Today Emma ran a brilliant lesson on Chinese tea and culture. The students got to sample 4 different types of popular Chinese tea.
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Thursday, November 9, 2017
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Thursday, October 26, 2017
WPCA Ski Trip @ Temple Basin 2017
Kaia put together this amazing video of our adventures up at Temple Basin.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
best ever time today!
I am super amped to have run my best ever time today. I decided before the run that I was going to lock on to Sonny like a jet fighter pilot. I had him in my sights for the duration of the run...and the strategy worked!
Sunday, September 17, 2017
Friday, July 7, 2017
WPCA Rock Climbing, Abseiling, Rafting & Kayaking 2017
Thanks Isaac N from the ICT team for putting this together.
Thursday, June 29, 2017
Tuesday, June 6, 2017
hanging out in Charleston
Super proud of our Pikelets up at Charleston last week. With a lot of encouragement, all 17 students managed to abseil the giant 25m sea cliff! Every student gave the rock climbing 'a crack'. I was really impressed with everyone's attitudes and their achievements across the day. Thanks TPP and the parents who helped over the two days.
Friday, May 26, 2017
passion man
I've been reflecting a lot lately about motivation, drive and how to get the best out of myself and the people around me. Steve Gurney's visit this week couldn't have been timed any better. What a pleasure to hear his story. This is a guy that will stop at nothing to be the very best at whatever he does - and it's no accident that he's been as successful as he's been. He subscribes to the notion of 'hard work works' and that failure should not be dwelled upon but used as 'feedback' to be BTB. It was refreshing to have such an energy force in our classroom.
Schools receive a lot of invitations from various organisations and other initiatives across the year. A teacher's inbox can be a temple of doom at times! This year, one of my goals was to filter through some of the invites more strategically to find some winning opportunities. One of which came for a visit yesterday. Andrew, from Bright Sparks, a government-led technology initiative, came for a visit. He led some pretty cool electronic activities and challenges and sparked (excuse the pun) some real enthusiasm for an area of learning that should be given a lot more attention in my opinion. Students got to build their own robot car and had races, having to fine tune their wheel alignment to ensure they were driving straight and not doing epic donuts! Some of the more engaged students even got an opportunity to programme a small bread board that included light and heat sensors.
Schools receive a lot of invitations from various organisations and other initiatives across the year. A teacher's inbox can be a temple of doom at times! This year, one of my goals was to filter through some of the invites more strategically to find some winning opportunities. One of which came for a visit yesterday. Andrew, from Bright Sparks, a government-led technology initiative, came for a visit. He led some pretty cool electronic activities and challenges and sparked (excuse the pun) some real enthusiasm for an area of learning that should be given a lot more attention in my opinion. Students got to build their own robot car and had races, having to fine tune their wheel alignment to ensure they were driving straight and not doing epic donuts! Some of the more engaged students even got an opportunity to programme a small bread board that included light and heat sensors.
Friday, May 12, 2017
League champions!
So proud of the Paroa School league team! They definitely punched above their weight, played fair and got the result they desired!
Friday, May 5, 2017
everyone up @ 5am, there's going to be a meteor shower!
We learnt about meteors this week. For all those that admitted to never seeing one, now's your chance. If the skies are clear tomorrow morning, look up and be amazed.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/05/meteors-to-shower-nz-skies-this-weekend.html
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/05/meteors-to-shower-nz-skies-this-weekend.html
the 5th month!
As always, the year is rocketing by. Difficult to believe we're already into the 5th month! I'm really excited about this term. We've got a lot going on. In a week or so we'll be beginning our Boomwriter journey with Room 7. Boomwriter is a brilliant programme for engaging kids in writing. We're going to run it as an interclass competition. Students will pick a published chapter, provided by Boomwriter and then attempt to write subsequent chapters. When all chapters are published, the students will get to vote on their favourite. Winning chapters will be eventually published into an actual hard copy book!
Students are 'smashing out' areas of their maths which have proven repeatedly challenging. Some are coming up with innovative ways to commit new knowledge and understandings to memory. We're going to have some fun with our maths this term with an increased focus on the practical 'strand' side of maths.
Basketball starts tonight. I'm really proud of how my students have both trialled and prepared with their teams leading up to this. The basketball tournament has become a really big part of our programme. It's a long season and really testing for some but at the same time, super rewardable. A big thanks to the managers and coaches who are giving up ungivable (yes, I just made up a word but it should be a word in this context) time to help us out.
We've got some BIG WPCA challenges coming up this term. Rock climbing & abseiling at Charleston, an overnight raft trip on the Arnold AND kayaking. It all happens over a very short space of time too. Can't wait.
Students are 'smashing out' areas of their maths which have proven repeatedly challenging. Some are coming up with innovative ways to commit new knowledge and understandings to memory. We're going to have some fun with our maths this term with an increased focus on the practical 'strand' side of maths.
Basketball starts tonight. I'm really proud of how my students have both trialled and prepared with their teams leading up to this. The basketball tournament has become a really big part of our programme. It's a long season and really testing for some but at the same time, super rewardable. A big thanks to the managers and coaches who are giving up ungivable (yes, I just made up a word but it should be a word in this context) time to help us out.
We've got some BIG WPCA challenges coming up this term. Rock climbing & abseiling at Charleston, an overnight raft trip on the Arnold AND kayaking. It all happens over a very short space of time too. Can't wait.
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Manderin started today
Emma, from the Confucius Institute (kindly supported by TPP), came to our class to teach our first Mandarin lesson today. We had heaps of fun learning how to say hello and introduce ourselves. We also got to have a race with chopsticks! The girls smashed it.
Friday, March 31, 2017
our first debate
On Monday, we had our first class debate. Boy, what an incredible showcase of what this class is truly capable of. I was blown away by the effort in which the student's put into what was an incredibly challenging task. Everyone, to varying degrees, stood up and delivered on the day. What more can I ask?
Actions speak louder than words so as we speak, a team of techsperts are editing and rendering video footage of the debate and we'll premiere this shortly.
Actions speak louder than words so as we speak, a team of techsperts are editing and rendering video footage of the debate and we'll premiere this shortly.
Sunday, March 26, 2017
When Harry met William
Once a Pikelet, always a Pikelet. Thanks to Harry's dad for sending through this photo.
Friday, March 24, 2017
big week of learning!
I'm really proud of my students.
Week 8 has been a massive learning curve for them. They are in the depths of researching for their first class debate. Our proposition statement is "Books are better than Chromebooks for learning". The students have been divided into 6 teams of 4 (randomly drawn). Each team has a captain and 3 main speakers. Each of the main speakers needs to craft a research-based persuasive argument to support their team's position (whether pro or con the proposition statement). The 'research-based' aspect is proving to be a really pertinent challenge for them. Wikipedia, copying/pasting and all forms of plagiarism have been banned (we even have a plagiarism alarm). Students are required to access scholarly information and cite their sources. This has meant they've had to 'unlearn' old habits and recalibrate how they search and acknowledge information online. In order to avoid plagiarism, they've had to learn how to summarise, paraphrase and quote from articles, research papers, presentations, lectures, interviews and news websites.
Our first debate is on Monday. It will be filmed and cut into a highlights reel so watch this space!
Week 8 has been a massive learning curve for them. They are in the depths of researching for their first class debate. Our proposition statement is "Books are better than Chromebooks for learning". The students have been divided into 6 teams of 4 (randomly drawn). Each team has a captain and 3 main speakers. Each of the main speakers needs to craft a research-based persuasive argument to support their team's position (whether pro or con the proposition statement). The 'research-based' aspect is proving to be a really pertinent challenge for them. Wikipedia, copying/pasting and all forms of plagiarism have been banned (we even have a plagiarism alarm). Students are required to access scholarly information and cite their sources. This has meant they've had to 'unlearn' old habits and recalibrate how they search and acknowledge information online. In order to avoid plagiarism, they've had to learn how to summarise, paraphrase and quote from articles, research papers, presentations, lectures, interviews and news websites.
Our first debate is on Monday. It will be filmed and cut into a highlights reel so watch this space!
Friday, March 17, 2017
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Challenge #1: Cave Stream Reflection
I’ve taken dozens of groups through Cave Stream. Every group is different. Group dynamics, ages, conditions and prior experience all have an effect on each trip’s ‘vibe’. Yesterday was no exception. It was special having the whole class - the Year 7’s add another dimension to the dynamic of our group. The excitement and anticipation yesterday was palpable for both young and old (we had 10 courageous parents with us).
I love eavesdropping on the interactions between the students and parents during the build-up to such experiences. The various shades of excitement, anticipation, terror and the ‘fear of the unknown’ make for great entertainment but also provide me - their teacher - with some insight into how they approach such challenges and the effects their peers’ responses and attitudes can have on their total experience.
I am immensely proud of what my students achieved yesterday. They were positive, prepared, supportive and totally up for it. What more can I ask? Challenge #1 conquered.
This is only the beginning of what will be a momentous year for this remarkable group of students.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
congratulations Riley!
Thanks to the power of technology, this is the view I get of the overall progress of our Pikelets in 2017. Riley has already completed 2 hours service in the weekend, which equates to 10% of his overall service and 1% of the classes!
The Year 7's will be involved this year in our Passion Projects component of the WPCA but won't keep a formal log until next year. They are more than welcome to participate in community service locally with their Year 8 classmates or for a personal challenge in preparation for next year.
Kaia invited Mayor Tony Kockshoorn to give us an insight into potential community service projects. He has accepted the invitation and will meet with us Thursday. Thanks Kaia for showing great initiative with this.
Remember, get on top of it now so you're not playing catch-up in Term 4.
As William says, "Everyday is a good day!"
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Friday, February 10, 2017
Monday, January 30, 2017
cracker start!
What a cracker start. I'm feeling really positive about 2017 and this group of learners. We're going to hit the ground running and aim big. Bring it on!
Students writing their first 'Beach Journal' entry for 2017
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