The Term concludes.

Week Ten is about reflection and celebration. How have we done? What have we achieved?
We also start looking forward to Term 3. Gaining student thoughts, brainstorming and gathering ideas to implement into next terms health unit.

Next term is our term for focusing on health / personal identity Mana Tangata


Big Idea: Who am I and what do I want to be seen as?
Mana Tangata, The power of the person.

If you are interested in the planning process check out Mr Eames Blog.

Action Learning

It's time for ACTION! - Room 23 are in the process of discussing and constructing their actions, as part of the Take Action for Water inquiry process.

Portfolios

It is count down to the end of a busy term and students are busy compiling their portfolios and getting them ready for presentation to parents. They look fantastic, and are packed with quality work, examples of success and achievement - Portfolios (Mr Eames blog)

Take Action Field trip reflection and write up

Please check out our reflection comments on Webwisher

Or a write up on the Writing Blog

All GOOD!

Sorry for the break in postings, be assured students are as busy as ever and achieving at a high level. I have been really pleased with so many individuals who are stepping up, taking on leadership, supporting others and looking for any opportunities to better themselves.

• Cross Country last Thursday was a huge success.
• Students have created some very good explanations.
• The Kapa Haka group sounds amazing,
• Zone events have bought success for Muritai
• Students are putting their hands up to take on more opportunities.
• Leaders are shining. (Leadership Programme success)

I am loving Room 23!
Mr Eames

A day in the life of Room 23

Week four and things are ticking away nicely.

8.00am students start arriving
8.40am students start settling into class
Silent reading, quiet work, some students use the time to complete a bit of homework. Book review reminders.
8.50am students are in class, quiet time whilst the roll in done, permission slips handed in (School cross-country, Take Action Field trip, Zone Cross-Country), Louis timetable established, notices and reminders read out.
9.00am – Today we did ‘Accuracy for Writing’ This is a programme we are doing in the senior school focusing on improving student writing accuracy. Mainly focusing on grammar, punctuation and spelling. (Learning Intention: Students will have an understanding of the editing process, follow guidelines in order to find errors in a piece of text)
9.20am – Change over for maths. For maths we are focusing on ‘Measurement’ looking at area and moving on to exploring volume. As well as looking at multiplication and division strategies. (Learning Intention: Understand how to measure the area of compound shapes. Understand area in everyday life and explore multiplication strategies)
10.20am – Cross-country training. I love seeing everyone out and about, running in preparation for next weeks school cross-country. A bit wet today, but still a good effort from everyone.
Play.
10.50am – Language – Continuation of our writing focuses on Explorations. Today we started processing our brainstorms and planning, to create an explanation which meets a set criteria.
(Learning Intention: Understand how to use criteria as a checklist for success and use a planning model to aid writing)
11.50am – PE - Looking at effective stretches in line with cross-country - Stretches
Lunch
1.30pm – Silent Reading – Conferencing of writing and goals.
1.45pm - Take Action For Water.
Today we are looking at how animals breathe in water, breathing features and food webs.
(Learning Intention: Students will identify the different ways aquatic animals breathe. Learn about the interaction between plants and animals. Learn about animals with special features for feeding)
2.45pm Reflection, reminders and homework out

Teleportation, cloning, virtual reality and time machines

Teleportation, cloning, virtual reality and time machines are the focuses for our study of explanation writing. Using you tube clips as motivation, we have started designing, creating and then explaining how these interesting machines work.

Awesome Presentations!

I was extremely impressed with our class group presentations
on Thursday. Everyone was involved, there was evidents of effective researching, and processing of key information. Everyone spoke clearly so that the rest of the class could learn about a variety of animals which live in water catchments.

Animals in a catchment

This afternoon we made the most out of the wet weather by continuing our Take Action for Water studies. We are in the process of learning about the habitats of animals in a catchment. The students have chosen one of the following to explore: The Banded Kokopu, The Longfin Eel, The Cased Caddisfly or the Mayfly.
The students will give a presentation tomorrow, describing the features, life cycle, habitat, feeding, and the effect of humans and any interesting facts.









http://homeworkroom23.wikispaces.com/

Technicraft

Technicraft provides a range of extra opportunities for senior school students. Including: textiles, food technology, computers, woodwork and visual arts.

Take Action For Water

As part of 'Take Action For Water' we are learning about catchments and animals which live in a catchment. We talked about habitats and different environments animals live in.

First we got given three sheets of paper. One had all the Maori legend names another one was a sheet with lots of different animals and the last one was a picture of a catchment.
We then sorted all of the animals into different groups which were forest ground, forest trees, pool run and riffle run. Then we stuck all of the animals on the catchment sheet in their habitat and then got out our colouring pencils and coloured it in. Then after listening to the legend of Tanemahuta and Tangaroa, we stuck all of the Maori names in the places where they belong.

Senior School Arts Programme

Today our popular Thursday arts programme started. Students are doing either, movie making, drama, dance or percussion(music). Below the photos shows students making their drums.

Using the mobile mouse and keyboard

Today we looked at creating effective explanations and constructing a class explanation on the water cycle. Students become the teacher and modelled success. We used a mobile mouse and keyboard so that role model writer could write, from anywhere in the class, on a shared document which was projected onto the whiteboard.

We are Kaitiaki for the enviroment.

We started our Take Action for Water unit. We focused on Understanding the Water Cycle and describing the movement of water in the water cycle.
We discussed how water forms clouds, how water get from the clouds back down to streams, why the water cycle vital for life on earth?
We also looked at the key stages of the water cycle and how the Maori story of Ranginui and Papatuanuku reflects the water cycle.

The photos show Seb & Louis taking notes on the states of matter, in order to get a better understanding of the water cycle. This was during literacy, where we are focusing on 'Explanations'

Term Two

Term One was an exceptional term for Room 23. I am thrilled at the enthusiasm and motivation of the class. Everyone has stepped up and has really strived to give everything their best efforts.
The classroom looks and feels wonderful, lots of happy, supportive students all focused on achievement.

this term is an environmentally focussed term – Take Action for Water.

Big Idea is – “To understand the need to protect and preserve our local environment and action decisions.”
Key Concept: To understand the importance of being kaitiaki (guardians) of the environment, and that our waterways are interconnected and have mauri (life force)

The platform for learning will be the “TAKE ACTION FOR WATER” programme, which is an exciting unit supported by Greater Wellington Regional Council. Take Action for Water is an environmental education programme developed in order to give students the opportunity to learn about the value of water, preserve our most important resource and take action to keep the environment healthy and clean. The unit develops children’s environmental awareness and teaches the skills needed to act responsibly for the world.

Please take a monent to listen to these evaluations

Completed Inquiries

Today we did the final self assessment of our inquiries and presented them to the class. The inquiries are very impressive. I am so pleased with the content, the research, interviews, presentation and over all quality of the work. It is hard to share them on the blog so I have tried capture to effort on voicethread. Also you will see feedback from the students about other student’s work on the blog comments.
Parents please feel try to comment on your child’s inquiry or the review on voice thread.


"While I was doing this Inquiry it made me think about the Treaty. I never even knew about the Treaty till a few weeks ago and I think that lots of people don't know about the Treaty either. I think that New Zealanders should make an effort to learn about it because it is our founding document. I think that the Treaty fits into our unit because the Maori and British needed to understand each other, be friends so that they didn't fight and be tolerant of each other. I am glad that the Inquiry is finished because it was very challenging but I'm proud of my work." - Franziska

Inquiry Evaluations.

Today we started evaluating our inquiries.
This is a very important part of the inquiry process. By reflecting on what we have learnt, the skills we used and assessing what we have created, we can start looking at what our next learning steps are for future inquiries.

We started by discussing in groups the various stages of this inquiry, answering some discussion prompts. Then we evaluated our inquiry progress. Inquiries are due on Thursday so there is still time to make final changes and adaption.

We also learnt how to bind our work and conclude our inquiries

(Photo - Discussion)

Report writing

We Are Learning to….
Be able to inform using relevant factual information, in a written form.
This is because…
You need to be able to collect, sort, analysis and structure information correctly.

Today we have continued writing our reports on Rona Bay Wharf. The writing is exceptional.

For this report we hypothetically travelled back in time to 1995 when there were plans to demolish the Rona Bay Wharf.

The Rona Bay wharf is still here today because of the efforts of the Eastbourne residents campaigning to the protect this Eastbourne icon.

We have visited the wharf, collected information,, researched, brainstormed what the wharf is used for and what the significance is to Eastbourne residents, photographed the wharf and gathered thoughts and quotes.

We have been carefully reworking our reports, exploring other reports and listening to the reports of our role model writers to create amazing pieces of work.

Deconstructing a Report

We have been focusing on report writing for language. Today we were learning to deconstruct a report. Deconstructing an already written report is a really easy thing to do and you can learn heaps, its like when biology students cut up frogs. We were all given a newspaper article and a ‘report criteria’ we were then given the task of picking out the specific vocabulary (to this report) we then had to find all the factual information and the title. After this we marked this report against the report criteria. We all learnt heaps and it was amazing how much we found out about the report.
By Marcus.

Tony Ryan's Thinkers Keys.

After discussing and recapping on last weeks topic we used Tony Ryan’s Thinking Keys to explore alternative solutions and how a mediator may be used. We created solutions to a hypothetical situation. Then role played and discussed the scenarios.

Key used - The Interpretation Key.

Words to Live by - ‘Lost in Translation’

This week we have been exploring 'Communication' with a focus on misunderstandings, disagreements and arguments. We tied it into ‘The Key Competencies’ - Looking at how to participate, relate to and get on with others, manage ourselves and looking at problem solving challenging situations in order to work effectively together.

We started with communication activities. First following simple instructions to draw a picture and then discussing the challenges eg. vocabulary, not hearing correctly...
We than had a task where we had to work out differences on two cards, this required patience and carefully thoughtout questions.

Then we discussed in groups how misunderstandings, disagreements and arguments occur.

The Treaty using problem solving cards.

Today we continued our study of the Treaty. Exploring it further and starting to expand on what we have already learnt. We started by reflecting on what we already know then used a problem solving approach to gain new perspective and generate new thinking. We watched a videoclip made by students at Pt England School who are also studying the Treaty. We also looked at another dvd on the Treaty.

Arts Week

The Senior School Arts programme has been a huge success.

The teachers and students have been exploring works by Monet and Matisse and other impressionist and expressionist artists. We have been looking at the unique ways in which they interpreted the world around them.

We have incorporated the inquiry approach into this weeks art focus by exploring, experimenting, questioning and expressing ourselves through the arts.

Treaty of Waitangi - Voicethread

"Te Papa"

On Friday the Senior School visited Te Papa to explore three exciting exhibitions. The visit included three areas of exploration.

Monet and the Impressionists – This is the largest and richest collection of impressionist paintings ever to come to New Zealand.
We had the rare chance to see over 50 paintings from one of the world’s finest collections of 19th century artwork.


Blood, Earth, Fire
This exhibition is packed full of information and interactivity. Blood, Earth, Fire took us on an extraordinary journey of discovery through the changing landscape of Aotearoa New Zealand.

The Glass Treaty
The Treaty of Waitangi is a living social document - debated, overlooked, celebrated. Is it a vision of peaceful co-existence and a platform on which all New Zealanders can build a future?

The Treaty of Waitangi

Today we explored and discussed The Treaty of Waitangi.

We first studied and discussed the Gavin Bishop Picture book ‘The House That Jack Built’ The ideas and observations made by the class were spectacular.

Then we starting looking at the challenges surrounding the Treaty.
We brainstormed using the cycle for brainstorming below which provided an approach that got everyone thinking at a really high level and persisting when ideas where running out. It was amazing, the ideas, the debate and the full class participation. Heaps of white, red and green hat thinking
We then explored the question: How can the treaty be a document for all New Zealander?

Then posed questions using an advanced questioning approach.

This afternoon we are going to voicethread our ideas and questions.












Brainstorming charts from FOS Enabling Skills Website

Sport

It was great to see everyone out for sport this afternoon in the sun. Also it was awesome seeing the effort and the enjoyment.

The picture shows Georgia playing softball. Students were also involved in rounders and volleyball.

Electrocity

We had a lot of fun today playing Electrocity. A web based game whereby you start building a city. You have to problem solve, plan and think carefully about how to supply power to your township as it grows into a city.

Busy Times

It has been a busy week so far and I am seeing same wonderful stuff. Student leaders are writing applications for leadership roles, we have started testing and have also had students working with Schoolgen on a drama show which they presented to the assembly today.

Solar Panels - See Muritai Enviroblog

Arts - Inspired by Darcy Nicholas

Today we explored the techniques of New Zealand artist Darcy Nicholas.
Darcy uses strong contrasting primary colours in his work.
He started off when he was young by drawing on newspaper with charcoal. He sold his first painting when he was nine for a whopping 90 shillings!
Now Darcy mainly uses paint on canvas, paper, wood and bone.
He has said that the best technique he uses in his art is imagination.
The children will be using sugar paper, sepia self portraits and pastel to create a Darcy inspired self- portrait.

Rights and Responsibility.

We have been exploring rights, responsibility and law. I was so impressed by the class discussion we had on Tuesday. We establishing that laws are created to protect our rights. However there was some rich discussion and many questions come up and a wide range of views. It was awesome!

We explored statements such as ‘ We have a right to grow trees in our garden but does our neighbour have a right to a view’ and similar situations. We went on to talk about agreements. We also looked when rights are taken away or when people abuse rights.

Today we continued our discussion and started talking about our rights and responsibilities in the classroom and playground.

We have a responsibility to respect the rights of everyone.

Words to Live By.

Today Mr Eames Introduced our Topic. ‘Words to Live By’ In groups we explored the words - Pact, Agreement, Promise, Treaty, Contract, Trust, Law, Rules, Declaration. We used the dictionary, the internet, our existing knowledge, people in the class and Mr Eames and discussed the differences and similarities. We will continue tomorrow, then work towards creating a class treaty.

'Making a Difference'

‘Making a difference’
Driving our learning process is the Inquiry Model. All our topics this year will all fit under the umbrella of ‘Making a difference’. Each term there will be a ‘Big Idea’ which will relate to this overall umbrella. The ‘Big Idea’ will structure the learning process so that learning activities are meaningful, focused and relevant. Through inquiry, students interact with the methods and essential skills necessary to develop appropriate skills to be able to understand knowledge and improve their understanding of the learning process. Students will develop a set of skills that enable them to have a strong understanding of how to seek and use information.

Setting the scene

What a great start to the year, everyone is working so hard to set a high standard of work. We are busy setting expectations, creating goals, introducing the topics for the term and getting know everyone in the class.

Portfolios

Portfolios are created to celebrate success and encourage achievement. Everyone have put a lot of effort into the creation and presentation of their portfolio. The portfolio will become a collection of achievements in all areas of the curriculum. They look fantastic and I am really pleased with how hard everyone has worked on them.

Welcome to Year 7 and 8 2009.

Our team believe that the intermediate years are the most important years before heading off to secondary school. Students will have many challenges and high expectations for the forthcoming year, as do, Mr Chadwick, Ms Berry and myself. Over the next few weeks these will be explored and explained further.

We know we have a wonderful group of students who are ready for the challenges of the senior school and we have an exciting programme for the year.