Why Plastic is Harmful?

Plastic waste and Plastic Pollution

 Today I teach a crucial topic in the class. It was Plastic, and I discussed with students why the use of Plastic is harmful to our planet. How plastic is demolishing our Earth? Are there any steps we can take to protect our environment?

Students showed interest in this topic and started discussing its pros and cons. Every student has its viewpoint, which they consider in the class. I was so happy to know, the student knows about the harmful impact of plastics on our environment and how we can protect it.

It is a fascinating topic, and I want to write about it. Following are a few things we discussed in the class.

Plastics have transformed everyday life; usage is increasing, and annual production is likely to exceed 300 million tonnes by 2010. In this concluding paper to the Theme Issue on Plastics, the Environment and Human Health, we synthesise current understanding of the benefits and concerns surrounding the use of plastics and look to future priorities, challenges and opportunities.

 It is evident that plastics bring many societal benefits and offer future technological and medical advances. However, concerns about usage and disposal are diverse. They include accumulation of waste in landfills and in natural habitats, physical problems for wildlife resulting from ingestion or entanglement in Plastic, the leaching of chemicals from plastic products and the potential for plastics to transfer chemicals to wildlife and humans.

Plastic never goes away.

Plastic is a material made to last forever, yet 33 per cent of all plastic - water bottles, bags and straws - are used just once and thrown away. Plastic cannot biodegrade; it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces.

Plastic affects human health.

Toxic chemicals leach out of Plastic and are found in the blood and tissue of nearly all of us. Exposure to them is linked to cancers, birth defects, impaired immunity, endocrine disruption and other ailments. Human Health, Groundwater,

Plastic spoils our groundwater.

There are thousands of landfills in the United States. Buried beneath each one of them, toxic chemicals from plastics drain out and seep into groundwater, flowing downstream into lakes and rivers.

Plastic attracts other pollutants.

Chemicals in Plastic which give them their rigidity or flexibility (flame retardants, bisphenol, phthalates and other harmful chemicals) are oily poisons that repel water and stick to petroleum-based objects like plastic debris.  So, the toxic chemicals that leach out of plastics can accumulate on

other plastics.  This is a serious concern with increasing amounts of plastic waste accumulating in the world's oceans.

Plastic threatens wildlife.

Wildlife become entangled in Plastic, they eat it or mistake it for food and feed it to their young, and it is found littered in even extremely remote areas of the Earth.  In our ocean wildlife alone, plastic debris outweighs zooplankton by a ratio of 36-to-1.

Plastic piles up in the environment.

Americans discard more than 30 million tons of Plastic a year. Only 8 per cent gets recycled. The rest ends up in landfills, is burned or becomes litter.

Plastic poisons our food chain.

Even plankton, the tiniest creatures in our oceans, are eating microplastics and absorbing their

hazardous chemicals.  The small, broken down pieces of Plastic are displacing the algae needed to sustain more abundant sea life who feed on them.

 The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion. – Paulo Coelho

WEEK 1 Teaching and Learning (In class and Online teaching)

23 May 2020


This week was the first week of teaching after the LOCKDOWN. School officials have divided different year levels to different days to come to school so that they can easily understand what's are the expectations of school, teachers and other staff members from the students. Assurance always comes first. At this stage, we are on level 2, but still, we have to take alert measures to ensure our safety and well being.



On Monday, particularly level 12 and 13 came to school, on Tuesday year 11, on Wednesday year 9 and 10. From Thursday school was open for the whole school. We have only 50% of students are coming to school in various year levels. At this stage, every class has a seating plan. This seating plan remains the same for the complete year. Teachers are taking extra prudent measures for students and themselves. For example, on the entry of every class, there is a bottle of hand sanitiser and surface sanitiser. Students come to class after sanitise their hands. A box of tissue, gloves, masks are available at every level. Students can use anytime in the group.

Students have to keep a 1-meter distance from everyone. So, the seating plan is like that we can cover the 1-meter distance in the classroom. We are still doing online classes, like HANGOUTS with classroom teaching, because the students who can't come to school due to some reasons they can continue their learning at home. We don't want students learning to be affected due to this level 2.

Moreover, my STEAM classes were on HANGOUTS in this week. Because primary schools didn't resolve yet to come back at Tamaki College for Technology, for further notice from Primary schools, we will remain online teaching for them, and for the students who are at home(YR9 to 13). 





"Actively contribute, and work collegially, in the pursuit of improving my own and organisational practice, showing leadership, particularly in areas of responsibility".

Welcome back!!!!

What a Wonderful Week

22/05/2020

During distance learning, the teachers have seen some fantastic and creative pieces of work from the children and have enjoyed building new relationships with families through emails, photos and even video clips. Welcome back to all of our School learners and whanau. We are very proud of how all our learners have settled back into school routines and learned after nearly 8 weeks outside of the classroom.

I would like to say thank you to all the mums, dads, grandparents and even pets who chipped in and became “teachers” during this time. I saw and have heard delightful stories about all of your adventures during this time together as a family.

To our essential worker mums and dads, an extra special BIG thank you for your commitment to keeping us all safe and provided for.



"Engage in reciprocal, collaborative learning-focused relationships with: - learners, family and whānau - teaching colleagues, support staff and other professionals."

Come back to School (First week after LOCKDOWN)

18 May 2020           



This week is the first week of students and teachers after COVID -19 lockdown. As a teacher, I am excited, nervous and even scarred. Overall, I have a mixture of feelings. I am expecting the same feelings from students, parents, and caregivers for the school. And it is obvious.

The best way to reassure someone who is feeling worried about the transition back to school is to first listen to their concerns and acknowledge that their feelings are valid. Provide reassurance that whatever they are feeling is OK. As adults, we often want to rush in and fix problems or help to logically explain away the concerns. Focus on the feelings and emotions rather than on practicalities at this stage.
Some fear or concern about change is normal, and it is this degree of respect that helps us to make plans to ensure our safety.

Once your child/student has had the opportunity to tell you about their feelings, they can be encouraged to focus on what they can do to manage their concerns. Particularly with older children, a problem-solving approach can be helpful. Encourage them to generate a range of possible solutions to the problems they raise and then select the ones that they think will work best for them.

Provide as much information about returning to school as possible. It is likely that during level 2, the school may be somewhat different than it was before we went into lockdown. Sharing examples of timetables, physical arrangements and some fun activities that are coming up during the term will be helpful. Information about the precautions being taken by school staff to ensure the safety of students and staff is reassuring.


                 STAY SAFE STAY HEALTHY

"Actively contribute, and work collegially, in the pursuit of improving my own and organisational practice, showing leadership, particularly in areas of responsibility."

STEAM INTERMEDIATES

                          
Students Blog
                                 Rotation 1(Term One)
Date: 11 May2020


Kia Ora

It was the last week of STEAM rotations and first time Tamaki College introduced Science. Term Rotation 1 was for ten weeks. I have planned ten topics for ten weeks and tried to do a science experiment in each lesson. Students from different schools came for the science classes from Tamaki region. Such as Glen Innes, Point England, Glen Taylor, Glenbrae, Ruapotaka and St Pius X.

Students were very excited and eager to do science experiments in the science lab. They were very passionate about Science and actively listened to my instructions. I enjoyed to teach them.


As a teacher, I always encourage my students to write a blog about your science learning. Here is some link for my student's blog, who continuously present their understandings via Blogs.

 Zaeeda from Pt England School. Blog Link
Alaana from Glen Taylor School. Blog Link
Pisirina from Pt England School Blog Link
Satui from Ruapotaka School Blog  Link 
Agueer from Ruapotaka School Blog Link






"Develop learning-focused relationships with learners, enabling them to be active participants in the process of learning, sharing ownership and responsibility for learning."

Distance Teaching                                                                                                                                                         Date 5 May 2020

This week I taught LEAVES to my Intermediates(STEAM). They enjoyed. They were so focused on their learnings and were very excited about leaves. We started the topic with a simple discussion of the name of some leaves we eat every day. They gave excellent answers like Basil, celery, coriander etc.



They know about leaves, but when we discussed how leaves make food and why we called Leaves are food factories, they enjoyed that content about leaves. Every time, in school, I usually experiment on every topic, but this time in this lockdown, it was hard to do online. The bit I tried at least I can show them some leaves. So, I told them, go and bring some leaves from your garden. In this way, I teach them. We talked about stomata, guard cells, palisade cells, and chlorophyll.

It was outstanding lessons, and students love it. I suggest they click photos of different plant leaves and make a beautiful collage. They were done very well. Here is the My students' work Alanna. She is from Glen Taylor school and very good at science. She is so creative and energetic in her learning. I am happy she loves this topic and make a beautiful collage of leaves.


"Develop learning-focused relationships with learners, enabling them to be active participants in the process of learning, sharing ownership and responsibility for learning."

Digital Fluency Intensive Program Week 9

                                                                Agenda: Revision                        Friday, 8th May 2020

Ubiquitous learning can be defined as an everyday learning environment that is supported by mobile and embedded computers and wireless networks in our everyday life . It is aimed to provide learners with content and interaction anytime and anywhere .The learning process includes the real-life experience augmented with virtual information and is adapted to the learner and learner’s environment. 

The content objects, activities, and the interaction with the system and with other humans (including instructors and peers) are customised according to learner’s current goals of learning, interests and preferences, cognitive characteristics, history and current state of competency in the subject matter in hand, the characteristics and demands of the location, the technology being used as the medium and facilitator for learning, and the context of the situation in which the learning is taking place.

DFI, on the whole, has been an amazing experience for me. I came into it with a reasonable degree of digital fluency, but I have still learnt a lot from the experience and I walk away in a much better place in terms of my digital skill. Digital learning is replacing traditional educational methods more and more each day. With how rapidly classrooms are changing, it is best to forget methods you may remember from when you were in school and start thinking about newer teaching and learning techniques based on digital learning tools and technologies. The inclusion of digital learning in the classrooms can vary from simply using tablets instead of paper to using elaborate software programs and equipment as opposed to the simple pen.


It has been great to learn about Manaiakalani over the course of the DFI, and I am very much looking forward to what the future holds!

In 2020, the Ministry of Education expects that schools will be using the revised learning area to provide students with even broader opportunities to learn in and about technology, informed by the new content around computational thinking and designing and developing digital outcomes.


"Design and plan culturally responsive, evidence-based approaches which reflect the local community and Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership in New Zealand."

Students achievement in online learning.

Online Teaching                             Date 8 may 2020



This is another week of distance teaching. I am really enjoying my online teaching. Moreover, students are more focused, punctual, and dedicated to their learning. I think, it is a great opportunity for me to help, support and encourage my students in their learnings. There are some lowlights of online teaching are numbers of students are not very big. Some students joining hangouts and are completing their work to standard. Though, online teaching is very convenient, I can't wait enough for life to be normal and back ton track.

My year 9, 10 and level 3 Biology students are doing very good in online learning. They are so involved in learning and always eager to complete their work in the time frame. If for some reason they can't finish work on time they try to complete on same day and email me. This is great opportunity to establish a healthy relationship with learners. Some students got learning support during Lockdown and it is good for their learning. I can see change in their learning. Most of them have completed their tasks on student dashboard and Education perfect. Moreover their leraning graph is also increasing with their percentage. It was good change. I hope they will maintain their learning and show more enforcement in the class and will do more better.




"Gather, analyse and use appropriate assessment information, identifying progress and needs of learners to design clear next steps in learning and to identify additional supports or adaptations that may be required."
This This 

Digital Fluency Intensive Program (Week 8)

Date: 1 May2020 Agenda: Computational Thinking

Today is the second last day of the DFI program. This session, we started with Connecting. We connected in our regional groups and shared our pedagogies and strategies which work in our teaching and which don't.

Dorothy starts  session by talking about empowered. As an educator, you’re in a position to empower your students to become better learners and better people. Most of the time we recognise the positive influence we have on our students, but there may be times when we feel we need new ways to motivate them and create a culture of involvement.

Every teacher wants their students to feel involved in the learning process. Knowing how to empower students is a valuable skill. Student empowerment is an approach to teaching that puts students at the center of the learning process, allowing them to make decisions about their education and giving them the confidence to achieve their goals.

                                                               

Then, Gerhard continue session by describing computational thinking and Hangarau Matihiko.  A digitally fluent person can decide when and why to use specific digital technologies to achieve a specific task or solve problems.  A digitally capable person can create their own digital technologies solution. Teachers are supported to acquire digital fluency required for effective teaching, planning, assessment and professional learning

Teachers learn how digital technologies used effectively can have a significant impact on accelerating achievement outcomes

Supporting teacher digital fluency and confidence to deliver the curriculum in a digital environment in a 1:1 digital learning environment.

In education, computational thinking is a set of problem-solving methods that involve expressing problems and their solutions in ways that a computer could also execute. It involves the mental skills and practices for 1) designing computations that get computers to do jobs for us, and 2) explaining and interpreting the world as a complex of information processes. 

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. –  Benjamin Franklin