Jeremie's Visit: Grit, Perseverance and Resilience

Lisa: Today Jeremie came to school to tell us a bit about her story and what she has been through.

When Jeremie was in primary school she started biking and really enjoyed it as she grew up she started to do races for her school and she won lots of them. Jeremie started to train really hard and when she got into high school she was racing for New Zealand she did all types of biking; Mountain biking, Road cycling and Track cycling.

One day Jeremie was track cycling when she crashed and hit her head badly she lost her memory and found it hard to move her arms and legs, lucky she was wearing a helmet otherwise she would have died. She couldn’t go to school for a year and had to relearn everything. Ever since this happened she has had a constant headache for TWELVE YEARS.

Jeremie has leant how to be positive although her favourite thing was taken from her. She has had to take new paths. Now she does cycling at the gym on the bikes there because they don’t move. If she ever hits her head really hard there is a possibility that she could die. She is not to be on a screen for to long so she needed to find a job that doesn't include a screen and is now doing something that she loves as a gym teacher.

Charlie: Today we had a visitor. Her name is Jeremie and she taught us a story about a Growth Mindset and her story about how she represented New Zealand in cycling. She taught us about how a Growth Mindset can help us get through things. In her story she told us about her head injury and the struggle she went through for the last 12 years. She also teaches Nicola on one of those stationary bikes (RPM) you go on at Gyms. I found her story very interesting and I thought she was very brave. She also has some very good strategies that she used at times she needed them.

Marlon: Today Jeremie came over to the school. She came over to tell us her story. Her story was about a big brain injury that had happened to her because she fell off her bike. You have to remember that someone has something that you can’t see from the outside but it is still has on the inside. She started biking from college to the club then she got to race for New Zealand. Jeremie used grit, resilience and perseverance and took another path for 12 years but when she got better she started getting back on her bike. Amazingly she cycled the whole length of the South Island recently. 

Where we Dance: Third Places

Elinor came to talk to us about her project. This was the beginning of our own Inquiry entitled, "Where We Dance." This was the hook to get us thinking and asking questions...

Elinor is interested in urban design. Urban design is the planning of towns and cities. It is not the architecture of buildings, but the spaces around them and how to organise things like transport and housing.

Some questions that urban designers ask would be: 

How do people travel around? 

Is it by car or bus or walking?
How does where people live and where they go to work or do other activities shape their choice of transport?
What transport choices are available?
How do the physical characteristics of a place shape how people use it?

Sustainability and environment are also important in urban design.

Social Cohesion

Social means society or the group of people that you live with. Cohesion means togetherness or connection, if you write a story then you want the different parts to work together to make a coherent story. Social cohesion means how much a group of people are willing to work together as a group or cooperate, to follow the same rules, share values and work towards the same goals.

Social capital is the resources that come out of people working together or social cohesion. In some societies social cohesion is so low that the people don’t have things that we take for granted. For example, places that are experiencing war, don’t have safety, roads, school...

Think about whether your class is socially cohesive and whether you use social capital. Being able to go to the beach is an example. This is an awesome resource that is looked after by our community, by doing beach clean ups and  planting there, you can use it as part of the school because you follow the rules down there. Rules include not going in the water, or running off or leaving it covered in rubbish.

Living in a society that has high levels of social cohesion and social capital means that you have a better quality of life. This leads to better health and well being and more options of what to do in life.

There are some people who say that if children are able to get around a city by themselves then it means that the city is well designed and inclusive for everyone who lives there, and it probably means that it is well designed in terms of environmental sustainability too. However, in New Zealand the amount of travel children do by themselves is decreasing and this means that there are more trips made by car, with parents driving their kids around. Elinor is interested in finding out about the things that might make children who live in suburbs more active - for example walking or biking to school more often.

Social Resilience

Social resilience is the ability for a social group to cope with adversity. An example of social resilience is after the Christchurch earthquake the Student Volunteer Army got together and helped the community. After the Kaikoura Earthquake the community at Takahanga Marae fed people who were affected by the earthquake. The Marae was better equipped to respond to the people who were affected by these disasters than the government was.

Cultural Sustainability

Cultural Sustainability means thinking about the cultures and traditions of the place that we live in. It means how much they are still used now and how they might be conserved or used more in the future. This might be linked with indigenous culture or of the beliefs and practices that have developed within a group. 

More than Human... 

"More than human" thinking is similar to cultural sustainability. It involves thinking about what has been here in the past and what could be here in the future. The emphasis is on plants, animals and ecosystems and how these things can all exist together in an urban environment. In Wellington we are lucky because the city is compact. It takes up a smallish space so we can get out into nature fairly easily. There are still plenty of things we could do to make life easier for other species to live in the city. Sometimes this can be a bit of a problem if roots or animal behaviour isn’t compatible with human life.

So how can we go about building these things, what are the foundations we need?

Inclusivity, equality, safety, democracy or shared decision making, having everyone - and everything!- represented in our society.

Third Place

One sociologist who has done some thinking about this talked about something that he had noticed and called it third place. Third places are... not your first place, which is home, or your second place which is work or school. They are ...These places are similar to ‘sticky places’ or ‘bumping places’ which are spaces that make people hang around or bump into each other. Sometimes urban designers add them in their designs, so that people living in or using the same area can have a chance to meet and maybe get to know each other. Sometimes they just happen. 

Third Places should be: 

• Inclusive
• Public
• Friendly or social
• Comfortable to hang out 
• New experiences
• Interesting or fun!
• Support independence

Worser Bay beach is a third place because you will probably see friends there or at least find some other kids to play with. 

Elinor told us about the project that she is working on and will be helping us with our Inquiry. Our students have been thinking about the spaces in our community. Here are questions that we have been considering.

How do you feel about third places now?

How do you use them?

What do you think is missing?

What do you think that other people would like or use?

How can we make them better?

What does better mean to us?

The Cardiovascular System: Thank You to our Special Guest, Bec!

Thank you to Bec who talked to us yesterday about what happens to your body when you exercise. Here are some of our Quick Writes about Bec's talk:

What I learned today about health? 
I learned about the cardiovascular system I learned that when you get stitch it is because you can’t breathe and you need to slow down and sometimes when you keep going you can vomit. I also learned about VT1, VT2 and V2o max VT1 is  when you breathe slightly deeply. VT2 is when you are breathing really deep. V2o max is when you are working to the max. When you get stitch you need to take an extra breath every 8 words. Fun fact: Never stretch before you exercise, just stretch after.
By Orla

Today Bec, Emelia's mum came in and talked to us about the cardiovascular system and about VT 1 VT 2 and VT+ . VT 1 is just when your running normally and just breathing normally and VT 1 is when your really out of breath and you just cant get enough oxygen and you start getting stitch and you start getting lactic acid in your body, when you get to much lactic acid you throw up and your normal again and the lactic acid is what makes you have stitch. You also have an anaerobic system which is where all your VT 1 VT 2 and VT +. The thing that helps you get rid of lactic acid is to slow down not to stop.
By Nela

Today Bec came in to talk about cardiovascular system. She told us that if when your running you can get into VT1 and VT2. VT1 is that you can talk normally but you are a bit puffed. VT2 is when you can't talk your puffed and you have the stitch. When you are in VT2 your muscles let out acid that goes into your Stomach, Organs and stuff like that. When you've finished doing whatever your doing you normally feel like your going to puke. If your in VT2 then slow down.
By Alba

CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM 
Today I learnt how you get stitch...  
Let's say it like this: you were running up a hill. You started puffing hard, because of how fast you were running. But ate the same time you were eating a banana. Your body will get confused, not knowing What to do. Digest the food or run?? It uses up energy. If you body try's to do both, You will get stitch.
By Kirsty


We have been working in different rotations in the last couple of days. We have been learning about Nutrition + Water, Rest/Sleep, Cardiovascular system and Muscle Growth.

In the Cardiovascular System Rotation we read:

Cardiovascular System: Ducksters

We also did this quiz: 

Quiz

Here is a poem that we read: 

Visit from teachers from Wellington Primary School, Singapore

Yesterday we welcomed visitors from Wellington Primary School, Singapore. It was interesting to find out about schools in Singapore. 

Waste... there's a lot of it!

Wendy from Waste Management, part of Wellington City Council, came in to talk to us about different types of waste and what our city does with them all. It was very interesting and we all learned a lot. Have a look at our padlet to see what we and Tautoru learned from Wendy. We were also able to share with her what some of us had learned from our maths investigation into water - did you know that it takes 11.3 litres of water to make on piece of paper?

Created with Padlet

Apirana Taylor Visit

Apirana Taylor came into school today. He showed us various musical instruments that he has collected as he travelled to different countries. He also told us some stories, sang some songs and recited some poems. We liked the story about the lolly tree because it was funny and interesting. Apirana used his instruments in some of his stories and used great facial expressions. He used his body language to entertain us.

We thought that he was inspiring because he told us that he got his letters muddled up at school and had dyslexia, but he still really loved writing!  He said he enjoyed writing as much as the other kids liked art because he could paint a picture in the reader's mind.

By Jack H

This is the "Manu Roreka" poem that he performed:

Manu Roreka from Matariki on Vimeo.

Here are some photos of Apirana's visit:

Apirana Taylor from Matariki on Vimeo.

Thank you Liz, the weather forecaster, for talking to us about the weather!