I cleaned up the classroom, went to a first aid course, learned how to make croissants. 


Croissants are really time-consuming and tricky to make. It takes about 8 hours to make croissants. You roll butter into dough and make layers before shaping the croissants and cooking them. However croissants are so delicious when they are made properly. 

My croissants are ready to go in the oven! They were delicious.

This holiday I also went up to Auckland for NetHui. That's where I saw Matt Mullholland perform the Katy Perry song we saw in  class. It was good to share some of the cool stuff that Room 15 does with other people. What was even cooler was hearing people talk about our video submission.

Did you feel the earthquake during the first week? That was the first really powerful earthquake I have felt in Wellington. I have a new admiration for the people in Christchurch as the earthquake seemed to go on for such a long time.  Did you feel it?

All in all, my holiday was pretty frantic and I'm glad to be back at school. How about you? What did you get up to in the holidays?

Pass it on blog

Your writing task for the week is to leave 3 quality comments on the Pass it on blog.

Michael's Lemon Cake

One of our home learning tasks is to make a baked symbol of our country. Michael made a scrummy lemon cake which we all enjoyed last Friday. Michael's mum was nice enough to email in the recipe so that we can all enjoy awesome Lemon cake.

Lemon Cake

125g butter softened

3/4 cup sugar

rind of 1 lemon, grated

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

4 tbsp (1/4 cup) milk

1/4 punnet sour cream

1  Combine the above in that order

2  Bake at 150 for 30-35 minutes

3  When done, poke holes in the cake and pour over the topping

Topping:  juice of one lemon and 1 cup of icing sugar whisked together.

Going Viral

Last Friday in Maths we learned about why videos go viral. We learned that taste makers, communities of participation as well as unique and unexpected moments are reasons why videos go viral.

But how can maths explain why videos go viral? Room 15 broke into groups and tried to find some explanations.

I liked how some groups used blocks to help support their explanations.



The reason I asked you this question is that each student in our class has a blog that has the potential to reach millions of people around the world.

That's exciting as kids have a way to reach people in a way that wasn't possible 10 years ago. But it is also a bit scary as something you post as an 11/12 year old could stay with you well into adulthood.

 What do you think are some of your responsibilities when you share something online, a video, a facebook status, a photo?  What are some of the responsibilities?

 How can we show the school norms of caring, respect, fairness and honesty online?

Using augmented reality to help us learn about astronomy

Our class is very fortunate to have three ipod touches available for learning.

Today we took a bit of time out from out literacy block to have a look at the Transit of Venus through both live links to telescopes around the world. Lachlan had a great idea to track the progress of Venus across the sun by putting markers on the board.

The Year 8s also use Sky View, an augmented reality app to help us 'see' the Transit even though the weather was rotten. Simply by pointing the ipod in any direction we can see the location of different stars, planets, the sun and even the international space station.

I wonder how the Transit of Venus looked in the Northern Hemisphere.

Can anyone name the famous explorer who noted a previous Transit of Venus on his way around the Pacific.

Sharing the Love Part 3 - Australia Edition

Today is the Australian Linky Love edition. You need to fill in the google form to show where you have left your comments.

First we have Red Hill Primary School in Canberra. They left a nice comment on our blog a few weeks ago. Let's repay the love.

 Next is 6RC in Sydney.

6 Gimmel 2012 is learning about Shavuot. Go and ask them a few questions.

You need to make at least 3 quality comments on 3 different blogs in 3 different cities by the end of the week.You also need to fill in the google form to show where you have left your comments.

There may be some prizes involved for the best quality comment, the most quality comments left by an individual student and also the student who comments on a class blog the furtherest distance away from Room 15! So far Nikki and Jade are in the lead.

Sharing the Love Part 2

Let's move outside of Tawa Intermediate today. A reminder that you  need to fill in the google form to show where you have left your comments.

Session 1 Room 24 @ TIS. Taradale Intermediate School in the Hawkes Bay. Room 24 have left some great comments on our blog so it is time for us to share the love.

Session 2 Room 5 @ Melville Intermediate is in Hamilton. The teacher, Mr Webb, left us some lovely comments earlier in the year.

Session 3 Hingaia Peninsula School is in Auckland opened this year. I'm a bit jealous of their green screen room. Are you?

Remember that you are representing yourself, Room 15, TIS and even New Zealand when you make comments so they need to be quality comments.

You need to make at least 3 quality comments on 3 different blogs in 3 different cities by the end of the week.You also you  need to fill in the google form to show where you have left your comments.

There may be some prizes involved for the best quality comment, the most quality comments left by an individual student and also the student who comments on a class blog the furtherest distance away from Room 15!

Sharing the Love Part 1

I''m really impressed with the quality of people's posts on their individual blogs. Some students have already received comments from their friends, family members, and even from student teachers in Canada!

Commenting is a really great way to gain readership for your blog and also contribute to other students learning. I really enjoy it when people leave comments on both our class blog and also the student blogs.

So this week your mission is simple. Go and share the love by leaving quality comments on other class and student blogs.

I will leave a list of suggested blogs for you to comment on but feel free to find other class and student blogs to leave comments. Remember that you are representing yourself, Room 15, TIS and even New Zealand when you make comments so they need to be quality comments.

You need to make at least 3 quality comments on 3 different blogs in 3 different cities by the end of the week. You also need to fill in the google form to show where you have left your comments. There may be some prizes involved for the best quality comment, the most quality comments left by an individual student and also the student who comments on a class blog the furtherest distance away from Room 15!

Today I thought we would start in our school with Room 13 and Room 2.

Room 13 students have been starts about commenting on our blogs so it is time to repay the love. You can find Room 13's individual student blogs by scrolling down Nga Hau Mahana.

I also think Room 2's twist ending poetry was pretty fabulous too.

Our Amazing Room 15 students!

We have some amazingly talented students in Room 15. Here we have Stephen performing in the TIS band at assembly.

Lachlan our supertexpert also gave the school a run down on TIS's revamped website. Awesome work guys!

Speed sharing

Room 15 spends a lot of time reading.

Some students have already 10 books since the start of term! To help us find interesting books to read, our class had a speed sharing session. In the session students were paired off. They had 30 seconds each to sell the book they were reading to each other before moving onto a new pair. Popular books in our class at the moment are the Hunger Games and the Geronimo Stilton series.

What's your favourite book to read? How do you find good fit books?

Stephanie

Our Submission to the Digital Learning Inquiry

Our class made a submission to the Education and Science select committee Inquiry into 21st century learning environments and digital learning. The class decided to make a video submission on YouTube. We hope that the committee enjoys our submission and that we change some MPs minds about learning.

Camp 2012 - It's coming

Hi First Fifteen
Over the weekend a group of teachers went to Mount Holdsworth, the venue for our school camp, on a reconnaissance mission. We tried out all the amazing activities on offer and have a fantastic feature film coming your way.

In the meantime, check out the amazing trailer for camp.

Favicon Fun

Nate's awesome Favicon

As part of Room 15's Inquiry Unit on cyber-citizenship we spent this afternoon creating favicons.

Favicons are the small logos see on the top tabs of the internet browsers of websites.

Because each student of Room 15 has their own individual blog, we spent today making our logos.

In order to be successful, we decided that favicons needed to not have much detail, have contrasting colours and not have extra pieces of paper attached to them so that they can be easily scanned.

I now have the job of scanning and uploading all these favicons to the student blogs!

Reading, reading and more reading

Hi Class Welcome back to term 2.

Brad and Stephen modelling read to others.

This week I started to read the Hunger Games. One of my friends recommended this book to me as all three of her girls enjoyed the series. Even though I usually read non-fiction books, the Hunger Games has rekindled my love of Science Fiction.

Science Fiction books are often set in different reality, so the genre really makes you stop and think about human society. For those of you who enjoyed Percy Jackson series, you might be interested to know that the author's inspiration for the Hunger Games comes from the story of Thesus and the Minotaur, figures from Greek mythology.

 The book is set many years in the future in a country called Panem. The title of the book, The Hunger Games, refers to are an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12 to 18 from each of the 12 districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death. The Hunger Games follow the journey of one the competitors, Katniss Everdeen.

Katniss was not initially selected for the Games but volunteered in place of her younger sister. I wonder what the significance is of choosing teenagers for the battle rather than adults and why Katniss would volunteer to take the place of her sister.

 The book was easy to read and the fast pace of the story kept me wanting to read more or even read the last few chapters before I I finish the rest of the book (which I often do when I love a story and what find out what happens). I had been reading the book on my train trips to and from school and got about three quarters of the way through the story before I lent the book to Courtney to read. I hope she finishes it quickly so I can find out what happens! Helen mentioned that there are two more books that follow on from the Hunger Games. Does anyone know what a series of three books are called?

 This week I also read Brian's Winter by Gary Paulsen. This book is the story about a boy whose plane crashed in the wilderness and he is forced to survive a harsh winter by himself. I have started this book a class read aloud because the story is so gripping and Paulsen is a prolific writer. I am hoping this book might lead a few more students to discover more about  this writer as Gary Paulsen has written a number of books about Brian.

 Ram asked me what was the first book I ever read. I can't remember which book was the first one I read, but I definitely remember my favourite childhood book it's called Bears in the Night. Many years have passed since I last read the book but I can still recite the story of the seven little bears who climb out of bed, out the window, through the woods, and up Spook Hill!

 How has your reading been going?

 Stephanie

To an awesome first term...

Hey team what an amazing first term. As this slideshow, shows we had an amazing term.

Untitled from Janine Tito on Vimeo.

How did your go in achieving your goal?

What have been some highlights of the term?

What are some things you need to work on for next term?

Stephanie

Week 9 @ TIS

Hi Class Great this week posting your first blogs and learning how to use chopsticks or 젓가락. Your task is not to comment here but to share the love in your class by leaving a quality comment on others work. You can find the links to other people's posts on the right hand side bar under Room 15 student blogs. Be sure to leave a quality comment. Stephanie

Growing up digital

Hi First Fifteeners

Over the weekend one of my friends uploaded this photo onto Facebook. It's a picture of my friends and I on a Year 10 trip into Auckland City. I wonder if you can find me in the picture.

The students in this picture were a little bit older than you are now but not one of us owned a cellphone. They were too expensive for students to own back then.

We also didn't have computers at home and the school computers didn't connect to the internet. I was the first person in my class to get an internet connection but that wasn't until I was in Year 13!

Now the internet is common place and people use it to help their learning. But there are problems. Because most adults didn't grow up using the internet, our society hasn't developed many manners about what to say and do online.

So I have some questions for you to think, pair and share about. One person in your group needs to act as the recorder for each question which you will post as a comment when you are finished.

1. What are some advantages to being able to use the internet to find and post information?
2. Is all information available on the internet reliable? Should it be?
3. What are some disadvantages to growing up in a world where teachers, students, parents and anyone can post anything about anyone at any time?
4. What might people need to think about before you hit 'publish' on a comment, post or upload a photo or video?
5. Can things people write or say online make a difference offline? How so?

Your comments will help our class develop a set of guidelines to help student bloggers make quality posts here in Room 15. Your answers will also be helping me when I go to a meeting on Thursday where I am helping to make online rules for teachers.

Stephanie