Kotahitanga to me means making strong connections within the team. I think Kotahitanga is also about using common sense like identifying when someone is down. You should go and check up on them as well and be able to have a growth mindset for yourself and teammates. Kotahitanga also means unity, togetherness, and solidarity. It recognises the diversity of people and supports collective action and achieving unity when coming together. Kaitiakitanga represents the responsibilities of guardianship and stewardship. 

We have been elected into 4 teams. We each have responsibilities within our team. My team name is The Greys. There are seven people in The Greys myself, Tiana, Brooklyn, Jerimiah, Blue, Javon and Elisha. We as a collective decide who was going to be what. The roles we collectively decided to share were Manger, referee, coach, captain,  status keeper. My responsibilities for our team is to ref the game and teach the team the fundamental rules of volleyball. Tiana and Blue both share a role which is being the captain and leading our team with warm ups, warm downs, skills and drills. Brooklyn was given the best job in my opinion, which is being the COACH. His job was to plan what our lessons looked like as well as help when he was needed. Jeremiah Job is the stats keeper. Elisha is the manager’s his job is to tick our checklist to see if everyone brought a full change of gear and keep us organized. Javon did not have a job as he entered our class late. The Greys adapted to the addition of a new player pretty well. We as a team encouraged and uplifted Javon as he came into our team. 

During the past lessons we have done practical we have showcased Kotahitanga within our team very well. We imply it into our practical lessons by communicating and motivating each other when one fails. We celebrate the good and bad things we do with a chant. It goes IIII AAAA (clap clap ). This uplifts us as a team and encourages us to keep pushing through when we get down. We also celebrate post game with another chant and it goes The Greys ( clap clap ). We  show Manaakitanga to each other by listening to whoever is trying to give feedback or feedforward. 

Tuakana Teina comes naturally to me because I like to impart my matauranga to other people to uplift their experiences within sports. Some players in my team had little skill for Volleyball and some had more skill level than others. The struggle I had was extending the different levels of ability and ensuring everybody was focused and gained knowledge and skill each practical session. I often got defaulted with the ones that had less ability which made it tiresome but it made it very rewarding because I could see the progress that they were making and the excitement that he had when he felt successful. 

In our Health class we have been learning about Fonofale and Te Whare Tapa Wha and the differences between the two. The first model is Te Whare Tapa Wha there are four pou in this model and they each have a side that represents you in different ways. Firstly we have Taha Tinana which stands for your physical side, Taha Wairua which represents your spiritual well-being, Taha Hinengaro is your mental and emotional well-being and lastly Taha whanau which is the social dimension.

The other model is Fonofale has four pillars, They are being spiritual, physical, mental and other. ( other stands for your sexual/sexuality age and socio-economic ). This model is specifically for Pacific islanders but it can also relate to others. 

There are some similarities between the two models. One of them being the fact that there are four pou/pillars that are different but share similar meanings. Another similar thing between the two models is that they are both meant to help people with their, physical well-being, spiritual, emotional mental, family and social health. 

The differences between these two models are that there are different tikanga/traditions within the models and cultures.

This is an image I made on Google image implying my digital skills.

RAK stands for Random acts of kindness. It is about being kind to others no matter what, whether it is big or small. It could be something as little as using your manners, opening a door, saying hello to someone or giving someone a hug when they’re feeling a little down. You should not always expect kindness in return because you should just give and observe how they receive it. You can usually tell when someone is okay and when they’re not by their response they give you. RAK can connect to Te Whare Tapa Wha in many ways whether it be physical, mental, spiritual or sociable.Throughout the RAK week our 1HLT class celebrated RAK for the first time in BOIC!. On Monday 17 February it felt so good to give back to our community after all the moaning, dragging our lips, and giving Whaea Abby a hard time. It paid off. Quineil printed out some little inspirational quotes and put them in the school toilets. Our class went downtown to clean a sign that had a lot of graffiti as well as a poll. Thursday 27 we all went downtown to pick up rubbish and it felt good to clean the town. While we were cleaning up around the community people who were driving past either gave us a mana wave, beep, or a thumbs up which was so cool to receive.On Tuesday 18 me and Jodi cut out some little kete so Whaea Abby could go around the school and get some people to write some inspirational quotes on them and leave the kete in the student center so anyone who was feeling down could read them and hopefully feel a little bit better. On Thursday I held a door open for a year 9 and I did not expect their reaction to be rude but it was, which was a bit sad. I also helped bubby carry her bag. Friday 21 was the last day of RAK week but was definitely not the last day of being a generous person.

By bringing RAK to our school and our class it has made a big difference in my opinion. I saw a lot more people smiling, enjoying receiving little gift cards with cookies, and just receiving kindness in general. I think this really touched base with every side of Te Whare Tapa Wha which was cool.

I predicted that this week was not gonna go as it did and I proved myself wrong because a lot of people who received and gave kindness out shined the people who thought it was dumb to be kind and not participate in RAK week. I loved receiving emails from students and teachers thanking our class for what we started in our school. It was also cool to see everyone play the hop scotch that some of the girls drew in front of the Marae.

The impact I received during the RAK acts to my te whare tapa wha was 

Taha Tinana –  When I held a door open for a year 9 and helped a teacher who does a lot for us I felt really good about it and was excited to see their reaction.

Taha Wairua – It felt very normal for me to be nice as you all know I am  a nice person. But I also felt sad because the love I gave to people I did not receive the best kindness.

Taha Hinengaro – I hated going by myself because I’m not the type of person who walks alone.

Taha Whanau – My teachers, friends, whanau, randoms absolutely loved seeing everyone participate in this week dedicated to random acts of kindness.

RAK started on the 17 February  1995 in San Francisco. This was founded by the Random Act Of Kindness foundation.

In conclusion I loved this week and I wish this could be normalized within the school, and world.

Within my Science class we have been learning about Heredity. We also had to write a paragraph on the link between:

Chromosomes, DNA and Genes

DNA genes and chromosomes are all connected as they are all contained within an organism. DNA is responsible for  your human structure. chromosomes are structures within cells that contain a person’s genes in which those genes are parts of your DNA that give you different traits and characteristics that make you unique in your own way. DNA is like the instruction manual for your body, it contains all of the information necessary to build and maintain an organism. Chromosomes hold your genes which are important parts of your personality.  Look at it as if DNA is a book, genes are the chapters and chromosome that keep every chapter organised and accessible for your body to use as things for different characteristics. In conclusion, these three things DNA, gene and a Chromosomes work together to form your shape and who you are.  

In English 9T we have been doing a novel study on this book called see ya Simon and I have done a little review on see ya Simon