Eucalyptus House
Remote Learning with Eucalyptus
The students in E8 share their reflections on this new round of remote learning.
Term 3 has been interesting to say the least. Students from Years 7 to 10 already on remote learning left the school yard very quiet. It simply was not the same. After the decision for all students to return to remote learning, teachers quickly adapted and planned lessons for the students that would be engaging and also a way to lift spirits for many students who would now start feeling the impact of not seeing their friends for such a prolonged period of time.
Below is a reflection of remote learning put together by Shasvini E8 and Una E8 with the help from all the students of E8. When asked to put together a small reflection, these students went and above and beyond. They asked their class to provide short reflections of their time during remote learning and then put it all together, even including photos and videos! It is an excellent example of what can be created with effective collaboration and the positive attitudes our students have been showing given the unstable year they have had. Please read their reflections below. Enjoy!
Sachi Fernando
On behalf of the Eucalyptus House Leadership Team
As our class heads back to remote learning, we have experienced many changes in our studies and classes.
During this time we have been using a variety of different platforms to keep us connected with our friends and teachers. We enjoyed having small breaks from classes and starting off with fun activities such as Kahoot! which keeps us engaged and it is a fun way to test our skills on a certain topic.
Our class also enjoyed having the option of finishing work in our own time and completing our work anywhere.
We set goals and worked hard to achieve them independently. As students we were able to have a class chat via Google Hangouts to keep connected.
In Maths and Science, our teachers record our lessons so that we can refer back to them at any time if we need assistance. We have used many resources such as loom and stile. This term our topic is “Chemistry” for Science, we built a periodic table as a class. Everyone had 2-3 elements that we had to do further research on which contributed to a class periodic table.
Learning the Elements
In Maths the teachers explain an area in our overall topic which is available to all students as a video to refer back to. We use sources and websites such as compass, google classroom and education perfect to do work, progress quizzes and access feedback from our teachers.
We have been doing fun activities to help us engage in learning. In English and Humanities, we are able to share our riddles and jokes and catch up with our friends and teachers.
We also start our lessons with reading for ten minutes so we are able to settle. This is a fun way to end the lesson and take a break from our work.
This term in English we are analysing the film ‘Red Dog’ and have been learning about film techniques and how they are used throughout movies. In Humanities we have been learning about landforms and landscapes. We looked deeper into the structure of earth and the differences between landform and landscapes.
During remote learning, we have been engaging and building our knowledge about Japan, such as the culture and language. We have been focussing on work from cultural videos to vocabulary booklets, and extra resources if we want to continue Japanese and use the sources for self-study. Each Friday period of Japanese, students are able to talk and share about their hobbies and experiences throughout the week. This helps students connect with their peers and teachers.
In Physical Education we as Eucalyptians will bring back the honor and prize of winning ISO Games. Years 7 to 9 have been challenged by the PE teachers to complete as many physical activities listed on the weekly challenge and collect as many points for their house. We have to provide evidence such as photos, fitness trackers and videos for points. The winning house will receive a prize along with the winning female and male of the school.
LET’S WIN, EUCALYPTUS!
Even though electives during remote learning is not ideal, this semester we have made a great start to our subjects. This includes starting our lessons with would you rather questions and brain teasers which keep us engaged. So far we have looked at different techniques such as construction lines, providing using magazine’s cutouts to further build our knowledge on drawing self-portraits, hygiene in the kitchen and different types of engineering.
We share our work with our classmates and give each other constructive feedback, so we can only develop our knowledge.
To keep ourselves entertained, our class has been investing more time into our hobbies and interests such as baking, art, music and STEM projects. This allows us to take breaks from our work and everything that is happening and find new hidden skills and talents. Many like Srinidhi from E8 have been baking in the kitchen, creating desserts such as cake.
Srinidhi's Cake Decorating Skills
Musicians, like Seth from E8, spend their time expressing themselves through instruments, like the guitar.
Other students are coding and creating a ‘Telegraph Machine and Printer’, like Keely from E8.
Keely says: “I built my printer from the LEGO EV3 Mindstorms Home Set. This robot uses two big motors, one medium motor, one colour sensor, one touch sensor and an ordinary gel pen. Begin with using the big motor which powers the two wheels found at the bottom so you can roll the paper. The colour sensor detects when the paper goes over it, which causes the big motor to stop rotating. The medium motor moves the pen down through a worm gear (allowing the rotation to be much more precise). Next, you will translate what you want the printer to write into Morse code. Then you type out the Morse code onto the touch sensor which is located next to the brain (the main part of the machine which receives and transmits messages). When you are done, press the middle button of the brain and it ejects the paper out.”
When we were forced to be in lockdown the first time, a lot of us were in disbelief and were stressed about getting through this pandemic and how we were going to stay entertained. We got through that and now we are in Stage 4 restrictions and are much more prepared. Remember:
“Tough times never last, but tough people do!”