Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Rich Task Info
We will try to update the rich task posts more often from now on,
Thanks, Room 10 Bloggers
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Term 2
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Room 10 Class Blog 2012 Term 1
Welcome to the start of a brand new year. I look forward to working with all your students this year. We will be doing a variety of fun and exciting things this year form Camp to Socials to sports days!
First a little bit about myself. My name is Vanessa Counsell. I have been teaching for 15 years this year. I completed my training at Waikato University in 1996. I then taught year 7/8’s for 5 years in Hamilton. I carried on my career in London (where I was based for 6 years) where I taught any number of children from ages 3 – 13. During this time I was in many positions of responsibility from head of English to Maths to even Religious Education. I came back to New Zealand in 2007 and taught at A.N.I for 2 years. I have been at this school for 3 years this year. I am currently Head of Languages as well as a Tutor and Associate teacher.
One of my many passions is Languages (I will be teaching French to you student’s this year as I have spent a number of years travelling throughout many French speaking countries as well as living in Noumea). I also love to travel and have been to many places over the years.
If you wish to contact me my email address is vanessac@balmoral.school.nz
Our Programme:
Literacy (Reading, Writing and Spelling):
Reading:
Our reading programme is based on the asTTle tests students sit early on in February. Once these results are analysed children will be put into differentiated groups where we will be focussing on the many aspects of reading techniques and strategies students may need extra practice in.
Spelling:
Our Spelling unit at Balmoral is based on the “Spelling Under Scrutiny” programme by Joy Allcock. This is where we focus on the many aspects of spelling in the English language (such as prefixes, suffixes, contractions and apostrophes)
Writing:
As teachers we underwent intensive professional development in teaching Writing to students last year using the ‘genius’ of Murray Gadd. We are using what we learnt last year to improve our student’s writing ability.
Maths:
This term we will be focussing on not only improving and retaining our basic facts knowledge but also focussing on the Measurement strand of year 8 Maths. We will be doing a range of activities relating to these aspects of the Maths curriculum including using games and the internet to consolidate this.
Rich Task:
Our Rich Task this term is ‘Developing Ourselves and Leadership’. And our fertile question is “Do all explorers lead others, or is leading yourself to successful achievement equally important; therefore how do you lead yourself to greatness and success”? We will be looking at great leaders the world over and analysing what made them great, we will be also asking the question ‘what can we do ourselves to become leaders’? We will also be goals setting for not only our camp (which is in week 6 of this term) but for the year as well.
PE:
Our main PE for this term is swimming sports as well as striking and fielding and summer sports.
Visual Arts:
Our Art for this term will be ‘The Renaissance’. Where we will be finding out what the Renaissance is and what made it great.
P4C:
Our P4C this term will be related to our Rich Task.
Languages:
Languages throughout this year will be Maori and French. In these two languages we will be focussed on learning about the culture, environment, geography as well as basic conversational speak.
Dates To Remember:
9 February Meet the teacher BBQ
14 February School Photos
17 February School Swimming Sports
Week 6 Year 8 Camp
14 March Parent Interviews
3 April HPV Booster shots for yr 8 girls
6 April Good Friday