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Wednesday 11 December 2013

Geometry

This is a table which represents
A scale Diagram of a school playground area after using instructions given by the task sheet

Monday 2 December 2013

Technicraft


“Now you need to put in the battery and see if it works” said Mr Clark
“Okay thank you Mr. Clark” I replied.

It was a breezy Autumn day On Thursday, the birds were chirping their mouths away and Father’s cat (Penny) was roaming our school without a suspicion in the world. We started the day with prayers led by Asia and Agnes but this time it wasn’t our regular 14 pupil class they were saying prayers with 29 people because of Room Seven’s teacher was undergoing a course so it was going to be a packed day for Room Eight and Room Seven.

As we walked on the bus it was like everyone was trying to save themselves as they stormed the bus shouting and crashing in seats. A few minutes later we arrived at Pakuranga Intermediate and as usual procedure we got off the bus and walked the pathways of the school. Mr Clark introduced us with a warm handshake and we entered into our room.

We started with a game called ‘4 square’ which we had to hit our opponents square on a full, then we played a game called ‘Big Booty’ Mr Clark numbered us then we have to say ‘Big Booty’ and then our number then we have to say someone else’s number. Once we had at least 5 turns we brought to a close the game section now it was on to business, I was in a group with five people which were: Ethan, Christopher, Phontain and Vitor. The class started with a simple twenty question test which eventually ended up with the girls winning “Good job” I articulated to the girls, no one agreed with me they said the girls were cheaters as they were rubbing out their original answers and putting in the correct ones.

After interval we gleefully entered the tech room finishing off our title pages, 40 minutes came and went so quickly as we were having fun soon Mr Clark greeted us goodbye then we ambulated to the bus where again it was like an S.O.S ( Save Our Selves) situation.

The day was the first day of our tech classes and it was the best.

New starting times


Should 8.30 be the starting time for Intermediate children?

Starting school early, the time we start I think is early enough and fits right in with everyone’s schedule, but the idea of changing it 10 minutes earlier is absolutely Daft, I mean what is the point of having 10 more minutes of school time?

Firstly, Parents will have to make an extra effort to wake up and drive their children to school which makes life more stressful. If it were to change to 8.30 the teachers shouldn’t be expecting a lot of children coming on time, which affects their report as punctuality is needed for college. 8.40 is the ideal time for school to start across all years 1-8.

Secondly, 10 minutes isn’t enough time to fully understand a subject. If they were to change it to 10 minutes earlier they might as well change it to 20 minutes earlier because at least that’s enough time to put in another subject. From my perspective 10 minutes isn’t enough time and they should just stick to the current time instead of making life harder for them and student’s.

Lastly, Lowering time to 8.30 benefits No one! What is the difference? I mean some (strict) teachers may agree with this because they want to bore their children, cram more information that might not even stay with them for 5 minutes. To bring this into action is just a waste of a human’s lifetime and I know that it will bring no difference whatsoever!.

I think that it should just stay at 8.40 because it makes no difference, adds more stress and doesn’t benefit any intermediate children in most aspects. These are just some of the reasons why the starting time shouldn’t change to 8.30.



Cultural Festival Diary


Cultural Festival

Diary,
I’ve recently experienced something thrilling and also nerve racking, it was Cultural Festival. For some reason I wasn’t so nervous walking up to the hall in soaking rain. As we entered in the hall my puipui fell off  then my heart suddenly dropped as I felt a little bit embarrassed, luckily Mrs Dines fixed it quickly so that it was just in time for use to go up to the stage. We were walking up to the stage when I thought to myself I’m not so shy anymore and felt brave. I felt like my brothers were next to me and behind me in our performance, HIII!!! we said as we finished our haka with confidence we stayed in our spot as the crowd went wild with applause we were signaled by Mrs Dines to get off the stage we then walked back to the foyer. After we took our puipuis off Asia, Willie, Ethan and I walked back to Room 5 to get our Hip Hop clothes but Williefred was just there to keep company. We reached the door and Asia was trying to find the key, Williefred warned us that the alarm would go off but we still went in. The alarm went off but I continued calling Ethan and Asia, Asia was panicking and she couldn’t find the right key for the room, once we did find the key I got my clothes then turned off the light to make Ethan and Asia scared. Willie and I were running frantically for our lives because we convinced ourselves that ghosts were chasing us. Ethan,Asia and I finished putting our clothes on and our suspenders and tie we complimented each other as we all looked cool. Our performance was the last which increased the suspense level but I managed to keep my cool by rooting for my friends. As we got on stage I wasn’t nervous because I knew I was going to be awesome, Soana’s group started us off then it was our group, I walked on with so much confidence then I did my routine. Cultural Festival was a blast and afterwards my family was proud of me and I was too.

Gaming Speech


Can gaming help children learn?

Who here likes to play video games? What if I told you that playing video games can help you become smarter, would you believe me? a group of Chinese students learning English used digital games as a learning tool. After the test 95 percent of the 3500 said  that the digital programs increased motivation among the students.

According to research by neuroscientist Paul Howard Jones gaming stimulates our brain into producing a chemical called ‘Dopamine’. Dopamine aids cognition which is the ability to acquire knowledge through thought, experiences and the senses. Everyone knows that this is important when it comes to education and learning.

A majority of you would agree that gaming is fun and also engaging, but gaming has been Bill Gates and Rihanna were gamers? I would be surprised to know that Rihanna is a gamer but Bill Gates he’s quite obvious, considering he is one of the forefathers of the multi-million dollar corporation Xbox. Many people also make money from gaming like the creators of Call of Duty and Halo.

Teamwork is one of the most obvious increase in students playing multiplayer videogames and also educational games. It is most likely to happen when there is a challenge that is quite hard or impossible for one student to do, it is here when they ask for help within peers or they team up together if it has the multiplayer option. This makes it easier to teach physical education or otherwise called P.E and also when there is a team building activity.

Problem solving was also a skill that was improved the most with gaming a. You might think that I’m talking about educational games but games like Splinter Cell and Rachet also have these effects on children’s mind. It will be easier for students to finish tasks as they use past experiences and they will be used to doing it as most games have this feature. Problem solving is a big factor when it comes to education as most techniques are question and answer types

So next time your mum says gaming is bad for you, you can say not so much. Now with Christmas coming up instead of asking for a new bike or skateboard I suggest you ask for known to produce the greatest technology gods. Would you be surprised if I told you that a gaming console like Ps4 or Xbox because it might just make you the next Steve Jobs or Stephen Hawking.




Friday 8 November 2013

Pigeon Post


Homework Wk1

Topic: Pigeon Post
General Information
Pigeon Post, Pigeon post is the use of Homing Pigeons bearing messages and sending them to a certain address. Homing pigeons were very effective messengers as this type of pigeon carries the natural ability to return to their place or territory after travelling away from it.
Early History
The Ancient Persians trained birds to deliver messages and to follow many commands like eagles do, Historians Believe this was where the art of training birds came from. The Mughals were also known to use Birds to carry and Deliver messages from place to place. Pigeon Post was used a lot in war, In World War I and also WWII Pigeons were utilised to pass on messages. It is quite coincidental that over 2000 years ago Pigeons aided the Roman military having the same abilities and use.

Pigeon Post of Great Barrier Island
The Pigeon Post of Great Barrier was established after the ship SS Wairarapa crashed into the coast of Great Barrier Island, the news took several days before it reached Auckland, the toll of the crash was 121 lives. Before the Pigeon Post was established the only way of communication between Great Barrier Island and Auckland was by a weekly coastal steamer. The pigeongram service began between Great Barrier Island and Auckland in 1897 and ended in 1908 as the first telegraph cable was put between the Island and Auckland.

Wednesday 16 October 2013

Room 8's Gravity Experiment

Gravity Experiment




Yesterday we conducted a gravity experiment to see which items would hit the ground first.


This were the items we needed:
  • Ping Pong Ball x1
  • Pin x1
  • Paper x1 (A4)
  • Feather x1
  • Marble x1
  • Pencil x1
  • Rubber x1

This was the table we made as part of our investigation. First we had to guess/estimate which we thought would hit the ground first. Afterwards we had to test which objects would hit the ground first, we had to look at the table to see what object we were going to drop and what was going to compete against it. Once we had dropped the objects at least three times we wrote down which hit the ground first in most occassions. We did this until we have dropped every object that was on the table

Object Dropped

Which hit the ground first?
Which actually hit the ground first?
Marble
Ping pong ball
Marble
marble
Rubber
Paper Clip
rubber
rubber
Marble
Pencil
marble
Same time
Flat Paper
Feather
feather
paper
Crumbled Paper
Feather
crumbled paper
crumbled paper
Feather
Paper Clip
paper clip
paper clip





This is what we would’ve looked like: