Oh no!

Just a quick thought...my blog is fast becoming 'music' orientated!  Oh well, just sharing the love!  :)

WOW!

OK, I've been at YouTube...again!  Here's another clip and done in a similar style to...'Which style of video capture?'...lol...here is a clue...go back to recent posts :)

Hope your Christmas day was a good one!

New Toy!

Just got a new cable (with 5 connections) for my iPod. Why? I want to play with my apps on the tv, and eventually on my IWB. So far...can see YouTube clips (almost!), photos...not a prob. Apps??? Nada. Will play with laptop tonight. Ah well, back to the drawing board. It might be apple tv after all :)

Mimio-o-o-o! :)

Re-learning how to use the mimio again! Slow process!

;l Ipad (ipod) + Apple TV + TV .....wot tha???

Well...I have just been back to VLN ( VLN School ) and have been reading about using ipods/ipads in the classroom, about the apps and then....I find that you can use your ipod touch/ipads via streaming (so not sure if that's the right word but I'm sure you'll get the picture while I ramble along) through a tv (well I was more interested in streaming it wirelessly through the IWB).

WHOA!!!  I've been thinking for a while, "Wouldn't it be cool if I (well the children) could play with the apps through the IWB?"  We could have sharing time about the apps that have been popular with the kids and why, which apps I would prefer children play with and why, play spelling/maths/reading games, the list is endless!  And then setting up groups of ipods/ipads to have challenges (OK, so where am I going to get more of these toys???  LOL).

Reading on, I find out about 'apple tv', so thinking I'm looking for a tv, I actually find a small box that acts like the 'go-between', between ipod-ipad/tv (I'm hoping IWB too, can't see why not!). $99 for the apple tv. 

Apple TV


The VLN-ers go on talking about HDMI to VGA converters....I was then a little confused! 

Anyway, when I find out more, I'll be back!  :)

Pondering

Just sitting here pondering about the little things... Actually a 'What If?'. What if we didn't have the little techno toys we have today, that if tomorrow they just didn't work anymore, just stopped working? How many of us would be affected?

Having a play on my iPod and guess what....I'm here! Hey, that's pretty sweet for me! Lol

Just one of those days!

Ever had 'just one of those days?'.  Must of...everyone has them!  You're just too tired to fight it anymore and you just 'go with the flow' and hope on the other side, 'it's all good!' In the end you're left with 'Aahhhhhhhhhh,oh well, it's all good'.  Hoping tomorrow is a better version of  'it's all good!'.  :)

Oh well, some Adele then!?!

Playing for change - Imagine

(again!  I love the concept behind these people!)

More Art!

Okay...I just couldn't resist!  This art medium is just stunning!  Ahhhhhhh!!! :)

Sand art by Ilana Yahav

Sand art by Ilana Yahav - Emotions

Hand art by Cutienibbler

Shadow Hands by Wolfdnc

Shadow Choreography - jayleo82

More Art!

Hello again.  Had a good weekend.  I won my job back again through an interview (our school is going through a merge with two other schools :(  ).  YAY...and weep, weep if you have ever been through one!

Anyway....some more cool art via YouTube!

by Marcus Winter

by Kseniya Simonova

Beautiful!!!  What do you think?  :)

Short-Stop Motion Clips

While I was looking for some YouTube clips for my Frog topic (Lester and Clyde), I came across some very interesting and clever short-stop motion clips.  I think these are very well done and cute!


First is Lost Things by Angela Kohler.

The next clip is called 'The Whiteboard' by Matteftw.

Books Come to Life - Moon Man

Playing for Change

Just felt a relaxing pick me up.  Love these videos.  You must check out their other YouTube vids.  I think the creators are 'clever'!  :)

ULearn

ULearn Conference 2011 link:
http://www.core-ed.org/ulearn/

I had a 'ball' at the recent ULearn Conference 2011.  The breakout sessions meant more to me and I was lucky enough to get most of what I asked for.  I enjoyed listening to the Keynote speakers (as mentioned in an earlier post) especially most of Dr Jack Bacon's session (he had met Gene Roddenberry!!!), actually I got lost a few times when he used some pretty big words!  LOL

 I enjoyed looking around the stalls and found myself at these stalls often (if not to get the freebies, to check out the resources available - ahhhhhh!).  I got to see a few familiar faces, speak to many of the stall sponsors, win a t-shirt by throwing a rugby ball into a hole, purchase a few goodies, see Suzi de Gouveia (Oh yes!!!), speak to Gerald Alford from ITC Publications (about a new teacher planner release)...and..my friend Jeanette had the opportunity to present an impromptu Pecha Kulcha presentation (and she only had 5 minutes to get her pictures and speaking together - good thing she's the ICT facilitator at our school!).  Boy did she ROCK!

The purchases I made were from Sitech and ITC Publications.  I bought a Talking Book and Computer Keyboard with lower case letters (colourful and big key pads) from Sitech.  I bought the Junior level Teacher Planner from ITC Publications.  ITC also have available the 'e-Companion' which is a digital Teacher Planner.  You can download a free-to-use 30 day trial sample.  You have at your finger-tips, activities, learning intentions, activities to promote higher order thinking (eg Judge and Jury, HOM) that you can digitally insert.  The links to these places are made available below.

Try these links:

*Essential Resources:
http://www.essentialresources.co.nz/

Suzi de Gouveia
http://www.essentialresources.co.nz/Author.aspx?Author=SUZ


*ITC Publications:  
ITC Publications home
http://www.itcpublications.com.au/

e-Companion
http://www.itcpublications.com.au/e-companion


*Sitech
http://www.sitech.co.nz/

Sitech Early Childhood Resources/Products Page
http://www.sitech.co.nz/products/c/280

A3 Talking Book
http://www.sitech.co.nz/product_details/c/280/p/614

Computer Keyboard
http://www.sitech.co.nz/product_details/c/280/p/627

Goin' Black!

This blog is ''goin' black for a lil while' in celebration of the ABs inning the Rugby World Cup tournament tonight or tomorrow! Wup wup!

Go the ABs!

I know I'm a wee bit late with this posting, but here goes....YAY the ABs!  Too close a game!  I spent the last 5 minutes on my phone playing games so I didn't have to watch the game and then as soon as 80 mins was on the board, teeth chattering, phone clutching, on the edge of your seat tension was in the air!  It wasn't the best game the ABs have played but NZ won the RWC!!!  So all I can say is 'Woohoooo!  Go the All Blacks!'.

So What, So Far???

Day 2 of the ULearn Conference and I am thinking 'So What, So Far???'...What have I taken away with me so far:

*In the physical sense,  I've bought an A3 folder/book with pockets for kids work ANNNND the kids can record their stories as this A3book has recordable capabilities.  Each page has a number and when you push that number you hear their story replayed!  WOW!  Quick, easy and re-useable!

Quietly, I am looking at a Mac Pro (oooooooo I want one!).

**Twitter:  For example, you can tweet a question and get loads of replies in a matter of minutes (I soooo did not see that one...yes I am a 'non-twittier' but am slowly seeing 'a picture').

***Creativity: As one follow ULearner put it (while discussing the characteristics of creativity in one of our sessions), FUN - you can have fun while you drive a car drunk, INNOVATIVE - you can be innovative while causing destruction....Mr Creativity-KillJoy!

Borrowed from deviant-art, from the net.

He is right, you can be all of these things and still have slithers of creativity when looking from a different aspect, but for me, FUN, INNOVATION, EXPRESSION are only a few parts of the Creativity-Puzzle in a positive sense.  *I also had to consider Fear of being creative (especially when surrounded by people that don't see that creativity...yet, or fear of failure).

****Interesting:  Apart from meeting lots of new interesting people, yesterday I sat in a Keynote Session (probably the one I tweeted about saying "I am hungry!"), and Dr Jack Bacon was speaking.  This man has had an INTERESTING family, Grandparents that worked in Aviation, his Grandmother one of the first American women to gain a University Degree, they both worked with one of the Wright brothers through this organised Aviation Community, Grandfather had met Gene Roddenberry (you heard it!  And so had Dr Jack Bacon!), Dr Jack himself is a distinguished lecturer (emeritus) of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) but there is so much more about this man that is....INTERESTING!  Please click on his coloured name to see more about Dr Jack!

Anyway, I am actually sitting in the middle of another Keynote Session and trying to listen, think and type!  So 'gotta' go.  Will add pictures...some time! 
:)

ULearn 2011

Am sitting in my first Breakout Session at my first ULearn Conference and what did I choose??? Tweeting and Twittering! And I am not very good at any of it but on the up side... the internet played a big part in me being 'sucky'! I am still having a great time! PS The food smells devine at Novotel!

What's going on? by lesal38

What's going on? by lesal38

Have you heard of 'Playing for Change'? You should have!

Playing for Change singing 'Stand by Me'. After you watch this, you'll 'get' how they did it! I thought WOW when I first saw this vid. They have many more and I love the concept behind their action! WOW!

More Pics! Visit Dumpr

These ones are created in Dumpr :) As you can see, the photos I used in the backgrounds are ones I changed in the BeFunky.com site, saved them to my PC and then uploaded them into the Dumpr site.

In the BeFunky site, you can also add borders, speech bubbles and other bits n' bobs to make pictures more interesting to look at (I didn't mention this in the BeFunky post!).

Have fun :)

Xtranormal.com ... Let's Make Movies!

Why not make a movie? This is a cool site but takes quite a bit of 'getting-used-to' and so is best suited for older kids! I had fun but to make the very short clip embedded, took quite a bit of time to complete.

BeFunky.com

Another photo site to change the look of your pics.  I like this site! 

How many sites have you joined?

How many internet sites have you joined since going onto the net?  Recently while reading through an old diary looking for a user name and password for a particular site I had joined a while ago, of course I found a list of random sites I had obviously joined to see what was on offer.  That was in a diary from a couple of years ago, so on to last year's diary - yep, another list of sites I had joined but had not re-visited in a while.  My goal for these school holidays...to visit old sites and see how I can utilise them in wikis and blogs or otherwise, unjoin so I can start to tidy up my 'digital footprint'...I think that's what I mean!
(PS By the way, I counted 23 sites, but I bet that's a baby number for many others who use the net!).

Our Descriptive Stories about Cats

On the front, pastel and dye cat.

The children get to re-order their story they
have written to describe their cat.

 

About time we had some pictures!

I was just thinking (I can hear my friend in the back of my head saying..."Prove it!"  LOL) I haven't had many pictures posted for a while, so here are a few pics  from my classroom...they are random snippets of the work my children have been creating but please enjoy (or scoff!).

Who wrote these statements???



One of our descriptive stories with a self portrait.



Brandon's cat.

Virtual Learning Network - a site for Teachers.

As I mentioned earlier, I have recently joined another site for teachers called the Virtual Learning Network.  Here we can share ideas, talk to other educators and eventually enrol children from our classes to learn from the Virtual Network - by other teachers!  Why not go and visit it yourself!?!

http://www.vln.school.nz/

You will need a gmail address to join (it makes things a lot easier to enter!  Don't ask me why!?!)
  :)

Weebly-it!

I have been playing with a new site to share information with our parents and families...Weebly.com

Our class already has a wikispace that we use quite a bit as we have YouTube clips that we can sing along to like our 'letter' or 'maths' songs as well as a page for each of our children from my class, to show off art work, stories, them working on activities and so on.

Why Weebly?  We needed our parents and families to be able to load the class sites quickly and not get bored waiting for images and information to appear.  Hopefully this site is easy to load for our families to view and easy for me to edit information and upload pics.

Fingers crossed!

Click on the link to visit our Weebly site :)     t1-2011.weebly.com

Also, visit our older Wikispace site :)    t1-2011.wikispaces.com

PS  Weebly seems reasonably easy tp use at the moment, but there is not much going on in our site yet! :)

Funny!?!

Funny is not when you are trying to tackle learning about 'bling bling' for your wikispace and you think you are 'da bomb' AND... you still can't get your pens to work on the Interactive White Board!  Yep and for the past 2 weeks!  Am past thinking "...is it you (the Board components) or is it me?  Please talk to me! (no not the reader, but the board)".

Oh what have I done, what have I done???

Well, I haven't been here for such a long time but personally, I  have made lots of moves towards getting 'up with the play' where ICT and web 2.0 tools is concerned (but I am certainly no where near being an 'expert' using everything I have learnt, in a constructive way in the classroom). I've recently joined another web sharing site for educators and people alike...at 'virtuallea rningnetwork.com'.  In doing so, this very action has prompted me in  to returning here to re-start my 'journey recording' that I left in 2009!  Yes, that long ago!   Well...here goes..... :)