Rules at School

This afternoon my 5-year old daughter and I enjoyed a casual conversation about school. It was interesting to see the amount of 'rules' that she could recall about school. For her this was important. I have tried to capture this with a Voicethread. We may add to this over the coming weeks.

Brown Bear

I recently visited Akomai, a blog created by an awesome colleague. Her gorgeous daughters have put together a Voicethread re-enacting the popular Eric Carle story "Brown Bear, Brown Bear".

Recently I have been looking at the notion of literacy and creativity. This story for me captures both very strongly, the way the girls have used everyday clothes to interpret their animals is very creative and the rich language experience of re-enacting stories is so powerful.

Here are some of the links shared on Janine's blog to extend on the story "Brown Bear, Brown Bear".

A forum for teachers with ideas for each book.

The official Eric Carle website.

Thank you Hannah and Bryony! Tau ke!!

Kiwi Book Reviews

I especially enjoy finding new blogs to subscribe to that have a hint of Kiwi or Pasifika flair. This morning as I rummaged through a series of new blogs, I stumbled across a fantastic blogsite. Oh, the joy of hyper-linking and following a multitude of pathways is sure to reveal a series of little treasures.

The KidsBooksNZ blog is a fabulous blog with reviews of books written by New Zealand authors. The team of reviewers have a vast range of experience and passion when it comes to NZ Literature. Head along to their site and take a look for yourself. They also have a link for those that are keen on writing their own children's books, Kiwi Write4Kidz.

Storylines Festival 2010

It's that time of year again! Storylines Festival: Children's Literature Charitable trust are hosting a series of Free Family Fun Days! The Storylines Festival of New Zealand Children's Writers and Illustrators has been a highlight of many families' calendars since 1993.

The festival is always great for children and adults to meet the real masterminds behind some of our favourite stories. The hands on activities are also fun and entertaining.

To check out where your local Storylines Festival is being held, check out this link.

My family and I are off to the Auckland Free Family Day at the Aotea Centre, with what looks like a great line up of events throughout the whole day.

Uploading Comic Life to Blogger

Throughout the past few weeks I have had several teachers ask me how to upload a Comic Life to their Blogger blog. Below I have detailed how to do this.

Step One: Create your Comic Life document. When you have finished and ready to post to your blog. Click File --> Export --> Export to Image(s).

Step Two: A dialog box prompting you to save your file will appear. The software automatically defaults to a JPEG file. You may like to change the resolution and quality depending on the purpose of your Comic Life document. Name your folder, the software automatically creates a folder for your images. So if your document has 3 pages it will save 3 images in your 'folder' called 'Page_1', 'Page_2' and 'Page_3'. Press Export.

Step Three: Open up your blog, go to New Post and click on 'add an image'.

Step Four: Open up your blog, go to New Post and click on 'add an image'. The Blogger dialog box will appear. Click on Choose File and find the folder you just created. Click and open, once you are in there you can click on the Image - usually titled 'Page_1'. You can click on 'Add another image to add up to 5 images at a time'. When you have your images picked. Click on 'Upload image'.

Step Five: You will see a dialog box that says "Your images are being uploaded to Blogger". If your files are large they can take some time to load. Once your images have uploaded you will see a dialog box that says 'Done' or see your post as below.

Step Five: Make sure you have titled your post and added text to the body of your post if required.

Uploaded Comic Life Image

You can enlarge the Comic Life document by clicking on the image. The image will open in another window. This can make it easier to read.

EduCampNZ @ Summerland Primary in Auckland

Gorgeous morning in Auckland, and a group of awesome teachers wait anxiously for the beginning of EduCampNZ. Summerland Primary School have kindly offered their school as a venue and what a gorgeous school it is too.

To check out the wealth of stuff that happened today hop along to the EduCampNZ2010 site kindly hosted by ACESNet. So first up;

Speed Geeking in Twitter Time

140 secs to introduce yourselves, a little bit about yourself, what your passionate about and what you can contribute to the Unconference.

Smackdown

You get 3 minutes to share with the group your cool idea, website or topic. Check out some of the topics that were shared:

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/educampnz2010

Virtual and F2F: I learned that the contacts and connections I make online through Twitter and other forms of online spaces has been particularly useful for keeping up with what's happening around the place i.e #EduCampNZ. Was awesome catching up with people face to face today adds another dimension to the online connection. And always nice to put real face to twitter faces.

Junior Schools and IT:
Lots of handy hints shared in this session

*EasiSpeak Microphones: Using the microphone for recording poetry, questions and conversations.

*Voki.com

*Engaging whānau through blogs in Junior School - feedback from some families that they prefer photos.

E-Portfolios:

Looks like I have to become more vocal about what some of our centres are doing in early childhood regarding this. While services like Mahara and KnowledgeNet serve a purpose in some schools at the moment. One thing we found limiting with these 'pay-for' services was that once children left the early childhood centre and school they no longer had access to the resources and learning records they accumulated over the years. The idea of children developing life-long portfolios online through their lives was high on our list of criteria. Therefore blogs using Blogger soon become our preferred option.

When these portfolios are started the parents of the children create the blog and have administration rights. Teachers in centres are then invited as authors (sometimes with admin privileges). We have found by doing this parents and families quickly assume ownership. Therefore, they have the rights to invite other family members to become readers. Most of the blogs we develop in the early years are kept private with the assumption that once children take a stronger ownership of their blog they may then choose to make it open. (NB: CORE Education Early Years Facilitators are accredited Netsafe facilitators and offer all centres that we work with Cybersafety courses as well as workshops for families looking at the safe and responsible use of ICT).

We have some lovely examples of authentic and meaningful assessment and learning, shared meaning making with families and active engagement in curriculum by parent and whānau through the use of e-portfolios. We also have student that are now in Year 3 and 4 who are continuing their blogs in the compulsory school sector.

For snapshots of what's happening in early childhood education go along to Stories of Practice.

Right, Im off to wade through the huge mass of awesome links accumulated today.

EDUCAMPNZ in Auckland - 24th July 2010

Kia ora koutou (calling all early childhood teachers in this years mentoring programmes!!)

We have an exciting opportunity to mix and mingle, learn, contribute and dialogue with some of the most amazing e-learning leaders in this country. It is also an opportunity to share some of our early childhood practices with the compulsory education sector.

Further details are outlined below:

What:
EducampNZ is based on a user-generated 'unconference' or BarCamp The focus is on e-learning and education, sharing ideas we've discovered and learning from each other. Everyone is invited to participate in some way.

Why:
The purpose of EducampNZ is to both learn and contribute. It is based on the OpenSpace Meeting Format . No real agenda has been set and it will be up to you to determine the focus for the sessions, grow your learning, network and have fun!

Who:
Follow the link below and find out who is coming and other relevant details. http://acesnet.wikispaces.com/Educampnz+2010

When:
Saturday 24th July, 10am to 3pm

Where:
Summerland Primary,
62 Summerland Drive,
Henderson,
Auckland

The venue will be open from 10am to 3pm and you are invited to turn up and leave whenever it suits you. It may be useful for participants to have some idea of who might be there and areas of interest.

This is a not to be missed opportunity!! Look forward to seeing you all there.
Kia manuia
Naketa