Grade 5 and 6s have finally completed their ‘We explore China” wiki spaces. Students used all their group work strategies, Internet research skills and own understandings to compile a Wiki on a specif part of China. There were some rules such as NO cut and paste, don’t reinvent the wheel just put in a link to the web site and say why you have included it. Google maps and the information they show as long as you know your geography can be very informative. Not just a map but a satellite image and links to real images. These have been included as widgets.

Students had a chance to rate each other wikis against common criteria.  The feedback given was constructive and honest in 99% of cases. This was a good learning experience to rate and be rated. This is the criteria we used.

There is so many good web sites to share and adding them to the school web site takes a bit of time. I periodically uploading dedicated lists  to the school web site that service the current themes studies across the school. This is a labour of love and very worthwhile but there are som many groovy, educatonal sites that I discover or are sent to me by friends that I decided to start a DELICIOUS account to share by bookmarks.  the Internet is too vast for one person to hog all the good sites and hotlist on a web site take a bit of extra time to do so here goes……. I’m now a social bookmarker. Follow and use my bookmarks.  http://www.delicious.com/helenebearup

Our y5s are really Wiki wise. They can add widgets, use google maps, upload images and put things into their own words collaborating within a small group. Collectively each Wiki has covered the length and breadth of China. There was a real buzz in the room as groups planned their online exploration and worked out who was to contribute what to the Wiki. To divide and conquer the task worked well. The concept of not copying and pasting or rewording something that already existed proved a challenge for some that was overcome. The power of communication came from saying it in their own words what they understood and gained from these explorations.  It is far more interesting and meaningful to me, their teacher, the online audience and their peers to see .  To see our wiki and the grade 6s that cover other parts of china see our school wiki.

Patto Robots do it again. ‘Dr who and the darleks’ were runner up in the RoboCup junior state dance theatre champions.

Well done Patto!

Dr Who, K9 and Darlecks, spiders and flies, predestrians and a person driving a car..... The robots of the the 3 Patto Robot teams

Saturday 31st July was the Melbourne Regional Competition of the RoboCup Junior robotics dance, soccer and rescue. We entered 3 teams. Each team prepared at lunchtimes building and programming their robots. Wow. Such imagination. Well we managed to get a 2nd and an equal 3rd even with robots running outside and off the designated 3m x3m dance floor.

I have been heavily involved as a school lead user ULTRANET trainer. We (3) have been planning and conducting staff training. We have had to do a lot os self guided learning to prepare for the Big Day on the 9th of August when we work with the whole staff and indeed every school in Victoria to launch ourselves into the Ultranet.

Grade 5s and 6s are hard at work using the power of computers and the Internet to discover and explore China.  Formulating their own questions, finding a variety of sites, images and real time satellite and atlas style information can be overwhelming when you cannot copy and paste and you have to consolidate all the information into a few simple statements ad diagrams for their wikis. Working as a team, managing and breaking the tasks down can inspire many but also confound some.  Learning and taking ownership of what each student learn makes the learning more real.

4s are also discovering that using more than one web-site and a MM encyclopedia to compare facts can reveal some interesting anomalies especially when the information is about the 7 Ancient Wonders of the world.

Preps have begun researching the many and varied fairy tales from around the world. There are more than just Cinderella, Shrek and Red Riding Hood. My next mission is to show them the rel fairy tale land as travelled by the Grimm Brothers through Bremen, Hamlin and the forests of the wolf and little red riding hood.

online research and postcards from the Wonders of the World, WIKIS, Cybersafety, Robots for RoboCup Junior competitions, fairy tales and Smart thinking about festivals and celebrations…. that’s how term 3 started!

Three teams are preparing for RoboCup Junior regional and state competitions. As state and reginal winners in 09 we have a lot to do again this year. Cars, spiders and  darlecks with Dr Who are our inspiration for 2010. More details to follow as we get building and programming for the 31st July competition. Just lunch times means the pressure is on to manage our time well and actually get the robots to perform.

It all go with lots of enthusiasm so keep in contact to see how it all goes.

It’s been a while since my last blog entry. That does not mean that the students have not been enjoying new discoveries in the ICT Lab. Indeed they have been. My time has been devoted to correcting and assessing their work for reports. I am pleased with the cleverness of students here at Patto.

Year 5s explored Australia’s history from 1770 to 1851 through simulation games, movies, research activities and discussions. This information of dates and events was transferred into text boxes and arranged chronologically to form a Timeline. Using a range of formatting techniques these timelines transformed into individual masterpieces worthy of any Encyclopedia or online reference.

Yrs 6s studied various aspects of multicultural Australian from the historical perspective between now and 1778 form convict beginnings. The topic focused on ‘who’ are ‘those who come across the seas with boundless plains to share ‘, that we sing about in our National Anthem. Of late we have worked with the Australian Bureau of Statistics participating in the Census at School project. Students have been working mathematically using large numbers from a survey taken in London of 1795 people about shopping habits. Using filtering and sorting techniques they have been able to analyse the data and isolate key information.

Yrs 1s and 2s have mastered searching for and finding clip art for their food projects. They have resized and problem solved to complete their tables, create headings, enter text and insert their Kid Pix food pictures. 3-4 pages made by each student. Over the few weeks they have been examining sound and extending auditory memory in sound memory exercises…. No visual aides. Now that does give your ears and memories a work out.

3s and 4s have been reflecting on their typing skills and are yet to take the final comparison tests but all are feeling a term of practise has certainly helped. In addition to typing they have been exploring simple machines and how to correctly layout text and images applying some simple design principles and editing techniques.

Preps have discovered the school online classroom and the wealth of web sites they can access to assist learning in so many areas.

WOW! What a term.

As I had to assess the children’s work anyway… I decided to create a very individualized & personalised feedback for each child in each of the three year 5 classes. I was able to interact with the student’s work and describe their work in regards to the criteria I was looking for. I was able to show children some tips and hints like a mini personal lesson. It was time consuming but I felt it was worthwhile as I only see the children once a week. This was perfect way to share approx 5 minutes discussing their work with them and also sharing my delight at what they had achieved.

It came to the weekly lesson, where I announced I had a special surprise just for them just 1:1. They opened the flash files I had saved in their my documents folder. Headphones on and 100% attention was given to this personalized experience.  Smiles all ’round and a few honest nods of agreement. Many children repeated the video. They thanked me. I thanked them for showing me what they could do and for JING for making this possible. I told them they could copy the file to their flash drive and take it home to show their parents.

Next is getting Jing installed across the network to allow the children to record their own mini tutorials. Stay tuned for some exciting Jing Things!

No readers. I am not torturing students. Preps this week went through an intensive maths workout with numbers and counting to 10. Adding, counting and addition using the 1,2,3,4 and 5 BIRD game section of 123 kids, an old Aussie software program that still fits the bill today. Children were asked not to guess and just click their way through but to go for the correct answer. Everyone was encouraged to work at their own pace. Children focused on their own skills and learning and got totally into it. 

I must blog to tell  you of this one child who prompted this entry. This child, who had been struggling with maths since starting school really persevered, with some encouragement from me, as he began to see the connection between written numbers, groups of objects, the name and sound of  each number and counting. After some time, this particular child began to make headway and, make connections and associate his choices with counting and reading numbers. It was a tremendous effort that awarded XXX with success and some insight into his own learning. Yes sometimes it is hard but its worth it. This child then turned to me , with a smile of accomplishment and said, “My brain hurts”. On returning to the classroom, the excitement was shown to the class teacher who also was so proud.

I love my job when I can help students in this way.

Today the grade 2s open a saved document from the student common drive opening successive sub folders to find the file. Finding it was a ‘Read Only‘ and they knew they had to make it their own by saving it to their n:\drive in the lab\food sub-folder before they could commence work on it. Once it was theirs and their name appeared across the top they could personalize it by changing the heading fonts and colours, insert their own picture files from previous lessons etc. I was very pleased at their confident transfer of knowledge typing in their food words from their online research from their sheets into the prepared table of this MS Word document and then using  the typed word in the clip art find to select an appropriate example. Problem solving size and knowing where the cursor was proved an easy task especially for 2D.

The grade 1s  have a similar task but the table of foods was made as a collaborative list complied at the end of the last research session. This document was saved into the grade home folder from where they can open it. As one was already opened they found it was a read only so had to do a ‘Save As’ to make their own. Finding suitable clip art pictures was just a matter of correct spelling and paying attention to where they put the cursor.

Building foundations for creating and working in MS Word.

As the ICT specialist I  explore the world of ICT through play and excitement as they do to try to see the possibilities and real life learning opportunities for the students I teach.

JING THING

Today I went to the DEECD innovations showcase. Wow!. So many teachers are doing great things. One thing I saw was JING THINGS, a screen-casting tool. The young teacher from country Victoria who was using it with his class inspired me. His youthfulness reinvigorated my many years of experience to yet again go out of my comfort zone and explore something new. It was difficult then fun and finally play at first but then I got an idea. >>>>>>

Invite my fellow specialist teachers to the Patto blog and create some real time tutorials. Check them out if you dare on the specialist tab above.

If you can name the TV shows playing in the background leave a comment below. You will also see where I do my homework!!!!

Next step is to try this on my students and then install it on all the lab computers so the students can do it to. It certainly will help develop speaking and listening as well as planning and procedure. Who knows where their ideas will take us at Patto.