ejourney with technokids

Hannah has asked for the following questions to be answered as part of her English project which reads….

Hi guys, as part of our English class we have to find out the types of difference, the consequences of difference and the importance of difference. I need your HELP!! Would you be able to reply in a comment the answers of the following questions?

So, Hannah, I shall answer them for you here on my blog as it is a bit long to put back into a comment.

What’s your favourite food? – stirfries
What do you do in the weekend? – goto the footy usually or garden, but I haven’t been so much this year. I used to go and visit my Mum and take her somewhere. On Sunday, I goto church.
You’re favourite T.V Show? – any travel show eg Getaway
Your favourite Celeberity? Princess Mary of Denmark
Your favourite genre of Music? Rock n roll
What do you do in your spare time? I bunch flowers, garden and love the internet
What’s your family makeup? (brothers, sisters, parents) I have one brother, both of my parents are dead.
Your family origin and date of arrival? I was born in Melbourne, Australia on 12th March, 1952
What’s your favourite possession? My digital camera
An issue or value you care about? The education of students
Your age? 56 years

What activities do you get involved in after school?

This week it is the turn of one of our students to write the post prompt for our collaboration with collaboration nation. Leecie has written the following:-

List 3 activities you are  involved in after school?

Which one is your favourite? and why?

Please leave your answer in a comment to this post! (on leecie’s blog)

thanks

My answer is:

3 activities I am involved in is : 

1.Horse Riding-I have 2 horses at home and depending on the weather ride them every night or every second night.

2. Karate-I do this in Warrnambool most friday nighs

3.Computer-I talk to people on msn and myspace

My favourite one is horse riding because I can go anywhere I want all over the Farm and district because it is really quiet and there are not many cars going along the roads, but there is plenty of sheep, cattle, foxes and wallabies to chase and fallen trees to jump and swerve!

Instructions

• Answer the prompt as a post on your blog.
• Goto Leecie’s blog and copy your post as a comment in her blog.

We look forward to comparing our answers!!

Hello students. I am in Melbourne on Monday attending a SLAV conference where Will Richardson, one of the world’s leading educational bloggers, will be presenting. On Tuesday, I will go to Coburg to visit a school which is set up using the latest technology. So, scroll down, find your level below, and complete the tasks set.

Years 4 and 5

• Finish your post on mothers day
• Goto http://es1001tales.wikispaces.com and read your partner’s story whose name is next to yours in the table.
• Next, tell me all about your webkinz pet, if you have one.  What you do with them when you go into their world on the computer? Would you tell others to get one? Why? Why is it different to having a real toy? If you do not have a webkinz, just tell me about Patch. Put a heading “A webkinz pet.” Find a photo of Patch to put into your post. Next, write another post telling me about your penpal from Canada.

Year 7

• Finish your post on “My Mum is special”
• Checkout the http://ms1001tales.wikispaces.com and read your partners’ stories and think about how you will comment on them.
• Complete your photostory on the year 7 camp.
• Find a piece of school work that you are proud of completing this year - English, maths, art etc, insert it into a post and write about it.

Year 8

• Complete your mothers day post
• complete your summary and  graphs about the electronic household gadgets etc in a post on your blog.
• Goto http://www.bubbl.us/  Register, or sign in and create a mind map or brainstorm for your digital story. It can be about your hobby, your interests, your favourite sport, a typical school day, Hawkesdale, our school etc. Think about the photos you will need, how you will get them, the order you will put them in etc. Grab the code and embed in the code tab of your blog.

Year 9 and 10

• Complete any unfinished activies.
• Goto http://www.bubbl.us (a cool diagram internet maker) and brainstorm your digital story on a topic of your choice. It can be an interest, sport, school, community, Australian culture, animations etc. Create bubbles showing the topic, photos or video you will need, equipment required software you will use eg powerpoint, photostory, vegas, podcast etc Grab the code and embed in a post on your blog.
• Think of a voxpop question for Ms McCulloch’s Friday lunchtime activity and write it into a post. You will podcast this soon.
• Goto http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23661243-2862,00.html and read about new student privacy issues.  One of my teaching colleagues writes:- “I harbor some genuine fears that this student registry could put students’ privacy at risk.” Discuss his comment in relation to the newspaper article and put forward your opinion, justifying your viewpoint.

On Sunday, May 11th, Australians celebrate Mothers Day to acknowledge the important role that mothers take in our lives.
I want you to tell me about your Mum, so answer the following questions as a post on your blog:-

1. My earliest memory of Mum..
2. My mother always tells me..
3. Her favourite food is….
4. …. favourite colour..
5. ….favourite piece of furniture
6. At home she cooks..
7. In her spare time, she…
8. Mum’s special interest or hobby…
9. Her favourite gadget…
10. Mum likes it when…
11. She gets cross when…
12. When I shut my eyes, I see Mum..
13. If I had money I would buy her…

Results from our online survey (using google forms) of three schools, each from different countries are now all in. The results from google spreadsheets is now exported to MS Excel and stored on the student drive. Follow the instructions below to show the results using a powerpoint presentation. Goto www.slideshare.net and register.

1. Follow directions to find the exported, raw data from the survey between, Denver, Hawkesdale and Nabblus.
2. Sort it
3. Calculate the average/household for each item.
4. Graph the results for each gadget
5. Insert appropriate headings
6. Grab a screenshot using printscreen, paste into MS Paint, crop and save as jpg.
7. Paste each graph onto a slide in MS Powerpoint.
8. Find a map for each of the cities and towns
9. Add to a powerpoint slides
10. Summarise and report on the findings
11. Upload your saved powerpoint file into slideshare
12.  Embed in your blog

Check out the following student posts to see some great results flurogreen and leecie

 Here is the live google form that Alison Saylor designed for us to fill in.

If you need help at embedding a live google form into a blog, read the  great post by Tom Barrett.

Year 9/10 students here is the post prompt for the week, from Mr Bogush of Collaboration Nation. Follow the instructions below:

First, here is the question for Hawkesdale and MMS:

What is the most precious item in your life? The one thing that you cannot do without. The thing in life you value the most. This question does leave some room for interpretation. There is no wrong interpretation. Please answer with what pops into your head first. Please do not over think it!

Please post your answer on your own individual blog with a image of the item. The image can be of an item just like yours. So if your turtle is the most precious thing and you don’t have a picture of her, find a copyright free image from the net that looks like your turtle to use. 50,000 bonus points for images that you have created. Then copy and paste your answer to a comment on Collaboration Nation at http://pbogush.edublogs.org/2008/04/20/april-20-2008/ with a link to your blog so that we can view the image.

Years 9/10 and year 8 (Grade 6 instructions are below)

 Complete making your avatar. Goto irfanview and ensure that the avatar is a small size (380 wide). Goto options>blog avatar>browse for your avatar file>upload and crop image. Goto users>avatar>browse for avatar file>upload and crop image. Then ensure that you have an avatar widget in presentation. If not grab the widget and drop into your sidebar and save.

You need to complete two posts today.

Post no 1     My avatar.

Follow the instructions at the bottom of this post. (Click on the link to read what to do)

Post no2   eSafety

Do you feel safe blogging in our school? If so, why and what precautions have you taken to ensure that you are safe.

Design a cartoon to show an aspect of cybersafety and insert the cartoon image into your blog. Possible cartoon design sites can be found at http://ejourneys.wikispaces.com/cartoons

If time permits, commence creating an animation using powerpoint or other software.

Grade 6 You are to create an avatar in MS Paint. Follow instructions above to add to your blog. Then choose some of the work you are doing in English to add as a post to your blog. Add a clipart picture or a picture you drew in paint. Write a post on a topic of your choice.

If you have any problems, add a comment below and send to me.

Year 9/10 IT students, you need to:-

• Complete two posts, one answering my two questions for the joint Collaboration Nation blogs, the other choosing 4 questions that the New Brunswick, Canada students posed, and answering them. Do not forget to copy your first post and add as a comment on my blog.
• Make sure you read the replies to my quesions from the students from Conncecticut, USA
• Create a voki, grab the code and insert into a new text widget on the sidebar
• Write a new post “My avatar” Describe what an avatar is to a beginning computer user. Explain why you chose this style of avatar, why you built it as you did and what software you used to build it. Would you prefer your personal photo or your avatar as your ID? Why?
• Read Mr Keith’s poem on his avatar. Make a comment on his post.

The students are excited, I am nervous! Time to prepare my lessons for today and it is taking me quite a bit of thought and preparation.
Why would that make me decidedly nervous, you might ask? Well, I am in Australia and my students attend Nashwaaksis Middle School / Devon Middle School School District 18 Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. They are studying a unit on Oceana and about to study Australia and NZ. So, I will talk to them about life in Australia, our cultures, our school, my small rural town and the farm we live on.
Their teacher, Mr Chad Ball put up a bulletin message on his facebook page, seeking potential questions from the students and some of them follow. I think this would make an excellent exercise for my students to complete the answers to, on their individual posts.

• Katie: What kind of animals do you have there? And how are they different from the ones in Canada?
• Barret: This is my question, are the schools in districts like they are here? Is there early immersion there as well?
• Caity: what are the two most commun languages used in Australia?
• Craig: I think that it would be cool if we could possibly get a person inAustralia to do a live webcast in class.
• Daniella: If you were in the outback is it true that there are houses out there that are under the ground???? If so how were they made?
• Amanda: What sports do you play there? Any sports you do that are different from around the world? What are the most popular?
• Megan: I was wondering whats so special about Australia ? Whats so special down there ? If you were walking down the street, what would people there be wearring ? ( shorts, jeans, hoodies, t-shirts ? ) What is your favorite thing about Australia ?
• Adam: How many animals are indigenise to Australian?
• Emily: How many years do you go to school before colledge or university?
• Tyler: Can you sand surf in Australia? if so Have you?
• Jane: Do they have all four seasons in Australia? And what are the differences between our seasons and theirs?
• Katelyn: Are the foods in Australia the same as in Canada or do they eat weird things like ants ???
• Lauren: umm… well i guess a good question might be… have you lived in australia all of your life?? If not, how long have you been there?? or maybe what school do you teach at there?? (just some ideas)
• Cassie and Morgan: What do they wear? What type of food do they eat? Are there places that are better to live in than others, if so why? Are all of there catch phrases
• “CROYKIE”? Does the Kangaroo population in the outback outmatch the human population?
• Patrick: is there a different way of teaching in Australia,then there is here in Canada?
• Laura: what are the common sports that they play in Australia.
• Rene: do aussies have like pet sheep and stuff .. any different animals then cats or dogs…
• Nicole: this will sound random, but like in the olden days families used to be huge (with a lot of people) and have lots of kids, now a days the families are smaller, so down in Australia are the families larger then our normal families?
• Chantele: what language they speack most other then english, and what kind of cutlures?
• Sarah: Why is their english so much different then ours, with words like ‘mate’ and stuff?
• Stephen: Whats it like to have all those weird animals around?
• Hannah: what knid of animals do you have there? are they all the same as here? are there school’s or just class room? what language do they speak there?
• Gwen: What are some of the biggest cultural differences between our country and yours?? Or i it mostly the same?

 (Make sure you check out the wonderful, varied and interesting comments that the students have made at the end of this post.)

Hello from Hawkesdale, Victoria, Australia

Hello, I am Anne Mirtschin, an information technology(computer studies) teacher in Hawkesdale, Victoria, Australia. It is now autumn and any deciduous trees are starting to colour and lose their leaves. We are a small school of 250 students from prep to year 12 (5yrs – 18 yrs). We are hoping to work together, on blogging, with a school from the USA. Their blog page is entitled “Collaboration Nation”.

In order to get to know each other a little better and thereby, evaluate similarities and differences between our two countries, schools and cultures, I would like to ask you two questions.

1. What is the best thing about living where you do?

2. Tell us why your school is unique?

Please write a post anwering these questions. Then add them as a comment to my blog. Students from both schools are to do this.

Next week, Mr Bogush will write the question a post and it is then hoped that one student per week from alternating schools will write a question for posts.

Below is a photograph of our school.