Instead Of Saying...

You may have heard people talking about the importance of having a 'growth mindset' as opposed to a 'fixed mindset' recently. These words have been especially popular in many schools, as we look to encourage children to view the effort that they put into their learning as a path to mastery, rather than seeing their level of ability or intelligence as 'fixed'.

Carol Dweck is a popular researcher in this field. You may like to listen to one of her talks on the subject here.

Last Friday during assembly Room 14 shared an animated video presented by Class Dojo that tells the story of Mojo, a student who discovers that his brain is like a muscle that can grow and improve with effort. All of the Class Dojo videos in the series can be viewed here.

After the story about Mojo, Room 14 shared some of ways we can rephrase our responses to challenges in our learning. We found the ideas online and hope they made an impression on our assembly audience!

More Than Names And Faces

This week all of the children in Room 14 were asked to bring to school a personal treasure to share. As we get to know each other better, we want to look past the names and faces that make up our classroom community, and learn about what really makes us unique.

It was fascinating to see and hear about what each of us considered to be a 'treasure'. Some of us brought to school our current favourite toys or games, while others looked to more sentimental items such as old soft toys or artifacts and photos that remind us of loved ones who have passed away or special experiences we have had.

The back-stories behind the items were so interesting and it was a great opportunity to learn something interesting about each other. We learned that many treasures we have actually cost very little, even though we can sometimes think that expensive stuff is important to have for us to be happy.

We talked about how something that is a treasure to one person may hold no importance to someone else, and we discussed the reasons why this might be. These are great understandings for us to have as we look to further explore our diverse cultures and identities this term.

What is one of your personal treasures 

and why is it special to you?

(Feel free to share in a comment!)

Our New Ariki For 2016!

At this week's assembly it was great to see our new Ariki (student leaders) introducing themselves.

They perform a number of important duties around our school, including running Te Harakeke assemblies, peer-mediation in the playground and speaking in school assembly each Friday to share notices and Hapu points. They were chosen by staff and students for their community input and the way they live our school values. We're sure they'll do a fine job this year.

2016 Ariki: Brayden, Kamryn, Tayne, Malaika, Reuben, Stella, Jack and Eti.

Maths Inquiry

As part of our maths inquiry we started designing individual quilts. The quilts are going to show our culture/heritage, who's in our family, our favourite sport, favourite food, favourite book, favourite game, any pets we have and the meaning of our name. We will gather information from the quilts and present it in a variety of different ways.