Room 3 Te Awamutu Intermediate Class Blog

New Blog Site

2007-02-26T18:12:00.001+13:00

After hassles of getting new students logged on to Blogger, email not working for students in the first couple of weeks of school, etc I (on the recommendation of many Year 8 students) have started a new class blog at room3tai.edublogs.org.

Edublogs certainly allows more variety in presentations, widgets etc and the students did not need an email account. I was able to add them to my gmail account.
So come on over and see what we have for 2007.

Unfortunately edublogs started putting ads everywhere so you can now find us at room3tai.wordpress.com

OK IVE WORKED IT OUT

2007-02-15T16:13:00.000+13:00

Hey everyone I have worked out what to do on the blog. Ok so here are some really cool link i think most of you should enjoy.

100 things we didnt know htis time last year
Click here to go to this site

The Worlds Highest Website (which claims to be nearly 19 kilometres high)
Click here

The Lost Wallet Test (this is sure to strike disscution)
Click here

If you want to discuss anything on these sites just post a comment.
Hamish

Which Personality Are You?

2007-02-04T20:21:00.000+13:00

I have just found another quiz for you. The questions here are a bit .... but I just selected the best answer for me and came up with....
A princess bride personality test!

You are Buttercup, your beauty is beyond compare and only marred by your misery. You live your life hoping for the return of your one and only true love. Until then you will continue to lament but you may marry someone else to pass the time!
Take this quiz!

Which Superhero Are You?

2007-02-04T07:31:00.000+13:00

I found this a while ago but now that you all seem to be wakening from your summer hibernation you might like to have try. Some of the questions may not be applicable to you but answer them all anyway. You might like to make a comment on which hero you are.

My results:
You are Supergirl
Lean, muscular and feminine.
Honest and a defender of the innocent.

Supergirl 75%
Iron Man 65%
The Flash 60%
Superman 60%
Robin 57%
Spider-Man 55%
Catwoman 50%
Hulk 50%
Wonder Woman 45%
Green Lantern 45%
Batman 45%

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

New School Year

2007-02-01T04:40:00.000+13:00

Welcome back everyone.
It's now time to start thinking in school mode. I know that school doesn't actually strat until next Wednesday, 7th February, but as I am going back to school today for Teachers Only Day I thought I'd try and get some reactions from you before school actually starts.

I have posted a lot of information - class newsletters, reading log information on our class wiki. I will be adding more things over the next few days as I try and get my head into 'school mode'.

If you want to make any suggestions you can leave them here or on the wiki discussion BUT this term we are going to try and complete the work I have planned! From then on I am really open to your ideas.

If you are a new Year 7 reading this, you will need to join wikispaces (don't create a space though) to leave a comment.

Passwords

2007-01-09T11:50:00.001+13:00

This may be useful for all of us. Keep this in mind when creating passwords for any online activity.

Smart passwords - some advice

must have at least six characters
must not appear in any dictionary
must contain both lowercase and uppercase alphabetic characters
must contain a number
should contain non-alphanumeric characters such as !, #, $, %, ^, &, *, (, ), etc.

thanks to Landmark

Free Things

2007-01-09T11:46:00.000+13:00

Here are some free tools that you might want to investigate for me over the holidays. Might be worth looking at while we are having this terrible weather!

BT education programme

Here's a great site with primary and secondary resources and ideas- these examples were from the primary and secondary links at the bottom of the page

Assignment: Podcast Turn your classroom into a recording studio.

If you've ever wanted to make a podcast (internet audio programme) this is the place to start. Everything needed is here, including free software.

Assignment: Photo-movie

A great new way for students to use digital technology to communicate their ideas creatively and effectively.

TalkDog Comic Online

Thanks to Open Resource Centre for alerting me to these.

Environmental Issues

2007-01-09T10:20:00.001+13:00

How strongly do you feel about things that are happening around you - your immediate environment or further afield? I found some links to articles and videos about teenagers who are making a difference.

Here are the links to the BBC articles about teenagers and environmental issues. They show that teenagers do have a voice, they can be actively involved in beating climate issues.

Fixing a oil - soaked beach in Lebanon
Requiring Coke to make better use of water in India
Cleaning up abandoned city lots in India
Kids from The Netherlands bet their government and win

What do you think? Do you have something you could investigate, take some action on? This could be the basis of some work for you this year. I'd love to hear any ideas you have.

Thanks to Mr Fisher for posting these on his blog.

Maths Advertisement

2007-01-09T10:07:00.000+13:00

I have had this video clip taggged for quite a while but found another reference to it the other day and wondered what you thought of it. Could you do the same sort of thing for other subjects or topics within subjects.
Maths Advertisement
Have a look at it and let me know what you think. It's on You Tube so you will have to watch it at home!

I Have Been Tagged

2007-01-03T04:30:00.000+13:00

I have been tagged by Chris Harbeck.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a quick explanation. Several weeks ago an edublogger decided they wanted to know more about the people who were writing blogs so they came up with the idea of tagging people to write five things about themselves that others may not know and then tagging other people to do the same.

So here goes – 5 things you may not know about me:

I’m a fitness fanatic, going to the gym twice a day. I used to run every morning before school, starting at about 4.30 am but started experiencing achilles and other pains so I’m now focused on weight training and cardio at the gym. In the past I have competed in several triathlons, run two marathons (just under 4 hours both times) and several half marathons.
I am an early bird, often awake in the very early hours of the morning. This is when I catch up with my emails and reading any new blog feeds. Yes the laptop stays beside my bed, within easy reach! I am a newbie to this world of blogging and until now have been somewhat of a ‘lurker’ but have gained heaps of knowledge and ideas for using in my class and school in the upcoming year. I will admit to feeling that I don’t possess the ‘writing power’ of many of the bloggers whose work I read.
I was a regional ICT Facilitator for a year (about 10 years ago) and although the break from the classroom was great I missed the daily interaction with students so here I am – teaching every curriculum and trying to do justice to all! My favourite subject is Maths.
I love the sun. My favourite summer holiday is to lie in the sun with a good book. Unfortunately so far our summer here in NZ has been anything but great but I still have 4 weeks of holidays left, so here’s hoping.
I began my teaching career many years ago, teaching 5 year olds. I stayed with that level until my own children were born ( a boy and girl – both now in their twenties) and decided I needed to move up the school a bit. I spent the next ten years teaching 8 to 10 year olds and then thirteen years ago decided to take the plunge and teach at an Intermediate. I have never regretted that decision and really enjoy the challenge of teaching these ‘young adults’.

Now I have to tag five others. Most of the people whose blogs I read have already been tagged but I will tag Kim Cofino and Danita Russell, (my online project colleagues for 2007).

As blogging among my own work colleagues is non existent at the moment I am going to tag some of my students in the hope that they will get into action over these holidays, so Hamish, Jayden and Laura you’re tagged. Put your five things on our class blog.

More Things for You to Explore

2006-12-28T19:19:00.000+13:00

Quintura for kids - a search engine for our youngest surfers

Do you have a younger brother or sister? If so, how about trying out this new graphical search engine. I’d be interested in what you think of it for younger students.

Designed specifically for kids, this new experience demonstrates Quintura’s continued commitment to change the way people search and find information on the Web. Based on the same cutting edge Neural Network technology used on Quintura.com, Quintura for Kids utilizes the Quintura cloud, which allows kids to find what they are looking for faster and easier than ever before.

Quintura for Kids brings a unique experience to an increasingly important group of Internet users. The intuitive nature of the cloud allows kids to develop and refine their search by clicking on key words that appear in the cloud. The interface also allows for relevant searches around a set of rotating icons on the site.

It has some drawbacks because of the limited search results but would prove more useful than Google, say, as an initial search for kids embarking on new projects

Animal School

You might have seen this before, but if you haven’t it is really worth a look. Geared to parents, it gives everyone something to think about. (Privacy Alert - There is an email collection form at the end)

Click here to view this video

It is worth a look. You could even show it to your parents.

A Favicon for your Blog!

I found this on a New Zealand teacher’s blog. If you click on her links you can see the amazing things her junior students are doing with blogs!

I had so much fun today adding a Favicon (short for favourite icon) to my class blog, thinking skills blog and this blog!

It's that cute little picture up there where the "B" for blogger used to be!

Why do I love it.....?
Well it adds a bit of personalisation and professionalism to your page.
Plus if you're using Firefox (which you should be!) the favicon will also turn up on your tabs.... how's that for cute!
Note: Favicons only turn up in Internet Explorer if the site is in your bookmarks.

How to do it!

· Upload the picture or photo that you want to use as a favicon to this site

· Follow the directions and ransform it into an ico file

· Grab the favicon.ico and get it hosted to the internet somewhere: I used Ripway

· Get the full URL address where your favicon is hosted

· Use this code and replace what's in the red with your URL (there's two to replace)

· In your Template place the code next to the head code.

WordTalk: free text read-aloud plug-in

This may be really useful for you to use to edit your work. I haven’t downloaded it and tried it yet but if someone else wants to try it out …!

Here is a link to a piece of free software that, when installed, works as a plug-in for Word 97 and better (for Windows only). It reads text aloud and highlights the text as it reads, as well as including a talking dictionary and a number of configurable options.
WordTalk

End of Year Things

2006-12-27T18:40:00.000+13:00

I have been reading quite a few blogs and have found some sites and interesting things which may keep you busy during this ‘yuk’ weather! Let me know if any of them are particularly useful or interesting.

A big Thanks to all the bloggers whose 'findings' I have copied.

Paper Models

If you’re looking for a little project to do (these are a little complicated!), try making a paper model. We’ve got a few really cool ones on the archive to try out (all in pdf):
· French satellite A-1 nicknamed Asterix (instructions | model sheet)
· V-2 rocket (instructions | model sheet)

· Thor-Able Launch Vehicle for Pioneer 1 (instructions | model sheet | display stand)

Free images for students (www.edupics.com)

Are you looking for an image about something special. Check out this site for images you can use. Be sure to say where you got the image from.

On-line photo editing

PNN8.com is online photo editing made SIMPLE!

Iam a big fan of imagewell and use it all the time but this is a good alternative. The integration with Flickr, MySpace etc is cool too. Check it out ...

Google Tricks from Tammy Worcester

You probably already know that you can use the search engine (Google) as a calculator, but did you know that you can also use it to do conversions? Conference's featured speaker

· Want to convert 32 degrees F to Celsius? Simply type the following: 32 f to c and Google returns the following
32 degrees Fahrenheit = 0 degrees Celsius

· How about converting metric measures to customary? Try typing 3 m to ft and Google returns the following
3 m = 9.84251969 feet

BubblePLY - add bubbles to video!

BubblePLY allows you to edit videos from Google Video, YouTube, etc. and add thought bubbles or speech bubbles to them. There’s an example here - although I think it has potential beyond the ‘funny video’ one given there! (via TechCrunch)

Just beware that this may not work at school as our filter blocks many of these sites!

More to come.....

Worth a Look

2006-12-19T03:42:00.000+13:00

Pikipimp.com

This is a cool looking website that allows you to add things to your pictures and then save the results. You can either copy the html and dump it onto your website or you can save the image for using elsewhere. Fun!

Ultimate Flash Face

This is a neat little face generator. Great little tool for those non artists amongst us.

Alice Animation

I found this on another blog. It might be worth a look.
I have been working with a group of year 4, 5 and 6 children learning to use Alice. Check out this great podcast

Title: Paul's podcast
Episode: Alice Video2

http://paulw.podOmatic.com/entry/et/2006-11-0...

You might like to explore the program for yourself.

Student Videos

2006-11-28T03:44:00.000+13:00

I have just come across these amazing videos created by Grade 6, 7 & 8 students at Mabry Middle School in USA.
http://mabryonline.org/archives/2006/04/2006_film_festi.html

You will need a broadband connection to watch them but they are well worth it. There are several videos in each section.
What do you think?
Could you do something like that?

Thoughts on 2006 and onwards to 2007

2006-11-28T03:37:00.000+13:00

As the end of the year nears I think it is time for you to reflect on your year in this class and especially our use of Web 2.0 tools (wikis, blogs, podcasts etc). We are newbies to this but we have made a start and I would like some feedback on where you think we could go with this next year. Yes, comments from Year 8s as well. I know you are leaving ad may not get the hands on access at your secondary that you have had here but what are some of the possibilities that we could do if we put our minds to it.

What have been some of the successes, frustrations, failures?

Year 7s this is your chance to have some input into what we could possibly do next year - don' tleave it all up to the vocal few to have their say.

Work Due

2006-11-19T21:11:00.000+13:00

I don't want to panic you all but do you realise that the historical essay or your reading logs are due this Friday - 24th November? Also for those of you completing the reading log, one of your reviews has to be posted on the wiki page.

Maths Blog

2006-11-12T20:26:00.000+13:00

I've just started a new Maths blog where I am going to post a variety of Maths puzzles and problems for you to solve. These are going to be part of your Maths class work so you are going to have visit regularly. I expect that everyone will ost an answer / solution to at least one problem or puzzle every week!
You can also access the same roblems from a new Maths wikispace - you have to be a member of the new wikispace so I have sent out some invitations. This is a trial to see which is the most user friendly to post solutions to so I need your feedback about this.

Are you part the the I-Generation?

2006-11-08T09:35:00.000+13:00

I found this video clip on another school's blog and wondered if you too would like to make any comments. You may not be able to watch the clip at school as Watchdog seems to block all clips from You Tube.

I am curious about what you have to say about this video. Not the music not the pictures but what is the video trying to say?

Are you part the the I-generation?

Link to clip: http://sargentparkmathzone.blogspot.com/search/label/I_generation

If this link doesn't work - you can't view the clip, try going to You Tube and search for I-Generation.

Are you wise?

2006-11-07T18:56:00.000+13:00

Heres three Lateral Thinking Questions:

I will post the answers on Monday if nobody has worked them out. However if you are the first person to get it correct I will display you name under the problem. You can then feel "Wise!"

A man dies of dehydration in his own home. How?
~Michael~

There was a man who came to a fork in the road. He knew that if he went one way, he would be safe, but if he went the other way, he will end up in a lion's den. There are two other men at this fork in the road and they both know the way to safety. One of the men always lies and the other man always tells the truth. The man that came to the fork cannot tell the two men apart, but he knows that there is one question that he can ask that will lead him to safety. What is the question?

There is a barrel with no lid and some beer in it. "This barrel is more than half full," said Chuck. "No it's not," say Joe. "It's less than half full." Without any measuring implements and without removing any beer from the barrel, how can they easily determine who is correct?

Good Luck...

Where is Everyone?

2006-11-06T19:22:00.000+13:00

There has been so little activity here lately that I think we need to rethink the whole idea of having a class blog. Yes I have been a bit snowed under - reports, painting my lounge etc etc and you have all been engrossed in your own blog world, so I have been thinking ....... what if we had a couple of people responsible for putting items on to our class blog - controversial news, happenings at school / in our class, ponderings, tricky questions etc. We could change the people responsible evry week or every couple of weeks.

I need some responses to this! It is up to us as a class to make this blogging work.

Blog Ideas

2006-10-29T19:14:00.000+13:00

Here are some links to some school blogs.
Actually after seeing some of your efforts I don't think that you need these but they may give some of you who are slow at getting started some further ideas.
Grade 4 Elementary Class
http://marykreul.teacherhosting.com/blog/
Room 208
http://www.bobsprankle.com/blog/
The Jag Mag
http://mrmayo.typepad.com/mag/
Blogger Hall of Fame
http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Blogger+Hall+of+Fame
Wiki Hall of Fame
http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Wiki+Hall+of+Fame
Brandon’s Online Magazine
http://mrmayo.typepad.com/magazine/2006/10/index.html
Room 507 All Stars
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=6166

Book Review

2006-10-29T19:09:00.000+13:00

There is a book review update on the class wikispace. Briefly, I want you to publish one of your book reviews for this term in the space I have created for them.

Advertising Campaign

2006-10-29T19:03:00.000+13:00

I have just updated our wikispace pages. You will find resource links to hopefully help you get started on your campaign. Plus I have made a link to the space where you will display all your group's work. Make sure you all read it carefully as it is going to involve you in displaying ever aspect of your work.

Now that you have decided on the topic for your advertising campaign you are going to have to do some research to collect factual information to use. It would be wise to focus on information that relates to NZ if you can.

Powerpoint Ballad Reflection

2006-10-20T14:40:00.000+13:00

Since only 3 have handed in your reflection about your work in Powerepoint, I've decided that you can post it straight into the blog.

This is what you were meant to do - now you will have to do the same thing on your own.
Talk together about the process of exploring the poem, drafting the slides and reflecting on what you have learnt. Write your reflection.
Basically you are writing about what you have learnt, things that went well, disasters etc.

I look forward to reading your reflections. OHH don't ask how long they have to be - just follow the instructions above but make sure I can read them!

Blog Challenge

2006-10-19T18:38:00.000+13:00

Okay now that most of you have created your own blog I think we could have a competition to see who can create the most interesting blog. Remember you want people to be interested in what you put there so that they will keep coming back and leaving comments. You can include web links to fun / funny / interesting / controversial etc things. You could post debate statements to see what others think. What about some digital photos, especially those of you who have digital cameras at home. Something to bear in mind - you cannot copy things from the internet without the owners permission. Yes you can include web links but not copied stuff.

You have 2 weeks from today to create your own very special blog. Maybe we could ask Mrs Dyet to judge them for us.

Create Your Own Blog

2006-10-19T04:19:00.000+13:00

Okay now that most of you are members of blogger you can create your own blog. See how imaginative and creative you can be. One thing, you must remeber to check for new postings (comments) regularly or it is a waste of time and just taking up space.

If you want some ideas to get started go to peachgroveroom9.blogspot.com, go into some of thier comments and click on any student's name. Most of them have their own blogs - a variety of school based or school ramblings to really miscellaneous.

For your safety, I suggest you limit the access for comments to your blog to members only - just as I have done here. I think you can work out how to do this yourself or ask billabongsport who seems to be our internet junkie and able to work all her problems out! Go Laura!

Term 4 Work

2006-10-18T18:56:00.000+13:00

I want some ideas on what you would like to do this term - I have Maths and some writing organised (to cover school requirements) but I would really appreciate some input from you on what you would like to do if we don't go ahead with the inquiry on Plate Tectonics. Ive already given you some things to think about during our discussion today. I am open to all reasonable ideas. Remember, no ideas from you then you are stuck with mine!

Ideas

2006-10-17T04:01:00.000+13:00

I am still wanting your ideas on how we can use this or the wiki in the class plus other new technologies. Put your thinking caps on and start being innovative. I have some ideas but I really want your input.
:)

Life Education

2006-10-16T17:40:00.000+13:00

I am really interested in your feedback on the Life Ed sessions we have had. What do you think of it? Have you learnt anything worthwhile? If so, what?

Using Wikis in our Classroom

2006-10-15T18:39:00.000+13:00

I have also started a wiki which you can access from here. I have placed copies of some of the tasks for this term there so if you are at home and don't have the task sheet with you, you can now get on the net and access it. The link is http://room3tai.wikispaces.com

Welcome to our Blog

2006-10-15T14:29:00.000+13:00

This is a place where you can post your comments. The more active you are the more successful the use of this will be!

Some things to think about for this term and beyond:

What computer tools do you regularly use at home?
Do you use Skype, MSN chat, other chatrooms, listen to podcasts, watch videos, visit UTube? Post a comment so we can all share what you're becoming an expert in - then maybe the expertise can be shared.

What are some innovative ways that we could use technology to enhance your learning at TAI?
I want to hear all your ideas - sensible, achievable ones only please.

Some things you might want to consider are:

blogs

podcasts

wikis

moodle

computers

movie making

anything else you can think of.

How could we integrate the use of the internet between school and home?All ideas are welcome but remember that this may be read by other people!

Mrs Crowe :)