Yesterday was our graduation and prizegiving. I performed in Kapa Haka, Orchestra and Choir and was pleased to receive a certificate for Excellence in Graphics and Design, which is inspiring if I become an architect. I also got quite a shock when my name was called out for a Whaia te Tikitiki award. There are about 6 for each year group for students who have participated in all areas of school life, Arts, Sports, Academic, e.t.c. Whaia te Tikitiki is our school motto. It means Reach For The Heights, and it's in Maori. I was very, very happy to get this award and had a long citation read about me!
Whaia te Tikitiki is a motto I will never forget. Intermediate school has been one of my most memorable experiences and these two years have brought so much fun into my learning. I can hardly imagine me not knowing how to blog, but I didn't, at the beginning of 2007. I didn't even know what a blog was, or that it was possible for a student to let the student voice be heard worldwide through ICT. Then I was taught how to blog, and I gradually picked things up. Even halfway through 2007, when asked to name a few Web 2.0 tools, I was still defining what Web 2.0 was in my mind, and could only think of Wikispaces, Blogger and Voicethread. Now I know so many tools that do so many cool things! I've definitely come a long, long way since my time at Intermediate began. Yes, learning with ICT is fun. Going on a computer is leisure for some people and to be able to use them all the time at school makes learning a whole lot more interesting. Recording voice and posting on the web are only a couple of many pleasures students experience when they have completed some ICT work. E-portfolios are so neat and you can keep putting things into them without them gaining weight. You don't have to carry them around anywhere, yet they are accessible from anywhere in the world. With internet, that is! We are growing up into a very different world. One with computers and nearly everything done electronically or digitally. I'm going to embrace these opportunities because you will need lots of ICT skills in the future. There is something special about being able to google your own website or see images that you've used come up in Google Image searches. About seeing words you've written on the World Wide Web, for everyone to read. About the overall package of blogs or wikis, and how neat they can look when finished & updated and about being able to make the student voice heard in the world. Watching your clustrmap as it fills up with hits from all around the world, even places in which you don't know anyone living there! It is pride and that can only encourage us to keep posting. Blogging is fun.
Tuesday was meant to be a trip to the pools (with a hydro slide and dive pool) for the whole of Year 8 as our end of year day out. Unfortunately it was raining and we couldn't use the indoor pool so for half of the day we all went to the cinemas to see High School Musical 3. We all got a free icecream / popcorn. I really enjoyed the movie, as usual.
As I've mentioned before, this is going to be an excellent series. I read the first book, The Maze Of Bones, and received and read One False Note, the second book. Before the release of One False Note, on the 1st of December, there was a webcast which can be viewed here: http://www.scholastic.com/kids/stacks/videos/index.htm?pid=1847353729&bcpid=1847353729&bclid=1896836069&bctid=3265446001 and a few kids from countries all around the world got to ask a question to the author of the second book about the story. I did this, and my question was chosen! It is answered on the webcast at 39:40 minutes. I asked about Dan and Amy's mother. (Answer) In return, the 5 kids from my class who also asked questions but weren't answered received a 39 clues balloon, cap, T-shirt, pen, card pack and the second book, each, including me! It was very exciting!
Hullo! Just thought I'd mention commenting on my blog. I don't get too many comments - for those of you who do, or have, thankyou - but looking at my full Clustrmap is very inspiring when I see how many of you have viewed my blog. I would love to receive a comment from you! My guestbook still operates, accessed from the Archive. Signing that would be fine or just a quick comment through Blogger would be much appreciated. But thank you for looking at my blog!
My time at Intermediate is coming to a close. I've posted lots on this blog of just about everything that has happened at Intermediate school. Next year I'm starting college and obviously won't have as much time to post. I don't plan to put as much up here but I think a post once a month about how Year 9's going would be reasonable. Intermediate has been so much fun but I am so looking forward to college. I like the idea of going from class to class. Thanks to all who have been watching my blog - please do in the following year. Recently my Clustrmap updated but it's now almost as full as my old one! You may have noticed that now when reading my blog you have to click "Older Posts" but I realised this blog takes a lot less time to load this way. I still welcome comments: you can imagine how exciting it is to hear from people you don't know, as well as people you do know!
On Thursday there is a formal for the Year 8's at my school. It's going to be a really fun night! My dress is blue. My team has to bring sweet / savoury food. I'm excited!
Sometimes we do SRA at school. We are on levels and I started on Gold, but moved up to Brown during the year. You take a card of your level and read the story and answer the questions, then you mark it.
For health, we did a study on drugs. I researched the effects of cannabis. Cannabis can be inhaled or smoked and can cause red eyes, a dry mouth, euphoria, increased appreciation of colours and patterns, art or music and lack of co-ordination and concentration. My friends and I acted out some of the effects of cannabis for the class and they guessed which effect it was. We also did skits on saying no to drugs. A valuable lesson was learnt.
My school is holding an Arts Festival next week and all the Art groups are in it. I'm playing in the orchestra, singing in the choir and performing in Kapa Haka. There are two performances with a break in between and I am going to busk (for the first time!) with my two other friends because we all play the flute. I'm doing a duet on "That Sounds So Beautiful" and a duet on "My Favourite Things" and we are all playing "Chanson Serbe" and we all have solos. My solo is called "Meadow-Sweet." I'm really looking forward to it!
Our task this term is Responding To Reading. We do various activities related to the 8 Multiple Intelligences on a book. I am doing the 39 Clues. Has anyone read it? It's excellent. Log on to the website: http://www.the39clues.com/ The second book is released really soon and webcasts were made (one for each country, I think) asking questions to the author. Yes, I was in it. Yes, I asked what Amy and Dan's mother had to do with the book. Yes, it was exciting!!!!!! Anyway, I'm enjoying the tasks because they're all very different: Spatial, Bodily Kinasthetic, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Naturalist, Linguistic, Musical and Logical.
Yep, this term's focus is Inventions. We have watched a lot of Youtube clips on Inventions and have even had a competition for the tallest tower made with restricted resources. That was a lot of fun! We are currently working through a big management plan each, using pictures and words to explainn the ideas we've come up with during the times we've looked at the Thinker's Keys. We covered the BAR (Bigger, Add, Repalce) Key, Disadvantages Key and the Combination Key. Now, individually or in pairs (I'm working with my friend) we are to invent something for the Inventors Fair with the pssibility of selling it within the school. Now that we have an idea, it is getting to be quite enjoyable, because, after all, that's all we really need, isn't it? - An idea. We are going to make a "thing" that wil hold your recipe book for you while you bake or cook. It is double sided so on the other side you can clip up recipes on paper with the provided clip. This forms a triangle and the middle of it can be used as storage space (e.g, eggs that need to be kept out of the sun!). It will be on wheels and hopefully extendable ones so that the height of our contraption can change. Oh, and it should have a handle for easy transportation. Maybe in time it will have an added scale!
This year at my school there were the annual talent quests: Singing, Instrumental and Dancing. I decided to audition for the Instrumental and Dancing. I got into one of them...
I spent quite a few weeks preparing for the school Dancing Talent Quest, which was, as it happened, yesterday. I have done Irish Dancing for 4 years and love it so much so I choreographed an Irish dance to enter with, inspired by a clip on Youtube.
It went rather well (not perfectly, but the dance itself was good) and I got 3rd = . My friend's pair got the other half doing jazz. It was one of the highlights of my year!
An awesome day! The voicethread says it all. (But I'll put the text up anyway!)
Rockclimbimg was one of the best school trips I've ever had! I love it so much, love the challenge, and am reasonably good at it too. My goal is to become a professional rock climber. First, we started on the Climb Zone walls. Throughout the course of the day I climbed to the top of all these walls, and had a lot of fun. I even got up the fish wall, something I've never done before because of the immense arm strength required to pull yourself up using the ropes. Unfortunately, I exhausted myself so that I couldn't do the rope, but that means there's something that I haven't been up! I went up the Indiana Jones wall too, and, although you can't go right to the roof, I got to the second highest box. (Funnily enough, I got a little bit scared!) It was very hard, hot, sweaty, thirsty work so I bought a juicy iceblock and a delicious icecream cookie. Plus my lunch. Once refreshed, we swapped over so we got a lesson on belaying. My friend and I belayed each other on the House Wall and it was really fun. When belaying, you must keep your eyes on the climber the whole time, keep two hands on the rope and keep the rope tight. When you are climbing, first you must untangle the rope, then clip yourself onto the carabiner and ask your belayer if they are ready. Towards the end I thought that it was time to try some harder partner-belayed walls so I attempted, and completed, my very first overhang! I was so proud! I got to the top of another wall and then, just to see how far I'd get, I tried the back wall. It had a big overhang, rounded, daunting, followed by another just as hard overhang, before a long straight stretch to the top. While my firend belayed, I tried and tried again (sqillions of times, actually) and would swing right back in the harness and... fly! With my arm outstretched and my mind on gripping the hold that I so desperately needed, time and time again I tried. My other friend (and both my friends were very supportive, thanks guys) held my feet and pushed me up until I found a handhold that was easy to grip. I slowly but surely pulled myself up, and over the second overhang. I fell off so many times but I kept at it. I was asked if I wanted to come down, but I knew I had to keep going, so I said, "Once more". And, would you believe it, I made it! At times I would just hang there, my fear growing by the second, but then I would find the strength I needed and pull myself up one more rock. It took a while, but eventually I got to the very top and I was soooooo happy! It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life! A real achievement.
Wow! I haven't already posted about Literacy, or anything close to! So I thought that I'd better, as I have a Literature Circles Reflection from Term 2! Here it is:
Here is an excellent wiki that summarizes briefly all the Web 2.0 tools I've found, and some more. If you would like to delve into Web 2.0 more, I recommend taking a look at this wiki. http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/
In Term 3, we had a big ongoing project, that we worked on in maths and at home, for Geometry. Our task was to design, plan, cost, market and build a house! I really enjoyed it because I would like to be an architect. I put so much planning into it that it would take a very, very long time and be nearly impossible to put everything on this blog, but here is my finished product which had a heap of time put into it.
This term, term 3, we are writing narratives. Our focus is also on Viddix, and we are creating Viddix's while narrating our fairytales. Follow this link to see my Viddix.
Next month, September, my school is hosting a Kid's Conference for our four contributing primary schools Year 6's and the Year 7's at my school. Some of the Year 8's, including me, are setting up ICT workshops in different classes. My friend and I are talking about Voicethread, but there will be others too, such as Google Sketch Up, Wikispaces, Photography, i-movie and blogs. It's going to be exciting! We may even have a night open to the public to drop in!
Yesterday was our graduation and prizegiving. I performed in Kapa Haka, Orchestra and Choir and was pleased to receive a certificate for Excellence in Graphics and Design, which is inspiring if I become an architect.
REACH FOR THE HEIGHTS
