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

Engage, Grow, Inspire Mosaics

We had a discussion in class about leaving our mark here at Tawa Intermediate.  Something we could look at in the future to remind us of our fantastic year here at school.

A decision was made to use tiles donated by our talented SPEC teachers Mr Bunckenburg and Mrs Lewry to create mosaics to display somewhere around the school.   We wanted to create something that was meaningful and special to both us and our school.  The school motto "Engage, Grow, Inspire was the perfect inspiration for our project.

Room 13 chose koru designs to depict our interpretation of the 3 powerful words.  The three designs were agreed upon and drawn up...  our visual adventure was underway.  Every member of the class took part and surprisingly it took us just over a week to complete.

Special mention needs to be made to the students who came in on Saturday to complete the grouting process on the last 3 boards - Kia ora Ryley, Be, Arielle, Lily, Shannon and Abbey (Shannon's cousin).

Our task now is to find a place to hang them.  Maybe you have a suggestion?

Lachie's Surfing Experience

The heat waves shot through the small batch like a bullet. We had been in the small town for around 2 days. The waves lightly crashed against the soft wet sand. "Looks pretty good out there" my brother said. I nodded in agreement. "Well then lets go" I said.

We lay there gently bobbing on the water, upon our boards. "Lets move in so we can catch a wave at the right time," I said. We both paddled with composure and were now about 30 metres from the shoreline. Then in a flash a decently sized wave rose behind me "Yes!" I shouted. I lay flat on my stomach waiting for my fate, suddenly a green salty curl lifted me up and shot me skimming amidst the waves at such a speed, salty liquid shot into my eyes.

 I was closing in on shore when the worst thing happened. I got caught up in the adrenaline rush, I leaned too far forward and the tip of the board plummeted into the sand beneath the water, flipping me fowards and filling my mouth with unpleasent grey grains. I stood up and felt a sharp pain in my ribs where the board had jabbed me. I looked back over my head towards the waves and spotted my brother laughing his head off. "Shutup" I shouted with grief.

We arrived back at the batch and had settled for a game of pool. My ribs still ached but at least I beat my dad at pool. I couldn't be bothered taking off my wetsuit when I got back, but eventually got persuaded by my mum in a yelling manner to take it off.

Nicole's Camp Post

On 23 of October, my fellow classmates and I caught the train to Masterton for our School Camp.  I must say the actual train ride from Wellington to Masterton was quite long because there were so many stops.  I didn't pay much attention to the scenery.

Our campsite awaited my fellow classmates and I.  When we arrived at the campsite all we could say was  " WOW".  The scenery was quite amazing. 

The first activity we did was the flying fox.  I put on a harness and off I went.  I felt the wind rushing through my hair and hitting my face, it was an incredible feeling but scary at the same time.  We also went caving on the same day.  Although I was so scared about the wetas and spiders I made it through and it wasn't that bad after all.

Dinner for the first night was burger and chips which we dipped in and prepared ourselves.   All of us had fun collecting firewood for our cooking.   Meat patties and potatoes were cooked over an open fire.   We  had sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce and ready sliced cheese for fillings.  Our burgers and chips  were so delicious.

For the first night we all slept in tents.  I shared a tent with Ruby, Zoe, Manaia and Emma.  It was really warm that night.  We all wanted to get out of the tent and sleep outside but in the end we decided to stay put.

On Wednesday, we walked to Donelly Flats where we built our bivouacs.  I shared a bivouac with Eden, Shannon, Melissa and Emma.  We all had a great night of chat and laughter before we all fell asleep. 

Early Thursday morning, Reilly (our walking alarm clock) walked around all the bivouacs and woke everyone up by screaming " It's 7 'o' clock everybody, get up" even though it was actually  6 'o' clock in the morning.  We were all mad at him.  His punishment was to carry all the containers,  bread trays and of course his own luggage.  Later that day, we took a bus ride to our cabins .  Lily, Arielle, Ruby, Ryley, Zoe, Emma and I shared the 'Browne Cabin'.   

That night we went to Masterton pools.  It was so relaxing swimming in a warm pool.   We were allowed to take our shampoo, conditioner and soap so we could have a proper shower.   Back at our cabin that night, I slept on the top bunk and thank God  I didn't fall off.  Matter of fact I slept pretty well knowing I had a good shower.  Oh yes I felt clean.

The next day was my birthday, the 26 October and by far the best day of camp.   Soon the news spread that it was my birthday so at breakfast my fellow classmates sung 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' to me.  Thank you classmates.  I felt so special!   

After breakfast we did abseiling down a 30 metre wall.  I was so scared of falling but  I made it down the wall safely because I felt secure with my harness being tight and the encouragement from everybody at the bottom. 

To finish off the last day of the camp we did water rafting which I found very enjoyable.   I was so positive about jumping off the high rock until I got to the top and realised it was a long way down.  I wasn't sacred, I was petrified and horrified of the height but I made the leap into the icy cold water with my teacher's encouragement.   Thank you teacher! 

I felt  a little bit sad leaving the camp site behind but at the same time happy that I was going home to see my family.  The bus ride from Masterton to Wellington was long and sometimes scary because of the windy roads and high cliffs.  

Overall my camp experience was amazing.  I had  a great time and I'm sure everyone else did too.  I faced my fears and tried  every activity and I am truly proud of my effort.  I felt that this camp was very much like an adrenalin course.

Lily's Team Entry

Ruby, Renee, Be, Arielle and I have been working on a movie about sustainability to enter for the Outlook For Someday movie contest. We have filmed nearly all of our movie and Ruby is working very hard on editing it, so far it looks great!

 Our movie is about water pollution. Me Renee and Be are news reporters. And Renee (who is a fish) interviews fish about how they feel about the water pollution and how it  is not good for life under water. Then me and Be say some facts about the water pollution.

Making the movie was really fun but it took a lot  of time and hard work. Our first idea was about something different but that did not really work so we had to do it on something else. We had to do all the storyboarding and planning the fun bit was making the fish for our heads to go through then the filming!

 For our whole movie we had to use the green screen and that was really fun. We thought that we filmed all of it but we had to re film most of our movie because we were not very good fish.  I think that we have a really good chance on winning this and that so far our movie looks really good and it will look even better when it is finished.

Out look for someday movie reflection:
Something that I learned from this project that I did not  know before was some of the Information about water pollution like:  How long different objects  took to degrade when there dumped in water.

process?
I learned how to work a camera.

The part of this project that was most challenging for me was:
The green screen and trying to see what worked with the green screen and what did not.

The part of this  project I found most rewarding was:
When we were the first group to finished our movie.

Lachie's team entry!

Here is Lachie's post about their movie.  He has also included a reflection about his learning journey.

I've made this movie along with 3 other students in my class. We have entered this movie into channel 7s competition called the 'outlook for some day' which is getting students to make short films about sustainability.  My group and I made our short film on mind pollution, which is basically what electronics and other modern things are doing to our brains.  We came across this idea when we were discussing possible ideas for our film with Ms Tito.  Here is our film by:  Lachie, Reilly, Jackson and Jorge enjoy!

Reflections:

Something that I learned from this project that I did not know before was how to edit using iMovie and how to digitally insert public domain pictures into a green screen background. I also learnt a great deal about what sustainability means.  I've also learnt how to put legal pictures into a film and that you have to acknowledge where they came from.  During the making of the film I learnt to be more organised especially with the script.`

The part of this project that was most challenging for me was writing the script in time for the deadline, keeping some of the other kids settled while filming.  Managing my time and staying on subject and not going random when I write the script.  Keeping a straight face while acting and using editing equipment and other electronic equipment.

The part of this project I found most rewarding was finding out more about my friends and having lots of fun.

If I had to do another Outlook for Someday movie, the things I would do differently are:  be more organised with my script and possibly choosing different people to work with.  Try not to get as much help from the teacher.

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.