Year 8 Challenges 2016

This is the video of all of the camps me and my class have done all year. It has been very fun doing these challenges and i hope i can do it again.

My debating this year

We just had our 6th class debate! The debate was great we found strong websites,with heaps of scholarly information. It was an awesome debate, everyone had a lot of information. At the start of the year when we started debating, I was nervous and I would be really quiet. Now when I'm debating I'm not so nervous. Now I can debate properly and find a lot of good websites to do research on.

Debating has taught me to : Use effective Google Search techniques, now I can find really good websites with scholarly information. I can get a lot of great info for my debate and help my team find some info too.

First time skiing

I first got to school really excited it was going to be the first time I ski once everyone was at school we got in the cars and left we were going to temple basin. Once we got there we put al our stuff on the goods lift to be taken to the top of the mountain then we went to the track to walk to the top of the mountain it was an hour walk but once we got higher we started seeing heaps of snow so we made snowballs and threw them at each other.  When we got to the top we had lunch and unpacked our stuff we got changed into our ski gear. After we got all our ski gear on we got some ski boots we put them on and then went outside and played on a big hill of snow then we got our skis on we started learning to ski I got the hang of it pretty quick started getting good at stopping by the end of the first day. the second day I started getting on my skis myself and was able to turn and stop I was able to start using the rope tow. The rope toe pulls you up so you can ski down without having to walk on the rope toe you can use a nut cracker or a glove cover to keep hold of the rope but if you don't use a nut cracker its harder and you can't go up as high. I started going higher and higher up and got really good a skiing. the third day was the last day I started using the nut crack and was getting the highest I ever got wth it made using the rope tow a lot easier. I would go right around a hill and the slow down and turn to go on the rope tow again. skiing was one of the best camps I've been on so far and I hope that I will ski again sometime.

Area of a triangle

got 100% on both of these concepts

someday workshop

100%

100% on my percentages

Week reflection T3 W2

This week we started a new debate topic on who's better batman or superman. I was picked to be on the batman team. I was so excited because I got in the team I wanted to be in I started watching some clips of movies and researched some facts about it. once I finish the debate I will upload it. I also did french on Wednesday and learnt how to read a clock in french and I made some facts about morocco that uploaded to my blog. I also started a new element on basketball so I was learning how to get better at shooting hoops.

Facts about Morocco with Cam

The red city is so hot you have to wear head protection and robes to cover your body even during winter and the temperature is 36 degrees as normal.

Morocco was once lead by the french until 1912 when sultan Mohammed became king.

Morocco has a population of 33,322,699.   

Morocco is the only country that is not part African union.   

100% on Equivalent fractions

I got 100% on Equivalent fractions.  Now i can start on a new topic

100% on lowest common multiple

Just got 100% on lowest common multiples on maths buddy. Now I can start on my next concept.

My goals for this year

The beginning of the year I was so excited about getting a Chromebook I thought it would be a better way to work.  The start of the year I was trying to get some goals set, like getting my writing as good as it could be
and to be better than before with all my work.  I can tell that I have improved since the start of this year till now. now my goals are to try the best I can to be ready for next year and be ready to start of high school. To stay focused and improve on my work making it BTB. My last goal is to get better using my Chromebook like typing faster and making my work look a lot better.  These are my three goals for the rest of this year.

Simplifying Fractions

Just got 100 % on my simplifying fractions.  Now I'm ready to start my next lesson.

Rafting

On Tuesday we left to go rafting at the Grey river when we got there we played some games and talked about the safety rules.  Once we got in the river we started paddling forward we got to our first rapid it was epic there were waves everywhere we even did a jump and landed it. We started going really fast I was at the front of the raft so when big waves hit us I got soaked it was awesome.  We got to a calm part of the river and some of us jumped out the raft, I jumped out of the raft the water was freezing. We got back in and we left for rapids again. This time, the waves were bigger and there were big holes in the water, we went in a hole and the whole raft got filled with water we got soaked. When we got to our campsite we set up our tents.  For dinner, my group made bacon burgers they were delicious.  At around 7 o'clock we played spotlight, Jayden was in and he was in a frog onesie.  I walked right past him and he didn't see me, I won that game.  After we had gone to bed me Calder and George had woke up at midnight thinking it was 7 o'clock in the morning it was so funny.  The next day we continued rafting, we went down heaps of rapids. It was an amazing experience going rafting and I hope to do it again.

Rock climbing and abseiling

On Friday for the element, we did Rock climbing and abseiling at Charleston.  On the trip there I was really excited about the rock climbing and a bit nervous about the abseiling.  We got there and started looking around we all got in a circle to listen to our instructors.  They gave us all a harness and a helmet we put them on and made sure they fit and the got in a square around one of our instructors and had a talk about the rock climbing then we started walking the track to the spot where we were doing it.  We got there and started practising how to abseil and how to set up the ropes for the abseiling.  When we finished that we went to start the rock climbing. I was fourth to do it.  When it was my go I was really excited at the start it was all about finding a place that you could start to climb easily I got to the middle of the wall and it got really hard  there was only one place you could get up and it was really thin I had to use my knee to get up there from there it was easy there were heaps of holes to use to get to the top.  once I got to the top I stood up I was so happy.  After that, we started doing abseiling when it was my turn I got hooked up to two ropes I was a little bit nervous.  I started going down it felt weird because I was walking down the side of a cliff once I had was off I went really fast and made to the bottom quickly it was really awesome. After that we had to go I was so happy and had so mutch fun I hope I can do it again sometime.    

Debate writing

Last week at school we did debates about the NZ education system being broken I was on the opposition so I thought it wasn't broken here my debate.

NZ’s education is not broken. according to OECD, new Zealand's school ranking is 17 out of 76 in the world so we are getting the very good education. According to BBC and OECD, There is a competition called Pisa program for international student assessment.  Every 3 years more than 60 countries come to do this competition so they're about half a million 15-year-olds that do this competition.

the test is run by OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) this competition also releases the rankings into a table that I was talking about earlier with our ranking We are 17! Out of 76 In the table, so our system must be working.  taking part in this competition costs 2 million dollars for New Zealand for only one round of this competition.  

New Zealand must be good otherwise, NZ wouldn't spend that amount of money on a competition that we would be terrible at.  The Pisa reports get broken down into averages below average at average and above average NZ is above average. That is why the opposition has won this debate.

After we finished our debate we put up the points and our team won so the opposition won the debate.

Gorilla killed At Zoo

            A four-year-old kid fell in a gorilla habitat at the zoo and was dragged around by a gorilla.
            the gorilla was shot dead to save the child.

My thoughts: They should have hade better fences at the zoo to make sure people didn't fall into the enclosers.  also, the parents should have been looking after their child instead of letting him get in there.
They only shot the gorilla because there was nothing else they could do.  they had to shoot it or the kid would have died.  they could have tried to do something else like tranquilise it but it might have taken to long. they couldn't take the risk of the kid diying so they shot it.    

Cross Country

French wanted poster

a while ago at school, we made some wanted posters in french.  I did my one about the Joker. First, I went on the web and translated some french words about the Joker.  I listened to what the word sounded like till i could say it.  Then I wrote the words into the poster here it is.

Editor writing

At school we have been making leters to the editor.  My leter was about changing greymouth to make it better.  heres my letter.

Dear Editor

Greymouth needs to change.  Right now Greymouth is just a small town like any other. What's going to make people come? We should be making Greymouth more exciting like getting new attractions and shops. We need get a proper museum and a little fun park like the one in Nelson Tahunanui,  it has bumper boats a water slide and a super slide.  Greymouth needs new shops we could even get a mall like in Christchurch.  We could get an EB games, Sony, Whitcoulls and Kmart this would help Greymouth improve with people coming to here to shop.  

Greymouth could get a lot more money if it got more interesting attractions for visitors, like Shantytown.  A lot more visitors would come here and be interested in doing new things.  Greymouth really needs new designs for some of the buildings.  The buildings have to be repainted and some of them can get paintings, like the train art in the tunnel.  We need to make Greymouth more colorful. Greymouth must get some little info booths that show you some cool things to do in Greymouth.  Surely we will be able to get some pamphlets about Greymouth in stores.  If we do these things Greymouth will get properly known in NZ instead of it being one of those tiny drive-through towns.

Joel          

Year 8 Student, Paroa School.     

Art

                                                           This is my post art/Face art

how to do addition of decimals

Addition of decimals

Today I have completed my work on addition of decimals I got 100% so now I can start on my next task

Face Art!

Troll Face

Doge

Multiplying fractions

The element #1 Cave stream

 Cave stream

When I arrived at school I was excited and ready for going caving at Cave stream.  We got into our cars and we were off to cave stream.  Once we got there we had some lunch and then got changed into our wetsuits. We all went to the middle of the car park and had a talk about the cave and the limestone around and inside the cave.  After the talk we left on the walk to the cave when we got to the cave Mr. SW went in and checked the water  he came back and said it was fine.  We all walked in the water it was freezing.  My feet started going numb till I couldn't feel them anymore.  There was a part where we all climbed up a wall turned our lights off and went silent.  There were side parts in the cave two of them were dead ends i went in both of them then there was a small one that connected back to the cave that most of us went through at the end of the cave there was a steel ladder at the top there was a chain that you hold while you crawl out of the cave.  After i was done in the cave i wanted to do it again it was really fun :) .      

100% on my Equivalent fractions

introducing room 8