Week 4 - Dust Echoes and Chocolate Dreams

So, today I learnt that excel can be fun ... especially if there is chocolate involved!
In fact ... I would suggest "ONLY" if there is chocolate involved!

Our task here was to take a pack of M&M's and organise them according to colour. With the M&M's candy colour chart sheet provided, we coloured a block for each M&M that we drew from the pack to thus create a bar graph of our findings. This bar graph could have then been represented in a variety of ways, using the Microsoft Excel program (bar graphs, pie charts etc.,) and the activity extended by incorporating further exploration. For eg: combining whole class findings to create new data; looking at costings of the product; exploring what the packaging says about the product; using prediction techniques.

As a future teacher however, I am well aware of the healthy food policy that most schools have implemented, and so of course would possibly suggest using fruit or coloured wooden blocks for this exercise .... if I had to ...

Nevertheless, at the end of a long day, with my teacher's cap hung on it's hook by the door ... again, I vote chocolate ;-)

" Dust Echoes is one way that we are bringing everyone back to the same campfire - black and white."

Ok, so today we also had to use the program 'Inspiration' to create a diagram which retells one of the dreamtime stories from the website: http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/.

From this website filled with stunning images and stories, I chose "The Curse". A tale of the spirit of Namorrodor, who is summoned by the witchdoctor man and terrorises the camp.

Although the task at hand was about taking the story and retelling it, I decided to approach it by looking at the main parts of storytelling. I focused on character, setting, problem and resolution, while also making sure to include the history and culture which surrounds this tale.
I chose to use a mix of different style text bubbles and images to complete my diagram, which although is not text heavy, is to me at least, aesthetically pleasing :-D

The beauty of such a program is that there are many ways in which a student could approach this task. This caters perfectly to multiple intelligences in the classroom and the different methods children could apply, to ensure that they are learning in the most productive way for them. This is a site and a program I will definitely remember for my own classroom.

Week 3 - Frogs and Blogs

Well, who would have thought that a postgrad degree could involve cardboard, rubber bands and frogs. How interesting? Which is how I would describe today's 'Design Brief' activity.

The challenge was to take a piece of cardboard, a picture of a frog and a rubber band
and to make the frog jump using these materials.

Although at first it seemed rather simple, for me, the tricky part was putting the idea I had in my head, into actuality. Instantly, I wanted to somehow hold the cardboard, with the frog on top of it and attach the rubber band so that you could flick it from underneath and the impact would send the frog flying off the cardboard. But when it came down to actually attaching the rubber band to the cardboard, in a way that you could pull it down and let it rip, without injuring yourself - I was stuck.

The design process itself is structured into four parts:

1. Investigate
2. Design
3. Produce
4. Evaluate

This process of producing, testing and then evaluating is wonderful in that it encourages children to re-assess designs and make changes, rather than presenting their design as a failed attempt.


1. To investigate we talked about the ways in which energy could be generated with the materials we had to achieve our challenge.

2. In design, we talked about the best way of using our materials to achieve this.

3. For producing we folded our cardboard so that the rubber band was in the middle of it, and put the frog on top. Despite my best efforts though, I did more to injure myself than to make my frog jump.

4. For analysing and evaluating we looked at what had perhaps been good in our design and attempted to change it (without much success I must admit ;-)

Eventually I worked out that the best way for the frog to jump was to just throw the bloody thing ;-p



During this session I also played with a program called Quia, which was fun, although a bit tricky to navigate at first. It's a great site that allows you to design activities, quizzes, calendars and so much more and to share all your resources with other educators. I used it to create a hangman game.
http://www.quia.com

Week 2 - Pina Coladas and Microsoft Publisher

"The Ultimate Escape from the Dip Ed" !!! ... pina coladas, luau's and sunsets on the beach - COUNT ME IN ... once I conquer Publisher that is ;-)

And so, another lesson which reminds me how much fun it can be for a student to learn, when they are given the opportunity to work on something in which they have an authentic interest in.

This is certainly how I felt when Greg proposed that we could create our very own travel brochure to anywhere we wanted in the world. Images of far away places and exotic destinations filled my mind. All the places I long to go but have not yet journeyed ... Shantaram's Mumbai, India and the Ajanta and Ellora Caves; the great pyramids of Giza; the Mayan ruins in Belize; the beaches of El Salvador, the Carribean, Mont St Michel and the small country towns of europe... places that call to me to with whispers of the unknown.

And yet, how could I create a brochure to do justice to those places not yet traversed? Impossible and so I chose instead to recreate a simple Hawaiian adventure, and perhaps convince others to play hooky and join me on another trip there?

And behold, I discovered while in the throes of creation that I was at the same time taking even more baby steps towards a new and improved technological me. This soon to be ICT specialist - well versed in internet jargon and up to date on the latest web 2.oo progams. (Ok, well maybe I'm getting ahead of myself :-). But it is exciting isn't it? I mean, especially for us (no doubt about it) mature aged students who sometimes feel a step behind the Gen Y's when it comes to all this ICt stuff....

Have been having fun working on my webquest this week. We have chosen a "Survival Quest" which I must admit was inspired by CBS's Survivor Series. Yes, I'm a survivor junkie - could be worse ;-) Hey I even managed to attach the theme music to our quest, which I was most impressed about - I can tell you that.

Who would have thought I would be talking widgets and files all on my own? And understanding what I was saying at that. I actually love the idea of webquests as a teaching tool and know this one will be my first of many.... I just hope I can bring as much fun to the students who do the quests as I have had designing them...

As far as the e-portfolio goes, I seem to keep getting stuck. I have tried doing it in Publisher but the templates are a bit on the lame side and I can't figure out how to do a button down the side that changes pages when I click on it. Have also tried in powerpoint, but I'm having the same button issues. I know there has to be an easy way, I just have to find out what the hell it is... and how the hell I fix it... will keep plodding along :-)