What a blast! A great turn out for the ‘Wiki Techie Brekkie’. Thanks to Matt Dodson for running an excellent session. While enjoying bacon and egg muffins, yogurt, fruit and freshly brewed coffee, we set up a wiki using wikki spaces for use by those attending Techie Brekkie sessions. Resources were added and generally everyone had a go at adding and editing ideas, comments, and resources. A couple of teachers also wanted to look at email and learn how to set up distribution lists to make emailing to colleagues quicker and easier. The need is also there to look at creating folders in email to store read emails to free up space in the inbox!

John Pattison has been over to the Multi Media Centre almost daily to tweak his blogging skills. He is keen to get his class blog moving and I was glad to see some work being published today by his class. A gold star to them

Gold Star to 5-13

I have begun to use vodcasts when teaching ICT to grades five and six and found it to be an excellent resource for the students. The idea being that after the initial introduction in the session students can view vodcasts (video and audio) AVI files to review instructions and gain additional assistance as required.  I am working on finding a program to compress the AVI files so that they can be viewed from the class blogs. If you know of some easy compression programs please post a comment below.

Tomorrow we start ULTRANET training for lead users and will share thoughts etc on progress as we go.

John and I met on Thursday morning before school in the Multi Media Centre to look at wikki and blog tools. A session will run for all staff interested next Thursday morning at Techie Brekkie to look specifically at wikki’s with Matt. We will be looking at wiki spaces as the host for the wiki session.

Yesterday after school art teachers from schools in the district gathered for their scheduled Art Teachers meeting. Different schools  including the Art Gallery host these meetings. It was Warrnambool Primary Schools turn to supply the venue. Teachers gathered after school in the Multi Media Centre and before commencing general art discussions they focused for a short time on web 2.0  tools available to incorporate into their Arts Programs.

We discussed Internet safety in relation to protecting student identity and the need to look at school policies in place for publishing student work on the Internet and  importantly of maintaining vigilance and diligence with issues related to copyright.

After discussion on the benefits of being able to collaborate with others through sharing and discussing art on the web we looked at a few web 2.0 programs suitable for use in Art. We looked at Global Teacher and some examples of established Art Blogs. Voicethread provided insight into getting feedback on artwork and concepts as well as the possibility of participating in collaborative art projects with classes from all over the world. Photo Bucket provided teachers with another way they can present and showcase student art work in an interesting way on the web.

Creating avatars to use as a digital representation on students led us to discuss compressing pictures before uploading to the Internet to save time as well as space on servers.  Most web programs such as Voicethread and Photo Bucket use JPEG images so we looked a quick simple way to change picture files using the program Paint.

I have instructional vodcasts available on the programs discussed and I will copy those onto CD for teacher reference.

www.globalteacher.org.au     www.voicethread.org     www.photobucket.com     www.moeruavatar.com

Last week we held a planning meeting for out staff ‘Techie Brekkies. Techie Brekkies are used at our school to provide opportunity for all staff to meet early at school on set mornings and work on a range of ICT skills. We brew coffee, provide cereal, juice, fruit and yogurt and meet in the Multi Media Centre (Library/Arts and ICT).

We have decided to place a wish list of areas staff want to skill up in, in the staffroom. Extra sessions before and after school will run this term as well to provide opportunity for classroom teachers to explore and ask questions focusing on their new classroom global student blogs.

In past years these Techie Brekkie’s have been offered to students and their parents to come and work on a project together such as producing a movie using  using family photos. We are looking to offer such a program again this year.

 It’s an opportunity to explore, share and skill up in ICT looking at Web 2 tools, class blogs, microsoft applications, email, Apple Mac programs to name a few. In terms 3 and 4 some focus may be on the ultranet.

Made in http://www.proprofs.com/games/

Tamaki our Japanese Assistant Teacher who has returned home to Japan has sent an email which was great. She misses ‘Jamo’ already and feels that she is starting to forget English. She is glad to be home with her family and friends.

For all the Warrnambool Primary community she really appreciated her final ’sayonara’ assembly. She has shown the DVD of the assembly to her family and they loved it. She also told me to eat lots of Easter Chocolate for her and I am not one to refuse such a request. She would love to have the choir sing the farewell song and record it on a flip cam for her as it wasn’t recorded on the day.

We will have to ensure we keep in contact with Tamaki so that she can keep up her excellent English Skills!

Made in Superpimper/Generators http://www.superpimper.com/

Made in http://flmnetwork.com

I wish everyone a safe, happy

and enjoyable Easter with

family and friends.

Tamaki, who has spent the last 6 months as a Japanese Teacher Assistant at our school in Warrnambool Australia, today flew home to Japan. At a special assembly on Friday we said Sayonara to Tamaki. Tamaki and a number of yr 6 students performed a Japanese Dance to the school. A DVD with a number of goodbye messages from members of the school was shown and presented to Tamaki by 3 yr 6 girls. The choir sang a farewell song to Tamaki written and accompanied on guitar by Mr. Rod Lyon.  I wish Tamaki a safe trip home and all the best. Sayonara Tamaki

Year 6 students on the 24th March 2010 walked between Warrnambool and Port Fairy along the coast. The walk is designed around low tides to ensure walkers the comfort of walking on firm sand. Students gathered at school along with teachers and parents, making way in coaches to Levy’s Point to start the walk. The actual walk took about 7 hours to complete and was approximately 23km in distance.

From Levy’s Point we walked along part of the Warrnambool to Port Fairy Rail Trail not yet complete to the beach. Tides were favorable at less than 0.5 m, allowing mainly firm sand to walk on.

The first stop was Rutledge Cutting known as ‘The Cutting’ where drinks and snacks gave revived energy to continue onto Killarney where we stopped at the Caravan Park for lunch. Killarney has toilet facilities which proved the first stop for many. Students seemed to have an abundance of energy, eating lunch and then running around the playground! After lunch drink bottles were filled and socks changed. I took a seat in the ‘Welsh-mobile’ and the walkers continued along the coast.

Between The Cutting and Killarney sections of beach were roped off to protect the nesting area of the Hooded Plover. Parks Victoria according to their Hooded Plover Fact File (http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/education/factfiles/37.htm) estimate only 600 hooded plover remain, placing them on the threatened species list. They state in their fact file that they are largely confined to high-energy ocean beaches. In coastal areas of Victoria, they spend a great deal of time on the beach, preferring wide beaches. Their nests are usually simple scrapes on the beach or in nearby dune areas. They have a long breeding period with nests being found for up to 8 months from August to March each year. Parks Victoria state that disturbance by people is the major threat to the birds. Students stayed well clear of the roped off sections and we were lucky enough to spot some hooded plovers near Killarney close to the water’s edge.

We met up again with the walkers closer to Port fairy near the Golf Course, and after a drink, water bottle refill and snack the walkers continued to Port Fairy where we gathered at the surf club toilet and picnic area. It took a while for all the walkers to arrive.  Some continued across the footbridge and along the mouth of the Moyne River in Port Fairy to Martins Point where the coaches were waiting. It is always lovely walking along the wharf and Moyne River looking at the yachts and fishing boats, a chance for students to reflect on the achievement of the walk.

Once loaded at Martins Point Port Fairy the coaches returned to pick up the last walkers to arrive at the surf club. We continued back to Warrnambool arriving back at school at around 5pm to waiting parents.

Warrnambool to Port Fairy Coastal Walk Map (google maps)

 Parks Victoria, Hooded Plover – Fact File http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/education/factfiles/37.htm

Google Maps http://maps.google.com.au

Today 6-16 saved their avatars and have begun looking at their new class blog. This week they will be choosing a blog design and adding themselves as users. We look forward to reading their posts. I will add a link to their blog so keep an eye on their progress.