Busy Day

Fridays are always busy; netball, buddies, certificate presentation for swimming sports, biscuits for puppies, and the Bay Shave Day

This morning I got to listen to the Mihi that the children in Tui class had done and recorded. Tino Pai nga Mihi.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

My apologies for no blog yesterday, I was at home unwell. Like all good men with a cold though, one day off is more than enough and I am back on deck without a word of complaint.

The Hanmer hotpools were great Principal's Conference was very worthwhile and I gained a great deal from attending. I do not take leaving the school lightly and you can be rest assured that if I am not here, I am doing something of benefit to the school. Be it at a conference, meeting with another principal, or at Harvey Norman checking out the latest iPad to see if it is right for our school. (Ok, so I wouldn't really leave to do the last one, although it does have educational merit).

As I washed my hair this morning I thought how strange it will be on Saturday morning to wash my head. I hope many of you can get along and witness the Bay Shave Day tomorrow at 3pm as I'm sure it will be most entertaining!

It was lovely to meet with the pre-school aged music group for morning tea today and discuss ways in which they can make use of the facilities the school has to offer. I haven't sat with such a group since my days as a 'stay-at-home' dad and it was nice to be in that environment again. I think it is important to have the community involved with the school where-ever possible, so if you have ideas for ways in which you'd like to see the school used, please don't hesitate to contact me.

We had our resident engineer, Sara Warren, with us in Kereru this afternoon and the class were able to share their progress and listen to her feedback and ideas to guide them along the way. It is very powerful having an expert work with the students and they really respond to what Sara has to say.

Cashmere Hair Co.

Friday morning buddy time is always a good time to be in the classrooms and it is wonderful to see the interaction between the children across the school.

On Monday and Tuesday next week I will be attending the Annual Canterbury Primary Principals' Conference. I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to work with a number of other principals, make valuable contacts and further develop myself in this role.  Therefore the next blog entry will be Wednesday.

In the meantime you can sponsor the Bay Shave Day by going to http://www.shaveforacure.co.nz/view_event_profile/6392 and donating. Or you might just want to keep bringing in stickers off Sunkist fruit. Or both.

I would like to thank Cashmere Hair Co. for providing a hair stylist to do the honours next Friday for our Bay Shave Day. 

Early Start

8:15 was a stretch for some but it proved to be very worthwhile.  Kereru spent 45 minutes chatting on Skype and Edmodo to Caroline Bently School in Illinois, USA. The questions were many and varied from both classes, topics ranging from sports to timetables to weather to what had been written on Edmodo to favourite stars. Our class even sung a Japanese song! One of the students from Caroline Bently started writing about our Skype on Edmodo while we were skyping, so some of our class joined in the Edmodo discussion to further enhance the experience. The end result was a lot of fun with a myriad of interesting information being passed back and forth. 

Photos do not do this session justice but do give you an idea of what was happening.

This is a wonderful example of the power of the technology we have at our disposal and how it can be used to give a variety of experiences and enhance learning.

In assembly today I shared a story and then suggested that tonight everyone write a list of everything that is good about them that won’t change no matter what anyone says.  I also asked them to share it with someone when it is done so you might want to ask to see their list and discuss it with them to reaffirm what they have written or suggest things they have missed out.

Busted!

Lunchtime is always interesting at school.  You can see such a diverse range of happenings in a small area in a short space of time.  Activities range from rugby, to elastics, to ‘Can we throw the ball onto the shade cover without it getting stuck?’ to ‘How do we get the ball off the shade cover now that it’s stuck?’ to general running around to sitting in the library to eating the pasta we made at technology this morning to playing ‘Busted’.

I was introduced to the game of Busted yesterday lunchtime. It’s a modified game of tag involving the adventure playground.  The rules are actually very well thought out but I must have been slow to catch on as I did find myself being ‘in’ a lot!

Tomorrow Kereru are Skyping Caroline Bently School in Illinois, USA. They’re keen as to be here at 8:15am to be involved and then repeat the dose with a school in Florida on Friday. If they get any keener we’ll have them here at 6am! We looked up the school on Google maps today and were surprised to find it is surrounded by 15 baseball diamonds, no doubt that will be a hot topic tomorrow.

We plan to make contact with other year levels in a range of schools so all of our classes have the opportunity to Skype.  We will endeavour to find schools that share our time zone so that they are done in school time.

They're keen!

You know school's going well when you ask who ‘wants’ to come in on Thursday morning at 8:15am and you get most of the class saying yes. (see photo below for response).  To fit in with the time zone at New Lenox IL, USA, (or possibly Florida, not sure which yet) we’ve arranged a skype session with a class there for 8:15am on Thursday

It’s always good to see the students being out and active first thing in the morning before school.  It’s so important to develop those fitness habits early.   

They are supported by our fitness and PE programme which gets the children moving and teaches them a range of skills.