It was great to get back to the ASB for a day of sports. We set goals around Growth Mindset and trying new things. Trying new sports is beneficial for our bodies and minds! When you learn new things, your brain grows. When you process a positive experience it enhances Positive Emotions too!
We took part in gymnastics, tchockball, turbo touch and pickeball.
We had 3 very enthusiastic teams representing Worser Bay at the Girls Futsal Festival on Friday. All of our teams showed huge amounts of Teamwork, Leadership and Kindness in every game and also when off the court.
Thanks so much to the parents that helped out with transport and managing the teams on the day. You guys were fantastic and really made the day run smoothly.
All of our teams played hard but fair and we managed to win a majority of our games!
Camp Kaitoke 2021 - He tino pai mātou! As our school karakia says - i roto i te hari, me te koa, me te aroha. Anō o tētahi ki tētahi, kia puāwai tātou katoa! (In joy, and in love, it is together that we all flourish).
Camp Reflections- Rock, Leaf and Stick
The thing that Rocked for me...
The thing I will Leaf behind...
What will Stick with me...
Eddie:
The thing that rocked for me was the crate stacking because it it something that you don't hear everyday, ´today were going to do crate stacking.” What even is that!! It was a lot of fun.
The thing that will stick with me was the peppers, (literally, I still feel the spice), and the campfire, that was the second best part of my life.
The thing that I will leave behind is my fear of heights because I did abseiling and crate stacking because they were both high up.
Anneke:
Stick - I want my new friends to stick with me
Rock - the campfire rocked because we
sang lots of funny songs
Leaf - I want to leaf behind the noise that
cabin 5 made all night
Konrad
Rock: I rocked at the kayaking. I jumped out and got back on by myself and we got to see Hazel (our instructor) to do a loop around and sink.
Stick: the mud slide will stay with me because it is my last time at camp so I will remember it because it is fun we also had to cross a bridge to get there Leaf: I will leave the chips there because the chips where as hard as a brick.
Suki-lee
Rock: I rocked at kayaking because. We got to jump out but my shoes/gumboots went sinking a little bit but at the end I got them but I had know idea I had my gumboots on when I jumped in Something that Stick: Sticked to me was the mud in the bridge of doom like my shoe almost came off in the mud but when I got out there was so much water in my shoe/gumboots. Leaf: I will leave behind my hat because I didn't bring one anyway. So then I used John's hat but then I kept leaving John's hat in my cabin.
Yoichi
Rock: What Rocked? Ok, I'm going be honest, everything rocked… but if I have to choose one thing, I loved singing around the campfire. Stick: What will stick with me forever? Everything, then again Nik Mastrovich will go ‘You need to choose one thing!’ so I would say that the thing that would stick with me is… Abseiling Leaf: What will I leave behind? My fear.
We have been learning about brain growth and struggle. We know that we need to embrace struggle and accept challenges for our brain to grow.
We know how important mistakes are for our learning. We make mistake dances to celebrate!
Fulop: We focused on making our brains grow. The activity was to emphasise perseverance and to show how the brain learns. We started with a scrap piece of paper. We had to draw a perfect square in the middle, not on the edges. We did it. And that was when The Challenge began. We had cut out the WHOLE square in ONE straight line. Sure, first thought? Impossible. Utterly impossible. Well, no. I started to catch onto the way when Nicola announced that you can fold, and I immediately realised somehow folding had something to do with it. Later, I was still searching for the answer, and every way seemed to sort of change as I nearly accomplished it. In the end, I had to get help, but I kept on trying! For people who passed through “the Square”, there came, “The Oblong”... I tried that, but that was even more mind-boggling! But In the end, I managed square! When you learn something, new, delicate pathways will form, connecting two Neurons. If you keep learning it, and keep getting better at it, it will become a strong pathway, as if the brain paved it. It could also happen that when you learn about something that was an old pathway, it could strengthen. The last possibility is that two pathways you have already connect, forming a stronger pathway. The Brain is very interesting, Isn’t it?
Beatrix: It was really hard and I struggled a lot but I persevered and got it in the end. I tried it two times and it didn’t work but I tried again and I got it.
Charlotte:When you try something for the first time you will make a delicate pathway e.g. I was doing a math problem that was hard. But if you keep on trying and it will make a stronger pathway.
Hadley: It was an interesting feeling. I was annoyed at myself for not getting it but I was also growing my brain. It was quite complex to talk about.
Hunter: New pathways in your brain are delicate and easy to forget and break.but if you repeat and keep learning it the pathway will strengthen and strengthen so that it will be very hard to forget and break. The path ways can also connect with each other and join the learning together. The struggle was annoying and it made feel mad.
Olive: The struggle made me feel a bit panicked but when I calmed down I felt more confident. My brain is growing!
Sabine: I persevered by trying new ways if others didn’t work. I made a few mistakes but that’s ok because mistakes help your brain grow!
Yoichi: My brain grew because now I know what to do and what not to do.The struggle made me really frustrated and I started to think it was impossible. I persevered by not giving up, trying and then I DID IT!
We have a big focus on discourse (oral discussion, listening, thinking).
This week we have been focussing on:
Asking questions
Everyone thinking about what speaker is saying
Being ready to repeat what the speaker has said
Being ready to explain thinking
Discourse is really important in all areas of the curriculum. In Maths, this encourages students to think deeply about Mathematical concepts. Effective discourse happens when students articulate their thinking and consider the thinking of others.
An example of some effective mathematical discourse that has been made visible:
Students were invited to find as many different ways they can to solve: How many dots? This encouraged flexible thinking about number which improves Number Sense.
Students have been learning to use a Growth Mindset in Maths. They are learning that risk taking and mistakes help the brain to grow.
As part of Positive Education learning, we have been inviting students to work through a course led by Dr Jo Boaler (Professor Mathematics Education at Stanford University) and her undergraduate students.
This will help students to develop a Growth Mindset in Maths. This course includes useful information about the brain and the best ways to learn Maths effectively.
Here is some of our learning from Week 2...
Smashing Stereotypes
James: Companies think that girls do not like some things boys like, they use stereotype thinking. More people should have access to different toys, video games, board games and computer programming - they all use maths. People should also let people have more choices of t-shirts colours that aren't just pink for girls.
Inigo: Maths is for everyone! Never get boxed in to anything! Ideas are for everyone to enjoy.
Ajooni: Today, I learned that no one should think in stereotype. For example, pink is not only for girls and blue is not only for boys. The video said that to be good in maths, you should play maths game, board games, build stuff with Lego. It's for everyone not only for boys. No one should tell you that something is not for you.
Mindset in Maths
Darragh: You need to be confident about it and not give up.
Billy: People need to persist and have a growth mindset in order to learn Maths.
Emelie: They need to use perseverance and believe in themselves even when things get hard, and even if they get it wrong they believe that next time they will be able to see the mistakes they did last time and learn from them!
Emily: If you have a growth mindset you think that you can grow your brain if you have a fixed mindset you think that you are smart or not smart.
Sammy: If you want to get better at maths you have to have a growth mindset and just keep trying because if you fail once, you can just try harder the next time and you will get better. You also need to believe in yourself to have a growth mindset.
Messages about Maths and You!
Sophie: When students are praised for being smart they sometimes choose the easy problem. This is because they wanted to get it right again so that people would still think they are smart.
Sabine: Why do you think that when students were praised for being smart they then chose the easy problem? Maybe because if they think they were smart they thought they wouldn’t have to do the hard problem because smart means that you know a lot so they probably thought that if someone said they were smart they wouldn’t have to challenge their brains because they knew that question so they wouldn’t have to get muddled up doing the hard question.
Mae A: I think it is because they really want to know that they are smart. It can be just wanting to think that they are smarter than other people, but it would just make them not as good as the people who choose the hard problem. Even if the people that choose the hard problem get it wrong, their brain still grows and they will get it.I f you set yourself at the easier problems your brain can still grow but not as much as the people who choose the hard problem.
Messages about you
Alex: When people say you are failing it doesn't matter just keep trying.
Coco: The thoughts in your head can really affect your learning. When the students had a test half the class got feedback saying"Im giving you this feedback because I believe in you"and their results were much better at the end of the year.
Hunter J: The negative messages you receive will affect your future in learning unless you shut the negative messages out of your brain and let the positive messages come in instead. you should always try the hard problem because when you struggle it might seem that your bad it but when you struggle it actually helps you to learn so make sure you try the hard problem next time.
Fülöp: The first thing is that the students' achievements are changed by the messages they get. If they get, for example the message, "This is bad. I can't understand what made you think this" then the student will be hurt, and they will think that they can't do that. if they get the message, " I'm giving you this feedback because I want to help you" then the student won't lose much confidence.
As part of Positive Education learning, we have been inviting students to work through a course led by Dr Jo Boaler (Professor Mathematics Education at Stanford University) and her undergraduate students.
This will help students to develop a Growth Mindset in Maths. This course includes useful information about the brain and the best ways to learn Maths effectively.
We asked: What happened when the girl had half of her brain removed?
Charlotte: All the doctors said that it would take along time for the girl to move again but the girl recovered really fast and began to walk and run. All the doctors wore shocked of how fast the girl the recovered.
Ethan: Scientists thought she would be paralysed for a long time because the brain controls your body. Surprising all the doctors, she regained the ability to move quite quickly because her brain grew back and all the cells reconnected. That just showed the power of the brain is more powerful than we ever thought it would be.The brain would be able to grow itself back in a few days. Now that you know that, let's see how you do in your maths test!
Elliot: What happened when the girl had half of her brain removed? The doctors thought that she would be paralyzed for a super long time but her brain connections grew back much faster than they expected so she learned how to walk again real fast.
Summary The video taught us about the brain. Anyone's brain can grow at any time if you challenge yourself. London taxi drivers have to memorise 20,000 streets and 25,000 landmarks. They study for 2-4 year and then take a test called "the knowledge". And their Hippocampus grows tremendously when they retire it shrinks back. There was a study where some scientists got two groups of volunteers, looked at their brains, told them to learn how to juggle, and sent them home. The scientists contacted the first group and gave them tips and encouragement. They didn't contact the second group. After a while they got back together and showed the scientists their juggling skills. Only the first group had learned how to juggle and showed significant brain growth. This kind of evidence proves that the brain is much more plastic than previously thought. Practicing a task for a few minutes every day makes your brain grow. This mean we can learn almost anything.
We asked: How do people feel about Maths?
Yoichi: Lots of people hated maths except for some people. The people who hate math did not think it was useful but the people who liked math thought it was useful in day to day life.
Coco: I think that often people haven't had an enjoyable experience meaning that they don't have many happy memories with the subject.
Cleo: Most people feel a bit bored or frustrated when they do maths. Others use it in work but might not like it quite so much. And some people disliked it as a kid but got better withit growing up.
Georgia: Most people don't like it because there are lots of rules to learn and it can be very frustrating especially when you get things wrong.
We asked our students to summarise the clip:
Anastasiya: Summary of the video "Math Myths and the Brain" There are many math myths that have been for a long time and are actually not true. For example, there is a myth that some people are more talented in math than others. In fact, everyone can succeed in math. But different people can have different experiences. The second important point of the video is that our brain is very flexible and develops with practice. The more we learn the more our brain grows.
Eddie: they were talking about a myth that there are people that are good at maths and that some people aren't. some of the things thy said were "Anyone can succeed in maths", "there is no such thing as a maths person" and "you need to exercise your maths brain".
Hadley: What I took out of this was that you are good at maths you just need to try no one is gifted with maths they have just had a good experience with it and any one can be good at maths.
