Postcard from the East Coast

 

Today we had our final session on Media and Creating it with a purpose. My purpose is to convince you to visit the East Coast or more specifically Hokitika. I use a photo I have taken and enhanced it. Then on the back told about all the reason I love it down there. It certainly takes a special type of person to survive down there when you can be cut off easily.

Altering Media

 Our second session on Media we had Phil join us and talk about how Media tries to influence us. One example of this is before meal times and later at night we see adverts trying to convince us we are hungry by showing us food. We may have already had dinner but the images remind us of some of our favourite food and make us hungry again. The companies are hoping we will go out and buy their food.

We talked about Covid and how the signs are trying to inform us of the risk and symptoms we could end up with trying to influence/persuade us to get double jabbed. 

We then had to change a piece of writing from Jack and Beanstalk. We had the choice of whether we were going to write to inform, persuade or entertain. And we only had 100 words.

Jack cried himself to sleep he didn't like being in trouble with his mum. But she was right as always they needed the money and beans weren't going to help them save the house or get food to eat.

When he woke up in the morning (or at least he thought is was) it was still dark in his room, he tried to look out his window but the view was blocked. He tried to dress but he couldn't get his head through the right hole. Finally outside he saw it the beanstalk. He scurried up the giant plant never to be heard of again.

Well that's the end of my 100 words however...

His mother worried about him day and night. Each morning she would go out into the fields to search for him. After months of searching she found one gold coin. She eventually fixed up the house, but she would cry herself to sleep wishing for her son be healthy and to return.

Jack after scurrying up the beanstalk had managed to sneak into a giant house. The lady of the house found him and feed him a pot of chicken. She told Jack stories of how lonely she was and how she wanted her very own son, but had not been able to have one. She locked  him up in his very own beautiful house (the size of a giant dolls house). She would bring him out to cuddle him and feed him and occasionally they would go out for walks but she never let him go. He felt like a puppy on a lead. 

As the days past, she took him into her vault filled with gold and silver. Jack thought if only mum could have a little of this treasure she would be happy. He often thought about his mum and even though she had been mad she had loved him. Jack tucked a coin into his clothes knowing the lady would take him for a walk, if he could reach the beanstalk maybe he could drop the coin.

Months went by it seemed like years. he had managed to drop a few coins down the bean stalk. But he missed his mum, he thought if only I could see her one more time. 

What Media have you been Viewing?

Our Cybersmart Theme for Term 4 is Smart Media. We complete a form about what Media we have been using over the last few weeks. When we looked at the resulted we discussed the bias that goes with it because today was the 'first day back at school' even if through Auckland lockdown. Hence, during the holiday period we had more time to do what we wanted and when we wanted (parents allowing of course).

Then we realised we didn't read the initial instruction which mentioned 168 hours in a week, so we were to consider how many hours a week we viewed the media form. Yeah, most of the students did media in one day.

There was an even balance of students across the youtube usage. But then I suppose it depends if people are looking for something particular.

The students guessed it right Mrs Mundy loves to read over the holidays and could easily spend 10 hours reading, and some day did. It would have been great to see 0% for the less than an hour. But overall, most people were doing some kind of reading.

This did not surprise the teacher as it appeared limited by the name Netflix, but if people considered Disney+ or Sky or another pay per view it could have been different. Having said that, it is also a cost factor so many people may not be able to afford pay per view and rather spend money on food and family. 

That could be why the next one TV was from 1 to 5 hours roughly a day.

And of course then there is the Gaming you either did or you didn't. I didn't even think about games on my phone, so I might of told a fib here.

It will be interesting to reflect back on this once we have settled back into school in the classroom and see how that effects the results. And of course making sure we are all on the same page about the viewing and what each title includes.

Robotics With SDA

Throughout lockdown, I have continued to teach Robotics, Coding to a Technology Class that comes into Wesley Intermediate. 

Last week we started creating a game similar to the Gameboy layout. Students how to pick a back ground, create a sprite that appeared to move left, right, forward and back.

Here is what a student achieved well done Ryan!

The challenge was then set to see if students could add obstacles for their sprite to jump over, crash into and then restart. Here is an example I created using a maze.

Previously we had used the pen extension in Scratch to draw shapes and Ethan took that to another dimension.

Another way to look at code is through hour of code and making flappy bird fly. I had fun doing this and can see applications to scratch and other methods of coding.

Animation Creations

After looking at Myths and Legends we think we are ready to start our Animation for Ako Hiko Film Festival, all for the sake of learning. There are many ways to create animation. Tomorrow's post will show one using scratch (not quite the PG, we require for Film Festival).

Today we are looking at using slides again. This time we have some tips for you.

So we don't give away all our secrets before the Film Festival, I have taken a copy of the slide with the feature on to only show they tip.

1. You can show passing of time by darkening the back ground, you could also have the sun moving across the sky during the day.

2. You can show movement by creating an object in one slide, duplicate the slide and then move the object, repeat. You could use the initial slide to show rocking back and forward, or duplicate second slide and move object along a little further to show travelling.

3. You repeat a slide with talking on so the audience has a chance to read what is being said, this one also incorporates a moving boat.

Who can write the best Comments Room 8 or 9?

 This morning we joined Room 8 it was neat to see how they are learning different reo Maori phrases and mixing in sign language too. Although I think we might need to check the positioning of the hands so we can all see them. 

Mr Margetts joined us and talked about Quality Blog Comments.

We all copied the slides and looked at what makes a quality comment. I am looking forward to seeing more comments on posts. Across the school on class and student blogs, especially before we start Tuhi mai, Tuhi atu. (Write to me, write to you.)

We even have a competition going so we can see who is doing quality comments, and they have to fill in this form. Click on image below, this link is also on our class site! 

Good Luck!!!! May the best teacher, I mean student win!

Battle of the Bloggers

The other morning we challenged those of us who were online to check out each others blogs. Gladys and I went together and here are the results. I found it tricky as I had created my own class blog and not followed the template things were in different places and they were harder to find. 

I was glad to see Gladys like to make sure all here posts fitted in the blogging area and so were neat and tidy looking. I realised, I might need to change it up a bit and add more videos or audio clips, even the odd scratch or two. 

Click here to view details

Blog Challenges

The Principal's Challenge

The Principal ran a blogging challenge last week and is encouraging all students to get on board as it is evidenced that students who blog about their learning 4 times a week retain their learning and maintain their learning progress. Yeah no summer slide or as it is now Covid slide.

Well done Gammado and Levi for rising to the Principal Challenge last week and completing so many blog posts. Check out their blogs.

Mrs Mundy's Challenge

So I have challenged my class to 3 blogging challenges (3 more chances to win)

1. Get at least 4 more post up this week (on different aspects of learning)

2. Comment on 5 student blogs or the class blog, and

3. Complete the Buddy Blog Challenge

Each one comes with it's own rewards - Most probably chocolate, but I might create a spinner and add some other rewards virtual and real.

We discussed last week what make a great post and next week may look at how to make them even better. One way to do this is to check out a buddy's blog using the Blog Battle.  

Our focus is to build on that and build positive relationships by commenting on others blogs. Using the standard format set out by Manaiakalani and the Outreach schools.

Quality Posting our Distance Learning

Being new in a class there is so many changes needed to be made and the Class Blog was one. Even though it didn't really happen until August 2021 Lockdown, when I had a bit of time. 

So we needed a fun challenge to find our way around the blog and to investigate the posts on the class blog. The idea was to also get students to post comments before we join Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu.

   

After a reset with the Class Blog and new links to all the Student Blogs, I wondered if they knew what a quality blog looked like. So after a discussion and running through what it should look like (even though we have sentence starters on our site and in class). Just so we are all on the same page.

So keep watching to see who is trying to share more learning in an exciting way.