The next step on the ladder

Article posted September 1, 2007 at 07:38 AM GMT • Reads 228

Going up?



When I get on a ladder it is always both a bit exciting and it also makes me a bit nervous. I like the idea of climbing up; being careful as

I do it and looking at things with a different perspective.

"Wow I am right up close to the ceiling."

"I can reach that now. Aha! got it!"



I feel nervous too and that's why it often helps to have someone hold the ladder as I climb. I think then that the ladder is not going to slip and I will fall.



When my Dad fell off the ladder one time as he was painting the house he told me that as he fell down he held on very tightly to the paintbrush.

I thought that was very funny. At least he had something to hold on to!



So welcome 5W and readers to the Journey of 07_08.

Put your feet on the ladder - get some friends to help you - and let's go......

Success

Article posted September 24, 2007 at 03:54 AM GMT • Reads 43

I got it!

RATS

Article posted February 10, 2008 at 03:05 PM GMT • Reads 41

Welcome to the Year of the Rat.

We start a new year - and so we can start some new things as well.



Let's get our mouses busy...and do some real blogging.

SPELLING STORY

Article posted February 15, 2008 at 06:36 AM GMT • Reads 38

Use eight words from your spelling list and see if you can put together a fun - or crazy - story.



See what you can do....and then share it with us.



We might see if we can guess what your spelling words were by writing them in the comments section!

Spelling / Spolling/ Sproing!

Article posted February 17, 2008 at 09:53 AM GMT • Reads 40

The spelling stories are great fun.

I was surprised at the violence....whew....but very impressed at how you managed to weave the wrods together.



The SPOLLING, er SPILLING...er the words you wrote...are not exactly purrfect=http://



Please go and check a classmate's work and in the comments section put in the correct spelling for them. That way everyone may start to improve there spolling - and blog writting - skills.

Keep your eyes open!

Article posted February 20, 2008 at 12:09 AM GMT • Reads 37

Keep your eyes open so that you know what is happening out in the world.



As one of the six organising themes for PYP we do "Sharing the Planet."



That's why I would like you to have a look at the news links that have been made and then do some reporting about what you read.



You might like to write your thoughts about the news events too.

The SEED VAULT and PICS

Article posted February 26, 2008 at 04:25 PM GMT • Reads 39

Wow - we are learning all sorts of things and moving fast. That is EXCELLENT!

You have now looked at the Seed Bank opening on 26th Feb in Freezing cold Norway.....AND....you are learning how to add pictures to your blogs.



Great!

Pics - oops!

Article posted February 26, 2008 at 04:29 PM GMT • Reads 39

It is great to have pictures on your blog pages but there is one little TEENSY WEENSY ITSY BITSY TEENY WEENY....problem.

Can you imagine what it might be?



Well - it is about copying other people's work and other people may think it is yours!



To be principled (fair/honest) people we need to acknowledge where we get our pictures from.



So how are we going to do that?

Pictures and stuff....

Article posted February 27, 2008 at 08:06 PM GMT • Reads 39

Some of you are getting very excited putting in all sorts of things in your blogs.

You will see some things don't work.



At this stage just work on getting the HTML code right for the pictures that you want....OK?

Mumbai, India

Article posted February 29, 2008 at 12:39 PM GMT • Reads 50

Well here I am in Mumbai,

India - and making a blog entry for you there in Penang.



I go to the American School of Bombay in a taxi each morning and there are lots of people walking along the road and people everywhere washing their taxi cars and little scooter type taxis called "auto rickshaws."



If I didn't write about the scary quality of the air and the smells which are not very nice....and you know me....when you are all going EEWWW! I never mind....so HEY! it was so bad in one place this morning that I thought I might even start to vomit...well...as I said "if I didn't write about that I wouldn't be telling the truth."

But it is not the only thing to focus on.



The conference is very good. I played with a little robot kit and learnt some things yesterday. In fact I woke up in the night thinking about what was the answer to an idea that I had.



Now THAT was much better than thinking about poo smells!



Here are a few pictures....

In Mumbai 01

nd YES I would have replied to you Martin, if you had given me some form of contact address. Thank you for your comment.

...a

Mumbai too...

Article posted March 3, 2008 at 02:10 PM GMT • Reads 42

A few of us did a Sunday tour of Mumbai which was excellent to give some sort of a perspective of where we were.

Going to a conference and sitting inside; talking to people and learning is really important but it has to be put into The Big Picture....meaning where are we? What is happening in the world around us?



And of course, "What do I know? What can I learn?"



Here are the photos that I took - they are not brilliant (but a few are very good). I hope they give you something interesting to look at and even something to think about.

Mumbai pics right now...but we have moved on.

Article posted March 8, 2008 at 05:38 AM GMT • Reads 43

I had the wrong pics in the blog entry but I've fixed that up for you now.

In the meantime, however, we have moved on....

we've got noodles that we have made to be cooked.

Sauce to be prepared.

A sardine factory to visit.

We're making bread...



While we are doing all of that I'd like us to listen to a radio report about people in Madagascar who have just been hit by a huge hurricane (cyclone) and they are going to have difficulties getting food.

A Korean Surprise

Article posted March 11, 2008 at 02:44 PM GMT • Reads 40

While looking at our Wiki where we are putting stuff about our central idea, [The production of food is a complex process] I suddenly received an email from a kid in Korea.



It was such a wonderful surprise to think that although he was back in his very busy life that he would stop and have a look to see what kids in his last school were doing.



This is why we work in these type of places - blogs, Wikis....it doesn't matter where we are we can still work together or communicate and keep our sense of belonging.



So....Hi HARRY! (You're famous!!!!)

RIA = lively, merry, joyful

Article posted March 19, 2008 at 02:43 PM GMT • Reads 50

It was a very hard-hitting truth when someone said to me "this dance is supposed to be fun, but it isn't!"

"Hmm! We have to do something about this as dancing IS important....in fact I don't think we do enough of it."

I am so delighted to share these photos with The World because they show, in fact, the fun and joy of YOU dancing.



They also show nervousness, the worry of performing and trying to do your best. Whew - all that practice and preparation?

They also show something special which you are all going to say... "MrW, that is so disgusting!"... but to me as a teacher they show Love and Caring.

The Love, attention and concern of your parents and guardians to get a costume for you so that you could join in.

The Caring of your classmates who said "I'll bring this for you..."

And Mrs C. who brought things in so that you would look fantastic. Proof is when you look at the photos.



You were great - if you are reading this and saying "But I made a mistake!" - forget it! (Remember you're a kid and you're allowed to make mistakes. I think the only person who might be worried is y-o-u.)

RIA - joyful, happy?

YES.....I think the photos show that quite well. What do you think?

So pleased you're leaving!

Article posted March 25, 2008 at 04:47 PM GMT • Reads 49

What a terrible thing to say to one of our students....except that I AM pleased because we will have someone reading our blogs from far away and BEST OF ALL writing and sending us photos.

Suddenly the world is not so big after all.



Here are the photos from the Shooing Away Party.

(Best wishes classmate! Can't wait to hear from you...and even though I pretend we are shooing you away....oh.... :(



We are waiting for the message on the webcam in the main square....remember that?



WAIT! I've changed my mind - open the aeroplane doors - COME BACK!!!

So....any news?

Article posted April 20, 2008 at 03:32 PM GMT • Reads 55

We've been on end of term break for two weeks.



What has happened to you all? I know that NP left a pencil case in the room Because I got a phone call about that. WM was getting a gazillion emails on his Quizlet account, LY made a list to study, KD discovered some more games on what he thought was a BBC News site and JP is in Grade3 in Damascus! MM and LY I think, are Friendsters.



I had a tooth that broke - the peanut that I was eating suddenly became gritty like sand - not nice. The engine on my boat made an expensive noise and stopped - not nice - but I enjoyed fixing it.

On the last night a fish jumped out of the water onto the jetty and couldn't get back in the water.

I had to think for a moment what to do....



It got cooked!



del.icio.us

Put on the brake!

Article posted April 28, 2008 at 12:02 AM GMT • Reads 43

STOP. Yes, stop.

I think we need to stop and just look at the writing that you are doing for your blog posts.

I am saying to a lot (notice there is a space between the two parts there?) of people to use capital letters.



Names of people, places, days, months and I



Fullstops. (US: Period) It is so hard to read people's work when itallrunstogetherlikethat - or that is how it seems. It's a bit like a ten car pile-up on a freeway. Separation of the sentences gives the reader a chance to take the information in chunks and process it.



Think about the sardines in the basket and the sardines in the cans. That's a metaphor for ideas that you have being put into separate bits.



This blog post is about you ande your writing skills. Our buzz word for this term is "skills" which is a focus on what skills do you take with you now into your next year of learning.

Old people

Article posted May 4, 2008 at 03:26 AM GMT • Reads 45

Here is a video to look at.

It's from a group in Iceland called Sigur Ros.

Their recording studio is in a swimming pool! Well, it's an empty swimming pool and they put a roof over it. I thought that was a brilliant idea and a good example of thinking differently.







Have a go at writing a poem...we have done different types if you are not sure what to do....



You could think about OLD PEOPLE that you see around you or someone old who is important to you, or an old person that you know or who lives near you.



I wonder what old people think about?



More interestingly - how do you know when a person is old?



Like me. 55 and I'm a wreck!

Writing poetry

Article posted May 13, 2008 at 12:00 AM GMT • Reads 45

What is poetry?

Well, I think of it as words squeezed together to give us a picture or an idea in our minds.

The words are carefully chosen to give the best picture possible.



For me I have to read poetry out loud. That way I can hear the sound of the words. That helps me to hear patterns that the poet may have made with the words.



Here is a student reading a poem that her sister wrote.

It is our VERY FIRST recording on a little MP4 player. Our first posted audio file.

wysiwyg = Wizzy wig!

Article posted June 8, 2008 at 02:13 PM GMT • Reads 244

What You See Is What You Get....meaning....a few things in my mind.


Firstly, Mr David Warlick (the guy who set up and runs this site) has put in a text editor. So you can change the text to make it more interesting for your readers or to get them to focus on something important.

I am also thinking about the quality of writing and editing. I have published blog entries as they are submitted. This means that how you have written them is how they are published.

I found this very difficult to do....because I felt bad about publishing work that is not correct and clearly needs to be corrected.

My idea is to go back and comment on your work and you may like to see what you can fix.

I am doing this because it was taking too long to get you to correct your work and fix it up before publishing.

Something to think about is WYSIWYG...meaning what are you telling people about the quality of your writing?

Is it your best for public viewing - or have you just done it "because you have to?"

 

Have a think about that.

One thing I would like to say is the THINKING is what you can do well.....just in case you think I am Grumpy all the time and don't acknowledge the effort you are making.