Having a Go

Using Skrbl

2009-10-18T12:48:00.001+13:00

This week I am going to try a collective, collaborative sort of web quest with my class as our tuning in aspect to our inquiry topic 'An Adventure in Aquatics'. We are starting with Water safety as we move into school swimming and our Year 5 lakesafe programme. I would like to use the following application for the children to record the facts they find through a whole class activity.

Let's see if it will work!

Movie Maker

2009-05-02T14:13:00.000+12:00

Blogging with my Class

2009-05-01T16:44:00.002+12:00

We have had a successful week blogging in Room 18. Our first attempt at it is going well. I think most children have set up their pages within the class blog site and have all written an article or two. The children have been so excited about it and motivated to write which is awesome.

We have had a few glitches which is to be expected but we will work together to solve those problems. For example, quite a few children have lost their blog articles when they save them, the system logs them out and they lose their writing, had some very crestfallen looks. I have a solution for this but will work with the children to see what they think, probably best to write and save our articles in word and copy and paste when we are ready.

Many chidlren have gone online at home to check out the blogs and left comments which is fab. Next step is to get the chidlren reading each others articles and leaving them comments...

All very exciting and having lots of fun.

Time is ticking and I cannot spend all Friday evening in the class... heading home soon...

Ka kite all.
Cola.

Using Voice Thread

2009-04-28T16:07:00.001+12:00

Word Widgets

2009-04-24T11:55:00.001+12:00

My Class Waiata

2009-04-22T15:03:00.000+12:00

Check it out, My first podcast. My lovely Year 5's singing some beautiful waiata. I think they sound lovely. Hope it works.

2009-04-22T15:02:00.001+12:00

Learning takes time

2009-04-21T18:52:00.002+12:00

I'm back, holidays seem to give me the time to blog! How can I fit it in to my daily or weekly routine? Anyho, this post is about learning takes time!

I spent sometime this afternoon exploring sktich, after seeing someone use it in their blog. I thought it looked like a great application to use in my blog. So I created a word document that I was going to practice using skitch with ( I'm not even sure that's what you do) then I discoverd it's a mac application. Doh. I will try to add in here what I wrote, just so I feel like I haven't completely wasted my time.

The following is pasted from a word document.....

Using Skitch In My Blog

I have noticed that one of the classroom blogs I read regularly for guidance and inspiration uses skitch to display various poster and newsletter type articles.

I thought I would have a go and see how to use it and how I can use it on my class blog.

Our topics next term are camp and a “healthy and safe me”. So how can I use skitch on my blog with these topics? Maybe I can load a camp list onto the class blog.

Will it support adding images? I will try.

What skills will I need? I would use skitch to create newsletters and posters for my class and personal blog, so I will probably need some sort of presentation, design and layout skills.

I am creating this in word… will it work….

Fingers crossed. Xx (this is my fingers crossed, not kisses for you, sorry :) )

On further exploration it becomes apparent that the system requirements are a MAC 10.4.6 or later…. I don’t have a mac….

So I learnt, that learning takes time and sometimes you don't get the desired result!
However it has got me back blogging and I do enjoy writing. Even if I do sound like a rambling fool most of the time. :)

The End.

How to write a fable

2009-02-23T19:30:00.001+13:00

How to write a Fable...

How to write a fable

View more presentations from lolaceituno. (tags: literature storytelling)

How fast are you?

2008-09-18T17:27:00.001+12:00

63 words

Speed test

This was fun, 63 words per minute on my first attempt. I'm off to beat myself.

Wordle

2008-08-14T21:30:00.002+12:00

I finally got some time today to play with Wordle. Fun times and can see value for my class. But please can someone help me, how do I embed my wordle or wordles into my blog? I can't seem to figure it out. Is there anybody who can help? Thanks.

I also joined up with Flickr and Twitter today. I have been reading about them as I have been developing my Web 2.0 knowledge. I'm still not sure why I needed to join but i'm sure I will find value in them soon. Step by step.

My Class Blog

2008-07-31T16:25:00.002+12:00

I have set up a blog for my class using classblogmeister. I have shared it with the parents and the students. As we had parent interviews this week I was able to get a bit of feedback from the parents regarding our blog. All the parents seemed pretty keen and think it's a good idea. I had worries that some of them would be concerned about it but none have come foward with issues. One parent worried about bullying online and since I have set up our blog with classblogmeister I was able to let her know that no comments or articles can be posted without my approval. A definite plus for using that particular blog site.

Today our class set up our "blog rules" and how we behave online. They all understand the importance of not sharing your personal details and passwords and are all rearing to get a chance at making their blog page. The next challenge will be fitting blogging into our already full curriculum. My ICT time is taken by another teacher as I have BT release, so I will hopefully be integrating blogging into my classroom time using the 3 computers in our class. Perhaps my next step is to set up a roster for computer use.

Enough reflective rambling from me. Will make a dash for the car in between down pours.

:)

A mishmash of writing from an overloaded mind.

2008-07-16T21:48:00.010+12:00

My mind is in overload. I have spent the last few days of my non-contact time, OK holidays scouring around the Internet staring into cyber space finding out just how huge this whole web 2.0 is. There is some amazing and inspiring work being done out there by educators all over the world and in NZ. So I'm in overload, where do I start? How do I fit it all in? Which application does what and which is the best and how do I use all of them? KIS seems to be a way to calm myself down as I get carried away.

I sat down today to do a wee bit of planning. I have all this excitement about web 2.0 and lots of inspiration for my literacy programme from the NZRA reading conference I attended. So much that I want to achieve this term and so little time to do it. I reflected in my planner about term 3, ( a pre reflection lets call it???) I noted in my planner how I have all this enthusiasm and new ideas that I want to implement. I'm concerned about how I'm going to do it, will my new thinking get a chance to be practice or will it all dissolve before I get a chance to implement, reflect and discard or try again and make it a permanent part of my practice? There is just so much I want to do. So now I get back to KIS, Keep it simple. So how can I begin to use Web 2.0 in my class? Integrating it into what we already do obviously. So this is what I've decided.

I will start by creating a class blog which I will manage to start with. We are doing PrEP (primary enterprise programme) in Term 3. My target audience will be parents and caregivers as they are the support that holds the PrEP programme together. I will write posts about our PrEP businesses, take photos, upload work all primarily for parents to access, all the time of course consulting and sharing with the class. A requirement of the PrEP programme is to keep a diary about your PrEP project, at this stage I can't see us fitting in time (PrEP is all consuming) for each child to blog their diary so I will get my 2-3 most unmotivated writers and get them blogging their diary. I can almost see the enthusiasm on one of my boys faces. He will love it!

Through beginning like this, then I will come across different applications when I am wishing to embed photos, videos, do podcasts, etc etc. Then that is when I worry about what application to use and hopefully learn and use many of the tools I have come across the last few days.

What a rambling post I've just created. However I am finding this a great tool for reflection.

Posting Comments

2008-07-14T12:39:00.007+12:00

Here I am again playing around on my laptop finding numerous blogs and articles to read and realising more and more I have so much to learn. Consciously Unskilled! Is there actually ever a stage when you become unconsciously skilled?

So I'm off topic now. I have been reading and adding a variety of blogs to my blog list on my blog. I found an interesting post on http://keateach.blogspot.com/ which referred to Gina Trapanis guide to posting comments

This is a very useful guide for someone starting out and wanting to get involved in conversations and contribute in a meaningful way. I will apologise to those few bloggers whose blogs I have commented on, perhaps I should have sent an email instead. So with apologies accepted (presumptuous am I.) I will endeavour to post comments in a communicative and meaningful way.

Toondoo

2008-07-12T13:36:00.006+12:00

What a fun site. Thinking about the variety of ways this could be used in the classroom. What do you think? What will my kids think?

Exploration

2008-07-12T11:28:00.003+12:00

I've been doing some blog exploring. Reading teacher blogs and class blogs. Getting a collection of ideas and support for creating a classroom blog space. I didn't realise there were so many blogs, it's actually quite a time consuming activity. Figure I'll give up the TV for a while and take up blogging. Have found this page exciting http://www.nz-interface.co.nz/teacherblogs/ and from there have found http://raenettesblog.blogspot.com/ which I have been enjoying reading. Found some useful bits and pieces to support me in my elearning journey. I particularly liked the video showing a vision for 21st century learners. Now I will attempt to embed it into this post. Oh so savvy am I. :)

Now I have a blog

2008-07-10T11:15:00.000+12:00

Kia Ora
Nau Mai Haere Mai

So now I have a blog. Where do I start, what do I say? So many questions about blogging. Who on earth will read my blog? Why do people read blogs? And do I really want my blog out there? I do want to give it a go as I have been inspired by two remarkable woman who have started me on my blogging journey (though they probably don't know they have, and don't actually know me, but i'm out there... watching... listening... learning).

However through my professional development lately I have heard about blogging as a tool for my classroom. Thank you to Rocky Jensen from my BT course and to Jody Hayes from the NZRA Reading Conference workshop I attended. Jody showed us how she uses blogging with her classes and gave the advice to have a go at one yourself to get started. So here I am blabbering on about how I got started with blogging. Of course it's seems like a good choice for a first post... how I got started.

So what do I want from this blog? A good question. I guess I want to interact with people. Share my ideas, hear other peoples ideas... and the journey begins.