10 Ways Manners Help The World Go Better

Having good manners is a crucial thing that we all have to have. To pay respect, lessen, talk and act with respect is something that we do sometimes without even thinking but sometimes and some people have to try a lot harder and be mindful to always use their manners. We ALL have to try some harder at different points in our life but we all have days where nothing is right. These are 10 different ways that manners help the world go better:

1. When interacting in simple conversation such as, hello or how are you, we are meant to respond in a positive and respectful way not yell, shout or ignore. Even if this feels like something not so big to you it makes the other person feel genuinely better. After all who wants to be ignored?

2. After eating, crafting or making something we always have to make sure we leave the place as clean as we can and if you move stuff this means you put it back. This also means you have to make sure you get up, move and do your part to clean and tidy up after yourself no matter where you are or who you're with.

3. If you borrow something from another person you have to make sure that you return the thing in the same condition as it was given to you in. This means if you get glue or something on it you clean it up. This means the person who gave it to you will let you borrow something again.

4. If you swear at home, that's ok and possibly normal but home is not everywhere. Places like supermarkets, schools or anywhere you will interact with other people, (So pretty much everywhere) you have to be mind full of your language. Whether this is around younger people or not it is still highly effective and you should NOT walk around swearing all you like.

5. Although it can be fun to tease and play around with your friends not everybody likes it. Friends might take it as a joke and you can laugh it off together but others will find it highly rude. By not doing this it will keep from lots of people feeling bad about themselves.

6. When you complement, encourage or help someone it will not only brighten their day it will make you feel really good about yourself and will encourage you to do it more often to others.

7. Kindness makes EVERYONE feel good. Even if someone isn’t having a good day and you try and help them it can be extremely hard for that person to thank you but even just by talking to them you can know that it will make them feel better even if not right away.

8. When talking, by keeping your voice quiet and not barging into their space this crests a peaceful and pleasant conversation for both of you.

9. Sometimes when we do lots of work and use heaps of integrity it might get to a point where we feel like we just aren't getting noticed at all. This is when we need to keep pushing on and doing the right thing and even if they don’t say it directly to you, you helping could be making a world of difference.

10. Honesty is one of the main things that help with all friendships. Being truthful not only means they trust you but your bond with that person will grow. If dosn;t take much time for people to trust you but it takes a LOT longer for people to trust you after you lie.

Tech!

Today for tech we swapped classes so we could learn two new things. My first block was cooking and for this term we are taking lots of traditional foods so today we made a Hāngi. It had kumra, pumkin, potato, chicken and carrot. It was really nice and steamy and I loved eating it. We also looked at how you make a Hāngi the proper way, in the hole in the ground. After break we went into Digi Tech. We started by looking at a game that our teacher, Ms Gormen, showed us a game she had started to make on Scratch, with a figure having to jump up some stairs, one of witch is moving to get a key without falling it the fire below and then come back down to collect a coin. We started at level 4 and Kirsten and I worked our way up until we were at level 6 with it all working and moving. In the free time afterwards we corrected a few glitches and cheats. They were both really fun and I can't wait for next week!

Geomerty!

 As the end of the year is getting closer we have been moving into geometry. We started today by identifying shapes then counting the numbers of faces, edges and verticals of lots of different shapes. I found I remembered a lot of the stuff I've learnt from last year. It was really fun and I can't wait until we do more angles. 

Writing Sample!

As the end of the year is getting closer we did a writing sample that all the year 7 and 8s do to see how their writing has improved. We had the topic of, It is wrong to fight. We could choose how we wanted to take that, whether it was verbal, physical or the sport. I think I did pretty well in the time frame given and I hope you enjoy.


It Is Wrong To Fight -Clara
Yes.

Fighting is an ongoing problem in our world and we have to all work together to stop it. But what is it we are really trying to stop?

What really is fighting? There are two main types of fighting, physically hitting, punching, kicking or any form of hurting them or verbally bickering with someone. Though physically can bring a lot of pain that doesn't mean that verbally words don’t. Though both forms of fighting can start off as funny antics; it can escalate very quickly, resolving with someone in pain, either inside or outside. As it can spread across the school like a bad sickness, the amount of fighting going on increases. This is why you have to make sure you can always get help when you need it.

If you are on the receiving end of fights it is essential that you have someone to talk to. The weight of being fought with will drop itself onto your shoulders and each day will become harder for you to get out of bed. Making sure you have someone to talk to releases that pressure on you and help with your mental health. In 2017 a study showed that kids in grade 9-12 have reported being in a physical fight from 2001 to 2017. At another school about half of students male (51%) Female (40 %) have been hit physically once or twice on purpose in the last year. These results show just how important it is that we confide and seek help from others. There are also some numbers you can call or text if you just want to tell someone about your situation: Lifeline (0800 543 354) or text 4357 for free, Child healthline (0800 611 116).

What if you have to protect yourself?
If you're in a dangerous or dodgy position you have the complete right to defend and protect yourself and others around you in any form whether verbally or physically but we just have to make sure a dangerous situation doesn't get mixed up with a non dangerous one. Fighting is also a hugely supported sport where they chose to put themselves in a position of possible danger and pain. Whilst agreeing that fighting should not be allowed in our community I appreciate that fighting is a popular sport and if in use of self defence it's fine but at the same time we all need to make sure that fighting whether verbally or physically is not ok.

So my point is that fighting as an act of self defence is supported and if you get attacked randomly you have the complete right to defend yourself but we have to make sure that there is a clear difference between an attack and just a friendly hussle but just trust yourself and always follow your gut feeling.

Analysis!!!

This is my story I have done with two of my friends. We should have done a lot more and managed our time a bit better but what we have is pretty good. Bluebell analyzed mine and highlighted the appearance in yellow, environment in green, actions in red and words that help you understand the character in blue. I also did the same in her writing.  Before we have writing this scene we had been looking a lot into what authors and directors do specific things to help develop by making deliberate choices like in Harry Potter we looked at Ron wearing old and scrappy hand me down clothes wear as Hermione is neat, tidy and dressed in robes All these small things help us as readers understand more about who the character is.

In this is the writing I did with Isla and Kirsten we where working on all of the aspects, appearance, actions, environment and speech that we use to build the character and when Bluebell went through looking for this stuff we could really see what we need to do more of (Appearance) and what we did quite well, (Speech). I am quite happy with our work and Kate seems like a pretty cool girl even if concided a geek!

A cramp starts to prickle up my arm and I shake it, trying to get rid of the pain. The noise of students chattering is a noisy blur as I return to my essay. A tall girl with dark brown curls cascading down her back kicked my foot and I wince, rubbing my tow. “Hahaha” the girl sniggered, smirking down at me, “Look at Katie-pie, the loner” 

I glance at her quickly then train my gase back to the ground, swiping at a lock of blond hair of my face.

Her friend rolls her eyes, “Come on Mia, she’s not worth our time”. With a last seething glance Mia stalks away with her friend in tow and I lose them in the crowd in seconds, though just before the door at the end of the corridor closes, I can just here the yell of “Lovey, lonely loner” 

I bit my lip and tried to ignore the burn in my eyes. I glance back down at papers in my hand and the title in big writing, ‘Hemiptera in the Rainforest’. 

“ They're, hemiptera, 7.6 million per square meter” I gobble midlessley, getting a few weird glances from the last of the students leaving but I'm used to it by now.

 I glance up when a pair of green and brown spotty shoes stop in front of me. “Himph, here we go” I mutter under my breath and pretend to not notice her standing there. 

“Kate, Kate” Miss Darins says softly but I keep my eyes down and continue scribbling on the paper. “Kate, love are you alright?”

“Mmm yep, fine” I say, not really paying attention. 

She bends down so she is crouched beside me and I get hit by a wave of perfume. “Where are all your friends”

I frown and glance away, watching the last few stranglers as they push through the double doors.  “Don’t have any” 

“Oh darling” The teacher breaths right in my face and I push back against the wall, skewing my face up slightly. “I can find you some”

Oh because teachers were for finding people friends. I clench my hands to force myself not to roll my eyes. 

“My books are all the matters to me” I say, my mind wandering. “Anyway I should keep studying” 

A look of maybe hurt or confusion flashed across her face but she quickly re Reuters to her normal expression. “Right and I have to get to a meeting” She stands up and flattens her already flat skirt. “Bye Kate” She says in a clipped voice then hurriedly walks down the hall, disappearing into one of the class rooms. I push against the wall and die inside.

Sailing On Lake Rua!

On Tuesday all the year eights in our class went on a sailing trip. We had a bus to take us all but my friends and I went on the van. Once we arrived we put all our stuff to the side and split into two groups. In our groups we got into groups of 2 or 3 we got taught how to rig up a boat! There where lots of names to remember but here are some: The main sail, the blood know, the boom, tiller exctention, the sprit and the center board. One we had the boats all ready and sails up we had a quick morning tea them changed into our gear. We then took some of the boats out onto the water and took turns going out, around a buoy them turned around, ducking under the sail and came back. It was really fun and I would happly have gone again but we went in for lunch. After we ate we took all the boats into the water and when a boat came in we would send another out. I sailed a few times then spent the rest just helping people get off and then others get on. At the end when all the boats where away we jumped in the water and had a great swim. It was heaps of fun and would love to do again.

Tangram!

Today in math we did some tangram! They where quite hard and my brain got very sore but in the end I got some really cool shapes. These are the ones I got, A swan, wolf and a horse! For the wolf I had to flip and rotate lots of the shaps ao they would fit perfectly into the shape.

Optional Uniforms?!

As part of our literacy we have been doing some daily persuasive writing and this is my favorite one I have done so far. Do you agree with my thoughts?



School uniforms should definitely be optional. Sending your child to school all smartly in a matching school uniform might have some parents pleased but others it puts stress on the fact of having to pay for what their kid has to wear.
As parents you want to send your child feeling happy and comfortable and having them in the same clothes as everybody else might make them feel like they blend in.
Being able to wear whatever you want could also help with learning because they could be more comfortable and then able to learn and focus better. Some people believe that having their kids go to school with a school uniform will give them a sense of identity but I think that it blurs their identity and they look pretty much the same as other students.
A US study found that students that wore their own clothes were better academically than people who wore uniforms.
I hope you now realize that uniforms should NOT be compulsory.

Healing Garden Science!

This year as part of our science Kirsten and I planed and learnt about a healing garden. I learned heaps throughout this and I hope you can do the same.

Before doing this I knew:

That Lemon Ginger tea helped with sore throats and blocked noses.

Chamomile helps with sleep.

This is our plan of our garden and attached is the sunlight and watering plans.
I now know all about what each plant dose :

German Chamomile - Help with calming and sleep.


Echinacea Tea - Helps with colds.

Lemon and Ginger drink - Helps with colds, sore throats.


Green tea - lowers the risk of heart disease , helps protect against cancer.And what soil each plant grows in:
German Chamomile - Well drained sandy soil
Echinacea Tea -Dry and sandy, not moist
Lemon - Grow best in sandy soil
Ginger - Ginger grows better in loamy.
Green tea - Well drained, moist soil in a pot

We have worked really hard with this and I hope you have learnt something new!