Farewell First Fifteen

Today marks some important farewells for the First Fifteen.

 Firstly our Year 7s created a special farewell for our Year 8s that will be moving on to college for next year.

 

Good luck at college Year 8s we will miss you.

Stephanie is moving to Singapore at the end of the year to take a job at an International School so the Year 7s will have a new teacher in 2014.

 Earlier this week Room 15 moved into Room 2 where the Year 7s will be based next year.

This post marks the end of the First Fifteen's blogging journey. We've had a blast collaborating with classes from different cities and countries.

Thank you to everyone who has read our posts, watched our videos and made a comment over the last two years.

Ka kite ano

Stephanie and the First Fifteen

Picnic Day

Another tradition we have at Tawa Intermediate is the school picnic. We take the train out to Paekakariki to visit QEII park for a picnic. This year the weather was quite drizzly but the students still had a great time!

TIS Formal

As part of the Year 8 farewell, we have a formal dinner for our Year 8s. Here is a photo of some of the boys goofing around with Stephanie

Our year in Room 15

During 2013 Room 15 students have been interviewing each other about their year and life at school. Over the year I've been editing the responses. The film is long at 18 minutes but the students have a lot of interesting things to say about the transition from being primary students through intermediate and onto high school.

Room 15's money making scheme

Our class came up with a great way to make money - a DVD yearbook. We've had fun putting the yearbook together as well as the publicity.

 

Some bits still need to be done by hand.

Like putting our covers into our cases.





So far we've sold nearly 50 DVDs which isn't too bad an effort!

Wellington in 1966

This video promoting Wellington was made almost 60 years ago.  As you watch it think about:

The different types of technology you see.

The fashion. How are the clothes different from what you see now?

How have the people changed? Can you see people from different cultures? Why might that be?

How has the language in the movie changed? Do people talk differently?

What has stayed the same in Wellington?

A time capsule - part 1

Over the year Room 15 students have been interviewing each other about how their experiences at school. This first segment is about our experiences on the first few days at TIS.

I look at this footage and can't believe how much you have all changed! How do you think you've changed since the beginning of the year?

 Do you notice any differences between how the Year 7s and the Year 8s come across in the movie? What are they?

If you were to go back in time, what advice would you give your old self?

Having watched the video of the first few days of school this year, what do you think you need to be mindful of when you start school next year?

Finishing the race

I love this story - sometimes showing up is more important than coming first. How have you 'finished the race' this week? What do you think is more important participating or coming first? Why?

Cliques - the documentary

Earlier this year our class went to see a documentary called I Am Eleven which followed the story of 11 year olds in different countries across the globe.

After skyping with the director of the movie, Genevieve Bailey, our students made a documentary focusing in on our own stories.

Here is one of the documentaries it's about cliques in schools.



Do you have any cliques in your school?

Why do you think cliques form?

Have you ever challenged yourself to become friends with people you would not normally hang out with?

Tom makes the case for 3D printers

Tom is trying to get his Dad to buy him a 3D printer. Perhaps if Mr Henderson learns more about them, maybe we could get one for the school!

Giorgi rocks PechaKucha!

During speeches our students were given the opportunity to have a go at presenting in PechaKucha. Japanese for chit chat, PechaKucha has a strict format of slides on auto timer. It's an incredibly hard format to master because the pictures are telling a story with the words. If you speak too fast, you out of sync and have to stop. Too are slow, then you will get behind.

Giorgi had a great speech and spoke confidently. She spoke on a topic she felt passionate about and she tried something new.

Way to go Giorgi!

Lets leave some comment love for the iKids

Room 2 at Maraekakaho school in the Hawkes Bay have been a huge fan of our videos. They have been practicing writing for information and have sent each member of our class an email.

Please leave a quality comment on their blog. 

The power of noticing

There's some fascinating science behind the power of memory. Do you know that we actually remember far less than we think we do?



 Part of lollypop moments is taking the time to notice little things we do all to make life better. For example someone picking up rubbish or taking the time reunite a jersey

What have you taken the time to notice this week?

How have you been mindful?

Make a plan to notice something small next week? What will you do how will you notice? What do you plan to do as a result of this action?

Fun with MaKey MaKey

As part of our unit on enterprise Room 15 is looking at inventing our own console for an online game. Over the holidays our teacher bought a MaKey MaKey. A MaKey MaKey is a circuit which hooks up to your computer you then hook up the circuit to different objects via alligator clips. The catch is finding out which materials will conduct a tiny electricity to complete the circuit and turn the object into a key on the computer.

 Our teacher went to an online drum kit to help us test different materials. It was lots of fun but now the serious business of designing a console begins!

The very hungry caterpillar

Room 15 made this movie waaaaaay back in term 1. We hope Marvin's iKids enjoy our movie. Do you think we should do another book iMovie? What book should we choose?

The importance of lollypop moments

I really love our tradition of Lollypop moments. It's important to take time to show gratitude for those small things that we all do to make our lives a bit better.



What effect do you think lollypop moments have on our class?

What effect do you think lollypop moments have on you?

Do you acknowledge others good deeds when there are not lollypops?  What might be the effect of showing you are grateful on others?

Our weekly trip to the library

Tawa Intermediate's library has undergone a massive refurbishment in the last year. The end result has been an amazing learning space for students.

Being Grateful and showing Courage

 I love this interview with Malala Yousafzai, a girl who was not much older than you, who was shot in by the Taliban for her blogs about the importance of girls education.


 

"We don't know the importance of things until they are snatched from our hands...." - What do you think that means? Can you think of things in your life you take for granted?

"You must not treat others with cruelty and harshly. You must fight others but through peace, dialogue and education." How do you think Malala  shows courage. Have you seen someone show courage and strength this week? How have they done that? Did you tell them about it?

College Sport

Huia Syndicate has been enjoying going up to Tawa College for coaching sessions with the senior PE students. It's been fantastic for the students to learn about new sports and for our students to get a small sample of college (especially for our Year 8s who will be moving on next year).

The science of stage fright (and how to overcome it) - Mikael Cho

This week we've watched and talked a lot about what makes a good speech. In the next few weeks you will be writing and presenting your own speech.

Have you thought about what your topic will be?

Have you ever had stage fright?

How are you going to overcome it?

Wow look what Room 5 has created!

Room 5 at Melville Intermediate finished their mine craft model of Room 15.

Our unusual set up flummoxed their class so I think they have done a superb job of making the model.

Please leave Room 5 some feedback on their class blog.

Welcome Back Room 15

Hi Room 15 Hope you enjoyed the break after all the energy of production. You all did such a fantastic job during it was fabulous to see you all on stage. I think the colour and cool dance moves made the milkbar scene the best (But then I'm a bit biased?). Which was your favourite scene in production? How was your holiday? I had a very quiet holiday but had my first cronut.

Stop motion Dolly

During our Genius Hour Jono and Nate were using my iPhone to do stop motion. I'm impressed that the boys put together a camera dolly with lego!

Why might using a dolly be a good idea when making a stop motion movie?

Mapping Room 15

Room 5 at Melville have had a go at mapping Room 15. Leave some feedback and feedforward the team on their blog.

Tenacity

Tenacity is the quality of not giving up even when things are not going well.

Have a look at this video.

Did you notice anything? Was there someone who showed tenacity?

How have you been tenacious this week?

Morning routines...

Hi students
This week I walked around with my iPhone and grabbed some footage of our morning routine.

Routines are really important in our life they help keep us more organised. For instance I check my calendar on my phone every morning to see what meetings I have coming up and important school events. I also go to the gym every night after school to help keep me fit.

At school we have our morning routine where we make our Daily 5 choices, catch up on projects or do little chores.


A routine is a pattern of behaviours you do on a regularly. Like going to the park after swimming for a run around.

A habit is a behaviour you do so many times that you don't even think about it. A good habit is something that helps like looking both ways before crossing the street.

What are your routines and habits?

How do they help you to be organised?

Make a comment to share the most effective routines and habits in your life.

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?

Different kind of smarts

Have you heard of multiple intellgences? The theory is that people are smart in different ways. What do you think of that idea?

Do you know what type of smarts you have?

Take the multiple intelligences quiz to find out.

Welcome to Tawa Intermediate Mr Henderson

Today marked a special day at Tawa Intermediate - the start of our new principal Mr Henderson. There was a special assembly today called a powhiri to welcome Mr Henderson into our school. Students from Mr Henderson's old school Newlands Intermediate came to farewell Mr Henderson. I bet Newlands is sad to see their principal go.

Our class decided to make a video to welcome him to our class because that's how we roll.

Thanks to Jono, Nick and Nate for writing the script, Hayley for filming, Sally-Ann for the music, Tom for editing and all our students for taking part.

We hope Mr Henderson likes our movie.

Halfway mark

Hi Room 15 it's hard to believe that we are already halfway through the year!

How has your year gone so far? What has been a highlight?

Do you think this video is a good snapshot of the year so far?

What are some things we need to work on?

Fast Lane - The Slide

This is a cool example of guerrilla geography - taking something every day and making it more fun.

 How could we make public places like bus stations and train stations more fun?

What has been fun for you this week?

What would you like to do as a fun treat next week?

I am Eleven Bakesale

At the start of the term Room 15 went to see the documentary I am Eleven. One of the stories that we felt was important were the stories of the girls who lived in an orphanage in India. We decided to hold a bakesale in support of the Darlingheart Foundation which supports orphaned and disadvantaged kids in South India. Our class raised just over $100 from the bakesale.

 

Connected

I found a trailer for a documentary about being connected.




I probably spend way too much time on my iPhone. In fact sometimes I get into trouble because I'm on my phone all the time. Have you ever had people comment about how long you spend online?

What do you think of the introduction to this documentary does it make you want to watch more?

How has your week gone?

How do you think Room 15 is connected to the outside world?

How do you think being connected changes learning?

Learning conferences

In Room 15 the students write part of their report comments home. Here Nick and Quintin show that it can be fun (some of the time)

A quiz about Tawa Intermediate

Our Quadblogging blogging buddy Room 5 has put together a Tawa Intermediate quiz. Go over and take a go at the quiz and give some feedback on the quiz. 

Tawa Intermediate closed

Hi Room 15 parents and students
Tawa intermediate is closed today (Friday June 21) due to power outages

Stephanie

Quadblogging - Sharing the love

One of the students in Room 15 suggested that we use this week to showcase some of students amazing work from their individual blogs.

Lets showcase some fabulous Room 15 bloggers.

Quintin spent a lot of time editing his cross country post. He took a so-so piece of writing and turned it into a personal best!

Ram wrote a fantastic writing sample this term. Read until the end of his story and have a giggle. Twisted endings a speciality of Ram's!

Helen uses some fantastic vocabulary in her writing. Find out more in her story Karma.

Josh W had 100 words to build a story about the night zookeeper.

Commenting is a way we can share our enjoyment of other's work. Be sure to stop by these individual blogs and share some the love!

Baking Bread

Room 15 had a go at baking bread. We learned a little about yeast and then had a go at no-knead ciabatta. We had a look and smell at the special ingredient, yeast and then left our bread to rise overnight.

The next morning,  Josh noticed that our mixture smelled like beer. He was right! The yeast in bread goes through a process of fermentation. We are going to learn more about fermentation in the weeks that follow.

But today, we popped our mixture in the oven and had some nice warm bread after morning tea.

Have you ever made bread before?

What is the special ingredient that makes bread.

Wild Weather

It was raining cats and dogs when Room 15 went home yesterday. Check out the back of our classrooms. That's a lot of water! How is the weather in your city? Did you have any trouble getting home from school?

Passion Projects in Room 15

Welcome to our Quadblogging buddies from Selwyn House, Melville Intermediate and Mt Pleasant school.

This year Room 15 have been exploring passion projects. Passion projects are based on the idea of Google 20% time. 20% time is a concept from Google where employees spend 20% of their time on project of their choosing. It's a way for students to develop their hidden passions into talents.

Most of Google's innovation comes from this time. Here in Room 15 we have been busy working on our projects. As you can see from the photos, there are lots of different projects. Can you guess what some of the projects are?

We will share our passions in expo at the end of the term.

What are your  hidden passions?

How are you developing them into talents?

 

Pride in your work

As everyone knows I am a HUGE Apple fan. I'd be lost without my iPhone and we've been using our classroom Macs to make some cool stuff.

I found this video last night about Apple's thinking about design. Apple is famous for saying 'No' a lot. They want each product to be perfect so they keep working and re-working their products before they release it. So often when we get busy we don't take time to make our work brillant. We don't stop, re-read, re-write, re-do.

This week we've been doing a lot of work on our documentaries.

What do you think the key messages from this advertisement are?

How do you want people to feel when they see your movies?

How are you happy with your progress so far?

What do you plan to accomplish next week?

Quadblogging up a storm

Room 15 loves quadblogging. Here we we are answering our 8C Happenings quadblogging survey.

How are you enjoying quadblogging?

Would you recommend it to other classes?

Monday Tech Challenge

Each Monday Room 15 joins up with the rest of Huia syndicate for a tech challenge. Tech challenges usually involve a problem to solve and we work in groups with students from across the syndicate. We use these challenges as a way to build our creativity but also to use the 5 key competencies of the New Zealand curriculum: managing self, participating and contributing, thinking, using language, symbols and text as well as relating to others.

For the last few weeks our class has been working on designing a board games. Here's our class in action during our last tech challenge.



Do you do tech challenges at your school?

Do you have any suggestions of future challenges for Huia syndicate?

Quadblogging Aotearoa

We've got another round of Quadblogging. This time our buddies are 8C from Selwyn House in Christchurch, Room 5 at Melville School in Hamilton and Room 13 of Mount Pleasant School also in Christchurch. 8C has made a special welcome video for us. Please visit their blog and leave a quality comment. Stephanie

Welcome to Wellington

One of teachers from the Apple Educators programme is putting together a global multi-touch book and Room 15 decided to help out. For those not in the know, a multi-touch book is a special book which has video, pictures and audio alongside text.

Room 15 put together a special 'Welcome to Wellington' video for the scrapbook.

The power of team sports

This week our class started our soccer PE unit. I found this video about a soccer team in Thailand.

Watch it.



What do you think about the story of the Panyee Football Club? What are some lessons you take from the documentary?

Alongside physical skills of kicking and scoring, what do you think sports teaches us?

How have you been a good team member of the First Fifteen this week?

Food in schools

This week there has been a lot of coverage around the government providing breakfast to kids in low-income schools. One newspaper printed a cartoon suggesting that if kids got given free meals at school, their parents would spend the savings on beer and gambling. 

The cost of food, accommodation and electricity in New Zealand are very expensive for some families and tough choices are being made especially during winter.

In a lot of countries it is seen as the government's responsibility to provide lunch for students in schools. 

When I worked in Korea I was surprised to see each school has a kitchen that provides lunch. Some families pay for lunch, but if the family can't afford to pay then the government paid the bill. You can see the lunch on the left. There's rice, kimchi, soup, some vegetables and some meat.

I really love when we have shared lunches as it's a great way for students to bond.

What do you think?

Should schools have kitchens to provide hot lunches for kids?

What might be some of the costs?

What would be benefits?

Huia Cross country

Huia kids had an awesome effort at cross-country effort today. It was fantastic to see so many of our syndicate really pushing themselves. You can see more of our photos here.

How did you go during Cross Country?

What was the trickiest part of Cross Country?

What was the best part of Cross Country?

Social Media in schools

Have a read of this article about a school in Wellington that has been asking students to log into social media sites like Facbook and ask.fm for teachers to check.

What do you think of this?

Should schools control what happens online on sites like Facebook after school hours?

Should students be giving passwords to social media sites to teachers?

How could parents find out more about what their children are doing online?

Highlights from the week

This week has been a busy week for Room 15. Assembly, running, tech challenge, and more running

 What was your highlight for the week?

How have you used determination this week?

What do you want to improve on next week?

 

A pep talk - Assembly

Earlier in the year, Room 15 watched Pep talk. We decided that the message was one we wanted to share at our assembly so we had a go at making it. Thanks to Room 13 and Room 14 for joining in our pep talk. What was your favourite scene in the peo talk? What is something we could improve on for later?

Quadblogging

As part of our unit of inquiry on Globalisation, I've signed Room 15 up to do Quadblogging.  

Quadblogging is a cool way for us to learn more about different countries and get our work featured overseas. Each week we visit a different week and leave quality comments on different class's blog. 

Last week we had visitors from the United Kingdom.

This week it is our turn to visit new blogs. 

Please visit 7Y Skills for Learning and leave a quality comment. Remember that you aren't just representing our school but also New Zealand so please make sure you use the quality commenting check list.

Getting Ready for Assembly

Classes at Tawa Intermediate each take turns hosting our weekly assembly. Huia syndicate missed out in the first term due to a meeting. However Room 15 was pretty excited to hear that  our class was on assembly this week.

As you can see from the video, Room 15 takes hosting very seriously.

I was amazed to see how focused and on task every student in the class was. We've got some cool things planned but we still need to practice before the big event on Wednesday.

The power of concentration

We all know that we need to practice a skill in order to get better. However it is important to remember that practice isn't just doing something again and again, it requires you to focus on the task at hand. To be concentrating on getting better.

Have a look at this video.

What does it teach you about the power of concentration?

How has your concentration been in school this week?

Can you think of the last time you concentrated? When was it? What were you doing? What did it feel like?

Writing test using computers

Room 15 is amongst the first students at Tawa Intermediate to do their once-a-term writing assessment via computer. Our teacher used a google doc script to send out assessments and is now busy marking the assessments.

What did you think think about doing your writing assessment online?

What were some things you found easier?

What were some things you found trickier?

Would you recommend other classes start using google docs for writing assessments? If so why?

Welcome to Room 15

This term Room 15 is taking part in Quadblogging. We would like to welcome students from Rhyddings Business and Enterprise School and Shireland Collegiate Academy from the UK to our blog. Here's our welcome back to school video to give you an idea about our class and what we like to get up to at school. 

We are looking forward to visiting your class blogs as part of the class journey.

In the mean time, perhaps you could leave a comment letting us know where in the UK you are from and some questions about New Zealand for Room 15's students to answer.

Assembly Time again

Hi Room 15 Our class is on assembly again. Our class doesn't just host an assembly, we host the assembly. To give Year 7s an idea of the things our class has done in the past, check out this video.

Has anyone got any ideas for assembly? What theme could we have? Are the any ideas from activities in class we could showcase at assembly. Who do you think would be a good host?

Huia syndicate - I am eleven

Our class was very lucky to go the first screening of I Am Eleven at Wellington's documentary festival. We had a bit of time early in the morning so went to Te Papa before the movie. 

Next, we went to see the movie. The reason we went to see I am eleven is because the movie follows the story of 11 year olds from different countries around the world. Our syndicate was the first group to see the film and were excited to have our picture taken for the directors of the movie.

 Our trip home was a bit of a rush as we had to make the train. Unfortunately our train was cancelled so we had to take the bus.

What was your highlight of our trip into Wellington?

If money and time wasn't a problem, which child from the movie would you like to meet and why?

Did any of the kids from the movie remind you of kids from the class? Who were they and why?

Room 15's teacher goes to Google!

I was very luck to be selected to go the Google Teacher Academy in Sydney. The first thing I did when I arrived was to have a pie from Harry's Cafe du Wheels. Harry's has been making pies since 1938 and the tiger pie is a speciality. It's got gravy, mushy peas and potato on top of a meat pie. Why do you think it's called the tiger pie?

One of the highlights of going to the academy was meeting teachers from around the world. Here I am with a group of teachers who teach in Singapore and America at Bronte Beach. One of the teachers lives a long way from the ocean so he was amazed at all the surf. Sometimes we forget how lucky we are in New Zealand to live close to the beach!

The google offices were pretty cool.  A personal favourite was the library. What do you think? Do you think Tawa Intermediate kids might like our new library to look like this? 

Most of the time I spent learning about google products but here I am playing a minute to win it game called the chocolate unicorn. Can you guess what I had to do? Do you think I won? Would you like to have a go at some of these games in Room 15?

Welcome back to term 2

Hi Room 15

I hope you all had a splendid holiday. I’ve spent a fair bit of time on planes this holiday. First I flew up to Auckland to go to a conference and see my parents. They are building a house in Mangawhai, which is about 90 minutes drive north of Auckland. 

My parents' new house!

Next, I flew back to Wellington to do some marking and school work before going on another plane this time to Australia. This plane ride was really bumpy because of the strong winds. We were almost 30 minutes late into Melbourne.

Leaving Wellington for Australia

First I went to Melbourne where I visited a lovely Year 7 class. I learned some things about teaching inquiry and then I talked to the class about our passion projects as this class is doing the same thing. I really loved the old buildings in Melbourne. The trams were lots of fun to ride as well. 

Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne

Then it was on yet another plane... can you guess what city I am in now?

Where is your teacher?

How was your holiday?

What did you do?

What are you looking forward to this term?

Highlights for the term

I can't believe the term is over and done with! My highlight was seeing the passion projects in action. I think we should do more of them next term.


What have been your highlights?

What is something you want to do better next term?

100 Word Challenge

Hi students

Here's your writing prompt for the 100 word challenge, it's the picture below. As usual, you have just 100 words. Please really think about the vocabulary you are using.

I Am Eleven

This week the teachers announced a Huia syndicate trip to Wellington to see the movie I Am Eleven.  It follows the story of 15 eleven year olds from countries across the world.

From the trailer have a go at answer these questions:


I was interested in learning girls from India who talked about caring for kids in the orphanage. Do you remember any of the kids from the trailer? What made them memorable for you?

What would you do if you could change the world?

Why do you think the film maker decided to talk to 11 year olds?

How do you think this movie fits with our school topic of globalisation?

Improv in Room 15

This week Room 15 had a go at some improv games that our teacher learned at the Apple institute in Bali. We played 1,2,3 to warm up followed by the "yes, and" game as well as the "yes, but" game before trying out some story telling.

Here we have Jono and Nick having a go. I like how the two students listened to each other to build on the story.

•  What did you find tricky about improv? 
•  What did you like/not like about doing improv? 
•  How do you think it can help Room 15 with our learning?

An ethical dilemma

This week we watched scam city. One of the scams that was looked at was the child begging industry.

The challenge of this video was to start thinking about the impact of people's actions on the country and world. This is globalization, being able to talk about how actions you make have an effect on the wider world.

So what do you think I should have done when confronted with children begging for money on my trip to Bali?

Do you think I should have given a few dollars? If so why?

If you think I shouldn't be giving money, what could I do to make a positive difference to the lives of the kids asking for money.

What is it worth?

If you look at this photo before, you can see that it says sunglasses 24euros, access to water 8 euros.

What do you think might be the 'hidden message' in this photo?

How does the picture make you feel?

Think about your life. What are your wants? What are your needs? What is this picture trying to say about people's lives?

A day at a conference.

Conferences follow a similar format all over the world. During the day I spend a lot of time in meeting rooms learning more about apple products. Today I learned more about iBooks author, Keynote and App Development.

Sometimes the conference gets together as a big group to listen to speeches.

And sometimes we play games. I got up on stage in front of a couple of hundred people to do an improv game And then... with a lovely American woman called Rebecca. We will have a go at playing it when I get back.

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The hotel I am staying at has four different swimming pools. The best bit is that there is a water slide from one pool to another. I took this video with my waterproof camera.

After spending time in the pool we got to eat dinner right by the pool which was pretty neat.

I hope you enjoy Fun Run. Who had the best costume? Until tomorrow,

Stephaie

More fun from Bali

One of my favourite things about going to different countries is trying different types of food. Here is some of my breakfast from today. At the front is snake fruit which is named because the skin of the fruit feels like snake skin. The inside is really yummy too. The fruit behind is called rambutan and tastes like a cross between a plum and a peach.

This man was nice enough to let me have a go on his musical instrument during the break. It's like xylophone made out of bamboo branches.

 
Right by the hotel is a temple. My Dad went to the same temple back in 1972! There are a lot poisonous sea snakes in the area which are said to guard the temple from intruders.

The weather is so hot but I'm lucky enough to be staying at a place with a pool. There's also a very awesome waterslide.  Do you think I should take a video going down the slide using my waterproof camera?

Until tomorrow. Good luck with raising money for Fun Run!

Selamat Siang from Bali

Hi Room 15
I hope you raised a lot of money for Fun Run over the weekend.

Last week I left New Zealand to attend the Apple Educator Institute in Indonesia. There are teachers from all over Asia as well as Australia and New Zealand. The place that I am staying is very beautiful, right by the ocean. There are lots of palm trees and coconut trees.




This week I'll be learning a lot about how to use different Apple products in class but also telling teachers about what we do in Room 15.

What do you think I should share with the other teachers to show off our class? Do you have a favourite movie I could share?

Enjoy your week.

Stephanie

Showing tenacity

Yesterday we thought more about what we needed to do develop our passions into talents. We watched the trailer for a documentary that follows a group of students hoping to have a career  in dance. Tenacity, not giving up when something is difficult, is talked about in the clip as being the most important quality in a dancer.

How have you shown tenacity in your learning this week? Give an example.

One of the students in our class said you needed to practice a skill three times before you can learn it. Do you agree? Why?

What do you think drives the dancers to practice for hours and hours a day?

This Week's Work on Writing - Poetry

For the last few weeks, we've been studying poetry in class. So it's about time we had a go at writing poetry. Your poetry needs to use at least two language features in it. If you are stuck on what to write, try and think of time when you felt really happy, angry or excited and develop those feelings into a poem.

Rhyme - words that have the same sounds at the end e.g .
I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them Sam I am.

Not all poetry needs to rhyme though.

Alliteration -a group words that have the same letters or sounds at the start. e.g Work on Writing

Hyperbole - an exaggeration so dramatic nobody could believe e.g I'm as hungry as a horse.

Simile - this is where you compare something to something else. Similes work best when you are describing something. Instead of saying 'I walked slowly to school' you could say my journey to school was slower than a turtle. You need to use words like than, as, like etc. to make a comparison.

Metaphor - suggesting something is something else. e.g you're a dictionary (a good speller) or 'all the worlds a stage.'

Onomatopoeia - words that describe or sound like a real sound. e.g buzz, thunk, bounce and my personal  favourite, squelch.

Personification - when you give human qualities to something isn't human. e.g the years ran by in a blur, the engines roared.

Where is all the rain?

 The early part of Autumn has been very dry in New Zealand.

Here in Wellington we've had our first rain in weeks. Our field is looking a bit dusty and Colonial Knob is now a drab brown.

Wellington has water restrictions in place.

What are you doing to save water?

What do you think you should you do when you see someone wasting water?

Learning from Nathan Sawaya

This week you watched a video about lego artist Nathan Sawaya. His story is quite extraordinary as he first started working as a laywer. He was making a lot of money as a lawyer but was then offered $13 an hour to work as an artist for lego. Now he earns lots of money building fantastic sculptures out of lego.

How do you think Nathan became so talented at making lego sculptures?

Do you agree that making things out of lego is art? How so? 

What do you think Nathan's story can teach you about making big changes in your life?

What do you think Nathan's passion is? How has it made him successful?

Work on writing - similies

Image used under creative commons licence

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag
Drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?
 Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin
Like a house of cards, one blow from caving in?
 Do you ever feel already buried deep six feet under?
Scream but no one seems to hear a thing
Do you know that there's still a chance for you
'Cause there's a spark in you?
 You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine
 Just own the night like the 4th of July

This week your work on writing is use similes effectively in your writing.

Similes are a good way to describe thoughts or feelings by comparing something to something else. In the Katy Perry song Firework she compares feeling lonely to feeling like a plastic bag drifting through the wind or like a house cards that could cave in from one small action.

You have a choice about what you want to describe and if you wish to use poetry or prose (a regular story). but the work needs to be of a high quality and finished within the session.

Purple Cake Day

Room 15 joined up with Room 16 to organize a purple cake day at TIS. Purple cake day is a day for kids around New Zealand to fund raise for kids' education in developing countries. Our event raised over $160 for kids in developing countries.

 How did you enjoy purple cake day? 

 What should we do differently next time?

What learning areas do you think our fundraiser was?

You can view our purple cake day, set on Flickr.