Technology in our classroom

Sorry I am a day late getting this challenge out to you. But I have been thinking about what to use that I haven’t used in previous years.  Then I got an email from Sue Waters from The Edublogger saying she was off on holidays to Cairns and Uluru. 

Then it hit me: Holidays and Vacations.

Challenges week 7 – you may complete as many as you wish

1. What would be your fantasy holiday?  Remember we have readers from age 7 looking at our posts so be careful how you express yourself.
2. What is your favourite holiday that you have already been on? Why is it a favourite?
3. If you had a choice of a country to holiday in, where would it be and why? Check out the destination tab at Lonely Planet.
4. Find a travel blog about that country or place and leave  a comment there.
5. Visit the Lonely Planet blog and leave a comment on a post.  Remember to be savvy and only use your first name. If you do this activity, come back here to tell me which post you commented on.

Remember to tell your readers answers to questions beginning with who, where, when, what, how, why.

• Who did you go with?
• Where did you go?
• When did you go?
• What was the best part of the holiday?
• How did you get there?
• Why did you go to that place? etc etc

Include some links so your reader can visit the place you went to or want to go to. Try to find some images of the holiday or vacation place.  A map would be handy for your readers. Remember to include the attribution for the images.

Image: ‘Uluru/Ayers Rock‘
www.flickr.com/photos/97708873@N00/2562614982

Already half way through the challenges and so far we have:

• written an ‘About me’ page – week 1
• created and uploaded an avatar for the blog and/or comments - week 1
• decided on a commenting guideline for our blog – week 2
• added clustrmaps and other widgets about the world – week 2
• learned how to create post categories – week 3
• added interesting links on our blogroll – week 3
• added widgets about the local area – week 4
• added a translation widget – week 4
• commented on international blogs – week 4
• learned how to comment back to commenters – week 4
• learned how to add HTML code to add a link in a comment – week 4

All this in just 4 weeks!!

The main part of blogging is the conversations you create through either the posts or the comments. We are doing quite well with the comments but now it is time to show communication through writing your posts.  Most posts so far have just been written words.  Some students have added an image but was it an image they had taken themselves or did they use one from the web?

How to do this??

Add links to other blogs you have read which gave you the idea for your post. For example, Abigail tagged me to write a post about inspiring music.  When I wrote the post, I made sure there was a link in it, that took my readers back to Abigail’s original post. If you get tagged for this activity, make sure you link back to the original post of the person who tagged you.

Often when I send you back to read a post written by Sue Waters at “The Edublogger” I will attach a link to the post I want you to read – eg how to insert a link into a comment.

As well as inserting links, adding an image will get your reader involved.  Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words.  But if you use an image that is not owned by you personally, you have to tell your readers where you got the image from.

For example, in my post about why I wasn’t at school last Tuesday, I used images I had taken, so I didn’t have to say on the post where I got the pictures.  But I could have said they belonged to me and were copyright to me. So if you wanted to use one of them, you would have to get my permission.

There are many websites where you can get images to use in your post that are creative commons images.  This means they have been licensed so you can use them in certain ways.  There are a few different creative commons (cc) licences so you need to check especially if you want to slightly change the image. Here is a link to a previous post I have written about sites for images.  Included in that post is a link about how to add an image if using Edublogs. You must give attribution when using a cc image.  I have done this two ways: I have linked the image to the URL where the photo was found and at the bottom of this post, I have given the title of the image and where I found it.

Challenges week 5

1. Write a post about one of your favourite interests.  In this post include at least two links to great websites or blogs that are also about that topic.
2. Visit one of the image sites and choose a great image. Write a post about that image and remember to include the attribution. This means you have told readers where you got the image from.  Look at the URL for the image – this does not mean Google search images but the original site where the image was put on the web.
3. Choose five images which, put together, tell a story without any writing from you. Remember to choose a great title for this post. Remember also to give attribution for the images.

Image: ‘Headstrong’ www.flickr.com/photos/95572727@N00/2259228179

Over the weekend, my neighbours and I held a regatta out on the street in front of our houses.  A regatta you say – but you need water for that. Well look below at the photos that I took.

One of the neighbours called the ABC and they sent down a photographer and reporter.  Our regatta was mentioned on the news on Saturday night.  Since then the water level has risen even further and two cars about the same size as mine have been stuck and had to be pulled out of the water on the road. This is not good for the underside of the car nor the engine and certainly not the brakes.

Underneath that water are some dangerous potholes – one at least two metres long and about 50cms deep. The council are going to try and pump away some of the water but that won’t be until Wednesday so we have been told.  With more rain due tonight and tomorrow, I feel safer in my house and not trying to leave my driveway to get to school.

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

Flickr

As we have participants from 9 different countries taking part in the blogging challenge, Sue Waters and I thought it would be great to have a post about the festivals and celebrations you have in your country or the area you live.

I know students in my class will have just had the Royal Hobart Show they could write about, students living in Georgia must have some sort of “Peach Festival” as that is the nickname of their state, Halloween is around the corner as well.

Activities to choose from for week 6

Write a post about a festival or celebration you have attended.  Describe the festival and its history. What was it about? Did you enjoy it or not?  Make your post at least three paragraphs long so your readers will have lots to comment about. Try to include links and an image with the correct attribution. If you don’t know how to attribute photos then use the link in the previous sentence. If you want help in finding creative commons images then check here.

Change your theme to have some sort of festival appearance. If you have a music ipod on your blog, make sure the music relates to your festival.

Write about a festival or celebration you would like to visit in the future.  Mention why you would like to go there - perhaps the snow festival in Sapporo in Japan. Find links and an image to include, again with correct attribution.

Remember: you need to have at least 5 links in your blogroll for the activity next week.  These links don’t include the ones that were in your blogroll originally. You can have as many links as you like, see Nadine’s and Ashley’s blogrolls – about 20 names in each of them.

Original image: ‘P1040369‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98423201@N00/2264259907
by:

Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial License

Was reading a blog which had a link to this site, which allowed you to put captions on your photos.  Sorry kids, but again you need to be 13 or older to use it.  I uploaded a photo I took of a bison in Yellowstone National Park when I was there a few years ago.

Have you found any sites suitable for the under 13’s to use which allows “phiddling with photos”?

By reading the blogs of other people like Larry Ferlazzo, you often come across a website that has potential in the classroom.  This happened to me today when I found a link to this site at PicLits. Naturally I checked out any age limits and could find nothing mentioned on the site, so joined and created my first masterpiece.

You are shown many photos to choose from, then can drag and drop or create freehand a poem or significant line to add to the photo.

 
See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

As we are doing work using the multiple intelligences, perhaps you could create a collage, with one liners for each type of intellignece.

Having joined Tutpup with the students, the race is on ……. who is going to be top of our class ladder by the end of term?  Look at where I am so far …..  Binga, you will have to get a move on.  In a 24 hour period finishing at 9.38am this morning, this is where I was on the Australian board. But if I look at my results over 365 days, I am 104 after playing 121 games. 

I did this by graduating in all levels in spelling, graduating all levels in tables and beginning to graduate in algebra.  Even as a teacher, I find some of the top levels very challenging especially against some students from countries with a high education standard such as India, China and the Scandinavian countries.

 If you want to take a picture of where you are, use the print screen button on your keyboard, then go into a paint type program to crop and resize your picture.  Save on your drive then upload to your blog.

Have you ever seen or heard an alpaca talking?  I have!! It has such a cute accent … South American I think, maybe Spanish or Portuguese. If you want to hear it then visit this site … lots of fun to play around as a guest but must be 13 or older to join.

One of our activities relating to the Olympics is to create a scrapbook of highlights. 

If you are 13 years or older, perhaps you would like to use this program called “Scrapblog”. 

Rules still apply though, about finding images that have the correct attribution.  Have a play with this program and upload your scrapblog to a post on your blog.

You might create a sport scrapblog or one about a famous athlete participating in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Original image:’Project365 Scrapbook’

http://www.flickr.com/photos/64673380@N00/1034662822 
by: Summer

Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License