Wormbins

This week you will need to read a newspaper article. Read an article in the sports section of the leader on Tuesday 12th August or another current newspaper and write a report on a sports article. It may be a good week to report on an Olympic sport that has been in the paper.

In your report remember to state:

• Headline
• What happened?
• Where did it happen?
• Who was involved?
• Other important information
• How you felt about what has been stated in the article.

Please try to post your homework before or on Friday 15th.

This term as part of your homework you will be watching, reading and reporting on the news.  Each week you will have a different task.  Each week I’ll post a task for you to investigate and report on.  You will write your reports as a comment after my homework post.

Guidelines

• Only use your first name.
• Keep your comments to under 2 paragraphs – quality not quantity.
• You can comment on other peoples news as much as you like.  If you’re writing a response to someone else’s post then mention their first name in your comment.
• You can provide links to other information you find on the web.

This week your homework is to continue to comment on Speeches.  There have been great comments so far the ones we like:

• Provide extra information
• Ask questions
• Provide positive feedback

You should also start to read the comments on your speeches and use them to continue planning your speech.  Next week we will start writing them.

Task 1 this week is to comment on at least 3 posts in the speeches blog. The rules are easy you can comment on any three you like if there are no comments recorded, if however someone has commented on that speech you must choose another person who does not have any comments. When all speeches have a couple of comments then you are free to choose which ever one you want to comment on. This is a FAIR way to ensure everyone will have at least two comments to help them on their way with their speeches.  

Task 2 Find the meaning of Elasticity, write your definition and some examples on the back of your homework sheet. Don’t forget to have your homework in on Thursday as I am at a Conference on Friday and would like to mark your work on the weekend.

This week you will need to start writing about a topic that interests you, write why it interests you , what you already know about the topic and things you want to find out about. This will be the starting point for your Speech.  Your information should be typed and saved to your flash drive.

We will then upload them to blog called Speeches where everyone in the class will post their ideas. Over the next two weeks we will be commenting on each others work in class and on the blog, giving feedback or information to the writer.

Information needs to be at school by Friday 2nd May. Please make sure you give your post a title eg Gardening by Darren

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.

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