Week Four Dust Echoes story retell and M&Ms maths activity

DUST ECHOES
http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/

Explore: click on 'Enter Here' button. Note: be sensitive about the Dreamtime stories ie check content beforehand. Children can select a story and interpret it. The study guides interpret the story and are useful for teachers to use beforehand. The study guides also suggest classroom activities. Note - be creative when it suggests use of worksheets - are always other more hands-on alternatives using the same ideas.


Today, we are to choose one of the stories from Dust Echoes and do a retell in Inspiration (capture an image while movie is playing). Use the study guide to assist in telling the story.

In the classroom, different children could work on different aspects of a task like this - for example, some could collect the photos whilst some could construct the text. There are many link-in activities eg make own animation, construct spears, links to Art, History, Civics etc. Add value!! get people from the community into the community!









Here is my example of a retell of The Moon Man using Inspiration. I think the ABC website Dust Echoes is quite sophistocated and packed with resources and that children would be very engaged with the stories it contains. I'd love to use this in the classroom even with younger grades.






M&Ms ACTIVITIES




The next activity we did was the M&Ms candy colour chart. The templates will be available on LMS. We have to be careful in the classroom as we may not be able to use sweets (peanut allergies etc - as a parent I don't let my children have artificial colours). We will need to check the school's food policy. Alternative could be to use envelopes of different coloured stars. Some kids could do it on the whiteboard, some on the computers, some on the floor sticking pieces of paper with glue onto a large sheet of card ... don't open packages right away but have a discussion about the packet and what info is on it, get them to predict. Oopen package and get them to sort the sweets/object. Can place objects on the chart or colour in circles etc. See the M&M website...



In MS Excel can create pie chart, bar graph etc. Useful for kids to play around with when introducing the concepts.




Keep it simple for them at first. Go to M&M's Australian website, can screenshot for characters to decorate graph ... do percentages of colours of own pack, class totals, chance and data activities ... check out nutritional information ... discsuss advertising ... history of company ...Children can also do surveys using Survey Monkey. They can create books for display.

Week Three Activities and online games

Today in the workshop we looked at doing activities with cardboard/paper and then designing online games. Greg spoke to us about the need to train children in the design process - Investigate/Design, Produce, Analyse/Evaluate. (Also note problem to be solved, and resources required). Can be messy because is rough draft at first. When all designs have been completed, children can write up their final design brief and draw a picture/take a photo of their creation. The example brief that Greg gave us was to give us a picture of a frog, some cardboard to stick it to, and a rubber band, and then design a process to make it jump.

The important thing is to document the process using the Design Brief, and to have a go. Get the children using the language of design - "template" etc. If one group of children couldn't get their design to work - talk it through with them/the class - why it didn't work. In our workshop we went though all the different products and there were about 5 main ways people had designed their jumping frogs. These sorts of activities use higher order thinking processes - which, of course, should be encouraged at all times.

Frog about to jump across the desk

It is a good idea to do one of these activities in class each week.

Frog at rest on desk. Note rubber band.

Next we moved to Online Games - http://www.quia.com/. This website allows a 30 day free trial if you register with an email address.

Online quizzes and activities can be very useful to reinforce learning in the classroom. For example, quizzes and activities based on the book the class is reading, or country class is studying, etc. Follow these links for:

• my quiz on New Zealand: http://www.quia.com/quiz/2511795.html.



• my Battleship quiz on Melbourne: http://www.quia.com/ba/409888.html



• my Hangman activity on Farm Animals: http://www.quia.com/hm/667569.html



• my Cloze activity on You, Your and You're : http://www.quia.com/cz/347254.html

These online games ideas are all great for bringing creativity into the classroom and for engaging children. I hope to use them on a regular basis.

Week Two Digital Portfolios

This workshop is to tell us all about ePortfolios, and using MS Publisher as the software tool for developing an ePortfolio. I'm already thinking I might use a different program for my ePortfolio as I do not have MS Publisher at home. Maybe MS Powerpoint? Adobe InDesign? Hmmm.


My ePortfolio will be able to be used for getting jobs when I am a qualified teacher. The aim is to continue to use my ePortfolio over time as a 'live' document. It will be evidence of my developing skills and philosophy of education (including my reflections and discussion entries), my various awards, achievements, and qualifications, my referees and teaching references (get one from teaching practicums... fieldwork... ) and my career experience (eg resume) as relevant for teaching.


Remember not to just fill it up with "stuff" but make it pertinent as to how I want to be perceived as a teacher, and to help schools want to employ me! That is - what I think is important. Select, make judgments! There will be things that are relevant from past industry and univeristy experience but there is no need to include everything.


Think - what will I have as my eportfolio menu?


Hints for applying for jobs:

• in online application, stick to the selection criteria! (just like the public service...)
• if shortlisted - thank them for shortlisting - exciting to be in last few candidates (think teamwork! enthusiasm!)
• be early
• write down pertinent points you want to talk about in interview so you don't forget (Piaget ... Vygotsky ...)
• always have a question ready for when they ask if you have one eg if they have missed something about you that you think is valuable, or some further information about your school, or about the mentor system (which is a requirement for VIT), or what year level might be teaching if advertised P-6
• tell schools where you have been shortlisted if you have taken another school
• leave behind copy of ePortfolio eg on DVD if they have not asked to see it

Also in today's workshop we were introduced to MS Publisher and had to use a brochure template to describe a holiday we would like to take - screen shot below:

I found MS Publisher easier to use than I thought it would be (the last time I used it was a long long time ago). Problem is, I don't have it at home and don't want to pay for it. Adobe InDesign (which I do have) is much more "techie" for graphic designers although it too has templates to use that would be easier than starting from scratch.

My homework this week will be investigating whether to use Powerpoint or InDesign for my ePortfolio, then getting it started.