Filed under: reflections
It’s finally the last week of school! My time here at TAI has been great and I have made lots of new friends in my two years here. But in saying that, I cant wait to leave and move on to bigger and better things like Boys High which is just around the corner for me.
Tech Arts:
Tech Arts this year has been really fun. We did cooking first, then music/dance, soft materials, science, hard materials, and finally, art. my favourite Tech Art this year was hard materials. We had to make a prototype of something that could hole things. I made a scaled down skyscraper that opened up a a cupboard.
English:
This year in English I have learned to write in compound, simple, complex, and compound-complex sentences. I have learned how to create a book trailer and have learned to focus on showing not telling when I write.
Maths:
In maths this year I have learned about alternate, corresponding, and co-interior angles. I have also learned how to find the radius, diameter, and circumference of a circle and how to find the angles of any regular polygon.
PE:
For PE this year we have done cross country, athletics, inter class sports, and various inter house games. Our class came runners up in inter class softball and we won the inter class competition for cross country.
Band:
I joined the band this year and I am really glad I did. Recently we did an alternative program to the Northcross exchange because they canceled for the third year in a row. so we performed for our contributing schools as well as Insoll Avenue Primary. Earlier in the year we went to Totara Springs for band camp and performed with Matamata Intermediate.
Filed under: reflections
The first few weeks of this term have been testy. Literally! We have been doing tests for most of the term now. Thankfully, we are nearly done. Some of the tests we have done are asttle reading, asttle maths, asttle writing, PAT maths, PAT reading vocabulary, and PAT reading comprehension.
This term Nicky Wise and the LIfe Education Trust have been with us. Our class has been doing ‘In The Shadows’, which is teaching us about drugs and what they can do to our bodies and minds.
On Friday afternoon last week, we had our grandparents concert. I was part of the band that played spiderman and latin fire.
Filed under: reflections
This week I have learned:
Maths: I have learned how to find the interior angle sum of any polygon and I learned how to find each interior angle in a regular polygon as well.I have also learned how easy it is to translate shapes. All you have to do is move the shape in the way the vector describes. For example: if the vector is (-5,3) you will move the shape five spaces left and three up. If the vector is (7,-8) you move the shape seven spaces right and eight down. Vectors always use horizontal first and then vertical. Positive numbers are right or up and negative numbers are left or down.
English: I n English we have been revising on ‘Show Not Tell’. this is the process of describing how something is instead of just saying that.
Visual Language: We have started doing an inquiry project on the topic ‘How Prepared Are You?’. We have gotten into groups of 3 and we have to do a poster in our groups about how prepared are we if disaster strikes.
We spent Monday at the tech art block preparing a boil up and doing different activities like carving and flax weaving. Everyone had a special part in preparing the boil up and everyone did their job well. We did this to celebrate Te Wiki O Te Reo Maori, or in English: Maori Language Week.
Filed under: Arguments
Judith Collins, Corrections Minister, has introduced a smoking ban in New Zealand prisons that will come into effect during July 2011. Around ½ of all prison guards smoke in designated areas and around ⅔ of New Zealand prisoners smoke in their cells. The prisoners will be given an education about smoking before the actual ban takes place. It is designed to help the prisoners quit when the ban comes into effect.
One main reason that smoking will be banned in New Zealand prisons is that cigarettes are often used as ‘jailhouse currency’. People use cigarettes as money on the jail’s black market to buy weapons like knives. This creates violence among the prisoners and someone could get hurt when they had nothing to do with it. It could also injure guards that come to break it up.
Another reason that supports the ban on smoking in prisons is the health and safety of non smokers. People that smoke get matched up with people that don’t, so they end up breathing in the second hand smoke come from their cell mate. The same thing can happen to non smoking guards that are walking past the cells of prisoners that are having a smoke.
Another of the reasons that support the ban is that, considering that two thirds of prisoners in NZ smoke, no smoking in prisons could create a lower crime rate. Smokers might not want to go to prison because they will not be allowed to smoke. This could mean that they might not commit any crimes, lowering the crime rate.
On the other hand, the smoking ban could create violence amongst the prisoners and guards because the guards will be able to smoke. The guards will be able to smoke in designated areas and although the prisoners will not be able to see the guards smoking, they will be able to smell the smoke on them. This could aggravate the prisoners and cause more violence than there would have been with no smoking for anyone at all.
Also, inmates that smoke will be angry because they will not have the one pleasure they had been allowed before. If you take away smoking you are taking away one of their only pleasures which could aggravate the prisoners that smoke, causing riots and possibly too much violence for guards to handle.
To conclude, I believe that if smoking were banned in New Zealand prisons, it could bring rise to aggravation and threats among prisoners. But it would also be beneficial to the health of the prisoners. If they were healthier, generally they will be calmer. So I support the smoking ban, but it should include the guards.
Learning Comment:
While I did this work I learned how to properly research, write and edit a double sided discussion argument using quotes and knowledge from pieces of information. I chose to put this bit of writing on my blog because it portrays the pros and cons of banning smoking in prisons.
Filed under: reflections
This week I have learned:
Maths:
In maths this week I have been learning about how to find the unknown angle in a triangle. I have also learned what complementary and supplementary angles are.
English:
In English I have been learning about the different sentence types: simple, compound, complex and compound-complex. I have also been learning about active and passive voice.
Filed under: Science Fair
For my science fair I tested if different pH levels will affect how fast drinks will break down the human body. My question was: In what way do the pH levels in different common drinks affect the speed that it breaks down the human body? For my experiment I researched what meat was most similar to human meat and found that it was pork so I soaked five equal pieces of pork in different drinks for five days and recorded the results in the end. From what happened in my experiment I concluded that the more acidic a drink is, the faster it will break down the human body.
Filed under: reflections
This week I have learned how to cancel out numbers when I am multiplying fractions. I have also learned how to convert fractions to decimals and percentages and add fractions with no common denominator. In English I have learned how to write a report using notes and what a topic sentence is. A topic sentence is a sentence at the beginning or end of a paragraph that lets the reader know what the paragraph is about.
Filed under: reflections
This week we have been learning about topic sentences. I learned that a topic sentence basically summarises what a paragraph is about. For example, if you are writing a paragraph about what an elephant eats, your topic sentence would be something like elephants spend a lot of time eating. Another thing we have been learning is how to punctuate dialogue properly. Doing this, I learned that each new speaker has to go on a new line. For maths we have been learning about fractions and I was reminded about how to add and subtract fractions.
Filed under: reflections
This week was great. I have been on band camp at Totara Springs until Wednesday and I was part of the Waikato Literacy Quiz on Wednesday night. at Totara Springs I had more fun than I expected which is quite hard to believe as I knew I would have lots of fun there. While I was there I learnt how to play four songs on my saxophone, including Bandroom Boogie and Power Rock. The Lit Quiz was a good experience for me too and I had lots of fun. I also noted down some good books to try while I was there.
Filed under: reflections
This term has been great. I have been in the inter class softball team for us and we got runners up, losing the final by ten to fifteen. I also found that I am doing better in my writing this year because I am taking my time more often and paying more attention to put down detail. I also think that I have made a lot more friends this year and altogether years eight is a lot better than last year. I can’t wait for the other terms.
