MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FABULOUS TEACHERS AND LEARNERS

Thank you so much for one of the best teaching and learning years ever!!

You have taught me a great deal about who I am as a teacher and learner and hopefully, I have done this for you too.

I can't wait to see what we all get up to in 2013!!  In the meantime, stay safe, keep an eye on this blog - and your own ones - for comments, challenges and other bits and pieces and keep adding your thoughts.

I will also keep you updated on what's happening with MyChatpak and your epals.

Missing your senses of humour and great attitudes towards your learning already.

I will always believe in all of you.

Miss H :-)

REFLECTION TIME

Hey there my fantastic teachers and learners.  I'd love to know your thoughts about 2012.  What have you loved the most?  What are some of the things you've learned?  What are you most proud of?  How have you grown as a learner, teacher and person?

Share your thoughts as comments.  I can't wait to read them!

Week 9 Already!

Hi everyone!

I can't believe it's Week 9 already.  We've only been together for three terms but I continue to be so impressed by the progress all of the students have made to date - just imagine what we can achieve together next year!!!

Tomorrow these fantastic young people will receive their reports and they really do deserve all that they've worked so hard to achieve.  I am incredibly proud of all of them and I know you will be too.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you need to discuss anything in the report, or you have any questions or feedback.

You could ring me at school, call in and say 'Hi' or email me:

justine.hughes@hendersonint.school.nz

Keep checking the students' blogs and please give them feedback on their learning - it's what helps make their learning so powerful and also builds a strong link between home and school.

I am organising books for the holidays for the students.  It's so important to keep up some of our basic skills so that our progress doesn't slow down over the summer.

Please let me know if there is anything I can help with.

Arohanui

Room 4 Educational Software Developers

We've been up to all sorts of things in our room over the last term.  (You will see a lot more on the students' individual blogs).

One of them has been the opportunity to take a tool developed in part by a friend of mine and develop an educational teaching and learning tool from it.  We've even had the opportunity to rename it from MyVcv - it's original name and purpose, to MyChatpak - the educational spin-off!

This will now be forever known as the product that was developed by Room 4, 2012, at Henderson Intermediate School, Auckland, New Zealand.  How exciting is that??!!

If you click on the link below you will see what we've been doing.  We'd love some feedback on this.  How else could it be used?




https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByurP5fdVrIoWk1vUnc4UE02Z1U

Awesome Maths Explorations

We're pushing ourselves in our learning by exploring isometric drawing. If you want to know more, visit our blogs. Simon's is a good one to start with.

Today's Learning Tasks

Hi everyone!  Hope your week's off to an awesome start.  I can't wait to read your descriptive writing!

Your tasks for today are below - complete them thoroughly :-)

TASK 1
Complete your descriptive writing and share it with a buddy using the feedback starters I gave you earlier in the term.  Make sure you proof read and edit your writing.  Once this is completed, upload your writing to your individual blogs and go on at least 2 other people's blogs and give them feedback - use the feedback examples from the sheet again.

• Does your audience have all they need to be able to understand what you are writing about?
• Have you met the LIs and SCs?

TASK 2
Reflect on your individual learning blog using the Rubric on the ABOUT page of this blog.  Which stage are you learning at on YOUR blog - are you an EXPERT yet?  What is your next learning on your own blog?  Reflect on this and identify and comment on your next learning.

Terrific Tessellations

Here are some examples of our learning around tessellations.  We're starting to use the vocabulary of this part of geometry by talking about rotations, (turns), translations, (slides), etc.  This will also tie into our learning about symmetry this term.

We'd love your feedback on what we've been up to so far.  Let us know what you think.  The students had to use many of the Habits of Mind to complete these tessellations as so many of them were quite challenging.  Ask them about the challenges and have a look on their blogs for their self-reflections.

If you'd like more information about tessellations and how they are created from a single geometric shape, please check out our individual blogs where we've research Escher and told you about our learning in this area.

If you're fascinated by what Escher achieved in maths and art, check out this website:
http://www.mcescher.com/

Focusing On Being Organised, Self-Managing and Ready For Learning

Hi everyone!  Hope you're having a great week.  Here's a question for you (a few questions, actually):

• How organised are you each day and are you always ready for learning?
• What does 'Ready for learning mean to you?'
• How could you self-manage this more effectively and efficiently so that you are taking responsibility for being ready for learning?

Add your thoughts below and then challenge yourselves to make a change.

You might find the following link helpful at school and at home.  Check it out and let me know your thoughts on it - get the discussion started!

 http://www.internet4classrooms.com/links_grades_kindergarten_12/parents_time_management_help.htm

WHERE ARE YOUR INQUIRIES HEADED?

Hi everyone.  Where would you like to head with your inquiry this term?  What area of Human Rights and Rights and Responsibilities interest you the most?

Add your thoughts as comments - don't forget to include your name - and we can go from there.

Let's see where our inquiring minds head this term.

WELCOME TO THE NEW IMPROVED ROOM 4 BLOG!

Hi everyone and welcome to the new version of the Room 4 Blog!

This is our main class blog and from here you will be able to access the students' blogs, resources, learning tools and a lot of other fantastic learning bits and pieces.