Making An Act

* Introduction: The bill is first introduced to the House.
* First Reading: Next it has its first reading in Parliament, this is where the MP's debate on whether it should be passed on to a select committee for further consideration or reject it.
* Select Committee: A select committee of MP's carefully consider the bill, read and listen to the view of the public, recommend amendments, and report back to the House - it may take up to 6 months
* Second Reading: The bill is the returned to Parliament for its second reading to announce the recommendations of the select committee and the amendments made - MP's decide if the bill should proceed to the Committee of the whole House
* Committee of the whole House: Members debate the bill part by part in a detailed examination that can take several days - this is the last chance to change the bill
* Third Reading: This is the final reading; MP's look at the bill as a whole and consider what will happen if the bill becomes a law
* Royal Assent: If the bill does reach this final step of the process, it is given to the Governor General for Royal Assent (permission from the Sovereign).

The Roles of Parliament

As an added bonus to our learning about government in social studies today; we learned about the roles of each branch in the government and what their jobs are. The three branches are the Executive Council, Legislative, and the Judiciary branch. All three branches have their own specific role which is displayed in the drawing above.

Government Decision - My Opinion

I agree and disagree with the fact that foreign landowners should not be allowed to sell Nz bottled water overseas.

My reason for disagreeing with the green party’s decision is because, I think that when someone purchases something, they should have full control over it once they own the item. Whatever they want to do, they shouldn’t have others persecute their decisions.

But then again, New Zealand has every right to be upset that these customers are extracting Nz natural resources and making a profit out of it overseas.

Companies like the Chinese bottler Nongfu Spring Co Ltd. should at least include something like New Zealand Natural Stream Water to show gratitude towards the Tangata Whenua in Aotearoa for their service in allowing them to sell bottled water.

Cybersmart

What does it mean to be cyber smart and why it is important?

To be cyber smart means to be safe and sensible when online, whether it be social media or just the internet in general. E.g. keeping in mind that whatever you do online is there permanently (even if you attempt to erase that page, post etc.), the internet never forgets.

• What are two things you learned about being cyber smart and how can you apply it to your own life?

One thing that I’ve learned about being cyber smart is that you can leave footprints whilst online. These footprints can either be negative or positive footprints. If I wanted to leave a positive footprint online I would have to think about whether it’s sensible, safe or appropriate to put up on the net.

• Describe one of each:
• A personal strategy a young person can do to help themselves if they are being cyberbullied

If someone is being cyberbullied, one thing that they can do to help themselves is to talk to someone that they trust. E.g. their dean, social worker, parents or even just an elder that is trustworthy.

• An interpersonal strategy a young person can do to help their friend who is being cyberbullied

You could stick by them, let them know that they don’t have to be alone in their situation. If they don’t want you involved talk to an elder that both you and this friend who is being bullied trusts, have them talk to your friend and help sort things out.  

• A personal strategy a young person who finds themselves bullying other young people can do to help build their self-esteem and change their behavior

Let’s say you find yourself constantly wanting to annoy others, which may even cause you to bully someone. And suddenly you realize what you are doing and that it’s causing other people damage. The first thing you should do (if your willing to change) is to take back everything you’ve done and apologize to the victim. This will not only prevent suicide on the victim it’ll save you from being charged, prosecuted and the police won’t have to be involved.

• Tips to give to the year 6s about how they could become cyber smart

One thing that I think people aged 10 - 12 years old should know about being cyber smart is that one positive voice can make a big difference. To me, this phrase is an example of being cyber smart in the real world. It means if everyone is being the bystanders and just spectating a cyberbullying situation, then only one person stands up for the victim, that puts a positive impact on the survivor (person being bullied) whilst they are going through a difficult time.

So which will you pick, to be a spectator (supporting and cheering on the cruel bully) or will you be the small light in the dark room?

Ban on Plastic Bags

Today in social studies I read an article about the Government's decision to ban plastic bags. Although the use of plastic bags has a big safety impact on the environment (animals, seas, etc.) it is very useful to the public.

If they were to ban the use of plastic bags, that will be a big impact on the public especially for those who purchase bags while shopping and then reuse it in the house for trash. In exchange for not banning plastic bags in New Zealand, the public should work together to try and prevent plastic bags from being littered and causing catastrophic impacts on animals and on the land.

Beat the Goalie

Last term as part of our focus on coding we had to choose from three tasks to work on in term 3. All of these tasks included the makey-makey kit and scratch. We had the option of making a game show with buzzers, a band or a game and controllers for a disability. My partners Talita, Moroni and myself chose to make a game & controllers for disabled people.

For the scratch part we took a game that we had already created awhile ago but we twisted it up a bit just so it would be sort of different. We did this so that we could focus more on the hard part; which is finding a disability & creating controllers for the people who have that disability. In creating our game we found it really easy because all we had to do was make different backgrounds and change the characters.

Next we had to research a disability and pick one of them to make suitable game controls for that disability. The disability that we chose to do this for was for people with amputated arms. Because they have no arms; we thought that their controls would have to be on the ground. They would have to step on the keys to control character.

So then we went on to making the controllers. To make them we used cardboard, aluminium tape and wires. The wires were just extensions for the makey-makey chords. The only problem that we had with creating the controls was figuring out how to make the keys work without the players having to hold a certain chord throughout the whole game; which was the earth chord. To solve this problem we had to connect the earth to one end of the wire & the left/right/space chord to the other end of the wire.

Last terms task was actually kind of fun for me. The easiest part overall was connecting the controls with the makey-makey kit. My partners and I had heaps of fun playing against each other at the end of all our hard work. We thought that we did a great job on our game because one of our changes was adding a second player. Here is a link to our game,find someone to play with and enjoy. You can even create your own controls for this if you want to.

Night Light

This google presentation is all about a night light. The night light that this presentation talks about is the moon. The purpose of this night light presentation was to read an article about the moon and how it's gravity affects the tides and then answer the questions in this google presentation.

Speech Reflection

WALT: Reflect our given speech.

This week our task as part our small topic; oral language we had to reflect on our given speech. We had to give a speech in front of our home class to take part in the speech competition later on. Here's how I felt before & after I had given my speech.

Race 2 Space

The space race, what is it? Do you know what the space race is. Check this presentation out and you'll learn all about what the space race is all about.

Pt England vs Tauranga Intermediate

Last week our Rugby 7's boys went over to Tauranga to play against other teams in 7's tournament. Fortunately our boys reached the final and they had to play against Tauranga Intermediate. Our task for this Google Presentation was to read an article then reflect on what was written on it. For the last slide we had to list some features that the writer might have missed out in the article.

Maniakalani Filming Experiences

It's nearly time for our Film Festival and we've been having lots of fun planning & filming our movie for this once a year event. For this special occasion schools from the Manaiakalani Cluster have to prepare class for class movies about anything at all like, comedy, MTV, game show & etc.

During our filming some of us had to just memorize our script on the spot and it was really hard to get our lines right. In our film we have two hosts & I find it really facsinating because both there are two different hosts and they have the same name.

This year in Rm 3 it has been such a struggle trying to film our movie with our school production rehearsals in the way so then we had to film during our learning times. Luckily we were able to complete our movie before the cut off day today.

Phases of the Moon

Hello blog viewers, welcome to my blog. This is a continuation of my learning about our solar system. I have just begun learning about the moon phases and about the Waning & Waxing.

“Phases of the Moon & how they appear the way they appear”

When less than half of the moon is lit by the sun it is called ‘crescent.’ When more than half of the moon is lit by the sun it is called ‘gibbous.’ ‘Waxing Gibbous’ indicates the part of the moon that is lit and growing. Whereas the ‘Waning Gibbous’ is the part of the moon that is lit and shrinking.

There are eight phases of the moon in all. The lunar cycle begins with the ‘New Moon Phase’ this is when the moon is not visible from the earth because the half of the moon that faces away from the earth is lit and we can only see the dark side.

To be continued...

Our Solar System

This is our Solar System. This image is an image of poster that a friend and I created. I'm sure that you've seen a diagram like this. This display was just to show our understanding of the Solar System. You can check out more of my learning about the solar system later on in my learning journey. Thank you.

Fun With Shapes

Walt: Draw a 2D representation of a 3D model. Draw a plan for the side, front and top view of a 3D model.



These slide are just a continuation of our learning from Monday the 28th of august. This presentation will show all of our images and if our buddies had gotten the 3D model correct.

Oral Language

WALT: write a speech to present to take part in our speech competition

Task: In team 5 we had a speech competition. For this activity; every student had to write a speech of any topic. All of us students had to present our speech to our literacy class and we were given a mark by our teacher. We were marked out of 25. To get high scores we had to memorize our speech & look up at the audience. We also had to project our voices so that the teacher heard us from the back of the classroom. 

Speech Finalists: After the teacher had marked us, there were 3 top students selecte to take part in the competition against the other speech finalists from the other classes. Fortunately I was chosen to be one of these finalists along with Yvonne and Atareita.

Which speech appealed mos to me?: When it came to when we had to present our speeches;  most of us were quite nervous. But when we presented it wasn't really obvious. I really enjoyed Mubashir's speech. He spoke about wanting to be a president for one day. He stated some really good points on how to be a cool president. I reckon if Mubashir we to be a president he would be a great one.

There were two judges Mrs Judd and Ms Tapuke. They are the one's who are deciding which person wins the part as being the speaker who gets topeak at our school assembly one Friday. I can't wait to find out who that lucky person is. 

Geometry

Walt - 1): draw a 2D representation of a 3D model 

2) draw a plan for the side, front and top view of a 3D model

Our task was to buddy up with someone and draw a 2D representation of a 3D model.  We had to use our maths books to line out the blocks to make a rocket ship from three views; top, side & front. After we drew our designs we had to show it to our buddy so that they could use actual blocks to make our design. This task was obviously based on geometry. I think that the purpose of this activity was to test our selves to see how much we knew about geometry.

Number Knowledge

Number knowledge, how much do you know about numbers? Well this week I have been learning how to add & subtract negative numbers. While I was completing this google presentation I learnt that when you add a positive to a negative it makes more of a positive. And when you takeaway a big number from a smaller number than it goes into negatives. For example; 12 - 34 = -22 Now you have a go!

GEGNZ Student Summit

Have you ever heard of GEGNZ? Well our Yr 7 & 8 extension group got the opportunity to attend this Google Education Group New Zealand Student Summit. This took place at Ormiston Junior College and Primary on Friday the 11th of August and we were accompanied by many other schools around New Zealand. There about four hundred other students there for this event.



At the beginning of the Summit we all met in the college hall/theatre. The opening speech was from the Young Ocean Explorers. They spoke to us about their underwater adventures and what they had experienced. The explorers were a farther and a daughter. They shared with us their scariest experience and their best experience and it influenced me to be brave around the ocean.

The schools that attended this event got to either explore workshops or host a workshop showing what they had created using technology or coding. There were a lot of fun and creative entertaining workshops we got to choose from on that day. We had three sessions, in our first selection of workshops we were taught how to use all these different entertaining technology, they were, makey makey, Ozmo, Mbot, and many more. In our second session it was our turn to host a workshop, we had at least three people acting as game guiders and the rest of us presented at our stand.