Week 5 Zip Tales

Zip Tales was my favourite website for the day. www.ziptales.com

This is a really fun interactive website that has numerous activities for children to participate in. There are things such as

- Puppet Plays

- Story Time

- Story Machine

- Make and do

- Puzzle Palace

and many more.

This would be a great website to incorporate into the classroom as it has so many activities and ideas. This would also be usefull to use during buddy sessions. There is something for all school aged children on this website. It was my favourite becasue as soon as you go into it, it looks fun and engaging and i think kids would love it!

Week 5 Storygames.com

We looked at www.storygames.com website next.

This was a website that was all about reading and different techniques to reading. We focussed on the Rebus model of story writing, which essentially has pictures where words are meant to be.

This allows for students that aren't so great at reading a different tool to assist them. It may encourage them to enjoy reading more as it decreases the challenge for them.

I think this would be a great idea to use to build childrens confidence and eventually you can challenge the student more and hopefully one day they can read without pictures.

Week 5 Ode To A Spell Checker

This was a really fun activity that we all participated in. We had to go into word, turn of the computer monitor and type whatever Grag told us to.

This is what i typed.

Luckily for me i didn't actually make any spelling mistakes!

This was a really great spelling and typing activity. I enables people to pratice their typing, by listening to what someone else is telling them to type. It also is great for spelling. These days we all rely heavily on spell checker. Which is fine but you dont always have that so it is still crucial to learn how to spell. This would be a great activity to do with sudents if resources allowed it as they would find it fun and are learning at the same time.

Week 5 Reasonably Clever

This website www.reasonablyclever.com incorporated the use of lego into ICT. You could create different characters using lego peices on the internet.

Greg spoke about how great this website would be for kids to create different characters for stories, or using this to link to all types of subjects such as science maths or english. He mentioned that even though this is a great website to use, real hands on lego is still really beneficial for students to create things.

Seeing a website like this makes me realise there are so many different types of tools out there in internet land that you could incorporate into everyday life in the classroom. Realistically there are no limits and its up to a teachers imagination of where to take students.

Week 5 Build Your Wild Self

Build Your Wild Self was the next website that we looked at during the tutorial. This website is associated with the New York Zoo and equarium.

The purpose of this website is for children to 'build' themselves and then add a crazy animal twist to the picture. It could be a lot of fun for children as it enables then to create all different people or characters. Students couls use this in school for stories or if they had to create their own species.

Week 5 Zimmer Twins

The next website we looked at was call Zimmer Twins. This is an ABC program that enables you to create animation movies. the website is www.abc.net.au/zimmertwins

This is a really great website that all school age students could use. The program is simple to use to create animation movies. This type of program would be so great to use in the classroom. Students could create stories and present imformation using it. Using this website for lessons would ensure there was engagement within the classroom as the children in society now are very ICT focussed and this would ensure for effective learning.

This is a website that i would highly recommend using within classrooms.

Also on the abc website there is a section call Rolle Mache. The wesite is www.abc.net.au/rollercoaster/rollermache

This is a fantastic website that helps to ispire kids to create stories and animation. The site takes you through different stages of creating a story, from the ideas to characters and plot. It then teaches you how to create animation. It has short little videos that you can watch as well as information to read.

It is such a great tool for children wether in school or out. It helps then put into actions their ideas and plans.

The ABC for kids website is something that really should be utilised as it has many great engaging activities to participate in.

Week 5 Dvolver Movie Maker

During the tutorial this week we firstly looked at the movie making website of Dvolver Movie Maker. This is a website that enables anyone to create all different types of animation movies. The web address is http://www.dfilm.com/live/mm.html

I created a short clip of 'Snowgirl Adventures". It was really easy to follow and use. The only thing that i was unsure about was how to make conversations between characters last for longer. But i need to go and explore the website more thouroughly to find this out. We we pushed for time during the workshop.

Greg stated that this website would be innapropriate for primary school students to use as some of the pictures were not appropriate. This website would be effective for the teacher to create a moanimation movie and then show the students.

I thought the website was really good, but i am not sure if i would use it myself as i feel it would take a bit of time to figure things out in more detail. It is a great tool though to keep in mind for future use!

Week 2 ePortfolio

During this workshop we started to create our own personal ePortfolios. We did this in MS Publisher as a website and changed it to become a portfolio.
Information that will be included in the ePortfolio will be:

• About Me
• Educational Philosophy
• Resume
• Practicum Reports
• Achievements
• Referees
• Photograghs

Because we ran out of time in the workshop I didn't manage to get too much of it started. This e Portfolio once finished will be able to be used when applying for jobs in the interview process. It also may be sent with the job application to give the school a clearer understanding of the applicant.

Week 2 Applying for Graduate Teaching jobs

During the week 2 workshop Greg spoke about different aspects of applying for graduate teaching positions.
Firslty he focussed on writing a good application. He suggested that before you apply you should do your homework about the school. Ask to have a tour, get copies of relevant material that may be useful and try to do volunteer work with the school to help get your foot in the door.
When writing your actual application he mentioned that it is very important to address any specific school based selection criteria and that it would be better to do 2 or 3 applications really well rather than 10 with only the school name changed.
Greg spoke about how you might make your application interesting to stand out from others. Ensuring there is plenty of white space and using a clear font is a good way, also to try to motivate the reader within reading the first page is important.
Applicants should submit one hard copy as well as electronic copy when applying.
Including something about yourself is important as it gives the reader a feel of what type of person you are and if you might fit with that school. Explain how you might be an asset to the school, how you are prepared to work and learn and especially that you are willing to work as a part of a team.
Greg mentioned that it is really important to carefully choose your referees, and to choose people that have seen you in a teaching style role and can vouch for your work ethic.
Next Greg talked about the interview process. He stated that it is important to get off to a good start and so therefore you should shake each of the panelists hands. When answering questions talk to everyone not just the one asking the question. Always answer questions honeslty and if you do not know the answer state where you could go to find that information. In the interview is where a portfolio might be useful as you have evidence to back up what you are saying.
This information that Greg spoke about will be very useful when it is time to prepare applications and apply for jobs.

Reference: www.webct.latrobe.edu.au/webct
Technology accross the Curriculum
Week 2
Job application handout

Week 4 M & M's Candy Colour Chart

The second part of the workshop for this week involved investogating how you can use a MS Excell spreadsheet in a fun and engaging way.

The activity we participated in was M&M's candy coloured chart.

The activity involves puttin people into pairs and each having a packet of M&M's. you have to go through the M&M's in your packet and sort them into their colours.

Next we were to design a spreadsheet that was creative as we liked and then add in the data collected. For exmaple however many red, blue, green M&M's.

We then created a graph, which ever one we wanted and also added pictures and a heading.

This activity was fun and engaging and students would really like it becasue they are working with brightly coloured lollies. The only downfall may be that most of the lollies get eaten before the task is complete!

This activity envolves the students participating in literacy, numeracy, ICT and social skills.

The M&M's website also has aditional ideas and activites that teachers may be able to use.

www.m-ms.com.au

Week 4 Dust Echoes- Ancient Stories, New Voices

In today's workshop we looked at the website Dust Echoes- Ancient Stories, New Voices. www.abc.net.au/dustechoes

This website focussed on Aboriginal stories from the past. They have been re-created digitally and spoken by Aboriginal people. There are twelve animated dreamtime stories from Central Arnhem Land. Each story tells about stories of love, loyalty, duty to country and aboriginal custom and laws.

Each of the twelve stories come with study guides for the teacher. It has information about the story, the background of the story, photos, suggested classroom activities and worksheets. The website also includes a helpful glossary for both students and teacher's to use to clarify their understanding.

If using this website a ffew things need to be taken into consideration. The age of the students, it may not be suitable for juniour school as it has some confronting issues, also teacher's need to be aware of which videos the students are watching and ensure they are appropriate.

This website would be really great to use in the class to discover more about the Aboriginals customs and way of life.

For the workshop we were expected to use Inspration to create a concept map that retells one of the stories. You were to include the important aspects of the story including images and speech.

Week 3 Quia- Jumbled Words

Jumbled words was the next activity I mad on the Quia website. The website gives you options of what you would like to create and you just have to think of the information to put into it.

This program is really easy to follow and use and it only takes a few minutes to create something new. It will be very useful in the classroom eithor by myself as a teacher or the students.

Quia website

www.quia.com/web

Week 3 Quia- Quiz

After participating in the froggy jump task we then moved onto looking at the Quia website.

This website allows anybody to create their own educational games, quizzes, class web pages, surveys and many more activites. It also allows you to use other activities and quizzes that have been created by other teacher's and student' around the world.

The first one we had to make in the workshop was a quiz. You could choose whatever topic you wanted. I made one about Australia. The program was easy to use and fun for the person making the quiz. Student's would really enjoy participating in creating quizzes or activites and it can assist in their learing as well.

Week 3 Frog Jump

During the workshop in week 3 we started off by looking at design briefs and how they can be used as an engaging classroom activity. A design brief includes

• problem to be solved
• resources
• investigation and designing
• produce
• analyse and evaluate

The task we had at the start of the worskshop was to design a frog that jumps using:

• cardboard card
• picture of a frog
• rubber band
• sticky tape
• glue- stick
• scissors

In pairs we had to think about how we were going to achieve this and what process we were going to use. As we came up with ideas we had to complete the design brief (above) to help us achieve our goal.

As a pair we eventually came up with folding the edges of the cardboard and wrapping the rubber band around it in a figure of eight (as above). This worked as a sling shot and made the frog jump.

Once everyone was done we shared our ideas with the rest of the class. It was astonishing the amount of variences there were between the class and how they made the frog jump.

This activity was a really effective way to get the class engaged in the lesson. It would deffinatly be useful to use within a classroom as it allows for everyone's creative thinking and they all must communicate how they are going to achieve the task by using the design brief.

Week 2 Microsoft Publisher

Microsoft Publisher

This is a program used to create professional quality publications and marketing materials.

It involves a variety of different publication types including:
- Brochures
- Newsletters
- Postcards
- Greeting cards
- Email newsletters
- Websites

Publisher enbales users to create these publications with ease. It has built in templates ready to use, with font and colour themes applied. It is simple to insert graphics and information needed and users can easliy change any features or layouts without difficulty.

This program is easy to use and very engaging. Students would have no difficulty creating peices of work, advertising of publishing on this program. It has numerous different options for use so is therefore not restrictive. This is a good way for students to be involved in ICT whilst creating something unique and special. This program would be benficial in classrooms, probably more appropriate for upper primary school as may be a litle difficult for the lower levels.
Microsoft Publisher webstie is www.office.microsoft.com

This program can also be used to create ePortfolios. An ePortfolio is a portfolio that is created to reflect students work and learning. It provides examples of students work and learing that has taken place throughout their school career. Portfolios allow students to reflect on their work, identifying areas of strength and weakeness.

Week 1 Inspiration 8.0 IE

Inspiration 8.0 IE

Inspiration is a program that encourages students to brainstorm ideas, structure thoughts and visually communicate consepts that strengthen understanding by the use of diagrams or maps.

Students using this program are able to create mind maps, concept maps, diagrams and outlines to convey their knowledge and information.

Students can use the integrated Outline View to take notes, organise information, and structure writing plans, papers and reports. This enables them to focus on main and supporting ideas and to clarify their thinking.

Inspirations Presentation Manager enables tranformation of diagrams, mind maps and outlines into sophisticated presentations. It communicates ideas claerly and demonstrates students understanding and knowledge.

This program was easy to use and a great alternative to the traditional pen and paper method. Students would enjoy using this program as it is engaging, challenging and fun. This program should be used in all classrooms.

For more information the inspration website is www.inspiration.com/inspiration