Lets celebrate in Rm 2

 Yes! we have successfully made it to the 2nd week at Level 3 lockdown and now preparing 'fingers & toes crossed' we get to return back to school on Monday 👽  The last 2 weeks have been awesome because you get to reflect on what and where things are going in your practise and how you can improve.  My highlight would be hanging out with my students via google meets and checking in with their learning and wellbeing.  We have had some awesome hangouts - with this mornings one in particular. I thought since we have gone 2 weeks in lockdown lets end it with a class party. The theme: wacky, crazy, weird, odd outfit or hairstyle. There were a few of us that braved the moment and turned up as a construction worker 👌 Aloha Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland 😍 Masked Ninja 💪 Crazy teacher 👅 and the Lady in Red 👋  We had a briefing from our Senior Management team about what to expect heading back to school next week and their updates have been invaluable to Room 2.  Enjoy the pics/vids  👀

Civil Rights Leaders 'Sketch'

A few examples students CREATE 'Sketch of their chosen Civil Rights Leader - Super impressed with these students effort in their sketch work.  Sketches include: 
Rosa Parks: 4.2.1913 - 24.10.2005
  Martin Luther King Jnr: 15.1.1929 - 4.4.1968
 Nelson Mandela: 18.7.1918 - 5.12.2013

Inquiry Presentations - Civil Rights Leaders 'Resilience'

So it started with an incident on the other side of the world which generated much conversation amongst Room 2 students.  'George Floyd' was the hot topic in our class and it was very clear that my students had formed their own opinions on the devastating incident which has now become globally recognised.  What we also noticed is the changes that are happening internationally with companies/organisations changing some of their business marketing in fear or being accused of discrimination or racism (where the conversation started from).   It was interesting to hear the types of authentic emotions that were being presented by my students and how passionate they were at what is happening outside of the world they know (home, community, school) Being exposed to what is happening around the world raised a few conversations starters - here is examples of brainstorms/new words that we did as a whole class to generate thought provoking discussions/debates/connections.

Super proud of the effort put into the presentations and the conversations had around the new knowledge that was being discovered.  We learnt so many new words as a class and were able to use those words during discussion times - also in our presentations.  A few pictures of Rm 2 presenting their inquiries in class.  Q & A's at the end also a Kahoot (Windsor won lol) Really cool quote that concluded Sofaia's presentation:

'A riot is the language of the unheard - Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.  Darkness can not drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate can not drive out hate, only love can do that'.

Lockdown Return

LOL (Lockdown Online) has come to a grinding halt for most of us and we are now preparing to return back to the comforts of our classrooms - what these will look like will be the same as when we suddenly gapped our rooms that final day after the Level 4 announcement.  The only difference will be the array of sanitation stations in Room 2 (mini sanitiser bottles, reminder stickers on each learning table), visual displays alert to safe hygiene practises and reminders to wash, sanitise, wash, sanitise...........
Week 6 return and only 5 students - and very much greatful to those 5 students who returned ready and willing to share their lockdown narratives with me.  Although some continued at home for various reasons, Room 2 were ready rock n roll.  The week was full of PB4L - role playing, fun systems, team building, laughter, popcorn popping and our very own school DJ was in the mix jamming a range of sounds at morning tea/lunch time. Super Duper proud of our students and their resilience to rise above the 8 weeks of lockdown - and now we have entered into Level 1 as of Monday 11.59pm 💛.  Massive thank you to our families for trusting in our systems set in place so that your children can come back to school.  Hi Five to the MOE (Ministry of Education) for the devices and hard packs that our students received also.  Bring on the last legs of this term. 

Getting digital savvy - struggle is real 👀

Google class sites, google docs, google extensions, google classrooms, screencastify & blogging to name a few!!!! These cool tools have become my bestest friends during this lockdown (they were before) but much more appreciated since we went into Lockdown.  Even now the saying 'work in progress' is real.  So with the many digital PLD opportunities that I have attended I still need to refresh, remind and review what I am doing over and over and over again, for example - changing the access when sharing videos for others to see - the excitement was high when uploading the video, until you get that dreaded email 'jenny is requesting access' 😕 a few times I have received these emails (most recent yesterday) or my wonderful students airing out their teachers laundry 'Miss I cant access the doc 👀'.
I made these videos (image only below) for my students (and parents) to be able to navigate our class site during the lockdown.  So confident until..........you know what comes next 😯.  Until next time I will be vigilant and check check check.  #Screencastify #free

Customizing Fun

Day 5 of Level 3 lockdown and I though I would share my excitement in customising my Blog Page👌 and it was supercool & fun to take it from semi bland to a great representation of my personality and character - bold, bright and bubbly 👅.  Here's a snippet - absolutely in love with all the customising options.  Pop in and check out my new look and drop a comment while your here. #Windsor

Well - 1st week of Level 3 lockdown, done and dusted and I survived although it was a very short week.  Got to hangout with my awesome class where we focussed on navigating through our class site so that we were all on the same page and each member knew where to go to access their learning.  I created 4 videos using sreencastify (this was because its the free version 5minutes max) 'gummon screencastify' 😌 still greatful to SCREENCASTIFY.

Another great catch up with my students and always looking forward to the next hangout - awesome to have other teachers join our hangouts.  Each hangout comes with a different narrative from my students - whether it relates to boredom/younger siblings/missing friends or just an outlet to reset I have learnt so much about them and myself during this whole lockdown/online distant learning experience - even better no one has had to use their WITS and no WALL OF OPPORTUNITIES have happened (we must do doing something right Rm 2)

 One of the really cool foci in our planning this week is to learn some NZSL. So that challenge has been set by next Fridays hangout each student will sign their first and last name using NZSL - so watch this space. Enjoy the weekend...........Oh yeah shot to the winning house this week.

Tik Tok Challenge

Pinch and a Punch for the first of the month - Hey Hey TGIF 👀👀👀.  So lockdown mode is going great even though I miss my class and my students - we are rolling along as best we can in our bubbles.  Not sure about you but the craze or thang at the moment to be doing is TIK TOK 👅  so one of Rm 2's PB4L challenges was to create a TIK TOK video of themselves or with family members - here is my super brave students who sent in their videos.  Not forgetting the teachers were also challenged to do the same (you will find our video up on our school facebook site 😅 (I invite you to go onto our facebook school page watch our video and chuck us a like 😊 please 😩.  Because I could some shannigan videos were also created under lockdown (some undercover) 😳 featuring me and Mr Haioti - the day of creating my videos was when I discovered PhotoBooth has special effects (I know WIP is ongoing for me). But all in all enjoy and have a laugh - lots of bravery has gone into posting these.......Take care until next post 😎

Lockdown Norm in the Haioti Bubble

Fakalofa atu everyone,

Hope we are all well despite the circumstances we are currently experiencing.  Special shout out to all our Wesley Intermediate students and their families during this time especially my wonderful students in the bestest class 'Room 2'.

Now term 2 has started we have kicked off with a 'SONIC BOOM' in Rm 2 virtually using Google Hangouts (1 of many pics of our hangout sessions).  Bit wibbly wobbly to start with trying to join a class or just even finding the link 

(all thanks must go to the teacher of Rm 2 who forgot to share the link 👀 )

After watching a few support videos (thank you FB teachers page) we got there in the end and now both teacher and students are Pro-freshional in the Google Hangout business. 

Not only have I had the enjoyment of hanging out with a swagg bunch of students - teachers get to Hangout too (over a fizzy bubbly) 😬  we have had Team meetings, TOD and the favourable 'HAPPY HOUR FRIDAYS' connecting with other staff.  Challenges for those vital house points are a fave & rave so house challenges are a must!!! We fight hard **literally** for our house points 😃

School has also started this week on Wednesday and so greatful to our SLT for holding down the fort at school with 5 of our students in attendance - so thats 1 bubble currently active at Wesley Intermediate. Shout out to Miss Siaoloa and Mr Tafea for keeping the team updated on the fun they are all having in their school bubble: photos are from today (Friday 1st of May) students enjoying a nice hot meal during break time - please note the 1metre distancing happening, woop woop!!!! Well thats it from me for now - take care in your bubbles until next post.  Koe kia 👌