Monday, August 28, 2006

Blogs again


"If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow."- John Dewey (1859 - 1952)

Could I talk about blogging - weblogging - once more?
Maybe a class weblog is the answer to running your class web site. It's very easy to set up and from there, very easy to update and maintain. You can add images and links easily and parents could easily add feedback! You could also use Flickr or MSN to store your class digital photos and link from your web page to there. Use the web!
Instructions for setting up an account to create an online photo album using MSN.
Let me know if you would like to try setting up a class website like this or have a look at these free blog sites:
http://www.blogger.com/start
http://edublogs.org/
http://www.xanga.com/
Examples of classroom blogs:
http://marykreul.teacherhosting.com/blog/
http://stephaniedean.edublogs.org/
http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/
http://bobsprankle.com/blog/
or
http://mamamusings.net/
In support of student blogs:
http://www.rediff.com/netguide/2003/jun/12media.htm
Western Australian Dept of Education site on Weblogs in the classroom:
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/index.htm



Question of the week: How many Planets are there in our Solar System? Answer Here




This week's interesting websites:


How to Eat Fried Worms is a book by Thomas Rockwell about to become a movie:
Trailer:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/howtoeatfriedworms/
Book Unit:
http://www.mce.k12tn.net/reading/fried_worms_unit.htm


The National Gallery in London has a current feature - Reflections on the Water - well worth a virtual tour: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/collection/features/potm/aug/feature1.htm?GXHC_GX_jst=8258c07950ea6164

More next week

R

Images this week - Central Otago Rail Trail, New Zealand.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Reflective Weblogs


Well done those who picked velcro as the mystery picture in Post 5 - absolutely spot on!

This week: Reflective Weblogs in the Classroom

Have you ever thought of using blogs in your class programme as a means of reflection? Reading log? These sites have information about classroom blogs:
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/voice/voice123.shtml
http://www.eschoolnews.com/eti/2005/06/000882.php

The Western Australian Dept of Ed has this Weblogs in the Classroom site:
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/

On Thursday Nigel Horrocks talked about blogs on Nine to Noon. Here is a podcast of what he had to say. Put it on your Ipod and listen on the way home!

If you are interested in getting your students to try weblogging as a writing genre, talk to me and I will help you get it set up.

Jamie McKenzie's latest article builds on his idea of the "Slam Dunk Lesson." In this he takes you through using digital resources to create a slam dunk lesson aka structured learning activity. http://fno.org/sum06/slamdunk.html These are a great way of using digital resources with plenty of scaffolding to support learners.

And the websites of the week?

Add (!) this site to your maths numeracy drill sites. Easy to follow maths games and activities. http://www.visualmathlearning.com/ex_games/ex_games.html

Speaking of maths, Sudoku is a good warm up activity. Try this site for daily children's sudoku at various levels. Download puzzle as adobe acrobat, then select copy and paste... http://www.dailysudoku.com/sudoku/kids/
The parent website has adult Sudoku:
http://www.dailysudoku.com/sudoku/index.shtml
And, if that's too easy, try Samurai Sudoku
http://www.samurai-sudoku.com/

Finally: Diary of Tech Supporter
Tuesday morning - seemed like a pretty normal day.
Phone call from John - can't get remote access to work - will work on that.
Notice that some computers are not logging on
Boys from Year 8 arrive complaining that computers in classroom are not logging on.
Check servers - all appear to be normal.
Check switches - all appear to be working, but decide one must be causing the problem.
Isolate the switch and reboot it.
Still not working.
Call switch supplier to organise a replacement unit.
Visit classroom to move access point to different switch.
Check mobile trolley - notice strange arrangemant of utp cables: Printer cable goes to access point. Other cable goes from wall socket to wall socket thus creating a loop to the switch. Hmmm.
Route cables correctly
Switch works correctly
Lunchtime!

Pictures this week from Flikr.com
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Monday, August 07, 2006

Websites Blogs and Podcasts


First a puzzle. Look at the picture and tell me what you think it is. It is a magnification, and it may help to know that the image is calle vc. Answers here!





Websites, blogs and podcasts:

Mathcasts aka maths movie are whiteboard animations of maths processes. Worth a look:
http://www.mathcasts.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

This is a Wikipedia site which summarises the popularity of social networking websites like Bebo and MySpace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_sites

Interesting blog entry on the use of video games in the classroom. http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2006/08/09/games-in-classrooms-or-classrooms-in-games/
And the podcast of the above including investigating the interface between the classroom and the information landscape. http://m2.slapcast.com/mp3/dwarlick/dwarlick-2006-08-12.mp3

Worth a look - allegedly the world's largest online library: http://www.questia.com/Index.jsp

This podcast features audio from the Annika Small’s talk entitled ” How can technology transform the way people learn?”. This talk was partof education.au limited’s “So what’schanged?” event, held at theWentworth Sofitel Hotel, Sydney Australiaon August 4th, 2006. http://media.educationau.edu.au/pod4.mp3

And put Library week in your diary (18 to 24 September) http://www.libraryweek.org.nz/

Not to mention the fact that this week is maths week. http://www.mathsweek.org.nz/mw06/

And finally, are we heading this way? The PE teacher who forbids running as it's too dangerous. http://raisingsuccessfulchildren.com/feedingdreams/?p=5

R

Friday, August 04, 2006

PC Schools


Friday again! The 3 days spent at the PCSchools conference were an invaluable in-depth time which gave me a much better grasp of what the software is able to do and how we can best use it.

In the next few weeks I'll input 2006 standardised test results and install a web based browser for staff access. This browser has a simpler, more direct interface which will mean it's quicker to access student information, print class reports, input and access assessment data etc.

Some websites for this week. We've been talking about blogs..... there's a bit of a blog war going on in the Middle East - the good thing about blogs is that no-one gets hurt:

  • On the Face -- Lisa Goldman, a 39-year-old Canadian-born Israeli in Tel Aviv
  • LebaneseBloggers -- Raja, who recently got his master's degree at Johns Hopkins and returned to Baltimore after being in Beirut for the beginning of the bombing
  • PerpetualRefugee -- A Lebanese executive with a multinational corporation
  • On the Edge -- Ami Ben-Basset, an Israeli writer

Have a look at the updated Drama NZ website: http://www.drama.org.nz/

Perhaps the best Vincent van Gogh Website: http://www.vggallery.com/

I don't suppose Vincent had Lego in mind: http://www.brillig.com/lego/starry_night/

How about some Jackson Pollock: http://www.manetas.com/pollock/jacksonpollock_by_miltos_manetas.swf

Middle Ages study? Search the Domesday Book: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/domesday/

Need homework ideas? try some anagrams: http://wordsmith.org/anagram/hof.html

I mentioned Flickr before. Classroom idea from Flickr - Digital story telling - tell a story with 5 photos. Have a look at the Flickr version: http://www.flickr.com/groups/visualstory/ You could use Moviemaker of Powerpoint to present them.........