We’re done! We learned about water conservation from several websites and read an editorial containing water use statistics. Then we watched PSAs to see the strategies used by to persuade people to change the way they think and behave on topics from littering to water use. Here is one example of our work.

The video is very pixelated, which is a bit disappointing; however, we are going to keep working on a solution. We will to try to upload our videos on individual class blogs–it will take time, but we will persevere!

Believe it or not, this is a graph:

It shows the frequency of words that turn up in a selected text. I took all of our About Me pages and created this Wordle. I infer the following things from this graph:

• our class is social: we value family and friendships
• our class is active: we like to play in many ways
• our class is full of learners: we are curious about many things
• our class is optimistic: we have a positive outlook

So, when you look at our Wordle, what do you see?

Guest Post

This guest post is written by Div. 16 student Haley. 

Today, most of the kids in our class came dressed in green, white, orange, and tiger colours. Why? Because today was our school’s Spirit Day! Our mascot and representitive of our school is the tiger; which would explian why most of us dressed up like that. Our school colours are green, white, orange and tiger. There were 23/25 kids in our class dressed up for Spirit Day. Ms. Smith wore a tiger backpack!

A couple of years ago, we had to vote for an animal representitive for our school. It turned out to be the tiger. So every year we have Spirit Day, and it shows that students and teachers care about our school.

We’ve been getting our techie groove on…

And it is quite amazing how far we have come! We’ve learned to read, comment, write, format, and publish, change our theme, and many other skills besides. We are about to learn something new: adding a blogroll. A blogroll is a list of links to other blogs to read. You can see our list of class blogs in the sidebar on the right. It a fast way to get to the blogs you like to read, and a good way to let others know whose blogs you are reading.

Once you set up your blogroll, visit Miss Wyatt, answer her survey, and write a comment on her blog.

Setting up your blogroll:

First, from your dashboard, go to Design > Widgets. Find Link in the left-hand column. Click the Add button if it has not already been selected.

These directions are adapted from this post by the brilliant Sue Waters.

1. Your Edublog blog automatically comes with a blogroll in its sidebar.  All you need to do is Add or Delete links to change what blogs are displayed. To start your blogroll, first add Huzzah, then three classmates, then three from beyond our class.
2. On your blog dashboard, go to Write > Links (look next to Post and  Page)
   
3. Insert the name of the blog, its URL and click Blogroll, then press Save.
4. Follow the pictures below:

Removing links you don’t use:

Edublogs comes with links already installed. To get rid of them, go to Manage > Links.  Click on the blog link you want to remove then click on Delete.

Remember, the first link on your blogroll should be our class blog!

Good luck with this; let me know how you do!

I am hoping to post a few more of these videos in the coming days, just waiting for a few more permission forms (hint, hint). The Lunar Beach hike was a great experience, a nice opportunity to get up close and personal with an unique environment.

More images coming soon!

Today bloggers around the world are thinking about and writing about poverty.

The first video above by the band Radiohead is a powerful reminder that people’s lives are affected by many things they can’t control, including the circumstances they are born into.

For blog action day, choose one of these activities:

• write your response to one of these videos: what did it make you feel and think, and what do you think we should do as a class or individuals?
• think about the title “All I Need”. What does a person need to have a “good” life? Do some people have too much of some things, and not enough of others?
• the video The Girl Effect focuses on one aspect of poverty.  What are the consequences of the Girl Effect for boys? For communities?
• you may have heard the phrase “Think globally, act locally”. What local actions can we do together to make a difference when it comes to poverty?
• think about our Water Wise public service announcements. What is the link between poverty and access to clean water?

Post your responses on your own blogs. I look forward to reading your thoughts and ideas. There are other links on Miss Wyatt’s site. I know other student bloggers will be writing about poverty. Take time to read and respond to their ideas, too.

We get by with a little help from our friends…

Miss Sue Wyatt teaches in Tasmania, Australia and is the heart and energy behind the Student Blogging Competition. (It’s more of a blog challenge with weekly ideas on how to read, write, and connect between student bloggers around the world, with a bit of recognition thrown in.) At last count there were over 500 students from 9 countries taking part.

Miss Wyatt has visited many of our student blogs and left comments, then wrote the post below, titled Have you visited..? She has listed just some of the things students have in common. Because she linked to your blog, many of you will notice a pingback in your blog comments.  As a blogger you too will begin to notice new connections and common interests every time you read a new blog.

I am reading 100’s of posts each week and am finding out the interests of many of our students bloggers.  Remember we also have some student blogs attached to class blogs.  So I wonder have you visited any of these students from Canadian and New Zealand classes?

Soccer fanatics – Michael, Nicholas,  Goooglyeyes

Car fanatics – Blake,  Boyd,  Dude,  Ryan,  Jack

Singing and dancing – Chelsea, Becca

Music – Devan,  Haley,  Max,  Hawaiiangirl,  Natasha,  Millie,  Tayla

Animals – Brittany,  Conner,  Babybash,  Butter, Candy, Lilmspiggy

Swimming – Sam,  Sophie

Video games – Daniel,  Kris,  Michael,  Riderboy

Skateboarding – Brayden, Freak

Food – Brianne

Outdoors – Daniel

Other Sports – Dominic,  Hayden,  Julian,  BlueJaysRule,  Caveman,  Crosby,  Fluffyman,  MrT,  Travelgirl,  Unit 666,  Alex

Space – Jacob

Sleeping – Mitchell

Shopping and friends – Babyboo, Pretty princess

Take time to visit blogs and leave comments. Respond to bloggers who take the time to leave a note on your blog. Their name or avatar will link right back to their site.

And if you find a blogger who shares an interest with a classmate, let them know!

image: Temple Frogs by tanakawho Creative Commons license