#kidsbookchat

Today my top reading group engaged in a literary discussion with other classrooms around New Zealand. 

They were having to think critically about texts that have read and engage in discussions with peers and teachers from around New Zealand.

It was awesome to hear them getting excited with the interactions and creating a list of books they now want to read on the board.

Here are the questions below along with a storify of the chat and some pictures.

When : Monday 1 September

Time: 10am

Hashtag: #kidsbookchat

Here are the questions we are going to ask.....

Q1: What is the best book you have read this year?

Q2: Who is your favourite author at the moment?

Q3: What is your favourite genre?

Q4: Do you have a class read aloud/ novel at the moment? What is it?

Q5: What is your favourite spot for reading?

Q6: How do you find books to read?

Q7: Recommend some titles you'd like to share.

Thanks to the P3 tweeters! 

#educampTheTron

- Introductions
- Smack-down Slide Share
- Breakout

Ideas/tools/apps to try

- Todaysmeet.com
- Kidschatnz
- Diigo 
- Playbuzz
- Teacher Dashboard
- Guided Access for Ipad (Love this)
- Ipad Speech Selection (Reads articles to students)
- Storylineonline (Listen to reading)
- Imagistory & Write about this NZ (Ipad apps)


I presented on:

Annemarie Hyde's Storify

Kodu Game Lab

Today in P3 we tried out the coding game 'Kodu Game Lab'.

I had heard about it on Twitter and at conferences but hadn't had an opportunity to try it out. 10 of my boys were out at a the Boys High School open day, this was the perfect opportunity to try it with my remaining students.

Initially it took some time to get the programme installed, this meant some students were able to begin early on while others had to be patient. I gave very limited instructions other than see what you can create.

What students created:

- Racing car game
- Submarine racing game
- Plane racing game
- Soccer field
- Island
- Soccer field/battle zone (2 player)
- Factory
- Underwater worlds
- Aquariums
- Colourful worlds (playing with patterns)


P3's Reflection:

Pros:

- Challenging
- Programming aspect is fun
- Lots of options to change colours
- Being creative
- You can work with different sized tools (much quicker than Minecraft, which is block by block)
- Lots of options for manipulation (rotating, size, colour)
- You can verse mobs
- You can play together
- You can create games
- Can synchronise characters together

Cons: 

- Limited characters
- Requires patience
- You can only use a few resources before it goes pixelated and lags
- Confusing to use (especially when you are used to another game because you try to transfer those controls)
- Hard to move the camera and get the right angles
- Graphics were not that great of quality
- Time consuming to build one thing

I think that a lot of the cons come from my students Minecraft game play. They were expecting an immediate transfer of controls and build options because the game play has a similar aesthetic.


If you want to see what Kodu is all about check out this video:

We used this tutorial to help teach us the different aspects of the game.

Blog Reflections

Last week 1/2 my class went to Devon (Sports Exchange) and the other half stayed behind at school and organised/ran a tabloid sports day for the remaining students at school.

Once my students came back I had them reflect on their week. I was impressed with the length and content of their reflections.

I am aiming to have them put more work and effort into their blogs. Last year I pushed the use of their individual blogs and whanau engagement/interaction. The class I have this year are very sporty and take on a lot of extra curricular activities, it is very rare that I have a full class because of this. It has been hard to manage their blogs because of this. Some students have lots while others seem to have very little.

Alexa's Reflection:

Rawinia's Reflection:

Estelle's Reflection:

Casey's Reflection:

Tegan's Reflection: