ok ok so i can upload pics, but why not music…..??????oooh this is frustrating I am trying to up load the gingerbread man song that I used and found on itunes but it wont let me grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
http://www.bubbl.us/edit.php this is a free app to make thinking bubbles with…yahhhh
http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp (i love this it makes some really cool stuff outa the box) love it
http://www.gliffy.com/ you can make some really funky looking diagrams with this too, i plan to use this for another subject..
http://wordle.net/ i used this to check i was on the right track with my lit review, I added the wordcloud to the end of my lit reveiw
Ok OK ok sooooo I should have got my butt into gear and acutally wrote down how I come across these and the search terms I used. I guess a big thing for my blog is how I would do things next time round. With so many things to search in such little time, i didnt see at that point in time to write everthing down, I just wanted the information and I wanted it now!! (haha can you tell Im a gen y’er 
The following sites are ones I have book marked over the last few months ( I cant believe I even remembered to do that!) They have been useful so far. I really like the google books search ….although it was a bit of a tease becasue I then wanted to have all these books and not living near Brisbane and having a limited (dodgy) local libary who doesnt like to store many educational texts was a little frustrating.
To lead on from my last blog about you tube….I have always used youtube althoug not for educational purposes. Not being able to access this at school, I never really thought of using it for learning ( i know right…your saying darrhhhh right now) I mostly watched clips at home of people stacking it, leading to rolling round the floor laughing) It amazed me that so many pepole had used this for educational purposes and posted clips. I loooooove gettting on there and watching, actually one clip I watched and I know yes i shoulda saved it…..went on about how visual/oral literacy is going to be the way of the future that students will be on computers/filming their knowledge oooooh I wished I saved it!! Anyways it got me thinking of onto another subject I am doing right now(sorry Mandy) and it has motivated me to make my own clip for submission of one of my assignments. I hope it is not too high tech for that lecturer as some are just wayyyyyy not like you Mandy!! So thanks for the motivation in searching for new things. Without the idea of searching as a tool I would not have come across so many things that I didnt realise were out there. If only there was more time in the day to sit on this computer without going ga ga. Ga ga yep thats what the head feels like already and its only 10:05 am geesh what a day ahead!! Oh I thought Id add some songs in here for you thinking of going ga ga…they have 120 beats per min so they are suppose to perk you up…..hmmmm not sure if you can add them from my itunes, hmmm something to search for later on you tube….
~dont stop till you get enough Michael Jackson
~ Mova ya body, NIna Sky
~ Man! I feel like a woman! Shania Twain
or some chill out ones with 70-85 bpm for the end of the day
Take a bow, Rhianna
Take your mama, Scissor sisters
Survivor, Desintys child……..
LInks from my favourites…………..
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/index.html
http://kayc28.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/inquiry-based-learning/
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/index_sub5.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yCB4i7GJuM&feature=fvw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L2XwWq4_BY
http://unjobs.org/authors/carlina-rinaldi (I searched Rinaldi, because she is one of the gurus and holds a high position in Regioo schools)
I really found reading about Reggio ‘turned on the light’ or as they say I had my ‘aha moment’.
For years and years I have known about Reggio but never really realised these were the beliefs that I followed so closely in my classroom and school.
Other teachers and parents always spoke about my classroom being so different from the ‘norm’ setting. Chaotic order from year 1 students being independent little investigators-In the early years we go on about hands on learning ra ra ra but rarely you ever actually see children co-constructing their own work from scratch. I am really happy i read more into inquiry based learning which made me then stumble into project learning. Thats it….my classroom was not just hands on learning…I followed a social constructivist point of view and took part in project learning, without even knowing I was.
I know when I was in a compositie 123 for years 2 and 3 I loved and I have always been a firm believer that I would make my classrooms as enjoyable as what that was. Reflecting back now…those two teachers who Id love to say thanks to, too used project learning. Such fond memories.
I found this book really opened my eyes up to how powerful reggio’s and social constructivism can be.
The hundred languagesof children by Edwards, Gandini and Forman.
As well as their follow up The hundred languagesof children: Advanced Reflections.
Two others that helped are Krechevsky and Stork Challenging educational assumptions:lessons from an italian ameriacan collaboartion and Maluaguzzi your image the child;where teaching begins.
I just searched these on google scholar which i learnt how to use last semester(although QUT seems to have disapered of th eoptions for my uni) and the books were at my cousins uni, where she hired them out for me as I dont live near Brisbane to access them from the library.
Well I would of liked to have wrote this blog when I submitted my literature review part A but I took the next day off to gain some new energy and momentum for another subject.
I would like to say how much my lit review changed from my draft. This happened as I had so much more time to search search search and read read read. In week 5 when we posted the draft it felt like I was still playing catch up nowhere near ready to write a lit reivew. Well thats all for now folks. kx
After visiting the school/class today I am working with I have decided to build a virtual classroom through the learning place, so I can upload all the activities/sites/ideas for my teacher to peruse and check that the links are acccessible through ed qld internet as many things are blocked. I have made this under her name, as my learning place username is on hold while im on leave. I have successfully set it up, so she can access it as of today. She is pretty ict literate so that helps too. k
I finally have met with the teacher I am working iwth on my info learning activity. With the age group I am working with (prep) students will indepdently (as much as they can) find and use a variety of information like websites, pictures, texts and an excursion. The activity takes place in a unit of work, titled Talking about texts, where the grade is introducing many fiction stories to students on a two week rotation. To introduce the unit all off the classes are reading the gingerbread man and doing investigations around ginger, then will move into their other stories. Can the info learning activity be as simple as What is ginger? and how do you use it? My plan is to do the slim this Friday before anything. Then read the gingerbread man text and make gingerbread man biscuits. Can I just add here for the concluding activity; students will recieve a post card daily of hints on where the gingerbread man has gone missing. The following week I will include activities around searching for info using non fiction texts in the library, internet searches for videos/pics, as well as the excursion. For this age group I was thinking of documenting all their discoveries in a big class journal of what they had learnt today and where they found that info (so they can refer to this later-as preppies cant write yet- although some are independently writing) I will also build a virtual classroom so the other 5 prep classes can access all the resources we will need. Again we will consolidate what we learnt from the ginger factory excursion (another source of info for them)in our class journal. The class will play a pass the parcel game, having to answer questions in each parcel about what is ginger and how is it used, where they can refer back to the class journal. And to finish it off the last postcard clue to find gingerbread man will be the final wrapping in the parcel..ahhh he is found the fox didnt get him after all. What do you think?
