Month: April 2014

Back To Work

chris hope

This week sees the beginning or term 2 and this is a great time for those students who have been a little sluggish with their blogging to get themselves up to speed with the others. Blogging in LA19 isn’t something we do only if we feel like it, it’s a serious addition to the routine classwork as well as an opportunity for those students who wish to really develop their English skills.

By now you should all have a stable theme with a copyright free header and background. If you don’t you will need to get creative with a camera. Take a creative photo and use it to enhance and personalise your background or header. Widgets are next! You should at least have Pages, Recent Posts, Clustr Map and Text; the Text widget should have a personal introduction. One of the pages you create must be an “About Me” page with content. Finally, your blog needs recent content and you should post a comment on at least 3 other blogs (not just your close friends’ blogs). If you’ve done all this, then search out someone who hasn’t and work with them til they are up to date. Deadline – THIS WEEK! As an extra, those who finish need to find a blog from overseas (check with me first) and post a polite comment.

Your blogs have already been graded for the first term and these grades will become a serious part of the year’s assessment.

Holiday Blogging

chris hope

We may be on holiday, but that doesn’t seem to have stopped several students from maintaining their efforts on their blogs. I have to admit that Aarlyah, Abbey, Georgia, Aimee and Ritihia have put me to shame by posting way more than I have and they’re all well worth checking out. Also, in a “blast from the past”, one of my students from last year, Holly, has been putting in such an effort with her second year of blogging that she also deserves a bit of recognition. As for myself, I am stuck way up here in Kalbarri with limited wi-fi, so it’s a little tricky. However, here’s a photo of me kayaking and a one of my campsite and caravan which (sadly) has a couple of bags full of English and Maths books inside. Yes, poor me!

20140417-114851.jpgKayaking

Kings Park Excursion and End of Term – Phew!

chris hope

I think, for me, term 1 was one of the quickest I’ve ever had. I’m not sure why (perhaps I’m getting old and just can’t keep up anymore), but it may have had something to do with it also being one of the busiest terms I’ve ever had. Looking back I’m quite astounded that we managed to start and finish all the activities and projects in just a short ten weeks.

We discussed, planned and organised a geography walk around the suburb to help us develop an understanding of how we measure the livability of an area (some of the resulting in-depth project work was very mature). We learnt about the study of history and then completed the first part of our history studies by researching the Romans (yes, there’s more to come). We studied so many topics in maths that it would be impossible to mention them here, suffice to say that even with a busy timetable the students still claimed that all we did was maths. Our English included persuasive writing and narratives, both in part due to our NAPLAN preparation, and also spelling (“No, not spelling!”). It was the first time some of the students had used a saw and a drill and they overcame their fears and doubts to create a fabulous “surprise” gift for Mothers’ Day. We made several amazing artworks and integrated technology with blogs, art, podcasts and QR codes. Even cricket and basketball tournaments were squeezed in along the way with a music project on top. All this whilst working around a myriad of interruptions that seemed designed to throw us off track. We were lucky enough to finish off the term with an educational excursion to Kings Park which Abbey explains beautifully on her blog in her post entitled Naturescape Excursion (also check out Kianne, Blake, Aimee and Georgia).

All I can say is, “Well done LA19!” We all deserve our well earned 2 weeks off and you can all be proud of your efforts this year so far. I’ll keep posting here and checking your blogs, so keep posting, but remember to stay safe.

Phew!

Geography Podcasts

chris hope

One way we’ve been able to integrate speaking into our English work is by creating podcasts. We’ve created several informal ones this term already, but this new one was a more formal podcast to explain our recent investigations in Geography. The students went on a walk around the area (see previous post) and completed several surveys. They then used this information to judge the livability of three of the streets. They have already completed a complex project on the topic, but the podcast was another way of presenting the work to a wider audience.

   

Follow Up!

chris hope

We’ve been doing so many things over the last few weeks that I’ve not managed to post everything. So, to remedy that this is a very short follow up to a couple of our more arty activities.

Our Mothers’ Day surprise (getting less surprising all the time!) started with the students measuring and sawing some wood before drilling a hole in it.  I posted some pictures of the drilling, but the sawing seemed to pass me by, so below is a picture of Benn being helped by Aimee and Jerry. The students worked in groups of three for safety and took the precaution of wearing face masks to protect them from the dust.

Another activity I haven’t caught up with was our fabulous watercolour painting (you can read the explanation of the activity in a previous post). The results were awesome and I’ve included Jonny’s and Abbey’s pictures below. Click on the images to view them full size.

SawingJonny ArtAbbey Art

Mothers’ Day Surprise?

chris hope

The students have been busy making a surprise gift for Mothers’ Day out of blocks of wood. Well, I say “surprise”, but due to the excited nature of a number of the students this is rapidly becoming a defunct adjective. Not that I can blame them, for many this is the first time they’ve used saws and drills to make something out of wood and the enthusiasm has been high. Some have been a little unsure about the drilling part, but they’re all pushing themselves forward in order to complete their “not-so-surprising” Mothers’ Day gift. Click on the images for the full sized version.

Caitlin DrillingWilliam DrillingSarah Drilling