Apartheid- What is it?

 

In English we are learning about the Springbok Tour and to start we learnt what apartheid is and how it effected South Africa. This is a slideshow answering what apartheid is.

The Context of Shakespearean Drama by Jeana

 In Shakespeare's time (1564-1616), he wrote around 38 plays that each had different messages, themes and storylines. The majority of William Shakespeare's plays appear to be set in the Elizabthean era (The Renaissance), which means that his works reflected on Elizabethan England and the political state, their society and the culture. His audience was not limited only to the rich and royal, the poor working class was capable of buying a ticket to see his plays turn into performances. In this era there were so many new ideas going around and Shakespeare came to write in the form of entertainment, printing was a new phenomenon that also allowed him to teach people about concepts from places like Greece and Rome. 

Some of his writings may have been biased towards the monarchy, he wrote some to make Queen Elizabeth 1 ancestors seem better in the eyes of the audience. Other plays were made to satisfy King James 1 which could mean some of his plays are pushed in a different direction than what he would have written. While Shakespeare kept his religious affiliations unknown, he did however include the ongoing comparison of Protestants and Catholics in his work. This was done in some of his work by having opposing characters have different perspectives on religion matters. His plays were so phenomenal that they could blend into their surroundings (theatres, the royal palace or public places) and adjust the act to make the experience easier for the audience to understand. He made sure his plays were intricate while also supplying humour, references and banter to his audience to make his plays appealing. 

Shakespeare didn’t write his plays in 5 acts, instead he wrote scenes and kept continuously writing. Most writers in the Elizabethean and Jacobean era wrote like this and it wasn't until 1709 when playwright Nicholas Rowe edited his plays. Despite not writing in 5 acts, he still wrote a beginning, middle, and end. This was just as Aristotle did when he wrote his essay ‘Poetics’. Shakespeare included drama, tragedy, betrayal, happiness and so many more elements into his play while also adding in modern English into some of his last plays. He was a remarkable poet, innovator and playwright.

Not the Ninja Turtles!

 We're learning about Romeo and Juliet in English which was written by William Shakespeare, these other famous poets, painters, sculptors etc were alive in the same era as William Shakespeare. We are trying to get an understanding of the 1300s-1500s.

The last blog post for NPDL

On Wednesday we presented our power to the people project to the school and the community. Every piece of research the group did was thought through and discussed with each other so we had no problems. Having had the experience of this project, if I was planning another project I would be more thorough in the planning and chose an idea that interests me more.

Links to our Group Planners:

• Week 5

• Week 6

• Week 7

• Week 8

• Week 9

Looking back at how well we planned and then recorded each week's and day's work and managed our time, I think we did very well. Each day we had work to do and in the beginning we recorded vlogs for each day but we stopped recording when it was taking up too much time.

Looking at our research and comparing it to what other groups did, I think the other groups had more creativity than us but we did have more information written down than some of the projects. Another time in the future I think I would add more colour and visual guides.

Looking back now at how we planned and prepared our presentation, I think it looks great but I had no part in making it because I was on a cruise for 2 weeks and I could only go to the presentation in period 3/4 and 5:00pm. It was a good turn out and I explained what our project was to a couple of people.

My positives for Showcase Day were seeing everyone's Npdl projects, answering the community's questions and voting for the year 9's passion projects. I think the year 9s had more enthusiasm when they presented because they got to choose what their topic was about.

a) What skills did you use, learn or develop during this project which will be helpful in your life beyond school?

Collaboration, teamwork and researching

b) Would you like to do more of this kind of learning next year?

There were positives and negatives to this kind of learning so I wouldn't mind either way

c) What did you learn from this process that will help with future projects?

How to plan out the steps of my progress

d) What advice would you give to the teachers if they are running this or something similar in the future?

I think they did a great job this time round and should continue to teach this way for future students

Reflection Blog Post 16-11-23

 What happened this week with our Power to the people project.

What have you achieved since the last post?

Our group interviewed two people (Ian and Colin from school) on Monday to ask about the schools heating bill and how many radiators/ heat pumps our school has. I did all the talking in the interview while the other group members took notes.

How effectively have you used your time in class?

My group and I have done work in class 3 quarters of the time, the other quarter we've spent taking breaks to keep our ideas fresh.

How have you contributed to your group's progress this week?

I started our Radiators slideshow, asked Ian and Colin questions and used my phone to record our vlogs.

Something going well in your group?

Everyone is working well together and we have all been in agreement over where our project is going.

Something not working well?

Our group gets distracted very easily meaning we're not doing as much work as we could be doing.

Everyday we've been filming a vlog and at the end of the project our group is going to post it on our blogs.

Power To The People Learning Reflection

 Hi everyone!

My group members Jessica, Jordan, Winter, Summer, Eunacee and I have started our PTTP project this week. The whole idea of the project is to get all the year 10s to work together, the teachers have combined English, Social Studies and Science to allow us to learn about all three of these at the same time.  The goal of this project is for us students to research and investigate something to do with sustainable energy in the Otaki community. At the end of the project we will present the project to an audience, my group is presenting our research onto a piece of cardboard while doing a oral presentation.

Our question for the project is how sustainable are heat pumps for the college instead of radiators?

1. What have you achieved/learned/found out since your last post?

We have organised three meetings with three different people and one of those meetings was yesterday (Thursday). Another thing we've done was making an outline of everything we need to do.

2. How effectively have you used your time this week?

Very well, every period there was work to be done.

3. How have you contributed to your group’s progress?

I set up an interview that we had on Thursday and also contributed to the list of questions we made for our interviews.

4. Glows: something that is going well in your project:

Everyone is working well together and we are very organised.

5. Grows: Something you need to work on:

Getting everyone to participate equally .

6. Where could you get help with this? 

Asking members of my group what they would like to do when we have a  lot of work to do.

7. What are the next steps for your project?

We have two interviews on Monday next week and after that we'll do some more research to put on our slideshows.

I'm happy how great my group is working together and I think our project is going to go really well if we stay happy with each other. I will keep posting on my blog giving updates on where my group is up to in our exciting project!

Matariki 2022

This is our Matariki presentation by Jeana,Jess,Jordan and Te Ao Marama