HOMELEARNING and Basic Facts Results

Last week were the best results for Home-Learning completed and Basic Facts tests passed in Room 8 this year.  Our goal is to get better each week.

So what are you going to do to help improve our results? Use you Green Thinking Hat to come up with some ways to help yourself and others improve the classes results. Maybe we need to also use our Yellow Hat to consider the positives of what people are already doing that works and our Black Hat to consider what is not working well with what we are doing.

Double click on the page below to add a comment. Put GH, YH, RD, BLKH, WH or BH to tell us which hat you are using before writing your comment. Your comment will show up when Mr Cooper has checked it.

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GOAL SETTING IN ROOM 8

Room 8 2012 had a goal. This goal was decided on after they had worked out they had a 'want'. Wainui Primary was neat and tidy. Mr Devine did a great job of keeping the school looking great with all the buildings kept to a high standard.

Christopher agreed these things were all good, but looking out his window he saw nothing that really made the place 'look like a school', in fact the place looked 'a little like a prison'. So Room 8 visited another school in Eastbourne to see what they had done to make their school 'look more child friendly'. 

Room 8 come up with some ideas to make Wainui Primary look more 'child friendly'. After considering all of the ideas, they decided on a mural for the outside wall of Room 8 to welcome visitors to the school. The themes were what cultures are strongly represented in our school now and how has our school changed in over 150 years.They had to research about the school's history and beginnings, events that happened since and the people that came to the school now. They wrote letters and  met with the principal to get permission to paint, as well as get materials and the paint for what they wanted to achieve.

They had meetings with a local art student Courtney  on designs for a mural and what their ideas could  look like. Room 8 finally got the paint and materials to begin work. Other former students who were on work experience at school, parents, Room 8 students and Courtney  all played a part in getting the murals completed. By now the class of Room 8 2012 had moved on.

Towards the end of last year Mr Cooper approached another former student to Olivia to see if she could turn Room 8's ideas into art for a 'Room 8 sign', similar to those we had seen at the Eastbourne school. Luckily for Room 8 she was able to give some of her time and skills.

People had said that we should consider getting the murals covered in anti-graffiti paint. Room 8 had looked at this but it was expensive. Earlier this year we approached the MMS Group who specialise in this sort of work, for an idea as to the cost. Dan Totty from the company advised last week that they would provide the anti-graffiti paint at no cost and Dan would do the painting himself, again at no cost.

Watch this space because in the next two weeks the class of Room 8 2012 hope to be able to finally have the murals and room numbering up on the wall.

They had a goal, after identifying a need or a want. They came up with a plan. Room 8 then looked for people with the skills, knowledge and resources to help them carry out that plan. At the beginning of Term two this year it will be 2 years since they visited the Eastbourne school. They didn't give up on their goal and looked at ways of overcoming the problems they faced along the way. Room 8 were aware that it would take time to achieve their goal, it had taken the Eastbourne school 10 years. They will now leave Wainui Primary at the end of the year with their 'special mark' being left at the school.

HOW DO WE LEARN

Here is a video of a small child trying to overcome a problem or learn. We are going to watch this in class. What does the child have to do in order to be successful in overcoming her problem? In Think Crews we are going to have a look at the whole process she goes through.
 

DEBONO THINKING HATS

Here is a little clip to show the parents what new tool we have been using to organise our thinking.

LEARNING JOURNEY

We have been looking at a number of questions about learning in Room 8 lately:

• What is learning?
• What kind of learning have I done in the past?
• How do we learn?
• What are the different ways we can learn and what learning style(s) suit me?
• What makes some things easier to learn than others?
• What are goals and how do they help my learning?
• Is copying cheating and why or why not?
• What attitudes, behaviours and skills will I need to learn?
• What is a Learning Journey and what does it involve?

Lanesha introduced us to this great song. The words in the song tell us so much about learning and being ourselves. We have spent time looking for key words and ideas in it. This song is so good that the choir might possibly be performing it later this year.