CELEBRATION - 1000 Blog Visitors!

New Zealand has just had school holidays for the last two weeks.  During this time we reached our 1000th visitor milestone.  It was a bit of a shame we weren't at school to celebrate but it definitely made for a fun first day of Term Two today.


In fact, by the time today arrived and Term Two began we had had just over 1100 visitors.

We celebrated in style with balloons, party poppers, and a special cake called a gateau.  We had candles with the digits '1000' on them.  Our most active bloggers got to blow the candles out while the rest of us popped the poppers.  Finally, we could tuck into the cake and lollies!

Do you have a ClustrMap on your blog?  What is the most remote country you've had a visit from?

What do you find encourages visitors to place a comment on your blog? 

Postcards - Hawke's Bay Style

Room 24 spent Term One inquiring into Culture and Identity.  We talked, discussed, reflected and explored and then discussed and reflected some more about what it means to come from a place, be from a place and be part of a particular group of people.


Our main focuses were what it means to be: Kiwis (that is New Zealanders), from Hawke's Bay (specifically Napier and Taradale), students at TIS, and members of Room 24.


All our discussions and time spent inquiring about our culture and identity resulted in us feeling really proud about who we are, where we come from and where we belong.


During our study, the opportunity arose for us to send postcards to B4 in the South Island.  We were excited about being able to showcase Napier and Taradale and chose to make our own postcards by photographing local places we either visit or think are neat tourist attractions.


We are really happy with our finished postcards and we hope B4 enjoy receiving them.

Have you ever received a postcard before?  

Where is the most interesting place you've received a postcard from?

Kaweka's Flash Mob ... in Video

Kia Ora to all you wonderful readers out there.  This is our FANTASTIC flash mob that you read about in our post last week.  A huge thanks must go to Mr English for the time he took to edit the video for us.  We're now convinced he's a die hard Kawekian!


We hope you all enjoy the video as much as we enjoyed performing.

After watching our flash mob, what 'dance and drama' ideas do have for your class, your team or your school?

Do you have any favourite songs that make people want to just get up and dance?

Student Blogging Challenge

Over the next eight weeks, Room 24 is involved the global STUDENT BLOGGING CHALLENGE.  


It's a marvelous opportunity for us to become familiar with the many aspects of blogging and, we think most importantly, to connect with other classes around the world.


We are in the second week of the ten week challenge.  Week One focused on "About Us" and Week Two asks us to share "About My Place".  The amazing thing is that these two weeks are fitting perfectly into our inquiry question for CULTURE & IDENTITY, "what makes us us and what's unique about ourselves as Room 24, students of TIS, from Hawke's Bay, and as Kiwis (New Zealanders)?" ... whew, what a big question!


So far in the Challenge, we've had comments on our blog from Ohio and Maryland as well as new visitors from around the globe.  Yesterday, we connected with Room 6, St Mary's School in Mosgiel, NZ, and Mrs Jundef's Tech Class in New Jersey, USA.  One of our class goals this year is to be involved in a global project with other classes from around the world, so Room 24 sees this as the first step in achieving our goal.


The Student Blogging Challenge has been on the go since 2008 and runs biannually in March and September, so if you're not involved in the March challenge we really encourage you to enter the one beginning in September. 

Have you connected with other classes from within your country or around the world?

What global projects have you been involved in, if any?  And what are the benefits of global projects?

Have you any ideas or plans for future global connections?

Kaweka Flash Mob

At our last Kaweka team assembly, Room 5 surprised us all with a flash mob.  They performed it to the song, Everything's Gonna Be Alright by the Babysitter Circus.  We all thought the flash mob was FANTASTIC so the Kaweka teachers decided it would be a brilliant idea for our students to 'flash mob' the rest of the school.


We used the same song and same choreography and yesterday Room 5 led the way in the flash mob.  We had so much fun and it was definitely a success!  Who knows what will happen next ...


An enormous thanks to Ms Brooks and Room 5 for the inspiration and talent you showed!  Also, thanks to Kate (whose arm is out of action) for taking some TERRIFIC shots.

Have you ever been involved in an outdoor performance?  If so, what was it?

What other performances or events do you think our Kaweka learning team could plan in future?

Quad Blogging Round One

Quad blogging provides a fantastic opportunity for four classes from around the world to connect with each other.  We'll collaborate with each other through our class blogs.  


Quad blogging works on a rotation.  Each week one class takes the spotlight and they will have a large audience viewing and responding to learning they've shared and activities they've posted on their blog.  For the three weeks a class isn't the focus blog they'll be looking at a different class blog each week and commenting on and responding to that class's learning.  


The great thing about quad blogging is that we can improve our literacy skills and our thinking skills, share our learning with a global audience, and make new friends.  This term we will be blogging with  The International School of Toulouse in France, Texas and World Discoveries in Texas, USA, and another class in the United Kingdom.

Highlands, UK

You can see quad blogging at it's very best by checking out these 2011 quad blog classes below (click on the name under each picture).  In the short time that I've been exploring blogging, I've learned so much from how these classes blog and the way they interact with each other.  They didn't just quad blog - they also worked on global projects together.  Some of the teachers in this quad have even collaborated through blogging for several years now!

Mr Salsich's class

Mrs Yollis' class

Mrs McKenzie's class

Mrs Morris' & Miss Jordan's class

We will be learning about blogging by looking at these and other quality blogs more closely.

What do you think of quad blogging?

What do you think we can share from our class, Hawke's Bay and New Zealand?

Did you find out how old the students from the 2011 quad are?

How can we ensure we reach the high standards they consistently display?