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.