The last week of Term 3 has been an eventful one. On Tuesday we held the Balmacewen Athletic Sports at the Caledonian Ground. The sun shone down strong and helped inspire some great efforts. A big well done to everyone, no doubt tomorrow's assembly will reveal our champions!
We spent Wednesday busily fine tuning our ASPIRE presentations and showed these off to our parents that evening. This was a great night, showcasing the diversity, creativity and knowledge of all Room 9 students. Thanks to all the parents who came along in support and who have helped out with ASPIRE through the term.
Today we had a shared lunch and then we were hosted to a quiz run by Room 4. Thanks to those 'Quizmasters' in Room 4, a well planned and run quiz!
Tomorrow we will wrap up the term by reflecting on our ASPIRE projects, watching a movie, and then taking part in the Fairplay assembly where we'll be inspired by a guest speaker...who will be revealed tomorrow!
Thanks for tuning in to the Room 9 blog. Our term's been great...time for a holiday!
It's been a hive of activity for Room 9 this week as students get near to completing their Term 3 ASPIRE tasks on 'Impact' and prepare to present these at our parents night next Wednesday. As you can see below their's plenty of creative ideas and wonderful research going on. Parents come along next Wednesday night to see more. 7pm in the Balmac Hall.
Woonyoung and her group's presentation on recycling.
Oscar, Andrew and Tarren work on their eco-home design.
Emma and Leonie model their creative recycled shopping bag designs.
Liam and Max creating their movie masterpiece, you'll have to come along to enjoy this!
Devon continues working on her group's blog, another way to present and promote their recycled household goods.
Yiheng and Taylor develop their powerpoint presentation, investigating global food availability and prices.
A huge well done to everyone in Room 9 for giving fantastic speeches last week. The standard was extremely high and made it tough to decide who would go through to the semi finals. In the end Max and Oscar were our reps and they both spoke excellently to the year 8's on Monday morning. We were excited when the judges announced that they have both made it through to the finals on Friday morning. Best of luck Oscar and Max for the school finals held this Friday 9am in the hall.
In Room 9 we've been having some pretty heavy discussions on some of the big issues in the world. Some wonderful thoughts and opinions have been shared and listened to. Students have recently chosen a topic of particular interest to them and after carrying out some research have written a piece of persuasive writing. We hope this piece of writing from Tarren Loughran will get you thinking.
What would YOU do if
you had a terminal illness? I know my choice. I would go get euthanized. Why?
You may ask. Do you think I would WANT to live my life in suffering, pain,
regret? I bet most of you reading this don’t even know what euthanasia is
right? Now is your chance to find out. In this piece of work, I will take you
on a journey explaining what euthanasia is, why New Zealand should legalise it, and
I will tell you the story of the life of someone who has had a rollercoaster
ride switching between life and death, influencing the worlds view on
euthanasia to finally die in peace. But first, let’s start with the info.
Euthanasia is
intentionally ending someone’s or something’s life to relieve pain or
suffering. To everyone that owns a pet you might know this as being “put down”.
There are 3 main types
of euthanasia, voluntary, non-voluntary and involuntary euthanasia. Voluntary
euthanasia is when the person to be euthanized has made the decision
themselves. Non-voluntary is when the person to be killed is unable to choose
themselves, so someone close to them has to make the decision for them.
Involuntary euthanasia is when someone is killed against their will. This is
also called murder. There are also two types of ways to get euthanized, passive
and active. Passive euthanasia means that you die slowly and peacefully. An
example of this is unequipping an iron lung or other types of life support.
Active euthanasia is when you die quickly and painlessly. For example a lethal
injection.
In my opinion,
euthanasia should definitely be legalised in this fine country of ours. People
should be given the right to die. Why? Say you, yes YOU, are suffering from
terminal cancer, stuck in a hospital bed, constantly in pain, endless
injections only prolonging your miserable life? Not only would you be in pain
yourself, what about all your family members? They could do nothing to save
you, shivering in despair of the inevitable waiting to happen. Doesn’t sound
nice does it? There’s only one solution. Euthanisation.
Let me tell you the
story of one person who changed the view of euthanasia around the world. Terri
Schiavo. The story begins when Terri collapses face first onto the pavement,
unconscious. She was rushed to hospital and couldn’t live without complete life
support. In 1998 Michael Schiavo, Terri’s husband, filed a petition to remove
her feeding tube, therefore letting her die rather than suffer. Her parents
opposed this refusing to let Terri die. In 2003 Terri Schiavo got her feeding
tube removed but the government ordered it to be put back in, making her endure
more pain. Terri finally died at a Pinellas Park Hospice in 2005 after having
her feeding tube removed for a second time. Studies show that patients who have
their feeding tube removed usually die a peaceful death. If you were Terri,
what would you do?
I hope I have widened
your knowledge about euthanasia, as well as helping you choose a side in the
everlasting debate over this highly controversial topic. Do you want to live
like Terri Schiavo? Endlessly suffering great pain? This is why I think NZ
should legalise euthanasia. If I want you to take one thing from this it is
this. You have the right to die.
Big thanks to Maddie Guthrie for this entertaining recount of the Year 8 girls cross country.
“Year eight girls!” screamed Mr Napier. The apocalypse is upon us, I thought
to myself as my legs scraped along the turf. Right it’s now or never fake
breaking a leg or something. My mind raced with excuses. Maybe I could hide in
the bathroom, or go home sick because I was sick, sick to death of running.
“There’s no escape Maddie,” I thought, and next thing I knew I was at
the start.
“On your marks get set GO,” we were off!!! Almost instantly I was
puffing. Girls racing ahead made my stomach churn.
“Halfway up cross country hill, at the top of cross country hill,” I
chanted in my head. And then it happened, the first fall. I was turning the
corner of the grassy lumpy hill when the mud grabbed me and pulled me down to
the rotten smelling ground. I heard Mr Yeoman encouraging me to get up. “That’s
it, that’s my excuse, I’ll cry and make a scene, it can end now.” But before I
knew it I was up running and wiping the sticky mud out of my stinging eyes.
“Why am I doing this to myself?” I thought. “Stop while you can Maddie.”
But as usual I kept running, I was screaming at myself, my head throbbed with
pain. The rest of the race was a blur until the next deadly road block. A
chain. All it would take was that stupid chain and I would be free. I felt my
foot stick to the chain and my body lose control, my arms reached out to break
my fall but they were too late. There I was winded and lying face first in the
cold sour smelling mud.
“Right you’ve had your fun, give it up Maddie, you can’t continue.”
But yet again my defiant body got up and ran.
“No!!! You idiot that was your last chance to quit.” But something in me
wanted to finish, I had to finish. With watering eyes and determination I finally
finished 29th. I had never felt so good and so proud that I kept
going and nothing stopped me and then a sickening thought came to mind…I hope Mum likes mud!!!
Today we went outside so we could use all of our senses (sight, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting) to observe our environment. We're going to use our observations to help us write the orientation in our narrative writing. (By Ben Cunningham)
These are some of the observation drawings done by Room 9 students this afternoon. Thanks Erin, Oscar and Taylor for volunteering your work.
