Term 3, Week 7

As the week starts off with the Tongan outfit/dress-traditions, our students come together as one with the celebration of Tongan language week.  Malo e lelei as they say to great each other in Tongan, with learning Tongan hymns and words, I am proud to say that our school is big on culture support. This week was a colorful and an exciting week for us students to learn more about the Tongan culture and for the Tongan students to show off their roots and celebrate them. From the performances to the happy vibes it was a memorial week to remember.

This week I was also  awarded a certificate of gaining 60+ credit for this year, meaning I am a step closer to passing my level 2 NCEA and I am working towards those merits and excellencies for an endorsement. With the small number of weeks left to accomplish my goals for this year, I am working harder than ever trying to achieve them. I am determined to not waste any more time left and make use of them. This week has really tested my work stability and how I maintain my focus from other distractions, and i able to say that the pressure of having a small number of weeks left has really impacted and improved the way I use my time.

This week I went and helped out on Saturday with the cleaning up Papakura community programme, with this event I am more aware and thankful of the things that people do for our community.  with the help of some of our year 12 students, we were present to help out on behalf of our school. I  was proud to be one of the year 12s to be able to show the community that Papakura High School is a supportive and caring school and is not all bad. Cleaning up around the community made me reflect back on how we as a school can do more to keep safe and clean not only in our school but also our Papakura community. Although it was a hard and tough job that we did, we gained lots of positive outcomes from it such as keeping our community beautiful and changing the bad perspectives of others about our school into positive perspectives.

Term3, Week 6

This week has influenced me a lot. On Monday there was a year 12 assembly, it was a talk about what roles we as future year 13's can take on as leaders in our school. During this meeting, they talked about what opportunities we took or are gonna take help us get to those roles. They encouraged us to join the kiarangatia programme, and I was interested in joining but just didn't have the courage to do so. The next day I decided to join and I am really pleased with the outcome of my decision. I observed as to what they do in this programme and became really intrigued by their purpose. This made me want to really take part in this programme next year. I really see how their help for the years 9s molds together their communication with their senior and schoolmates. I am really interested in being a big help for the year 9's and I believe that this programme provides that support the juniors need and I have always wanted to help the year 9's socialize more with their seniors and fellow schoolmates.

A change of perspective can impact your future.......

This week was a really great week for me in many different ways. During this week i have been preparing for my group project workshop that was on friday. Now as a leader of any group, you could imagine me having so much pressure and stress in wanting everything to go as my group and i have planned that day, from the way we want to set the tables down to having our presentation sorted. As hectic as it was preparing for something that is really important to my group and i, we couldn't be anymore prepared as we already were that day. During our workshop i noticed my team members really stepped up and took charge of our workshop and caught the attentions of all the year 9s in our workshop. I am so proud of them because for some of them it was their first time talking infront of a crowd and yet they looked professional at it. By the end of our workshop feedbacks given implied us with so many "great leadership skills and fantastic presentation/ workshop", even though our we didn't have enough time to finish everything in our workshop, the time we had left a big impact on our junior about the topic of our workshop.

This week also had another big day event for me too. On saturday this week my fellow school mates and i went to the AUT live programme. At first i was a bit nervous as to what was in store for us, but when the AUT my future programme encouraged and pushed me to get out of my comfort zone and socialize with others, other than my friends, i adapted to being able to start a friendly conversation with random people that i wouldn't think i would be able to do. At AUT live i really enjoyed connecting with others and enjoyed the activities that we did there. Going into AUT, i already had a clear mindset on what i wanted to study and where, and sadly the place i wanted to study my career pathway in, was not AUT. But as we were given the chance to go and look around for the job that we want to study when leaving high school, i became more interested and amazed as to what AUT offers in the job i plan on studying for. There were so many opportunities and offers that they had for that job and yet no other university could offer us things like those, even in the university that i planned on studying in which surprised me a lot. In that one day i never knew how, a one day visit to AUT in the city would change my decision on where i wanted go and study when i leave high school. This really opened my eyes and made me think more thoroughly and clearer on where i believe is best for me to study. This day really impacted my thought on where i want to create my future. So i am so thankful that i made the right decision to go to AUT live, and for the AUT my future programme i am also grateful for them having us and creating this programme to be able to create a better future for us. This day has really changed my perspective a lot about where i want to study in the future.

“Don't wait for great things to happen, when you can make them happen?”. (Week 4, term 3).

It is funny how we all are so fascinated with just talking about the things that we hope to accomplish in the future, but not about how we can accomplish them. What interested me this week was that as a senior student, I feel that the days pass so quickly and the weeks that are left seem to be smaller, and as it does we tend to distract ourselves from facing the reality of our emotions that are clogged up inside, due to the  pressure of not having enough time to do this and finish that before it's too late. Sometimes it is just longing to achieve the things that we are needing to work hard for because that shapes our future, and sometimes we just  can't seem to set our minds on how to get there whether they be gaining scholarships, leadership roles or merits and excellencies. Week 4 is half way through the term and yet some of us are still or starting to depend on their wishful thinking, like " hopefully I end up getting to where I wish to be in the future", or are still waiting for a miracle to help them. I say,  why depend on those things, when you could say instead of "hopefully, ! I will make it !" and instead of waiting for a miracle, you can make your own miracle. Sure time is running out for us as seniors with big goals, but why let that slow you down from what really can impact your future this term, ! Accomplishing your goals !. So don't stress on what you haven't done yet, Prepare for it. So my quote to you this week is “Don't wait for great things to happen, when you can make them happen?”. WE SHOULD WORK HARD FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE END.

"if you look close enough, a disadvantage can be rewarded with an advantage."

This week had a lot to do with me, trying my best to ensure that all my group members contributed and participated with at least a idea or an opinion of what to do in our group project and to be completely honest i found that a challenging obstacle i faced this week, especially when some of my team members didn't really show interest in putting their ideas and opinions in our project or when some wouldn't show up at all this week. As tough as it was trying to bypass a situation like that, i decided that a disadvantage like that won't stop me from accomplishing what should be done on our group work. So i worked with the members that were there and i am thankful for those members of my group, that would show up and contribute their ideas and thoughts into our project. There may have not been that much members but at least the members that were there participated and showed how much they wanted to accomplish our group assessment by being present socially, physically and emotionally. Overall, the lesson i learnt this week was "you don't need the whole team to be present to progress in accomplishing goals, whether it be four or less people in the group, a little can do and progress just as much as a group with 20 members". With the little amount of members that were there we ended up finishing what we needed to accomplish as a group in our project. Though there was a disadvantage, we shouldn't let it get in the way of what really matters, ACCOMPLISHING OUR GOALS.

"In order to reach your goals, first you have to find your motivation"

So far so good this week, I've improved a lot on my time management and work towards keeping it that way. My last blog talked about, me aiming to accomplish my goals, but I have also found another goal I would like to add to my lists of goals this term.This week opened my eyes to opportunities that I can take and learn from in order to gain a different perspective of leadership. As this week was passing by faster then I could imagine I said to myself the motivation that some of our year 12 students had caught my attention and I wondered, "If I am motivated to reach my goals with my full potential,I can help boost the motivation of others that don't show the potential they have in order to reach their goals too". I've notice that sometimes PHS students can tend to loose focus on whats important to them "THEIR EDUCATION".So this I decided to put my leadership skills to the test and try to motivate a bunch of my year 12 classmates who don't really come to school that much or to class, to come to class on time and to try their best to come to school every school days this week. As I kept motivating them to work towards coming to school every school days and class I noticed that when we did our class assessments together they came to class and school days and even became more confident and more socially interested in our school work.For me that was one of the highlights for week 2 term 3. As this is still improving it can have it ups and downs, but in the end I know with motivation no doubt we will reach our goals in no time.

week 1 term 3 reflection

The way we use our time can be the key to our success or to our destruction. Although our time left this year is just around the corner, I become more determined to accomplish my goals that I have set for myself, not only for this term but next term as well. As I am determined physically, socially and emotionally I try my best in improving on my qualities that I lacked last term so that I am able to reach my full potential as a leader and a role model to the juniors. This week has been a great week for me because I am a leader for our group project in E.S.K class and given this possession i have progressed a lot of my skills in leadership and it also made me more stabilized with a strong mentality when in a position as a leader. The outcome I am reaching for this year is to pass my NCEA L2 with a merit or an excellence endorsement and develop the knowledge of what kind of leader I want to be for our young ones. I admit I've been late to school this week a couple of times but only due to good reasons, next week I will assure you that I will be improving on my time management so I can start learning early in my class for my assessments. This week my group project for E.S.K has been well over successful in our attendance and our plan for our project and I am looking forward to amaze my teacher Mrs. PlS with our project. Week 1 for term 3 has passed and more weeks are to come, I hope the outcomes for the following weeks is as or more successful then week 1 has been for me.