Inkscape Developments.

This morning we had a lesson in our ICT Suite from Mr Kinane in New Zealand. This is the third time we have been taught by him. It was 9am here on the 19th March and 10pm on the same day in New Zealand. We could see and hear and speak to Mr Kinane via a webcam and Skype. He was teaching us how to use Inkscape to design a poster. We could see what Mr Kinane was showing us and talking about on a skrbl page. He taught us how to write text and make a shadow. It was interesting to look at the shadow in different places. It was fun. We experimented with polygons and stars which really was fun and exctiting. Some people asked Mr Kinane how to make a star. He is really clever because he just knew the answer and what to do! At the end of the lesson we learnt how to put text on a line (or path). Sometimes the path was too short so the words overlapped and you couldn't see it clearly but you just had to stretch the line out to make it fit. It's amazing how we can learn from another teacher round the other side of the world just using a webcam! We really enjoy these lessons - we are addicted!!



























Chloe Fear, Jack Hayes, Rebecca Skelton and John Upcott of Class 3, WJS

Outstanding

On the 11th December 2007, Woodford Junior School underwent an OFSTED inspection. The report which was published today opens with the statement;

This is an outstanding school providing a high quality of education for its pupils.

Of particular note for this blog is a section which deals with the curriculum.

The curriculum's strong global dimension is illustrated by the exciting ICT link with a New Zealand primary school. This is maintained by pupils exchanging information about their lives and school events. The pupils talk enthusiastically about the lesson taught to them by the New Zealand teacher through the web link.

We are very proud that our work has been recognised by OFSTED and thank our New Zealand friends for making this possible.

Christmas Greetings from Woodford

It is with great tidings of Christmas joy that we write this post! We enjoyed reading about Christmas in New Zealand and it inspired us to create some traditionally British images of Christmas to send to you. (We rose to Mr Kinane's challenge - no more clip art!) We have combined our pictures with photographs of our Christmas performance "Witnesses" and our own soundtrack! We do wish you all at Meadobank a fantastic Christmas, a prosperous New Year (2008!) and a great summer holiday!

Christmas in New Zealand

It is Christmas and it is a special time of the year no matter where you live in the world. For us in New Zealand we are out shopping, buying presents, preparing food like you do in England but we are also planning our summer holidays! There is no talk of white Christmas's here! Christmas is our summer here, so we celebrate Christmas differently, we do not sit around a fire and eat turkey. We do celebrate mid winter here with a Turkey dinner, but at Christmas we head for the beach! Our traditional Christmas lunch is, well see if you can see what it is from our images.

For us there is no Christmas pud, but pavlova and then, depending where you live in New Zealand it is off to the beach, well maybe on Boxing Day. Have a look at what you see here, what is different? What is the same? What more would you like to know? What do you think that it would be like celebrating Christmas in the sun? Would you like to? If not, why not? By seeing how we celebrate does that make you think more about how you all celebrate Christmas in England?

We all hope that you have a merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year. We will be back in February after our holidays in the sun!

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What do you call a group of Spiders?

......Mrs Hardie's nightmare! Here are some of the Inkscape Spiders that the Year 4 children of Woodford Junior School created under the instruction of Mr Kinane. We hope that they don't cause too many nightmares!

My Journey through your Eyes.

Since September the children at Woodford and Meadowbank have been working on a joint project. The aim was to explore the journeys they made and learn more about each others world as well as the collaborative aspect of the task. The project started with the children recording audio logs of a journey they had made and these were then emailed to our partners in Plymouth or Auckland, where the children listened to them and made notes about the journey. The next stage was to use these notes and search for images which could be used to illustrate each journey. The audio files and images were collated and edited in Movie Maker to create a short film, " My Journey through your Eyes". Examples of the finished films are here for all to see. Enjoy!

The students at Meadowbank have been working on the audio files that the students at Woodford have sent to us. Here are our interpretations, so far. We have had some trouble with some things, we had to research what a pastie is and what or where Bodmin is! We all assume that we all know the same things, I am sure that we have spoken about places and things that you at Woodford have not the faintest clue about. This is interesting and maybe we need to be more careful how we explain things in the future. We need to paint pictures with words, so that we can all understand each other. This project has been very exciting and has thrown up all kinds of issues based on assumptions!

Lessons around the World!

The last couple of week have seen some really exciting developments in the links between staff and children at Woodford Junior and Meadowbank Primary. Here at Woodford the Year 4 children have been taught by the IT Director of Meadowbank, David Kinane! How, you may ask is this possible? 11,000 miles between us and a thirteen hour time difference. The power of technology and ever increasing Web 2.0 tools meant that those miles and hours disappeared in cyber space! A Skrbl board for demonstrating and communicating, a webcam, a microphone and a free video call via Skype enabled David to teach the children how to use vector graphics program Inkscape.



During the first sessions the children were "shy" and did not communicate with their New Zealand Teacher, however the second sessions saw such inhibitions disappear and dialogue taking place.



The lesson created great interest here, with the local newpaper printing an article, as well as a small note in a national paper the following day. Governors, staff and Local Authority representatives were all amazed at how the children took the lesson in their stride.

They (the students) seem to just accept there is someone teaching them that is half way around the world and 13 hours ahead - I find it absolutely amazing - must be my age!! (Jill Bailley International Development officer for Plymouth)

We hope that is the beginning of many such lessons. Helen Hardie is already looking forward to teaching in New Zealand in 2008.

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The slideshow above reaveals the interaction between David and the Woodford children as well as the spiders they created under his instruction. We hope to publish those here once they are completed! Arachnophobes look away!

The videos below captured some of the sessions from the Woodford ICT Suite.