Australian Primary School Maths Activities, FREE Maths Games, Lessons, Videos, Worksheets, Learn Maths Online.

Australian Primary School Maths Activities, FREE Maths Games, Lessons, Videos, Worksheets, Learn Maths Online.

Slowly does it!

Stage 3 accessed the wireless network today - yipee! A huge thank you to Bernard, our brilliant technical guru, for patiently re-setting each netbook so we could access the wireless network. The first stop was the Smartkiddies Mathematics site - http://www.smartkiddies.com.au/. This is a great site where teachers can select a variety of tasks from all strands of the mathematics syllabus and tailor those activities to meet the needs of each student individually. The second stop was to check out the SBS Gold site (http://www.sbs.com.au/gold/) where the students researched and, then selected, a bushranger from the time of the gold rushes in Australia. Working with a partner, one student has taken on the part of the bushranger while their partner has the task of representing them in our 'Stage 3 Court of Law'. Were these men villains or, were they heroes? All will be decided next week when court is in session and Stage 3 pass judgement! Cases will be documented using Google Documents. All in all, a big day in Stage 3. Cyberspace watch out..... we're on our way!

Getting there

Well, Stage 3 are slowly but surely navigating their way through our class wiki and set of class blogs (check out kidblog.org for a great tool that allows you to set up blogs for your class). 11 out of 30 class members have signed in and left comments - the downside to that has been that they started using the wiki like a social network site such as facebook but a quickly posted message from Yours Truly has momentarily stopped that. A couple of them liked the voki I posted and decided to sign up and create their own - great initiative, however, they posted their respective vokis within the opening cover page of the wiki! To get around that I've added a 'Fun Stuff' page so they can post that type of application - I'm a bit of a control freak about layouts (my issue not the theirs). The big test will be to see how many use their blogs to respond to the Bloom's Taxonomy and Multiple Intelligences tasks set for homework between now and the end of the term. It's onwards and upwards - even if we can't do this type of thing in class.

Rising above frustration

Words cannot adequately describe how enthusiastic I was to be planning for the invasion of all things Web 2.0 into the daily life of Stage 3 this year. We have 16 fabulous netbooks to trial but NO INTERNET ACCESS - yes, I know I'm yelling..... I'm frustrated. With one PC connected to the good old cabled network I've decided to forge ahead even if it's a little tokenistic. Better tokenism than nothing at all. The unit of work planned to integrate Web 2.0 is moving forward - we've visited the Bathurst gold fields, panned for gold (I returned with my retirement fund being excatly the same balance as when I left) and have researched significant people of the time. Tomorrow, using my trusty cabled PC and wireless tablet, I'll endeavour to introduce our Stage 3 Integrated Learning wiki to the class. They've all been invited to join the wiki and their homework will be to accept their invitation. After that, I'll show them how to set up a blog and we'll link their blogs to the wiki. Who says you need more than one PC????? Not me - it's onwards and upwards! Web 2.0..... Stage 3 are on their way!

Having a play with Voki

I've just had a play with making a Voki having been inspired by one of my colleagues - have a go - it's very straight forward!

Get a Voki now!

What's the answer please or, is it a rhetorical question?

There's no doubting it - I love Web 2.0 and the potential it holds for learning....... small glitch however......... what about related cyber-safety issues? A colleague just blogged about coming across a blog that was incredibly distasteful. She had found herself there simply by clicking onto the words 'next blog' at the top of her own blog. She was shocked at what she saw and horrified at the possibility that this situation could so easily have occured within a classroom environment.

Of course, students are going to navigate around whatever tools/ sites we open up to them for exploring but, how do we (in fact, can we) give guarantees to parents and carers that their children won't be exposed to incredibly unsavoury content? "Oops, little Johnny Smith clicked onto that x rated content by mistake" just isn't going to wash (and, nor should it).

Of course, we need to teach students about cyber-safety issues - in my colleague's case, she is aware that she could have then clicked the 'report abuse' button. Equally, a student could be taught to do the same - but what about the possible harm viewing such images may cause? In this case they were disturbing enough for my colleague, an adult - but, what about a child? Once on screen, 'the damage is done' so to speak.

So I ask you all...... what's the answer please or, is it a rhetorical question?

Glogster EDU

I was just reading a colleague's blog regarding his experience of exploring Glogster EDU and thought I'd post a slide show (see below) that outlines what it's all about. It's a fabulous tool for fostering higher order thinking skills as outlined in Andrew Churches' article Blooms Taxonomy Blooms Digitally. Go on ....... give it a go ........ it's loads of fun!