Term 3 2008

Whew, it's a while since I've done one of these. Beginning of this term actually. During the term we have implemented KnowledgeNet as our intranet. I'll be doing some more PD on this early next term, but you should have logins for all your students now and should distribute these for next term.



Also on the PD agenda for next term is using PCSchool Spider to view class and student details, print of class lists, and mark the roll.



Meanwhile, here's some sites you may be interested in:

Book Wink - dedicated to inspiring children to read - uses video and podcasting

Whyville - social networking for primary age children in a safe environment.
Background for teachers

Terri Husted's Homepage - Maths for teachers

From Interface Magazine:

• Good idea #1 - Musical computers - Just like musical chairs except that you have to write and continue a story at each computer. Lesson Plan here.
  
• Good Idea #2 Colour coded grammar activity.

Virtual Body - good animated body part models. Smartboards?

Speaking of Smartboards, all smartboard computers will be upgraded to Notebook v10 in the next wee while. Notebook 10 has some new features which Aaron will be working with next term. New Features:

New Look
• improved user interface
• toolbar customization
• Welcome Center
Notebook Software File Creation and Delivery
• page grouping
• customizable themes
• Senteo™ software question insertion
• SMART Document Camera image insertion
• Magic Pen tool
• table integration
• active alignment
• object animation
• SMART recorder
• shape recognition tool
• color and gradient fill effects
• spell check
Other Tools and Features
• SMART Learning Marketplace access
• Online Essentials for Educators
• security features


http://www2.smarttech.com/kbdoc/118455




Or with the smartboard look at these space interactives.

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072482621/student_view0/interactives.html#

Phases of the moon:













Got some time during the holidays? Add effects to some of your digital photos here:



http://www.dumpr.net/















Who has a Facebook Page? From a survey of 31,000 Employers:

More than 1 in 5 employers said they found information on social networking sites about prospective employees

Top areas of concern:

• information about alcohol or drug use
• inappropriate photos of information
• poor communication skills
• bad mouthing former employers

Careful what you put on your facebook site!

Mathletics, Knowledgenet and other stuff.

Mathletics and Knowledgenet

I'll send around your teacher logins for mathletics this week. When you log in you'll be able to print out your maths class logins and passwords in case you want to get into it before the end of the term.

I'll go over the basics of teacher admin on teacher only day anyway. There is a login link on the Wellesley Maths page.

Knowledgenet is our new Learning Management system and Intranet. I've started populating this with our intranet stuff, and there will be usernames and passwords for this as well (but only for accessing certain parts of it. More on teacher only day!

And remember the blog competition. I've organised a judge to check them out next week, so make sure you blog is up to date before then.

Smartboards

Wordle

Have a play with Wordle – a tool which lets you create word clouds with examples of text. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.

For example, the cloud below is constructed from the Wellesley Philosophy as it appears on the school web site.

Which words are given prominence? What does it tell you?

How could you use this on the Smartboard?

Smartboard cartoons - Welcome to Hunkin's Experiments. Cool cartoons that will have you experimenting with food, light, sound, clothes, and a whole lot more!! Hundreds of cartoon experiments from cartoonist, broadcaster and engineer Tim Hunkin.

http://www.hunkinsexperiments.com/

ICT Sessions at Wellesley

These are some images relating to work done by your boys in ICT. First some edited digital photos using online editing web site Fotoflexer:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27595273@N05/sets/72157605585388227/

And some 2d images of 3d designed vehicles in Google Sketchup.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27595273@N05/sets/72157605578770018/

Young Minds, Fast Times: The Twenty-First-Century Digital Learner

How tech-obsessed iKids would improve our schools. Marc Prensky

http://www.edutopia.org/ikid-digital-learner-technology-2008

An interesting article. What do you think:

Turn teen texting toward better writing

Teachers who co-opt Web tools for class have the best of both worlds.

"Our student bloggers and digital writers of all backgrounds are part of a journaling culture which America has not seen since the great age of diarists during the Transcendental movement, when Thoreau and Emerson recorded their daily lives for eventual public consumption."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0513/p09s02-coop.html?page=1

Thinking and Learning

21st Century Learning Skills:

From the Thinkfinity site mentioned below

In some respects, the potential of 21st century learning lies in the
exploration of how digital tools (cameras, presentation software, computing
equipment) and online resources can support and enhance traditional
subjects,skills and teaching practices. The Internet alone provides students
with enormous opportunities to access:

· A trove of primary source documents previously located on library
shelves, but now available online through digital archives.
· Authentic scientific data across a range of fields from current and historical
meteorological forecast data to economic statistics
· Geospatial tools that combine data with dynamic maps
· Global communications media that make distance collaboration, cross-cultural exchanges and rich media experiences possible

How many of these opportunities do we provide for our students?

Inquiry
Fantastic inventions site via the Smithsonian Institute:

Authors and Reading:

This is the link I sent around earlier in the week of Michael Rosen interviewing various authors:
http://www.teachers.tv/readingaloud

Video of the Week:

Principal from hell! Rowan Atkinson deals with the problem of boys not issuing books from the library.........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBeguUvuDzs
Actually we have some books taken without being issued; perhaps we could try this technique?

Searching

Just discovered this Boolean Search graphical tool! We have some information on Boolean searching on our search site and it is a tool all searchers for information need to employ to some degree.:

But this is a very clever way of seeing how it works. The example in the image uses a search for information on Wellesley College but not including USA but including New Zealand results.I would think this would be good to do on the Smartboard!

And if you have a Vista machine, have you tried the snipping tool??

Under accessories, it enables you to take images of anything that is on your desktop and either copy it to the clipboard, or save it to an image file.

Blogs

What’s a blog? 6 and 7 year olds from Nelson Central School talk about what a blog is:

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=601b9f31bf04019c8593

Smartboard Activities:

For Juniors, try Animal Riddles:
http://www.meddybemps.com/riddles/

The Kids Network has a large number of categorised educational resources.

Thinkfinity is another one with links to a large number of interactive resources.

More stuff for your Class - May

This could be useful for the senior school inquiry this term: Time Magazine's best inventions for 2006. Did they do one in 2007? I haven't found it yet.

From Interface mag ( In the staffroom, well worth a browse) These activities are interesting rather than being stupendously educational. They're worth a play, though.

Linerider – try it on the whiteboard – pure wet day fun!
http://linerider.com/play-line-rider-online

Grammar Ninja someone’s independent study!
http://www.kwarp.com/animations/grammarninja.html

Genius Boxing – Pick a fight with Archimedes, Einstein, etc
http://www.mrnussbaum.com/geniusboxing1.htm

Or if you really need a low intensity activity, try this on the Smartboard!! Virtual bubblewrap.....
http://smartboards.typepad.com/smartboard/files/bubblewrap.swf Manic mode seems to work best for me.(especially at the end of the day.)
where would you assess ithe thinking skills involved on the SOLO scale????

Or Have a look at Newsmap on your smartboard:
http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/index.cfm

Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator. A really interesting way of looking at the news.

And:

Scicity – Hosted by Otago Museum and IBM - SciCity is a rich learning environment that utilises innovative new technology to engage young New Zealanders in ongoing interactive experiences.
SciCity has direct links to the revised New Zealand curriculum. It achieves success by approaching many hard to reach curriculum areas in a fun and creative way.
Scicity is here I’ve used it in ICT sessions last year, so ask if you need help. Meet your class in Scicity!

Teacher resources are here!




Using your Smartboard with maths. Have a look at this video. Persevere, it’s worth watching as he is using the recorder feature of the notebook software. Maybe something to get an able child to try with........ say.....long division??
http://csdsmarties.blogspot.com/2008/03/adding-fractions-flash-student.html

Class tools of a varying nature : http://www.classtools.net/

Youtube Corner:
Classics:

Teenage Affluenza:


The Piano:


Kiwi:


And for a better ending for Kiwi:

Technology and Art

Is this Art?? This was created using a web based graphics editor ( http://fotoflexer.com/) by Vinay in 78T. He used the digital photo below as a base. Is this artistic? creative? or sneaky!? There are lots of ways of creatively altering digital photos. The darkroom of the past is What do you think Eve?

More for Smartboards

Great to see some of the maths basic facts games being used on smartboards around the place. I used the jetski race one with my maths class ( http://arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/jetski/jetski.html) -an excellent way to improve basic facts speed - Set up a hosted game and as well as competing against the computer, you could end up competing against some whizz kid from USA? China?

Try your smartboard with some of the activities below:

Geosense – pinpoint cities of the world. This is a challenging activity - good for able students

And from the same maker – a vocabulary game – try it in year 7 and 8 with able spellers. http://www.wordslide.net/

Or a simpler vocab game from Roy the Zebra:


Do you think you know the countries of the Middle East?? Try the map game from Rethinking Schools – fantastic for the Smartboard! It's harder than you would think.


Articles worth reading:

When Mum or Dad Asks To Be a Facebook 'Friend' Social networking and parents! A Washington Post article.

And the video selection for this week!
Some Brazilian Football Skills:

And the famous Bush Blair Duet:

Smartboards

Welcome to 2008!

Continuing on the theme of Smartboards, here are some links to resources you might find useful in your class.


The Wicked! website has some maths games and interectives which lend themselves well to smartboard use. Really good for students to work on their basic facts:


http://www.tki.org.nz/r/wick_ed/maths/interactives.php


Another basic facts site with some speed games to improve basic facts recall:

http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/



This looks like a good resource too - a blog dedicated to the use of smartboards. Spend a few minutes looking around here:

http://www.smartboards.typepad.com/


And courtesy of Interface, the NZ ICT in schools magazine, a growing list of NZ teachers who maintain blogs.

http://www.nz-interface.co.nz/teacherblogs/


And on the same site, a group of pdf files which contain ICT related lesson plans:

http://www.nz-interface.co.nz/lesson_plans.cfm


Perhaps your students could try some artwork on the smartboard at:

http://www.kerpoof.com/


That's enough for now! Remember to flick your projector off at lunchtimes, or if you're out of the classroom for a while.

ICT Learning Challenges #3 - Digital Photos

Using your Smartboard.

This teacher has used the record feature of the smartboard so that her children can create small videos of maths strategies - then posted them to Youtube. Could be a powerful tool for creating learning animations...... (If you can't see the embedded video, click here.)

What is this? (answer below)

Digital Photos.

Extract from the Infinite Thinking Machine Blog:
http://www.infinitethinking.org/2007/05/youve-got-to-see-it-to-learn-it.html

Marzano's (2001) strategies for increasing student achievement are important in Visalia (and in many other districts), so we discussed ways digital cameras (and Picasa) could be used to support several of these research-based strategies, including the following:

• Ask students to compare or classify images.
  
• Ask students to delete, edit, or re-order images to facilitate analysis of the information at a deep level.
  
• Create a slide show to recognize student effort, achievement, and mastery.
  
• Create a slide show to illustrate time-sequence, or cause-effect patterns.
  
• Use images to document individual and group accountability - or to facilitate group reflection.
  
• Use images to support “corrective” feedback. (The instant nature of digital
  images – and means of sharing digital images – can facilitate timely
  feedback.)
  
• Use images taken with your digital camera as cues and advance
  organizers.

In preparation for the workshop I also combed the web for inspirational ideas using digital cameras and Picasa in the classroom. I offered the participants a list of a dozen ideas:

1. Slideshows for Back to School Night or Open House
   
   
2. Slideshows of Performances, Celebrations, Assemblies, or Field Trips
   
   
3. Photo Yearbooks (For a school, a class, or a club!)
   
   
4. Photo Journalism, Documentaries, or Dramatizations
   
   
5. Time Lapsed Photography (Especially in science!)
   
   
6. Class Books (Think big books!)
   
   
7. Story Books (“Digital Story Telling”)
   
   
8. How-To Guides (Address non-fiction standards!)
   
   
9. Exercises in Classifying, Categorizing, or Compare and Contrast.
   
   
10. Photos as Anticipatory Sets, Writing Prompts, or Review
    
    
11. Document Learning (Great for parent conferences!)
    
    
12. Photo Portfolios (Can be used for student presentations, too!)
    

Other ideas for using digital photos in the classroom:

http://its.leesummit.k12.mo.us/digitalmedia.htm

100 ways to use digital cameras in the classroom (Scholastic)

10 Tips for Taking great photos

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And, sadly, for the conservation club:

10 animals that won't exist in 10 years

Answer:

Searching Again, Smartboards and TV on Demand

From: Those Dark Hiding Places: The Invisible Web Revealed - Robert J. Lackie, Associate Professor-Librarian, Rider University

"The Web," according to Chris Sherman, Internet search expert and Associate Editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, "is increasingly moving away from being a collection of documents and becoming a multidimensional repository for sounds, images, audio, and other formats." Because much of this information is not accessible to many general search engines' software spiders, we need to look for specific search tools that will lead us to this hidden content. Some of these tools include directories, searchable sites, free Web databases, and a few general and many specialized search engines. Begin searching with...

Directories and Portals when you:

• have a broad topic
  
• want selected, evaluated, and annotated collections
  
• prefer quality over quantity
  

Invisible or Deep Web [searchable sites and databases] when you:

• are looking for information that is likely in a database


• are looking for information that dynamically changes in content
  

Search engines [general and specialized] when you:

• have a narrow topic


• want to take advantage of the newer retrieval technologies
  
  
  http://www.robertlackie.com/invisible/index.html#engines
  
  

SmartBoard Resources:

http://education.smarttech.com/ste/en-US/Ed+Resource/Software+Resources/default.htm

http://education.smarttech.com/ste/en-US/Ed+Resource/Lesson+activities/International+Lesson+Activities/Aus_NZ-+Notebook+Activities/ (specific Australian and New Zealand stuff)

http://www.newdealedzone.com/whiteboardres.html

http://eduscapes.com/sessions/smartboard/


http://www.unit5.org/foxcreekimc/smartboardresources.htm

http://my-ecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=9346

http://www.smart-education.org/

These should keep you busy for a while....quite a while! Don't forget to try using Google Earth or Google maps with your smartboard.

This looks to be an excellent Global Warming site - From American Radio works. I'll add it to our list of sites. http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/earlysigns/index.html



Maths manipulatives: http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html

It's the time of the year for sore throats. If you feel one coming on, it might be worth trying this remedy: http://www.myfinancialjourney.com/archive/frugal-cure-for-a-sore-throat

Who says house prices can't drop? Try selling your house in Detroit! http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070319/ts_nm/usa_subprime_detroit_dc;_ylt=Aov5dA96IapEm53NtFaK6N0EtbAF

The way of the future? Have a look at TVNZs video on demand site. Look at the previews of TVNZ shows or watch the Lions play the All Blacks at Carisbrook in 1966. (Before my time, but Steve would remember it.) http://tvnzondemand.co.nz/content/ondemand_index/ondemand_skin