Farewell Awesome 2012!

Yes it's that time of the year where we say 'Farewell'.  Most of the students have posted their final post for the year stating their highlights and lowlights.  Have a read, I had a chuckle to myself at what some of the students had to say about their year.

My highlights have been numerous.  Firstly it would have to be the amazing kids in my class.  I really had fun teaching/facilitating/guiding and learning myself this year.

Another highlight was definitely camp.  I'll be honest in saying I was a bit skeptical about going on camp at Mt Holdsworth.  Only because I am from the North and our idea of camp is usually camping at a Northland beach packing items such as togs, towels and sunblock.  I was pleasantly surprised of how much fun we had (even in the cold).  The rafting was the absolute highlight of the week long camp.

I also enjoyed watching kids grow and flourish - sounds cliche I know but it REALLY is the most rewarding part of teaching.  The random selection box worked a treat - ask any student about our random selection box and they will tell you the various occasions in when the box came in handy.  They hated the box at the beginning because I would select students randomly to share their writing, thoughts, ideas and opinions.  Towards the end of the year students were often volunteering to share before names were selected.  It was GREAT!

We wish all our Year 8 students all the best at College next year and to our Year 7 students, another fantastic year at Tawa Intermediate.  I will miss you all but will be following your blogs to follow your learning journeys.

Arohanui - Ms T x

Sustainability Movies

We have been really busy in Room 13 creating movies for the 'Outlook for Someday' young film maker competition.  I apologise for not updating our class blog for over a month, that is a direct result of how busy we have been.

I am pleased to say our class managed to submit 6 movies into the competition.  I'll be posting up the various movies or links to students blogs for you to check out their creations.

Students have given each other some really good feedforward and feedback.  If you are interested in their own reflections about the process, make sure to check their individual blogs for both movies and reflections.

The first movie I managed to upload is available for you to check out and give your own feedback/feedforward.  Here is Anton's 'Sustainability Rap' featuring his good friend Nicole.  Anton wrote and produced this movie on his own.  Well done Anton!

I apologise for the first 10 seconds of blackness in the beginning of the film, it was a requirement for the 'Outlook for Someday' Competition.

Our Assembly Presentation

The week finally arrived when it was Pouakai's turn to run our School Assembly again. Room 15 did such a great job last term that we (Room 13) had to figure out how we wanted to run our assembly.

'Operation Assembly' emerged! We decided on a 'TIS News" theme and we wanted to try some green screening.  We were lucky that some of the content was already made throughout our term so it was just a matter of selecting what we wanted to celebrate and delegating jobs.

 An assembly committee came together and decided what needed to be done: Brittany (Be) and Jorge were in charge of writing their scripts for the introductions of each DLO (Digital Learning Object / Movie). Ruby and Anton were in charge of producing movies for the School Disco and Cross Country, Melissa and Reilly had to write and learn scripts for their Sports presentation, Shannon, Lily and Ryley interviewed students about citizenship during lunchtimes (with Ruby as Videographer), Ben was in charge of explaining our Whakatauki and the rest of the class were in charge of independent tasks while green screening was done.

Special thanks to Eden and McKenzie for sharing their musical talent, Las for fostering the musical talent in our room, The videographers for the cross country, Stephanie for her Camp Video, the students who recited our class Whakatauki, the Room 13 students who worked independently and of course... the assembly committee!

 Here's most of the presentation. I hope you've got a bit of time, it's actually 21 minutes long - but well worth the watch. Well done our 'Nga Hau Mahana!

Our Sensational Athletics Day

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr! The wonderful Wellington wind sent shivers coursing through my body while measuring discus throws up on the Tawa College field.  It was the very first whole school 'event' of 2012 here at Tawa Intermediate.  Athletics day!

The commitment shown by passionate and patriotic students to their syndicates were apparent when I scanned the hall in the morning briefing.  I saw clumps of blue, red, pink, green, yellow and purple students dressed to show their support.  Pouakai (my syndicate) wore pink.

So the scene is set... watch our movie, it captures the mood of the day along with some excitement and talent.  Are you one of the talented ones?

TIS Athletics 2012 from Janine Tito on Vimeo.

Thanks to Lasi, Mr O'C and Miss Goldfinch for the photos and footage.