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Monday 4 December 2017

Speeches

So I made it into the speech finals, super exciting! I made it along with three other students who are Meana, Salu and Henry. We are all very thrilled and have been working super hard to do our best. 

My speech is about 'Procrastinating' which I, myself do a lot of. I know I'm not the only person in the world who does this so my speech is to help out everyone else who has the same problem as me. I hope on Friday I can please the judges and maybe even get a placing.

Wednesday 29 November 2017

Second Place!

So my wishes didn't come true after all, after hoping and praying that Mr Reid doesn't make us run up and down the tracks. Guess what happens the very next day? That's right! He makes us run and get ready for athletics day.

Somehow on athletics day I placed second in both the 100 and 200 metre races (don't ask me how I did it, I don't know). So that meant that I was going to the inter-schools competition! 

The students and I trained every single morning to get ready for it but sadly I ended up catching the flu from my brother so I had to stay home. Luck is never on my side.

Tuesday 14 November 2017

Athletics

Athletics Day is quickly approaching and to be completely honest, I'm not that thrilled. This year's athletics is a tiny bit different from last year's because the 75 metres dash no longer exists. Instead we now have to run a long, sad 200 metres. 

So far we haven't started practising and I don't think we are going to get to it. We are all currently busy with relays but who knows? Mr Reid might surprise us and make us run up and down the tracks. Let's just hope he doesn't.

Thursday 9 November 2017

Film Festival

Yesterday was one of the greatest days ever! Mainly because we showcased our movie at the Sylvia Park Hoyts. Another wonderful thing about this is that we earned a break from the everyday, boring things that we usually do at school. I feel as this event occurred at the perfect time because I'm pretty sure everyone including the teachers needed a break from all the testing that's currently happening.

Here's the movie that we put blood, sweat and tears into.

Tuesday 31 October 2017

A Total Disaster!

Last week's fitness was a total catastrophe. Everyone was all over the place! Mrs Riley herself even said that she was confused. I could see why; 8 groups running at the same time would drive me insane! I wouldn't even know which team to keep my eyes on.

Gradually over the week everyone started to get a hang of it. This just proves that practice makes perfect! Everyone knew which team they were in, how to play, what to do, etc. The teachers also decided that only 4 teams should be running instead of 8. Which was a good decision on their part. So far I'm enjoying fitness.

Friday 29 September 2017

Mixing Colours Together!

This week our class conducted a science experiment. The main focus of the experiment was the colours that changed whenever we spun the discs quickly. 

At first I was all over the place but quickly I became focused and stuck into it. I made sure my buddies and I didn't mess up because we didn't want to face the wrath of Mrs Golder. 

This is definitely my most favourite science experiment mostly because I enjoyed everything from step 1 all the way to the end and it was pretty fun spending our afternoon just playing with the discs that we created. 

Thursday 14 September 2017

Glass Work!

This term for Tech the Year eights are finally doing glass work. Mr Grundy introduced us to it last year but said only the Year eights get to do it, which made me upset because I had to wait a whole year and when it comes to being patient I'm the worst.

Cutting the glass is more difficult than it looks. My hands would always shake whenever I'd cut which then made my piece of glass lopsided and asymmetrical. After cutting for a while my hands would turn red and start to hurt.

Even though I'm not the greatest at glass work I'm going to persevere and try my best! I can't wait to show off my finished product.


Monday 4 September 2017

Cross Country Season!

It's officially cross country season and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. I am most definitely not very thrilled to say the least but I don't have a choice, so I have to endure it whether I like it or not. 

I'm not sure why but after I finish running my legs always feel like jelly, like it could collapse any moment. It's not a great feeling but on the bright side I'm increasing my stamina, I'm getting fitter and that's always a good thing!

Wednesday 16 August 2017

Orienteering

I've been anticipating this day since last week. The week before we just went over the basics of orienteering. This time we actually had to use a map and navigate ourselves to the attachments. 

At first I was panicking, discouraging thoughts filled my head like 'What if I don't finish?', 'What if I read the map wrong', 'What if I come back last'. I told myself to stop worrying and just think positive.

Coincidentally me and Katrina had the same courses at the same time. We ended up being rebels and worked together even though we weren't supposed to. Oops!


Monday 7 August 2017

Special Assembly

Today was the day we finally sing 'How Far I'll Go' in front of everyone. I was actually quite nervous. I felt my legs tremble a bit when I was on stage. Whenever there's hundreds of eyes on me I experience stage fright. I also tried to make eye contact with the crowd but I just couldn't bring myself to, so most of the time I looked at the floor. I need to improve on that.

It felt delightful to watch everyone participating even if they weren't from the Pacific Islands.

Tuesday 1 August 2017

I'm Ready For Term 3

Our two weeks holiday has sadly ended and we're back at the place we call school. I sometimes wish that our holidays were a tad bit longer. I'm no longer used to waking up at 8 am and arriving at school by 8:30 am. Sleeping early is another challenge for me, I just can't fall asleep. 

Nothing changed on the first day back, our routine was the same except we went over our expectations, duties, and rules just to remind us in case it slipped from our minds. 

This term I'm going to strive for my best, I'm going to challenge myself and be better than before. 



Monday 24 July 2017

Hawaiian Dancing

A couple of weeks ago ten students from Room 12 were chosen to go to Te Oro to learn dancing. Our dance instructors were from Honolulu, Hawaii and they were all Year 13s. 

They started by splitting us up into four groups, I was divided into the same group as Mary. We then started learning a Hawaiian 'thank you' chant. They were using Hawaiian language which was hard to remember and pronounce so therefore I had a really difficult time learning it. 

I thought the chant was challenging but the dance must have been at least 5 times more complicated. Most of the time I didn't even know what I was doing. I was probably making up my own dance moves, Meana and Lupe even told me that I looked totally lost. When the hour was finally up I noticed that I improved and wasn't as bad as I first started. 

Thursday 29 June 2017

Graphics Class

Every Wednesday we go to Tamaki College to attend cooking class or graphics class. The Year 7s are currently doing cooking- the Year 8s graphics. 

Our current task right now is to learn how to make juice boxes. We first have to create and design our boxes on a piece of paper and to help us we use our Chromebooks. I still haven't started on this since I've been focusing on other things.

Mr Pineda also has this system. If you get your work completed on time you get a couple of points. Once we have finished our work he checks it and either gives us a merit, achieved or excellence grading. At the moment I have around 30-40 points, I can't remember who but I'm pretty sure the person with the most points has at least 70.

I enjoy graphics but the cooking even more. My enjoyment comes from the preparation of the food and definitely consuming it. Learning cooking will definitely help me in the future especially when I'm living on my own and won't have my parents to monitor me.




Tuesday 13 June 2017

I'm Back!

After two months in Myanmar and Thailand I'm back at school! I left New Zealand on April 5th and arrived in Thailand on the 6th. I landed back in New Zealand on June the 5th but took a week off because I was very jet lagged. I couldn't sleep at night instead I slept all day, just like a possum! Now that my sleeping schedule is back on track I no longer sleep like a nocturnal animal.

Something that I will miss is probably the fruits back in Thailand. There were many types of fruits there that we don't have here like lychee, mangosteen, rambutan and jackfruit. 
             
I am happy to be back at school because I missed my friends and teachers dearly.

Sunday 19 March 2017

Monitors Badge

We finally have this year's monitor badge. I still have mine from last year. It sounds like an easy job but it's not as easy as you think it is. You have to make sure the kids listen to you, you have to make sure no one's doing anything you wouldn't want them to do and if something does go horribly wrong it would come back to us and it'll be our fault. 

I think it's a huge responsibility to look after the class especially if the teacher isn't in the classroom with you. Everyone has a chance to become a good monitor. I am proud to say that I am a 2017 monitor!



Wednesday 8 March 2017

Everyday Theatre

On Friday two actresses from the Everyday Theatre came to our school to educate us a little bit about child helplines, abusive relationships, cheating, etc.

There were 6 characters and they were T, Jack, Dave, Marea, Becca and Brian. T was the child of Dave and Marea. Jack was T's bestfriend. Brian was Becca's dad but she didn't mention her biological mother in this play. Marea and Brian were currently in a relationship and they were also living together. 

Dave was very abusive and had hit Marea at least 5 times before. He also hit T to discipline he because he was raised that way. Dave and Marea were married before Dave caught Marea cheating on him with Brian. We had to ask Dave and T questions, we had to help the actresses roleplay, give advice and many other things. We earned points from that.

We did a bunch of activities to reach at least 10 points but we ended up with 12 points!



Thursday 2 March 2017

Tabloids

On Wednesday the 15th we had our very first tabloids with house colours! There were four teams altogether Whero, Kowhai, Kakariki and Kikorangi. I was in team Whero. Each team was split into 2 groups, that made 8 groups altogether. We had to get as many points as possible for our team.

One of my favourite tabloids activity was Ms Riley's one. She made three rows and three coloums with hola hoops, and had them lined up together. The point of her game was to run back and forth with a dice and put it in one of the hula hoops. The first team to get a tic-tac toe three in a row wins. My team ended up winning and we also scored 3 points from Ms Riley.

At the end of the day our team had 35 points in total, Kowhai received a winning 37 points, Kakariki tied with us and received 35 points as well and lastly Kikorangi received a sad 19 points.



Pests Are Yucky!

Unlike all the other schools in the Manaiakalani Cluster,  our inquiry topic for this year is about Pests. Before we started researching and looking up information we had to write our prior-knowledge on a KWL chart. This is everything that I knew. I didn't have a lot of knowledge.


Now after researching this is, my knowledge has increased by so much.



Friday 24 February 2017

Singing Competition

On Monday there was a singing competition! I'm not the best at singing so I didn't volunteer but Lupe and Mika did volunteer. I was really excited for this, I couldn't wait to hear their singing voices.

Things didn't really go as planned. In the beginning of the assembly Mrs Pederson walked in and said that we had a murderer amongst us. Someone killed all the caterpillars and the chrysalises. After that happened we went straight into the singing competition. 

Tyrese and Manea Rose sang for Room 9. I'm not quite sure what they sang but it was really good. Lisa and Tyra represented Room 10 and sang 'How Far I'll Go' from the movie Moana. Izabella and Tupou went up for Room 11 and they sang the same song as Room 9. Mika and Lupe had a job to do so they couldn't sing but Vaimoana ended up representing our classroom and sang 'E Otua Tataki Au'. We ended up winning because of Vaimoana's beautiful voice.


Friday 17 February 2017

Global Girl And Duffy

On Tuesday we had our very first Duffy Show. Cool right? I was very excited for this. I always enjoy Duffy Shows. They put their time and effort into this for our enjoyment. I can see they get tired but they keep on going. There were beads of sweat on their forehead. One of them had to keep on changing their character and their appearance. How exhausting. 

The show was mostly about global warming and reading. Global Girl has dyslexia which meant that she has always had a very hard time reading and pronouncing words. Duffy ends up helping her once he finds out about her condition and together they helped change the world.

This is probably on top 5 on my list of The Best Duffy Shows! 



Friday 10 February 2017

First Syndicate Assembly

On Tuesday we hosted a Syndicate Assembly. It was the very first one of the year. We didn't have much time to plan but we managed to sort to out a dance item so everyone could at least have some fun and not get bored.

I think the dance competiton was the highlight of the assembly. Everyone was laughing and they seemed like they were enjoying it. I for sure enjoyed it.

Manea Rose and Diego danced for Room 9, Dominic and Peni from Room 10, Teremoana and Meafou represented Room 11 and Mika, Lupe and Saluselo danced for fun. Room 10 ended up winning and I think they deserved that win!


Wednesday 8 February 2017

Back At School!

We are finally back at school again and I'm a year 8 now! We started school on February the 1st which was on a Wednesday. It is also Waitangi Day on Monday and that means a three day weekend. Lucky us! 

Mr Reid and Mrs Golder started teaching together. It is a new experience for me since I've never had two teachers. It's quite exciting actually. 

On Wednesday Mrs Golder picked me to get a new Duffy book and the reason was because of my 'Who Am I?' story. Then on Friday I received a Principles Award for it. I am getting off on a great start!