Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter is not a trend and shouldn't be treated as such.

Breonna Taylor is not a meme, she is not a TikTok dance, she is not a hashtag, she is not an Instagram caption, she was a black woman killed at the hands of injustice. It has been 132 days since Breonna was shot and killed in her own home. In those 132 days Kenneth Walker, one of the three police officers involved, was charged with first-degree assault and attempted murder of a police officer but was later released from jail due to coronavirus concerns. Go harder for Breonna Taylor.

Elijah McClain died almost a year ago, August 30 2019. The message of his death should not be "He was such a sweet soul, he played violin for cats at the animal shelter, he didn't deserve this," but instead it should be recognised that not matter what you've done or who you are, it all comes down to your skin colour. The officers responsible were never charged. Go harder for Elijah McClain.

Tamir Rice was a 12 year old playing at the park with a toy gun. Once the police arrived they immediately drew fire. He passed away in hospital November 23, 2014. The two officers were never charged. Go harder for Tamir Rice.

Janisha Fonville died February 18, 2015. Korneisha Banks, Janisha's girlfriend, had called the police to stop Janisha from hurting herself. The officers invovled were never charged. Go harder for Janisha Fonville. The petition is closed but there is a GoFundMe link at the bottom. Please take the time to read everything.

When I say Black Lives Matter I mean ALL Black Lives Matter. Not just the cis and the straights but the LGBT+ community too. It is so disheartening to read about black LGBT+ dying just because no one agreed with their identity and there's hardly any talk about them because of their identity. What someone identifies as is not your business. Their identity is not a reason to die and it is not a reason to jusitfy their death. 

Black Lives Matter will always matter.

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Black Lives Matter

The Akomanga Kaihanga Showcase: Team Renegade

✨See the previous post to view the poster and slideshow.✨

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Thursday 23rd July, at 5PM-7PM we were going to present our work to our whanau.

It started off with Saia opening with a speech he had learned two days prior. Mind you he’s not even Maori but that didn’t stop him. The confidence and pronunciation were on point! 😘👌

Next, our principal and guiders shared their speeches of how we have progressed and grown and how we will continue to do so followed by eating time.

Not going to lie, after Mr Dunn's speech I felt kind of inspired, like I still wanted to do more to help out the community. 🙈

The next bit however...was the time for us to present our work. I started with a welcoming to the parents, Champion had the task of speaking about our project challenge, I spoke about our trip to the town centre and the data we collected, Temu talked about the other half of the data, Naomi spoke about what we are planning on doing next and Amelia talked about the capabilities we have gained from doing this project.

With the slideshow the speakers alternated between Amelia, Temu, and Naomi.

Normally when I speak in front of others the atmosphere is tense and it feels all gloomy, but that night I honestly felt none of that. It was more like stepping outside on a chilly winter morning, all my focus was on me breathing out. Something along those lines.

I think the audience got our message. The feedback and questions we got...I can say that I was not expecting any of them BUT they were fun to answer. One question that has stuck with me was “Does your group actually care about this or are you doing this just because it’s there?” The reason we started this project was because of our concern for pedestrians near Line RD so of course we answered with “Yes, we do care,”.

I can’t get over how awesome all my team members are. We all had messed up our lines but we kept going. And the way they all talked, they sounded so full of confidence and used expressions wonderfully 😭💖!! After each group we presented to (there were 6 groups total) we just kept getting better and better.

That night had ended with me being full of pride. I honestly believe it went well. We can most definitely improve on our memorisation but other than that it was good.

✨Just wanted to end this post with this picture. Team Renegade >> anything else✨

Planning & Preparing for the Akomanga Kaihanga Showcase: Team Renegade

On the first week back to school from Monday to Thursday 9KMe spent their periods preparing for a project showcase on Thursday at 5PM.

The planning for our poster started out like this; Naomi had suggested adding a windy road because of our project theme. We then spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out where our text should fit. Once we liked the design we got Dr Jannie to check on it. At this point I was working on what we were going to write about and the speech that would accompany the poster.

The next time I checked in with the others, instead of a windy road it was a straight road leading up to a round-a-bout. By this time Temu was the one designing the digital form of our poster.

✨I have just found some digital drafts :O✨

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One success has to be how everyone was in agreement with the design. When someone had input it was about what they should add. 

One challenge we had run into (for what I was there for anyways) was how much time was actually spent on the draft and then the digital one. We had from Monday until Wednesday to complete it but we went a bit into Thursday.

Once I saw the end product, let me tell you, I was in shock. It looks so clean and organised and the colour palette is *chef’s kiss*! Not to mention the road was a fantastic idea. 

✨Do you see how cool this looks??✨

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Champion and I were working on creating the video that was going to be presented after the poster. When we finished adding all the information Temu had helped us with the design. Look at how clean the presentation is 😭!!

I think that Team Renegade has done an awesome job with the poster and presentation!! 

Congratulations on 25 blog posts in 2020

Power of Gratitude

Have you ever thought about what gratitude is and how it can impact our lives? Get ready and buckle up, because here we go!

Gratitude is an activity where you can express your appreciation for the things that make you happy. When showing gratitude you slowly begin to rewire your brain (with the help of neuroplasticity), helping to set you onto a more positive track. 

Seeing as our class topic is ‘gratitude’ Whaea Kata gave us the task of constructing a gratitude box/jar and to give it a name. 

Not too much thought went into the making of my gratitude box. I found an already decorated box so now I’m looking for my Kimetsu no Yaiba stickers to slap onto it.

I was now stuck pondering about the name of my box. I was scrolling through Pinterest when I saw a photo of Raymond from Animal Crossing. That’s when it hit me; Bubblegum K.K.. I got the inspiration from the game’s soundtrack, one of the songs being “Bubblegum K.K.”. The song is soothing and the title is cute so I thought “Why not?”

I started off with doing my gratitude reflections every night before bed but after around a week I stopped. Now I do them every time I’m stressed or need the boost. When I do my reflections I grab my pad paper, I find a comfortable position to lie in, and surround myself with music. 

Three things I am grateful for today are Eden, who has been keeping me company and now one of my closest friends in the class. Mrs Feps for giving me the rest of her nachos (and being an awesome teacher; helping me with my work and trying to converse with me) and my project group because we are able to work on projects that will help improve our community.

How Was My Lockdown Holiday?

I enjoyed the two week lockdown. I was able to catch up with people and enjoyed testing out digital learning from home. Every few nights I would go on calls with my best friend and we would just talk for hours. Social distancing was difficult for us at first but the more time we spent talking online the easier it was to get over that we won’t be able to see each other in person for a while. Those were the most enjoyable nights.

When I got to a certain amount of boredom my mum sent me audio books and I listened to those. I struggled to pay attention as I’d constantly get distracted by my cats.

Why It Is Important To Learn About Migration

I believe it is important to learn about human migration because in doing so we can understand what life is like in other countries. Some people emigrate to other countries because of how poor living conditions were there. Others are just searching for opportunities.

If we can understand and empathise with these people then we should be able to acquire the needed knowledge to work towards global growth.