Vanishing Rainforests Conference

Two weeks ago, our five 4th Grade classes participated in a Vanishing Rainforests conference at JIS. We held the conference to give the students an authentic experience, researching and presenting research to fellow ‘experts’ in the same field.

 To prepare for the conference, children had to choose between 9 topics related to the destruction of the Rainforest: Palm Oil, Global Warming, Pasture land for cattle, Soybean Production, Mining, Rainforest Products, Rainforest Peoples, Endangered Animals and Logging. I created a website to help give them some guidance with their research Vanishing Rainforests. 

After researching and taking notes in pairs, the children wrote an individual report. They then had to work with their partner to turn this in to a presentation for the conference, wit most of the opting to use Keynote to make their presentation. The conference opened with this video made from video footage supplied by one of our JIS teachers who also works for integratedconservation.org and by Marcey Bailey, one of our 4th grade teachers, and photos she took on her recent trip to see the orangutans in Kalimantan.


   



The conference participants then broke off into 11 groups to present their research topic to their small group, all of whom had different presentation topics. Question and answer sessions were held at the end of each presentation. When all the groups were finished the participants were able to go to the hospitality room and enjoy a cup of tea or juice. The students loved this and you could see they throughly enjoyed the 'refreshments' part if the conference - don't we all?

  In the afternoon the conference delegates broke off into groups with others who had been researching the same topic e.g. all the people who had been researching Palm Oil production got together. These groups discussed solutions to their rainforest problem. They brainstormed ideas and then chose their top 2 and created an action plan for how they were going to work towards solving the problem. A spokesperson from each group then fed back to the whole group back in the theatre. 

The conference was ended with a Rainforest buffet of assorted tropical fruits and chocolate. The children reflected on the conference and blogged about it.


 Here is an example of one of the presentations. When creating their presentation, it was a great way to introduce Creative Commons images and we directed them to use www.photopin.com for images.

Overall the conference was a great success. it took a lot of work for the students to research their projects, put together their presentations and practise them, but it was worth it. The students learned lots of new skills: using Keynote and finding Creative Common images and refined some 'old' skills including researching, note taking, presenting in front of an audience. They had to collaborate on the presentations and be effective communicators when attending the conference. All in all it was an authentic way for them to practise these skills and get to share their ideas with other 4th grade classes.  

A Lifelong Learner: Learning Bahasa Indonesia

I arrived in Indonesia back in July to work at JIS, Jakarta International School. My first unit with my new Grade 4 class was 'Learning to Learn ' about exploring our passions. This was a great opportunity to share with my students my passion for learning languages (sadly a passion that doesn't equate to skill) and discuss how I intended to try and learn Bahasa Indonesia. In our unit we talked about thinking about how we became skilled at something and how we can transfer these skills to other areas. We talked about how 'practise makes perfect' and about our learning styles. I shared with them how I am a kinasthetic learner and how I need to make sense of my learning by creating something. So here are a few ways I explored learning Bahasa Indonesia and creating different products to help me, utilising different technologies along the way. 




Even before coming to Indonesia I downloaded free podcasts from Learning Indonesian from iTunes. I have found this very useful, especially if you start at 1.00 minute  and skip the repetitive intro!


I downloaded an app Indonesian Flashcards. Firstly I downloaded the basic version but later downloaded the full version. This has different activities to read, write and hear the different word lists they have.

Once in Jakarta, I engaged a tutor to come to my house twice a week. Pak Paul goes through a text book with me and we practice basic conversational Bahasa and basic grammar.

Our school very generously gives us money to help us learn the local language. As such I spent my October break in Yogyajakarta, attending language Colorado Language School I spent four hours a day having 1:1 lessons with the ever friendly and patient Ibu Eni and Ibu Elia. Even when I carelessly sprained my ankle at Prambanan Temple the lesson continued and they were kind enough to come to my hotel room to continue the lessons. I would recomend this school highly as the teachers were excellent and I felt we covered a lot. Despite 4 hours of 1:1 lessons the time flew.

Coming back to Jakarta I should have dived in to practising with everyone I meet but sadly I didn't. I don't know if it's my British reserve or my lack of self-confidence that stopped me from doing this. I think a bit of both.

So I continued practising with the theory at least.  To help me understand Indonesian grammar further I used a strategy I learned from Real  Spelling and made matrices in Word with the root words. As you can see from this matrix for the root word <beli>, different prefixes and suffixes can be added to it. `the matrix has to be read from left to right and every suffix can not be used all the time. Still these matrices are to help me remember the root word and think about the word families and help me expand my vocabulary by creating other words from the root word, e..g.  beli = buy, membeli = buy, membelikan = buy for, dibeli = be bought,  terbeli = bought etc. 

I also made mindmaps using Mindmeister.com to help me remember some of the vocabulary and how it's connected.

I also wanted to create some simple flashcards, as I know how a ring bound stack of words on cardboard helped me increase my Japanese vocabulary when I was learning that. I wanted an app that I could use on both my iPhone and iPad and that I would be able to share resources with others. Flashcards best suited my needs. I downloaded the free version but soon ran out of space and upgraded to the Student version with the capacity of 500 cards for each deck you create. You can download pre-made cards from Quizlet etc. or share yours which I thought might be useful for other friends learning Bahasa.   I uploaded all the vocabulary I had learned on my course and can now easily flip through these on my phone when I'm stuck in Jakarta traffic! 



Trying to utilise social media to help me learn I I also joined Learning Indonesian's Facebook page and followed Bahasa Indonesia on Twitter. 



So now, I just have to get out there and learn Indonesian the old fashioned way, and talk to people!  I do feel that learning something completely new really helps give me empathy for my students and lets me understand the trials and tribulations they go through. Just like the my Grade 4 students, I know what I have to do to improve myself and reach my goal, so now, I just have to give it a shot!

Movie Making Cluster: Making Nerd Ninja

Making Movies: Nerd Ninja

It never ceases to amaze me what Grade 4 and 5s can do. In 2011/2012 the L.C.S. Movie Making Cluster (part of weekly Enrichment Clusters) wrote and filmed their own movie, Nerd Ninja. Here is the trailer they made for the movie. 

First of all, the ten Grade 4 and 5 year students, brainstormed ideas for a movie and comedy was chosen. They then started thinking up ideas for the film and the students suggested a movie about a nerd ninja.  As they were wrangling with the story line, and trying to get ideas for the script, we had mini lessons on movie making techniques, storyboarding and filming.

They used Celtx to write out the script and after sharing our ideas for the plot took different scenes to write. The script writing process took six hour and a half long sessions. This is what the 4th and 5th graders came up with:

Nerd Ninja Screenplay

In February , when clusters started gain, they reviewed the script and made some changes and then had a read through and then started filming!

Here are some photos of the process: 

After many weeks of filming, including during the Easter holidays, and in an after school activity, we finally finished filming in April. Originally, I had hoped that the students would edit the film but alas we ran out of time and I ended up editing the film. I learnt a lot about using iMovie 11 and though it took hours, it was a very rewarding experience. It's far from perfect but for a first time effort to 'produce' a film I was pleased with my efforts. 

 Here is the finished product, I hope you enjoy it.

The Movie

To show the film we held a premiere in the school. Here are some photos of the prestigious event:

Premiere of Nerd Ninja

I think you'll agree, it's amazing what nine and ten year olds can do! It was a lot of work for all of us, but we all agreed it was worth it. 

Math Apps for the IPad

                                                                                                                                                      Equivalent Fractions

At LCS, we use Everyday Mathematics program from the University of Chicago as part of our maths program. With this Equivalent fractions, you have to find fractions that are equivalent. The more you get right in a row, the more bonus points you get. As with all the Everyday Mathematics apps, it gives you instructions on how to play the game.

Baseball Multiplication

                                                                                                                  

             

This game is to practise your rapid recall of multiplication facts by getting through the bases.

Divisibility Dash

This Everyday Mathematics app is a bit harder and is to test your division facts. Can you spot the multiples of the target number. 

Fast Facts Multiplication

This math app works on the iPhone and iPad and can be used to practise your multiplication facts.

Motion Math

This is a visually stunning app to practise your understanding of fractions, decimals and percentages. There are 3 different levels. You have to move your iPad from side to side to help place the bouncing ball in the right part of the rod, depending on the fraction/decimal/percentage given.

Motion Math Zoom

This is another app from Motion Math. This app is testing your number sense and your understanding of place value. Again there are a variety of levels for you to choose from. You can practise whole numbers, decimals and negative numbers.

Motion Math Hungry Fish

Hungry fish is a great game for those students who need to brush up on their maths facts. If your goal is have rapid recall of maths facts, then this is the app for you. You can practise different types of  number bonds. The number of levels means this is an app that different grade levels can use to help you learn your facts. 

Recreating Ellis Island

On April 17th 2012, forty-five grade 4 LCS students turned the clock back 100 years. Dressed as 1912 European migrants, the students disembarked the HMS Lincoln at Ellis Island Immigration Centre, also known to us as the school’s VPAC/NPAT performing areas. Like the original immigrants, our migrants had to go through various tests before they were allowed to enter America. We had set up various centres, based on how Ellis Island centre was set up. (See Scholastic’s great interactive site for more information on Ellis Island: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/tour/)

The ‘migrants’ first had to stop at the Baggage Room and leave their baggage. After registering they then had to walk the stairs and have the 1 minute physical where someone watched them walk up the stairs to see if they had a limp. Some of the tests included literacy and numeracy tests, head lice check, physical examination and questions about family background. This was an excellent migration simulation and many of the students said afterwards that migrants ‘really suffered’. They really got a first hand experience of how intimidating it was to have to go through all the tests required by Ellis Island. (Our immigration inspectors were very strict and as many said ‘very mean’).

Before the simulation, the grade 4 students had done background research about the historical events of the time from their country of origin and had created scrapbooks of diary entries from their fictional migrant character. They also came dressed as a 1912 migrant (see photo slideshow) and had to bring baggage with items that they would really have brought with them to America.

Despite the arduous tests, and the heavy downpour, all the migrants successfully entered America. We reflected after the simulation on looking at the perspectives of the immigration officers and trying to understand why they had to be strict and see the situation from their point of view. The children also had a write another diary entry for their scrapbook about what it was like going through Ellis Island. One of our students wrote on the class website: "I loved Ellis island. 'Twas a wonderful real life experience when we lived and went through the real steps people went through 100 year ago when migrating to America".


This was an excellent learning engagement for our students. As a teacher, It took a lot of time to prepare but it was extremely rewarding as I'm sure it's one they will remember for a very long time and they really got to know what empathy means, first hand.

Here are some photos from the day:

The Educators Network (TEN) Reading Workshop

The Educators Network (TEN) Reading Workshop took place last Saturday, March 31st, at Lincoln Community School, Accra, Ghana. Seven reading workshops were given by ten presenters, see below, for 140 teachers from local Ghanaian schools.

The theme of the workshop was, 'Reading: The Key Element in Academic Achievement'. I chose to present a workshop on Literature Circles, as was told this is not something that is usually done in Ghanaian schools and might be of interest to teachers of Upper Elementary and Middle School teachers.

In preparation for the workshop I made two videos of my class which I showed during the day.

I asked my class why we did Literature Circles? This is what they said:

Here is a glimpse of some of my students taking part in Literature Circles/Book Clubs:

Here is the presentation I gave during the workshop and some of the resources I handed out:

Literature Circles

View more presentations from Miss Pickles.

Educators network literature Circles 2012

View more documents from Miss Pickles.

Here are some scenes from the day!

Many thanks to Naami Oddoye and Sylvia Ampofo who organised this excellent event. The feedback from the participants was very encouraging and hopefully the Educators Network will be able to put on more workshops over the coming months for local teachers.

iBooks Author

I have just started scraping the surface of the new app for MacBooks: iBooks Author. Last week my students finished their narrative writing project and published their work in Word. I then used iBooks Author to convert these stories into iBooks for iPad. It was easy to do as there is a handy 'Chapters from Pages or Word document' option in Insert that allows you to change your Word or Pages doc into an iPad book with one click. It even copies over the pictures too.

You then have to make small alterations, you can add a title page, as I did below, and copy and paste, drop or insert a picture. What you're left with then is a beautiful looking story book that you can open on your iPad using iBooks. You can also email it directly from iBooks Author and send your iBook to your readers all over the world! You could also set up an account and publish it to the iTunes store if you were so inclined.

My next step as a teacher is to try and make a resource book, not a textbook, for my students to use during their units of inquiry so that will be my next project!

A Grade 4 student reading her iBook on the iPad to her Grade 1 reading buddy.

For more information on the potential of creating your own iBooks using iBook Author have a look at:

http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author

Watch this very helpful video on how to use iBooks Author and unleash its potential!