Netbook Reflection for 2013

Having my netbook with throughout this whole year has benefited me in lots of ways. Having the opportunity to learn using different sites is a huge advantage. The internet provides heaps of informational sites that are very heapful in every subject of learning. My netbook has helped me improve in  reading, writing and maths.

 I have had my netbook for about 3 years now and there is a lot I have learnt about my device. My proofreading and editing skills have improved in the last year and each day I'm happier with how my writing turns out. Using the spell checks and the online thesaurus and dictionary has expanded my vocabulary.

We use sites such as maths whizz and xtra math. Maths whizz sets you up with different exercises that improve your strategic skills. Xtra math is a website that focuses on helping you with your basic equations. Those sites prove helpful to our whole school and they are highly enjoyable. I've learnt new problem solving strategies that have helped me in maths.

Using Googles applications is a huge part of our learning. Google docs provides us with a range of ways to create presentations, slide shows and spreadsheets. Some of us even use our google calendar to mark important dates and events.

 Our school is just so awesome and the fact that lots of sponsors are helping us with the Manaiakalani project. Mr and Mrs Burts vision is coming in well and its been a real pleasure seeing the Tamaki cluster grow and adapt to our new learning style.

Netbook Reflection for 2013

Having my netbook with throughout this whole year has benifited me in lots of ways. Having the opportunity to learn using different sites is a huge advantage. The internet provides heaps of informational sites that are very heapful in every subject of learning. My netbook has helped me improve in  reading, writing and maths.

 I have had my netbook for about 3 years now and there is a lot I have learnt about my device. My proof reading and editing skills have improved in the last year and each day I'm happier with how my writing turns out. Using the spell checks and the online thesaurus and dictionary has expanded my vocabulary.

We use sites such as maths whizz and xtra math. Maths whizz sets you up with different excersises that improve your stragtegic skills. Xtra math is a website that focuses on helping you with your basic equations. Those sites prove helpful to our whole school and they are highly enjoyable. I've learnt new problem solving startegies that have helped me in maths.

Using Googles applications is a huge part of our learning. Google docs provides us with a range of ways to create presentations, slide shows and spreadsheets. Some of us even use our google calender to mark important dates and events.

 Our school is just so awesome and the fact that lots of sponsors are helping us with the Manaiakalani project. Mr and Mrs Burts vision is coming in well and its been a real pleasure seeing the Tamaki cluster grow and adapt to our new learning style.

PES Senior Prize Giving Reflection

The hall was as packed as a can of sardines! Parents and children lined were lined in and around the hall, just waiting to see their kids perform and get awards. The atmosphere was buzzing and I was ready to enjoy the night.

One of my highlights of the night was when my sister KHAIA MAKATA was called for Best effort in her class. She also got 2nd equal academic along with Stevenson. She made me and our parents very proud.

Me? Well I received a School Services cup and 3rd academic. I was soooo happy that when my name was called for both of those awards I wanted jump for joy and scream. I’m so proud of what I have achieved this year and so are my parents.

I really enjoyed my night at the Pt England Senior Prize Giving. I like to thank every single teachers that have taught me throughout the 5 years I’ve been at school. Honestly I couldn’t have got to where I am now without all of you and with that I humbly wish you all good luck for next year. I would also congratulate Vivienne for getting Dux for 2013 and Rita for getting 2nd academic.

My PES Yearbook

This is myYr 8 movie explaining my time at PES.

Our Nations Children's Trip to Waitangi Launch

The Waitangi National Trust and Westpac launched the Our Nations Children movie competition last Friday and I was apart of the group that go to go the event. I had never been in that part of town before and was astonished at the sight. As soon as I peered into the Westpac building, I could see a lot of cameras. We were led upstairs to the main room and waited for the governor general Jerry Mataparae. Once he arrived, the representatives said some speeches and even our own Vivienne and Gabriel got the chance to say thanks on behalf of all of our waitangi group. After that, there was delicious food put out for us on the veranda of the huge building where the view was beautiful!

EXT Balloon Thrust Investigation

The extension group held an investigation about balloon thrust in term 2. The materials we need was a straw, balloon, tape and string. We first predicted what would happen when we let the balloon deflate. The things we had to look out for was how fast and far the ballon launched. The pictures display our predictions, findings and the changes we had made.

Outlook for Someday Workshop Reflection

The year 7 and 8 extension class, as well as a few others, got the opportunity to spend the whole day learning about movie making with the Outlook for Someday workshop runners Iliayh and Chris. They taught us about what sustainability was and that sustainability doesn’t just cover the environment.

The first activity was to tell us about the different areas of sustainability, environment, economy, and society. It was puzzle that we had to put together. The puzzle was a collage showing us what each of them could look like. It's purpose was to inspire us and to see if we could come up with a movie concept using some of those areas of sustainability.

After that was the planning and filming of our movies. My group consisted of myself, Brooklyn Vivienne and Jasmine. We decided to focus on sustaining the environment and trying to help our native birds alive. Our movie was creative and funny. Brooklyn was our bird and Jasmine, along with Vivienne, were the presenters. I took the job as being the bird feeder.

A HUGE thanks goes out to Iliayh and Chris and the outlook for someday for giving us the opportunity to make these movies with you and learn more about sustainability. We all really appreciated the experience.

In The Jungle

“ Don’t you love the wonderful smells of the forest?” Kalie inhaled, as Wayne pulled out the water bottles and extra food for the long and tiring journey. The dense forest seemed to be calling out Wayne. He got the chills but just kept moving forward. The couple had been adventuring for a year now, going up and down Australia looking for more treacherous destinations.

The overhanging trees and the beautiful flowers made Wayne feel a bit better but still suspicious. Wind was blowing and the sun was brightly shining but he just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was with them. “ I think we should go back to the car. Do we really need to be on this course right now?” Wayne wailed “ No! Its a beautiful day. Is there something wrong?” Something was wrong. Wayne just didn’t know what it was. He couldn’t comprehend what came next.

A shadowing figure came over him and Kalie. “ WHATS GOING ON!!!” Kalie was scared now and regretting her choice of forest. The dark figure started speaking, “ Why are you in my forest?” Wayne trembled in terror. “ We-we’re going on a walk. We are sorry for trespassing.” In a blink, the shadowy figure swept across the forest. BANG!!!!! Kalie fell to the ground, shaking. Wayne sprinted, puffing and panting back to the car only to realise that Kalie had the keys. He panicked and tried running out the gate but the shadow was back.

Wayne spun around and Kalie was there too. She looked like a zombie. The shadow began to speak again, “ That is what happens when someone tries to come into my forest”  Kalie instantly started to move. She was approaching Wayne as if she was trying to eat his brain. “ Im STUCK!!” Wayne yelled, terrified of what he was about to become.

ONE DIRECTION!!!

One Direction is one of music’s biggest icons and the worlds biggest boy band. They started out on X Factor in the UK on 2010.  Each of them auditioned individually but were put into a group after they didnt make it separately. They cruised through the competition but were eliminated and came in third place. Simon Cowell signed the band onto his record label Syco Records. Harry, Niall, Zayn, Louis and Liam are the wonderfully awesome boys in the band. They have swept over the nation, winning over most teenage hearts. It is said that they have formed the new ‘British Invasion’  in America.  They have sold 19 million singles and 10 million albums. ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ was their first single and got over a million hits. SInce then, their career has skyrocketed up and they continue to be the best boy band ever!

Mihi

Kia Ora Koutou
Greetings to you all

Kua Haere mai nei
Who have come here

Ki tenei wahi
To this place

Ki te mau mai
To bring

I nga whakaaro pai
The good thoughts

Ka nui te koa
Great is the happiness

Mo to koutou kaha
For your support

Ki te aro mai
In attending

Ki te hapai
To uplift

I nga take
The matters/subjects

E pa ana ki tenei hui
Concerning this gathering

No reira tena koutou, tena koutou, tena ra tatou katoa

Therefore greetings once, greetings twice, greetings again to us all.

EXT Halloween Research

The things that I thought halloween was about:
Dressing up
The day of the dead
Celebrating the dead
Going around the neighbourhood
Getting lollies
Eating lollies
Different Costumes
Spooky
Scaring things
Graves

I don't really think much of halloween. Our family never really celebrates it but if I think back I reckon that halloween is about celebrating the dead and dressing up weird and wonderful costumes. I also think that its about gathering lollies to eat.
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We have found out more about the origins of halloween. The celtic calendar had both a dark side and a light side. Samhain or the Harvesting festival, was at the beginning of the dark times where the nights were longer than the days. Celtic tribes would light bonfire to welcome the new year. When the calendar changed from light to dark, it was said to be permeable for both worlds to collide.

All saints day was called Lemuria but the christians tried to make the day sound more christian-friendly. On Lemuria ghostly figures called larvae, would rise from the dead and haunt people. To keep this from happening, Romans would pour milk would onto each grave to keep them larvae in.

So All saints or all hallows day was moved from the 13th of May to the 1st of November to drain the life out of pagan Samhain. November the 31st was later changed as peopled started to call it All hallows evening which later formed into all hallows even and then halloween. All souls day held on the 2nd of November was to celebrate basically all souls.

People would go around to houses begging for soul cakes on all souls day. While eating the cakes they would pray for the souls stuck in the purgatory.  Purgatory is in the middle of hell and heaven and hold the souls of non-mortals. By having faith in heaven and god, it is said you could be taken up to heaven. This was how the our modern ‘Trick or Treating’ had originated.

Life in Syria vs Auckland Narrative

Heavy footsteps stomped around the house. My siblings were getting ready for another day of school. Mum was downstairs making our lunch. I staggered out of my room, into the dimly lit bathroom to have a shower.  “ Argh... just another normal day.”  

A huge booming sound woke me from my slumber. It was hard doing this alone. This had to be the 3rd anniversary of the day my parents were killed in the treacherous war. I was taken in by this family who found me under all of the rubble and wreckage of our once standing house. Food was scarce. We shared a piece of bread and a little water each. Staring out of the window, an unfortunate girl was gunned down. “ These people are terrible!” I whispered.

“ I HATE SCHOOL!” My class was buzzing, working on the math problems that were on the board. The only thing that I actually like about school is the fact that my friends were there. Playing in the hot summer sun was easily the focal point of my school days. I just wish that hanging with my mates was the only thing I could do at school.

I couldn't go outside and I don't know when I can back out. I remember the sun on my skin. I remember the laughter of my other friends while we played soccer. Then I remember the gunshots and the screaming.  My school was abandoned ever since the war started. No one went back, and the last I can recall, we were solving math problems. I really wish I could go back to school.

Once again, night fell and felt like collapsing onto my very cozy bed. Dinner was really really nice. Roast beef with gravy and broccoli was slowly digesting in my stomach. I burrowed myself into my snuggly blankets, ready to have a really sweet dream about the weekend ahead. “ Ahhhhh... this is the life” I said as my eyes drew to a close.

I slept in the coldest corner, next to the window. Our house didn’t have a really great insulation which caused every night to be a cold one. Is it bad that I want all of this to end? All the gunshots and the sound of terror is horrifying. There is nothing I can do to stop this either! Or is there...  

Top 3 Willow Park Highlights

For the first week of the holidays, a bunch of riversiders got the chance to go on camp for a week. The campsite was at Willow Park. There, we participated in many exciting activities and in this story, I am going to tell you about 3 things that I enjoyed the most about the camp.

Number 1: Duck Duck Goose 

It was not any ordinary game of duck duck goose but it was quite the opposite. If you were the person tagging another person, you had to crack an egg on the persons head when you say goose. The first time I got hit felt weird. I didn't manage to catch anyone who egged me so I didn't get the pleasure of pouring tomato sauce on their heads. Not many other girls did either. Duck Duck Goose had to be my most favourite game of the whole camp!

Number 2: The Disco 

Wednesday night had to be my most favourite. Mr and Mrs Samuels put on the most funky disco for us and I humbly say thanks to both of them and their helpers. But in that disco there was also a fun game where there were 3 teams involved. Mrs Hamilton had either put a black, green or red mark on your hand which later lead to which team you were going to be in. The Smugglers (Green), Dealers (Red) and The Cops(Black). The instructions were that the greens had to sell the diamonds or the bottle caps to the reds. If a cop caught you though, you would have to go to jail for a minute. The whole night was really fun and I sold a lot of diamonds.

Number 3: The Food :) 

The willow park chefs cooked a lot of killer dishes. We also had heaps of really nice food for lunch and breakfast as well. My favourite lunchtime meal would have to be the time we had pork and a few side dishes. It was delicious! Its hard to pick just one favourite dinner dish but the roast lamb we had on the last night we stayed at the camp was the best!

The week I had was amazing and my team was awesome as well. We ended up in 4th place overall but that was okay. At least I got to enjoy the camp and I had a ton of fun as well.

DLO Reflection

The purpose of our Digital Learning Object was simple. Rita, Vivienne and I wanted to show people what the tower is because not many people have heard of the Burj Khalifa. Also, I wanted to learn more about the tower and creating this movie was perfect.  Its the tallest building in the world and we thought that the best way to present it was to build a mini version of the tower.

In our plans, we had tried to make it using paper mache but with the given time we had, (1 week) it was impossible. So with a little advice from our lovely office monitors and Mr Burt, we settled on making it with thick paper rolls. The concept was to take still images of us putting the skyscraper together and then a timelapse of us painting it. Rita was responsible for the awesome introduction. It was an original and creative idea

Overall I think we could have done a lot better. We didn't really manage our time properly and that impacted on the time we had to paint. Our footage was accidentally lost amongst everyone elses movies and photos so we had to improvise and just animate the tower being built. I think that next time we can improve if we focus on the right points.

The positive side to our project was that we all got to work together and that we got to experience a new way of thinking. We had to plan the building out almost like a real architecture and measure everything so everything matched. We also had a very interesting way of showing our movie using a time lapse.

So I conclude that this project was very enjoyable. I really think we have achieved our goal that was set. Rita had written a very informative voice over and I'm proud of our finished product. But now that we are finished we all don’t know what to do with our awesome Burj

Khalifa.
S,R,V Burj Khalifa Tower from Team 5 PES on Vimeo.

Term 3 Highlights

This term has flown past pretty fast. I’ve had heaps of highlights throughout this term.

Our netball shared lunch was celebrated with every other netball team. We all gathered in the hall at lunchtime and shared a few songs. Miss Va'afusuaga put on a lovely event and mostly everyone brought something to share. Thanks Miss Va'afusuaga for the wonderful shared lunch.

The production is just a blurry sight on the horizon that is rapidly rising. Our dance group Insanity, is the last act of the night as our dance is based in the late 2010s. Mr Jacobsen is helping put our dances together, setting us up onstage in our positions. Kiss Kiss by T Pain, Turn up the Music by Chris Brown and Freeze also sung by T Pain. Weird isn’t it? Vivienne and Huelo-Ata changed some of the moves that Selena had made. It made our dance a bit easier but it was effective.

Another highlight for me has been working Mr Burt and writing most of the assembly koreros and planning the school wide events like the year 8 social last term. Its been a good opportunity to learn more about how to use keynote and it challenged my leadership skills.

So I can conclude that this term has been a good one. I am really happy that this term has gone so smoothly but I’m also sad because its nearly over.

A Crusade of Ants

Our house was a mess! My eyelids felt heavy, as I looked around the room.  All of the blankets were scattered around the sitting room floor. My parents were up and a trail of ants were marching in the kitchen cupboard. Dad quickly took all of the food out and threw it on the table. The ants were picking at the crumbs on the shelves.

The ant trail started at the window and it led to the cupboard of food as well as our bowls and plates cupboard. Dad wiped the ants up and put down a special liquid to kill the ants.

A few weeks later there were no ants about and our house is now clean again.

Cross Country

“ OK everyone lining up in your ages levels please!” Mr Jacobsen was standing on the side of the field. The house captains were lined up next to him, holding the coloured flags in the air. One by one they said their team chants. The houses were Takitimu (yellow) TE Arawa (red) Matatua (green) and Tainui (blue.) My stomach was turning as I thought about the 3.5 km cross country we were just about to run.

Each age group were lead off, one after the other. Every time the hooter went, we cheered for our house colours. I was in Takitimu, cheering for each of my other house mates. TIme seemed to fly past really fast and before I knew it, I was on the starting line ready to go.

Jasmine and I stuck together the whole way, encouraging each other to keep on going. The mud reached all the way up my legs and in between my toes. I looked ahead and went up the playground, through the gold posts and started on our second lap.

I went down onto the reserve, puffing and panting. My throat was dry but it didn't matter. I was determined to finish the race. I kept my pace and then the bell rang. “ Come on Shoal we’re nearly finished!” Jasmine ran ahead until I caught up. We then crossed the finish line together and we were done. Rita grabbed a cup of water and threw it onto me. The race was done and dusted.

SER (Self Explaining Roads)

Our extension class held an investigation about Self Explaining Roads last term. Self Explaining roads are streets like Anderson Ave, Holland Ave and Maybury Rd with islands put on them. We had to choose out of 4 questions to base our research on. My partner, Vivienne, and I then did a bit more research about the SER and what they were. Then we came up with a few questions that we thought we could put into our forms that we later used to interview kids with.

Short Investigation-John Farrell

Courtesy of http://www.hoperivermusic.com/about

Our extension class have been asked to do a short project about 4 people in pairs. Gavin Bishop, Darryn Joseph, Apirana Taylor and John Farrell. For our separate independent task, we had to choose 1 out of the 4 to research more on.  My choice is John Farrell.

John Farrell is an American singer, songwriter, author and peace educator. He has written and recorded lots of kids songs and books like “All Around Us,” which is a CD about science and nature for kids. Farrell also wrote songs for “The great Earth Singalong,” which he also starred in and received Parents Choice Silver Honour Award and a Dove Foundation Award.

John lives in Hillsdale, New York with his wife and 5 kids. John is very enthusiastic about cycling, reading and writing. He stopped watching t.v long ago and is encouraging families to spend more quality time together and doing things that doesn't involve any sort of technology. He would like families to read and sing more together as a family bond.

John is the founder of an international network called “Bridges of Peace and Hope.” It is an organisation that helps teachers, students and other collaborate on the arts in education projects that promotes respect and communication. I’m very excited to meet these wonderful people at the Vodafone events centre on Thursday for the Storyline's Festivals.

Creative Strand Reflection

YELLOW HAT- I really enjoyed carving out my pattern on my piece of wood. It was a great experience to have went through.

BLACK HAT- I found it difficult to carve the curved lines and that some people were mucking around when it was time to clean.

GREEN HAT- The thing I found most interesting was the name of the designs. They were Samoan name that I had never heard.

WHITE HAT- I learnt how to carve out lines and patterns. Also that it is important to make your lines deep so they show on your paper.