After a lot of trial and effort, and a large number of emails between myself and the blogging people, we’ve finally started our blogs. It will take us quite a while to get things moving properly and have everything running smoothly, but the students have set their designs and are already looking at customizing them. By doing blogs, the students will learn how to remain unidentifiable online and protect their identity while still telling their own story. They will also learn to take responsibility for their own work, making sure it’s legible, structured correctly and has correct spelling and grammar. Of course, not everything will be perfect, but the blogs will give the students an opportunity to get better and better.

What a magical day it was – EXCURSION DAY! The students grabbed their iPads, put their hats on and lined up outside the classroom. The excitement built rapidly as we walked to the school gate. We’d arrived… at the car park. Not much of an excursion, I suppose, but it was a nice change from sitting in the classroom. There was a serious side to our little jolly, we were learning about rotational symmetry and the teachers’ cars provided a cool, real world experience for the students to check their learning. They looked at the patterns and tried to take photos of different orders of rotation, and they did a great job. We then integrated technology to present our observations and printed them in the classroom. Check out the examples below.

If you’re from Australia, you’re probably already very familiar with what’s known as the Dreamtime. This was (and has always been) the time during which the indigenous people beleive the land, laws, environment and the life forms within it all were created by the Ancestor spirits. This is a living process, and the stories created to explain it were handed down through time. LA14 have been learning about this process and have read and discussed some of the stories. From this process, the students will be creating their own versions of the Dreamtime stories following some excellent group work. Two stories we looked at were: How The Sun Was Made and Why The Kangaroo Walks on Two Legs.

Well, okay, the title of this post is a little deceptive. Things aren’t really going swimmingly, we are actually going swimming! Last week and this week have been all about swimming lessons, and the students are already having a great time at the local pool. It will be fascinating to see them develop their skills as they learn the techniques needed to swim with ease, grace and power (hopefully). However, the drawback to this is that the classroom work will be taking a bit of a hit, with some days being reduced to between one and two hours contact time between myself and the students. Not that I’ve heard anyone complaining! Anyway, even with swimming, we’re going to be learning about symmetry, addition, the origins of prefixes ab, online safety and security whilst getting ready for our assembly next week. Just another couple of weeks for the students of LA14.

Another new year and another new class. LA14 have begun a brand new year with a brand new set of students, and it looks like it’s going to be another good one. Once again we’re a split 5/6 class due to the odd numbers we have at school, but this has never been an issue for us, it’s always worked just fine. We’ve only had one full week but we’ve already completed quite a lot of work. We’ve looked at a famous British artist (Julian Opie of Blur fame) and created our own versions; the goal was to be critical of our own work and not settle for being just “finished. We’ve completed a number of tests, written a poetice version of the holidays using simile, and started our assembly item. There are other things too but this’ll do for a start.

Check out our art below.

They year is rapidly drawing to a close and we have only 3 weeks of school left before we go our separate ways for the long summer break. However, that doesn’t mean we’re slowing down at all, in fact many of our activities are also drawing to an end and the students are seeing the fruits of their labours. Despite the last few weeks being heavy with testing, the students have managed to finish their amazing dragon sculptures with our incredible Art teacher, Mrs Harris. It was great that this activity coincided with our novel study of Dragon Skin giving a real theme type of feel to the whole term. Check out the images below.

Did you know, there’s more computing power in your mobile phone than there was in the module that landed men on the Moon? Well, that’s what they say. The kids of today are living in an exponentially expanding digital world, and to help them build their skills we’ve been doing some very techy stuff (a techincal term). We’ve already looked at binary code and algorithms, creating our own Secret Values Code ID cards. Now we’re developing our coding skills with Code.org, an online platform that explores this fascinating processd. On top of this, the students are creating thsi own digital animations, a bit like Morph, Wallace and Grommit, and for those as old as me Jason and the Argonauts. Check out the images below, and remember to ask your child all about it.

As a kid I’d sit for hours letting my imagination run wild as I constructed all kinds of vehicles, bridges, cars and much, much more. Now, as part of our STEAM (integrated Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math’s) activities, we’ve been using Meccano in the classroom, the toy I enjoyed all those years ago. Meccano has strong connections to the topic of robotics and digital technologies, which some students will be choosing to follow in high school; in fact Meccano is a fabulous tool with a huge educational value. Besides helping the students develop their problem solving skills and their construction skills, it is also great for their literacy development. The students are having to cooperate in pairs (boy and girl where possible) as they attempt to read, decipher and follow the fairly complex instructions. The instructions are all visual, the type that Ikea tend to use, but a lot more detailed and complex with steps having to be followed in clear stages. As well as requiring good reading skills, the students have to use clear, polite and constructive conversation skills to overcome any difficulties they encounter. The instructions are very similar to an algorithm and must be followed closely. When finished they should have a great model with working parts and can post about their experience on their blogs, as long as they stay on track and don’t come off the rails!

Write a book report on our recent novel study of Dragon Skin. You must include the following headings and write your responses in DETAIL and with accurate grammar and sentence structure.

1. Title of the book.
2. Author’s name.
3. Introduction.
4. Brief idea of what the book is about.
5. Character analysis.
6. Themes and messages.
7. Your conclusion and thoughts.

This task is all about our Dragonpunk projects. Follow the headings below to write a review of the process you went through with the design and making of your dragon. Use the headings below and include photos. Make sure you include all the information and take care with your writing.

1. Was my plan detailed and did it include labels and steampunk ideas?
2. Did you list your materials?
3. Did you collect all the materials?
4. Did you take care with the equipment and use the resources responsibly?
5. Did you complete your dragon? Does it match your plan or did you make changes?