Blogger's been down...aaahhhh! Withdrawal symptoms.

So it is not apparently publishing comments. Anyway further to my last posting....I'd had a conversation by email, with Lynne Horn who just posts her sound files like any other file to the tobermoryhs blog..so thought I'd give it a try. Chancer..you might say. Well yes, if there were an easy route so that I could have the children do their own! She is on edublogs though, and if it were the case...as easy as that...mmmm...rather than a host for sound...got enough problems with the hosts for pictures, in school...might be the time to change??? Advice would be good! I'm creating Mpg3 files by the dozen...

Another way to spend a weekend!

Was wondering if it might be possible to pull in a sound file, as I believe it works like that on some systems.....It couldn't be that easy could it?

trial run1.MP3

Users/marlynmoffat/Desktop/MZ000001.MP3

No I didn't really think so. Now if Andrew reads this he may remember giving some advice about hosting.....trouble was I couldn't remember where that was....mail... blog ..somewhere.

Curriculum par excellence!

Question to class. I need someone who can write in French to post the questions you made up with Mrs Black for Flappy. ( We wanted to respond to the new Tobermory blog, because their teacher had posted on our blog)) Answer...I don't need to write in French because the letters are the same, but they make French words, and Flappy will understand. Yo! Go do it then!
Creating a wall display....gotta do that ..Liam made a buggy for the bears with Christy . So we have to have the evidence of our technologicals. It's on the blog already. So having printed off the picture to be seen by the whole school next to his beautiful drawing...I wondered what he had done with his report. He told me it was on the blog. No paper copy. I sent him off to look at the blog and what he had written and he came back to me later and suggested that instead of writing it down again, he could copy and paste what he wrote. He was a wee bit stuck as to where to. So suggested a new Appleworks...(We have to let the rest of the school know what we are doing.) Later he came back with what he had printed..."I made it as big as I can so people will see it" Woweeeee!!!!! For Liam....For primary 3!!!!
I could get emotional about this....is it the teddy....the blog...the children..my class...communication...? Yes! When I see/hear their excitement..
But back to earth. I still have to do my forward plans, and I don't know where they are going, because every day brings a new revelation.

Tools that work!

My warcry!

I always have claimed I wanted that for the children, but I'd like it too. Over the hols an airport had decided to misbehave, for no apparent reason, and with the afternoon planned for online activity of various sorts, couldn't get online! Jumped through fiery hoops and then switched the whole lot off...airport and all. And after 45 mins of effort....put it back on reselected and rejoined the network, on 11 machines ...et voila! Just in time to shut down. Now can you imagine the kind of chaos that might have been in some classrooms....I had other things for the children to do...but that was our timetabled ibook, blogging time....gone.
Today....having reinstalled the Software for the promethean board, to work with 10.4.5.....It appeared to do so...on one of the machines I use...but it won't on the other....dumped and reinstalled and again.....still won't on the other. Latest version and updates! Well, on the machine that will open the activities...it won't retain the relationship with the activote pods that we had so loved...Had to get them to recognise twice....still wouldn't retain when an activity was opened. ...so had to revert to an older slug of a machine to make use of the mental arith this morning, and couldn't use the pods for ad hoc stuff on the website we were to explore, since the machine didn't have Flash8 that was needed...to navigate and make full use of!
Think how much worse this is for a less confident teacher....with a difficult class....who knows less about the system.....who was doing this for the first time....
I'm a busy class teacher...this I could do without too....and my class deserve better. I compliment them constantly on their patience. so they now make a thing about displaying it.....but I want to SCreeeeeeeeeem!!! So we didn't get time to record their fab stories...I said I was sorry about that....and one wee soul said....That's OK. We'll do it tomorrow. Oh the confidence of youth!

Is it really the holidays?

Now always remember...they are 7 years old. They have bullied, cajolled and convinced their parents of the importance of what they had to do for Spencer bear. Who had the bigger learning curve to comply with? The children in class knew how to put in my email address, and search for an att.. Beautiful pictures and excellent writing have arrived in my inbox....collaborative learning on a different level....homework with a difference, too. Now wonder....Why did it have to be done? What has it achieved? Honourable people who want achievement for their children, supported them. Putting the C in ICT! That's what it's all about! An' it's not always about computers!
Talking, discussing, collaborating, and doing!!! This time it's Mums and Dads and offspring..to get to that point. They have risen to a challenge splendidly! I imagine they have gained some respect from their children too, by making the effort. The street cred for them is unquantifyable. Thank you to parents of P3.

Sometimes you're down...

So the song goes...but...then you get a photo of a talking crow from Tobermory sent to you, or a photo of a dog and its teddy friend from academia...Oh really? Yes! There are still imaginative adults out there who actually relate to children properly, in this cynical and suspicious society.

So now my class want to learn some French to talk to Flappy. This bloggy thing is growing like the beanstalk!! How will we handle dogspeak?
What I hadn't bargained for was the parental knockon effect. So there I am, shopping in Tesco....If we have Spencer to stay what do you want us to do?
How do I att a picture to email to you? Put on the blog? Does my P3 need her own blogger account? How do I do that for her? Can you handle video? It's really important who Spencer goes to next...where do you need me to take him?
And the really good thing....All the children who have had the boy to stay...have emailed me with the diary. Are they not just special? Don't they just deserve a bit of my time to make sure their Aunties and Grannies, wherever they live in this world, can see what they have done. Am I proud of them? Too true!!! As I keep saying...Give them the tools! (That work!!!!!!!)