Touch typing drill and practise makes for a very quiet computer lab. Grade 3 & 4 students are using Typing Tournament and  BBC schools typing drills . These certainly had them focusing on training their fingers to use the home row keys. Some of us, including me, who have developed bad keyboarding fingering, really have to concentrate to retrain our fingers to do the right thing. The call,”Megabytes” , at the conclusion of the lesson, brought an, “Oh no! I was just getting that.’ But the a sigh of relief  was uttered as they were encouraged to have a good stretch. When they realised the intensity and concentration they had given throughout the session, some were quite amazed but they found it challenging and enjoyable at the same time. Quotes from the grade 4 children’s ICT typing journal included: ” Using the home row helps me to type accurately. “My fingers now automatically know  how to find the A & S keys.” Using my thumbs for the space bar is a good way to go!”

As part of our exploration of the food topic we put the keyword food into Encarta Kids MM encyclopedia. Our initial task was to freely exlore the results and find the interactive activities and widen our knowledge of the foods we eat and where they come from. After that we deconstructed some of the foods we eat , like pizza and cake, into their base ingredients, then the source of that food as being a fruit, vegetable or  meat etc and then finally to its original source as a plant or animal. Amazingly nearly all our food comes from a plant or an animal. Then we asked who or what looks after or grows these for us? Farmers! So excitedly we launched into our favourite drawing program to create a super farm where everything we eat can grow or roam a paddock, including some fences to keep the cows out of the vegie patch. The subsequent sharing of ideas and solutions to make the picture, find the right stamp, between friends made for some very imaginative pictures. We saved them so we could put them into a word document later in the term.

Busy week with EFA robotics Wednesday and Thursday and all week ICT classes. It’s been all go all week! Finally able to take a breath to add to my blog.

Who’d have believed that typing could stimulate the urge to spell! Grade 4s inserted a smart art graphic organizer to set personal goals about which typing techniques would help them improve  their speed and accuracy. Being able to spell and know the letters was one goal that many students decided would assist them. l certainly have some activities up my sleeve and links I have put on the school web site, which I also manage, to teach, test and challenge both.  I wish I learned to touch type and as an adult now realise that not having this skill hampers my own productivity. The grade threes have heard tales of being taught to touch type in the “Old Days” which was an “interesting experience” as Mrs. Corcoran reveals. At least now there are games and online tutors that make it fun and give instant results.

Here students are calculating distance over time to understand how to control their robots movements to fit va defined space

For EFA I am taking two groups for robotics. Our first task is to work out how to construct commands to get our robots to perform simple movements: Forward, backward, turn, circle and spin, distance travelled over time etc…

Sounds easy!!!! Each motor can be individually commanded to be on/off, runnat different powers  and turn forwards or backwards. This conjurs up all sorts of problem solving, but once sorted out opens up all sorts of possibilities.

Our first challenge was to get the robot to travel forward and then back with its light on the full distance of a tape measure. using time as the only modifier meant that exact distance could be achieved. The next challenge involved turning after travelling a set distance to go left and right. Adding to that I asked them to get their robot to travel around the world after putting down the globe. Making  the motors work together for the robot to make a large circle kept them returning to their programs making change after change until they got it right.

Robolab – Lego Mindstorms is a great way to do some mental gymnastics.

Wow! After a short Easter holiday its all go at Patto. Timetable in a muddle juggling swimming, E.F.A ( Enrichment for all) and regular classes. With classes on different days and P-2s tired from swimming lessons everyday we managed to get stuck into our new themes.  Having planned the units of work prior to the break I was looking forward to igniting new ideas and introducing the students to new computer skills and ttechniques.

Grade 6s are looking at the meaning behind “……for those who comes across the seas…”. We asked ourselves just who are “THOSE” we sing about in our National Anthem. Immediately we recognised that some of our own class members and/or their parents were part of  “those” and suddenly singing those word took on a whole new meaning. We embarked on a new MS Word document with the heading, ‘Beneath Our Radiant Southern Cross’ with the sub heading containing the line from the second verse we had been discussing. We inserted a table to collate information from gleaned from interviews of real Aussies contained in the program, ‘Convict Fleet to Dragon Boat’ . We needed to use inferential , auditory and literal comprehension to get the basic name, date of arrival, age when arrived and the reason they came. This opened up the topic for our look at the history and periods of Australian migration and work with some statistics to do some Excel spread sheeting in the coming weeks. 

Grade 5s found out what is was like to be transported to Australia interacting with a simulation game from the same program the 6s were using. After s0me discussion and a mini movie from ‘Understanding Australia’ they had some interpretation of travelling to Sydney as a convict may have been like.

4s discovered that blind typing was a bit of fun and a challenge when you take away the “sight  Feedback” to the brain when the monitor is turned off.  We discussed how our brain works 9j order to type and what skills are involved. We also tried ‘Barracuda” typing from the school web site project helpers and went for our PB, (Personal Best). We saved the typing and the best score as a benchmark to measure our progress with our typing speed and accuracy throughout the term exploring typing practise and spelling skills. I will find this good practise for me as I never learned to type.  Mrs. Corcoran’s 3s are focusing on the same skills and type of activities.

1s and 2s are finding out what my favourite foods are as we embark on our ‘Food’ Topic. Yes bananas. I love nannies. This week we watched  video to set the language and concepts we will be encountering. then we brainstormed the ideas and vocabulary presented in the video. We discovered that foods fit into 5 main groups and we need to eat different combinations of them to be healthy. Grade 1s went on to do a close activity about the five food groups using a web site as reference to assist them develop their ability to work with larger volumes of factual text, keep track  of where they are, use headings to scroll up and down a page to locate sections and work on a sheet as well as read the screen. 2s worked on another online activity finding out what is contained in foods that we eat that we need to be healthy completing a sheet to record what they discovered. We acme to the conclusion that you need t0 eat a variety of foods from different food groups.

Preps worked on building their auditory memories with Oranga Banga and the like  using ‘Thinking Things 1’. Games tested memory, following instructions and critical listening. After exploring the ‘create’ side of each game they chose to try the Q & A. Sometimes they had a choice of trying utn the dark using only their listening skills without any  visual   assistance. After the initial fun they decided concentration was the key to success!

The foundations are now laid. Next week we delve deeper!!!!!

Some children are so motivated it is awe inspiring as a teacher, to have children requesting lunchtimes and after school permission to continue adding to their projects or telling me they have shown their Mum and dad how to do what we have learnt in school at home.

Grade 6 -3, have really discovered the power of simple custom animation and images that has empowered them to release their story telling ability.  I haven’t yet had a chance to examine each and every one but as I have worked with them answering their questions and responding to,” I want these two things to happen and a sound comes and I then I want to make…..” problems vanish as I assist them to find solutions within PowerPoint. The results have released smiles of pride and personal achievement on each and every student. I am personally looking forward to viewing and grading them over the holidays.

I enjoy the quite sound of achievement and the occasional “Yeah!” as children develop confidence and mastery of computers.

Grade 2s have become overnight PowerPoint superstars as well mastering word art, keyword searching clip art to enhance their work. Even grade 1s have seen how such a common program can insert their Kid Pix images, add a frame with a glow  and find matching water images to celebrate their research and accomplishment of water and how the water cycle influences our concept of water conservation in Australia.

Preps have really mastered their control of the mouse to make controlled hand –eye coordination to create skilful Easter egg  designs selecting and using drawing tools in Kid Pix.

I have had great pleasure in teaching all Patto kids this term.

I am busy constructing units of work to continue to build these skills and introduce new concepts and ideas for Term 2.

Meet you back here in April

The term is moving along so fast!

Preps are discovering that using a computer and making pictures is not just random clicking and moving a mouse. It takes deliberate control, hand -eye co-ordination and knowledge of which tool will give the results they are after. This week we added using Ctrl and shift with the left hand and mouse control with the right to enlarge letters to spell their names, to make a sign for their bedroom using effects  and colours  from the magic paint brush.  Concentration and then big smiles all round when a colour printed copy was handed to them to take home.

Grade 1s are still polishing off their mastery of kid Pix to make diagrams and meaningful pictures of what they are learning about water. Saving files in a network environment is now becoming a little easier. This week they made 4 pictures in one showing where water on our planet is found 1. In the oceans, 2. Frozen at the poles, found in glaciers  and  in ice and snow, 3 Underground and 4. Lakes and rivers.

After discussing, ‘Where on Earth is Water?’ They grouped their ideas into 4 headings and they used this knowledge to keyword search Encarta ( a MM Encyclopedia) for real life examples to copy and paste into their powerpoint. Sounds easy! But actually it used left and right mouse click,  and required isolating the caption that came with the picture to remove it from the slide. Adding Word Art was a new conecpt to label the pictures they had found. Chieldren discovered that using specific keywords can enhance the speed and accuracy of finding the right information. A skill they will need for finding stuff on the Internet.

Grade 3 & 4s are exploring the range of graphic effects that can be added to their avatar image as well as animations to turn a static picture into one that has movement, glowss, bounce and other qualities that activate in PowerPoint when you run the slide show. School scenes are taking on a surreal look as these and other images are added to the photographic design backgrounds of empty school grounds

Grade 4s have gone one step further and recorded their own voice for their avatar to add to its entrance custom animation, to help tell the story of  the scene depicted and a school rule. Ambient school yard soundtracks are also being added that play continually as the action takes place adding to that ‘surreal’ school yard feel.

5&6s are hard at work using all their skills and knowledge of Powerpoint developing their digital stories. Becoming a master of the action requires a lot of higher order thinking skills to get the desired result. New techniques and tweaking and combining of  a whole lot of previous understandings is empowering these students to be their own James Camerons making the movie Avatar, which we used as inspiration for this project. Grade 6s are even a little bit sad that they have to go to school  camp and have a public holiday on their lesson day and will miss out. Well, maybe not all students camp Woorabinda is pretty cool!

It a long week end and I reckon we have all earned it.

This week the 6s have started to make their digital story. James Cameron waited 12 years before he could make Avatar. Yr 6s waited 3 weeks to bring their characters and story to life. Spider map character profiles, avatar pictures created and story cubes prepared together with their outline of a script and an idea of  a world of make believe is now ready to meet PPT. Limitations of what is available and do-able drives the learning of new skills and techniques to massage these ideas into a digital story. Some revisiting of their story cubes will be necessary. Children are wearing headphones with microphones recording dialogue to be added to their digital stories.

Year 5s are still dreaming up characters and creating their profiles. Story ideas are leaping into their heads. These are now beginning to be shaped in story ideas and being typed onto their story cubes. Students are revisting the web site to make more avatars as their imaginative story concepts give them a need for a new character.

Last week as Yr 5&6 students were leaving the lab I was told, ” I am so pumped about what we are doing. Can’t wait till next week” . This was voluntairly announced by more than one student. As a teacher I felt so proud that my lesson had engaged and invigorated these students. The  majority of these students were from 6A so they were awarded the Class Award for this week at assembly. The ICT trophy sits in their classroom to thank and reward them for their enthusiasm.

Yr 4s are now recreating the school yard with a range of students from the school clip art and MS Clip art onto a design background created using a digital photograph of the school yard. There are 20 odd photos to choose from including the adventure playgrounds, eating areas, courtyard and oval. Students have added and scaled various images to bring these pictures to life and animating them using custom animation which make our school look part real and cartoon. some have added their avatar that we will attach a voice recording about a school rule. PowerPoint is a powerful tool in the hands of such imaginative children. Whoever thought that some of our students at Patto could fly, dissappear and reappear. Well it doesn’t have to be 100% real. ICT can enhance what’s thought to be real and allow for some creative thought. That is encouraged in the Lab ICT classes. School work is meant to have an element of fun!

Yr3s with Mrs Corcoran, are now editing their avatars and exploring the special effects in Photodraw to give them super powers of spinning, changing colours and adding shadows. ICT allows students to test and undoeffects  as they explore the options offered till they finally find one that achieves a desired result.

Yr2s are now working in multiple windows managing complex tasks requiring starting in Powerpoint,inserting a water related picture from MS Clip art editing it by,  cutting and pasting it to Paint.  Next step; working in Paint altering their clip art  picture to be a more original creation and then selecting and cutting and pasting it back into Powerpoint. The children are the masters of their own learning , getting the computer do what they want it to do and feeling empowered too.

Grade 1s are using what they know of Kid Pix to make posters mixing text and pictures about water. They are learning how to open, save and overwrite existing files in a network environment. Changing drives from the basic C: to find their home drive and then double click or click and open successive folders to to put their work in a subject folder on Water. The chant and process they observed last year is now for them to try on their own. ” File, save a picture, change the drive to n: two clicks on LAB, Two clicks on Water, Backspace and replace with your name and click OK” . That may sound long but it makes sense when the children then see their saved files all in the right place at the end of the lesson.

Preps are now well under way understanding that a picture is not created without them actually choosing a tool and then driving the mouse to make the mark on the screen. They have discovered that with a movement of the mouse and one left click they can choose a magic paint brush, a new colour and even a specific type of paint even from drippy to one that d0es hands or even bugs!. This week they are combining this new knowledge and using the letter tools to make their name and decorate it.  Clicking madly doesn’t work anymore. It’s all about deliberatete control and personal choices. The added sounds effects of each function distinguishes what they have chosen  from the previous option. A rubber (eraser) can be a bomb explosion, countdown or even a disappearing act. Mistakes can be corrected or with just a click a fresh start can be made.

That’s the end of my blog #2. I do love working here at Patto with all your  children.

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