The Brand New Me

Dear World,

It’s me! and I’m back! for another year in St Patrick’s. I’m a year 8 in room 8, I have the same friends and same teacher. I have met new faces to this school and it is good that we all get along really well. I love to learn in class. I love to play tag with my cousins at Dunkirk Reserve. Join me in my learning journey.. To matou wahi,  to taima, to aoturoa o Hato Patariki - Our Place, Our time and Our World of St Patricks.

Advent - Preparing or the coming of Christ the Messiah

In Room 8 we have been learning about Advent and the true meaning of it. We each got to create a Power Point or an E-Book. This is my E-Book

SPS Tug Of War 2014

On Monday 10th of November the whole of St Patrick's School the last day of their Athletics Day and this is what my Recount is going to be based on. This is my Recount.

“I can’t believe it, it’s tug of war today” I said to myself. Today was the final day to know who won this year’s Athletics.

Each class from 1 - 8 gathered together in front of Room’s 4 and 5. We heard the teachers say “The first team competing first will be Kauri and Rata. Mostly everybody their were shouting and screaming “Let’s go kauri, let’s go” the rest were saying “Way to go Rata, way to go”. As soon as we heard the whistle, the two teams were pulling with all their might to win, Kauri pulled with all their might, Rata pulled with all their might but Kauri just kept pulling and pulling, and then we heard the whistle blow once more... “Kauri wins” everybody stood up cheering for joy. “Okay next up Totara and Rimu”. Once more everybody screamed from the top of their lungs. The whistle blew and the two teams pulled with all their might, first it’ll go left, then right, then left again and...... “Rimu Wins”. As soon as I heard the whistle blow I jumped up with excitement and started running around crazily.

Finally, I have settled down. “Now, we have Totara and Rata’s turn to make sure of 3rd and 4th”. Everybody leaping up one by one shouting out “Go Rata, no Go Totara” it felt like I was stuck in the middle, I didn’t know who to cheer for. The whistle blew as the two teams started pulling for a 3rd place. Everybody else was screaming “Come on Rata, Come on Totara” I didn’t know who to cheer for so I cheered for both teams like the others. I can hear my friends screaming Go Rata, Go Rata. Rata pulled and pulled but then the whistle blew and they became 4th.

After all the screaming and shouting everybody gathered in front of Room 5 and 4 to announce the winners of this years Athletics day. Darrelle, Agnes and I packed up the equipment from the field and took them to where they belong. As we were coming out we heard shouting and we thought Rimu came 3rd but We came 4th. We heard Mrs Bullot announce first place, “Now coming in first place........... TOTARA!! Everybody stood up with excitement (especially Totara) screaming for joy and clapping, I think I saw Soana run up to Destiny to pick her up and spin her around like crazy.   I was a little bit down that we came 4th but at the same time I had fun and I can’t wait for 2015.

Hinegaro (Conscience)

Everybody has a conscience.What forms that Conscience? In Room 8 we have been talking about Hinegaro (Conscience). We all had to create a Diagram,Google Drawing or a Word Cloud. This is my Word Cloud, it has the people who have been their for me.

St Patrick's Hunger Games Part 1!!!

Last week Friday Room 8 went to camp at Long Bay Marine Reserve. The activities we done were Archery,Kayaking and Snorkeling. In this Recount I will be talking about the Year 7's and the experience they had in their lesson of Archery. This is the Recount I wrote.

Have you ever done Archery before? This story is going to be based on a year 7 group of children from St Patrick’s School and the experience they had during their day of Archery at a lovely and marvelous place you might know as Long Bay.

Everybody in Room 8 excitedly got out of the bus, grabbed their bags and headed towards the entrance of their hall. We were all holding it in until our first activity was said. When we go into the hall we saw a group of girls standing near a white board that had the timetable for the day. We met our instructors for the day - Shavanna, Vicky, Leanne and Sarah they were very lovely names. After they went over the timetable and the rules (designed to keep us safe) they announced that the year 7’s were doing Archery with Shavanna and they year 8’s were doing Kayaking with Leanna and Vicky.

All the year 7’s gathered outside the hall on a bench. Shavana came and told us the instructions and rules about Archery. After we had done that we grabbed the Bow’s,Arrows and Target and headed far, far away from the camp site.

When we arrive at the clearing where archery is done, we set everything up and started by learning the position needed to stand and aim at the target.  Following these lessons we moved on to challenging others.

In groups of 2 and 3(2 groups of 3 and two groups of 2) I was with Vine and Natalia, Miriama and Melayka were partners, Giovanni, Kolio and Johnnie were in a group and Folau and Avishek were partners as well. Shavanna let each group pick out a name, these names were Mighty Lions, M&Ms, Arrows, Green Arrows. After all the picking and the choosing was about we got to shoot our first Arrow one by one. Shavanna blew up a balloon for points, and we started shooting to get points. Everybody had a go until it was time to go back for morning tea and get read for our next activity.

We all had fun in Archery some of us felt like we were ready to join the Hunger Games (Yeah Right). It was a great experience for all of us to do something that we have never done before we were pretty sure to do some other time.

St Patrick's Has Gone Google!

In room 8 we were all given an assignment to do. The assignment was to practice writing an explanation on A tape dispenser, Chromebook or 5 + a Day. The explanation I chose was a Chromebook.  In my explanation I talked about the Manaiakalani Film Festival, Training Sessions and apps used for learning. My planning was done using an app called "Popplet". 

Have you heard about Chromebooks? A Chromebook is a small laptop and easy to carry. St.Patricks is part of Manaiakalani. There are all different kinds of styles. There is Samsung, Acer and Aspires. Some of the children's parents have been coming into school to train so their children can take it home.  Ever since we have gotten our Chromebooks, the children have been entering a festival. This festival is known as Manaiakalani Film Festival. It is where each class from a school makes a short film based on a topic they have been learning about or and idea the children have come up with and this year room 8 is going bigger and better. St. Patrick's have been using apps from the Chrome Web Store to help them with their learning.

When children don’t have computers in their house parents are more likely to come in to school and book a date to train. This training course is done online and when your parents have signed it that means you can take your Chromebook home and do more learning. Each class has a site and that site helps children to monitor themselves because when you are away it is easier for you to go no the site and catch up with their learning so the next day they know what to do in class. This makes you self motivated.

St. Patrick's School uses different apps to present their learning. One of these apps are known as We Video. This apps helps you with transitions. It has a webcam just in case you want to record yourself. All the schools have been using this app because it helps them make videos of whatever they like and share it to their blog. This helps them become self motivated in their own learning and they could get a great grade on their report.  

Every year St Patrick's and the other Manaiakalani schools have been going to the Manaiakalani Film Festival. This is where children can learn about Directors, Producers and Editors. On the day of Manaiakalani each school goes to Hoyts Cinema at Sylvia Park. We all go to a special room that is known as the “Xtreme Screen”. This festival shows children/teachers from other school on what we can do when we get Chromebooks.

These Chromebooks have really helped the children of St Patrick's because it makes our learning faster and easier to do. Sometimes we may have troubles with the internet and when we do we all have a backup,  known as “Books”.

St Patrick's has gone Google.  

Church Strand

In Room 8 for the year 7 R.E (Religious Education) our focus is the church. We have made key points that connect to why Jesus is a good teacher. We made a wordle with all our Key points. This is my wordle.