Kia ora koutou, it is Term 3 already and our 9T English class is starting with our unit on Creative Writing. This is an enjoyable unit to teach as the students start looking at similies, metaphors, personification and other styles of writing to think creatively and to write creative pieces of work. The jungle scene below is used, starting with nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs setting the foundation for students to look and think outside of the box when writing.
Kia ora koutou, today is our first full day of training before school starts and the students arrive. Updating my website and trying to make learning exciting is a goal for the year. Breaking news is an app that I will be using to make learning a bit more intersting for my 9T English class. Here is an example of what they can create. Using an image and write a small paragraphy would be great.
Kia ora mai ano. This year I was asked to sit for a senior class of art students so that they could sketch and draw my portrait for their art portfolios. I was humbled and very pleased to sit for them one morning in Term 2. The students asked a lot of questions about my upbringing. Where I was born and raised and information about the town in which I grew up which was Moerewa. After the sitting they (the senior students) would come to my office and show me their sketches and drawings. Here is one of them that I was allowed to have a copy of. I am very chuffed to have it. The tuna/ eels in the backround of this drawing represent Moerewa's nickname which was tuna town while I was growing up.
Kia ora ano e tatou ma, story board planning is a cool way to get students to map out their own stories before putting it together either in writing or by video clip. Here is a sample that I gave my students in order to get them thinking about what they wanted to say.
This Term we have studied a novel called See Ya Simon by David Hill. David is a New Zealand author and the story was based on a 14 year old boy called Simon, who had muscular dystrophy. Although Simon had this debilitating disease it did not stop him enjoying life to the full, attending school and having great friends around him. One of the chapters was able poem writing in their English class and they likened it to creating layers of an onion. Each layer had its own ideas which formed the poem. Our class turned it into an excercise about writing a poem about ourselves. Here is my example of the poems we wrote in class.
Kia ora koutou, this year has started well for my Year 9 Totara class of 27 students. Due to the chrome books taking a while to get into the hands of our year 9 students we switched and started with our speeches. This was a big ask for these new students who barely know each other and asking them to create and deliver a speech in front of the whole class. However, they perservered, put their heads down and got on with the task. The three topics were (1) Someone I admire (2) An issue in school or the community (3) Determination creates success. In week five all but one student completed and delivered their speech, they were amazing. We then moved onto completing Biography's which should have taken five weeks but only took three. Therefore we were able to move onto our Novel study which was meant to have started in Term 2, but these students are so quick and onto it. They have started two weeks early. Here is a photo of this year awesome 9T English class. I am looking forward to this year of leaning.
