Tag: School’s out Friday

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School’s out Friday

When I first started School’s out Friday posts I discovered improveverywhere. They have been a constant source of fodder for these posts, and I’ve been able to see the evolution of a great idea turning into a financial proposition.

This latest video ‘I love lunch‘, was filmed for the US Today Show and has Ann Curry appearing in a cameo role. Improveverywhere have recently released ‘Causing a scene‘, a book about their exploits. I picked up a copy for our school library. They are certainly becoming more mainstream and it will be interesting watching their growth in the next year or so. I can feel a commercial media deal coming on!

Today, for me, was one of those days where you reflect on life.  I attended the funeral of a former colleague from a previous school. I’m reflecting because Pam’s life was cut short just when retirement was looming, along with plans for travel and spending time with young grandchildren.  What was inspiring about the day was the turn-up of her former work colleagues to pay their respects. Pam was our school receptionist; she had impeccable phone manners and a smile for all who crossed her path. The school was not an easy one, some of the kids were difficult and the staff needed to be united. We were a real community and you could feel that today. Pam would have loved being a part of it.

So, do something that makes you feel good this weekend. Enjoy life. I’ll try to as I put together a presentation about ‘Getting started with Web 2.0’ this weekend for the VITTA conference on Monday. Wish me luck with that one!

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School’s out Friday

I can’t wait to show my son this latest effort from the improveverywhere crew. This is Grocery Store Musical. My son is a huge fan of Food Court Musical and I am too. I don’t think this one lives up to the quality of Food Court Musical, but it’s still worth watching and raises a smile.

Been a busy week for me. Camp all week, writing a blog from there for parents, and today I was the recipient of the John Ward Award from the School Library Association of Victoria. I’ll write more about that over the weekend. Pretty worn out right now and in need of a sleep-in!

Have a great weekend. Hot one coming Melbourne’s  way.

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School’s out Friday

Christopher Rehage walked through China for a year and recorded the trip with a series of photographs that chronicled the growth of his beard and his hair and everything in between. It’s fascinating and worth watching more than once to take it all in.

Our school library is going to be demolished and rebuilt over the coming months. I’m thinking of taking photos of the stages of the build so that I can put it all together at the end and create something akin to Christopher’s effort. I think it’s a good idea. I’ll have to make sure I take the photo from the same position each time and actually discipline myself to do it. Considering I’ve written it here it might just happen.

Great weather coming up this weekend and I’m off to camp on Monday. Should be fun.

Have a good one!

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School’s out Friday

I dare you not to smile while watching this. Bet you’ll find it impossible not to.

This is the brainchild of Volkswagen, who’ve developed a site called The Fun Theory.com . Here’s what they say on their site about their motivation;

This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better.

I think we all know this to be true. Think of the best PD’s you’ve been to, the best lessons you’ve taught, the best classrooms you were ever a part of. Was humour an element of the experience? Most of those that have stuck in my memory have an element of fun/humour attached to it. For me, humour is a vital ingredient that I use in my interactions with students; it makes the course of the day far more enjoyable for both me and them. It’s important for connective purposes. I think most of us would agree that relationship forming is a key ingredient for creating environments where our students have a desire to learn.

You have the opportunity to enter a competition on The Fun Thoery site. The Fun Theory award carries with it a 2,500 (euro) monetary incentive. The competition has been extended to December 15th, 2009. Here’s what you need to do if you’re interested;

Find your own evidence for the theory that fun is best way to change behaviour for the better. For yourself, for the environment or something entirely different. Your entries should be presented with a written explanation plus a visualisation of the idea itself. It could be a simple sketch, photos or a film of a prototype. You decide what will do your entry justice.

For inspiration, here’s another example from The Fun Theory of how you can change peoples’ behaviour for the better by adding an element of fun.

Love the idea.

Long weekend for me coming up. Very happy about that too! Enjoy whatever comes your way.

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School’s out Friday

Now this is special.

This video is just a little something the students at my school put together to celebrate the fact that it was their last official school day on Wednesday of this week.

Milly Davison and Elly Dixon were the brains behind it all, inspired by a video shown to them by Media/Art  teacher Emma Cleine. Here are Milly’s words about how it was achieved;

We were inspired by a video on youtube that we saw, and decided to try to recreate our own version. The planning process was a little bit tricky in working out how best to get everyone to be in the right places at the right time, as well as how we would be able to film it steadily. We filmed at 7am on a cold rainy morning before school, with a set of iPod speakers duct taped to the top of the camera playing the song through at full blast. After a single practice run through we started filming, and on the third take we had a near perfect shot!

Aren’t they just brilliant. You have to know that staff and students from Yr 5 – 11 were all in the school hall watching this at the start of their last assembly. The final shot in the video ends in the foyer of that hall with a picture of the door. As soon as it finished they all came charging in to thunderous applause. Schools really are special places aren’t they? Such community exists within its walls.

They really are a very special group of girls. It was this group who helped me begin my Web 2.0 journey really. They were in Year 9 and I worked with them on the creation of digital stories in reponse to the Literature Circle books they were studying. They produced wonderful work back then, and you can see how they have evolved into inspiring film makers today. Who knows what will lay in store for this special group of very talented (and incredibly fun to be around!) girls. We will definitely be missing them. Good luck to the Toorak College Yr 12 students of 2009!!

Here’s the video that inspired them. It was produced by students from the University of Quebec.

Below is a QR code from Kaywa QR code generator. Now, how to read it? Next part of the puzzle!!

 

qrcode

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School’s out Friday

Twelve million people or so have viewed this on YouTube, so I’m probably showing you something that you’ve already seen. I am part of the rest of the worlds’ population who has not seen this 3 year old explain the finer points of the plot of Star Wars until today. I’m pleased to let you know that I enjoyed every second of it!

There is something so endearing about young children and their attempts to describe their experiences. I remember very well my son when he was 3 yrs old. He  would act out the opening scene of Toy Story 2 in our loungeroom, commando rolls and all,  while it was playing on our TV set. I only wish that I had captured it on video for posterity’s sake. I would have been able to embed it here for you all to enjoy.

This weekend I intend to familiarise myself with Google Wave. I got an invite on Wednesday but haven’t had a lot of time to fiddle due to Speech Night commitments at school. Now that it’s over, I can dedicate a bit of time to learning the finer points of this new approach to communication. I’ll write a post letting you know my thoughts once I feel more adept.

Weather looks to be sunny here in Melbourne for the weekend so hopefully I’ll get a nice injection of Vitamin D. Hope you have a good one!

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School’s out Friday

I just turned on my computer, opened Twhirl (my twitter desktop client) and saw a tweet from Breaking News announcing Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.

When he was elected into office I felt hopeful. He is such a marvellous orator. Someone who makes you stop and listen carefully to his words. It’s interesting discussing his influence with the students in my class. They too feel hopeful about world politics with Barack leading the United States. The Nobel committee said this about him;

“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future”

and this;

“His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.”

When the committee was asked why they awarded the prize only 8 months after Barack had taken office, the reply of committee head Thorbjoern Jagland was;

“It was because we would like to support what he is trying to achieve. It is a clear signal that we want to advocate the same as he has done”

‘The values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population’. Yes, we are more similar than we are different. People everywhere love their families and friends and want the best for them.  Here’s hoping this message sent by the Nobel committee will help diplomatic relations between countries and engender a new form of leadership.

Have a good weekend. Do something with friends and family.

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School’s out Friday

Some of you who follow me on Twitter might have noted the tweets I sent out yesterday related to a lawnmower incident. No body parts missing unlike the video above! If you missed them here’s a bit of a recap;

Lawnmowing_incident-_Twitter_update 

It was pretty dramatic at the time I can tell you. This was the second time (ever!) that I had mown the lawn. I was removing the catcher and noticed a big clump of grass still left inside the lawn mower. I naively thought I’d just reach in and remove it. It didn’t cross my mind at all that the reason it’s called a lawn mower is because it mows the lawn and has sharp rotating blades inside to enable it to do this! Suffice to say, it wasn’t long before I discovered this fact. Lawn mower was left running after I’d extracted my hand, saw the blood and ran to the kitchen sink all the while screaming ‘Oh my God, Oh my God’, or something  to that effect.

Thankfully, my finger was intact, just badly cut and badly bruised. After receiving  some much needed comfort from my children, I was back out there finishing off the job. This time, when removing the catcher, I decided to leave the offending clumps of grass to their fate!

A birthday for me this weekend then back to school on Monday.  Have a good one and stay safe!

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School’s out Friday

You have to watch this.

This is a TED Talk from Jonathon Zittrain, a social theorist who proposes in his talk that the world is not becoming less friendly. In fact, we are seeing the opposite, and this is demonstrated through the way people have made use of the internet . The way we readily share and distribute information, the way we act as nodes in a network, the way we  support others through this medium means that we are seeing morality and humanity come to the fore in our interactions with one another.

He uses some great examples. Wikipedia gets a mention. Jonathon states that we are always 45 minutes away from chaos on Wikipedia with spambots trying to embed ads and people trying to deliberately mess with pages. What saves Wikipedia are the Wikipedians; the thin geeky line who ensure it remains useable for the rest of us.  He refers to the Star Wars kid and the page on Wikipedia devoted to that ongoing episode. Wikipedians debated whether or not they should include the young boy’s name on the page and ultimately decided not to. This was due to the fact that the boy in question suffered psychologically from the exposure that video drew to him. Here is the information on the page indicating to contributors the conditions for any additions;

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2009)

This will be a great video to use in media literacy classes. In fact, any class where you are discussing the impact of new media on our lives.

Have a great weekend. My pick for the Grand Final here in Melbourne tomorrow. St.Kilda all the way!!

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School’s out Friday

Hey everyone. Have you seen this? Our local guys have done good!

It’s Hamish and Andy, fellow Melbournians,  appearing last night on ‘The Jay Leno Show‘. They demonstrated World Championship Ghosting  to a US audience. You’ve just got to appreciate Hamish’s sandman move. Classic ghosting technique at its finest.

If you missed an earlier School’s out Friday post that highlighted Team Ghosting, don’t fret. I’ve embedded it here. Watch and learn.

Finally, school holidays have arrived here in Australia. Sleeping in, sitting out in the sun, reconnecting with my network. Aaahh….sounds like bliss….

Enjoy your weekend. Live life to the fullest. Go ghosting.