Technoliteracy

Getting to know you

margm — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 09:58:22 +0000

A rather pleasant and unexpected outcome of the classroom and individual blogging has been the things I have learnt about our students. I check the individual blogs of my students most weekends and I have had the most extraordinary insights into who they really are. The powerful thing about this is that the incidental, personal things I have discovered, are the things that make the students who they are. They are the previously unknown things that they bring to school with them each day, and influence whether they are going to be happy and settled, or upset and distracted.

For instance, I have learnt that:
• one student goes rodeo riding when he goes to stay with his dad
• another student travels to Queensland every now and then, to see her dad
• despite being “all grown up” on the outside, most of the kids adore their pets and have an amazing soft spot for them
• most of the children “blog” with a very mature sense of responsibility and an enormous sense of pride
• several of them are involved in sports outside the usual high profile footy and netball
• one student loves blogging because she enjoys sharing what she has been through
• one student shot a wild boar last weekend, which was chasing his uncle in Pooncarie
• another can now “jump” his motorbike without falling off
• another student is sad about his cat Shadow dying and wrote a beautiful poem dedicated to him on his blog

I love reading the student’s blogs and most of all, they love when somebody leaves a comment. Blogging is the most exciting and authentic tool I have used in my entire teaching career (almost 28 years). I appreciate the privelage of getting to know my students more and I know that they enjoy sharing parts of my journey as well.

Wordles

margm — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:44:39 +0000

This is my first “Wordle”. I still have to refine it, because the words are a little small in some cases. This Wordle represents my favourite things. I plan to get my year 6’s using Wordles next term in a variety of ways. I plan to get them to create wordles for their favourite things or their goals and ambitions for starters. We will investigate the potential of Wordles and let you know the outcome. Stay tuned.

Tori - “there is no secret ingredient” -there is just you.

margm — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:57:13 +0000

This is my niece Victoria, or Tori for short. She has her own unique and individual fashion style.
She loves to dress up and experiment with various outfits, often changing 6 times each day! She is very flamboyant and loves to sing and dance. She loves to go swimming, play games on the computer and to write her own stories. Tori loves to go to the movies but doesn’t watch television very often. Her favourite movies are Hairspray, Chicken Run and Matlida. Her favourite dinner is chicken and vegetables and she also loves peanut butter. Tori doesn’t like dogs or thunder storms. She thinks chickens are funny! Tori carries a handbag with her wherever she goes. She travelled a lot as a little girl and still loves to get on an areoplane for an adventure.

Tori is the ballerina on the Interchange billboards you can see around Melbourne and she is currently starring in the Interchange ads on television. Tori is an amazing young lady, with charming manners and the knack of making you feel as though you are the most special person in her little life. I treasure her cuddles, her kisses, her funny little sayings and the way she makes me laugh. My world is so much brighter because of her presence in it.

Life on the forest floor - a photo a week

margm — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:20:33 +0000

Rustling leaves and swaying fern fronds
Far off birds so shrill and clear.
Wildlife scratching through the debris
Scuttling away as feet draw near.

Something wriggles, darting sideways,
Moving safely out of view.
Sunlight breaking through the tree tops
Beckoning to the life that’s new.

All round butterflies – darting, gliding
Settling briefly, moving on.
Savouring every precious moment,
Life is short – they’ll soon be gone.

Timeless, seamless, lush green beauty,
Tranquil, calm serenity
Where everything has its turn and purpose
Life – beneath the canopy.

Marg murnane – July 2003
Cape Tribulation – Far north Queensland

Berry Springs - Northern Territory, Australia

margm — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 10:02:43 +0000

This is beautiful Berry Springs where I went last November (2007). I spent a week in Darwin with my son David and his wife Sarah. The weather was extremely oppressive. It was hot and sweaty all day and all night. During one of the nights we stayed there, the temperature did not drop below 27 degrees. Simply walking to the clothesline is an effort with weather like that. Your skin is constantly wet and slimy and you just drink water all day long. Most tradesmen or people who work outdoors, just get used to changing their clothes at least twice a day.

In contrast, we went to beautiful Berry Springs one hot Sunday afternoon. That was like stepping into a postcard. Words elude me on this experience. It was idyllic, serene, restful, refreshing and reviving. Best of all, there were no crocodiles (well that particular day anyway!)

Improved Student Outcomes

margm — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 10:56:26 +0000

What a difference a few months of working with the web 2.0 tools can make to students and teachers alike. Prior to being introduced to these amazing tools of trade by our two dynamos Anne and Jess, project presentations were somewhat tedious to say the least.

At the start of the term, when I proposed the idea of a “project” and brainstormed methods of presenting them, the preferred option for students were posters or books! I was horrified.
That’s when I made the decision to hop onto the blogging wave which was swamping our school. The students all had their own blogs, and they had in place some of the tools that became pivotal to our progress. Once my home internet was reconnected and I could access the technology from home again, it was all go, go, go.

The students helped design our presentation rubric, where we explicitly pin pointed the things that made a presentation a “good one”. Then we brainstormed a number of ways in which we could use these tools of technology, to help us enhance our projects. The results have been amazing.
The students have used:
• Powerpoint – and then slideshare to embed their presentations in their own blogs
• Smartboards and wireless mouse (does anybody else have their tongue out the side of their mouths, or feel like they have had a stroke while using this? )
• Photostory
• Podcasts
• Video interviews and role play
• Voicethread interviews
• Quizzes using “mystudiyo”
• Voting – using “polldaddy “ and “zoho”
• And of course, the faithful old wordfind and crossword puzzles

Below is a quiz created by one of our students, who did a brilliant presentation on Albert Einstein. Tzigane created this quiz using mystudiyo, and it was a huge success. It was the finale of her presentation. She chose the same number of children as she had questions and as each child got the answer correct, she issued them with a lollypop.
So You Think You've Listened..



My Life is now complete …. I have a voki
margm — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:56:40 +0000
Well, after a discussion with my year 6 students today, it was decided that Ms M needed a voki. The real incentive presented itself after one cheeky student whose blogging name is Beatstar, (and whose report I am yet to write!)said “come on Grandma…”  Well, for what it’s worth you cheeky children, here is my voki.






3 Levels of Questions
margm — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:42:42 +0000
In comprehension activities, it is far too easy to concentrate on questions which require the students to simply recall facts and not do any thinking on a deeper level. The following powerpoint explains the 3 levels of questions which promote a more comprehensive level of comprehension.


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A photo a week…
margm — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 05:40:11 +0000
This is my first photo in the “photo a week” project which I have set up for my students. Each week the students are to take a photo, paste it into their writing journals and write something about it. They will then be able to post these on their own blogs.
Autumn leaves; gold, lime green, orange, brown, red and bronze

Drift down silently to cover;

the grass which is a lush green after a few reviving days of precious rain;

the garden paths – which now need sweeping;

the roof of the garden shed;

the trailer, the rake, the shovel;

and the garden with cheeky tips of autumn bulbs, pushing through for their turn in the autumn sun.

This coat of many colours is worn easily by the things in my garden.

Excitedly, like a child, I scuff my rubber boots through the thick coat of crunchy leaves as I make my way out to the garden shed in the crisp, dewy mornings, to feed my deer.

My face tingles in the chilly morning air and I walk a little faster.

My feet scuff, flick and drag through the newly fallen leaves as they celebrate the arrival of autumn in my backyard.
Marg Murnane 1st June 2008





Homonyms
margm — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:13:52 +0000
Each week I am going to add a challenge like this to my class blog, using different homonyms.
Okay techno kids, this week’s literacy challenge is to write 1 - 2 sentences using the words their, there and they’re. Use the cheat sheet on the homework page, to help you work out which word is the correct one. Good luck. Add your sentences to this post - under comments.