This term held final exams for the Year 9 students and one last NZQA standard for the Year 10 students. Outside of testing, we had a blast. The whole term focused on Algebra, which lets you get into some really fun real word applications - such as speed dating. I used this a few times in my classes with great success, it was so easy to do and it got so many kids talking to classmates that they would not normally have talked to as they were solving problems.
We also played "Algebra Survivor" - a game from a website called coolmath.com. We had some great online and in class games played where teams could earn survivor points that were then tabulated for the grandest prize of classroom history - CHOCOLATE!
All of the learning aside, I absolutely LOVED the last day of school - and not just because it was the last day of school. The kids I taught all year did some AMAZING things. There was a Christmas concert in the first part of the morning - man, can these kids SING! Their voices are clear, powerful and full of passion and love. All of the instruments were played by the kids and the choir was fantastic. It was a chill inducing morning with all of the talent in the room and all the LOVE the audience gave to their peers. There were kids rushing the stage after each performance to shower their classmates and friends love with hugs and kisses, high fives and general congratulations. It was a beautiful show of love, support and the recognition of the courage it took some of these kids to get up and share their talents.
After the concert, we had prize giving which was another ceremony that looks somewhat like it does at home, but again the love and recognition by the students for their friends was overwhelming. After each section of awards, when photos were being taken, friends and families would again rush the stage with big messages of congratulations, hugs, kisses and candy leis. I have not seen this before, and didn't take any photos of the leis (I should have!), but I did find something similar online.
The awards ceremony ended with one of the coolest things I have ever seen a school do for a student. There is a boy, Soape, (who I was lucky enough to teach this year - not only talented with music, but also academically and a very likable kid) who posted one of his music assignments to youtube (see it here). It was seen by Agnes Tupou (who the song was written about - by her husband) and the music department was able to arrange to have STKS (the guy who wrote the song) come in and perform with Soape to close out the awards ceremony. You can see the video of this performance here. How the music department kept this a secret from the students and almost all the staff was amazing.
I'm off for a few weeks now - until January 22nd - and we have a BIG vacation planned with Mark's family (parents and brothers) arriving in the next few days. I'm already looking forward to the next Polyfest (music/dance/cultural competitions), but not wishing my summer away.
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