Evaluating myself and what I've learned.

 As we've learned about leadership, I also learnt about and improved myself. Such as how important communication is in a team and as a leader, whether that's through taking or actions. Learning how important communication is has improved my confidence, as I know how important it can be in a team to share your thought or even just start doing what's needed. 

In a team I also learnt more about how important caring for others and being willing to help is. I think actually thinking and talking about how important these skills are have made me improve them. Such as how I've became more willing to help, such as working at the fire works, along with how much I care about others in my team and what they say.

The biggest thing I've learnt about leadership over these weeks though is that anyone in any team can be a leader. You don't have to be in power or the loudest, you can lead with such simple and easy thing such as just doing what you think is the right thing, like helping someone out, by participating 100%, or even just following the rules properly.

In conclusion over these past couple of weeks and in Manukura in general I've really improved on what I know about being a leader. I learnt I don't always have to be the loudest to lead, I just need to do what I think is right. To me a leader is so many things, but a few key values and traits I think they all need are being caring, having integrity, communicating, being honest and finally being willing to take risks.

Manukura Pilot reflection writing

 This term I, along with a few other boys, started the Manukura Pilot class. This is a class with the goal to change the current way of learning for the better. So far three weeks in here are my thoughts.

I think this class is working very well, fulfilling every goal it set out to complete. The work seems more interesting and feels like it will actually be helpful when I’m older. Compared to learning about random subjects that have nothing to do with our future, we're learning about subjects such as leadership that would help us anywhere in life. As well Sam’s teaching style also helps me to understand the subject more since he talks to you as if it was an actual conversation instead of just telling you what to do. This lets you get more in depth with your questions being answered straight away and it's easy to be actively listening. Lastly this class makes you feel more in control of your learning. You get to choose what tasks you do and when you do them as long as you’ve completed them all by the set time frame. Additionally we’ve got a lot of input on rules and how this class runs.

 Though I don’t like how much time I have to do everything. We have a lot of time, which might seem good to some but for me it makes me do less work as I procrastinate a lot. Having heaps of time to do tasks slows down how much work I get done because I think I can do it later, and I don’t want to put all my effort into it. I also get bored of something after 2-3 hours working on the same subject. As well I think the work could be more targeted, as it feels less satisfying to complete work that's too easy or I haven’t put effort in to complete. 

Leadership qualities tournament

 Have you ever thought of the qualities someone needs to lead? and which ones of them are the most important? Today we had to answer these questions. First we had to think of 32 important leadership qualities, and start comparing them two at a time.

My inspiring leader

 This week in the Manukura class we had to make a slide show on a leader that inspires us. I chose a local leader who I know quite well, Caleb Smith. I chose him as he's a very good leader, being outgoing and social. Leadership positions he has been in our, captain of his football team, heads of school, Manukura GPS

My personality type.

 

In Manukura we are learning about who we are, so today we did the Disc Test which is a personality test.

My personality test is Stabiliser or SC meaning it's considered a steady personality but is really close to a 

conscientious personality.  I'm not that surprised by this result as I agree that I have all the strengths, 

such as even-tempered and cautious when making decisions. But I also have the weaknesses such as

being fairly reserved and desiring the same response from others.

Radio Show Learning Reflection

 Radio Show Learning Reflection

Recently I've been working on creating a radio show segment with a group of people, Bill, Lachie and Stanley. For this radio show segment we had to pick a subject which we talk about and then interview relevant people about it. Our group chose to talk about Manukura's plans to change learning. Manukura is a boys leadership group here at Otaki College, and they are planning on changing learning by running a class which is more controlled by you. You can listen here. 

I think our group did very well as we all contributed where we could and with what we are good at. Though we could have practised speaking skills more, as some parts felt awkward or robotic. 

I also think I contributed well to the group, as I wrote most of the script and helped with other little things. Next time I could be more willing to change my ideas when others disagree. My communication skills improved a bit through this activity as I thought about others ideas more, though I don't think I thought about them enough.

This was an interesting activity for learning but I would have liked to have more time for our radio show. Because I felt that it we had to squash things together and rush some parts.

My first essay

 This is my boy in striped pyjamas essay.

In John Boyne's novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, an important relationship is the one between Bruno and Shmuel. This relationship helped me to understand a key message, which is to never judge a book by its cover. The boys first meet when Bruno decides to go exploring where he was told not to, when he then comes across “a dot that became a speck that became a blob that became a figure that became a boy.” From this, their relationship starts at asking each other some simple questions and being confused about the other's problem to being best friends who will make sacrifices for each other.

When Bruno first sees Shmuel he does judge him, thinking he’s really different and weird. “Bruno was sure that he had never seen a skinnier or sadder boy in his life but decided that he had better talk to him." But he ignores this and talks to Shmuel, asking questions and even coming back other days. When talking to Shmuel not once does Bruno let his prior judgement get in his way by bringing the problems up, but instead asks questions and learns why Shmuel is skinny and sad. This ends up with them becoming best friends and making each other's problems a little smaller.

At first, the relationship between Bruno and Shmuel is confusing as they both have so many questions about each other's lives: 

'Where did you come from?' asked Shmuel,... 

'Berlin.'

'Where's that?'... 

 'It's in Germany, of course,' he said. 'Don't you come from Germany?'

'No, I'm from Poland,' said Shmuel. 

This quote is from when they first met and kept asking questions. It shows that they don’t know anything about each other but still care about each other's views and stories as they have so many differences even though they are so similar. This showed me that the best thing to do when you meet someone new is to view them as equal to you, asking questions about them and being honest about yourself.

Later, the relationship  is now developing into them being friends even though their views are sometimes the complete opposite. A quote to show this is: 

'There aren't any good soldiers,' said Shmuel.

'Of course there are,' said Bruno.

'Who?'

'Well, Father, for one,' said Bruno …

'There aren't any good soldiers,' repeated Shmuel.

'Except Father,' repeated Bruno.

Here Bruno and Shmuel have completely opposite views of soldiers but end up agreeing to disagree. This quote shows they really care for each other and don’t mind if the other disagrees with them. This helped me understand that everyone can have different views and that even if your views or opinions are different you can still get along. 

At the end of the novel, we see that their relationship is now developed into them being best friends, making sacrifices for each other and forgiving each other. 

When they go exploring in the camp things take a drastic turn for the worse, but Bruno sticks by his friend, “You're my best friend, Shmuel…My best friend for life." It shows that they’re now best friends, even though not too long ago they were complete strangers, living completely different lives and facing different problems with only their age in common. From this, I understood that you don’t really need anything in common to get along with someone, you just need to listen and be honest to them.

Through the novel, the relationship between Bruno and Shmuel develops from strangers asking about each other's mysterious lives to best friends making sacrifices to help the other however they can. This happened due to them having no one else to talk to, so they spent as much time as possible talking to each other. This relationship helped me understand a key message in the novel, that you don’t need to judge someone from first impressions, but instead ask questions and find out about them. In my opinion, this novel has a great way of showing that you can go from enemies to best friends, as long as you don’t judge the other party on what you’ve been told about them, and instead on what you have learnt of and seen of them. It shows this by Bruno being raised to think of Jews as lower than him and that they are not human, while Shmuel was treated as lower than human most of his life so he hated the soldiers and others who treated him that way. But they end up becoming best friends because they didn’t judge each other on what they were told.

Otaki college China day

Before the holidays the year 7 and 8s went round other classes in a rotation. Each class we went to was a different thing from china. There was calligraphy, kung fu, fan dancing, tai chi and music. First we did calligraphy which I found hard but practising made it easier to remember and write. Next we did fan dancing, which was surprisingly fun but still really challenging. With fan dancing there is lots of different fans and difficult moves. We managed to get half way through the dance but it was really fun. That was all for the first day.

The next day we started with music which taught us about the guzheng. We played Mary had a little lamb on the guzheng and started learning twinkle twinkle little star. but then we ran out of time. Next we had kung fu we got to see many chinese weapons (practice versions) and the teacher showed us some. Also to do with kung fu we practices a little routine with punches and jump kicks. This was also very fun since you got to see the weapons and how they're used. Finally we did tai chi which is all about your inner energy. this was pretty had to do since it required a lot of balance and flexibility. In the end we learnt a lot about china and things people do their, it was a fun two days.

Otaki Youth Centre

On Wednesday some members of the KCDC came to our class and set up 3 activities. These activities were to find out what our class and other kids would like in a youth centre. Each activity had a question and we would answer with sticky note, sticker and pictures. The class was split into 3 groups and we went to different activities. My group started at an activity where you placed a sticker where you wanted the youth centre to be. A lot of kids put the sticker next to their house. Then we moved on to a task were the question was 1 thing I need and 3 things I want, this required you to grab some slips of paper with pictures and put them in the boxes. If there was no slip for what you want you wrote it down on a stick note. Finally we had to write what we think would happen if there was a youth centre.

At the end we finished as a class doing an activity called blue sky dreaming. In this task you could write whatever you think Otaki needs on a sticky note, and attach it to a big piece of paper. This activity had so many crazy ideas that would be really fun. 

If there was a youth centre in Otaki I would hope for it to have areas that accept all different types of hobbies. Like arts and craft, gaming, sports, board games and cooking. also there could be fun activities to joke around with or have fun. Hopefully, it's easy to meet new people with no one bullying anyone. This will allow people to show there interests with friends and find new friends threw their interests. Also if weekly there were one or two new experiences` for people to try. I can't wait till it is finished.

Math statistics

 MNL have been learning about statistics in math, and we did an investigation about how many hours the students in MNL slept for on friday night. Here is my statistics slide.

Rocket test No.1

 This Thursday MNL went out for our first rocket test. The rules were that you can change the water level and the air pressure up to 60 psi. We were trying to test the best amount of water to add and the air pressure. The goal was to go as far and high as possible. My group was up first and we did 60 psi and 300mls. Here's how it went, 

It turned like most of the other rockets, but there were 2 or 3 that went well. Most of the rockets with less water did well  since there would have been less weight and more air. The one with 50 psi also did well since it wouldn't have gone out of control from the air coming out so fast. Here is my data table about the flights:

Here is a link.

Test flight No	Air pressure	Water amount mls	Notes
1.	60psi	300mls	Went up and did a u-turn.
2.	60psi	500mls	It went high but lost control and started flipping.
3.	60psi	700mls	Started straight but the wind pushed it so it turned.
4.	60psi	200mls	Went well then ran out of water losing its fuel
5.	60psi	150mls	Went great not catching any wind.
6.	50psi	400mls	It went high then the wind pushed it.

After the first 6 flights we put on these plastic fins, to add aerodynamics and stability. The fins helped dramatically doubling the furthest distance and height easily. After a few different attempts with fins we went back to class and had finished our first test.

 After our wind cars we our now starting to make boats, we had to make a diagram on our boats and here is mine. This is the base idea of what I want my sail boat to look like and how its going to work. I'm not to sure how I'm going to make it but I will try to. Here is my design.

Our Unique Wind Car

In the class people in groups of one to five and I was with Zach, we had to make wind cars with paper and card board as the base materials. Then you got three to five bottle caps for the wheels, skewers and straws then if you wanted anything else you asked Megan if you could bring it. After drawing a diagram and making an idea that wouldn't be copied, we started. The first thing we did was draw a sloth on the main paper for no reason. Next I made a big sail since we new we were going to have a big base. After the sail and main paper we made stilts so our car was taller than others. These were connected to the wheel through a straw on top of the wheel straw. The wheels are made by putting a skewer through two bottle caps and a straw, this allows the skewer to rotate around in the straw and the lids. Then you connect the straw to the base. I had trouble making the stilts stay in the same place since the hot glue had ran out, this meant I had to use tape. In the end the stilts ended up really good because them being kinda lose gave me a good angle and suspension. Here is my car and some races.

All about me

For our first blog post this year me and MNL are all doing all about me's. This was a cool activity and is cool to see what all the new kids in my class like. You can also find everyone's profiles on the MNL blog. Their was two that we had to complete and here are mine.

Our board portraits

Over the past few weeks me and my class have been making portraits, the steps to make this were confusing but necessary to make it so realistic and different. In this post I will tell you how to copy the steps and get a portrait like this.

My finished project

Here are the steps:

1. Find a board that you want to paint on and cover it in newspaper, lots of small bits is better than a few big bits.

For this step it takes its time but helps the paint stick so it is necessary.

2. When your glueing on newspaper you have to find 5 to 10 words and glue them on top of the news paper.

The reason for this is that you will always know that these words are inside of you even tho the paint will cover them up.

3. Now you cover up your newspaper with paint making it unique and your own.

For this step I did swirls with different colour schemes making it my own and different.

4. Next you grab your photo and cover the other side of the paper in black pastel. After you finish the pastel you place your photo onto the board and draw over the photo lines. 

Libby's parctice

With this you can practice on a random paper but then you do it on your board and you start to see your face.

5. Finally you paint over the pencil lines with black paint, and paint the background white adding in shapes if you want.

This part you picture really comes to life and you can be proud of your finished product.

For me something that went well was when i finished and i could see all the steps come together and make my potrait.

The most challenging part was painting the lines straight, i had a really shaky hand so this was hard.

SLJ The Chosen Power

 For  my first summer learning journey task I decided to do the three superpowers task. For this task you pick three superpowers that you would like to have and write the reason you would have them. Here are my three super powers...

1.  Super speed allowing me to have super speedy reflexes. Also I will be able to get to places super quick and catch some of the fastest things with my eyes. Also it will allow me to keep on top of things like learning because i will be able to read and write at  a fast pace.

2. Shape shifting allowing me to change and morph my body. This is a cool superpower because I will be able to become animals and be super flexible. 

3. The ability to control plants and grow them instantly. The reason is because this power can be really useful and cool if you have a good imagination. I would be able to create sculptures and tools easily allowing me to get out of most problems.

My camp animation

 Last week we had to do camp activities because the week before we went to camp. This post is about Cam's and my animation, it is about the time when Cam found blue penguins  and recorded a video on his phone. Here is our animation.

My Monkey Boy Activity

 Today we had to read a book from the library and a chose a book called Monkey Boy, we had three tasks which were 1. Write a description 2.  rate the book out of 10 3. design a new cover.

1. To me the book was about a boy who dreamed about being a pirate, but he had a power/curse ( im not to far into the book) to see ghosts/shadows. The captain of his boat is really mean and abused the men on the boat.

2. So far from what I've read I would rate this book a 7/10 because it has a lot of cool pictures and is an interesting story.

3. Here is the original book cover and my design.

My pepeha

 This term our class is learning about katiakitanga. We are going to be doing activities like testing the water in a local stream. Today we had make our pepeha, her is mine