Technology in our classroom

A great big thank you to all my students who made today’s lesson a pleasure to teach.  I hope you all learned a lot about your strengths and weaknesses.  When you choose activities to do now, from the grid Mr Hand and I are developing, you should be able to decide on ones you are interested in that do not necessarily relate to word smart or maths smart only.

Please leave a comment here telling me what were your top two or three strengths and whether you think the test was accurate or not.

Original image: ‘Oops‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65768710@N00/3209636742
by: Francisco Martins

Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial License

I have just checked out the information sent to teachers about websites and contests and found a few that some of you might be interested in looking at.

Name a road

With the Hobart International Airport expanding they are needing four roads to be given appropriate names.  You might need to check out this website for the correct way to name roads - this is called nomenclature.  This website also has information about giving geographical names in Australia.

You must be in primary school, so sorry Grade 7 students, you won’t be able to enter.  If either of your parents work at the airport, you also won’t be able to enter.  This closes 5pm on 10th July, 2009.  Check with your teacher by the end of June,  if you are interested in submitting 4 names as there is an official entry form for you to fill in and send off.

Image: ‘747 Over Airport Road‘
www.flickr.com/photos/67952341@N00/512716303

 Grow a crystal

This competition runs from July to September and involves participants in growing a crystal.  Check out the information at this website and also mention it to your science teachers.  They might do this as part of the science course over term 2.

In the Smithsonian kits, these are called ‘frosty diamonds’.

Anne Helmenstine

http://chemistry.about.com/od/growingcrystals/ig/Crystal-Photo-Gallery/Alum-Crystals.-LUM.htm

Challenge participants whether classes or individual students. 

Sorry to say this is the last challenge for this half of the year.  Students from the northern hemisphere are finishing their school year, some heading off to middle school or high school in September and needing their summer holidays to relax and take a deep breath before starting again on the roller coaster of education. Those of us in the southern hemisphere wish you all luck in your future endeavours but remember, to keep on blogging and tell us about your adventures.

If you wish to keep blogging with your friends from this challenge then make sure you visit the blog set up from last year ‘Bringing us together”.  I will be adding your names to the 2009 writers page on that blog. We have students from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, Argentina, Portugal, England, South Africa writing posts on this international student writers blog.

Sue Waters from The Edublogger and I have been having some thoughts about running two challenges in September - one for writing posts like this challenge has been and a new one about improving your commenting skills.  So keep an eye on my class blog so you can register for these challenges.

Challenge for the last week

• How has this challenge improved your communication skills?
• How could blogging become an integral part of your school’s curriculum?
• Would you take part in another challenge and why?

Original image: ‘Goodbye, Sammy. (With Flickr notes)‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61787893@N00/280538938
by: Earl

Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

One of the classes taking part in our 2009 student blogging challenge have been nominated in a primary blogging competition and they need votes to win.  The grade 2 class from Chorlton Park Primary are enjoying taking part in our challenge and the students have been telling us jokes and writing about many of their favourite things.  So help them win the competition and vote for them at this website.

Also students who took part in Sue Waters’ blogging competition in the Edublogger - well the results are in.  Make sure you add your badge to your sidebar if you are a winner. If you can’t work out how, ask Sue and she will tell you how or do it for you.

Original image: ‘The highly political pig‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/19074862@N00/49234577
by: Kerry

Released under an Attribution License

Next week will be the last challenge for this part of the year.  Students from the northern hemisphere will be having their summer holidays so we will not be having any specific challenges set but I will start again in September for those who wish to take part.  You will not have to register again as I will just add to the list I have from this part of the year. 

So here is the challenge for this week.

Here in Australia this week has three celebrations:  Tuesday 12 May is International Nurses Day, Friday 15 May is International Day of Families and throughout this week we are looking at people who volunteer for various jobs.  Your task is to research one of these special events and write a post about how one of these relates to you.

You might want to be a nurse in the future - tell us why and what you have to do to achieve that goal

You might want to write about an ideal family - what they do, how they work as a group, the good and the bad of being in an ideal family

Finally, you might want to tell your readers about a volunteering job you have or would like to do in the future.

Please make sure you link back to this blogpost and also makes some links to other websites for your readers to extend their knowledge on the topic you have chosen.

Original image: ‘BEACH CLEANUP‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/57557325@N00/416826937
by: Gary

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How do you like my great animation dancer?

Well it’s getting close to the end of the challenge.  Here in Tasmania we have about three more weeks until our end of term then we have a two week holiday.  Those students in Canada and USA are heading towards the end of the year and their summer vacation time.

Are you going to be writing posts over your holiday break?  What topics are you going to write about? Maybe you are going to be away from computers for the break.  But you still want your readers to come back after the break to read your posts.

You have your blogroll organized; you’ve visited everyone on the blog to wish them a great holiday or good luck when they finish middle school and go onto high school. But how are you going to keep them as readers and entice new readers in over your break?

Challenge this week

Begin writing a series of at least three posts on a favourite topic. 

For example, if you are like Braiden in my class last year, your topic would be motor sport.  Perhaps he could write a post about:

• famous motorcar drivers - one post per driver with links and photos to other websites
• famous races - again lots of links and images with correct attribution

At the end of each article ask a question.  Also mention what you will be writing about in your next post. To make it easy for your readers to know when you have written your post, do you have an email subscription on your blog?  Check out this post from The Edublogger to see how to add it.

But, I’m not going to be near a computer over the holidays, you say!!

Easy done!  Instead of publishing the post immediately, tell your computer when you want it published.  In Edublogs above the save/publish buttons in your write post dashboard is a ‘publish immediately edit’ button.  Use this to tell edublogs when you want your post to be published. This will make it look like you are still writing during your holidays.

Original image: ‘Late night‘  by: eden politte
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35237096015@N01/24604141
Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial License

One of the most important parts of blogging is continuing conversations.  This means readers have to read many blogs and leave lots of comments.  If you read a great post and decide to write a similar post on your blog, then it is manners to include a link to that original post where you got your idea from.

So this week’s challenge involves visiting the ‘Bringing us Together’ blog and reading the post about heroes, taking part in the survey and leaving a comment. Some of you might want to write your own post(with a link back to the original) about someone you consider to be a true hero or heroine.  Be careful to spell heroine correctly on your post.

War often brings heroes and heroines to our notice and while I have been ill over the last few weeks, I have been watching a lot of TV on the History channel.  A person I consider a heroine is Vivian Bullwinkel and a hero is Sir Weary Dunlop.

Thanks to Miss Ale and her grade six class in Argentina for the idea for this post.

Original image: ‘Hero of the Soviet Union‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124385307@N01/95230930
by: Kees de Vos   Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

As there are some classes in grade 6/7 who are blogging and others that don’t have that chance, I have created a single middle school blog for all students in grade 6/7 at our school.  All students will become users of the blog and if you want to be an editor with the privilege of publishing posts directly on that blog, then please visit the blog and leave a message.

On your personal blogs you have adminstrator rights, which means you can make all changes as needed, but as a user on the middle school blog you will have less rights.  If, though, you are prepared to help the teachers run the blog, then we will give you further rights as an editor or author.

Please visit the new blog and leave a comment.

Original image: ‘3:30 PM-Web Team Works After School‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83955435@N00/7701596
by: Judy Baxter

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Welcome back after your Easter holiday break.  I hope you all had a great time.  I wonder what you did?  Perhaps you could write a post about it in your blog.  Also with ANZAC Day coming up this weekend, I would be interested in knowing:

• What do you know about ANZAC Day?
• What was the event that began the tradition of ANZAC Day?
• What does ANZAC Day feel like, sound like and look like to people taking part in the parade and to people watching the parade?

This is another great post to be completed by Friday.  Make sure you have done some research and know your topic.  If you visit the website for the Australian War Memorial you will find lots of information and you might also find some images you could use. Remember to give attribution like I have for this photo (tells the readers where you got the photo).

You might also find some information from these BTN websites:  one about ANZAC Day and the other why people joined up. 

From Picture Australia:  www.brisbaneishome

070425 Anzac Day March, April 25th 2007, Adelaide St, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia-52

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