It’s been a while since I have officially blogged here. My alter ego Nosey Bear has been about the school working with students doing a range of other things.

Nosey Bear TV has continued with 2 shows per term. We have just finished our Rodobot special. You can view these at http://noseybear.podomatic.com/.

I have established a sister school exchange via the British Council with William Ransom Primary School in Hitchin , England. After our initial contact, which consisted of recorded messages and emailed questions and some video, we are now participating in a formal project; ” A Day in the Life”.  A Grade 4 and an Grade 1 are currently busy wrapping up their Aussie tales to send to England.

I entered a team in the RoboCup Junior robotics championships. Robotics is a side passion of mine and have been training students in programming and building for 12 years. RoboCupo Junior competitions are fun and really allow students to be creative and push the boundaries of their potential. The 4 students entered the regional after a hurried 3 weeks of preparation as the new equipment only arrived just in time to enter a team. Went on to the state finals and WON!!!!!!! They were outright junior champs in Dance and Dance theatre and went to Canberra to represent our state in the Nationals. They didn’t win but we ( the students, their parents and I) had fun. To find out more you can watch the Nosey Bear Special. http://noseybear.podomatic.com/player/web/2012-11-18T18_29_57-08_00

Students have been engaged in so many ICT projects with me in the Multimedia lab. In addition to my regular weekly classes, I have also

• worked with classes made and edited 19 green screen films,
• worked with 4 year 4 ambassadors to the Melbourne Water International Kids teaching Kids Youth Conference http://www.kidsteachingkids.com.au/,
• invited an international travelling squirrel to our school from the US via Canada and NZ, I chaperoned him and blogged on his behalf on his blog http://dusquirrel.edublogs.org/
• produced and entered a green living film competition and won 2nd prize that won us sponsorship to the aforementioned conference. The film was also showed at the conference
• mentored the Rodobots
• initiated the sister school exchange with 6 classes in the ‘first contact ‘ exchange
• recorded 20 Hot seat radio programs with different students each week to give them experience In the radio room. It is quiz show for our Sporting houses.

…………to name just a few on top of all the network admin and the work emails I have to read, write and which I have to respond. Who says a teacher’ life is easy?

My classes have all been heaps of fun and learning. Yes I learn to from them and by pushing my own boundaries to give them opportunities to learn new things. Currently the Yr 3&4 s are making animated digital comic story books, Yr 5&6 exploring making ,memories using the Ultranet, photography, videos with web cams and screen writing, Yr 2 are learning the tricks of the trade to produce an information report in MS Word

A new term has begun with a focus on the Ultranet and Cybersafety.

Year 3s and 4s are learning about the power of their written words through blogging in different spaces for different audiences.  Whether you blog for just yourself or a wider audience it is entierly your choice. Blogging and getting comments from parents or other students can be enlightening and a lot of fun. Using the Ultranet is safe place  where you can blog with your parents and or students or just with your self. Unlike a public blogs your are not bothered with spammers and pretenders. The Ultranet is a 24/7 safe place  that connects students anytime anyplace in cyberspace. The student’s home space is a private space where they can keep a blog just like a journal. Writing has a purpose.

These students are tomorrow’s news makers and future bloggers.

I worked with 20 studenst from Yrs 2- 6 to write, film and edit a movie about being green. We used the green screen studio, photography and stop frame animation and live action. We recorded voice overs with the easi speak microphones. We added it all together bit by bit to make our final 90 sec film. I showed it to the staff and it received a round of applause. WE had fun working every lunch time for 2 weeks.

We enetered it in the Big Green festival short film competition. http://www.biggreenfestival.com/ We were one of the top ten finalists.

I have been so amazed at the talents of PLPS students with movie making. Year 5s have  been researching and then creating impromptu scripts in front of the camera about what it was like to be a convict in Early Australia. They have used these clips in their own movies to retell Australia’s early beginnings in a very meaningful way. It was a delight to teach Australian History in this way.

Year 6s have been  making commercials. Wow, some very interesting ideas!. Students have been put to the test managing a team project. Some have done it brilliantly. Time management is a skill to be developed. Having fun is easy but actually completing a project required dedication. This has been a profitable learning experience for these students. the results are all good.

We are getting better at editing. We have discovered how to trim clips. THis enables us to make each news item better. Take a look.

Nosey Bear has been fiddling with green screen technology. Let him know what you think. The crew think is is just fabulous and oh so colourful.

Producer: Caleb Director and script: Lana,  Direct X console operator: Nikola. Hosts Can amd Alex. Editors Nikola and Caleb and of course Nosey Bear.

Our last show for 2011. We managed to create 4 in a term. What a great job by the crew. Each episode the children’s confidence grew as did thier skills as they got to produce more and more of the show themselves. Enjoy

WOW is about all I can say about term4. The students have done some amazing work n the new IT&C hub ( Interactive Technologies & Communications Hub).

KAHOOTZ.

That’s not a new swear word is an amazing powerful animation program made here in Australia. the Year 5 and 6s have been exploring its wonders and powers in producing a range of wild and fantastic movies. We were fortunate to be visited by one of the co creators, Mr Peter Maggs from the DEECD E-Learning team, who visited us to see our projects and conduct a master class. Over 60 year 5 and 6 student attended with Mrs B in the MMC. It was so stimulating to see and here Mr Peter Maggs as he shared his wealth of knowledge and experience with us.

The students went on to produce some wonderful projects. So many in fact that we are having our own 2011 Kahootz awards. These can be seen on our TV show at Patto TV.

Speaking of Patto TV our first shows are now available for viewing at school. I have had fun compiling all the students work to make this our first TV show. It ended up being 1 hr and 40 mins altogether. Its fun to watch. Next year we will be exploring the Patto TV show and what it will entail in greater detail next year.

Its been a great year and this term has been about learning new things. Its been fun. Happy Holidays to all my readers.

Students in 5 & 6 are exploring animation from both ends of the spectrum. Making simple hand drawings generated by computer programs such as paint be brought to life through Monkey Jam and 3D CGI using Kahootz.  We viewed Walt Disney’s first cartoon that was all hand drawn, ‘SteamBoat Willy’. They appauded his efforts at the end. They were inspired to continue their explorations.

We also had a bit of fun with the green screen too. Poking our heads through the screen and filming it moving up, down and around. These will later be chroma keyed into their 3D worlds using Wax. We may even draw some clouds and have big heads floating amongst them.

Grade 1s have all viewed their green screen celebration movies too. They love the magic of green screen acting on a bacground they made themselves in Paint. They know the green means become invisible when mixed with a movie or picture using a special comupter program. The teacher(me) does that bit of magic and hard work! Only the people show up so they can be in the picture so to speak.