Student Blogging Challenge

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This week’s challenge is a test about your blogging skills. The following are essentials in a great post:

  1. catchy title
  2. includes at least two visuals whether photo, cartoon, video or another web 2.0 tool like padlet, glogster, wordle etc
  3. interesting topic with the passion of the author coming through, shows well researched topic
  4. well written and not copy/pasted from somewhere else
  5. shows it has been proofread and spellchecked
  6. written in paragraphs – at least three of them
  7. includes links to other websites on similar topics – at least two of these
  8. attribution for any images, video, music or clip art used – including those used in slideshows etc

The topic for you to write about is ANIMALS – favourites, problems like poaching, cruelty, extinction, etc., or anything else to do with animals. Make sure you check hints 2, 7 and 8.

Once you have completed your post, leave a comment on the Student Blogging Challenge Week 9 post, so that Miss W can come check out your post.

Have a look at some of the other activities on this post, like visiting Namitha’s post about the Nepal earthquake or going back to the Free Rice website, as some of the donated rice will be going to Nepal.

Garden Lesson: The Garden’s Most Wanted

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Visit the kitchen garden and look for any creatures, for example caterpillars, spiders, ants, birds, bees, or any other bugs.

Take a photo or draw sketches of the creatures in your Kitchen / Garden book.

Classify the creatures according to whether they eat plants (herbivore) or animals (carnivore).  You will need to carry out some research on the internet to find out more about your creatures.

Further classify the creatures according to whether they are harmful to plants or helpful.

Make a list of ‘The Garden’s Most Wanted’ creatures who will cause the most damage to the kitchen garden.

Select one of the ‘most wanted’ creatures and make up an information card so that others can identify it in the garden.  Your information card must include a photo/sketch/diagram (labelled), details about how they live, what they eat and how they reproduce, information about where they live in the garden and what sort of conditions they like.

You must also research some natural methods for getting rid of the ‘nasty’ creatures.  Remember – we are growing an Organic garden so we can’t use chemicals or pesticides at all.  You will need to work out strategies for controlling the pest in a natural way.  Record your ideas in your kitchen / garden book.

http://eartheasy.com/grow_nat_pest_cntrl.htm

http://www.zerowaste.sa.gov.au/upload/alternatives-to-chemicals/gardenalternatives.pdf

http://permaculturenews.org/2013/08/12/controlling-garden-pests-with-natural-remedies/

Garden

 

 

 

 

Photo by WGS Student, 2014

RoboCup Junior Soccer Workshop

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Yesterday, David, Genis, Jason L, Jason T and I attended a RoboCup Junior Soccer Workshop, where we learned how to program a robot to play soccer. Below are some videos of what we achieved:

Mexican Wave

Our robots are the first two to move. This equalled the Australian record of how many robots (seven) completed this Mexican Wave at the same time!

Simple Soccer Player

David, Genis, Jason and Jason programmed their robots to locate the ball by scanning, turn towards the ball and then push the ball. This video shows David and Jason L’s robot nearly scoring a goal.

We had a great day and can’t wait to share our learning with the rest of Blue Building.

Creative Commons

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In case you missed this…

Creative Commons

CC

Images by Creative Commons licensed under CC BY; Information based on Creative Commons

Sources of Creative Commons Materials

Images: Flickr, Open Photo, Picture Australia, CC Search, MorgueFile, Open ClipArt,Pics4Learning, Compfight Plugin (Go to Plugins on left hand side of page, select ‘Activate’ under Compfight Plugin. When you next add a page or post, there will be a Compfight button above the Visual Editor. Select on this and search for an image.)

Video: CC Search

Music / Sound: Freesound, CC Search, SoundCloud

Attribution

If you are using an image, video, music, etc., check out How to Attribute Creative Commons Licensed Materials. You must include the following information when providing an attribution:

  • Creator’s name
  • Title of the work
  • Link to the URL where the work is hosted
  • Record the type of CC licence it is available under and provide a link to the licence
  • Keep intact any copyright notice associated with the work

For the photo below:

  • Creator’s name: George Hawkins
  • Title of Work: FAY Guide Dog Puppy
  • Link to URL: https://www.flickr.com/photos/georgehawkins/57336161/in/photolist-64S3v-3Ns35-eGeeKW-drymfD-36YkM-dryiJR-FP59-71uoZE-4xF3BS-4ZmxJA-8SUChJ-2Hp338-bQahtx-nmhZAt-5WRQtA-4iet35-7SBVwH-9f9Bo-9rmqVF-4cCitn-7sXvFo-7b2vim-J7g8U-4m5ev4-bSRpBK-3m3Uxg-cDpVQ5-71nERH-9R4fEA-6k1PnR-69oAUT-2fcWQp-4F4QAt-5i8K5X-bAsjv-bBfFA9-4ierZG-dryibT-7atwu-dnZzXv-56Bpc7-BSLZS-6S1phW-bBfBJJ-63GjYM-4bTDkE-2qEH2-2rkbS2-fzv2fH-85BN6U
  • Type of CC licence and link: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
  • No copyright information attached

See underneath the picture for attribution.

puppy

Photo by George Hawkins licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Photo by George Hawkins (creator’s name, link to URL where image is hosted, linked page shows title of image) licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 (link to licence)

Wednesday 8/4/2015

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Hi everyone,

Unfortunately, Miss Jasmin was asked to work in another class today, so you’ll have someone else – I don’t know who at this stage. I know that you will treat him/her with respect. You have lots of work to do today, so please make sure that you make the most of it.

8:50am: Buddy Reading with Ms Nektaria’s and Mrs Cedar’s classes 

9am: Writing

Complete your final genre writing piece on your chosen topic.

9:45am: Independent Learning Time

Everyone, except for Niko (who was absent), has planned out their day and how they will use their Independent Learning Time. Keep your schedule on your table, so that the teacher can see what you have planned to be doing. Feel free to change this if you need to, but record on the slip what you actually did and leave it on my desk.

The following items are due on Friday:

  • Science Spelling – Weeks 10 and 11
  • Blogging – 5 Tasks listed on previous post
  • Writing – final genre piece
  • Reading Reflections
  • Literacy Pro quizzes – Boy Overboard must be done; any other books that you have read

The following items will be due early in Term 2:

  • Science – Resource Research (rubric will be handed out today – please GLUE into your book!)
  • History – Migration Museum task

There is also the FreeRice challenge – we now have 37 950 grains donated!

Your ability to work successfully during Independent Learning Time will help me to see how well you will manage with 1:1 devices, as some of our learning will be similar to today’s structure. I know that you are all capable of doing this 🙂

11:30am: P.E. with Mr Chatto

12:50pm: Eating Time – in class room and at seats (no couch)

1:30pm: Silent Reading

1:50pm: Independent Learning Time

 

The teacher will hand out a note to you about shared lunch on Thursday – please apologise to your parents for the short notice.

I hope that you all have a wonderful day 🙂

Miss Andrews

6646125877_44f4827e80

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image by showmeone licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.

 

Student Blogging Challenge – Catch Up Time!

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Hi everyone,

It’s the last week of term, and we don’t have any new Student Blogging Challenge tasks this week. So, I thought this would be the perfect time for people to catch up on some tasks! I have said this before, but blogging will form part of your grades on your reports this year – it has links to English and Digital Technologies. The following tasks are compulsory (i.e. you have to do them) as they are ASSESSMENT TASKS:

  1. About Me page: Remember to be careful about how much personal information you include – ask me to check if you are unsure. There are a lot of examples on the Student Blogging Challenge website that might give you some ideas for how you could create your About Me page, or you could check out some of the pages from people in our class.
  2. Commenting Guidelines: Write a post, create a video or create a poster about commenting. What sorts of comments do you want on your blog? Look at our class’s to get some ideas.
  3. Visiting Other Students’ Blogs: Visit an overseas blog and leave them a comment (don’t forget to link back to your blog; you could also link to our class blog). Write a post on your blog about the overseas blog you commented on.
  4. Use Images or Music Ethically: Find an image or a piece of music (check out our Creative Commons Resources to find a list of sources for Creative Commons images and music – and how to provide attribution). Add the image or music to a new post and write a poem or a story relating to the image / music. REMEMBER: Provide attribution.
  5. Celebrations: Think of a special celebration in one country of the world. Find three images of the event. Under each image, give a clue as to the event. On the final line, write a bit more about the event for your visitors to read. Include a link to another website giving more information on the event. Remember to include attribution for each image and perhaps a question for your readers to answer.

THINGS TO REMEMBER:

  • Please use correct spelling, punctuation and grammar. You can type your post into a Word document and it will highlight errors for you.
  • Please provide correct attribution for images. I will not approve your post if you haven’t provided attribution. Ask me if you need help with this.

Rice up against hunger

Don’t forget about this! I want to set you a challenge…. by the end of Week 11, I would like to see if we are able to donate 100 000 grains of rice to the World Food Programme by answering the quiz questions. We have slowed down a little on this – we have now donated 33 990 grains. (We need to each donate about 3333 grains each: 100 000 / 30 people). You can complete as many quizzes as you like! Select on Free Rice Group WGS1008 and Login on the left hand side. Your login is your LiteracyPro login (except for you, Blake – I’ll let you know yours in class) and your password is WGS1008. Once you have logged in, you’ll see that you are subscribed to WGS1008. Select Play from this box, so that all of the grains you accumulate will be tallied against our class group. You can choose from quizzes on English (Vocabulary and Grammar), Maths (Multiplication Tables) and Geography (World Landmarks, Identify Countries on a Map, World Capitals and Flags of the World). If we achieve this, we’ll have a 30 minute fitness lesson on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of Term 2, Week 1 🙂

Enjoy the last week before holidays!

Miss Andrews

Wednesday with Miss Jasmin

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As you know, Mrs Potter, Mrs Lewis, Mr Featherby, Mr Foale and I are all out of the classroom, so that we can get ready for Term 2 and start organising our Moodle! Today, you have Miss Jasmin – I know you’ll be great for her 🙂 Your tasks for today:

8:50am: Buddy Reading with Ms Nektaria’s and Mrs Cedar’s classes.

9am: BTN

Watch and discuss this week’s episode (Episode 9)

9:45am: NAPLAN Spelling Practice

The Year 7 Language Conventions test will be displayed on the board. In the back of your Spelling book, answer each question as best you can. Questions 1 – 16 will have the incorrectly spelled word circled; you need to write it correctly in your Spelling book. For Questions 17 – 30, you will need to work out which word is spelled incorrectly, and then spell it correctly in your Spelling book. I have left some copies of the Year 9 Language Conventions test for a small group of people – you need to record the correct spellings in your Spelling book, but can work on it in the common area.

10:15am: Science – Renewable Resources Research

In groups of four, research your renewable resource using the following headings:

  • The positive aspects of using this resource
  • The negative aspects of using this resource
  • Interesting facts about this resource
  • Any questions you might have about this resource
  • List of people who contributed to the development of this resource

You need to work as a collaborative group. Discuss your topic and decide how you are going to divide the workload. Allocate tasks for each member and share information.

Your research groups are as follows (NO CHANGES):

Research_Groups

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gather as much information as you can today, and then next week, I’ll explain the assessment criteria and what you will be doing with the information.

11:30am: P.E. with Mr Chatto

1:30pm: Silent Reading

1:50pm: Climate Change Mind Mapping

Continue working on your Mind Map for Climate Change. You can use the internet to research more information about the causes and problems associated with climate change, but YOU need to create YOUR OWN ideas for the solutions… What can we do as individuals? As a school community? As a wider community? Think big!

Mind Mapping

If Miss Jasmin thinks that you have worked really well today, you will be able to go out for an extra 15-20 minutes of fitness… there’s an incentive for you!

Have a great day 🙂

Miss Andrews