Ambassador -Television

In 2010 I have been an ambassador for Pt England School. My role has been to talk about my learning to hundreds of visitors who have come to our school from all over the country and around the world.


This video shows you what I had to say about how Television and other screens help us learn.

Selena - television from KPE TV on Vimeo.

This is the transcript of my presentation:

"One of the ways we share our learning at Pt England School is through television. Mr Burt set this up in 1996, so you can work out that we have been doing this for a long time now - fourteen years in fact!

The Pt England News network goes to air 4 days a week and each episode is about 10 minutes long. We remind the school about the events of the day, the UV rating and what has been happening in sport around Pt England, New Zealand and the World!

But most importantly, every day a class gets to tell the whole school about what they have been learning. Every class is timetabled to have the opportunity at least once a term to make a movie for PENN about the learning going on in the class. This is given to the PENN production team so they can include it in the programme for the day. Because of this, every student at Pt England has the chance to be on PENN at least once a term.

The Production team for PENN is managed by Mrs Tele'a. Behind the scenes she has a small team of Year 7 students who produce the show each day. They will tell you more about what they do if you visit the elearning Centre. She also has a small camera crew of Year 6 students who film the content.

In front of the camera there is a larger group of Year 5 and 6 students who anchor the show. These presenters are timetabled on for a week at a time.
The entire crew has to be at school at 8 oclock in the morning so we can get PENN recorded and edited by the time school starts at ten to nine.

In 2001 Mr Burt had the great idea of sharing our learning with our community via public television and so schoolTV was born. At 5.45 every Wednesday our whanau can sit back in their own comfortable chairs at home and watch the highlights of the week from PENN. Mrs Tele'a produces and edits this show before it goes to air on Triangle Television.
This is an Auckland based channel, but if you have FreeView you can see it anywhere in New Zealand.

We also enjoy creating movies for the big screen. We have film festivals, multi media productions and other events where we can create special movies that showcase our technical and acting talents as well as our learning.

And you may have noticed in our foyer that we share our learning on a different type of screen again. This is Campus Channel where we can upload our television content over the internet and add up-to-date messages for everyone to read using a feed from Twitter.

I think that publishing on all these different types of screens helps us learn how to be confident."

Minister Heatley speaking to us after we gave our presentation.

Minister of Housing, Phil Heatley, was one of the people we presented to this year.

Insect comparisons

..." And over here is my comparison to a Commonwealth game winner, Nicole Forrester". This is my display comparing a little critter to a champion in the Commonwealth games. If you don't know who she is, let me explain:

1. She won the gold medal in high jump.

2. She comes from Canada.

3. She is the best High jumper in Canada.

I think I have told you enough. If you want to find out more about her watch my brilliant movie. Enjoy!!

Cemetery blues

'' Sniff Sniff ". We had arrived at the Graveyard. I could feel tears forming in my eyes. The sky was in dark, grey clouds , it had been spitting. The gloomy weather had made me feel really depressed. My stomach was lurching , contributing to the feeling I had about being at a Graveyard.

" Squelch Squelch ". I could feel and hear the mud squelching in between my toes , as I looked at the graves. Some were covered in flowers and toys and some had huge tombstones. I looked across the cemetery towards my Nana' s grave , and realised I wasn't the only one that was feeling emotions like sadness and loneliness.

As I was fixing the flowers on her grave , I could hear my Mum whispering a little prayer and crying at the same time. In my mind memories of my grandmother kept repeating over and over again. Then tears began rolling down my cheeks ,like a rushing waterfall. It felt like my heart was going to stop, that is how painful it was. It was hard having someone in your family pass away.

After a while we had to leave. Then later on something strange happened. The dark, grey clouds parted and revealed some sunshine, but the weird thing was that it was spitting as well. My Mum said that my Nana might be looking down on us and smiling and crying at the same time.

As we drove away from the cemetery, her Grave was growing distant. I felt pain on the outside , , but in my heart I know she is happy and out of pain.

Cross Country

“Boom ....Boom” My heart skipped a beat when I heard the shocking announcement. It was Cross - Country. Butterflies started fluttering in my stomach because I didn’t want to run. Then I knew that Mr Burt had set up an Ambush, I assumed that the teachers knew , but some teachers hesitated. “ Oh no, here we go again.

I forced myself to sit behind my fellow competitors,It was a freezing day, which didn’t help at all. Then there was another horrible report from Mr Burt : “ Today, Cross - Country isn’ t going to be as long as usual so the oldest are going first”. My heart dropped that means me. “How am I going to survive the race” I moaned.

I reluctantly dragged my legs to the start line , I felt something fluttering in my stomach and I knew that they were butterflies. The butterflies started flapping like crazy.”Take your mark “ shouted Mr Burt. I was doomed. “ Get set”. “Oh no”. “BANG”. All of my competitors zoomed past me.

My heart was pounding wildly , while my legs were going through excruciating pain. My throat was so sore that I had to swallow saliva every 3 seconds. I could feel and hear the mud squelching, in between my toes. I kept saying to myself “ Keep jogging, you can make it”. The pain was growing tense, I thought I was going to collapse right on the ground.

Mid-way through the course I was already wheezing. I saw 4 people in front of me. 2 were boys and 2 were girls. I tried to do a little spurt, but that made no difference. As I passed the teachers they all said positive things to me like “keep going” or “finish this”. That really helped a lot ( I think ).

The finish line was a few steps away, I was desperate to finish. Everyone on the sideline was cheering especially Miss King cause she wanted Tainui to win. She shouted “ Sprint Selena Sprint” . So I listened to her and ... BAM. I finished the race , I was proud because I came 3rd.

After that horrible experience was over, I ran straight to the tap and drank all of the water I could. My throat was filled with glorious water, and now it was soothed. I went and sat down slowly since my legs were aching. The most fun part of the day was when I crossed the finish line and came third. I was surprised because I thought I would have never survived this race.

Polynesian settlers

Polynesians were the first people to populate New Zealand

over 1000 years ago.These people came by canoe from

East Polynesia. Their canoes that they brought to Aotearoa were made

from Wooden Planks.

Some of these wooden waka had an

outrigger or it was double hulled.

In the canoes these were trained Navigators who steered the

boat in the right direction

using:

1. The stars at night.

2. The Swells in the sea.

They also kept a lookout for signs

that land was near, for example, they

looked for birds that were feeding in the sea.

Not all of these brave sailors

made it to New Zealand.

Tarawera Expedition

On a beautiful morning, tourists were making there way to see the Pink and White terraces. Then out of the fog came a omen waka ( boat ) with 8 warriors in it. Some Maori people thought it was a sign of bad luck.

9 days later, the ground began to shake and rumble, then suddenly BOOM!!!. Mount Tarawera erupted leaving behind it's mark which was a crack as long as 17 kilometres. The most terrible thing was that it destroyed the world-wide famous Pink and White Terraces. It was really important because it was one of the Great Wonders of the world.

The year 5 and 6 extension group have finished Their spectacular project. Over here you can see that this is my mini animation. It gives you a bit of information about the devastating disaster. So sit back and enjoy.

If you want to see the next part of this movie , click on this hyperlink:

http://www.pesalat.blogspot.com/

Ala has made the next part of our story.

Criminal Massacre Part 1

25th August 11:00 am

" What happened" said Jimmy. He was panting heavily. He was trying to remember what happened in the last few minutes. The dream he just had was horrifying.

26th August 7:30 pm

28th of August keeps rushing through my mind. I rushed to the calender and wrote on the 28th of August:

Possible death date- 9:00 pm.

Suddenly the T.V turned off. Then I realised that the power died out, so I rushed to the phone. Dang, the mainline was dead. It was pitch black in my house. Just then I remembered about the strange dream that I had. I knew that my possible death date was creeping closer.

27th August 8:15pm

" Breaking news" roared the T.V. "A criminal is on the loose". As soon as I heard that I stuck my eyes to the T.V. I couldn't take my eyes off it. " The criminals name is Mad Sammy. He is a phsyco who recently got released from the mental hospital"." Why is this happening to me" I moaned.

28th August 7:00am

I woke up with a startle. I have had the same dream over and over again. My eyes were hanging out of their eye sockets. I was thinking about what would happen if I ran away. Would my dream still come true or is someone just trying to scare me.

28th August 9:00 pm

I gotta get home. It was growing darker and darker as I ran. "Thump Thump". I froze in fright. "Thump". Please this is not happening to me. My heart was pumping with fright. " Thump Thump .... "AAAAAA" screamed Jimmy. " Bingo " said Mad Sammy. " I wished for 1 person to kill and I get my wish". His scissors were dripping with blood. He proudly strode off into the darkness with a chuckle.

To Be continued ......

Another round of ROW completed!!!

Another round of ROW* has been finished off with a celebration and it was AWESOME!!! We were learning about the three steps in life and how we could have a better future. So I have written a reflection of what I had done and what I could have improved on.

* ROW was an online celebration. This is when people all around the world talk to each other about life. This round was about the three steps in life. We met the head NIKE shoe designer.






Reflection

1. What did I do well?
I think I did well on the ad because it was tricky but, we made it and from my point of view I think we did very well.



2. How could I have improved on what I did?
I could have taken some bits and I could have recorded longer so it would have been better.


Brick wall

3. What held you back from doing a better job?
I think that the boys on my team kept on mucking around a bit.



4. List down some ways that you could have solved it:
1. I think I could have taken charge since I was the group leader, and told them to stop mucking around so we could have gotten the movie finished.
2. I could have told the teacher to see if I could have changed my group.

Purpose

1. To talk to people all around the world about their problems and inquires.
2. To show how you feel and how you express your feelings by drawing the shoe.
3. To explain problems about how the world has changed.
4. To learn about how to succeed in life.
5. To share with the world what you think about ROW.

Podcasting "Black Water"

"Black Water" by Eve Bunting

This is what the publishers say about the book:
"Thirteen-year-old Brodie Lynch was ready for the perfect summer of adventure along the awesome Blackwater River. That was before everything changed forever. When a harmless prank goes too far, the unthinkable happens. Brodie's lies make him a hero, but inside, his guilt tears at him like the treacherous current of the Blackwater itself, which has become a horrifying reminder of his part in the tragedy. In this gripping new coming-of-age novel, a young boy is faced with a choice between right and wrong and ultimately learns that truth can offer hope in even the darkest moments."

Podcasting "Crash" by William Taylor

My latest podcast for KPE is with Ala and we discuss "Crash" by William Taylor.

Improvements

When we watched a video about shoes and they were only second graders and we think that they explained it more than us.So we think we need to improve on these things:

1. We need to Communicate with each other properly without making our own ideas, without discussing it with our group.

2. We have to listen to the person who is in charge and leading the idea.

3.We need to put in more detail into our movie.

4.We need to explain more about why the shoe is good to wear.

5. Our group needs to be more focused of what we are doing.

6. I think we should have added the WOW logo on our T-Shirt and shoe.

That is all I have to say.

Thank you.

"This term is going to be awesome". It was the first day of school and guess what we are learning about? Our topic is called Active earth. It is about active volcanoes. Some keywords are fault line, tectonic plates,earthquake and pumice.

Do you know how a volcano erupts? Well the magma inside the mantle struggles to get out so it goes out in the cracks.

Here are some facts to get you started:

1:Did you know that the biggest volcano in the universe is on Mars.

2: Did you know that a volcano on the coast of Italy erupts every 20 minutes! It is known as the Mediterranean Lighthouse.

3: Every year 20 to 30 volcanoes erupt.

4:Mauna Loa (a Hawaiian volcano) Hawaii is the largest live volcano on earth. One eruption lasted one and a half years.

5: Did you know that volcanoes are named after the Greek god named Vulcan. He was the roman god of Fire and Metalwork.

6:Mount St Helens is 4,500 years old-young for a volcano.

7:Tsunami is Japanese for wave breaking in the harbour.

8: The worlds newest Island appeared near Tonga in 1995.

9: Most of the worlds volcanoes are under the sea.

10:The Romans believed that spas had healing powers.

11: There are no volcanoes at all in Australia.

12: To keep Volcanoes Dormant the Aztecs fed them women.

13: The volcanoes on Venus may still be active.

Thank you for letting me use your image. http://www.catravelservices.com/management/tours/pictures/Tour-ArenalVolcano.jpg

Volcanoes.

Selena.

The end of the term is coming up, so to fill you in on everything here are some of my highlights.

Highlight 1:

My first highlight of term is talking to the famous Nike shoe designer D'Wayne Edwards. He told us his life story and he became part of the NIKE shoe cooperation. He talked about how people didn't believe in him , but that was kind of a good thing because that motivated him to keep on trying. the most interesting thing that I found out about him is how his garage is full with all of his shoes he has designed. I would like to say something to D'Wayne Edwards: Thank you for putting some time aside to talk to us and the rest of the ROW collaboration. It was a privilege talking to you.

Highlight 2:

Second , Camp Kindness. I would like to thank everyone who helped out with the food , watch us at night and organised the whole thing. The food was soo delicious and it really filled me up. I felt really safe when people helped stayed at night. I take it , you were absolutely tired. This week on Thursday are the camp awards, I will do a post about it on the first week of term. I loved everything about camp and I think I speak for everyone who was involved.

Highlight 3:

Lastly, I liked doing animations in class about history. We were learning about the treaty of Waitangi and what it was like before it was signed. We did three animations about the treaty of Waitangi. My favourite animation was the first one because it was the easiest.

Goal:

My goal for next term is to read more and do more podcasts. This term I only had time to do one podcast. The next one I am doing is called Old Bones. The book I am currently reading is called Blackwater. It is a thriller and I am going do a podcast on that book as well so check out my blog in the second week of term two and you will see a podcast tab, click on that and it will take you to my podcasts and it will be there. I would tell you who I am going to be doing the podcast with , but it will spoil the surprise.

I think next terms topic is going to be about volcanoes and land. I think the name is going to be Land Ahoy.

The End.

Pukekos

A Pukeko is a native New Zealand bird. Some of it's feathers at the back are a greenish glittery gloss ,which shines in the sun. The feathers at the front of a Pukeko is a deep iridescent blue. People don't know this, but there is a batch of white feathers hidden under the tail. When danger appears the feathers erupt from under the tail. This is a sign of warning to all the birds. The beak, legs and eyes are a bright scarlet.

Unlike any other native New Zealand bird the Pukeko can run really fast on land. This is because they have long, stringy legs. Flying is quite a difficulty for the Pukeko because they aren't use to flying, but a remarkable thing is , is that once a Pukeko flew 240 km from where it lived.

The Pukekos enemies are the Ferret, stoat and weasel. These animals are all from the same family, because they are all viscous little predators. Their skin colors are a golden brown. They all have little canes that stick out of their mouths. The surprising thing is , is that people are it's enemies too. People shoot pukekos during duck shooting season.

I think that people should stop shooting Pukekos and start respecting them as a native New Zealand bird.

My Animation

This animation is about what happened before the treaty was signed. It shows that a European man bought land , but what happened was a Maori person did not want to leave his land so...

(To find out what happened next watch my movie).

Amazing D'Wayne Edwards Video conference.

" Oh my gosh" I said to my friends. "We are really having a video conference with D'Wayne Edwards , the NIKE shoe DESIGNER". I was so excited, my heart was pumping so loudly I couldn't even hear myself think.

We were on live and there were 32 viewers. I was staring at the screen just waiting for him to come on stage. First Carol Anne said a introduction about what she does and how she made this collaboration. Just then everyone clapped and out he came.

He told us about what his specialty was and who he creates NIKE shoes for. He told us he created most of Michael Jordan's shoes and I thought that it was Amazing and guess what, he told us that his garage was full of NIKE shoes!!! The most remarkable thing is that he created the 2nd Air Jordan 2!!! I just couldn't believe it when he told us. He even told us that he created a high heel shoe.

When it was 4:30 we had to go home. To see what it was like I have a Video to show you how the Video conference went.

THE END.

WOW Flickr page

" Selena's Paradise" it says.If you are saying to yourself " What is she talking about , well I will tell you what I am talking about. I am talking about my Flickr page. It tells you all about the things about me. It will contain my hobbies and things that are important to me and you might not know , you might find out something that you didn't know about me... . Well better not tell you the rest, so if you would like to find out more click on this hyper link. http://www.flickr.com/.

What a tragic artist Van Gogh was. Van Gogh's paintings were magnificent but he had a sad life story. No one appreciated his new type of artwork. He called himself a Impressionist. That is when someone paints what they are feeling. When he was a boy he didn't want to be a artist, he tried so many different jobs, but they didn't work out. The last job he tried out was to be a preacher like his father, but as usual he wasn't fascinated.

Then he decided that he wanted to be an artist. So his first painting had a table with 5-6 people who were poor and they only had 4 potatoes to eat. Then after a while he moved to Paris and stayed there with his brother Theo. A couple of years later he moved to Arles. He stayed there with his old friend called Paul Gaugin.

One day they had such a bad argument that Van Gough cut his ear off!! His last ever painting was called Crows in the Wheat field, then when he finished it he shot himself.

This is the painting I done of his most popular painting called Starry night.

My nerve racking experience

" I can't believe it " I said to myself. My heart was pumping frantically. I was waiting outside the Tusitala with all of the presenters. We all crept in like little mice. I took one look at the visitors and in my mind I was thinking about how I could speak clearly and how I could represent Pt England.

When Angela was doing her mihi I was smiling on the outside , but inside I felt faint. Angela had finished her presentation and everyone was clapping. I heard the music play and I knew that was my queue to go up and speak ...

Sorry I hope I could tell you more but I have to go now. I will tell you the rest of my nerve racking experience in part 2.

The End.