Examinations!

Exams are coming up REALLY soon people!

You need to make sure that you are revising.  This involves more than SAYING you are revising, listening to your ipod, texting your mates, and updating your facebook status. 

You need to know what is going to be in your exams.  Harass your teachers for this information.  Do you need to know how to write an essay, or to analyse new material, or to use formulas?  What content will be assessed?  What Achievement Standards are being practised?  Have you seen what the questions and/or paper will look like?  Do you need to bring your own paper or will this be provided for you?

Next week there will be an optional study skills seminar with me (on Wednesday).  Sign up for it for advice, tips and basically quality time with me.

The JM Regatta

Well, the first annual JM Sailing Regatta was held recently.  On the first day we built our ships, and later in the week we sailed them.

Sadly a number of ships sank.... despite looking fantastic before the sailing event.

Louis Gray with an innovative "Fish" shaped design won.... and we were all very proud.  He did win because his was the only ship not to sink to the bottom of the bucket!

The ships BEFORE hitting the water.

And the ships at the bottom of the "ocean".

Next week is the Famine Fun Run.  Here we will compete as a formclass for prizes for our costumes.  Our theme is yet to be chosen, but we will go hard!  Bring on a win, people, and we will have fun, raise money for a good cause, and spend some quality time together.

Family Learning Conferences

After a successful run of Family Learning Conferences, I am pleased to report the stunning progress of the class as a whole.  Overwhelmingly our class are working hard and achieving good results.  There are always areas for improvement, which is what we focussed our discussion on, and there are always goals to achieve. 

Remember, Year 11's, you can always ask the Year 12's for advice and guidance, and the Year 12's can ask the Year 13's.  I too was once a student, back somewhere just before the extinction of the dinosaurs, and can offer advice and guidance.... sigh.  Mrs Latta is the Careers advisor and can offer specialised information and the Student Health Centre is ready to deal with any other issues you may have over the year.  There is always someone ready to help out.  Sing out and don't worry.  If your classes are stressful or you are having trouble balancing your committments, we can help you sort things out.

Sadly watching the news, it is apparent that students all over this country seem to lack conflict resolution strategies.  Help is always there, and you never need to resort to using your fists people!

On a happier note, it was great to see such an awesome group of people have such an awesome bunch of parental units!

The Paper Blog will be out next week with the last of the student profiles.  With 2 weeks left of term, we should be aiming to polish off assessments and make sure our notes are all as perfect as possible.

Farewell to Cat and Robin who will be off on the Geo trip to Tongariro this coming week.

A summary of the main concerns from students from the FLC's are as follows:

• Homework tasks are not overly explicitly given
• Revision needs to be happening now
• Ask for help when floundering
• You would like some Study Skills workshops

Fish! The other stuff

The last blog recapped 'Being There' and 'Choosing your Attitude'.  This blog will cover the last 2 elements of Fish!

'Make their Day'.  The idea here is that we look for chances to make someone else's day.  This can be simple, like holding a door open, or carrying a bag, or saying 'thanks', or simply talking to a new person in school.  If we all made more of an effort to look out for the feelings of others, the world would be a much nicer place to be.

'Play'.  Everyone loves to play... but this is not just about having games.  It is a state of wonder, like young children have, where they are excited about so many new things.  'Play' is not about just goofing off, but it is serious (remember playing in the sand-pit, or tag, the rules were important!) and it has to be inline with the other elements.  You do not 'play' in a way that is negative, or not making someone elses day etc.  Play is the fun element, but no more or less important than others.

This there week are the Family Learning Conferences.  I look forward to seeing some of you again, and meeting some of you for the first time.

It's all business now.....

So, day 1 is a distant memory, and the juniors have all started.  If you see lost little-people around the place, I would recommend giving them a hand.  Some of the Year 9's were a little awestruck to say the least and will need help settling into our whanau.

School is back to usual now.... sans luau.

It was wonderful to see the 21 of you all hanging out and chatting prior to the first class- what a terrific bunch of people to have in one class.  Sigh.

Hopefully all of you Year 11 students will take the chance to ask the help and guidance of the Year 13's about how school runs, that the Year 12's will step up to find a leadership role within the school, and you all take a chance to get to know Cat and Isabela.  Cat is from Finland, and Isabela from Brazil, so potentially you can make friends from 2 different continents to go and stay with!

 

Top:  The short people- Zoe, Ivy and Christina.            

Bottom: the tall people, Finn and Arjun

I will be posting a couple of images from the luau on Facebook if you want to steal them, and so that you can see how awesome you all are.  Who knew that you could force a formclass to dress in costume 'just for the fun of it!'.  Legendary.  You all rock the party.  Below is Louis and Barney.  Louis is in our class..... Barney just thinks he is.

Day 1

Well, Day 1 is over, and you all have tomorrow off to chillax.  Sort of- unless you are a Buddy to a junior class.  Use this time to sort out your stationery requirements, and your gear for school.  A couple of reminders:

You need a school bag.  In here you will have a pen.  And paper.  And your lunch.  And a water bottle.  Even though Summer has been CRAZY this year, you will be dehydrating quickly as your brain does all that thinking!  Make sure you are drinking enough and hydrating during the day.

You should also read over your course outlines (the ones you have at least!).  Be prepared for what is to come.  Start thinking about the time commitments and the financial commitments of your course choices.  You only have a couple of weeks to change classes if you wish, and some courses are already over-flowing, so get your timetable sorted asap.

Some of the Year 12's and 13's in our class do need more credits to pass L1 or 2.  Let's try to get this sorted out in February.  Ask your teachers if there is anything you can do in the first few weeks before the workload gets crazy.

Now, welcome to Isabela, Kylie and Robin who join us from other schools.  I was pleased to see how you all made them welcome, and I hope you continue to do so as time rolls by.

Have a great day off tomorrow, and I shall see you all on Thursday.  (I will post Luau pictures tomorrow afternoon).