Wormbins

I just had a great phone conversation with some parents in our class. They had some technical difficulties with helping put together the Capital Cities project. I thought it might be a good opportunity to talk about technology, this blog and working together.

Firstly there has been a lot of discussion within the department about the need to incorporate technology into education. This includes everything from being able to learn new technologies through to being able to express yourself using all kinds of different media. We are trying to do this in our classroom by working on group projects, completing individual work and reflecting on our work using this blog.

To enable us to learn this way it’s important that we recognise two things:

• The process is more important than the product
• We need to share information

How you can help?

• Read the blog posts that give extra information on homework
• If you have difficulties share them with our little community of workers - make a comment
• If you have tips or extra information that can help us - make a comment
• Come to me in person or email me if you need extra help - maria.marshall@education.nsw.gov.au

Understanding technology is becoming increasingly important for me as a teacher and for our kids.
“Children and young people need to be empowered to keep themselves safe – this isn’t just about a top-down approach. Children will be children – pushing boundaries and taking risks. At a public swimming pool we have gates, put up signs, have lifeguards and shallow ends, but we also teach children how to swim.”  Link

Your experiences with technology so far. Please add a comment to this blog explaining:

• Your thoughts on the Capital Cities project. How much time did your family spend on the project? What did the kids get out of it? Did you have any particular problems? Eg difficulties adding narration. Remember you can also email me privately with your thoughts if you prefer.
• How important do you think it is that your child has access to technology and is comfortable using it?
• What do you think of being able to see examples of kids work on this blog?
• How do you feel about pictures of students being shared on this blog

Thanks for your support and any feedback!  I’m learning, the kids are learning and it’s an exciting and challenging time for us all.

One Sunday morning I snuck out of the house with some friends. We knew we would get into trouble so we all said we were going to each others house! So we headed off to the shops. We bough ice-cream, donuts and clothes. I nearly slipped over because I didn’t see the sign saying ‘Caution Wet Floor’. I was luck my friends were there. After the shops we went over to the public pool except you have to go with a parent and it doesn’t open on Sundays. We thought it would be so much fun so… we went in! I didn’t want to go in because my secret is ‘I can’t swim’. I still put my feet in and splashed with my feet. All of a sudden my friend came out and pushed me in! I almost drowned! I was shocked!

Luckily one lifeguard came in to clean up from the day before. He saw me and dived in and saved me. He yelled at me because we were in there when we weren’t supposed to be but I was happy because I was alive. When we got home we all got into loads of trouble. I mean, grounded for life sort of trouble! I guess I deserved it because I snuck out out and nearly got badly hurt.

My mum was very worried but happy at the same time because I was alright rather than being in the hospital!

Holly

Create your title slides

• Create your title slides
• Watch the video Section H:  Adding titles and credits. Item 1 - Adding title text Pt1

 Edit your video

• Make sure your slides appear for long enough for the reader to see them
• Watch the video Section D: Working with projects - Item 10 & 14. Surveying the timeline
• Tip: You’ll probably need to expand your information slides.  Go to the timeline.  Click and drag your clip to the right to make your clip play for longer.

Record your voice

• In Windows Movie Maker go to Tools and then select Narrate Timeline.  Then press Start Narration.  Read your information as you watch the slides play.  When you’re finished press Stop Narration.  Click OK to save.  You should now be able to hear yourself over the top of your slides.
• If you don’t have a microphone on your computer we can do this part at school.
• It will be great to listen to these at the end of the year!

Publish your video

• Publish your video to your computer
• Watch the video Section J: Saving as a movie. - Item 1. Saving a movie file Pt1
• Insert your thumb drive into the usb port on your computer.  Go to the file you saved on your computer.  Copy the file to your flash drive.

 We used a program called Audacity which is free and easy to use.

1. Make/find a sound
2. Press record
3. Save

 Here is a short video (about 3mins) on how to record sounds on your computer.

Recording sounds

Practice
What is the clearest sound you can make? What is the most interesting?

Regular Tasks

1. Write your spelling words.
2. Complete this weeks unit in Maths mentals.

 Capital Cities Movie

• Keep working on your Capital Cities movie. Click here to see how to publish and save your work ready to bring to class on 28th March.  I’ll choose two really informative ones and add them to our class blog.

Optional

• Finders Keepers - Find pictures on Flickr. Remember to get a parent to help you.  Bring them to school on your flashdrive.
• Just for fun! - Practice recording sounds .  Bring them to class on your flashdrive.
• Add a comment to this blog telling me what your favourite movie at the moment is.

Keep up the good work!

Audacity is a FREE program that works for both PC and MAC.

If you don’t have it then you can download it here. Downloading is easy. Click on the link that says download. Usually the icon is big. If you not sure, please ask me.

Why don’t you try-

• Recording yourself reading a story and then listen to yourself
• Recording the conversation at dinner and then writing the main things you discussed
• Recording the noises of an animal and transcribing what the said
• Putting together noises and making a new language from them

Click here for a reminder of how to use the sound recording program.

Put YOUR IDEAS AND TIPS in the COMMENTS section at the bottom of this entry.

Practice taking photos:

1. Read the tips here.
2. Take photos of any animals around your home or area
3. Bring in your best photo

Not all content available on the web is made for you to copy/edit/republish. The great thing is some content is. You have the authors permission, start getting inspired.

This slideshow explains how CC (creative commons) works.

And this movie gives a bit more information about the legal aspects.

Watch this video to learn more about blogs.

For us the main things we like about the blog are:

• It’s spontaneous. It doesn’t matter if we what we write is wrong tomorrow. The important thing is getting your thoughts written down.
• We can write interesting things (comments) about things that other people in the class have written. It’s like having a conversation on a computer.