Towards 2007

Today I picked the brains of our lead teachers for ideas for our end-of-year cluster PD day. We are planning a 1/2 day, with a keynote speaker and a selection of workshops for teachers to choose from. PLEASE consider offering to take a workshop - maybe a couple of you together, or better still bring some students with you.

We are also looking ahead to next year, and are looking for ideas for a whole-cluster Inquiry Learning project. For this, our first project, it will probably be aimed at years 7 - 10. There will be planning meetings organised next term to begin work on this project so keep this in the back of your mind.

Also at this lead teacher meeting, we had a quick look at ArtRage2 and PhotoStory. PhotoStory is a free Microsoft program which makes movies much the same as Movie Maker, but only uses photos. It is therefore even easier to use, includes it's own background music (or add your own), and has interesting panning and transition options. It works like a Wizard - you just keep clicking Next between steps - and is ideal for children and teachers alike.

ArtRage2 is a painting program for both Windows and OS X- we tried out the free trial version which is a great little program with many options. It requires users to apply the same basic techniques as regular painting - the brush runs out of paint after a while; you wash the colour off in a glass of water; you can blend two colours together; ink smudges if you rub it straight away; and you can load an image to 'trace'. It's a great way to create a painting in a digital format that can be used to illustrate stories, add to digital portfolios, movies etc.


Even better news is that the full version of this program, which allows you to sprinkle glitter, paint with gold leaf, silver foil, and other metallic colours, can be purchased for NZ$32.50, and only $1 per machine for licences. Information regarding this option has been sent out separately to lead teachers, or can be viewed in the Software for Learning section of TKI. Read about ArtRage at www.ambientdesign.com.

Remember - if you are thinking about units of work for next term (or next year) consider sending me a copy to see if I have any ideas for including ICT.

Subscribing to Blogs

This morning our lead teachers continued working on their blogs. We:

• Added an email notification form to our blogs (blogarithm)
  
• Removed the navigation bar at the top (can no longer click on 'Next Blog')

We also went to www.blogarithm.com, created our own accounts, and added the URL's from each others blogs. Now, whenever one of our blogs has been updated, we will all receive notification and can go in and have a look. Receiving feedback (comments) is a tremendous motivator for children (and adults!) so please - add comments to some of the blog entries.

Some more things you might like to try on your blog:

• add a hit counter
• add a 'clustrmap' to show where your contributions are coming from

Just click on these objects on this blog - the links will take you to the sites I used (or find your own).

Here are some of the blogs that have been created in our cluster:

Motueka High School Outdoor Ed

Brooklyn School

Phys Ed

Mapua School Room 5

Room 9 Motueka South School

Te Whanau o Pakarana
Hello

tasmankids

Room 2 Riwaka School

For help setting up your own Blogarithm account, see your lead teacher or email me. If there are other blogs you would like to subsbribe to and you are looking for an easy way to manage them, you should think about using a Feed Reader. You can then use RSS feeds to have new blog entries sent to you automatically, and stored in a central place, rather than having to go to the individual blogs. Once again - please ask for help with this if you have trouble.

Don't forget - it's the feedback that makes Blogs so powerful, so please add your comments to others blogs.

How do you like this slideshow - created at www.RockYou.com



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ICT with Junior Classes

Several of our junior teachers took up the opportunity today to attend a Sharefest of ICT Ideas for Years 1 - 3. This session was organised by Waimea Cluster, and held at Henley School. Below is a brief outline of the ideas presented:

ICT in the Junior Classroom

(Ideas and tips for working with Years 1 – 3)

HINTS

• If going to a computer lab, bring maths toys, lego or similar to alleviate boredom as it can be VERY slow getting everyone logged on.
• Have a look at Photostory: similar to iMovie (free download)
• www.youtube.com – can post videos on here and link to your blog
• when learning a new program, allow a couple of sessions for children to play/experiment with the program.

IDEAS

1) Children create PowerPoint story book. (6 x 1hr sessions)

• Use saved images, or children create their own in Paint. Avoids inappropriate images, wasted time searching clipart.
• Plan ahead – decide which words you are going to use in your book, and which slide layout.

2) iMovie/Book

• Teacher created iMovie of own to demonstrate
• Students took own photos using digital camera (talked about: focus, distance, can see face). Children chose a place they liked in playground, took each others photos.
• On school trip, children took photos (decide before you go who is going to take photos).
• Children drag photos to computer (need to talk about files etc).
• Children inserted their photo on to their own page, and wrote stories beneath it. Book printed out – laminated and bound for classroom use.
• Narrations (as written on their book page) recorded by children to go with photos, and added to imovie.

3) Class Blog

• Once a week – photos and stories.
• Comments on blogs are motivators for writing
• www.youtube.com – can post videos on here and link to your blog

4) Maori Myths/Legends retelling (Art/language)

• Children created their own paintings in Artrage to go with story
• ArtRage – free download sufficient. Can use for ‘tracing’ ie photos can be added with ‘transparent’ layer on top, and traced over, recoloured etc.
• Paintings were added to Photostory, and children added their re-told stories to create book (max four pages).