Our Future Focus Poster

During reading time, we were given a challenge by our teacher Mrs Nua to create a digital learning object (DLO) about Future Focus Learning. My friends and I got together and had a planning session to decide what we could make for this task. After a while, we came to an agreement on doing a poster. We thought it would be different to what everyone else was doing since the majority of DLOs that were being created were movies. This movie shows the process of our poster and what meanings are behind the things in it.

Laita drew, painted and came up with what objects should be in this awesome painting. She was involved a lot in this and did an amazing job. Although, all of us contributed really well and worked pretty hard. Enjoy!

Tattoo Mini Project

This is a task that we were given by Mrs Tele'a. We had to create two tattoos. One that was cultural and one that had elements that represented you. Here is a presentation that includes my tattoos. They each have an explanation so you can understand the meaning behind them.

If the presentation isn't working for you, I have put the explanations here too. By the way, there is a LOT of writing.

My first tattoo is called the Fata ‘o Tu’i Tonga. It is a portrayal of the central beam in the King’s house. More specifically, of the sennit bindings that hold the central beam, which supports the thatched roof. So why did I choose this particular Tongan pattern as one of my two tattoos?

The Fata ‘o Tu’i Tonga symbolizes unity, strength and coming together. This was exactly the reason why I chose it. I thought it reminded me of family - distinctly, my family -. When I saw the Fata ‘o Tu’i Tonga and it’s the meaning behind it, it reminded me of all the times my extended family has given my parents and I a helping hand. It’s a pretty significant design since one of the many things I value is family.

In this slide, I have included my own tattoo design that I created. It is based off of the things I value the most; Friendship, Trust and Animals. These are more of symbols than they are patterns and drawings.

As you can see, one of the symbols are in a different language. When translated, it means trust. You may be wondering what this language is. It is Kanji. Kanji is used in the modern Japanese writing system. So why would I include Kanji in my tattoo? Another thing that I value is culture and language. I thought instead of using the Tongan language, I would use a language that was foreign to me and that I was fascinated with. And that was Japanese.

Behind the friendship symbol is a pawprint. The main reason why I used a dog pawprint to represent animals was because I absolutely love dogs. Another reason why was because I recently lost a close family member. Sisa. He was my dog that I grew up with in Tonga. I had received him when I was aged one and at the time Sisa was just a pup. So we were really close since we LITERALLY grew up together. This symbol really did mean a lot to me. I actually hope one day I will get this tattoo.

I would say this tattoo is also apart of my own design. It shows my religion, family and culture.

The flower is supposed to be a franjapaini. It represents where I was born: Tonga. Popping up behind it is a koru. This represents New Zealand. Overall, this shows where I was born and where I am currently living.

The stick figures may look a little out of place but they symbolize my parents. I used the cliche gender colours blue and pink to identify them.

They are big part of my life and although they may have problems in their relationship, they’re still making an effort for me.

I think doing this task and all the research about tattoos and symbolism we did has really helped me understand symbolism and my culture. Everything has a meaning behind it. Whether, it’s the symbol on your school uniform, the tattoo your uncle has or that tick on your Nike shoes.

My friends and I have talked a lot about tattoos and what we were going to get etched on our bodies when we were older. The past seven weeks have really broadened my mind on tattoos. They are a form of art on people’s bodies, especially when they have meaning behind them. That’s when they become symbolic and can be a constant reminder for you.

What's Been Up at Extension?

Extension has been taking closer looks at tattoos and symbolism. Specifically polynesian tattoos. We researched about it and even created our own designs but we had never really seen the real thing. Although a bunch of us had already seen a pe'a before due to someone in their family having one. Anyway, Mr Tele'a was invited to come to one of our extension sessions to show us his traditional samoan tattoo. Whether we had already seen one or not, it was still a really good way to expand our knowledge.

He came to give us a personal view on what's it like to get a pe'a (samoan tattoo). Not only that but to give us a closer look at the intricate designs.

Mr Tele'a was a really good model and teacher. We all prepared questions to ask him and he answered them with great detail.  The questions varied from: 'What did your parents think when you wanted to get a tatau?' to 'What did you do to get your mind off the pain?' and many others. He explained and showed us what parts were meaningful to him and the reasons behind them.

For example, there was a 20-30 cm wide black strip that started underneath his armpit and wrapped itself around his back to the other side of his body under the opposite armpit. To an uninformed person, it would look like a patch of green on his backside but it actually held a big amount of meaning. This part of the full pe'a is supposed to be a canoe or va'a. The va'a represents the family who the wearer of the tattoo has to always protect. (Click image underneath for an actual look)

Because the extension group have been looking at tattoos and symbolism, we were given mini project that we had to complete. This task was to create our very OWN tattoo. There were two crucial things we had to include in our tattoos. One was to use or make a symbol of any part of our culture or heritage and the other was to create a symbol to represent yourself. Currently, I have nearly finished my work. I have already completed the cultural side of this project and am still working on my own symbol.

Year 8 Camp

Camp was full of so many fun activities! I had so much fun, I wish it lasted longer than it did. Going on the Year 8 Camp gave me the opportunity to get to know my peers outside my usual group of friends which was really awesome.

Out of the four days, I least enjoyed day 1 of the camp. After, taking a 1-2 hour bus ride, we arrived at Langs Beach where we began a tramp towards Waipu Cove. Ms Squires had planned for it to be a nice elegant walk but thanks to the weather, the track had become slippery and muddy. This lead to a number of falls.

Not only was it a very long walk but it was also a pretty dangerous one. We traveled up hills and jagged rocks that were rather narrow and some of us were very close to plunging to our deaths. Thankfully, we all survived. I, myself got a few battle scars but overall, I was fine.

When Day 3 came along, I was extremely excited. It was - for me - the most anticipated day. We were scheduled to do a bunch of activities varying from archery to toasting marshmallows to kayaking. Plus, that night was when had a campfire where we sang some songs.

Toasting marshmallows was my highlight of that day. I had never eaten roasted marshmallows prior to that experience so it was pretty special. My teammates and I gathered around the fire as we stuck our marshmallows on the tips of our sticks. One by one, we set them above the fire. Mine caught a blaze a few times but I didn’t really mind. In fact, I ended up really liking the burnt taste.

Colour Wheel

This is the colour wheel. It has the primary colours, secondary and tertiary colours. I created this because it was a task that was given to us by our teacher, Ms Pagdet. I tried to interpret all the colours that are in the actual colour wheel and this is the final outcome.

Tangled Artwork Explanation

A tangle art piece is exactly how it sounds. They are pieces that intertwine together to create a celtic knot. Producing this tangled artwork makes a great team project as each person is able to incorporate themselves in their designs. Being that now Class 1 and Class 5 are conjoined (Panuba), this is the activity that was attempted.

Initially, it’s important to plan. Look up patterns, symbols and different designs. However, do include elements that represent you. A less busy pattern look the finest, due to how they are not full of details. They tend to look broader and stick out more to the eye than a more intricate design. I constructed myself a template to follow so that could be an ideal thing you could use when drawing.

Limiting yourself to just one colour will produce the best result. Too many can ruin the repetition of the pattern. When the final product came out, I noticed that the pieces with warm colours looked the best. So preferably, use a distinct hue that will make your designs pop.

When putting everything together, label your pieces so you will know where each is placed. Labels such as Yellow for the corners, Green for the middle pieces etc etc. When the final product comes out, it looks awesome. Especially with all the different designs intertwining together.

My Avatar

In my class, we have Self Management Level Board. There are three levels on it. Level 1: I need help managing myself. Level 2: I'm able to manage myself but can get off task and Level 3: I am able to manage myself inside and outside the classroom. 

This is my avatar that I created to represent myself on that board. I'm currently thinking of placing myself on Level 3 since I am a trust worthy person who can manage really well without a teacher. 

In this picture, I have my favourite animal; the wolf. Taki, which is my House Team and a bunch of symbols at the bottom which represents my favourite book characters.

Term 4 Day 1

For the last term of 2014, Class 1 and Class 5 were put together to create Mafia Ono (although, the class hasn't decided that name yet). Now that the two have been merged, Class 1 has now got 3 teachers instead of two. It was quite a surprise to hear this from Mrs Nua but yesterday proved that being with Class 5 wouldn't be so bad.

My friends and I have been in and out of classes since last year so it was very different to hear that our class would no longer be on it's own. Not to mention that we just received our new class last term after two terms of living outside of the senior block.