For those of you who weren’t in class this afternoon, read or listen to the story about the Emperor’s new clothes. We’ll talk about it in a few days.
By Josh H.
Good Morning everybody, this is the Roving Reporter for Tuesday 19th August 2008. Well, the year is flying by and the students of the Inquiry Learning class are still working hard on their new inquiries.
Firstly, I’ll be interviewing the new man in the class, Francois. I asked him what he was up to. ”I’m just writing down what I’m going to be doing today with my inquiry,” he said. ”This includes doing my time sheet and time line.” I asked him if he’s enjoying the class and what he enjoys the most about it. ”Yes, I am enjoying the class at the moment and I really enjoy working in groups with other people, which we weren’t allowed to do in the mainstream classes.” Francois is fitting into the class nicely and is working enthusiastically.
Meanwhile, I’ll be interviewing Jordan C, who is working responsibly behind the screen of his iBook G4 laptop. But is he really working as hard as he looks? Wait…..is that Halo I see him playing? No, it’s not. Just a false alarm. I asked him what his fertile question was. ”My fertile question is “Is Global Warming unstoppable?” ” he answered. I asked him what this inquiry would include researching. He replied, ”Well, I have to find out information about Global Warming and if and how we can stop it.” I left Jordan to carry on with his work. I have to say, I was very impressed with some of the research Jordan presented to me.
Although time was running out, I managed to spy Mark sitting right next to me. His eyes were glued onto the page in front of him which was full of numbers and symbols. ”I’m just doing a maths test,” he said after I’d ask him what he was doing. Unusually, Mark was stuck into his work. I asked him what this test included. ”Prime numbers, square numbers, positive and negative numbers, addition and subtraction and square roots.” Because Mark was becoming frustrated over a complicated question, I decided to leave him alone and make my way towards Mitchell H, the partner for my new inquiry ”Should we raise the driving age?”
Finally, I decided to leave Mark who was getting frustrated over a complicated question and made my way over to Mitchell H, my partner for my new inquiry entitled ‘’should we raise the driving age?” What was he up to then? ”I’m just completing a permission form so we can go down to Countdown (the local supermarket) and interview some members of the public. We are going to ask them whether they think drivers under the age of 20 are responsible enough to be behind the wheel of a car and why.”
The students are working efficiently with the time they have been given and are quickly working their way to , hopefully, excellence. Stay tuned for the next Roving Report with will be published on the web tomorrow.
by Mitchell Harkness
Hi I’m Mitchell Harkness and this is my third roving reporter for the year. Im going to interview Josh, Nathan and the new kid of the class Francois. First up I’m going to talk to Josh. Josh is my partner for my next inquiry “Should we raise the driving age?”
As I walked past Josh I glanced at his screen and saw that he was e-mailing someone. “I’m e-mailing A.C.C which stands for Accident Compensation Corporation and I hope that they will send me some information on how much young drivers are crashing”. He also showed me some crash statistics in New Zealand. People from 15 to 24 are crashing the most because they are less confident, and their frontal lobe isn’t fully developed. Next up Im going to see what Nathan is up to.
Nathan is doing his inquiry with Mitchell CN. They are entering the TVNZ web guide challenge. They have to make a website that teaches people about stuff. For Nathan’s inquiry they are doing “Can forensics be trusted”. “I am going to to try and interview Mr Te Waals son because he knows some stuff about forensics” They have been making their website for the past two weeks and now they are trying to find out their question. About a week ago we had a new guy come into our class. He is originally from South Africa but now he lives here. Before I go, I’m going to interview Francois.
His name is said (frarn-shwaa). His first fertile question was “why are car manufactures making bigger and faster cars even when oil is running out.?”. But one of his sources is over in Germany testing out his new concept car and only gets back in a few weeks. “My new fertile question “When is downloading something from the internet piracy”. Thank-you for reading my roving reporter for today.
This week Nathan asks Dylan and Gavin how their inquiry about “Boy Racers” is progressing.
By Mitchell CN
Today our class looks very busy behind their computers but is this the truth? I am marvelous Mitch your great roving reporter and I will find out. I will also find out how people are going with their inquiries. 
I am going to ask bold Brady if is he really doing work behind his computer. “So naughty Brady what are you doing?”
”Numerical data,” he replied.
“Is this going to help your inquiry?”
”Yes,” was his reply.
When I asked him how this was helping him, he told me he was doing it because ”it’s part of the criteria.” He told me he does ”pretty much” everything just because it’s in the criteria . He did not participate in any more difficult questions.
Will noisy Liam be just as rude as Brady? When I asked him what he was doing, ”presentation,” was his reply.
“Shouldn’t you get the good information first?” I asked,
”Got it all,’ he replied’.
He assured me he did not just ‘copy and paste’. I checked out his reference and found out he was right, he did not copy and paste. I asked him why he does numerical data, fact and opinion etc. He replied that it’s part of the criteria. I then asked him why, if he did every part of the criteria, he still doesn’t get an excellence. He walked away with anger.
Finally I have worked that most people do work just cause the criteria said. So that is roving reporter for today goodbye.
By Eric B
Hello and Welcome to today’s roving reporter for the inquiry learning class. Today I will be very quick with this report, because I am a very busy person. I will be asking a person or a group from our class how their inquiry is doing, and other questions to go with that. I decided to make this a quick and easy report, so I interviewed Jordan C, and funnily enough he was right next to me at the table I was sitting at. So now I will see how Jordan C’s inquiry is going.
Firstly I asked Jordan C what his fertile question is (otherwise we wouldn’t have a clue of what Jordan would talk about). Jordan C’s fertile question is “Is global warming unstoppable”? I would have to say that this is a really excellent question, because a lot of aspects come in to this interestingly serious question. Next I asked him why he chose this rather fascinating question. Jordan C chose this question because he wanted to cover more of the curriculum, and global warming is quite a major issue. Jordan C also said “I don’t just want to know what global warming is all about, but to actually know a way to fix the problem of global warming”. Afterwards I asked him about if he has contacted any experts yet. He said he is contacting people that are mainly environmentalists from around the world. One expert he contacted said that we should really stop having so many children, because there is about three people being born each second, and only about one person dies each second, which is really amazing. Jordan C said “I haven’t really contacted many experts yet, because I can’t seem to find many experts”. I asked him what he has been doing today on his inquiry. He said has put up a questionnaire on yahoo answers on the internet today , and he has also been doing some background research on global warming. Finally I asked Jordan C of what he felt of the inquiry class. He says that this is a cool class and he would really like this class to go on for next year as well. He also said “I think that this class really suits my learning”. I hope Jordan C’s inquiry goes well and at the moment it seems very interesting and fascinating.
Now, that is the end to the interview with Jordan C, and his inquiry is looking pretty good. The reason why I asked him how he felt about this class is because if the parents and kids feel that this class isn’t working, then the inquiry learning class won’t happen next year. Now wouldn’t that be a shame for some of us, because Jordan likes this class and I particularly like this class as well. This class is really what would make me and other great people in the class, able to do things that we would want to do in the future. I would really hope that this class stays on for ever. Let me just say what the deputy principal said, that Tauranga Boys’ College makes every boy in the school learn in their preferred learning style. So that means that if this class doesn’t go for next year, the school would be breaking there own code. Finally I would like to say that I think if Jordan C keeps his mind focused, he will make awesome progress in his inquiry.
Just a reminder that we will be having a visitor from the Tauranga Public Library visiting us on Thursday afternoon. Jocelyn will be showing us how to access the range of online resources available through the library, particularly online databases that will allow you to access a wide range of data, including statistics and newspaper articles.
The only thing you need to remember, is to bring your Tauranga library card, because without it, you will not be able to access the resources.
Well done Thomas S, Francois and Thomas M for updating their blogs. I expect every one to do this on a daily basis.
Don’t forget that you need to have read to the end of Chapter 10 of the Boy in Striped Pajamas by Monday.
Nathan talks to Dean about his inquiry.
A message from the Parents Shared Lunch Committee:
Permission forms for the Parents Shared Lunch have been sent out today. It will start at 12:00, and finish around 1:00 on Wednesday the 6th of August.
If you could please get those permission forms back, before Tuesday the 5th of August would be appreciated.
