Tuesday, March 2, 2010

About Us!

Akuhata -  The most interesting thing I have ever seen was my cat having kittens.
Zak - My favourite sports are hockey and rugby. My favourite subject is maths.
Shiloh - My favourite subject is science, and if I had 1 wish it would be to never get told off.
Kyle - My favourite subject is maths, and my favourite sport is soccer.
Zach.N - If I had 1 wish it would be to play for AC. Milan.
Andre - If I had 1 wish it would be to stop world hunger and poverty. The funnest place I have ever been to is Leisure World.
Thomas - The funnest thing I have ever done is going on a world trip.
Bronson - If I had 1 wish it would be to jump off a plane with no parachute.
Zietse - If I had 1 wish I would wish to meet Chad Reid.
Daniel - If i had 1 wish I would wish to be able to fly.
Rose - If i had 1 wish I would wish to get a dog.
Kahleina - The funnest place I have ever been to is Rainbows End.
Aroha - I like reading and writing.
Brittany - I love swimming at the beach.
Logan- The funnest place I have ever been to is Rainbow beach.
Jayda - The funnest thing I have ever done is representing the Bay of Plenty hockey team.
Madison - I love doing rock climbing and knee-boarding.
Chelsie - The funnest thing I have ever done is when I went to Samoa and I rode a train around Samoa.
Liam - I am excellent at martial arts, and I really want to go scuba diving over a coral reef.
Rua - If I had 1 wish I would wish to never die.
Shakyra - I enjoy drawing, and the funnest thing I have ever done in my life would have to be going to Disney Land, and going to Los Angeles.
Kaleb - The funnest thing I have ever done is when I went to Australia to all of the theme parks. If I had one wish it would to have all the money that existed in the world.
Jack - The funnest thing I have ever done in my life would have to be shooting off guns at the shooting range. If I had 1 wish it would be to have 1 million more wishes.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Kia Ora and welcome to Jackson 4 in 2010

My name is Terry van Dijk, I am the teacher for Jackson 4 in 2010 and I warmly welcome all new members of our class and their parents. It is going to be a very exciting year. There are lots of great things going to happen and I am sure everyone in the Jackson 4 team will enjoy themselves.

This year’s class motto will be "The map is not the territory". There are many ways to look at this motto and they are all fine. For me at this stage of the year it means "keep an open mind, look for other possible solutions and keep on believing in yourself and your dreams."
The door in Jackson 4 is always open for parents, so you are invited to stop by for a chat, a concern or even to help out during class hours.
The first five weeks of term 1 will be about getting to know each other, the class, digital learning in the fun and friendly environment of Jackson 4. We will also have some tests to provide data for our next learning steps. There will be a lot of student input in the planning of lessons and units and the actual learning itself. Running this blog, setting up and running a website are just a few of the exciting things we will look at.
The focus in these weeks will be on hands-on activities to create an effective learning environment that fosters both self-worth and diversity within a caring and inclusive classroom, Jackson House and the school.Already planned for the second week of the year are 2 fun swimming days, term 2 we will have camp, and we will also have an exciting tip at the end of the year. Next to English we will look at a few languages this year, eg. Te Reo Maori, Dutch, Spanish and French or German.


For those interested in my personal background:
Before I took up teaching in 2004 I had an extensive career in Law, Management and as a business owner. I was born in the Netherlands and have lived in several countries around the world before moving to New Zealand in 2004. Currently I live in Papamoa with my wife Danny-Eva and 2 children, Sarah (7) and Julian (4).
My hobbies and passions are: football, rugby, and most other sports, photography, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, scenery, different cultures and travelling.

I am very excited to meeting both the students and parents and hope to see you soon!


Kind regards
Terry van Dijk