Archive for June 2014

Skyping Gustavo


Skype in the classroom:

Gustavo Borges is a friend from Brazil, who had a lot to share about Brazil and the World Cup. The class seemed really excited about the World Cup and I thought it would be a good opportunity to meet someone who is Brazilian and could share about Brazil's mixed reaction to the World Cup.

What did we learn when we talked to Gustavo?

Not all Brazilians are good at football, but they still love it- Israel

"Some people really like the idea of it being in Brazil, but the taxpayers are having to pay for it. 
Some Brazilians aren't that concerned about the buildings being burnt down for the World Cup"- Otis

"People have been running out into the streets and protesting. One of the new stadiums being built is in the most remotest places in the Amazon, you can only get there by planes. They are not happy because it is so expensive." Jackson  

"They weren't happy because lots of poor peoples homes have been demolished." Annie.



Students will now follow a line of inquiry of their choosing into the world cup to produce their own graphs about the world cup.

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The World Cup In Numbers

Football vs. Football

One of the things that I love about teaching is constantly being challenged by students about why we are learning certain things. Obviously the World Cup is a great opportunity to see some of the world's greatest footballers showing their talent and encouraging students to value sports! But I feel that when asked "why are we learning this", the infographic above really helps to show why.

The world cup is really important to millions of people around the world.

Over the next two days, your job is to analyse the information in the videos below and the infographics in class, gather your own information from a class survey and create a graph.












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Maungatapu Murderers



What a great week! I loved this week because every student in the class was involved in some part of the making of the play, whether by making music in the band- at some point during the week Aimee, Kirsty, Georgie, Jahnaya, Samara and Brea were all involved in making music that they had, on Tuesday, never even thought about and through experimenting and working together they made something great. As far as music, they were working through some pretty complex ideas about building mood and texture with violins, xylophones, guitar, recorder and autoharp.

Also, what I loved about the play was how it was originally written by Annie and Layla and then reworked by Caleb and Finn to make it a bit longer and more substantive. Together they made something stronger.

The students that didn't get an opportunity to act in the play were involved by giving valuable feedback to the class about their performances and how to make the play better.

Ultimately, it was a highlight of the year so far for me as watching the class backstage was great because they were so happy and proud of themselves, as they should have been for a play they put together in a week. They showed hiranga- excellence and should be extremely proud.


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