2020 Tech Reflection

LI: to reflect on tech

This years tech was a rough start. Having to go on lock - down and still going online and doing tech. It was a rough year but an amazing journey to go through. Being able to do different things such as Robotics & Coding, Food Tech, and Science. Being able to do those different things was such fun. Being able to meet amazing new people teaching us these wonderful new things. As us Year 7s first year of tech, having to go through this was not normal but we kept going and made it work. Robotics & Coding was amazing, we got to play with robots and code them into doing cool things like light up, move around, make sounds and much more. Food Tech was fun because we were able to learn being safe in the kitchen, while also learning how to cook and make delicious new foods. Science was amazing as well because we learnt about Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Being able to learn about Rocket Science, Earthworms, Pollution, and Chemicals was super cool, and the experiments were so fun. 

I'm looking forward for what comes next year at Tech. 

Tech - Plants & Foodmakers (Week 7)

LI: to learn about plants 

For the last week of Tech this year our 8th topic was about plants. We first talked about how plants grow and the structure of a plant. We talked about what plants need, such as Carbon Dioxide, Water, and Sunlight. We talk about how each need works and how it happens. We then got 10 leaves from the school, all different leaves. We categorized them using a table talking about their size, texture, colour, and pattern. We talked about how big the leaf is, how it feels, the colour of the leaf and the pattern on the leaf. 

How to be cybersmart (Silver Confidence)

 LI: to teach how to be Cybersmart

For one of the activities and tasks to achieve the Silver Confidence Badge I had to make a DLO on either "How to stand up to bullies" or "How to be cybersmart". I chose how to be Cybersmart. In my DLO I explain how to be Cybersmart. I explained things like password safety, info sharing, cyber bullying and more things. After I then talk about what Cybersmart is, and I talk about how Cybersmart is about how to be safe online. 

How to smartcomment (Silver Confidence)

LI: to teach the basics of how to smartcomment

 

For one of the activities to achieve and get the Silver Confidence Badge I had to create a task with my teacher. The task I created was about "How to smartcomment". In this DLO I firstly said what a smartcomment is, and defined what its about and what it does. After I started talking about the basics and structure of a smart comment, and in the DLO it shows a example of a smartcomment with all the simple basics and structure. 

Art Coloring Book

LI: to experiment with colors

                                                       

           

Original

Mine

This morning we tried one of this year’s Summer Learning Journey activities. The purpose of this task was to experiment with colours by mixing colours from the original palette with pop colours. This allowed us to recolour famous painting or images of landmarks around the world. I really enjoyed this task because we were able to experiment with these different colours, and we could do it digitally. The art I remade was created by Louis Mailou Jones, and the art is called Moon Masque. It is currently held in Smithsonian Art American Museum. 

BookClub

LI: to unpack the text together

Fau, Lukah, Sulia, Vayan, Afatia, Azatulah and I were introduced to the activity, Book Club by Mrs Anderson.  Each member of the book club has a role to take each week. The 7 roles are, The Discussion Director, Connector, Summariser, Passage Picker, Word Master, Illustrator and Meeting Report. 

The book that we read this week was called “Bok Choy” by Paul Mason. The moral of the story was describing the differences between the chinese people compared to the english. This story unpacked the racism faced by chinese miners, who came to New Zealand in 1800s to seek their fortune in the gold fields. From this story we learnt it is important to accept one another despite who we are and how we look. 

Once we had completed the tasks for our roles, we reported back to the group and shared our thoughts and ideas. The Discussion Director’s asked questions and guided everybody to be on the right track. The Summariser, picked 20 most important words from the story, to 6, and used it to summarise the text. The Passage Picker would pick a part of the story and write why it’s important to you. The Connector had to make connections to themself, to text, and to the world from the book. 

I enjoyed that each person had a role and everybody contributed to the group. I found it interesting that everyone had a rich learning conversation . I'm looking forward to doing this again.

Te Whanau Raukura Performance

The Te Whanau Raukura Kapa Haka group came to our school to show us amazing dances and teach us new incredible things about the Haka and Maori history. They firstly talked to us about the items used in Hakas. The first one was the Poi Poi, which used to be a way for men back then to help them with their wrists so they were able to fight. Nowadays it is used mostly by women when dancing. Then next was the Te Rakau which was again used by men back in the days to help them with their joints and wrist so they were able to fight. Lastly there was the Taiaha which was a stick with a spear edge, it is said that the Taiaha is shaped like the body. The stick is the body, and the top is the head but also known as the tongue. Poking the tongue in Maori culture is a way to show intimidation and readiness for combat. 

Exploring Current Events

LI: To identify author’s purpose.

For Reading we were exploring different type of articles and news through current events. There are 12 different types of articles. The first is Timeliness which is a type of article that has happened recently. Relevance is a type of article where it is of importance to the reader. Magnitude is an article that has effected a lot of people in the story, such as a natural disaster like a flood or tornado. Another one is Unexpectedness is a story that you didn't anticipate, something unusual that occurs without a warning. Impact is a type of article that effects a large amount of readers. The next one is a Reference to someone that is important or famous, an article which talks about a famous or important person like a singer or politician. Oddity is an article which talks about a weird situation. Conflict is something that has major struggles in the news or article. A reference to something negative which is a unhappy and sad story. Continuity a follow up story of a one before, or something familiar to it. Emotions is a type of article which creates emotions such as happines, anger and more feelings to increase the interest of the story. Progress is a story about something that sparks new hope and achievement. Authors write for a purpose (reason). These reasons are to persuade, inform or entertain (PIE). Each day, newspaper editors around the world must make desicions about which stories they will run. We explored the different types of current events that are happening in New Zealand, thought about why the story made the news and plotted the location on a google map.

Provocation: Should masks be compulsory on NZ public transport?

LI: To identify and consider the two perspectives of this provocation to help me form an opinion

This week for Reading we were learning about Provocations. A Provocation is an action or phrase that triggers strong emotions. Our provocation was "Should masks be compulsory in Auckland public transport?". In our DLO (Digital Learning Object) we had to say if we agree or not with the provocation, and then share our opinion. My opinion is that I think we should have a free choice on rather or not we want to wear masks. Some people have not too good health and would have trouble breathing. 

The Charge of the Light Brigade

 LI: to understand the narrative in the poem

For Reading we learnt about another poem, and about the narrative in it. We've been reading new poems and text to let us practice how to understand more quickly the story. The poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson, is about the Crimean War that happened between Russia, and the Ottoman Empire. The poem tells the story about the 600 men of the Light Brigade from the Ottoman Empire who tried to attack Russia. They were ordered to charge on horseback into a valley but were ambushed and their attack ended in defeat for them. This activity was really cool doing because this poem was about a real life event, and tells it in a way where it feels like you're there and it's happening again. 

Word Problems

LI: to explain how we solved our problems

For Maths we worked in mixed math groups to practice our team skills and to help us explain how we solved these word problems. The topic of these word problems were about Metric Measurements, which was more specifically about weight and mass. The word problem was about the ingredients and the weight of these ingredients. We had to find the weight of the missing ingredient by adding up the weight of the ingredients we knew, and subtracting it from the weight of the whole food. 

Maori Names

LI: to learn Maori names

For Maori we learnt that the Te Reo Maori translation of English names has a similar sound to it. So we tried to translate them and match them together. We did this and it was really cool to do, because regular names were translated into these Te Reo Maori translations. 

Guy Fawkes

LI: to use the words you highlighted to help you summarise the story behind fireworks night

Learning Space 2 and Room 5 have come together to work with each - other. Learning Space 2 were teaching Rm 5 about keywords and summarisation. The text we were reading was Guy Fawkes which is tomorrow night. Through reading the text we were writing down keywords. Out of the list we wrote we had to pick 20 important words. From the 20 we had to pick the 6 most important, and using those 6 we summed up the text with a few sentences. Guy Fawkes was a day where a man named Guy Fawkes tried to assassinate the King by using barrels of gunpowder.