Free digital holiday reading

Go to myOn and

• Click the Log In Now button and enter TCEA, TX District as the School Name. (Begin typing the first few letters and select from the drop-down menu.)
• Enter the user name of "read" and the password of "read".
• Click on submit, select a book, and start reading!

What am I going to do when I leave school?

Career Checker

Google Hangouts but draw or instruct at the same time with Scoot & Doodle

Scoot & Doodle

Take less than a minute to help me improve this site

or complete it here

Everyone should learn to code

The free hour of code is coming:

Try Khan Academy's Java Script for middle school+ students - beginners or intermediate

OR

Lightbot for all ages 4+ on iOS, android devices or web browser

OR

AppInventor for middle school + beginners if you would like to learn to make apps for Android devices

OR

Tynker for both younger and older students

OR

if you don't have access to a web-based computer or device, try My Robotic Friends.

Podio for students

Podio makes it easy to work in real-time online with classmates to coordinate study groups, work on class projects, and organize research. You'll work more effectively, together.  

Do you know how to search?

Reproduced from http://www.edudemic.com/student-search-skills/

Quotation Marks:

Use quotes to search for an exact word or set of words. This is useful when you want something like quotes, song lyrics or text from a an exact historical time period.

• Example: “The Great Chicago Fire”

Dashes (or minus sign):

Use this symbol directly before a word to help exclude unwanted information from your search

• Example: Great Chicago Fire -soccer

Two Periods:

Use this to help you find information between those two numbers. For example you might want to try:

• Example: Great Chicago Fire October 8..10

Site Search:

For a look through the Chicago HIstory Museum site only

• Examples: Great Chicago Fire site:chicagohs.org

        site:Chicagotribune.com

Use Country Codes to Look Up News Stories:

Students should gather every side and view possible on current events, and historical news stories. Not just those that are seen through the red, white and blue colored lenses of our media. To do this all they need is to search using different country codes. For example, if you wanted to get to Google Korea all you would have to do is  search using the country code of Kr for Korea.

Try it yourself first by going to Google Korea – www.google.co.kr.

Below are a few of the country codes. You can click on the image to get a complete list.

The Filter Bubbles

Did you know that while you are searching, you are inside of an invisible bubble? The results you get when you search are coming to you through filters. These filters determine, based on your past searching history, what results you would most likely want – often leaving out opposing viewpoints. Basically, what comes back to you in your search results depends on your past searches, likes and location. The scary part is that what gets filtered out of your search results is not decided by you but by the algorithms of the companies that are providing you with the results.

Two different people can get two very different search result pages. Author Eli Pariser explains this concept in his short TED Talk (link to talk below). Teaching students about the filter bubbles is crucial for helping them understand the hidden power behind search results.

Due to the hidden power of filter bubbles, it is helpful to teach students how to search in the Chrome browsers incognito mode by going to File –>New Incognito Window. This way you don’t reveal who you are to search engines and they can’t filter your results. To learn more watch this very inforamtive TED Talk by Eli Pariser.

Eli Pariser TED Talk

Finding Primary Sources

Today, finding primary sources can be quite easy. However, it can be a serious way for students to better understand history, by hearing from the people who witnessed the event and other real life accounts. Primary sources have always had strong educational value and now they are  at our fingertips. Teachers should be using these more than ever to teach history and other subjects where reading first person accounts of real events can help fuel true empathetic understanding,

Below is a great one minute video on how to use google news to easily find primary sources.

Many of the ideas in this blog post came from a presentation by Tanya Avrith. You can follow her on Twitter @edtechschools.

A NZ site that you can use to revise what you've learnt in Science

No brain too small

NCEA and Y9/10 material you can use for revision before exams.

Fun game

http://www.toonpool.com/cartoons/

In this game you need to rely on your estimation skills. You can play against others on the site or a group can sign up as a "League" with its own name and play each other. It takes a while to load but it's worth it.

Learn to draw - digitally or on paper

This fun collection comes from Mocomi.com of India. They are animations that show you how to draw several things like airplanes, dogs and dragons. The video is clear enough to show what the artist's brush is doing - and it can be done on paper or digitally. Once you have done a few, you could try making your own.

An Hour of Code is coming

             

                                     



                      Take part in an Hour of Code during 

This will be organised for you.  You do not need to have had any experience in coding.  Try an example of what the tutorials will be like here.

The new Khan Academy - learn anything when you want to.

https://www.khanacademy.org/    Sign in with your Facebook or Google account.  

Celebrate 120 years of votes for women in NZ

On September 19, 2013 we celebrate 120 Years of Votes for New Zealand women.  In 1893, the suffragists presented white camellias to the members of the House of Representatives who supported votes for women.

The white camellia (or Camellia japonica alba plena) became a symbol of New Zealand women’s struggle for the right to vote. 

Take part through art Design an A3 - A2 poster that shows what living in a democracy means to you.  Due 1 November.

Make a paper camellia to wear today

Google's Plumbing

Take a look at Google's data centres

Colours - for Years 7/8

Colours

Creating a visual image

NCEA Level 1 English students may be attempting this internal.  Here is a powerpoint to help you:

Create a visual image

Be a better photographer

MorgueFile stock great free photographs for you to use but it also has a classroom site.  I suggest you use their lessons to improve your basic photography skills.

MorgueFile Classroom

In 1 second on the internet there are:

Have you ever wondered just how much data is being created, uploaded, shared and shuffled around the Internet? Here's a site that will put it in perspective for you:

1 second on the internet

Free to use resources

 2learn 

Students can find links to lots of media, such as images, that you are allowed to use for school projects.

                                                                                                                           

Use your journalist skills and win big!

 View in your web browser

Another Sumdog competition 24 May

Click here to find out more: Sumdog competition

Ask Ruth for your log in details.

Careers: Just the Job TV2

http://www.infowarets.com/images/Careers.jpg

A brand-new series of "Just the Job", a TV show for career-seekers and career-changers, starts airing on TV2 on Saturday May 18th at 5.00pm. This is Series 8 and they have now profiled 240 careers.

 JUST THE JOB – TV2 – SATURDAYS – 5PM

 JUST THE JOB – TV2 - SATURDAYS – 9.30AM

 Or TVNZ on Demand

Check out their website Just the job
Episode 1 checks out careers in the sheep and beef farming industries. Following episodes cover the Defence force, construction, Dentistry, local council, real estate, fashion and starting your own business including job searching and getting ahead tips.

Moon Rising

Google Accounts with Speech

The Google Account Part 1 and Part 2 slideshows presented in my earlier posting, can also be viewed here with the addition of sound.


Using a Google Account Part 1


Using a Google Account Part 2

What it is like to live with Chronic Fatigue:

MY School life
Now when I go to school it feels as if people discriminate against me because I’m never there. They say things. They say these things with bitter teeth and skepticism, like “what is wrong with you”, “there’s nothing wrong with you” and “your’ fine”. No. Not true.
They remember me as an energetic alternate version of myself that loved exploring and adventuring outside until nightfall. Rain or shine I would run and skip across the land. Moving from place to place, I would never sit still. Not like I am today.
My headaches are stronger than the blinding sun. They send a swift electrical pulse that zips up, down and through my brainstem. My sleep is a shroud of uncertainty, smothered by restless limbs, darkness, and the closure of walls. Once I wake, I feel exhausted and I struggle to attack the day face to face. I am afraid of becoming blinded, immobilized. I cannot think, say or do. This makes me a mental patient in others eyes. I feel I am already being tugged and bundled into an asylum.

In the early stages, I told my mother I wanted to be an astronaut. That way I could be free. Glide into the abyss. Be Invisible. We joked about family holidays in the tropics of Samoa, lying in the sand and sun. The blinding sun. To me, it wasn’t a joke. There is no break, no holiday and no abyss. I cannot stop and wonder why. All I can do now is begin to wait. Wait for a future that protects me, holds me and guards me. Knowing this is to be determined. No amount of remedies can fix me or ever will. Undoubtedly my life has yet to begin. I have been living in a shell that is cracked and dried and is filled with dread. Others may think of me as different. They look at me with distrusting eyes. They do not know that I have become the sickness, and the sickness…has become me.

Created by,
Scott

Searching the web

How to create and use a Google Account

 Google Accounts Part 1
Google Calendar allows you to record what and when you do your homework and share it with your teacher.  Do all your word processing and presenting on Google Drive


Google Accounts Part 2
Google+ allows you to follow and share with people you know as well as do group video calling (Hangout).  This blog is created on Blogger and some search tips are included.

Article in the Southland Times about a SRHS student

I recommend you take a look at Sam's posting in his blog (link provided on this blog) which includes the article, "Teen doesn't let illness hold him back"

Sudoku

A brilliant bookmarking site

                                                              

      Listango

 I find this an excellent site if you want to instantly store, organise and share all your favourite website links.  Sure you can use your web browser bookmarks but it's the sharing that is the difference.  The site gives you easy instructions on how to put a "Save to Listango" on your browsers bookmarks bar so that whenever you are browsing a site you want to keep, just click on "Save to Listango".  I have used the site when you click on " More ..." under "Often used websites" on this blog.  What's more it has mobile apps too with a "Save to Listango" to use on your mobile browsers as well.

Pen Pals

Connect and learn about the world by communicating with a pen pal.  For ages 9 - 20.
 www.facebook.com/studentpenpals

Flu shots available now!

The flu vaccine is available now at general practices for under 18s. Call your General Practice team and protect yourself and your whānau before winter. 

Another Sumdog Competition this Friday

       Sumdog competition this Friday if you missed the last one.

Meteor hits Earth!

 

Impact: Earth! should be of interest to more senior students because you can input data such as choosing a meteor the size of the moon, how fast it travels and its target and see what damage it can do to us.

An easy way to learn mapping skills

Click here to be taken to a great interactive to learn about things like latitude and longitude and general things that will teach you how to use maps better.

Printing Press

Printing Press

Printing Press  is a handy site that helps you publish three types of documents - a poster, a brochure or a newspaper.  It is easy to use but its real power comes in the fact that you can save incomplete work!  The site lets a user save in a proprietary .RWT format on a usb stick or saved to a network space.  When you next begin, that same file can be opened so it can be completed and shared as a .PDF.

Join in the Sumdog competition now

http://www.sumdog.com/enter_contest/

Email Ruth if you cannot remember your log in details.

Writers

School for Young Writers

A not-for-profit organisation founded in 1993 and based in Christchurch, New Zealand, they offer tuition to young writers anywhere in the world.  They are running a competition for young writers Year 3 - 11, due 19 April.  Click on the title above to take you to their website and to print their entry form.

Te Kura Level 1 Physics tutorials

If you are studying NCEA Level 1 Science, you may find these recordings of their Heat tutorials useful:

http://adobe-con.correspondence.school.nz/p26274505/

http://adobe-con.correspondence.school.nz/p49162527/

http://adobe-con.correspondence.school.nz/p32956105/


If you are using a mobile device, copy the above links and paste it into a tab on the free Puffin browser app. Or open my blog using Puffin.  Click here if you don't have Puffin.

Te Kura NCEA L1 Creative & Formal Writing Tutorials

Are you studying NCEA English at Level 1?

Do you want to pick up some neat tips for success in Creative Writing (EN1022) and Formal Writing (EN1021)?

Have you got questions that you need to ask?

Then put this date in your calendar!

Formal Writing Tutorial – EN1021 – Wednesday, 6 March, 11.00 – 12.00

How do I attend?

Three easy steps!

                                                                

         Formal Writing – 6 March – 11.00

1) Be at your laptop or pc in time for the tutorial 

 2) Click on this: http://adobe-con.correspondence.school.nz/r98762288/

 3) Enter site as ‘guest’

If you missed the Creative Writing Tutorial – EN1022 listen in to it here:

http://adobe-con.correspondence.school.nz/p20328643/

David Green

Learning Advisor/English Teacher

Central North Region, Hamilton Office

Te Aho o te Kura Pounamu (The Correspondence School)

Phone: 0800 659988/07 8397162

david.green@tekura.school.nz

World Education Games

                 

 Games video

Free to all 4 - 18 year olds to register.  5 - 7 March in Literacy, Maths and Science.  Represent your school and NZ, competing against the world.  Start practicing now.

Sharing my blog and starting yours

I have been game enough to start sharing my blog with past and present students  I would love you to set up your own one too where you can display your ideas and creations.  I have used my Google Account to set one up in Blogger and it has a mobile app too. I could then provide access to yours from mine and make recommendations in my posts.  Its a big learning curve but do give it a go.  I recommend you go into settings to set who sees it until you are ready to go live.  Past students could talk about how they got on returning to school after being on our roll and they could share anything they have done e.g graphics, reading responses, videos, writing, art work (thanks Gabby for suggesting this).




You might then like to watch How to use blogger

Teachers Learning:

Over the past few days our school has been closed (but you students are still working) because all the Southern Regional Health School teachers from Invercargill, Dunedin, Blenheim, Nelson and Greymouth have met up with their Christchurch colleagues at Head Office in Tuam Street, Christchurch.  We are doing some professional development and this is where I started this blog.  It's all about becoming better teachers and doing our very best for you, the students.  But it is great to catch up with all the other teachers in one place and it is a chance that only happens twice a year.  So we will probably return to you next week full of enthusiasm with new ideas we are keen to try out. 

Welcome

Hi everyone
Blogging is new to me but I am hoping you will join me on this journey and perhaps even start one of your own. If you are already a regular blogger do let me know so you can help us 'newies'.