Year 8 Camp at Pakiri and Goat Island

From March 8th to 11th the Year 8 Aparangi Whanau ventured north for camping adventures at Pakiri Beach and Goat Island. The weather was absolutely perfect and students were rearing to go with all the exciting activities that awaited them. Kayaking, Archery, Mountain Biking, Trust Games, Rock Climbing and Snorkelling were just some of the activities that the students participated in. Throw in some tents and some group cooking with a dash of Karaoke and a sleep on the beach and the recipe for a great camp was created. Although there were many challenges for the students to overcome, they all handled themselves well. Here are some photos from our adventures. Post a comment and share your highlights!!! (click photos to enlarge)

"New Zealand's Darkest Day"

Just when Christchurch thought they were getting back on their feet disaster struck! At 12.50pm yesterday Christchurch was hit with a 6.3 earthquake that has devastated the city of Christchurch. The quake on Tuesday struck at a shallow depth of just four kilometres with an epicenter around 10 km outside Christchurch.At least 65 people are confirmed dead in the quake, but the death toll is expected to climb as rescuers continue to look for survivors in buildings. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said the nation may be witnessing "its darkest day". Post your reactions to this tragedy and your thoughts for the families who have lost loved ones and their homes....

"The Royal Wedding"

So Obama missed out and so did 'Fergie' the Duchess of York......but our very own John Key did manage to score an invite!!! Exciting!!!! So is this going to be the most extravagant wedding of the year?? Of course it is! Imagine if average people like us walked out to the letterbox one morning and out popped a golden envelope with your name on it. What would be the most exciting thing for you if you were invited to Will and Kate's wedding?? Buying a new dress? Buying a state-of-the-art HD camera to capture it all? Post a comment and let us know:-)

The Habit of Managing Self

This term we are focussing on managing our time effectively so that we meet deadlines and aren't rushing at the last moment to get our work finished. The question is how are we going to do this?? Post your comment and share your ideas. Hint hint...... ''homework diaries".:-P

Welcome to 2011 in Room 4

Another year and a whole lot of learning and fun awaits! But don't put your togs away just yet!!! Now that our Blog is in full flight I will be looking at different ways of using it while at the same time encouraging you all to make interesting and thoughtful comments. It's all about what you all think! "Sharing is Caring" after all.

Return of The Thriller

This term we have been learning a variety of dance routines during dance classes run by a company called STEPZ. This is a compulsory activity that we have been doing at Balmoral for a couple of years now and although the initial feeling is *sigh* most students are really enjoying it! Here is a video of a dance you may know:-)

"The Super City"

As we all know Auckland is now a Super City under the reins of Len Brown. So what's gonna happen to make Auckland "Super?" Len Brown has made plans and promises but what do we think will make Auckland a better place to live? Post your comments and let us know.

And now we finally reach Term 4....

Where has the year gone??!! As Week 2 comes to an end there is only another 8 weeks till you all say good by to Intermediate and begin your summer holidays! Hopefully you will spend the time with family and friends and get outdoors.....not spend all the time in front of a computer:-)

This Term we will be publishing a book of your lives from Year 1 to Year 8. This will be a semi-professional publication that you will give to your parents as a present and will be a piece of work that you will be proud of!

We have also got athletics coming up next week as well as lots of other fun activities!

Let's make Term 4 a productive one as well as an enjoyable one for all:-)

You have been a wonderful class to teach so far so let's finish on an even higher note.

The Room 4 Mini Production

At this end of this Term our class will perform/inform an audience of our peers and parents about technology and inventions through history and whether new technology and inventions have made the world a better place to live.... or not. Through the power of collaboration and using the Balmoral Habits - Communicating, Managing Self, Thinking, Creativity and Persisting, our class are putting together a 10minute performance showing this point. Below are some photos of out class in "practise/creating mode." If you have any ideas or want to record part of the performance (my class only) post a comment:-)

The Power of Youtube!

Now that we have been looking at some of the technology that we are using these days we can focus more on ways the technology is being used. On computers, we can't deny that internet site Youtube has become hugely popular world wide. You can watch, listen to and learn all sorts of things. Tonight at our Intermediate Open Night I used a clip that was shared with me by Andrew, another teacher at our school, on how to draw an eye. The step-by-step clip proved really easy to follow and resulted in some amazing art. Check out the clip and let us know what you think of Youtube and what you use it for.

The Math Man

This is the message from Math Man Ken Ring - Maths Gives You Power! Today our class had the opportunity to listen to, be tricked, and shocked by Ken Ring. With some of the simplest tricks he had us guessing and asking questions. Hopefully after listening to Ken you have a different perception about what maths is and have realized how maths is all around us! If you ever think that you suck at maths remember what the Math Man said. "Magic tricks are just like secrets'. "Maths is like that too - you have to discover the secrets." Post a comment and let us know what you think.

Our Right To Privacy

Last week our class watched and analysed the movie Enemy of the State, a spy-thriller about a group of rogue NSA agents who kill a Congressman in a political-related murder, and then try to cover up the murder by destroying evidence and intimidating witnesses. Robert Dean, played by Will Smith, is inadvertently caught up in the mess when he is given a video tape of the murder. As a result his entire life is hacked into and he is incriminated in the murder. Our focus was looking at the technological advancement of government agencies and how they use technology to supposedly "keep us safe." With such technology all around us these days, any time we swipe our eftpos card or shop online we leave our digital fingerprint and when we walk through customs at the airport our photograph and fingerprint are taken and then logged in a database. Is it going to get to the point where we have no privacy at all?? Post a comment and let us know what you think.