2010 Reflections

It’s finally come to the end of 2010, I’ve had a great last year at TAI and I  have enjoyed being involved in lots of opportunities the school has to offer.

At the start of the year I set some goals that I hoped to achieve and I think I have done well to become more focused and I’m ready for college next year.

One thing that I really liked being a part of was making the school magazine. Myself and a group of other people from my class worked hard to write reports, take photos and lots more to complete it. It’s looks great and I’m proud of the hard work we’ve done over the past two terms to make the magazine look fabulous.

I think my maths has definitely improved this year, since I have been trying really hard to make sure I’ve reached the National Standard. In English I’ve been trying my best to have error free work and have my writing up to a high standard.

This year has gone so fast and even though I’d love to stay at Intermediate longer with my friends, I think I’m ready to move on to college and I can’t wait to see what my future holds.

Week 10 Term 3

Last week of term reflections

In maths this week we have been learning about 3D shapes, identifying them and drawing them. I now know how to draw 3D shapes onto isometric paper. Isometric paper is this special kind of paper with dots on that makes drawing 3D shapes easy. This week we also had our summative geometry test. It was mainly quite easy because it was reflecting on what I’ve learned throughout the last few weeks doing geometry.

In English this week I’ve mainly been working on the school magazine that’s comes out late next term. The Magazine committee have been hard at work writing reports for the different opportunities that the school has offered this year, like inter intermediate sports and overseas trips.

In tech arts last week I made my cardboard model of what I’m going to make and then this week I’ve started cutting out the wood for it, with the help of Mr Monk (the woodwork teacher). The criteria for it said it had to hold something small, like on a desk or table. I’m going to make a bumble bee shaped thing to hold stationary for my dad who works at a honey place.

Our class have been doing an inquiry about being prepared for an earthquake. My group (Me, Erin and Kate) are doing our poster like a scene, with houses, a road, grass and a car park. For this inquiry poster, we had to research about what you need to be prepared if an earthquake hit, like the one in Christchurch that happened not long ago.

In band we’ve got a  new piece called Heart and Soul. I really like playing it because it’s simple and it sound quite good. The junior band has now joined the senior band now so we’re just one big band. Last week the music teacher from the college came to give us a warm up and try to get us to join the college band when we get there. It was good because he got us to do the concert b flat scale and then play ‘Twinkle, twinkle little star’ without any music. At first I found it  challenging but the next time I got it.

My goals for next term

Since next term is the last term of the year it’ will be my last term here at TAI, so it’s one of my goals to enjoy the last term.

Another goal of mine for next term is to get some badges next term because we haven’t got our band badges yet so I have none.

Next term I also want to have all my work finished on time and to a high standard.

Week 8 Term 3

My learning reflections for this week-

This week our school is celebrating Maori Language week and each team from our school gets a day in the tech art block to learn about and do some Maori stuff and at then we had a lunch with meat, potatoes and bread that was cooked by us. I made some bread with Lauren but then the oven wouldn’t work so our Paroa bread wasn’t ready in time for the lunch. I also tried some flax weaving and made a flower that I gave to Jazmine. I also made a poi, using a plastic bag, stuffing, wool and rope stuff, which broke, but I fixed it. I had a great day in the tech arts block learning about Maori culture and trying some new things like making poi.

This week in maths we’ve finished learning about finding the interior angle of a polygon. The formula for this is (no. of sides-2) x 180. For example- a pentagon has five sides so 5-2=3×180=540 so the interior angles of a pentagon equal up to 540. We’re now starting to learn about translating shapes and giving vectors for them.

In English and writing we had to edit our discussion arguments because they weren’t very good. We’re also still learning about sentence types and how to tell them apart.

We haven’t had tech arts this week because the tech arts block is being used for Maori Language week.

My goals for next week

• To have my book review handed in on time
• To be up to date with my maths
• To start what we’re doing in Design Woodwork for tech arts.

Smoking ban in New Zealand prisons

L.I- To write a discussion argument giving both views, concluding with my opinion.

The Corrections Minister, Judith Collins has confirmed that in July 2011, smoking will be banned in New Zealand prisons. At the moment, prisoners are allowed to smoke in prison and around two thirds of them do smoke, so to help them understand what’s happening, they will all get smoking education. Since about half of the population of prison guards also smoke, they will have designated areas to smoke, for their own safety. “The move” said Judith Collins “would make prisons safer and healthier for staff and prisoners.”

Firstly, banning smoking in New Zealand prisons would not only be beneficial for the health of prisoners who smoke, but also for non-smoking inmates, guards or visitors. They won’t be at risk of getting sick from second-hand smoke and visitors might want to come more often if they can’t smell the smoke around the prisoners. Also, with the large number of prisoners who currently smoke, when they leave prison after not smoking, they might rethink about smoking and they could’ve learnt a valuable lesson from not smoking in prisons.

Being in prison is supposed to be a punishment, not a luxury. So why should prisoners be allowed to smoke in prison when they’ve committed a crime or broken the law? Prisoners who smoke should be serving their time working, not doing things they enjoy like smoking.

On the other hand, smoking being banned in New Zealand prisons could turn out worse than the current situation. Smokers who are trying to quit could find it hard and they might get angry or emotional.  This could be dangerous for both the smoking prisoners and the other people at the prison.

Furthermore, if smoking is banned in prisons, cigarettes could become a black market item. Prisoners could try to bribe guards or visitors to bring them cigarettes and this could cause violence if some inmates are smoking illegally and others aren’t. Some prison guards have already been threatened by the several prisoners to be bashed if they ban smoking in prisons so it could also be dangerous for them.

In conclusion, smoking is unhealthy and prison is supposed to be a punishment. So I think it is good that smoking in New Zealand prisons will be banned next year because it could make prisons a healthier and safer place to be for prisoners, guards and visitors.

By Sophie

I put this piece of writing on my blog to show some of my writing work from term 3. This is a discussion argument about the smoking ban in New Zealand that’s happening in July next year. I stated both sides to the argument then wrote which side I support which is that smoking in NZ prisons should be banned.

Maths

Heres a scanned page from my maths book from this term. It shows what I was learning and that I repeat the wrong ones until I get them right. This work was about ratios and some about dividing fractions.

After I had marked them and repeated what I got wrong I wrote a summary of what I learned.

Book Review – Elsewhere

Title: Elsewhere                                                                                                                                             

Author: Gabrielle Zevin

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Pages: 271

When 15 year old Liz is killed by a taxi in a hit and run accident it is a big shock to her and her family. Liz wakes up in a bunk bed on a boat called the S.S Nile; she doesn’t know how she got there so she thinks she is dreaming. She meets some people on the boat and soon realises that she’s dead and on the way to a place called Elsewhere. Once Liz arrives in Elsewhere she meets up with her grandmother, Elizabeth that she was named after, who passed away before Liz was born. Liz’s grandmother helps her to feel at home but Liz still really misses her family and friends back on Earth.

 I really liked this book because it was very captivating and I hardly ever got bored while reading it. One part of Elsewhere that I found particularly interesting was that it was from Liz’s point of view and her looking back on Earth. I also thought it had a good sort of moral, to live everyday like it’s your last because it could be and you never know when you’ll have to leave Earth.

 Something else I enjoyed was how it was kind of like an alternative world and how mainly, things were different but some things also resembled Earth. In Elsewhere, instead of getting older, the people there get younger until they are babies again and can go back to Earth to start life again. This was a differently good feature of Elsewhere.

 I found it very hard to find anything really bad about this book but one thing that was slightly annoying was at the start. That was, the prologue was from the dog Lucy’s point of view. This made it kind of confusing at first when it then went into being from Liz’s.

 My favourite character in Elsewhere was Liz, the main character. I liked it how she was a realistic character and I thought she dealt with death pretty well. Another character I liked was Alvy, Liz’s younger brother back on earth. When Liz tries to communicate with her family on earth, Alvy’s the only one who believes that she could still be there. He has a very positive attitude and I think that’s good.

 This book was very enjoyable to read and took me on a journey through another world. I rate it 10 out of 10 and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who would like a good fiction read.

 By Sophie

I chose to put this book review on my blog because I really liked this book and if people who read my blog read this, then they might want to read Elsewhere. A book review is a good  way of retelling a book and saying the good and bad points of a book from my point of view.

Week 5 Term 2

This week we have started a new tech art, fabric. In fabric this year, my goal is to make a polar fleece jersey with a hood and pocket. The colours I’m having are purple, pink and black. Last year in fabric I made a bag, pencil case, ball and cushion.

In maths this week I have been l learning about comparing, adding and subtracting fractions. I’ve learned that, to compare fractions, it’s easy to change them into decimals, order them, then change them back. To add and subtract fractions, first make the denominators (bottom number)  then add the top numbers.

In English I’ve been learning how to correctly use dialogue punctuation, the punctuation used in speech. Like when to put a comma in a speech. Also I’ve been learning about note taking and topic sentences. A topic sentence is the main sentence in a paragraph.

Last week on Monday, me along with most of the band and choir members at TAI went to Totara Springs Music Camp. We rehearsed for hours the n on Tuesday night there was a concert where we showed the parents what we had learned. I’m in senior band and we learned to play some new pieces such as Bridge Street March and Stand By Me. On Wednesday we all came back to TAI very tired.

My goals for next week

• To have some planning done for my jersey in fabric.
• To finish some more of my maths
• To have a better understanding of dialogue punctuation by writing a story with speech in.

Term 1 Reflections

This term was the first term for 2010, the second year for me at TAI. This term I think I  have done well staying on task and completing the goals I set for myself at the start of term. I played some games for our inter-class softball team (which came 2nd!) I also involved myself in after school volleyball (I had never played it before though!) which took place in our school ALC, our team won most of our games and we had a fun time. I’ve also been doing Jump Jam leadership this term, leading my team with a group of others. This term I’ve been trying hard to get all my work finished to a high standard and I think I’ve done well with that.

Next term’s going to be busy so here are my goals for next term

• To get involved in more things and earn more badges for my jersey.
• To focus on maths and get better.

Random Story part 2

Heres the next part of my Random Story, hope you like it!

Sunny couldn’t concentrate all day, when the bell rang for lunchtime, Sunny didn’t even realise. “Sunny, are you going outside for lunch” asked Ms de-Hoppy, still trying to be nice. “ummm, lunch? Oh yeah I guess.” said Sunny. Sunny just realised that she had forgotten to pack any lunch, she got up to leave, as she was walking out towards the field, she saw a group of girls walk past her giggling and sniggering. “nice hair!” they said sarcastically. Could she have got to a worse school? ”Hi Sunny! Whats going down my friend? Anything your pal Billy can do?” Billy was now beside her, Sunny pretended not to notice the nerd walking beside her. ” Sunniiieee?!?! helloo?” Billy was waving a hand in her face. Not wanting to be mean she just said, ” Gotta go.” and ran off in the direction of the netball courts.

A ball rolled to her feet as she stood, looking at all the people having fun. ” Hey, is this yours?” she called out to a group of girls looking at her. ” Yeah,” one of them called back, jogging over to Sunny, “thanks, hey I’m Lola, you’re that new girl. Right?  What’s your name?” she said, putting out a hand. Sunny shook her hand and said, “I’m Sunny.” She said and started walking away. ” Hey, Sunny. Wanna join us for a game of netball?” said Lola. “Sure” said Sunny. She was glad she had made a friend. “Everyone, this is Sunny. Sunny this is Sarah, Erin, Krissy and Alice,” she said pointing to the other 4 girls. ” and these are our oppositions.” Lola said waving her arms at another group of 6 girls. They all waved backed.” What position do you play?” asked Erin. ” Goal Shoot” said Sunny. ” Cool. ” said Erin passing her the ball. As they played netball, Sunny realised that this school might not be so bad after all.

Hi Again!

Hi it’s me Sophie. Sorry I haven’t written for a while but my class is doing wikispaces now so heres the link if anyone wants to see it!   http://studentwork-tai3.wikispaces.com    I might add the part 2 of Random Story when I’m in a writing mood! Bye for now. Sophie