Chilis, dogs and blogs

Greetings FIS - I hope your new school is going well [new DP, AP, Principal, teachers, students, executive officer, etc].

This is just a note to mention that you new welcome to still communicate here and I will respond to any comments.
If you are using this blog for educational purposes please leave a comment [- it's just good manners].

Essential features to enable on your own blogs are email verification so you are aware of all comments placed anywhere on your blog - you will need this to keep in touch with participants and be aware of spam comments so you can delete them. Any spam I leave her from now on will be due to lack of use, rather than not being aware of it. 
Word verification stops spammers from leaving comments.
Adding a clustrmap is not essential but it encourages participation and allows opportunities for geographical disucssions and learning. 

Feel free to check out Room5ians Rule which is still in use with a variety of schools.

Kia kaha and go the All Blacks!

Chilis - I grew these habanero chjilis this summer - a bumper crop ! They are super hot and really great to grow. They are like blogs and dogs - there is nothing better once you get used to them, understand them and know how to handle them properly.  If used carelessly and without proper knowledge they can hurt you, but that does not mean they are dangerous!

[I have no idea why the image rotated without my permission - bah humbug!]

Good luck Mr Cooper - you'll need it ;-)

Enjoy your blogging, Room3

Thanks for having me as a reliever for a whole week, Room3. You are a lovely class and I enjoyed working with you.
I also really enjoyed getting to know the staff of St Andrews and the student teachers who showed up.
Perhaps some of our blogging may rub off on a few of them too.

Your task is to:
1. make a blog
2. make settings including email notification and word verification
3. make a post about something you enjoy, including a picture.
4. leave someone else a comment on one of their posts
5. follow your classmate's blogs
6. get the code for a clustrmap and embed it in your 'layout'
7. keep in touch with me via my blog :-)

Our Arsenal Supporter loves to Blog

By being given an opportunity to blog to a worldwide audience, our great friend, who has now left us for the Western Penal Colonies, enjoyed writing online to have his opinions and passions 'heard'.

Bloggers Rule the World

MysteryMan tells us why he loves blogging and how it helps him develop his writing skills.

Packing for Survival on the "Return to Matainui!"

We are returning to Matainui to camp for two weeks. We shall travel by sea plane and you may take what you are wearing and a backpack with ten other items in it. Your lunch for the first day will not count as an item. Think about your list and pack for any potential survival situations. You may cooperatively pack to make sure you get more items amongst your group.
Weather will be similar to what we are experiencing in Hamilton at present, but possibly colder and wetter.
Island inhabitants, flora and fauna will be only as you would have found 1500 years ago, before the arrival of humans. Everything you say you want to do on the island will have to be something you can actually do with the equipment you have.
No other adults will be with us. We will travel from Kawhia Harbour in a plane like the one pictured above.
All skills and knowledge you wish make use of on the island will must be posted on your own "Return To Matainui" blog. Show images and descriptions of equipment, etc.
Daily diary entries of your adventures and experiences need to be posted, free of errors.
Good luck!

Links to relevant sites:

Survival items

Fire starters

To Ten Survival Tools

Survival kit ideas

Learning for noob teacher Bloggers :-)

Welcome to Blogging, teachers.

Create a Google account. Gmail is also useful, but not required for setting up your blog.

Create a blog using services like Blogger or Edublogs.

Why let our Students blog? Clever Kiwi teacher Rachel Boyd tells us why using Youtube :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKoEZJseVXU

Learn from legendary ICT guru SuzieVepser

Blogger support coordinator tells us how to set up a blog. Its very simple :-)

Cybersafety Blogging Guidelines for schools from Netsafe

Join Twitter to create your own Personalised Learning Network [PLN].



Have fun playing a we will be here to support you. You may even get comments from students in
my class or other teachers who keep an eye on this blog.

Youtube links from Slideshow:
How to use...
Twitter
Flickr
Diigo

Bulgaria ?

Welcome to Miss Parpulova from Bulgaria. She has come to us via London, England, but shared with us some Bulgarian language learning and some interesting facts about her culture.

Can anyone recall some of the information she shared with us? How about the last name differences?

Some more background info:

"Five centuries of struggle against Ottoman rule taught Bulgarians to value life and freedom above all else. Nevertheless, they have succeeded in keeping their natural tolerance of those who are different; even in the very centre of Sofia you can see a church, a mosque, and a synagogue right next to each other. The entire Bulgarian culture is governed by these principles of freedom and tolerance."

Next year Bulgaria will host a round of the W.R.C.. Who is into that?

If rallying is not your thing, is there a motorsport you do enjoy?

Remember, the coloured words are links to further information.

For example, if you don't know about the Ottoman Empire, you can click on the link to find out more.

Happy learning and remember to comment here to start discussions about what you have learnt.

World Blogging Challenge

Hi squiddlers - sign up here to join in on the Blogging Challenge. It's a way to increase your profile, make new friends and learn how to be a better blogger along the way.

http://wyatt67.edublogs.org/2009/08/22/its-about-to-start-the-student-blogging-challenge/

If you can't wait, try this competition also:

http://theedublogger.edublogs.org/2009/08/11/share-your-tips-and-win-big/

To blog or not to blog

Should Room 18 students be allowed to blog? Should Room 19 be able to use it's fabulous wiki? Is it of benefit to you?
The Ministry of Education believe we are doing a good job but also think maybe we shouldn't be allowed because we are too young.
What do you think?
Check out who is first on their TKI website blogroll...

http://softwareforlearning.tki.org.nz/Managing-Software/Social-Software

Science Fair advice

Check out the Moturoa class blog post on science fair.

Look back through the posts to find...

Your task, Woodmonstas, is to find the post with the discussion about our assignment to do with ourselves as learners. We must hit the ground running with it when we return from camp. Sadly this term is disrupted heavily with conferences, camps, testing and getting to know one another [- okay, that last one is very important and enjoyable].
Mostly, the research is into how we learn, starting with the habits of mind work we did, then moving onto the nervous sytem and the brain investigation. Soon we need to investigate our personal learning styles through the various systems that are available to help us understand our learning styles. We are all different and "one size doesn't fit all". Can you explain what I mean by that?

For now, in your own blogs, I would like you to create a post about an artist you like. Show some examples of their work that you enjoy.
Do you know how to upload pictures to your blog? I have demonstrated in class and will again. Post links to websites that you think are valuable for anyone wanting to learn about them and any url's of places you have found information. And make a personal statement about why you enjoy their work.
I will post an example above this post.

Okay?
[This is why it is important to access the blog and to try to do what I ask - it is part of your class work. I am not just trying to amuse myself whilst sitting at home. Some of you are doing a GREAT JOB! In fact, several of you even seem to have an international following already. Well done!]

Key Competencies

When blogging do we use all the key competencies?

Capabilities for living and lifelong learning

The New Zealand Curriculum identifies five key competencies:

• thinking
• using language, symbols, and texts
• managing self
• relating to others
• participating and contributing.

Why is blogging valuable ?

Some people wonder if blogging is little more than a meaningless medium through which children might simply bully each other or waste time that they could be using more productively.
Thankfully, my students have been very respectful, mature and diligent in using the blog as a way to communicate, inform, connect, research, share products and collaborate in class discussions beyond the school day.
If there are any students or educators out there who could support my use of public blogging as a means to enrich learning please comment here.
:-)

Blog of the Week competition

Each week we will award someone the blogger of the week award.
So far today I think two or three people are in the running.
The criteria can be agreed upon in class - this is called co-construction - and if we're really clever, we could use secret official government documents to design a rubric against which to assess our fantastic blogging.
General rules would be that you should:
1. Follow the rules of cybersafety
2. Be interesting and creative
3. Use appropriate "school" language
4. Include your own topics of interest, responses to classroom discussion or tasks, and responses to posts on the Woodmonstas blog.
5. Interact with each other and respond constructively to each other's blogs/posts/comments

I have no doubt you guys can do a much more professional and technically proficient job than me. You just have to prove it.
Quality learning! Quality people!