I started my journey at this school as a Year 9. The system at Pakūranga College lets Year 9s pick a variety of subjects to give them a taste of each. Six different subjects, usually with two chosen subjects for each term, and Science taking up one of the option slots for two terms.
Just before you continue reading, I did not do all the subjects available, so I will only be commenting on those I did take. And, if we did happen to share a chosen subject, this article should not impact your own opinion of that class.
German
I had a bit of German knowledge before I came to Pakūranga College because of my old school, so I decided to take this class because I knew a bit about the country and language. So if you call me biased, I wouldn’t fight you. Overall, I found the subject fine and the accent easy to master, which was the main part of German in this taster.
We didn’t do any spoken assessment and instead went online. We did a mixture of online work and paperwork, so make sure to save a textbook for German to write in. German does have a few letters that don’t exist in other languages and though the accent was easy for me, others might struggle with the pronunciation.
Product Design
I had no idea what Product Design was when I first chose it. In Term 2 I found myself in a workshop with machines everywhere, and we were told we were going to use them to make our own projects. I was very afraid of the machines at first. Fortunately I warmed up to the machines over time and I could do my project. The first week we got to go on Pinterest to find ideas. If you are a person who likes to learn hands-on, and are interested in building and a path to become a builder or such occupations, this class is for you.
Fabrics
I had been waiting for this subject for a while because I was so eager to learn how to sew and create a pillow or tote bag as a taster. I wanted to create something so I could show off my hard work; I live for that kind of achievement.
We didn’t hop on the sewing machines immediately. First, we went over some safety guidelines and rules. Short story shorter, when we did start sewing I placed my fabric under the needle and pressed the foot pedal to start – however I didn’t move my fabric along fast enough and it had stabbed the same spot leading to a big knot and I messed up. I was then terrified to actually use it for a while, and when I started sewing my pillow together I always went slow cause I was afraid to mess up, because then I would have to unpluck all the thread, which is a job in itself and grueling.
Since I was making a pillow, I had to cut two equal squares of fabric, then sew them together. My pet peeve was that it kept moving so I kept cutting, and in the end I didn’t have the exact measurements. If you’re my fabrics teacher, I apologise!
Drama
As you can probably tell by this article, I am a person of melodrama. I had this subject in Term 4, and I had been waiting for months. Maybe it’s because I had friends that my favorite part was the group projects, which meant acting out scenes. We started doing big group scenes when we moved to the drama room after a stint in the music rooms, so we had a lot more space to work in. Some of my greatest work was those group projects. We often wrote our own scripts, so we had a lot of creative freedom, which was the topic of Year 9 Drama.
And, I guess you could say I was one of the kids who always got good marks and was part of the group that almost always had the best performance. I don’t mean to brag, but people were quoting a lot of our lines from our first (and in my opinion, our best) act. Maybe it was because of my achievement in the subject that I picked to take it this year, but I warn others – if you’re shy and have some anxiety about going up on stage, this isn’t the subject for you.
Spanish
Just like all languages, it requires a lot of learning, so that means a lot of memorising. But I admit it, I’m a sucker for talking, and being able to yap in another language? Sign me up.
This class was generally a fun time, since a lot of my friends sat at my table. I also pride myself on being a good learner of languages. The Spanish we learned was easy to remember since it is pretty easy to grasp for a beginner, and I’ll bet you’d already know a few Spanish phrases before you enter the classroom. My teacher also may or may not have bribed us with making food, including showing us how to wrap burritos, which we then got to eat. She also stated that we would be watching telenovelas if we chose Spanish for one of our Year 10 subjects. I fell into this trap and I’m having quite a pleasant time.
Just a reminder, my opinions are my opinions, and I’m sure you have your own. These shouldn’t influence your judgment and it’s purely for fun.
Cossar Salesa-Lee – Year 10
