#NZreadaloud6TGoT

This week saw the start of #NZreadaloud6TGoT...

The Ghosts of Tarawera by Sue Copsey is our story for the next 6 weeks. Another fabulous book from another fabulous New Zealand author.

The first 3 Chapters have been captivating! I have enjoyed bringing out my 'American' accent when reading 'Anast-arrrrr-sia's' lines ... this character being the topic for our writing sessions at the moment with the kids writing her 'back story' after learning about the importance of this when creating characters for a novel (Des Hunt). 

Here is Sharn's version of her ... (I am sure there will be many others on the way!)

So many vivid language features so far too, here are a few...

pg 33 "It was like a cauldron of boiling chocolate..."

pg 36 "... their faces tomato red."

pg 36 "The sky was empty of clouds apart from a few wisps still hugging the summit of Mount Tarawera". 

Here is our 'note taking' from today ... 

It is looking like Rocky will be a fun character too. As Jack said to me today "Hey Ms T... Rocky is really a walking pun!"  Hahahahahahahaha...love it!

His real name is Rufus, he is a volcanologist, he has pets called Iggy (igneous), Seddy (sedimentary), and Morph (metamorphic), he likes to eat rock cakes, has Geology Rocks on his coffee mug, and has a number plate with ROCDOC on it. More to come I think:)

Be on the lookout for weekly updates on our adventure with Joe, Eddie, Beckie, Anastasia, and Rocky and their holiday adventure at Lake Rotomahana.

Master Presenter

WOW...

I have been involved in MANY visiting presenters over the years. From magicians, to story-tellers, to mime artists, musical bands etc. 

But today we had a very special person in our school. 

For the four classes who were involved in #NZreadaloud last term and read the book The Phantom of Terawhiti we were privileged to be able to spend an hour with New Zealand author Des Hunt today.

What an absolutely inspirational speaker!

 He had all 100 kids silent and listening and watching and laughing for an hour, as he told us his story of becoming an author.

With his science teaching background, Des shared a funny, informative, and interactive presentation in which he used his science understanding to help explain story-writing.

Science was his metaphor and the kids LOVED it!

He explained to our kids how when he was a child they weren't really exposed to Kiwi writers. So his mission when started writing was to infuse his passion for science and wildlife into a great story...here is what he aimed to do in his novels...

For us at #NZreadaloud, these are the books which we LOVE. 

I would love you to reply and comment on what you all thought of Des Hunt's presentation and what you learnt from it:)

Why is 'deep thinking' important?

After our discussion and sharing earlier in the week, I asked the kids to answer in a tweet:

"Why is deep thinking important?"

Here is what they responded with...

Why LearningMYway?

In theONE6 we have started the Term re-visiting 

LearningMyway

The MAIN question I put to my kids was this...

What are the reasons some teachers are changing things from the way it has always been?

The discussion was vibrant and because many of my class are into their 2nd year of this change, this wasn't too hard to come up with some reasons.

We also discussed Self Regulation and all the concepts this involves like:

Goal setting * Planning * Motivation * Self monitoring * evaluating * Engagement * Help Seeking * Strategic thinking

Here are some comments which came out of the survey we carried out so we can learn from the kids what WE as teachers can do to help them with Setting Goals and Motivation...

“I need to be reminded about my goals so I would like a goal book, a wall display and / or a digital format to help me with this.”

“Having our goals displayed in the room or on the top of our timetables will mean we can see them easily everyday.”

“We should have ‘real time’ goal setting conferences / discussions”.

“We get motivated when we use different digital tools that WE choose to show our learning.”

“We get motivated when we get to choose what we learn because we can relate to it and it makes it interesting and engaging also when something is new to you or when you are curious about something it makes it really interesting.”

“We get motivated when we discuss our learning with our mates and the learning is fun.”

“We get motivated when can listen to music.”

Getting this sort of feedback is REALLY helpful as we learn what we can do to help the kids be more self regulated.

Today we had a great discussion about what it means to 

THINK DEEPLY.

Here is what they came up with   ...

I particularly loved the new category they came up with called 'feels like'.

It was an awesome conversation about what it feels like when we think hard - during deep thinking "a party in my brain" 

and after thinking deeply  "my brain is worn out".

I loved how one student decided "day dreaming" might actually be "day thinking"

I loved how one of them described deep thinking as "sound waves".

I loved how some students identified that deep thinking in collaboration leads to a good idea becoming an AWESOME idea.

This drawing summed up for one learner what THINKING DEEPLY feels like for him:)

Let's hope we see, hear, and feel some DEEP THINKING happening in theONE6 over the next half of the year. 

Thinking deeply shows you are getting into the learning pit.

How often are you in the pit?

  

Why LearningMYway?

In theONE6 we have started the Term re-visiting 

LearningMyway

The MAIN question I put to my kids was this...

What are the reasons some teachers are changing things from the way it has always been?

The discussion was vibrant and because many of my class are into their 2nd year of this change, this wasn't too hard to come up with some reasons.

We also discussed Self Regulation and all the concepts this involves like:

Goal setting * Planning * Motivation * Self monitoring * evaluating * Engagement * Help Seeking * Strategic thinking

Here are some comments which came out of the survey we carried out so we can learn from the kids what WE as teachers can do to help them with Setting Goals and Motivation...

“I need to be reminded about my goals so I would like a goal book, a wall display and / or a digital format to help me with this.”

“Having our goals displayed in the room or on the top of our timetables will mean we can see them easily everyday.”

“We should have ‘real time’ goal setting conferences / discussions”.

“We get motivated when we use different digital tools that WE choose to show our learning.”

“We get motivated when we get to choose what we learn because we can relate to it and it makes it interesting and engaging also when something is new to you or when you are curious about something it makes it really interesting.”

“We get motivated when we discuss our learning with our mates and the learning is fun.”

“We get motivated when can listen to music.”

Getting this sort of feedback is REALLY helpful as we learn what we can do to help the kids be more self regulated.

Today we had a great discussion about what it means to 

THINK DEEPLY.

Here is what they came up with   ...

I particularly loved the new category they came up with called 'feels like'.

It was an awesome conversation about what it feels like when we think hard - during deep thinking "a party in my brain" 

and after thinking deeply  "my brain is worn out".

I loved how one student decided "day dreaming" might actually be "day thinking"

I loved how one of them described deep thinking as "sound waves".

I loved how some students identified that deep thinking in collaboration leads to a good idea becoming an AWESOME idea.

Let's hope we see, hear, and feel some DEEP THINKING happening in theONE6 over the next half of the year. 

Thinking deeply shows you are getting into the learning pit.

How often are you in the pit?

  

Entrepreneurialism

I love Student Market Place (SMP) as it is an opportunity for our kids to delve into the world of making, creating, building, and constructing in order to come up with a product which will sell well.

The theme for SMP this Term is 

"Responsible Recycling"

The kids have come up with some great ideas recycling, reusing and repurposing items from home which maybe normally thrown away.

Here are some snaps of ideas in the initial stages...

Paris and Bianca making 3D letters and covering in patterned paper.

Mitchell and Andre with their Minions made from toilet rolls and coloured paper.

Jack, Ben, Aaron, and Alex G. are creating 'mini furniture' out of iceblock sticks.

Jehmial and his group are writing quotes and words onto canvas and recycled wood bits.

Andre and Mitchel's second venture idea is hotrods made with gladwrap tubes, skewers, and milk tops.

Chloe and Sharn are repurposing wine bottles and writing quotes in hot glue that they are painting over.

I also did a Periscope yesterday of the kids in action ... tweeting out live on Twitter. Here is the video of it...

A little spontaneity

Those of you who visit the blog fairly regularly will know that in theONE6 we like to be a little bit spontaneous!

So after a great day of LearningMYway we chucked some music on and did some spontaneous dancing to finish our day off nicely:)

And then ... I couldn't help myself ... had to video this one!