Currently: August

Term 2 Classroom

I pride myself in what my classroom looks like, I spend hours finding and creating resources/lessons. I like to have students work up and around and best of all I like to keep our environment exciting and engaging. Check out my classroom from last term. 

Term 2

Focus:

Maths - Statistics

Science - Science Fair

Writing - Formal Texts (Explanation, Procedural & Instructional)

Reading - Stormbreaker, Reading related to Science Fair (e.g - Reports and data)

Maori & PB4L - Manaakitanga

P.E. - Cross Country

Portraits

Check out this awesome art idea!

Once again got this amazing idea from Ms. Lopez in the Art Room.

I love art! I wish I could do art all day everyday. We are currently in the middle of a forensics unit, we have looked at collecting evidence and witness reports. Part of witness reports was being aware of all the different facial features (scars, dimples, widows peak, darwin ears, freckles, eye colour etc...). We brainstormed what all of these were and then the students conducted a witness report on a buddy that they could only look at for two minutes.

I thought a fun way to examine our own facial features would be to draw ourselves, of course I got an almost unanimous groan of 'I can't draw faces, this is going to be so hard' and boy oh boy did they surprise themselves. They turned out amazing, so amazing that lots of other teachers have come into our class to check them out and are in the process of creating their own!

Some students since being finished have critqued their own art and mentioned things they would do differently next time and when they stepped away and saw their finished piece of realized that some of missed key features. I am thinking about having them draw a celebrity or a friend towards the end of term for their portfolios (I will not be ready to part with their art at the end of term, I am just too proud of it).

*Apologies for the glare, they are all laminated very hard to capture 

Creating the City of Ember within Minecraft

My class is currently making the 'City of Ember' within Minecraft. In a previous post I discussed how the class was putting together a 3D mural on our class novel 'City of Ember' and that they all had assigned jobs. I wanted to one up this and create a virtual Ember (which I think is awesome!).

As I learn more and more about Minecraft I am keen to experiment with my students making the complete city. One of the students has some mods on his person/account (I am still learning all about this stuff) and was able to quickly carve out the expansive cave we would need for our large underground city. He then set some beacons and taught the class how to find out where the entrance to the secret cave was. This was a real treat, I was able to see this boy become the teacher and all the other students want his help, attention and approval.

The discussions my students were having about depth, volume, working together, design and layout was unreal. The language they were using and the way they were supporting each other was great to see. The students are using the method of trial and error to explore and create in this cube filled world.

Students have been ensuring that they are following the protocols we have set zs a class and are writing up tips and tricks on the board to help others along the way, such as 'If your computer is lagging click esc, then options, then video settings and change the distance to normal'. About half my class are experienced players and the other half like myself have no idea whats going on and are just running around clicking everywhere.

Students had to have a finished exterior for their buildings. They will in future be working on the interior of their buildings as we read further on. So much for reading chapter 10 today we are way to engaged in this new exciting experiment.

Class Reflection 

Pros:

• Everyone was involved
• No one griefed
• Learnt how to build and destroy
• If you make a mistake it is easily fixable
• Learnt about the items (e.g. - Glow stone)
• Had a big area carved out underground for creating, there was room for everyone
• We can take screenshots of our creations and blog them
• Everyone had fun
• We buried the teacher (this was the highlight of the afternoon, digging a hole under me and then put a roof on it so I was stuck, we had some laughs about this one)

Cons

• Some people didn't know how to play, spend a lot of time peer teaching 
• People can accidentally ruin your buildings when they don't realize you are creating something in that space
• Its annoying when you keep falling down the holes people have made
• Potions!