End of year emotions

This year is close to an end. We can all feel its presence, even a week early. The emotions are so mixed. Happiness, relief, sadness, longing. These are just some of the emotions us year 8's are feeling at the moment. 

We have spent 8 years at our school learning new things and meeting new people. The "new people" that we meet at school are teachers, students and visitors. We have been the at the receiving end of opportunities, knowledge and other gifts while attending Glenbrae School. 

We learn in a learning environment with others keen to learn. We do most of our learning on netbooks. I personally was very thrilled and privileged to do our work on netbooks. It was a very cool experience to be involved in.

The classes we were put in was based on intelligence, willing to learn, and behaviour, depending on the year level you were in. Being one of the youngest people in my year level, I looked up to most of the older students as a mentor or role model. I looked at them and said "one day I would like to be like them." Most of my mentor or role models were none other but some of my classmates and best friends. I still look up to most of them, not only to lead, but to educate. I have learnt a lot from my classmates and friends, and I am sad to split from them this far forward in our lives.

Most of my classmates I went to Kindergarten with, and we know each other well. Its really sad to see them go, but I wish them good luck next year, and throughout their lives. 

Hockey Lesson

Today on the 24th of November 2015, the students from room 10 went to the netball courts to have our final hockey session with our coach, Lydia. She was teaching us some hockey skills over the last 4-5 weeks. We have learnt a lot of things while she was here, and we were very sad to see her go.

When we got to the courts, we sat down and greeted her. She then told us what we were going to do in the lesson. First we played a warm-up game of Octopus.

After that she put us into groups. The groups were Orange, Blue, Yellow and Green. I was in the orange group. Once she gave us a colour group, she told us to get a hockey stick and line up behind the group cones. Then, she explained what we were going to do. She said that we we going to have relays. The first relay was that we had to zigzag the ball through the cones and then shoot the ball through the cones. The second relay was just aiming the ball through to the score cones. The group who did it first would get 4 points, the second group would get 3 points, and the last two groups would get 2 and 1 points. Our group came 2nd, so we got 3 points.

After all of the relays we did, we were one of the bottom teams with 7 points, so the two bottom teams had to team up and verse the two winning teams. We versed, and we came so close to winning, but the top teams won.

I enjoyed our hockey game, even if we lost, and I also enjoyed having Lydia teaching us hockey skills the past few weeks. I really enjoyed it, and I had a lot of fun.

Expedition Recount

Today, on Tuesday the 24th of November, the students from room 10 went to room 3 to do a workshop. The workshop was provided by Google.

When we got to room 3, we knocked on the door and went inside. On each of the tables, I saw cardboard spectacles with a phone in a slot. We sat down on the ground and listened to the supervisor, Maru talk. He explained what our workshop was going to be, and he told us the rules. Then he told us to get a spectacle each and find our own space somewhere in the room.

We put our spectacles up to our eyes and waited for our teacher to choose the location to go to. Basically, the glasses and the phone was some kind of app that allowed someone to choose a location. Once the location was chosen, we could see that location through our glasses as if we were there.

It was really cool, and I felt really privileged to use that technology before it was released in the Google App Store. I would like to thank the arrangers for the opportunity to try out the lovely piece of engineering.

Technology Reflection

Today at Technology, we were in our technology class. We were in the Graphics Technology class, and it was our last two weeks after this week.

Today, we finished off our Juice Carton designs. We also had a evaluation sheet to finish off as well. That was only for the people with their laptops.

At the end of class, we said goodbye to our teacher, and walked back to school.

It was fun today it technology, because some of us got to finish off our work.

Maniakalani Film Festival 2015

Last week on Wednesday the 11th of November, the students from Glenbrae School went to the Sylvia Park Cinemas for the 8th Maniakalani Film Festival. Every year, the schools in the Maniakalani cluster makes videos especially for the Film Festival. We make a habit of making sure we positively show that we like the movies, and that we don't boo or dislike the movie.

This year, Brandon and I were going to present from our class. I was really excited. It was my second time, and I was really excited to go up there, but I was also really worried at the same time.

We had our morning tea early. After morning tea, we assembled in the hall. Brandon and I had to go the line that the other presenters were sitting at. We were the first ones to hop onto the bus. When we got there, we separated from the other students and walked first. The other classes followed behind.

When we got there, we got ready to go inside. The presenters sat down in the chairs up the front. When it was a presenter's turn, we had to move down a seat or two. The movies were really creative.

When anyone from our school presented, I could hear some people from in the top right corner (where our school was sitting) cheering for them, among other schools, Brandon and I among them. I was really shy, but could hardly wait until it was our turn to present.

When it was our turn to present, I was really excited, and the adrenalin was pumping through my body. I went up, and then Brandon came up. All I could see were shadows and the bright spotlight was shining in my eyes. I could really hear the cheering coming from our School. We said our lines and went back down. I was really excited, and could barely believe that we did that. We sat back down and watched the movie.

When it was time to go, the presenters lined up and walked out of the cinemas. We walked to the buses. I was the only presenter that was able to go onto the first bus. I sat next to Fine. Manuae was behind us, so we started talking.

When we got back to School, we went to the hall. The teachers congratulated us (the presenters) and told us what was going to happen next. We were going to go back to class, and we would have 4-5 minutes to eat and play. After that we would pack up and go home.

Today was a really fun day. I was a little shy, but I was also really excited. I also couldn't wait for the day after, because we had another trip, this time to Stardome, a observatory in Greenlane.

Dance Fever Reflection

Yesterday after Kiwi Can, the students from room 10 went to our Dance Fever lesson in the Hall with Lieutenant and Miss Rach. We were really excited and could hardly wait.

When we got to the hall, we got into two lines. One line to the right for the girls, and one line to the left for the boys. Because there were so many boys, they got the boys to make two lines. When they did, we did our Hip hop routine. We went over it and made sure that we were doing it correctly.

Once we had run over our hip hop routine at least 3 or 4 times, the boys went to one side of the room. This week, the girls had to pick their partners. I picked Lennyx, but he had already been picked by Fine, so I went to look for another partner. I ended up being with Lennyx in the end, so I was really happy that I got to dance with him again (we were partners two weeks ago).

When we started the dance routine to the Samba, it was a little tricky, but we got there in the end. Around us, we saw boys pairing up with each other. It was very funny to see the boys duplicating the girls dance moves.

We also learnt the rest of our Waltz, and I was really excited about that. We learnt the final moves and started practising them. We got the moves, but it took a while.

At the end of the lesson, we said goodbye and lined up in a class line and went to class.

Today was a really good day. We learnt all the moves to all of the dances, and all we had to do was practise them. I was really excited, and I could hardly wait for next week's lesson.

Kiwi Can Reflection

Today after Morning tea, the students from room 10 went to room 11 for Kiwi Can. Miss Tuia wasn't here, so Mr Numia was teaching us.

When we got inside the classroom, we sat own in a circle. We said "Bula Kiwi Can" (every time we go to Kiwi Can, they have a different greeting for us every week). We did a re-cap of the last lesson we had and talked about the topic. We were learning about Respect. Our theme was Respecting Others. We had a little discussion about what it looked like to respect others.

After that, we got into our Energiser. It was called Soccer Tag. We had three or four games of Soccer Tag before sitting back down in a circle. We discussed what it looks like to respect others and how you can do that.

After that, Mr Numia explained what our energiser was. It was called "Green Machine". Mr Numia put us unto 5 groups and assigned us a part of the room. What we had to do in Green Machine was brainstorm some ideas for a machine that would make people happy. My group's ideas were to create emotion changing shoes. Basically what they were were shoes that if you wore and you were angry, the shoes would work on making you happy. I proudly invented those. Another invention that we created was a booth machine that you jumped into. The booth printed out a piece of paper. On the piece of paper was the emotion you were feeling on the inside, even though you looked happy on the outside. Alisi invented that great piece of engineering that hopefully will be invented someday.

When we finished presenting our ideas, we sat back down in a circle and did our GKQ (General Knowledge Questions) and that was in groups of three or four students. When it was our turn, we couldn't answer the first question, so Mr Numia gave us another question to answer. Lennyx answered that question correctly.

When we finished GKQ, Mr Numia did our points. We got 23.5, which was two and a half less than last week. We said goodbye and then we left.

Today was a really fun day in Kiwi Can, even though we got two and a half points less than last week.