After a few complications our class iPhone and and android apps are back up and running. The app is aimed at helping parents stay up to date with what’s happening in our class and includes a feed of this bog as well as homework and general updates for families. The iPhone app can be downloaded for free from the app store and a link to the android app can be found here on the right hand side bar.

In 2009, our class held a new fundraising event called ‘Clippers For Cancer’. We organised this event to raise money for the Little Heroes Foundation in support of children living with cancer. We all collected sponsorships and donations and shaved our heads to raise awareness for our cause.

In 2010 and 2011 we held this event again and have now raised over $13,500. With the help of the money we have raised the Foundation has purchased a much needed MRI machine for the children’s cancer ward at the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital. We are pleased to announce that our class will be running this event again in 2012.

On Monday, May 7th we will be holding our shave day, and are inviting you to be involved. As part of our Clippers for Cancer team you will collect sponsors and join us on the big day to sacrifice your hair and raise awareness for this important cause.

If you are a student at our school, please come and register with us in Mr Lamshed’s class. If you are from another school and would like to set up a fundraiser at your own site, please get in contact with us! We would love to hear from you.

It’s aquatics week this week in our class. Today was our first day at Port Noarlunga and everyone had a great time. Students participated in snorkelling, canoeing, waveskiing, body boarding and surfing. We will post photos soon!

All students in our class have launched their own learning blogs this year. Soon there will be links to all of these blogs in our sidebar. Regularly, we will have a ‘Student Blog Spotlight’ to highlight some of our students who have put outstanding effort into their blogs.

This week, I’d like to highlight Isaac’s blog. Isaac has worked hard to get his blog up and running and has already posted two pieces of writing. Please take the time to visit his blog and leave Isaac a comment. http://isaacheps.edublogs.org

This week, our class is off to camp. This will be a great opportunity for us to get to know each other better as we head into the year. It looks like the weather is on our side with all three days forecast at around 28 degrees. We will post photos once we return.

This year, all students in our class have created their own blogs to share their learning. Most are in their beginning stages but are quickly becoming ready to receive visitors. Cameron and Matt have both posted to their blogs today. Please take the time to visit their blogs and support their efforts.

Cameron’ Learning Blog – http://cameronheps.edublogs.org
Matt’s Learning Blog – http://mattheps.edublogs.org

Just a reminder that all class notes and newsletters can be found on our ‘NOTES & NEWSLETTERS’ page. If you think you’ve missed a note, it’s accidentally been thrown out or is covered in left over food from the bottom of the school bag, you can download or print them from here. At the moment you will find our welcome note and this weeks school newsletter.

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday break. A special welcome to all of the new students and families joining our class this year. I am looking forward to getting to know you, and seeing what you bring to our class team. For those boys I had last year, you will see some changes in the way we are doing things in 2012 and will learn all about these during the first couple of weeks.

Our class website is up and running again this year, and will play a big part in our learning. It is a place where we can share what we’ve been doing and also keep families up to date with what’s happening in our classroom. You can find copies of notices and class newsletters on our ‘notes and newsletters’ page, and students will also be able to access information to help with their learning. Please take the time to visit our website at http://mrlamshedsclass.org and bookmark this page to check back regularly for updates. Soon an overview of our learning for the term will be available on the site. If you do not have internet access at home, or would prefer a paper copy of the overview, please let me know. Each student will also have their own learning blog this year. The boys will all publish many of their learning tasks on theses blogs. Over the next few weeks, ask the boys to share their blog with you. This will be a great way to check in on what your son has been doing at school.

We have a lot of exciting experiences planned for the year including our camp in week 4 and our aquatics program at Port Noarlunga in week 8 of this term. If you would like to discuss either of these please don’t hesitate to contact me.

To parents I have not met, It would be great to have an opportunity to meet you soon. I have found that school and parents working together helps to set students up for success. I look forward to working with you all this year.

Jarrod Lamshed

This week, the following article appeared in the Southern Times Messenger. Our video can also be viewed below.

KWN 2011 from Jarrod Lamshed on Vimeo.

Last night our Immigration movie was screened at the Mercury Cinema as a part of the Education Department’s New Media Film Festival. Several students from our class attended the festival to represent our movie team and received a certificate and iPod touch for their participation in this event. If you haven’t had a chance to see our movie it can be found in an earlier post on this site.

Festival Kapa Haka 2011 from Jarrod Lamshed on Vimeo.

Finally, we are pleased to be able to post the video of our Kapa Haka performance at this year’s Public Schools Music Festival. The boys worked hard on their performance and will soon join some other students from Hackham East on our mini tour to Adelaide schools. We are on the look out for a new Haka to learn for next year. If you know a Haka other than Ka Mate or Tika Tonu and would like to teach us, we would love to hear from you. Press play and enjoy the performance.

Today, I was asked to post the following message by Mr Thiele (our Principal)

“The sympathy of the Hackham East School community goes to Jake and Tyler on the tragic loss of their mother, Lisa who was one of those special parents who help make Hackham East such a special school. She was a wonderfully active supporter of the school footy teams. I would like to acknowledge the boys who were able to attend Lisa’s funeral on Friday to support Jake and Tyler. I know that that support will continue both in and out of school.

Bob Thiele, Principal”

The last week has brought sad times for our class and school community. The thoughts of all of us are with Jake and Tyler as they deal with the loss of their mum, who tragically passed away last Sunday. Lisa will be missed. On Friday most of our boys (including many of last years class members) attended Lisa’s funeral to show their support for Jake and Tyler. I have always been proud of my class, but the support they showed for their friend on Friday was a true display of what friendship and compassion is all about. I am extremely proud of all of them and am sure that they will continue to support their friends as they return to school.

KWN 2011 from Jarrod Lamshed on Vimeo.

This week Ashton, Jack and I travelled to Sydney to take part in the Panasonic KWN Movie Awards. Hosted by Toni Pearen, the awards are held each year to acknowledge the work done by students in this film making competition. This year our student won the South Australian Primary Award for their film ‘Immigration Australia: A Special Report’. This is the second year in a row that our class has won this prize. The award comes with $2000 of prize money to spend on Panasonic goods. We would like to congratulate all of the students that contributed to this year’ films. Click play above to see our 2011 entry.

Our students with other KWN teams and judges Toni Pearen (actor), Luke Carroll (actor), Tim Farriss (INXS)

2010 Festival Performance from Jarrod Lamshed on Vimeo.

This week we had a our first visit from some year 7 boys from Kangarilla Primary School. The boys are visiting us each week to learn Haka to perform at their graduation ceremony at the end of this term. We are teaching the boys Ka Mate and are reposting this video to help them with their actions.

In the last week, Apple have released some major updates to their operating system for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The new updates have some great features that will be really handy in the classroom. Unfortunately, the new software is not compatible with our class app. We are working on rebuilding our app to work with iOS5 and will let you know as soon as an update is available. Our Android app is still working fine.