Social Studies - Waitangi Day

The Treaty Of Waitangi. The TOW is New Zealand's founding document. It was signed on the 6th of February 1840, in the Bay of Islands. For a while, it is recognized as a public holiday in NZ. The Treaty was copied into two different versions, a Maori and English. This agreement was then signed by the British Crown and many Maori Rangatira's (Chiefs). There are many values in the Treaty, for example, Partnership, Participation, and Protection.

Although Waitangi day is an official public holiday, not everyone agrees with having to celebrate this day. A lot of people find no relevance in celebrating The Treaty of Waitangi and would rather resort to protesting about it. However, there are proud kiwis' who love to celebrate this day as they find it an accomplishment for NZ.

When it comes to celebrating Waitangi Day my family hardly celebrates this day. We rather like to chill and rest before the following week rolls in. However, when we do celebrate we like to go on outings and spend a nice and fun day together.

To be honest I think learning about Waitangi Day should be optional. Because like I said there are people who love to celebrate this day and who don't. I think students should be able to choose whether they learn about it or not. However, learning about Waitangi Day could be really impactful and good to learn.

9KME // Social Studies ~ Keeping the Haka or not?

Create an argument blog post stating your position on whether the All Blacks should keep the HAKA or not. Write about 100 words (1 -2 paragraphs). The title is: Keeping the Haka or not?
(provide 3 reasons with evidence why people should support your point of view)

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In my opinion, I believe that The All Blacks should keep performing our national Haka. I believe this because the Haka is very important here in NZ. It represents who we are and where we come from. It not only benefits the players spiritually but it also affects the NZers’ that are watching.

I also believe that the Haka should be kept because It is a way to show respect. There are many reasons behind a Haka, and one of them is to express our respect for someone or something. So as the All Blacks’ perform the Haka before every game they are not only challenging their opponents but they’re also showing respect.

Lastly, I believe that the Haka should be kept as It has been a tradition to do the Haka before every game for a long time now. On the 3rd of October 1888 an All Blacks team performed the Haka, they were described as using the words "Ake ake Kia Kaha" which shows that the haka was not "Ka Mate". So from this, you can see how long the Haka has been around and how it has changed during each generation.

So overall I believe that the Haka should remain apart of the All Blacks’ agenda. Also, in my opinion, it doesn’t really have an effect on the opposition as foreigners or opposition players don’t fully appreciate the Haka and understand why The All Blacks’ do it. That is my opinion on whether the Haka should be kept or not. What do you think? Should the Haka be banned or should it be allowed?

9KME // Akomanga Kaihanga ~ Migrant Group Assignment

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Task: Write a blog post explaining why it is important to learn about migration and migrant groups to New Zealand.  IN your summary, you must have these words:  Migration, Empathy.

In my opinion I think it is important to learn about migration and different migrant groups that come to New Zealand. I think this because as new migrant groups come to NZ from different countries they bring their culture along, which is opening our eyes to the different cultural practises and traditions they share in their country. I also think it's important to learn about migration because many migrant groups that arrive in NZ go onto bigger and better things that they get recognized for. So it could become a good lesson to learn about them and their achievements. Other than that I also think that NZ citizens should show empathy towards immigrants as they are just trying to get better education or a more relaxed lifestyle. Because one day it could be one of them becoming a immigrant to migrate to a different country.

9KME // Health ~ Te Whare Tapa Wha - Hauora

Te Whare Tapa Wha is basically a four-dimensional house that contains the four walls of our well-being. The four walls/sides of our whare are Taha Tinana (Physical), Taha Whānau (Social), Taha Wairua (Spiritual) and Taha Hinengaro (Mental/Emotional). These four dimensions contain keywords that relate to our well-being.

The first dimension displayed is Physical, also known as Taha Tinana in the Māori language. Our physical well-being gives us the ability to move, to develop physically and so much more. Our physical well-being can be affected in a positive way which would mean this dimension would be strong, but then it can also be affected in a negative way which could mean this dimension could be weak or in a negative condition. For example, I have maintained my well-being in a positive way as I got back into Waka-Ama. Physically it affected me positively because I have been able to get some exercise into my daily life.

The next dimension is Social, or in Māori - Taha Whānau. This dimension represents our Social well-being. Our social well-being is when we communicate with the people we are surrounded by in our daily lives. Our social well-being can be affected both positively and negatively. But recently my social well-being has been in positive condition as I reunited with some old friends from my Waka-ama team. As I reunited with them it felt as if our friendship blossomed more and we became closer.

Another dimension is our spiritual well-being or in Māori, Taha Wairua. Our spiritual well-being can be affected in a positive or negative way. Depending on who we are our spiritual beliefs can be different from how others view it, but nonetheless our spiritual well-being still has a huge impact on our lives no matter who we are. There are many aspects to our spiritual well-being that plays a huge role in our spiritual well-being. For example, we have our self-esteem, values, self-awareness, etc.

The last dimension we have is Mental/Emotional also known in Māori as Taha Hinengaro. In my opinion, this dimension is one of the most important walls of our well-being whare as it can impact your life hugely. This is because the different thoughts and mindsets your brain and mind take in have many different effects on you. This aspect of your well-being can be really weak but can also be strong, but it can have a huge effect in the end.

How do the four dimensions interconnect? As all four dimensions create our whare, it can be described as a whare that represents all the aspects of our well-being. All four of these dimensions interconnect because they all play a part in our well-being. If one of these dimensions is weak or crumbling it could have a small impact on our whare. But if most dimensions are extremely weak it could have a huge impact on our well-being to the point where we’d be unhealthy in all or most aspects of our well-being. So, in conclusion, the different aspects of our well-being are really important as each and every one of them needs to be positive and healthy for our well-being to be stable.

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This here is some work we were focusing on in Health class. In health, we learned about 'Te Whare Tapa Wha'. It's a whare made up of four dimensions that represent the aspects of our well-being. We then made a model of what we wanted our whare to look like (Photo above). We then had to write an explanation on each dimension and what they represented. So this blog post will display my model and explanation. I hope you enjoy it.

9KME // Akomanga Kaihanga ~ Social Studies Homework

Talofa Lava my name is Makayla. I am a Year 9 student at Tamaki College. I am in a PBL class (Project Based Learning) called Akomanga Kaihanga. It is a group of lucky students who were chosen to be apart of a class that is on a trial run.

In our class we were put into groups to create a project to improve or help our community. I was put into a group with Tiana, Grace, Kurtas, Leiite, Siaosi and myself. Our group is called ‘The Polys’. the main purpose we agreed to focus on was to bring our community together.

To bring our community together we are planning on hosting a Touch Tournament. Our touch tournament will be held every Friday for four weeks. Our touch tournament will have grades from Year 5-6, Year 7-8, Year 9-10, Year 11-13 and a family grade that has no limit on ages. It will be held at The Point England Reserve or the Tamaki College field on different dates.

We are hoping that this project will help bring our community together. We have chosen this project as it can benefit our community by being a source to others around us to create a new friendship, relationship, and bond with others. 

In my opinion, this project is a great and creative idea. I have a feeling that many people will want to participate just for the game. But then they will eventually meet new people and possibly create a new friendship. I am also hoping that old friendships will also blossom more from this tournament. Lastly I am also hoping that I will get to meet new people and create new friendships and bonds.

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Here is the homework we were given in Social Studies. It is a small description of my group, who's in my group, What our project it, what issue our group is trying to raise awareness of and more. We also had to include a small introduction of ourselves and how we feel about our project.

Winter Learning Journey 2017

Summer Learning Journey - 2016-2017