Bye Bye Blog!

This post closes the Room Totara blog for 2009. There will be no further updates or responses to comments on this site.

Correspondence can be directed to heyheymrj@gmail.com

Thanks for reading!

Update to End-of-Term Homework

I just wanted to mention that I was absolutely blown away by the incredibly creative, diverse ideas and presentations in this term's final homework.
I have really enjoyed the homework you kids have submitted this year. I hope you continue to be creative in your work as your learning progresses.
Thanks, kids!

Final Homework for Term 3

Here it is, kids, the last Mr Jones homework ever! You know you'll miss it, if you're being honest with yourself...
Due to ski camp you have almost three weeks to complete this one, so give it a really good go, ok?

Ok, bye.

Term 3 Homework

This homework is due in on Friday the 21st of August.

Update: Due date extended to 24th August!

(Remember to do a 1/2 hour's reading over the weekend.)

Go for it!

Glogster

Check out www.glogster.com for a way to make high quality displays.
Handy for title pages, homework or just stretching yourself creatively!

1000 hits!

In the space of half a year we have had 1000 hits on our class blog. So what if about 300 of them have been me making adjustments - this is cause to celebrate!

We did this by eating fairy bread. It's hard to see all the hundreds and thousands in the video, but believe us - they were yummy!

Keep checking us out and we'll continue to do our best to keep you entertained and in the loop!

Mr J and the Room Totara kids.

Kids, I'm looking forward to seeing your ideas for NZ music we can learn in Term 3 to show our pride at being a new zealander.
As always, post in the comments section.

Researching and Reporting

If you are having trouble finding information in our school library post in the comments field below. Let me know what you are researching as specifically as possible so that I can go to the library and search for you.

I will make a visit to the library every week, and I will try to notify you of the times in advance.

Bula! from Chicky the Intrepid Chicken

Chicky rocking out at the Hard Rock Cafe in Port Denerau.

Chicky really enjoyed the waterslide, but had an aversion to actually getting wet.

Chicky has returned with a mean chicken tan from Tokariki Island in Fiji! Go, Chicky, go! Where will he turn up next?!

Last Homework of the Term. Sad.

I hope you can have some fun with this one, kids. It is due on the last day of term, so don't tarry overlong!

Caption Comp #2

Same rules as last time. You have one week.

Think about how you can create humour with your words. Every word you use is important.

Go for it!

Music Music Music!

Here is the post to talk about music. If you want to be in charge of our class singing for the week, post something in the comments. Or if you just want to make mention of some stuff you have heard recetly that you think is worth sharing you can do that too!

Remember to avoid songs with offensive language or lyrics, please!

Ask Laoshi Judy!

Maddy: The last samosa?! Noooooooo!

Laoshi Judy is choice. She knows heaps about lots of things: Hanyu, where to get yummy lollies and stickers (but you shouldn't eat the stickers) and she knows some German too!
Every week Laoshi Jud will teach us the pinyin and the characters for an English word that is contributed by you children. Post your ideas into the comments field, and she will have a look before class starts on a Wednesday and pick her favourite.
Remember it has to be a word that you can represented without using Yingguo and it should be something that you wouldn't expect to learn in Hanyu class normally.
I'm excited to see what you come up with!

The Further Adventures of Chicky the Intrepid Chicken

Chicky says hello.

Your friend and mine, Chicky the Intrepid Chicken, has recently returned from a wonderful trip to the UK, via Dubai. He saw lots of cool stuff on his trip.

I asked him this question: "Chicky, what was the best thing you saw on your recent trip?"
He said nothing, because he is a stuffed toy.

But I can tell when I look in his tiny, beady glass eyes that he is excited about his forthcoming trip to Fiji.

Go, Chicky, go!

Maddy and the Monsoon

Friday was a fun day wasn't it? I don't know whether it was the rain or the fog or the foggy rain that really set the scene for a day of singing. But when you're singing - especially when you're singing in another language - you need lyrics. And that meant someone had to go to the photocopier.

Enter The Maddy.

For those people keeping score at home:

Maddy 1 - Inclement Weather 0

We got our lyrics, sang our song, and got the girl and saved the universe (metaphorically)

Maddy, we salute you!

500 visits!

Pretty cool, huh?
Only about 180 of them are me doing updates...

Homework Link - Currency Converter

If you choose to buy anything internationally for your homework you will need to convert the cost into NZ dollars. The following site will do this for you. It is very easy to use:
www.xe.com



Cheap as chips!

Shared Lunch, Woop Woop!

It's a sad fact that Australa is always pinching stuff from New Zealand. And so it is with the delightul Mjah. She leaves us on Wednesday the 17th of June. On that day we will have a shared lunch and a bit of a party in her honour.
I want to coordinate this through the blog.
Please post in the comments what you intend to bring for our shared lunch. Before you post, check the comments before you to make sure you're not bringing the same thing. We need food that has a modicum of healthiness to it, something to drink and some treats.
We will miss you heaps, Mjah. Good luck in Australia.

New Class Book?

Any ideas for a new class book?
Ideally it should be one that would be enjoyable for the majority of the class, and not too long (<300 pages is best)






p.s. This book is too long, Twig. It would take us the rest of the year and part of next. Don't even try it! ;P

Homework - Week 7

This is the homework for the next two weeks. This homework is mandatory. That means you don't decide you would rather not do it. Get it done; you'll need to start collecting junk mail now or get into some shops in town to grab some fliers. And while you're doing this homework that you must do, have some fun with it! That is all.

Extra for experts: Continue to take part in all of the blog challenges, post story starters, answer questions, or anything else you can do to contribute through the blog. I will allocate housepoints to those seen to be making a significant extra effort.

Caption Comp #1

Let's practice our captioning!
This is a fairly common competition that is often run in magazines. All you do is take a picture of something happening and try to write a humorous caption for it. Easy!
A few obvious rules: no rude words, please, and nothing insulting to those in the photo.
3 house points and a lolly will be awarded for the funniest caption that still maintains the sense of the picture. This competition closes at the end of school on Friday the 12th of June. You may enter as many times as you wish.



Your caption should read like this:
Fraya: (some words)
Hunter (some words)

or you may wish to do
Hunter: (some words)
Fraya: (some words)

Don't forget those colons!
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Mr J out!

What's your Favourite Word Right Now!?

Mine is 'mittens'. I also like the words 'paradox' and 'tanuki'. :)
This post is magic: put your favourite word in and I will tell you if I agree that the word is cool or not. Easy!

I need HELP!!

In class we talked about wanting to know how to do different things on our blogs. This is the place where you should post any questions you have about how to operate your blog. Experts, I want you to come on here and see if you can help people out with their problems. For example, if someone asks a question about uploading a video and you are great at uploading video, see if you can explain the process.
Together we can do just about anything!

Find your Story Starters here!

Hi Kids,
Here it is, guys: want to share your best story starters with the world? This is the place!
Drop your idea into the comments field and share, share, share! House points will go to the best story starter of the week, as voted by you every Monday.
Show us what you've got!

Latest Homework - Get Excited!

I'm experimenting with putting homework on here as a picture. Fingers crossed!
(Mr J holds his breath)
Phew! It worked. Okay, if you're finding it hard to read you can make the sheet bigger by clicking on the picture above.
Have fun. Do your best. That's all you have to do. :)

P.s When you've finished your story, try putting it into wordle. It's fun to see what comes up and play around with the design.

Something you could try...

Have a go at putting a blog post (or you could even try your entire blog) into a wordle at www.wordle.net

What are the main words or ideas that occur in your blog?

Introducing Rocky, my Cyclops...

"Hi, my name is Rocky.
I am an actor by trade. You may have seen me in such films as 'Odysseus vs Rocky: the Final Battle 12','The Taming of the Rocky', or 'Bill and Rocky's Excellent Adventure.'
I have also done some stage work, including the well-reviewed 'Crazy Crayon and Monkey Maniac' in which reviewers said I was 'a revelation' and 'there'.
I like dancing, salmon, contact sports and shopping for eyes.
I have had an exciting life full of adventure and it's only just getting started! You're going to hear all about it. In fact, you're going to chronicle my adventures! Yay, chroniclers!
See you real soon."
- Rocky

Blog it up, kids

I want to link this post to the most interesting, most active, most exciting class blogs.

Any nominations? Post in the comments below, along with the reasons why you think that is the best class blog.
Note: A page full of games does not excite me. I want to see user-generated content (stuff that you have put together yourself).
May the best blog win!

House Points

Thursday is the day for counting up the week's house points. I have heard that when you reach 75 total house points for the year, something strange happens...

How do you gain house points? List all the ways you can think of gaining house points in the comments, so other students can chase those points and be part of the operation!

An Important Link

Follow this link to view the Kaharoa Kokako Trust website. You will need to familiarise yourself with the information on this site if you want to do a professional job on your design project.

http://www.kokako.org.nz/

Post in the comments when you have explored the site.

Communication: Focus Question #3

Final focus question for the latest run of homework. Thinking caps on! This one is all about you!
Why do you need to be a good communicator?
As always, post your answers in the comments section.

The Continuing Adventures of Chicky the Intrepid Chicken

As you know, our class mascot Chicky loves adventure and seeing new places.
Over the Term 1 holidays he checked out the big L&P bottlie in Paeroa with his friend Nat. P.
Where will he be spotted next?! Nobody knows!
If you are going somewhere choice anytime soon, leave a comment here and Chicky may come along for the ride with you.
Mr J out!

Perfect Attendance

Well done to the following Room Totara kids, who were here every day of Term 1, a massive effort!

Cameron F, Liam M, Nathaniel P, James R, Monte S.
Keziah H, Nicole P, Brianna B and Isobel H.

Great to see an even split of boys and girls! You beat Mr Jones who had one sick day last term! I am going for perfect attendance this term myself. Let's do it!

A reminder coming into the sniffles season: please remember if you are actually sick to stay home, as much for the rest of the class's sake as your own.


Arnie: Hey, kids, I am Arnie! You dominated the attendance target! Yus!

Keep Rotorua Beautiful Speech Competition

For those children who expressed an interest in competing in the Keep Rotorua Beautiful Annual Year 7 & 8 speech contest, I am publishing the information here. This means I can throw away the information that is cluttering up my desk! (Don't worry, I'll use a bin).

The Keep Rotorua Beautiful Committee has a great pleasure in inviting two of your students to take part in this year's event which will be held in the council chambers
on Tuesday 25th August at 7p.m. 2009
the subject this year "THE EFFECT OF NOISE POLLUTION ON OUR COMMUNITY" should provide some thought-provoking speeches.
Each contestant will have five minutes to deliver his/her speech to judges and audience.

Please let me know if you would like to be one of those two students. We won't be spending any time on this in class, but I am happy to listen to and advise you on your speeches. It's great practice for our West Speech Cup in the third term too!

Mr J out!

Communication: Focus Question #2

brown-haired boy asks tall blonde girl:
What is effective communication?
(In other words, what makes some communication better than other communication?)

Term 2 Homework

Homework for the digitally inclined:

Communication Homework Due: 11/05/09


 For this homework’s title page I want you to communicate the idea of what this homework without words, using pictures only. Create a cohesive scene that shows as many different ways of communication as you can (not just single images of things like telephones, please).
 NIE Newspaper: Read though your newspaper. These are the tasks that I expect you to complete in your newspaper: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 17, 18, and 19. If you do activity 19 first, you could get it signed off by me and go into the draw for a prize.
 Log on to our class blog, either at school or at home, and respond to one of the focus questions about communication. (There will be new focus questions added weekly)
 Interview a parent or older family friend about how they communicated with others when they were your age. We are going to see how communication has changed as a class since their time. Your parents should have a lot to say – I expect a page of writing from you at least. I will give 2HP to anyone who creates a permanent record by publishing their interview on their own blog page.

Have fun!

IT'S GO TIME!!

HI KIDS! HOPE YOU HAD A GOOD HOLIDAY! THIS TERM WE ARE STUDYING COMMUNICATION! WHY AM I YELLING?! I DON'T KNOW!

Ahem. Sorry about that.

Anyway: communication. I'm going to be posting some focus questions here on the blog. I want you to start thinking about these questions and posting your ideas in the comments page. This is one way in which we can communicate with each other. So... your first question is this:
In what ways do we communicate?
Let's see how many different answers we can post to this question! It's a very loose question, open to interpretation, isn't it? Don't think about answers as being right or wrong, just post your feelings in response to the question in the comments.

Ch-ch-changes

Followers now live at the bottom of the page, since there are so many of them.
And hey, if you're not a follower you should be!
Why? Here's why:

That is all. Mr J.

The Last Homework of Term 1!

For those of you playing at home, (which is, of course, the best place from which to play 'homework') here is the homework that will be due in before the holidays.

Inaugural Homework Due: 09/04/09
“Hi kids! Welcome back to homework. Yay! Unfortunately we had to lay off Mr Homework. He was getting a bit diva on it, making lavish demands. Please welcome… me! Ms Homework! I’m excited about this year’s homework. Are you? Sooo… remember to get your NIE newspaper, k? Also, unless your parents regularly get the newspaper, you’ll probably need to get a spare Daily Post from class to complete some of your newspaper activities. What does inaugural mean, anyway…?”

 Title page this time is “Homework 2009” Decorate the top half page as your title and stick your homework sheet in beneath it.
 Newspaper: Read though your newspaper. These are the tasks that I expect you to complete in your newspaper: 1-7, 9-11, 13, 15-18, 22, 26
Remember that you are welcome to do any task from your newspaper that is not listed above. In fact, if you are a homework “expert” then you should be thinking about ways you can challenge yourself. I will happily mark any extra work if you are happy to leave your book with me for an extra night or two.
 Gregor the Underlander is being made into a movie, and you have been asked to design the poster that will go up in cinemas to advertise it. You have been asked to include at least four main characters in your image, to try and make your image exciting by choosing an important part of the story to base your image on, and to use a strong, bold font for the title. I will select the five best for a poster showdown of epic proportions!

It's a fairly straightforward one to start you off. I'm really looking forward to seeing your movie posters! Have fun!
On another note, thanks to those kids that helped me try out the flip camera today. Hopefully we will get the chance to put some of our footage up on the blog site soon! Stay posted!
Mr J

Guess the Eye!

Room Totara have been looking at how the eye and parts of the brain work to change light into images we can recognise.
Can you guess whose incredible ocular interpreter we have here? It could be yours!
Stay tuned next time for a picture of a class member's brain ;P


Nicole is bug-eyed with excitement about the whole thing.

Welcome. So nice of you to come!

Okay, I see a few of you have already got yourselves logged on and set yourselves up as followers of the site.
Can you post a reply to this comment letting me know that you have been on the blog, please? If you're stuck for something to say you can answer this question: What is the coolest thing about you?
House points for the first few posters and the coolest overall comment.

The start, the start, the hardest part.

Hi Kids.
First task before we can get going with the blog is to create an account that is unique to you, that you can use to share your thoughts and opinions with.
You can do that either at this site www.blogger.com, or by creating a google mail account through www.google.co.nz
Remember that you never show your full name on the internet!
I would like all of you to have completed this process by the end of week 4 please.
If you have already completed this task and have your own login then congratulations, you have no homework for the next two weeks! I would expect you to help out the others if they need it, however.
Mr Jones