Google Draw

This week I spent a block teaching two Year 4 classes how to use the Google Drawings App.  Here is a link to the lesson.  >> Google Draw Onomatopeoia Lesson<<

Room 7 and Room 8 thoroughly enjoyed illustrating their favourite onomatopeoia words!

Room 7's blog

Room 8's blog

Year 4 Chromebooks

In Term Three two of our Year Four classes were fortunate enough to receive Chromebooks. During one morning block we combined both classes and got all 60 students logged in to their own Google accounts on their Chromebooks. It was like Christmas!! Very excited and very happy children!

After our introductory lesson they spent the next block getting right to work writing stories  and also researching space.

Authentic Audience

Today our class blog received a comment from one of the children's grandparents in South Africa!  It is exciting to see family members around the world reading about and seeing pictures and videos of what we are doing in our classroom.  http://room3twentyfifteen.blogspot.co.nz/2015/06/michelangelo-art.html 

A Year 3 class in our school has created a buddy blog with a class in Australia.  They have each posted their first posts.  It is very exciting to see how the teachers and children are able to use blogger to share learning outside of their own classroom walls.
http://ourfriendsacrosstheditch.blogspot.co.nz/

Getting Googley

Room 3 shared their learning with Room 17 and helped them get connected on their google accounts.

Integrating ICT into the classroom

This is a great article about 5 common mistakes that occur when introducing ICT into the classroom.

Langwitches Blog 

Reasons to share

This is a great blog post about why and how we should and can share what is happening in our classrooms.  Worth a read. 

http://langwitches.org/blog/2014/12/21/3-reasons-why-you-should-share-and-3-things-what-you-can-do-to-share/

School Visits

Today some of our Board and staff visited Hobsonville Point Primary School and Hobsonville Point Secondary School.  It was exciting to see this beautiful, developing part of Auckland with with these two new innovative MLE schools.  The collaborative approach to teaching and planning among staff, plus the way planning is shared with students and parents was interesting for our staff to reflect on and challenge our thinking.   Click on the photo below to view some photos from our visit.

Combining the old and the new

When working with a new student who is also a beginning writer, I had her use the classroom flannel boards to create a story. I then photographed her pictures, put them into Write About This Quick Write and typed her story for her. This has allowed for her story to be recorded and shared with others. I printed her picture and story so she was able to take home something on her first day of school in NZ. 

InstaweatherPro app

I am using the InstaweatherPro app in my Year One class with the iPad.  The children work in partners to independently post about the day's weather.  Together they take a photo outside (they must include the sky) using the iPad. They save the photo to the camera roll and then use the Blogger app to upload the photo into our class blog, add a title and labels.  It's been a great addition to our elearning in the classroom.  The children are learning how to take a good photograph and it also creates great conversation about the weather, forecasting, how it affects our planned activities, etc.  The children love it and can't wait for their turn to come up!

Apple TV settings

Does your Apple TV go to sleep in the middle of a lesson?  Does the screen saver come on when you've left something on the screen for the children to copy?  Are you in the middle of a presentation and Apple TV kicks you off because it's gone into sleep mode?

Here is one way to fix those problems.

Click on your Apple TV remote Menu button.  This screen should come up.  Use the direction button to go to the Settings icon.

Scroll to Screen Saver:

Click on the center button of your remote to change the time for your screen saver.  It is defaulted at 5 minutes (which goes by very quickly!)  Change to the desired time.

From this screen you can also change the photos that come up for the screen saver, if you want to.

Hope that helps!

Green Screen - Mellini Pillay

 This Friday morning Techie Breakie PD was presented and prepared by Mellini Pillay.  Thanks Mellini!

To use the green-screen effect:

1. Record video in front of an evenly lit, solid bright green or blue backdrop. Download onto iphoto and then import it into iMovie. To use photos drag onto your desktop and then drag into imovie .

When you record, do the following for best results:

• Make sure the subject of the video isn’t wearing anything green and don’t include anything green in the shot other than the backdrop. If possible, use multiple lighting sources to eliminate shadows on the subject being recorded.
• Record a moment at the end with the subject out of the frame. This indicates to iMovie what should be cut out when the video is superimposed.
1. Make sure Advanced Tools are turned on. (Open iMovie, open Preferences and select Show Advanced Tools)
2. Open the project you want to add the green-screen effect to or start a new project.
3. Add an image (downloaded from the internet or iphoto, etc) to the project.
4. In the Event browser, select video (a frame range or an entire clip) that you recorded in front of the green backdrop or a photo taken in front of the green screen.
5. Drag the selection directly over the image—and release the mouse button when you see a green Add (+) symbol.

7. In the contextual menu that appears, choose Green Screen or Blue Screen.

The green-screen or blue-screen clip appears above the video clip in your project, as shown below.

You can drag it to a different spot within the clip, or to a different clip, to reposition it. You can also drag the ends to lengthen or shorten it. To drag an end, move the pointer over it until the pointer changes to a resize pointer, and then drag.

8. To more effectively mask areas of the green-screen clip, click to select the clip in your project (so that its border turns yellow). In the viewer click Cropped, and then drag the handles at the top or bottom of the viewer to more tightly enclose the subject of the video.

Anything outside the highlighted area in the green-screen clip is removed from the picture. Be sure not to crop out areas that the subject moves into at any point during the green-screen or blue-screen clip.

9. To produce a better-quality effect, double-click the green-screen or blue-screen clip in the Project browser to open the inspector, and then select “Subtract last frame.”

This action works only if you’ve included a moment at the end of the green-screen or blue-screen footage with the subject completely out of the frame.

10. Play back the effect by placing the playhead (the red vertical line) anywhere before the blue- or green-screen clip in the Project browser and then pressing the Space bar.

Press the Space bar again to stop playback.

To delete a green-screen clip:

Click to select the green-screen or blue-screen clip in the Project browser (so that its border turns yellow), and then press Delete.

Sound from the original clip and the sound from the green-screen or blue-screen clip play simultaneously. You can reduce the volume of either clip so that sound from the other clip stands out.

You can edit green-screen the same way you edit standard clips in your projects. For example, you can trim them using the Clip Trimmer, adjust their audio and video, crop them, and add video effects to them. You can also reposition or trim them using the Precision Editor.

Kidpix drawings can be used to create movies with the Green Screen option.

• Kidpix pictures can be exported into imovies by
• 1.In Kid Pix, choose Export to iMovie from the File menu.
• 2.The Kid Pix: Export to iMovie dialog appears.
• 3.Type a name for the frame and select the location you want to export the frame to.
• 4.Choose Movies option then export.
• 5.Open imovie. Choose import from the File menu.
• 6.Choose Movies and then find your file and import.

·      Drop one picture over the other and choose the green screen option. Remember that both pictures need to have a blue or green background for the green screen option to work.

Twitter & Skype - making the world a smaller place

Yesterday my class had a Skype snow date with my friend's children in Drayton Valley, Alberta, Canada.  They'd just had a huge amount of snow in a 24 hour period and all of my Canadian friends and family were posting pictures and statuses on Facebook about it.  I contacted my friend to see if she'd be able to share her kids playing in the snow with my students.  We sorted out the best time and were so happy that it actually worked!  There were a couple of false starts with Skype as there often is, but eventually we got to see her kids go through the whole process of getting dressed in snow pants, winter coats, mittens, boots, hats and scarves.  My students were surprised to realise that children in Canada have to go through that process every time they go outside - to go to school in the morning, to outside at morning tea and lunch, to go home after school - what a lot of work!

Then her children went outside and threw snow in the air, made snow angels, buried each other in the snow and got very red, rosy cheeks from the cold!  We even got to see their small white dog navigate his way through the snow.

When her children came back inside my class showed them how children in New Zealand get to go around in bare feet most of the day and how they wear school uniforms and hats.

It was fun for the children on both sides of the world to get to spend a few minutes together and learn from each other.

I put a screenshot of our Skype snow date on my twitter feed and hashtagged Skype.  Today I got a comment back from them!  I can't wait to tell my children that Skype actually tweeted us!