There are several of these fun photo sites and I have been trying out different ones with different classes. This example is from Picjoke.com. After choosing their fun photos the class wrote a creative writing paragraph about their picture. Here is one written by Ulfah in Grade 5.
“There was once a girl who was a great artist and she lived with her mother. Her father died in 1986 when she was just five years old. One day she asked her mother what she should draw? Her mother told her that she could draw one of her friends. A few days later she asked her friend, Ulfah she could draw her. Ulfah of course said yes and the next day Ulfah came over. Cameron’s mother made some cookies and poured some milk. Cameron started to draw Ulfah but she didn’t have to look at Ulfah the whole time because she had a photo of her. When she was finished drawing she started to paint and that took hours! Finally she was done and they all ate up the cookies and milk up! The painting was beautiful, needless to say. Cameran gave it to Ulfah for a present”.
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With my next Grade 7 class I thought a ‘Piclit’ would be an exciting way to summarise the holiday. This is a lovely programme from Piclit.com. Now where did I hear about it – probably from Larry Ferlazzo’s blog! I pick up so many good ideas from there. This was also a creative way to summarise the holiday. You can either choose to use Piclit’s word bank, or you can use your own words. We chose Freestyle this time; but I think later we will use Piclit’s word bank to create poems.    Wow, I read about Dropbox in a blog post, and it really is amazing! You download it on the various computers that you use, and it creates a folder in Documents entitled ‘My dropbox’. Whatever you put into that dropbox folder instantly appears on your other computers. It is a free, virtual flashdrive that can hold 2gb of data. Incredible! It makes you wonder about the discoveries of the future – where is technology heading!
 Clipart is from Scrapbook Factory De Luxe Well, last year I used this blog ‘Bonding through blogging’ with a combined Grade 4&5 class as we learned about the wonderful blogosphere together. What an exciting, memorable and mindstretching year it was! We made so many new friends around the world, and we loved collaborating on projects. Whew! This year all the classes have changed, and since we have decided to introduce classroom blogs for all the Grades, I am going to use this particular blog in a new way – writing about all the exciting things that I am learning about Web2 every day. I am the computer teacher at my primary school. I teach Grade 1 – Grade 7 and I have 24 classes every week, plus two afternoon computer clubs after school. The classes are big – around 35 or more and I have no helper! But that doesn’t damper my enthusiasm for creating an exciting curriculum for my students. In this new beginnings post I want to say a big THANK YOU to Edublogs. I have learned so much from the Edublog’s team, and all the amazing Edublogs’ teachers spread across the globe who are so willing to share their knowledge. Here’s to Edublogs!
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Projects that caught my eye at the ITF in Brazil, November 2009Posted by: fishhoekprimary in Our projectThese are just a few of the many interesting projects at the World Finals of the Innovative Teacher in Brazil in November 2009. (Please click on each picture to move to the following slide,) Projects at the ITF in Brazil
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Sports Day is coming up and Grade 4&5B are getting themselves ready!    Today we made photostories in class (using Microsoft Photostory 3)about three of the outings this term. Here is Chemar’s.
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A week at the World Innovative Teacher Finals in Salvador BrazilPosted by: fishhoekprimary in Our projectMrs Beal was very fortunate to be able to attend the World Finals of the Microsoft Innovative Teachers’ Forum in Salvador Brazil from 2 – 9 November. This is a post about this amazing experience.
Monday 2nd November 
Our group from Africa comprises 25 people – teachers from Africa. a reporter from the Sunday Independent, one of the judges for the event, principals, observers from Namibia, and several Microsoft employees from Africa. Here are three of us at the airport. Can you guess what we are carrying?
After a nine hour trip we changed flights at an enormous international airport in Sao Paula (in another part of Brazil) and caught a connecting flight to Salvador. We arrived at our hotel at midnight. We are staying at the Pestana Bahai which is a 23-story five-star hotel. The sea is very loud – should sleep well tonight. Tomorrow we have a meeting all morning with our Africa team, and then the conference opens at 5pm. Do you know what the time difference is between South Africa and Salvador, Brazil? Tuesday 3rd November It’s a hot Brazilian day! I must say that to wake up to the sound of the swirling, thundering waves is quite a treat. I have just been to a Brazilian breakfast on the 23rd floor. What breathtaking views!
   We are meeting such interesting teachers from other parts of the world. Apparently the Canadian team shared their flight with 17 people in wheelchairs who were taking part in the Brazilian Bocce Ball Para-Olympics. They also said that after they had been through customs at Sao Paula airport they were surrounded by screaming teenage fans who were welcoming the arrival of actors from Twilight. When the actors arrived with their bodyguards the crowd went wild with excitement. Do you know this acting pair’s names? 12 noon: A trip to the Mall
One thing I discovered at the Mall – hardly anyone in Brazil speaks English. At school the children’s first language is Portuguese and their second language is Spanish. I went into a huge computer shop and not one of their many assistants could help me in English! What would you do in a situation like that? 5pm: Innovative schools diplay
6pm: The Conference officially opens
7pm: An evening of dance    9pm: We put up our displays We put up our poster displays along with samples of work ready for tomorrow. Here are some of the South African teachers getting their stands ready.    Wednesday 4th November    We are really enjoying meeting all theses teachers from around the world. It would appear that Canada has the most people (17 teachers). with most other countries sending between 1 – 4 teachers. There are 26 countries represented. One of Canadian teachers, Nathan Tuft, made a sound recording of some of the different nationalities represented at the event Each person was asked to introduce themselves and select a snippet of music. Later that day, Mr. Toft edited the music and voices down to a two minute soundscape. Don’t you think that was an innovative idea? Here are Nathan Tuft and Jane Smith from Canada with Wellington from Nigeria just after he was recorded.
In the afternoon we were put into groups of five – eight teachers. In our team we have Canada, South Africa and Brazil…and oh dear, two of the three Brazilians don’t speak English. Tomorrow we are having a day of sightseeing in which we have to create a group project to present on Friday. How would you manage doing a group project when nearly half the group couldn’t speak English? In the evening our Africa team went out for dinner. The food is very different here but at least we recognised some of the meat! What sort of meat do you think this is? Thursday 5th: Sightseeing Churches    The Colonial District    Policeman could be seen everywhere. They were probably trying to protect tourists by chasing away people begging and making a bad impression on their city. We saw some street children who were begging for money, and we also noticed prisoners who were cleaning up the area under supervision. Have you ever come across street children where you live? The Elevator
The Market    In Salvador you can see a huge contrast between rich and poor. There are some modern-looking hotels and houses, and in between them are large run-down areas where they just build on top of other dwellings. There are many, many huge apartments blocks to house all the people.    When we got back we had to work on our projects and also attend meetings. We were shown many of the new free Microsoft products that are available to teachers ssuch as Songsmith and Deep Zoom Composer. (We have also had amazing presentations by key speakers about the many problems the world is facing; and although many of these problems seem impossible to solve, one of the important steps to solving them revolves around education and technology.) One of our group members made an autocollage of our group using Microsoft Autocollage.
9am: Showing our competition projects 1pm: Presenting our group projects to the others 7pm: Awards ceremony    And guess what – next year the World Finals are taking place in…. Cape Town! Everyone went wild with excitement at the announcement. This brought to an end the conference. Saturday 7th November The taxi ride was interesting and a bit frightening. The traffic is busy – three lanes filled with taxis cars, buses, and motor cycles. Everyone seems fearless. People drive on the right hand side of the road and they are worse than Cape Town taxi drivers at changing lanes without warning, and squeezing into tiny places without considering other drivers! Motorcycle drivers weave their way through the traffic as well. On our way we see many panel beating shops…now I understand! We visited the Rodin Art Exhibition. Then we went to a beach along the coast and enjoyed the sand and the ocean. It was a day to remember.    Sunday 9th November It is time to go home to South Africa after a wonderful, life-changing week. We left the hotel at 9am …tired but happy and excited about all the new ideas and friends made in Salvador – with lasting memories embedded in our hearts. I think the two countries that impacted me the most were Canada and Singapore. The Canadians are very friendly and hospitable among other things. The Singaporeans are very high- tech, innovative and focused. Apparently they have no natural resources in Singapore so the government sees its people as resources and pours money into education. Thank you to Microsoft for this totally enriching experience.
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A technological day at Microsoft in JohanneburgPosted by: fishhoekprimary in Our projectDanvan and Mrs Beal had a great adventure on Monday. Mrs Beal and two other teachers in South Africa were invited by National Education to fly to Johanesburg to Microsoft’s offices to take part in a videoconference with three Nigerian teachers in Abuja. Each teacher was asked to bring a student, so Danvan went with Mrs Beal. They met the Deputy Minister of Education and took part in a whole morning of activities. All the participants were given a book about Nelson Mandela by the Deputy Minister of Education. It was a very exciting day.
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