Sports Day is coming up and Grade 4&5B are getting themselves ready!
Archive for the “Our project” Category 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: fionabeal 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.
Danvan 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.
Our school participated in ‘Bandanna Day – Rope of Hope’ recently in support of cancer patients helped by the Sunflower fund. The classes had a competition to see who could bring the most bandannas to school. Grade 4&5B won the bandanna competition by bringing 61 bandannas. The whole school made a ‘rope of hope’ out of bandannas right around the school.    We have been using a lovely free programme called Microsoft Autocollage to make cards for our senior citizens. We invited them to come and visit us again so that we could give them their cards.   
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Our collaborative stories are on Miss Ale’s school website! Yippee!Posted by: fionabeal in Our projectToday I noticed that Miss Ale in Argentina has put all our two-nation and three-nation collaborative stories on her school website in Argentina. Wow! Thank you Miss Ale – you have done this beautifully. It was a great experience writing with Argentina and Canada. Here is the link: http://www.sanandres.esc.edu.ar/olivosp/extranet2009/6to/globalwriting/index.htm I have chosen Jengil’s writing today to tell you about the exciting day we had on a pirate ship. “Yesterday on the 20th October we went on a fabulous outing to the waterfront and you’d never guess what we did! We sailed on a REAL pirate ship. It was wicked! It was called the Jolly Rodger! When we first climbed on everyone was racing round the boat exploring the decks of the ship. There was even a bar where you could buy drinks – not much in the line of kiddies drinks though, only beers, rums, whiskey – all very yucky for us! Then the engine roared and we all leaned over the edge trying to see the boat splatter through the waves, keeping our eyes peeled for dolphins, whales, penguins, and seals. We sailed off into the distance. Exiting the harbour we spotted a seal kindly greeting us with its flipper in the air. We sailed further away from the harbour and it became clear that there was land ahoy but not just any land bu Robben Island! Although we weren’t adventuring to Robben Island we were still very excited. The pirates started doing a play for us. I didn’t understand much so I think a pirate’s life must be very confusing! WE kept sailing and THEN the moment the whole class was waiting for… DOLPHINS! They were gently leaping in and out of the water. Our mouths dropped open, but then they disappeared just like that! The pirates started giving us tattoos that said THE JOLLY ROGER! We started turning around and a few minutes later heaved ourselves back into the harbour! And Then Mrs B let us go shoppingAfter the outing we were all tired but after all it was a spectacular day! ARRRRRRG!”    Some of our senior citizens from our Senior Citizens project came to one of the performances of our school musical. They loved it.    Our school musical Peter Pan was amazing! Many of the Grade 4&5B students had lead roles in the play! <    |
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