Our Plays

Jan11

In school we have been making small movies up. We got into groups and came up with a few ideas. Then we brainstormed what would happen. Mrs Vass and the class then commented on your different plays and then we changed the bits our classmates were unsure about. Then we went up-to the costume room that they used for accent on schools and we picked out our clothes but we did not take them.We then showed Miss Law who is a student teacher our plays in our groups she decided if it was ok or not.We fixed our plays then showed our class.Then we changed our stories into scripts for a writing lesson.Then we showed our plays again.In the future weekswe will be videoing them and they might go on the blog!

By Monica and Darcie. Visit our blogs by clicking on our weemees.

World War II

Jan11

We are doing World War II for our topic at school.We had done a bit before but the teacher said that we would be doing it agian after the Christmas holidays.We have now started it agian.Our teacher, Mrs Vass, gave us a letter home about going on a trip to the Calendar House Workshop for a trip.P7V’s class ( the class i am in ) are going on the 22nd and the other P7K/S Are going on the 29th.We are going to come back at lunchtime then.Our art teacher , Mrs Williamson, She has planned on making some World War II scenes.We are hoping on doing well.Some people in my class are thinking World War II is a bit boring because its all black and white.Well,at least it might be fun!

By Maryam

Click on my weemee to visit my blog.

Enchanted review

Jan11

We have both decided to write a review on the film Enchanted. We have both been to see it at the cinema and agree its a fabulous film. If you like singing princesses,humor,love and action this is your film. We have decieded to give it ***** and 9/10. The film starts off as a cartoon when Princess Giselle(Amy Adams) and Prince Edward(James Marsden) are going to get married but the evil step mother Queen Narissa ( susan sarandon) gets in the way by sending Giselle to New York City-certainly not a cartoon!Giselle meets a man called Robert(Patrick Dempsey) and his daughter Morgan(Rachel Covey). He looks after her and gets into a lot of fun but Roberts grlfriend who he is planning to propose to Nancy Termaine (Idina Menzel) doesn’t like Giselle. Edward misses his true love Giselle and comes to get her with Giselle’s best animal friend-the chipmunk Pip(Jeff Bennet & Kevin Lima)! He gets into a lot of trouble with the people. Queen Narissa does not want Edward to meet Giselle cause she wants to be queen so she sends her servant Nathaniel(Timothy Spall) to try and poison Giselle with apples. Nathaniel is unsuccessful and he is nasty Pip. So Queen Narissa comes herself and tries to give Giselle the apple. This ends up in a bit of a disaster and you can see it for yourself and the rest of the film at your nearest cinema. So get down there!

By Bethany & Nina

We got these pictures from google images.

Here’s a link to a video we got.

You can visit our own blogs by clicking on our Weemees

Bethany’s blog

Nina’s blog

Primary 7V Have Been Very Busy!

Jan10

It’s been quiet on our class blog for a while, but there’s been lots of activity going on in the P7 Individual Blogs and in the P7 Wonderful Wiki Spaces!! In class today, we decided that these activities should be shared on this class blog on a regular basis. Some have been writing about hopes for 2008, some have been writing reviews on games, etc.

…….. and recently some of the P7’s chose to write imaginative stories on their wikis or blogs.

‘Tasters’ are included here.

Story 1:

…… Ava Dun went to North Village High school in Orlando, Florida. Ava was a normal 16 year old girl but something very unusual happened to her and her best friends.

One extremely stormy day 16 year old Ava Dun was in her room very bored as all her friends had something on, like her best friend Carla who was at dancing lessons and her other best friend Grace who was babysitting her 6 year old little sister. So while Ava’s friends were busy, she lay on her bed looking at the ceiling daydreaming. Then Ava had an idea! She decided she would look through all her clothes, shoes and accessories and see if she could give any away to charity. Just as ava started to look through all her clothes her phone rang so she walked to her bedside table,picked up her phone and answered it. “Hello,” Ava said into the phone.

“Hey!” Replied Carla.

“How was dancing?” asked Ava.

“Good!” Carla said enthusiasticly, “I learned a whole new dance and i was wondering if i could come over and show you it?”

“I think that would be ok. My room is a bit messy though as i started to clear out my clothes to give to charity,” Ava murmered.

“Its fine, my room is the same except i don’t have an excuse for mine to be messy!” Carla giggled, ” Will i just get my mum to drop me off just now or would you rather i come over later?”

“Whenever you’re ready,” said Ava breezily, “See you soon!”

“Bye!” replied Carla.

Ava hung up and then walked over to the sea of clothes on her bed and started to look through them. Wow Ava thought i never realised how much clothes i had. Ava had eventually gone through the whole pile and she was absolutley shattered…………..

Click on the ‘weeme’ below to read more!!!

Story 2:

I was sitting on my bed listening to music because it was raining outside so I had nothing to do. I watch the raindrops slide down the window and thought; this is such a boring day. Then I decided to play a game. I went to my closet and opened the door. After that I looked for a game but there was an egg on top of the game I wanted to play. This was no ordinary egg. It had fancy patterns, it had a crystal on the top and it had diamonds round the middle. It was twice the size of an egg a chicken would lay. Then suddenly it began to crack and out came a dragon no bigger than a shoe. I called my brother through and he was stunned. He nearly fainted. “What will I do with it?” I asked in disbelief” “We could keep him as a pet and not let mum and dad know.” He said with sparkling eyes.

…………. want read how it ends? Click on the ‘weeme’ below!

Story 3:

It all started one Saturday morning when I got up and got my self ready. I had nothing to do so I decided to see what games I could play I had a good look and all the games i had were boring and i had already played millions of times.

I went out for a walk to the park.When I got to the park I fell of the swing and landed on the turf.When before my eyes fell a manual for something.I looked at the front cover and it said THE GAME!.I opened it up and it had characters, just then my friend came running over to me.He said whats that, I then explained to him what it was .We both opened it again to the characters and one of them was me and another one was him.We were both amazed at this book when all of a sudden WOOSH! we had been somehow warped into the game.We both looked at each other and we had taekwondo suits on and we were both white belts.

Lots of enimies came from every where and each level getting harder oponents to fight and we were moving up belts.It was gettin tough when we became black tags because we were against six black belts.After all that we got medals for winning the game and we became black belts and WOOSH! we were back at the park.We heard our parents calling us for dinner and I said,”I could do with a bite to eat”

THE END!!!

If you want to read more of Russell’s blog posts, click on his weeme below 🙂

Story 4 :

My story called Help

Here is a story about a girl who got very scared about really nothing in a way……………….jessica is a girl who lives in america .She used to live in Scotland but she moved as her dad got offered a job in america so they went.Jessica really didn’t want to go at first but then she thought about it for a while and she decided if it was best for her dad she would go.So jessica packed her bags the day before.She filled her bags up to the brim.She packed a loads of rubbish like millions of notebooks and stuff she didn’t really need.She threw out a lot of her old clothes as her mum said she would get lots of nice brand new things in America.

The next again day Jessica said goodbye to all of her friends at school, as she was leaving at lunch time.She started to cry as her friends really didn’t want her to leave so soon and full stop but she knew it had to be done.The bell rang for lunch Jessica slowly picked up her bag and walked out of school with all her classmates to the gates.They all said goodbye and then Jessica’s dad drove her home to pick up her bags……………..

Find out more – click below now!!

Blogging With Pupils – A Local Perspective

Jan9

Yesterday I spoke to Mary Devine, our Curriculum Development Manager. I wanted to find out my own Authority’s view of using web 2 tools with pupils. Mary left me in no doubt that this is seen as the way forward to develop all sorts of areas of learning.

At the moment there is no specific policy in place about the use of these new online tools. The main priority is to find ways of helping teachers to feel comfortable with the new technologies in order to monopolise on the online communication skills already being developed in the pupils’ lives outside of school.

Most teachers are supporting learning through the use of educational games, researching
on the internet, using Powerpoint, etc.

Outwith school, however, pupils are using ICT on a more social level.

They are using sites such as MSN, where they are involved in synchronous communication, and other sites such as Bebo or My Space, where they are involved in asynchronous communication. One way to ‘bridge the gap’ is seen to be the introduction
of Blogs and Wikis into classrooms.

There are already plans in place to work with some specific pupils from a range of primary schools in the region, but it was stressed that the aim was to allow all children to benefit from access to these tools.

Mary has given me some other contacts within the region ……. more posts pending!

Back to the Keyboard!

Jan8

A few days ago, I logged on to my email account to discover I had 2 new comments on this blog. They were both from Kim who has agreed to be my critical friend throughout this dissertation ‘experience’! I’m so grateful for these comments – they’ve ‘kicked me into action’ again. They were both very thought provoking .. I’m still contemplating them 2 or 3 days later 🙂

They can be found on this post and on this other post.

In my previous post I had written,

“When I asked them about their preference to using Bebo versus their Individual Blogs, I was really surprised that they thought that the Bebo site was ’safer’. They thought that it was safer because they had all opted to choose the ‘only friends can see my page’ option. They felt that there were no worries about ’strangers’ looking at their site – they were in control? They mentioned that the ‘public’ option on Bebo was for older people (bigger brothers and sisters) .……… so do they feel uncomfortable with their individual blogs?? Too exposed?”

Kim’s comment prompted me to investigate that issue more fully. Today in class, the children explained that it wasn’t that they felt unsafe using their blogs, but that they realised the dangers of placing individual photographs on there, or mentioning surnames, etc. These are things they feel that they can do on their Bebo sites because only their chosen friends can view these things. It’s not a case of them feeling uncomfortable with our Individual Blogs, just an awareness of the need to be more vigilant.

In her second comment, Kim asked,

“Maybe it comes back to the whole purpose of blogging in your room – have you discussed this with the kids? What do you use your blogs for?”

I found this a difficult question to answer. I think maybe there’s not just one purpose. I explained in the response that I’m trying not to allow them to become ‘teacher directed’. At the moment, for example, we’re writing group stories that will be turned in to Playscripts. Some groups are writing these on their wikis, some prefer to use paper and pencil. We aim to eventually act out these plays and video them for the blog…… that’s the plan, anyway 🙂

We’re also about to begin our WW2 topic. Before we do that, we’ll try to get a sense of history by making up good interview questions to ask an older member of the family. Some might choose to note down the responses, some might make a podcast and others have suggested carrying out a telephone interview.

Thanks again to my critical friend for helping me to keep focused!

Maybe it’s time to remind myself of the questions and aims I set out at the start of this dissertation journey ………. I’m finding that it’s vey easy to wander off the track:)

Question:

Can Weblogs and Wikis and other associated emerging social software tools be used to create an effective on-line learning community?

Aims:

To investigate the useful features, and barriers, when using blogs and wikis in a supportive on-line environment
To set appropriate tasks and to guide and monitor progress
To evaluate motivation, as well as formal and informal learning

Primary 7V Are Open to Comments :)

Dec18

You can access the most recent P7V individual posts in our sidebar …. just click on the RSS feeds.

It would be great if you could leave a comment on the individual blogs to let P7 know what you think of their posts 🙂

Classroom Conversations

Dec17

I’ve been contemplating Anne’s feedback on my draft research plan. She commented that it would be:

‘…………. interesting to keep an eye on gender issues (what is the gender breakdown of your group?), and on the kids’ reported use of social websites, etc at home’

Well … there are 26 pupils in the class – and the gender breakdown is half and half (Stuart F has recently moved to another school).

We had a conversation in class recently because I wanted to know if any of them used social websites. I thought that the answer would be that the the majority were using MSN, and that none were using MySpace or Bebo. I was honestly surprised at the response, and began to scribble down notes because I wanted to record the conversations as accurately as possible. Here’s a breakdown of the conversation ….

MSN users … 16 pupils out of the 26 ( 11 girls and 5 boys) use MSN regularly. 7 girls and 1 boy use MSN daily. The rest use it at least weekly and there was no real difference between the boy / girl ratio.

None of the children use ‘MySpace’, but 11 of them said that they had Bebo accounts (6 girls and 4 boys). None of them used Bebo daily, but they did all use it at least 2 or 3 times a week.

When I asked them about their preference to using Bebo versus their Individual Blogs, I was really surprised that they thought that the Bebo site was ‘safer’. They thought that it was safer because they had all opted to choose the ‘only friends can see my page’ option. They felt that there were no worries about ‘strangers’ looking at their site – they were in control? They mentioned that the ‘public’ option on Bebo was for older people (bigger brothers and sisters).

……… so do they feel uncomfortable with their individual blogs?? Too exposed?

Merry Christmas from Carronshore and 'Voices of the World'!

Dec12

Our December task for the ‘Voices of the World’ project is to sing ‘Jingle Bells’ in our own language and use one of tools from a previous task – Voki, Animoto or One True Media.

We chose ‘One True Media’ ……… Thank you, P7V, for another great performance 🙂

We’ll include a link to the VOTW wikispace again once all the entries from around the world have been added – meanwhile, ‘Season’s Greetings’ from Carronshore 🙂

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.onetruemedia.com/share_view_player?p=473ae65460dd3c9a2358f4" width="408" height="382" wmode="transparent" /]

Merry Christmas from Carronshore and ‘Voices of the World’!

Dec12

Our December task for the ‘Voices of the World’ project is to sing ‘Jingle Bells’ in our own language and use one of tools from a previous task – Voki, Animoto or One True Media.

We chose ‘One True Media’ ……… Thank you, P7V, for another great performance 🙂

We’ll include a link to the VOTW wikispace again once all the entries from around the world have been added – meanwhile, ‘Season’s Greetings’ from Carronshore 🙂

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.onetruemedia.com/share_view_player?p=473ae65460dd3c9a2358f4" width="408" height="382" wmode="transparent" /]