2015 Contributions to Berkley

I have loved 2015; I have been waiting for the opportunity to teach our GATE class for many years, and this year it finally came to me. I have always been passionate about working with this type of student as I thoroughly enjoy the depth of thinking and the quality of the discussions that ensue from this thinking. This class is a Y8 & 9 class, which is an experience I believe wold benefit RJHS.

The other of my input at school that has brought me real joy has been the number of areas of involvement I have had at school this year.

Literary Battles: Together with our school librarian (Lisa Steed), I have set up weekly literature quizzes, which run at a lunchtime.  We decide on our themes (which we advertise in advance), write questions for the theme and then quiz the students who opt in.  We have started this so that our Y7 students can be more prepared for Next year's Lit Quiz.
School Speech Competition: This is the first year that there has been an Inter-intermediate speech competition for a number of years.  Our school received late details of this year's competition, so at late noticed, I advertised this for the school, ran the school competition and have been preparing the winner for the inter-intermediate competition.
Literature Quiz: I took over the training of or teams for the first time.
Blogging workshops: I have run several workshops for staff who were interested in learning to set up and run blogs for their classes/learning areas this year.
eLearning PD: This year, one of our targeted PLD areas is ePortfolios.  I have facilitated our ‘expert’ teachers to come up with a variety of ways for our teachers to improved the experience for their learners.
Waikato Science Fair: This is compulsory for the GATE class.  Because science is a passion of mine, I have been working very hard to improve the quality of the product from Berkley.  I am thrilled with the end results - Berkley won the 'Top School in Fair' trophy for the first time (I identified winning this as my goal at the start of the fair) . This newspaper article was written about one of my student’s projects.
Japanese: I am the languages teacher for our team of four classes.
Anzac Day: I volunteered my students make the crosses and set up Berkley’s Field of remembrance, which sadly was desecrated, but the students repaired and rebuilt the field in time for our Anzac service.  My students planned and ran our service for the school.  We then hosted a special assemblywhere members of the Fields of Remembrance Trust came and presented our students with new crosses for 2016 and beyond. 
Speed-date an author: I selected students and organized them to attend this workshop.
Assembly hosts: Each Focus (our assembly name), I identify and train student hosts.
Japanese Trivia Championships: I selected and trained two teams to attend this evening.
Science Roadshow: I facilitated my students hosting the roadshow.  They were the 'student experts' throughout the day, as well as helping with the pack in and out.
Windsurfing: This year, as a part of our EOTC programme, I took 25 students from across the school to Tauranga for three days, to learn how to windsurf and stand up paddleboard.
Student Blogging Challenge: This year my students and I have participated in this challenge.  It has been really beneficial to us all.  Perhaps the largest benefit was the students realizing the importance of academic honesty by using legal photos, videos and music, and adding credit to their work.  Link
Literacy Reading: Last year, I culled, reorganised, and chose new books for our group novel reading sets.  I am soon going to be given time to see if any sets need increasing in number, and to choose new novels to buy in sets for the teacher resource room.
Science PLC: This year Berkley has set up Professional Learning Communities for the first time.  I am a member of the science community.

It has been a busy year so far, but I have loved it.  I think that it has been the variety and new experiences, which I have thrived upon.  I really love to get my teeth into new projects and learning, which bring me joy.

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