Term+Reflections

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**Term 3:**

French: This term we started learning French. Personally I find French a lot more enjoyable than Te Reo Maori. We started out with an overview of what we learnt which was great as a lot of us had forgotten. I felt I worked well in French and presented my work to the best of my ability. I enjoyed the activities; movies, presentations. I was really proud of the work I completed and am looking forward to next term.

Maths: I felt this term was good in terms of Maths. The units of work we did as a class helped me improve with my Gaps in my tests. I am finding Mathletics is a great tool to use and is helping me improve. I am making the time to do some work most nights so I will be able to improve when it comes to the assessments next term. The Fractions, Decimals and Percentages work we completed was a challenge but is definitely one of my stronger aspects. The next unit of work we did was measurement. This was great as I improved and have a better understanding of the work. My main goal is to practise over the holidays so I can improve next term.

Reading: This term in reading was quite eventful. We had another webquest which was a change from our usual activities. This gave a chance to co-operate and collaborate with people we don't usually work with and the outcome was great. I was team leader so I needed to guide my group and I felt I did this well. Novel studies was also another favourite of mine. I love reading novels so enjoyed this activity. I'm quite sure I've improved and my work shows this as well. Reading overall was great this term in my opinion.

Writing: We did various pieces of writing this term. We started off with response writing and I worked with Rosie for part of this. We were very proud of the work we did. We then had another assessment for exposition writing. I scored great and this so have definitely improved :) We then finished off with procedure writing. I'm quite happy with the work I completed for this part of writing. Overall I felt I improved the most in my writing. I have moved up to writing at Level5 so have achieved that goal. Writing was great this term and I am looking forward to next term's writing.

Topic: This term's topic was Us, Now and in the Future. We were focusing on our history, the town's history and our ancestory. This was actually an interesting topic as a lot of us had no idea about our history. We also had a class trip to Cobblestones as apart of this topic. There we learnt about our town's history. This topic was great and interesting. We also had another topic this term; The Rugby World Cup 2011. As it is being hosted in New Zealand it fit in quite nicely. The Georgian Rugby team was hosted in the Wairarapa so we had activities linked to that. We also had a mini inquiry to complete around the RWC. We got peer assessed on that. Overall the topics this term were enjoyable and we all learnt a lot.

Overall: I thought I had a FANTASTIC! term. The work we did was enjoyable and I felt I had improved in most of mys subjects. I completed the work to my best ability. I had heaps of fun this term with my friends which was awesome! I'm definitely making every day as a year 8 count as I only have one term left - very scary :P I'm enjoying this year so much and am putting 110 % into everything I do. I cannot wait until next term as we have VERY EXCITING things planned for us all. :)

**Term 2:**

Te Reo: This has been the last term fo Te Reo for 2011. We covered the shapes, months, days and added onto our conversations. We also had to present our mihis to the class. The shapes and colours were interesting as I had no prior knowledge on these. For our conversations we learnt to talk about our family, friends and our favourite things. The mihis were definitely interesting. I needed to research about my family. When it came to presenting I did well but had a minor mistake. I definitely felt that this term in Te Reo was worthwhile. Even though we didn't spend as much time on it we still learnt a lot. Hopefully we will continue to practice our Te Reo so we do not lose the information and skills. I thought that I am improving in Te Reo and am retaining a lot more of the information, even though it isn't my favourite language.

Maths: Later on we focused on Algebra. This includes: patterns, equations, coordinate graphs etc. To start this unit of work off we had an EasTTle Algebra Pretest so we can see where our gaps were. I scored a 5P in this which is very shocking to me. I had a slight understanding of some of the questions as I had done prior work on Algebra in Mathletics. We were going to do this test after the unit so we can see if we had improved. We worked with Mrs Stevens on some aspects and we were expected to do homework and work on various maths websites. I tried my hardest to work on my gaps though some aspects were extremely confusing so wasn't able to do that much. At the end of the unit I scored a 5A so have improved. I am extremely happy with this. I enjoyed the Algebra unit as I am able to work out the equations and it gave me a challenge. I thought I did extremely well in my Maths this term. I improved in the tests and really did strive for the best.

Reading: This term in Reading was amazing. We were involved in the Boy In The Striped Pyjamas webquest. This meant we needed to read the book by John Boyle. Once finished we were separated into groups within our reading group and completed parts of the webquest and presented it to the class. I felt that this webquest was fantastic. The book was a great read and the webquest was awesome as well. I learnt a lot of information about the holocaust. For a more detailed reflection visit my Literacy-Reading page. Once finished with this webquest we then moved onto reading reports. This tied in with our report writing we were currently doing. We then did some work on Fact and Opinion. The reading this term was great. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas work was definitely my favourite aspect. I loved the book, the movie, the webquest and the follow on Holocaust task. I hope we can do more webquests like these in the future. I thought I went well in the Reading this term. I scored well and enjoyed myself thoroughly. I felt that the work I completed was the best to my ability and will continue to do so.

Writing: This term we focused on Exposition/Speech and Reports. Our expositions could also be our speech but if not we had to write 1 of each. Our speeches had to be presented to the class as it is part of the region's annual speech competition. My speech went well and I made it to the second round in our school. My speech was on 'Positive Mental Attitude'. I enjoyed working on this speech as it gave me a new outlook on life. My exposition was alos interesting. It was relevant to my town and it was focused on teenagers. I scored well in this so am happy. Report writing was one of my favourite pieces of writing. I wrote mine on the iPad 2. This was interesting and fun. I scored my first 5 in this writing (5P) and am ecstatic. I will hopefully continue to score a 5 in my other pieces of writing. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this term's writing. It was fun and enjoyable. I can not wait until next term! I thought I went very well. The work I completed was in my opinion some of the best writing I had ever done.

Spelling: This term we completed the GAP test again and I scored 99/100. As Ella, Rosie and I are very advanced in our spelling we would use websites like: Knoword, VocabSushi and FreeRice. We also would go to a Junior Class and tutor a child on Maths and Reading during our spelling time. This is great and it definitely did test us. I thought I went well in the GAP test but am a little annoyed as I was 1 away from scoring 100. My goal is to score 100 as I am adamant that I can achieve it.

Topic/Inquiry: Our Term 2 topic was Our Living World. This focused on the human impact on the planet and how we can reduce that impact. We started off by doing the Umbrella Method. For for info on this visit my Topic Term 2 page. We then had our inquirys to complete. For more info, once again visit my Topic Term 2 page. I scored a 5P for my inquiry which I am very happy with. I thought the inquiry was challenging but enjoyable. I put in a lot of hard work and it showed in my score. I am making it my goal to try and skype an expert who is related to my inquiry when we next do them. I thought that this Topic was great. The options for inquiry were endless which was great. My score is the best I've ever got so am very pleased. The topic was very interesting and we were able to make it relevant to NZ and even our school.

Reflection: I thought that this term was absolutely AMAZING! I have improved in all of my tests and have thoroughly enjoyed all of the subjects. I have scored 5's in nearly every subject so I have definitely improved. It was a tough term with many obstacles to overcome. I had to put in a lot of extra time and effort so I could finish my tasks. The time management thing was huge and as I have other activities on I needed to become more organised. My netball has been going extremely well. Our team has been winning all of our games and I feel that I am becoming a better netballer. It is very tough being in this team but I know I need to put in the extra work if I want to help the team. In my swimming I am becoming a competitive swimmer so will be able to attend more swimming carnivals. The swim club I swim for is FANTASTIC! and is helping me improve in my swimming. I am really looking forward to this and will keep you updated. The opportunities that were available to us were magnificent! The NYLD was just amazing and it has made me think about my future and my leadership skills. Matariki (Maori New Year) was very moving and I am glad that I made the effort to attend. Cross Country was great as well. I placed 9th so am very happy and attended Inter-School for the first time. The SPCA made a visit and I thought it was fantastic. The presentation was very interesting and the speeches were great as well. I love animals so the whole experience definitely appealed to me :) Overall this term has been very busy, AWESOME and a really productive term. I can't wait until next term and what is instore for us! :D = = = = = = = Term 1: =

Te Reo: This Term I have enjoyed Te Reo. I enjoyed it more than I though I would. We have filmed our basic Te Reo conversations in our groups. This went well. I concentrated more and have retained more. I need to improve on introducing myself and others, months, days and colours.

Maths: this term I have definitely improved in my maths. I have scored well in all of my Maths tests. We started off with Place Value. This covered decimals etc. I scored 12/13 in the Place Value test and next time we do the test I aim to score a 13. Our class then focused on Statistics this term. this was fun as well as challenging. I have improved on my decimals and this showed in the ladder test. I know I need to improve on interpreting questions more accurately.

Reading: This Term I have thoroughly enjoyed our reading activities. The Fairytale Webquests was my favourite part. We also focused on Non Fiction Reading. To start this off we read about Long Finned Eels along with Stephanie Bowman. To read more about her visit my Reading and Visitors pages. We also did our Reading Activities on Armadillos and Snakes. This was fun even though we have already done Armadillos. SNakes was fascinating even though it was slightly scary!! I also scored well in my EasTTle Reading Test: 5P

Writing: Writing has included many parts this term. We started out with Writing Moderation tests. I scored well in these. We also did the 4 Pic Story and then the Mystery Writer task. For more information on this visit my Writing Page. We also focused on Recounts. To finish off we did Term Summaries. We did these on Pages and that was interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed using my creativity to make a Recount of Term 1 as well as making it appealing to the eye. To see this visit my Writing page.

Topic/Inqiury: Our Topic this term: My World and I was broken into 3 sections: Digital Learning, My World and Puberty. Digital Learning was great as it made us aware of the dangers of the internet. This was important as we have 1-1 Laptops. My World was about learning about our peer as even though you see them every day you don't actually know them. We did a mini inquiry on someone we didn't know very well. We hav just finished the Puberty work. Even though it was awkward and embarrassing I still learnt a lot from this. We did an inquiry and sent it to Mrs Stevens instead of an Oral Presentation.

Overall: This term has been FANTASTIC! I have a more positive attitude towards school and this is helping a lot. I can not wait until next Term!! :)