The Akomanga Kaihanga Showcase: Team Renegade

On Thursday 23rd of July from 5pm - 7pm we presented our projects to an audience of parents, staff and stakeholders our projects

To open our showcase we began with Saia. He said a Mihi (speech) to welcome our whanau and extended visitors. He did an outstanding job! We then had our Deputy Principal speak, along with two people from the Ministry of Education who are very knowledgeable about our project-based learning classroom. We sang a variety of short waiata’s in between each speech. We all did a satisfying job! Once the speeches were shared, there was food ready for our whanau to munch on, while we prepared to finally present our project(s).

After the small snack break, it was time to present our project(s). We began with Champion who spoke about our project challenge, Riiana shared our trip to the town center and the data we collected, Temu elaborated on the other half of the data collection, Naomi talked about the next steps we are going to be taking and I finally expressed the capabilities we have from this project. When it came to the presentation, Me, Naomi and Temu alternated on speaking about it.

At first, the atmosphere was hindering my confidence - especially since our parents we're here to watch us. However, over the course of presenting in that small amount of time, I began to feel the urge to speak even more and I felt terrific. I gained most of my confidence from stuffing myself with lollies! (Please don’t do what I did)

I believe the audience received and understood the message, we gave a thorough explanation, example, steps we need to take and the presentation expanded on that. I believe they also understood because their questions were very unique. I was asked a question around speeding up the construction around our area, this reminded me of our first ever initial plan we made and I had to explain that time and also about how overtime we focused more on more prominent on-going issues in our community.

The group did exceptionally well. I loved how over time our group started becoming more warmer and the way we spoke started to flow at a good pace. Next time, I hope to prepare myself mentally, by practising it in my head etc. I felt very proud about our showcase and the great feedback and outcome we received. I learnt from this whole process that we can share valuable knowledge that adults don’t really care about. The capability I learnt was positivity, maintaining this can get you many places. If I could give myself advice, I would say to connect myself with an audience more, create engaging conversations and I can share and learn from.

Planning & Preparation 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.

Planning our poster was a challenging task. Many things contributed to how challenging it was. First we set three people to work on the layout of the poster which was Naomi, Temu and Me. Then we had Champion and Riiana working on the information. We definitely were clueless at some points, however, Naomi came up with a really interesting design that displays our project theme really well. We all pitched in and contributed our thoughts, afterwards  we came up with a unique layout that we were very proud of.

One of our Planning Days: Very Hectic

It took a lot of reflecting and discussion between the team and help from the teachers to complete the information part of our poster. While this was underway, drastic changes were already being made to our poster. Dr. Jannie who is experienced in creating professional posters gave us a huge amount of constructive feedback, resulting in these heavy changes to our poster. In terms of altering our poster, we focused more on the appearance and a fair amount of time on the information.

Final Project Poster

Our original roles for each part of the poster quickly faded away. This was not caused by a lack of teamwork, but was due to the quick changes and the close deadline that occurred. Although this happened, it didn’t hinder our progress throughout the creation of the poster. Our communication was effective and we were all decisive. 

I think our team was successful in contributing to the poster. We all had great ideas and it was certainly applied to the poster. What was challenging was the on-going changes being made, and to add on, the deadline for the posters to be in was excruciating my mental state. I believe that extending and working on these successes and challenges will lead to an even more advanced poster.

Before we sent the poster, I was very proud with the participation in making it. We were all satisfied with the final look, it had a professional style compared to the other group which really draws peoples’ attention. If the group felt OK with the poster, then that’s all that made me feel at ease and happy about.

We were also given a task to create a video or presentation to go along with the poster. Champion and Riiana worked on the presentation. They made sure to illustrate our journey and achievements throughout this group project. Temu created the design which was astounding to say the least. We were all happy with the final presentation and I thought we all made an awesome effort.

Te Whare Tapa Wha - Health Class with Whaea Kata

Lately in Health class we have been focusing on the Te Whare Tapa Wha or in English, The four dimensions of well being. Our class participated in a few activities so that we get familiar with the four dimensions of well being. These dimensions are, Physical (Taha Tinana), Social (Taha Whanau), Spiritual (Taha Wairua) and Mental/Emotional (Taha Hinengaro). To further our understanding, we created our own whare and decorated it to our desire. The whare could be any shape, size, colour it just had to have the four dimensions displayed on each side. Let me explain the different dimensions of our well being:

To start off, let's discuss our Taha Tinana meaning Physical Well being. Taha Tinana gives us the ability to move. Whatever sort of movement you carry out can influence this foundation of your well-being. Making sure you're aware of your body and keeping fit creates a positive result in this dimension which means it's doing well and strong. However, if you're eating unhealthy and not doing any sort of exercise that makes a positive impact on your body, that means you should check in with your Physical Well being just to cover any concerns.

The next dimension I will be covering is our Spiritual Well Being or the Māori term Taha Wairua. Our Spiritual Well Being are the things that we value or believe in. These values and beliefs that we hold define the state of our Taha Wairua. I value my education and I believe that I should be aware of my learning at all times. Lately, I haven’t been paying attention to my work and I’m always getting off track. I definitely need to improve this state and make sure I’m focused on my learning, therefore I can feel a sense of achievement later on.


Our Social Well Being also known in Māori - Taha Whanau, is the communication we have with the people you are surrounded by and how that communication impacts our Social Well Being. I feel that my Social Well Being has been in a very fine condition. I enjoy meeting new people in college and I have already built friendships with a few people! Since these are new people, I have been endeavouring in listening and talking more with them.

Lastly, let’s take a look at our Taha Hinengaro meaning our Mental/Emotional Well Being. Many, many things can affect your Mental/Emotional state in both a positive and negative way. This can be your Thoughts/Feelings. For some reason, as much as I love collaboration, I tend to work well independently with mildly strict boundaries and secure away from the people around me, which means my Mental/Emotional Well Being is in a positive condition. I sometimes feel frustrated and annoyed when I’m working at a group table because I then easily get distracted and lose focus on my work, which then creates a negative impact on my Mental/Emotional well being.

All four of these walls (dimensions) that I have explained create a whare. This is not just an ordinary whare, but it's one that covers all aspects of health from our physical appearance to the way we think and feel about things. Keeping these dimensions stable as in making sure your Physical, Mental/Emotional, Social and Spiritual Well Being is maintaining a healthy state means that the walls keeping our whare standing is strong and you are doing absolutely well.

If one of these dimensions starts becoming weak or is not doing well at all. This means that one of our walls that help support our whare in standing strong is crumbling and that is not a good sign. If this ever happens always be sure to take it into consideration and discuss this matter with someone that you feel you're able to trust. Not all walls of the whare will do well all the time as we are going through different phases in our life that will affect us in various ways. All dimensions will some time go through a healing process and it's not something to rush. Make sure you are comfortable and always checking in with your Well Being.

Akomanga Kaihanga - INTRODUCING TEAM RENEGADEZ

Malo e Lelei and warm greetings! My name is Amelia. I am currently 12 years old turning 13 and I am a Year 9 student attending Tamaki College. I am in a class called Akomanga Kaihanga (translated to the builder class) where we participate in project based learning. This is the first time the school has taken an approach to learning and I've got to say it’s been very interesting.

Since we are working on project based learning, we have been split into five different groups where we got to create a project that could help and improve our community. The team that I’m in is called Team Renegadez, this group consists of Naomi, Riiana, Temu and me! I think that we have a very strong team because each person in our group holds a strength that can help our project.


The issue our group is looking to raise awareness about is Road Safety in our community. Specifically, the long road in the town centre (Line Road). The reason why we chose this specific issue is because a lot of people have not been able to abide by guidelines on the road which leads to a lot of car accidents. Each person in our group all agreed to this idea because it was either something they had witnessed or were concerned about.

Like I have just mentioned, our project is mainly focused on Line Road. We have been working to lower the speed limit on that road. The current speed limit is 50, lowering it down would reduce a great amount of car accidents. We have been contacting stakeholders and residents, trying to get their perspective and side of this problem. We have also done a lot of research about roads, safety guidelines and all that stuff!

From this project, our team is hoping to achieve a happier, safer and comfortable community on the roads. We also want to decrease the amount of car crashes that have occured on that road, especially because the amount is a real concern. We want people to be smart on the road, always being aware of their speed limit and how it will affect their surroundings!

At the moment, I’m having mixed feelings about our project. I’ve received a tiny bit of feedback which kind of put me down and some of the people in my group down, but then when I look at the bigger picture, I feel very excited of what the outcome would be like. I feel very proud and grateful for the amount of effort my group has put into this project! The amount of learning we have got out of this is amazing. I think if I had a little more faith, this project would definitely come alive!