The Outdoor Classroom

The weather was so hot last week that we decided to embrace the gentle breeze, shady pohutukawa trees and lush meadow. The Year 6s moved their puberty lesson outside to look at some scenarios we might face at home and school. The lesson focused on the different ways to respond to each situation and then decide on the best outcome. We identified responses that were passive, aggressive or assertive.
Hopefully the next time a younger sibling begins annoying them, they will know how to respond in a thoughtful and caring way....
Luckily rain was forecast for that evening (4 seasons in one day) so our chalkboard would be clean for the following day.

What would you do in these situations?

Buddy Art - the finished product

Last week we were able to help our buddies complete their cottages using the Indian ink technique that we learnt in term 3.
Mel was a machine as she lined up the younger children to coat the art in  ink before the rinsing process. I think you will agree that the finished products look fantastic.
Superb buddy work guys!

Recording History

Over the past two weeks we have recorded 12 oral history interviews. The students have been amazing. They have shown themselves to be a fantastic group of historians.
Each group has embraced the challenges set for them over this short period and produced some informative and entertaining results. They start each interview with a quick tour of the school and this has enabled them build a rapport with their interviewee before getting down to the business of recording their memories of CQS. At the beginning of this term we heard a lot about the importance of listening and then building on the conversation by asking further questions. Each group has come through this with flying colours.

We have faced a couple of technical challenges with the wonders of Skype. The group interviewing at the time had a couple of connection issues but managed to work around this on their own and get  the interview back on track. Nice work guys!

It is always great having the debrief after the interview, as each group discusses some of the interesting points raised by the interviewee and we get to listen to a snippet of it. We also get to talk about some of the tricky situations they found and brainstorm as a class how to work around this if another group faces a similar issue.

The next step for each group will be to pull all the relevant information out of their interview and find a way to group this in a meaningful way. This will not be an easy task as many of the interviews reach an hour in length - lots of information to record and process.

Of course there is no rest yet as we still have 4 more interviews to go over the next couple of weeks.
A BIG thank you again to all the ex pupils and teachers of Clyde Quay who have made this process possible. They have been incredible by giving their time to us and sharing so many amazing stories.

First day of Oral History recordings

It has been a busy day in Matai with four ex students coming to visit us today. Each of the groups will report back to the blog later on but it was great to hear their feedback on the interviews. We discussed some of the things that went well and points that groups in the future needed to focus on, so they could learn from any difficulties that past groups faced. It was interesting to hear some of the stories from the four ex students as they spanned the decades of 1940s to 1960s at Clyde Quay School.
A HUGE thank you for their contribution to our oral history inquiry, travelling to the school and giving us their valuable time.

Here are some of the artifacts they shared today - including a report from the dux of the school.

Getting ready for our Oral History interviews

We had a busy morning preparing for our interviews that start this week. As a class we looked at the different aspects of school life and how this might have been different for students over the last 125 years. As a whole class we built some criteria around how a good interview will look and sound and then agreed upon our question line. The photo shows us in our inquiry groups practicing our interviewing skills - especially the listening and following up with questions to give us more information during the conversation. We have 3 ex students arriving tomorrow to be interviewed so it is time for us to have a final honing of the skills.

Here is the question line and criteria we have created for the recording of the oral histories:

The brief for each group of students is to:

• Record the interview.
• Greet and thank the interviewee.
• LISTEN to the conversation you are having - ask questions for clarification or to expand on information given.
• Think of this as a conversation rather than an interview - you are there to learn about Clyde Quay’s history…. so enjoy the process!

QUESTION LINE:

Growing up in Mt Victoria/ School Community.

Best and/or worst memories.

How were people treated - including feelings and attitudes of students and teachers.

Punishment/ Rules/ Responsibilities of students.

Playground/ Lunches/ Popular with students/ Use of spare time.

Buildings and Classrooms at Clyde Quay School.

Teachers and teaching style at Clyde Quay School.

Clothing worn.

How do you view things as being different now?

Halloween Buddy Reading

Some of the Matai students are lucky enough to get some buddy reading time  - 1 on 1 with one of the school's parents. Of course dressing up is not necessary!

If you would like to help out with buddy reading and have a spare half hour in your day, please contact Kerry and she would love to match you up with one of our lovely students!

#Like a girl