Oh BTW, jobs will soon be like this...

Get ready future!

Sometime in YOUR challenging career environment, you will have to think as creative as this...

Connecting to our world in many different ways and making it inspiring!

here is just one...

Oh, and for those who missed it, Spotty Day (creating awareness of melanoma, http://www.melanoma.org.nz/News/'Go-Spotty-Day'/ ) was a fantastic success and a great time for all involved! (side note and learned lesson: Wear your hats and sunscreen, always!!!!)

Take Care ya'll!

Falcor who?

Evening my fellow Sixers and Whanau!

As I'll be away for a week I thought I'd throw some love around about class, life and uh...stuff...

This week Howick Intermediate invited my fiance up for a morning tea to celebrate our upcoming marriage! WOOOOO!

A wonderful and daunting step for me, but ready to take this next step! It was amazing opportunity for the Sixers to meet my lovely Willow and our pup Falcor... who happened to steal the show ;)

 Anyways, here in the land of the Sixers, we aim ultimately to have an AWESOME student led classroom... This will be a perfect test for that! By the end of the year, the transition from me as leader and dictator (kind of ;) of what happens in the classroom will be given to the class itself. Ultimately making decisions together about what is best for each other in the class... Society in action and the breeding of good people I tell ya!

Speaking of which, Denzel, a.k.a Deisel, takes out this weeks Award of Merit for continually contributing in class focused questioning!

As always, train hard my Sixers and be kind. always.

See you soon
Jrue ;)

Scientifically speaking...

Talofa family!

'Science, talkin' bout science, science, for the science fair'... (Ask a sixer ;)

Upcoming on 9th and 10th of  June is the 2014 science roadshow. By now your sixer would have brought back their permission slip for you to sign and they would have earn't their $7 to pay to go to the show.

It really is a fascinating event with SO much to look at and experience, including show's throughout for the students to interact with.

 



Additionally, this cycle one of our learning goals is to go through the process of creating our own science board!

Izzy and the eggshell experiment!

This may be tricky for some of our guys and often the choosing is the hard part... even though we try and relate it to our inquiry of natural disaster and outdoor survival, if  a sixer has a really good BURNING question, then we'll go with it.

Sam wonders about the eye... is it truly AMAZING?

What's fundamental about the science board is UNDERSTANDING the process! (Secret hint #4232: Shhhhh! The information is in the term diary!)

Alrighty folks, Tofa Soifua!

Booktrack...ing?

Heya family!

By now you may have heard from the Sixers that I've been spotted at your house inside the light emitting box that lives in your living room area...

This is true and something that I find more interesting as the potential and technology grows...

A bit of background... I have been working alongside a university study to do with the engagement level of readers. This used a program where cinematic scores are added to narratives and match the reading speed and content. We looked at some readers of varying levels and analyzed the results for a significantly positive result!

For many of us, ahem... 'older' kids, the option may be a little distracting and silly, however for the tech savvy and media swamped younger guys, this provides an interesting option of engagement. Throughout their day there are SO many screens to negotiate and sometimes the options are too many for a serious sit down with silly OLD technology like a ... book...

This free option allows cinematic score and classic reading to assimilate in the form of an enjoyable motivator to inspire more reading... (Something that we should be ALL doing every night for at least 20 mins, right sixers ;)

The fun part for us is to utilize the software to CREATE our own narratives (our first learning goal)... and add music/effects to accompany... I CAN'T wait for the creativity to be unleashed!

Anyways, here's the link and the report.

http://www.booktrack.com/

http://tvnz.co.nz/seven-sharp/making-reading-cool-video-5873359

As alway, let me know THE BIG 5 (ask a sixer) about what you think about it!

Cheers Whanau

Apocalypse Reporting Live! (No, not really)

Hey everyone this is Apocalypse here for our first awesome report!

So as you may know we have a Cultural Festival coming up! There is a New Zealand group, Latin, Korean and heaps more! On the night it’ll be like a private world tour! We’ve been working hard to totally ace it lately and we only have 2 weeks left of practice so it’s all rush rush rush!

And also we’ve been practising evacuations in case of a natural disaster. We run out of class, line up on the field and call the role in case anyone got left behind!!! Oh and… UNEVACUATION or shall I say NOITAUCAVENU!! We’ve been having drills to prepare for an earthquake, drop cover hold or “Get in that doorway!”

Last Wednesday all the totally dorky swimmers (as in REALLY good swimmers, like dah bomb) got into the pool to compete in the S.E.Z Swim Sports! It was a great day but the classroom was very quiet... (Hint: Emily… tsk tsk tsk)

And to all the parents and students out there, spelling and reading or literacy as we know it, (to some of you it might be English) is highly important in this classroom, if not everywhere. If we didn’t have literacy we would be dumb dingbats who can’t read the newspaper! Okay then we’ll be stuck in front of TV and we know what happens next, there will be no form of English communication other than a telephone (which is pretty dumb as they might not answer) so I guess that’s just why it’s so precious to human kind. So if you’re a good parent, we need to get you to make your child/ children expand their vocabulary so we have more communication. That means reading each night, and after morning tea (optional) and after lunch, and definitely before bed.

We also have another little invention, the dream journal. If you read before you sleep, this will affect your dreams as its most likely still running through your brain, if you have a spare diary its best to claim it as your “Dream Journal” as this is where you will record your dreams. Of course this will be necessary as it’s probably an awesome dream you’d like to share, and dreams that aren’t that strong fade from our memory after time, and it’ll be awesome to look back on it.

Oh what, wow we have to go as…

EARTHQUAKE!!!

Zafar seemingly happy to take on the rain of ceiling...

This is not a drill this I REPEAT THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

This is a drill… :P

________________________________________________________________________________
Written by Caitlin and Emily!

Self Defence

This week Lisha, Maria and the year 8 girls of Whanau Cooper attended a self defence class. It was awesome. The reason why we are learning Self Defence is so we can defend ourselves from ''yucky" people. Rana, our mentor, who is from the Girl's Self Defence Project, showed us how to do a ballerina kick.

To do a ballerina kick, all you need to do is point your toes, lift your leg, aiming for the Groin and kick really fast and Run!!! Another thing we learnt was what we should do if someone tries to attack you from the front. All you need to do is if he/she is taller than you, then you should grab them by the shoulders, if he/she is shorter or the same height as you, then you should grab them by the hips. After you do this, pull them towards you, knee them in the Groin and move your head to the side so then your face won't get hit by their body.

We also learnt that 90-95% of attacks are done by males and 5-10% of attacks are done by females.
20% of attacks are done by strangers and 80% of attacks are done by family or people you know.

See you later!!!!

Lisha and Maria

Keeping up with the family! ;)

Kia Ora whanau!

What's really important is that we reflect on our journey and are able to recognize the actual process of HOW we learn...

I LOVE failure and the Sixers KNOW that i do! We applaud failure in class because in actuality we've taken another step at finding out how something works or why a procedure happens the way it does!

"He pono koia?" (*translate and add 45 to your team points, MUST verbalize it to me on Monday to cash in the points ;)

WOOOOOOO! FAIL TO SUCCEED!!! (cue joke from sam...*see comments soon)
A couple of events coming up this term! One is the TALENT QUEST which saw the first series of auditions today, and SPOTTY DAY! Be prepared for a spotty mufti in order to support the school and spread knowledge and awareness of SKIN CANCER! btw: PLEASE ensure our little guys have HATS!!! It is their uniform in terms 1 & 4! Cheers!


Anyways, another full week of our learning journey has happened... but hey, that's enough of my blah blah blah, i'll let the Sixers take it from here... ;)

In fact, from here the Sixers will be running the blog! By nominating a member of the group each week, we'll ensure we get experience and a new voice of the people! WE the people!


Have a wonderful weekend whanau

E noho ra!

The mighty COOPER at swimming sports!

By now you may have heard of the F.U.N that Friday was with at School Swimming sports!

The sun graces us early morning at the pool!

The day was effervescent (first one to tell me the meaning gets 35 on the board ;) with a beaming sun, clear skies and cool refreshing H2O!

Your lovely (kinda) :0 COOPER team!

It was a great day of music, competitive and non competitive events and NON STOP CHEERING!
(We were a little too loud for the neighbours at one point! oops!)

Some absolute water ninja's appeared and prepped us for SEZ swimming on Wednesday the 19th, aaaaaaand some turtles who coasted through the lapping waves of pool splish splash!

Week 6 ALREADY! WHOA!

Big Kids: please make sure the little kids are practising their basic facts, reading and completing classwork every night! We're still handing in research projects that were due MONDAY!!!

Unfortunately, despite the EPIC CHANTS that we had, we placed 3rd out of the three Whanaus!... sigh, next year maybe! ;)

UMMMMmmmmm?.... UHhhhh?

And now for a public service announcement...

***********Sometimes stumped for what to say? Are you having trouble connecting sentences without a couple of "um, arrr," or "uhhh"'s? Do you find your children silently counting AT YOU as you continue to address the room?

Then your little active listening 'ninja' will be right ON to you at this point...

Welcome to the 'UM' zone, that's right ladies and gentlemen for the meager cost of your eternal sanity, I invite you to embark on the listening adventure of a lifetime!...***********

By now the sixer's zone MAY have transcended into the sanctuary of your living room... For this, i apologize, ...kinda ;)

As an active listening exercise in room six we offer the 'Um tally'. Earning team points for listening to others and reacting to their statements or questions is merely half the game, for if you're able to stump each other during the day by RESPECTFULLY calling each other out for missing a beat with an 'um, or 'uh', you get team points!

(The great part is when other teachers or students enter the room to exchange dialogue, they're not quite sure why all of a sudden, hands in class immediately become raised!... shhh, our secret)

SO, IF, (parents and guardians) you're up to implementing this active listening program at home so the young versions of us can earn more points, then leave your feedback!

Otherwise all is well on our ship, and it be true, arrrrrr ship be sailing full steam ahead!

Cycle one!

Ok here in room 6, we like to work hard, we like to play hard and we like to get busy and form like 150 people creating the Michael Jackson moonwalk, whilst playing instruments and stepping to the rhythm in unison on a football field!

Now THAT'S multitasking! (ask a 'sixer', if you're confused by this point ;)

In cycle one our class is on the inquiry journey to find out about 'Natural Disasters and Survival'...

Are you ready to jump into action in a split second?

Today room 6 took a casual approach to an emergency earthquake drill, some enjoyed getting prepared, others worked out that staying seated and waiting, provides mild amusement.....but ultimately a face full of falling roof... sigh, heh heh.

The Sixers have split into four groups based on their interest level and are continuing to research different elements of the overarching topic.

• Natural disasters and their societal effect
• Basic knowledge and skills in any emergency
• Practical tool and supplies when out in the wilderness
• First aid, natural remedies and poisons

Keeping dialogue up at home will ensure a solid foundation of knowledge!

Oh, *P.S. at the moment some students are forgetting their P.E uniform, swimming gear and lunches! Please, give them a nudge in the morning to remember to be prepared for the day!

Forced perspective Mr. D. says, "It's pretty tricky holding up these guys ;)"

*Bonus 25 points for the first one to come and tell me what 'P.S' stands for.... ;)