Farewell Grade 3

Hi Grade 4.

Yes all of you are now in Grade 4! I really loved teaching all of you. Thank you so much for your awesome enthusiasm. I now need your help. I am thinking now about the set up for anak-online. What did you like learning about the most in our e-Learning this past year? Can you make a post to your blog? Is there anything you would like to learn more about in the anak-online tutorial starting the beginning of August? Please make a post to let me know.

GGM Comic Life

GGM
1. What is GGM? Where did we get the idea? (Juhee)
2. Logo (Gian)
3. Interviews (Josceline)
4. Signing the Contract! (Josephine)
5. Reports from the departments
· Directors (Kathleen and Aditya)
· Finance (Caca)
· Design (Vanessa)
· Manufacturing (GP)
· Marketing (Graciela)
· Sales (Arvid)
6. Rawa Bening + Sukabumi (Joshua) (Hesky)
7. Making the jewelry (Natasha)
8. Boys choices (Rinaka)
9. Company Meetings (Gaby)
10. 5 Market Days (Matthew) (Kim)
11. Our final result – Mac Mini (Kalista)
I have set up a better wiki and you can access it here.
GGM COMIC WIKI
You type in the password that I told you today and then your name and email address. Inside the wiki you can look for your page and type in your comic plans. It's very easy.

A Great New Web Site!

This site has a lot of great stuff. Thank you Caca.

The Beethoven Link for Recorder Practice.

Hi Grade 3 Musicians!
Here is the sound link for Beethoven's Ninth Symphony that you are learning to play on your recorder. We used this sound file as background music in class yesterday. Please practice with it over the weekend. We will make a recording with your recorder on Monday. We will also record a track using your handmade instruments. I will mix this all together using Garage Band (if I can figure out how to use the program!) so that we can create a new version ourselves.

My Online Flipbook due 8th June

Hi Grade 3 Digital Natives! I would like everyone to make an online flipbook. You can make your own by going to this site. http://www.benettonplay.com/toys/flipbookdeluxe/player.php?id=17845
You will need to register and then make your own in the 'Flipbook Deluxe Creator'. After you save it you can click 'Embed on your site'. You can copy the html code and paste it to 'Edit html' on your post. You will need to make it a bit smaller by dragging the corner of the animation. ENJOY!

Flip Book due Monday 5th June

Your homework this week will be to make a mini flipbook.

You can visit this link for instructions http://www.nga.gov/kids/stella/activityflip.htm#sequence

You can also visit here http://home.att.net/~RTRUSCIO/FLIPBOOK.htm

So get some paper and make one. I want you to use at least 10 pages.

Check out this link to see some videos of some really amazing flipbooks. http://www.flippies.com/gallery.htm

Please make a post to your blog about your flipbook.

Well Done GGM!

Today we got our Mac Mini computer using GGM money. It is now working and we will use it to do a lot of wonderful things. I am very keen to explore the program called Garage Band. Tomorrow on Wednesday we will learn to play Beethoven's 9th Symphony on the recorder and I will record this using Garage Band. I will teach the students how to add sound loops to make complete musical masterpieces!

Welcome to Moodle!

Today in the school labcom, the Grade 3 tried out the learning platform Moodle. I have made a virtual classroom online for Grade 3. It was quite exciting for the kids to try this new tool. I have put 3 tasks on there. There are 2 kinds of forums and one assignment. Click here to go to our Anak-Online www.anak-online.com

Next week we will teach the parents of Grade 3 how to use this tool. All Grade 3 parents are invited to come to the labcom next Wednesday at 1.30pm for eLearning training. I hope to see you there!

A Slideshow About My Family

Thanks to Vanessa for this great link. You can get your own by clicking the link above. We will use this next week for our Moodle task.

My Masters EDU 5471 Update

Wow so much is going on at the moment. I have to participate in an online debate with the people in my class from all over the world. I am on the PRO team and the debate is about 'Computers in schools SHOULD be placed in classrooms and NOT in labs.'
My persepctive is that if the computers are stuck in labs the students can only access them once or twice a week. If they are in the class they can be used as tools whenever needed. I wish that I had 5 computers in my classroom. Oh what I could do if that were the case! I don't acually need a computer per child. I prefer to use them in small groups so that the students can work collaboratively. I have one computer, SIGH which I use all the time in my teaching.

I have been so busy setting up a learning platform for my wonderful Grade 3 students to try out. I am using Moodle which is open source and very good. USQ, my university plans to switch from WebCT to Moodle next year. I have hired a hosting site with 100MB which has cost me Rp275.000 for a year. It's not that great but I only want to trial this. I hope that I can get my school to become interested in Moodle for our PYP. The MYP is intent on using Google Apps which is totally free. I have my reservations about free because Blogger is free and doesn't work that welll. Also you get bombarded with ads in Google Apps that are not suitable for my students. As well as this one of the MYP students has already successfully hacked into the school's Google Apps. Moodle is much more secure. It is being used by so many educational institutions. I like it because my students will be safe inside protected by username and passwords that I will provide.

My problem this weekend is, although I've got an ICT person helping me out at home (he's not free either!), it is really hard to figure out how to integrate Moodle with ELGG. I want to use ELGG because it will allow my students to create ePortfolios which are multimedia.

Anyway, on Monday I will tell my students in Grade 3 all about this. I will arrange a time during the week to have a special lesson in the lab with their parents to introduce them to Moodle. I set up accounts for the parents as well. The parents will have a special forum which is only able to be viewed by them. They will also have access to see all of the kids' work too. My students will get a forum and be able to submit their work to me via Moodle. Now if I can just get the ELGG to work they can have blogs in there too.

I am really keen to make eLearning a part of my regular teaching program. I think that other teachers in my school would be interested in this too. I know that I already have ibu Shirley converted!

Beethoven's Ode to Joy

I have found this really cool page with Beethoven's music that we will learn to play on Monday. Don't forget to bring your recorders to school! Here is the link: http://www.musiccorner.co.uk/images/free/odetojoy.htm

You will need to download the player to see the music.

Then you can learn to play the music whilst it plays with sound on your computer.

How cool is that?

How well do you know your teacher?

Create your own Friend Test here

Hi Grade 3,

Try this test and I will see who knows me the best. 10 bonus English points if you get 100%. You can follow the link and make one for your blog too. Ask your parent's first as you have to put in your email address to become a member. Thank you to Melvin who found this quiz and used it on his exhibition blog.

Mrs. Jane

This Week in Grade 3

As usual we had a busy week in Grade 3. Just to be clear you need to have these things posted on your blog by Monday morning:

• Your musical instrument plan using pictures or mindmap. You must make the instrument that you made a commitment to make. If you read the rubric you will see that it doesn't have to look like the real version of the instrument but it must work. I will teach you how to play it. I myself, am making a guitar.


• Your Cup-A Phone writing from class with a diagram/picture that you have made yourself using any program that is on your computer. You must save it as a jpeg image and upload it to your blog. Can you explain what program you used to make the picture?


• Post 5 comments on your friends' blogs about their Cup-A Phone writing. Try to choose people who you usually don't comment on. Make sure that everyone gets a comment.

I will assess the mud research this weekend and put your results in the post comment.

Our Experiment about Sound

Today in class we made an experiment about sound. This is in connection with our first inquiry into 'What is sound?"

We wrote our inquiry results together as a class.
Here is our work:

The Cup-A-Phone
How does it work?

• The string has to be tight and straight.


• You need two people.


• Sound travels in waves.


• When the string is loose you cannot hear your friend talking.


• If someone grabs the string the sound will stop.


• You can hear your friend’s voice and also feel the vibration.

Our Instrument Rubric due Friday 11th May

Hi Grade 3,
Here is our rubric from class today. 3 = 3 points, 2= 2 points and 1 = 1 point. Your total is 9.

The Function
How can we use it?
3. It works. It is strong and able to make a big sound.
2. It works a bit but the sound is not loud.
1. It doesn’t work at all.
Form
What does it look like?
3. It has to be well made. Colourful, with decoration.
2. It has 2 colours only, has no decoration and has some untidy parts.
1. It looks very messy. Only one colour.
Understanding
How do we know?
3. We must be able to explain about how we made it. How we can use it. Explain how we got our ideas.
2. We know about the instrument but we cannot share our knowledge very well.
1. We cannot say how we made it. We don’t know how we got the ideas.

Please put your plan on your blog. You can make a mind map with any program or use kidspiration. You can download it for a free trial for 30 days from the Internet. Here is the link :
http://www.inspiration.com/freetrial/index.cfm

The Grade 3 Were Teachers Today

Today Grade 3 all became teachers! They taught the Grade 6 how to improve their blogs. You might think that Grade 6 should know more than Grade 3, but actually when it comes to using blogs - mostly the Grade 3 know more. This is because Grade 3 have been using blogs since early March 2007.

I paired up all the students. For a full hour everyone worked on sharing their knowledge about using the Blogger.com platform. It was a very productive lesson. Initially some students were a little hesitant but once they got into it, all the awkwardness was forgotten.

I think that it was very successful. These children got to know one another better and got to share their knowledge in a meaningful way. Everyone has agreed to 'visit' each other's blogs. Such is the power of eLearning!

Make a Musical Instrument Out of Junk

Check out this link http://www.physics.unc.edu/~mcneil/stringinst.html

Hi Grade 3,
Your task for homework this week is a little bit different. You need to make a musical instrument out of recycled stuff. Decide if your instrument will be for melody or percussion. We will make an orchestra. Tomorrow, we will make a rubric to help us understand the expectations for the instrument.

Remember the Internet Rules.

I just wanted to remind all of you again.

1. Never put your phone numbers, full name or house address in your blogs.
2. Always use your best manners (netiquette – internet manners) when posting messages on your friend's blogs and using emails.
3. Tell your parents and Mrs Jane or Ibu Shirley if you get any strange comments posted on your blog or sent to you by email that you don't understand or make you feel uncomfortable.
4. Never tell anyone your password (except Mum and Dad! - they should know)
5. Remember to keep safe from virus by following Disney Safe Swell Island
6. The information on the Internet can be true and false so don't believe everything.
7. Always ask Mum and Dad first before going on line.
8. Only post free animations and images. Make sure that you don't use something from a CD unless it is a free image. You don't want to break copyright!
9. Write using your own words - don't copy and paste! Always include an alphabetical bibliography. (Bibliography should include pictures sources as well)
10. Consider carefully what personal photos you publish on your blogs as the Internet can be accessed by anyone.

Please help each other to remember these agreements. Report any concerns to your parents or your teachers.

John's New Bike

Grandad and Grandma gave John a new bike. What do you think?

Happy First Birthday, Baby John!

Layouts & Images

Is this true?

The Brothers Grimm

In bookweek we will study the folktales of Germany and Switzerland. I have found a great website for you to go and visit. I want you to read the story about the Brementown Musicians and the story about Faithful John. They are interractive and a lot of fun. Here is the link http://www.brementownmusicians.com/en/main

Another famous story from the Brothers Grimm is Cinderella. You will get a BIG surprise if you read this version. The step sisters actually CUT their feet so that they could fit them into the GOLDEN slipper. The link is here http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm021.html

A Special Task

Hi Grade 3,
All of your blog homework is due on Friday, 4th May. I have one more task for you this week. I need everyone to visit Rinaka's blog to comment on his 'Sorry' post. Rinaka needs our supporting comments so that he can learn not to ever again copy and paste from his friend's work and pretend that it is his own. I have reminded you all about the Internet rules. I think that this is an opportunity for all of us to remember to be open and honest just like

God wants us to be.

Christian Glitter by www.christianglitter.com

Upload Your Creative Writing to Your Blog

Create a Myspace LED Scroller

Hi Grade 3,
Please upload your creative writing that we did today in class to your blogspot. You need to include a picture. Please visit 5 of your friend's blogs and leave a comment.
Make sure that everyone has at least one comment about this post.
You need to give a mark out of 10. This is called peer assessment.
You must look for correct spelling, interesting words, past tense, paragraphs and creative writing by making comparisons. Please explain to the person about the mark that you have given them.

Homework Task Due 4th May, 2007

Create Your Own Countdown

Reflections about Muddy Friday

It was a cloudy day. Earlier there was some light rain but it thankfully cleared up. So full of bravado were my class of Grade 3 students. So full of theories of how they were going to catch fish with their bare hands and stand in mud to plant rice.

Suddenly, we were all faced with jumping into a smelly, stagnant pond. Yeuch! Mindful that I was the teacher, the example, the ONE who said EVERYONE must get in, I felt I had to TAKE THE PLUNGE.

In I slipped. Into the muddy water. The slimy, smelly muddy pond water. It was slimy on the bottom and it stank like dead fish. Embrace the dirt, Mrs. Jane. Seize the day!

I spied a fish. It was breaking the surface of the pond. Slowly now, I crept towards it. I cringed as I put my hands into the slime to try to catch it. Slowly, slowly my hands felt for the fish body as it went below the surface. Missed it. Hurmp! I spied another fish. So did Gian! He ran towards it splashing muddy water everywhere in the process. The fish took off and disappeared from sight.

I looked around. My class was fully into the game. Water was splashing everywhere. No one cared about the stink, the slime the gross sludge on the bottom. We were fishing. And we were loving it!

I managed to catch a couple of fish. Soon there were none left in the pond. I glanced across to the padi field. Later we would have to go in there too. The padi had mud a foot deep. It looked much harder to deal with than the shallow fish pond.

Next we bathed the docile buffaloes. At last we were ready to go to the padi. Here we had a farmer teach us about how to plant rice seedlings. They had to be in a straight line. Each plant had to be 20 centimetres apart.

I slipped in. The mud was really smelly. It was thick and stuck to our skin. My class was trying very hard to plant their rice whilst keeping as clean as possible. I planted my seedlings dutifully. I looked up to see my class starting to leave.

Suddenly a wave of mud hit me! I wasn't sure where it had come from. "Who wants a mud fight?”, I asked Kalista. She replied by throwing some mud back at me. We were careful not to throw it too high. Unfortunately Joshua got some on his face. Wow was he mad! Later on however, Joshua was very proud to tell everyone in the bus about how great the mud fight was and how it got on his face. He was a true mud warrior and couldn't stop telling all his friends about it!

It was very hard to find a bathroom that was available. There were only 2 indoor showers in the whole place! Most of us ended up using the tap in the toilet! Not very good Taman Buah Mekarsari! There were hundreds of dirty kids there that day and only 2 indoor showers to wash off the mud!

After checking that my students were able to access a place to wash, I went walking with Ibu Shirley and we finally found a toilet with a tap and a bucket. We then scrubbed all the mud off. Afterwards we came back to the group and the mothers had prepared a delicious Sundanese lunch for us. It was so yummy! Thanks to all the Mums for making it.

Finally we had a fun painting activity and then a tour of the place concluded our day.
I hoped that you enjoyed our day out Grade 3. I certainly did!

Remember Netiquette?

Hi Grade 3,
I've been looking at some of your blogs and I have some concerns. It's great to see that you have been experimenting with different media available from the Internet. Be careful!

There are a lot of rude words and messages out there! I went to visit www.poqbum.com This site has a lot of GREAT stuff, but many of the animations have rude words.

Please choose wisely. You blog is like a picture of yourself. If you post an animation that has rude words like 'shut up' or worse, people will think that YOU like to say these words.

Remember the netiquette rules please.

Are there dangerous animals in the mud?

My class asked the question yesterday:

Are there dangerous animals in the mud?

I think these mud creatures look very dangerous!

Our Fabulous Field Trip

Hi Grade 3,
What a great time we had today. Here are some photos. Pak Andre took 327!. I will show you the others on Monday. Bring your USB if you would like some copies. I will try to match the photos with some of the questions that you asked yesterday.
What kind of soap does a buffalo use to take a bath? Lux, Zest or Nuvo?
Is the buffalo naughty when we bath it? I think he was very good!

How can we catch a fish with our own hands? You can answer that now! Will the fish bite us when we catch it? It didn't bite me.

Is it hard to plant rice? Is it Grade 3?

Inquiry into Farming Life

The Grade 3 inquiry into the Taman Buah Mekarsari activities:

How can we catch a fish with our own hands?

Is it hard to dig the mud?

What kind of soap does a buffalo use to take a bath?

How tall do rice plants grow?

Is the buffalo naughty when we bath it?

Will the fish bite us when we catch it?

Is it hard to plant rice?

How is a rice field made?

Are there dangerous animals in the mud?

And the best one is:

If we put our feet into the mud, will we get stuck there forever?

A Question for Grade 3?

Please answer this by leaving a comment:

Since you have been doing eLearning homework, are you playing more Playstation, the same amount of time or less Playstation?

My Virtual Pet

adopt your own virtual pet!

Homework Task due 27th April

Hi Grade 3, Now that you are all expert at online learning, I want you to choose 5 of your friends blogs and leave a comment. (Choose the blogs that you don't usually comment on) I then want you to write about 5 new things that reading your friends' blogs have taught you. An example below:
1. When I was reading my friend Phill's blog, I saw that he had put links to all of his student blogs on his blogspot. I thought that this was a good idea so now I do that too. (This is a real example Grade 3 because Phill is in my USQ Masters class)

Linking a picture to an URL

Yesterday, Aditya asked me how to link a picture to a URL in the sidebar of Blogger. It's not possible unless the picture has already been linked by the hosting site. You can link from the post area. What you do is upload a picture, activate it by clicking to get the white boxes around the edges and then click link in the tool bar and insert the URL link. You can click on my son's picture as I have linked it to go to his blog. Try it out.

Study, Study and more Study!

Wow, what a marathon! I spent all day working on USQ stuff! I worked on 'Snaggiting' all my posts on the USQ discussion boards. It was interesting. I dug up all my readings and re-read them - what a stack! Just as well I'm over my flu now. I finally got feedback about gaggle.net and will try to ask Ibu Jenny to send a fax to America so that SPH can have a free blog account there. It is the only blog site on the internet that is controlled so there are no swear words or rude pictures allowed. I want to use this with my students. Actually Blogger hasn't been that bad because my students are learning to deal with the real Internet. I really think that Grade 3 is a good time to start learning in this way. It is much more difficult with my Grade 6 students who think that they know all about the internet - and so they don't really listen to my advice. I am asking them to sign an aggreement before we start. I am pleased to see that some are already taking advantage of my emailing service.

Tinkerbell

I took this glitter graphic from Glitter Graphics

Heidi Free eBooks and eAudio books

Hi Grade 3. You can read the eBook of Heidi online for free. Just click here Heidi eBook
You can also try downloading the audio version and listen to it podcast style on your iPod. Just click this link eAudio Heidi Book Then you download the chapters like I showed you to do in English lesson today and install them on you Mp3 player or iPod.

Dropshots

Dropshots is a free program that lets you store pictures and videos and share them to your blog. This means that you will not use up your blog space which I think is a total of 1 GB.
Click here to go to the URL Dropshots

We will have a lesson on this on Wednesday in the Labcom.

Remember the Internet Rules

I just want to remind all of you to remember the following:
1. Never put your phone numbers, full name or house address in your blogs.
2. Always use your best manners (netiquette) when posting messages on your friend's blogs.
3. Tell Mrs Jane if you get any strange comments posted on your blog that you don't understand.
4. Never tell anyone your password (except Mum and Dad! - they should know)
5. Remember to keep safe on the Internet by trashing spam without opening it or emptying your bulk folder regularly.
6. The information on the Internet can be true and false so don't believe everything - use your own inquiry skills by asking other people and checking your sources.
7. Always ask Mum and Dad first before going on line.
New
8. Only post free animations and images. Make sure that you don't use something from a CD unless it is a free image. You don't want to break copyright!
9. Write using your own words - don't copy and paste!
10. Consider carefully what personal photos you publish on your blogs as the Internet can be accessed by anyone.

Homework Task 2 due 22nd April 2007

Grade 3,
This homework task requires you to interview your parents. I want you to sit down with your parents and ask them seriously what their 'wants' for you are. Your Mum and Dad need to agree together on 5 only and the 5 must include their wants for you now and in the future. When you have these write them as a list and post them on your blog. To make it easier you can put (Now) and (In the future) in brackets after the described want so that we can understand the difference.

Homework Task 1 due 22nd April 2007

This week for your 1st homework eLearning task, I want you to write about the IBO Learner Profile. You need to include how you can demonstrate these things. For example: Caring: I am caring when I show my love to my baby son John by playing with him and cuddling him. You must write about all 10 and find a picture to go with each one. Be careful that you use pictures that are free and not copyright. It is easy to picture search for free images.

The IBO Learner Profile
Caring, Communicator, Inquirer, Knowledgeable, Open-Minded, Principled,
Reflective, Risk-Taker, Thinker and Balanced.
Remember to post a comment on 5 of your friends blogs about their Learner Profile. I will make a Snagit screen dump of each blog and display them in our classroom.

UOI Theme Who I am, Title: I Want/I Need

Well, I have to say that it is quite difficult to name only 5 of my needs and wants so I will try my best.

Needs
1. God: The giver of life.
2. Family: I cannot think of life without them!
3. A job: This provides me with money and gives me new skills and knowledge.
4. A home: Home is where the heart is.
5. Communication systems: my PDA Hp, my computer, the Internet, my TV, my handicam!

Wants
1. The best education that I can give to my children.
2. A stable loving home.
3. A stimulating and challenging job where I can make a difference.
4. A more peaceful world.
5. Ok, I'll admit it, A Macbook

Internet Safety for Kids

Here is the link Grade 3 to play Surf Swell Island. I would like you to play the game again to revise your internet safety knowledge. http://disney.go.com/surfswell/index2.html

Happy Easter Everyone!

Can you answer this question Grade 3?
Why do we give each other eggs at Easter time?
Publish your answer by leaving a comment.

USQ ALIVE

Well I tried it out! I downloaded USQ Alive to my computer and tried it out. It wasn't that great. I found it to be slow and jerky and the guy Sam (my character) seemed to have forgotten to take the coat hanger out of his jacket before he put it on!
I much prefer being Indiana Jones if it comes to playing that kind of VR type of game. Not really my kind of thing, really. I don't own a Play Station as I think that they are horrible things that kill creativity. My children will just have to grow up without one. Consequently I don't have much time for those kinds of games on computer either - uh unless there's an educational perspective. I mean I can see a lot of benefit in that. I must get into that educational VR experiences. I'll go and find out more now.
Oh yeah, I've almost completed my Item 2 for the first assignment. I also managed to download Snagit to screen dump stuff from the WebCT forums for Item 1 of my assignment.

Little Green Frog

Your fun homework (optional) is to find a free animation (there are lots at google.com - use image search) on the Internet, and then upload it to your blogspot. You will need to cut and paste the URL link in. Don't upload it from your computer but via the Internet. You can write a short poem or a description about it. Email Mrs Jane when you have completed this. Here is an example below:

Oh little green frog!

How you sit patiently, waiting to catch flies.

Your eyes dart, here and there!

They roll around and around as they follow that pesky fly.

Do you ever ponder, wonder, think about your future?

Are you content to live your life in your pond?

What are your wants and needs, little green frog?

Assignment 1 Item 2

I have spent most of today researching for Item 2 in my first assignment for EDU 5471. I have been all over the internet researching blogs. I have come to a few conclusions:
1. This is a powerful learning tool in so many ways
2. Internet safety is a skill that needs to be taught by teachers, schools and parents to children.
3. The internet is a PUBLIC domain and needs to be treated with caution but when used responsibly can offer so much. Especially in regards to collaborative learning.

Today I also received a strange comment on this blog, which I erased but it made me realize that I need to teach my students how to do that and how to re-configure their blogs to receive comments from only selected people. It wasn't a bad comment but I didn't know the person so I wasn't comfortable to leave it there.

My Grade 3 Blogspots

My Grade 3 class have been very busy creating blogs. They have done this at their homes using a little email support from me. The email link has been necessary and helpful as hyperlinks can be inlcuded which enhance communication. We will continue using blogs to keep track of our learning in Quarter 4. My class has learned how to inlcude the hyperlink for their blogs in their recently completed digital portfolio. Here are the blogspots of my students:

Aditya
www.adityagood.blogspot.com
Arvid
www.arvidsyakir.blogspot.com
Caca
www.cacasblog.blogspot.com
Gaby
http://www.gaby-yohana.blogspot.com/
Gian
www.ggmgian.blogspot.com
Grace P
www.graceelolivia.blogspot.com
Graciela
www.graceistwins.blogspot.com
Hesky
www.heskysblog.blogspot.com
Josceline
www.ggmcompany.blogspot.com
Josephine
www.josephinesapphire.blogspot.com
Joshua
www.joshua-hutabarat.blogspot.com
Juhee
www.juheelee.blogspot.com
Kalista
www.kalistaiskandar.blogspot.com
Kathleen
www.kathleen-sebastian.blogspot.com
Kim
www.kimiskorean.blogspot.com
Matthew
http://www.matthewggm.blogspot.com/
Natasha
www.gogonatasha-tasha.blogspot.com
Rinaka
www.rinakasblog.blogspot.com
Tiana
www.christianablogdesign.blogspot.com
Vanessa
www.grade3ggm.blogspot.com

These children are all aged 8-9 years old and for most of them English is not their mother tongue.

Hardware and Erganomics start 2-4-07

I have spent a lot of time online recently. I have been posting on the Online Curriculum Centre at the IBO but it is very inactive. They have a couple of people who respond - they are employed to do that but otherwise it's inactive. I joined QSITE but their forums were very quiet indeed so I gave up. The LearnEnable has been the best but I feel that because the participants are all from our class it isn't really an 'external' forum. This week I've learned about Hardware and Erganomics. I found in this section a bit about VR Virtual Reality. Wow, I'm very interested in this. Imagine if we had a VR lab at school! I have had a look at Second Life and made an avatar called Safire Jewell.

There is a group here in Jakarta that are set up to design what you need in Second Life, I remember seeing it on TV. This is all very interesting but I'm not sure that I have much time for that kind of thing. My First Life keeps me pretty busy! I have used some VR in teaching but not with the special glasses and glove. (I wish I had access to that - dream on!) A few months ago I took my class to see the Anne of Green Gables house online in VR mode. They loved it! Click here to see it Anne's House.

I've just downloaded USQ ALIVE and I am going to try it out. I'll let you know. I want to find out more about free VR available online. I will post again when I have more info.

Graciela Sent Me an E-Card

Here is a link to an e-card sent to me by one of my students. Click here to see it.

Charlotte's Web

Salutations Grade 3! Your homework this week is to post a comment about Charlotte's Web on your own blog. We will watch the film together on Tuesday. I would like you to respond to the following:
1. Describe your favourite part of the film.
2. Tell me one thing that was different in the film compared to the book.
3. Find a picture from Charlotte's Web on the Internet and put it in your post. You will need to 'save image as' to your 'My Pictures' in 'My Documents' first before uploading it to your blog spot.

4. Tell me why you think I chose to study this book in connection with the inquiry about Communication.
5. Choose 5 of your friends and post a comment about Charlotte's Web on their blogs. Remember to use your best netiquette.

6. Give your blog address to Mrs. Jane for checking. Descriptive words and consistent tense will earn you extra points in the 'Use English Properly' competition. I will extend this competition until the end of May and there will be 5 trophies to be won!

Finally, go and visit this website http://www.charlotteswebmovie.com/site/index.php

EDU 5471

Today I learned about wikis on the internet. I had to participate in a wiki set up by my lecturer. The wiki was Edu 5471 Erganomics. I had to post my comments about the issue of erganomics in my school. Well my comments weren't that complimentary. The furniture used is not very comfortable, especially in the computer lab! I guess it's because there are other areas that need attention more.
The next posting that I will put here will be for my students. I want to start a discussion forum here about Charlotte's Web. We will watch the new movie on this Tuesday. My students have all read the book as a part of their English work.
I have read all the readings that I'd said I would do last week and I was most interested in Downes (2004) 'Educational Blogging'. It was interesting to know that many schools use blogs for digital portfolios. At my school we already use a digital portfolio based on Autoplay and flash. This is then burned onto a CD. We will have our first Student Led Conferences this Friday in which the students will show their Digipots to their parents. We are racing to get them finished!

My Class Company GGM

My class have turned themselves into a company. Here is a photo of a recent market day.

My Son Has a Blog

My son Riam has created his own blog, http://www.riamsblog.blogspot.com/
Check it out all.

Teaching

My wonderful students in Grade 3 have starting making blogs! We will be ending our current UOI soon but I would like them to continue using blogs to keep a track of their learning. I have been using email with this class a lot lately as well and I like how I'm able to give them a different kind of personal feedback. This class is quite ICT literate as my school is currently using digital portfolios GR 1-6. We have created our own platform using a combination of autoplay and flash. Even Gr 1 children are able to located personal files on the school system and insert them into their personal folio with a comment regarding the work sample.

EDU 5471

Today I spent at lot of time studying. I have joined QSITE and a special online group set up by Arthur. I have also looked in at the OCC for IBO schools. Those will be my three online forums. I'm now off to read the Skurzynski, Richardson and Downes articles. I still have to print off to read or I've found it just doesn't 'stick'. I'm from the pre-online generation and I'm not able to read online as successfully as reading print. Before I do my reading I plan to participate on the OCC - Online Curriculum Centre for the International Baccalaureate Organization about inquiry learning. So much to do - so little time to spend!

Taruli Sings

Last Sunday Taruli my daughter had her first performance at Botani Square in Bogor. Click here to watch her performance.

Teaching

I will attempt to teach my students how to create a blog today. They are in Grade 3. We are studying about communication at the moment and I would like them to use their blogs as a personal diary.

About my Masters Online MEdTech

About my Masters ...
I am currently onto my second unit in my Masters from the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. I'm taking Computer Based Resources in Education at the moment. I have to do a posting about a historical figure with whom I identify with and how I think that they would like the internet and how they would use it. I admire Anne Sullivan, you know, the teacher of Helen Keller. I just found this awesome video clip about her - you can see it here. Anne Sullivan clip link

About my family

I'm an Australian married to an Indonesian. I'm originally from Melbourne and my husband is from North Sumatra, Lake Toba. He is a Batak. I had to become a Batak first before we could get married. I had a ceremony where I was formally adopted into the family of my husband's uncle - on his mother's side. This officially made me a Batak person. I got a clan name, Panjaitan and 3 sisters and 2 brothers plus a mum and dad as well. I was made child number 2.
We got married in 1997 on the 13th of December. We now have 3 children. A son Riam who is almost 8, a daughter Taruli who is 5 and we have a baby son called John who is 10 months old. Life is very busy!
I teach at an IBO school called Sekolah Pelita Harapan. It's a Christian school and is one of the best schools in Indonesia. The work is very demanding and tiring which is why I have a nanny to look after the baby, a maid to look after the house and a driver - oh and a guard/gardener as well.

Introduction

Well I've just started to make this blog. It's a new thing for me. I will focus on life here in West Java. Firstly I guess that I'd better introduce myself, Hi I'm Jane Ross. I'm an Australian but I've been living in Indonesia for the past 10 years. Do I like it here? Yes, I love it.