Room5ians Rule!

Who would like their blog showcased?

2009-10-05T18:44:00.007+13:00

At Ulearn09 I will be running a workshop on how to get people like you [squiddlers, kidlets, students, Room5ians - whatever it is you're called] to write brilliantly online through blogging :-)
I need some quality bloggers to volunteer to have their blogs showcased. You can even recommend one of your peers if you like.
Let's see if you guys have superior blogs to the Woodmonstas...
:-)

And guess what - the poor Woodmonsta kids haven't had a chance to do something like the Kakepuku Catastrophe! Poor them!

Of course you may all be at the beach or off skiing...

How about Hamiltron or Rosiegal or Kittymilo or Nei-Nei-NeinaMarie! or Roo or Mojo?
And, of course, we must check out the glorious student who gave us our name:
Im a Room5ian :-)

Where does the responsibility start and end?

2009-08-11T13:28:00.004+12:00

When sharing online learning with young people, like Room5ians, how far should the school go to make sure no one sees anything "dodgy", like advertisements aimed at adults...?
Do we stop young people from watching tv, reading, newspapers, walking down the main street? All of these places have mild adult content everywhere.
Does learning in the real world environment allow teachers to help students understand safe ways to cope with things they will be bombarded with anyway, outside of school?
It's like the cyberbullying issue. We ban phones to avoid txt bullying and worry about kids bullying online, but most if not all bullying happens face to face or in whispers around the playground. Do we ban access to the playground?
What do you think? Kids? Anyone?
Just wondering... :-)

Check this out

2009-08-04T22:45:00.002+12:00

Check this out, Room5ians :-)

http://smalltalkwitht.wordpress.com/category/room5ians/

Well done Mr Jones and Rocking former Room5ians!

2009-08-03T18:52:00.003+12:00

Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Please ask him to clarify and send him my congratulations :-)
Also big ups to former Room5ians who were going for it at the Band competition on Friday :-)
I see the defection of Mrs MacKenzie has meant that Fairfield has won this time, just like you won last time with her help. She must be great! You must be great!
:-)

Room5ians Rule

2009-06-07T19:18:00.002+12:00

Roooom5iaaaaans ruuuule!!!!
there is no one like a Room5ian.
:-)
I have some new kids in my current class who would make excellent Room5ians.
I would love to hear from you. Any tales of life at PeachyGrove?
Big hugs to you all [- ask Mojo] ;-)

Soccer/Football Quizzes

2009-05-15T09:58:00.002+12:00

Try these quizzes if you're into football :-)

http://www.soyouthinkyouknowfootball.com

http://www.triv.net

http://www.homeofsport.com

http://www.soccernerd.com/

http://www.learnenglish.org.uk

Test moblog

2009-05-12T16:27:00.000+12:00

Finally!!!

Dog Walking along the Mighty Waikato

2009-05-06T11:24:00.007+12:00

The lovely Waikato river on a morning walk [Flip Video test]
Lack of zoom is noticeable outdoors, but no prob when in class.
The sound is good too.
:-)
I want one because it is sooooo easy to use.

ICT PD Day at Smiley's Lovely School

2009-05-06T10:22:00.004+12:00

What a powerhouse group!

Samuel Morse's birthday

2009-04-27T07:16:00.005+12:00

Morse Code - can you use it? I challenge the inventor centre types to make a morse code machine with an audible, electronically generated signal.
Then you have to learn Morse code and demonstrate your ability to say, "Ha ha, Mr Woody - See? I did it!"
:-)

Freaky

2009-04-26T17:38:00.003+12:00

Wow - there have been about 300 hits on this blog in the last fortnight...which is interesting only because I don't actually use this blog anymore... maybe i should though... Any former Room5ians out there still peeking?
Remember to check out the current incarnation of this called "Woodmonstas!"
:-)

Allanah King's dancing breakout

2009-02-26T11:27:00.002+13:00

We broke into a practice session of "Matt's Dance" [you know - that happy guy on Youtube] in preparation for a flashmob warmup for Wes Fryer's keynote tomorrow.
Poor Wes... ;-)

New blog = "Woodmonstas"

2009-02-10T12:06:00.002+13:00

My new class blog is called "Woodmonstas" and is at http://woodmonstas.blogspot.com/
Come and join us there :-)

New Blog

2009-02-10T10:10:00.002+13:00

I am going to create a new blog for us to share called "Woodmonstas!"
It is possibly going to have all of the content of Room5ians Rule transferred onto it. I am unsure at this stage how that will affect our audience as the URL will change....

So, prepare to Google "Woodmonstas! if you wish to stay in touch :-)

Cyber Safety reminders

2009-02-09T20:29:00.003+13:00

Hi kids - Room5ians, meet some Room 18 "Woodmonstas". They will soon have their own class blog [Gaboose will laugh - we have had no internet at school until today so blog plans have been slightly delayed] and will be becoming world famous just like you guys ... although, I believe they need some guidance from the experienced Room5ians to help them shoot to e-learning excellence.

Of course, another major requirement of successfully using e-learning in a positive way is to remain cybersafe. That means protecting your identity and avoiding trouble from cyberbullies.
Room5ians were so mature that we never suffered from any problems on our blog. We had 3 years of trouble free blogging with all the wonders of sharing our learning with people all over the planet.
If anyone had broken the rules, all children would suffer because schools and caregivers would make it harder to use the internet and to learn as connected, creative, responsible, self-directed, 21st century learning citizens of the world - just as the new NZ curriculum says we should be.

So, here are some internet safety resources online to share with parents who are concerned. Please also engage in dialogue with each other to share your experiences and knowledge. Remember the world is watching and hoping to learn along side you.

Enjoy!

http://www.netsmartz.org/index.aspx

Your holidays through poetry

2009-02-09T13:12:00.002+13:00

Are you a reluctant writer? Or do you love the power of words?
Here is a starter to help you write more expressively about your holidays... And as a bonus, you need less words too ;-)

New Zealand has several famous writers and poets. James K. Baxter is one of them. He writes thus:

"The town was usual enough; it had
A creek, a bridge, a beach, a sky
Over it, and even a small tin church
I never went to. My brother, my cousins and I
Did what boys do - dozed in the hot
Schoolroom, made bows and arrows, dodged the mad
Boatbuilder, crept like rabbits through the black
Under-runners with a weak torch,
Burnt dry rushes, wrestled or swam
Doing nothing important"

- James K. Baxter

Re-write the poem, filling in your own details, using strong verbs, interesting nouns, and appealing adjectives, yet maintaining the same rhythm. Post it on your own blog or as a comment here.

Mihi

2009-02-01T15:13:00.005+13:00

oh my goodness... i have to do a mihi and sing a waiata in front of about 900 people tomorrow morning as a "welcome"or powhiri at my new school. It's a cool thing to experience, but it's also scary when you don't quite know what to do.
Oh well. When faced with difficult expectations one is better to face them and get them over and done with rather than worry and try to avoid them. In fact, now that i have received some assistance from the fabulous Miss Freeman and Heheboy I am actually feeling like it will be a cool thing to do.
I will take my Peachgrove waka huia to explain how we are bringing experience and knowledge with us and expecting to receive more knowledge and experience from the new school community.
Here is some of my mihi. Please offer advice or correction where you think necessary.

Tena koutou tena koutou tena koutou katoa.
Ko David Woodcock toku ingoa.
Ko Susan Tucker toku mama.
Ko Eric Woodcock toku papa.
Ko Pirongia te maunga.
Ko Waikato te awa.
No Kirikiriroa ahau.

Then I will use the waka huia as a metaphor for our new beginning at Fairfield and the sharing of our collective knowledge, skills and wisdom [the last being debatable of course].
To finish I may share the words of the the Second Maori King, Matutaera Te Wherowhero Tawhiao:

"Kia hora te marino
Kia whakapapa pounamu te moana
Kia tere te Karohirohi
I mua I too huarahi"

May peace be widespread
May the sea glisten like greenstone
May the shimmer of light guide you on your way."

Tena koutou tena koutou katoa

New School

2009-01-31T15:34:00.004+13:00

Hooray! I have had 8 marvellous years [mostly] at Peachgrove and have made firm friends there. It really is a special place.
Now I get to start again in a wonderful new school with loads of nice people and interesting students.
I'm a bit freaked out by Monday morning's powhiri where four of us need to sing a waiata in front of 900 people and I apparently have to speak on behalf of the newbies in response to the tangata whenua.
I met most of the new yr 7's on Friday and they all seemed cool. I even met a few of the returning yr 8's who also seemed lovely. There were Maclayne, Madison and Micaela - all the M names!?
I hope we have a really amazing class like my dear Room5ians. It's a shame that some silly people have tried to cause negative problems before we even started, but I know that the mature people will all cope with getting a new teacher and we should have as much of a good time as we did at Peachgrove.
Some of the exciting things we have at Fairfield are a tv studio, a radio station, flash rooms with loads of ICT stuff and a full time technician who is able to allow us access to anything educational that we need to be 21st Century learners.
I can't wait!
Have a great year all you bloggers out there in cyberland.
I shall create a new room 18 blog soon and provide a link to it here.

Small World

2009-01-19T08:35:00.003+13:00

Appreciate what you have... watch this video to see why. It's about imagining the population of the planet as being only 100 people and showing the proportions of ethnicity, wealth, etc. as they are today.

You will need flash and broadband... [approximately only 3% of the world's population can achieve that]

Miniature Earth

sage advice from former teacher

2009-01-16T09:01:00.002+13:00

If you think back to what you learned from me, you will almost certainly remember that you shouldn't eat nails [especially rusty ones], glass, and skyscrapers...
Well! As it turns out, somebody agrees with me.
I enjoy POkestuff's art as seen on Flickr :-) There is lots of cool art on Flickr if you go searching.
[Safe Search only Please]

http://www.flickr.com/people/pokedstudio/

Curriculum vitae

2009-01-15T09:30:00.003+13:00

I need an updated c.v. for the job I just won and for potential future opportunities.
KittyKat wrote me a lovely reference [see post below], as have several other students and parents. I am hoping interested people might leave a comment here that I may use for reference purposes. I can then place a link to this post in any online c.v.'s I might construct.
Being specific about just how marvellous I am would be useful.
Also, if anyone has access to worthwhile c.v. resources, a push in the right direction would be appreciated as I haven't written a c.v. for over 8 years :-)

Sour snakes for anyone who leaves a useful comment ;-)

Dog Monster

2009-01-14T15:57:00.006+13:00

I love my dog, Manolo Guevara - Manny for short.
We love to go on adventures. I stretch the boundaries of what we should get up to by letting him off the lead a lot. He gets to run and chase bunnies and swim in the river and sometimes dig tunnels into rabbit burrows in the side of banks along the Waikato River [as pictured above]. He's an energetic boy and every day he gets out for at least two walks - walks that include a lot of running, sniffing, and usually some chasing. But don't worry, he doesn't hurt any bunnies or ducks he might happen to catch. He seems to have some sort of retrieving instinct that means he doesn't hurt them. Most interesting...
His heritage is a mystery to us except that he is a staffie cross and he was left to starve to death in a cage by his evil former owners. Scum like that should be locked in cages to starve i reckon.
I meet interesting dog owners on the river walks that suggest he is part boxer, part lab, part pitbull, etc. All I know is he's all lovely. I hate it when snooty people pull their dogs away from him as he goes for a bum sniff. Or people who won't answer a cheery "hello" except with a scowl. Those people are ignorant and rude and the media hasn't helped. The media shows stories of dogs like Manny hurting people, but they never show stories of labs biting people - and labs bite more people than any other breed in NZ.
Staffies are beautiful dogs with a friendly, loving nature. They are smart, energetic and fun.

I love my boy :-)

Thank you god of schools

2009-01-14T14:52:00.001+13:00

Kitty Kat said...: hey mr woody,

i figure you'll probably get this through your email so i just decided to write on this post because it seemed to make sense.

i'm writing this to say good luck for next year (at fairfield?) and the rest of forever. i had an amazing year last year (well 2007) and that was mainly thanks to you.

i've figured out what made you such a good teacher...as well as teaching me how to teach myself and things, you taught me people skills. you created a fun and happy place where i could learn and enjoy myself. and that suited me really well. you made school something which i enjoyed rather than something which was...boring? so far you are (over all) the best teacher i have ever had. and i think i'll remember that year forever.

i didn't really talk to you last year but by the sounds of your blog you had a good year.

sorry i didn't get to come and see you on the last day and say this in person but i was a bit teary and not thinking straight.

thanks so much mr woody. i hope your having a good holiday. mum and dad say hi.

from kate.

MeMe ! 7 things you may not have known about me...

2009-01-13T09:28:00.012+13:00

I am reluctant to do this in some ways, but on the other hand, why not? The "science" of memetics has been studied and discussed in relation to our societal evolution. I find this interesting enough to stick my oar in...

So, by sharing 7 "interesting" [supposedly unknown] things about myself then tagging 7 friends [no obligation of course] I am engaging in the development of my PLN friendships :-)

1. When i was a baby I hung out with chooks and i apparently I ate their poo. This could be why I now have four hens in my backyard... [I do not enagage in the fecal freakishness anymore].
We lived in Hamilheaven/Hamiltron, City of the Future, but my father was originally a farm lad who became a shearer and along with his elder brother Dawson and my grandad Jack Woodcock, they became the Woodcock gang. This unnerved my other beloved grandfather, Claude Tucker, who thought they were a real gang and felt this was inappropriate for his eldest daughter, my mother Susan, to marry into. But she did and here I am.

2. I've been doing various martial arts since i was 15 [with breaks], including tae kwan do, philipino stick fighting, kick boxing, aikido and now kendo, which many of you know from my ramblings. However, the embarrassing part is that as a teen, I wanted to be a ninja! I even went to Togakure Ryu Ninjitsu school in Australia to visit and see what they were up to. It turns out they were whackjobs and I thought i might be better off becoming a wildlfife documentary maker like David Attenborough. A close call....

3. I've been diversely employed in my time... from accounts clerk, to water bed installer, to futon bed shop manager, to govt property valuer, to systems auditing consultant in London, to ostrich pimp. There's more but you get the picture. Teaching is the first job I've done for more than a year and i spent the first 8 at the same school.
When I was young I wanted to be a David Attenborough type. Now I want to make weird graphic novels, digital stories and short films, work in conservation and be independently wealthy so i don't have to be a wage slave.

4. When I was 20 I snapped my anterior cruciate ligament and tore my knee cartilage. Ten years later, and after many unpleasant experiences where people had to help me put my leg back into order so i could stand up, John Sullivan [surgeon, R.I.P.] did what my first useless surgeon refused to and fixed it by drilling holes in various leg bones, cutting out patella tendon and screwing it into place with titanium screws to replace the torn ligamant. Works nicely thanks John! Now, ten or so years later again, I am visiting John Sullivan House to deal with another irksome medical issue. Coincidence? Or is John Sullivan my medical guardian angel hmmm...

5. One of my favourite NZ experiences has been staying and working on Little Barrier Island for two weeks when I was at uni studying biology. It is a wonderland of bird life. It's a shame we have ravaged so much of our land that our unique native fauna is virtually non-existent by comparison. Having breakfast with kaka sitting on your head and shoulders is quite a nifty experience.

6. I draw comic type doodles and have a draft version of a graphic novel based around the idea that a genetic code was sent here by a dying race from Sirius. The dna "virus" infected life on Earth at an early stage, influencing evolutionary trends, ultimately leading to the development of what we now see as human beings and all their strange ways. This all comes inpart from my grandfather Claude who is convinced of this due to his discoveries whilst in Egypt during WW2 as a member of the 5th Field Ambulance.

7. I find religion reeeeally really fascinating. I have been raised completely irreligiously, which i take as a great boon. I generally consider religious people to interesting because I find it difficult to understand why people believe in things that are so far-fetched and based on such out of date ideas that are contrary to modern understandings of the world - especially if they deny science or take ancient religious texts literally.
I went to uni in 1988 with the goal of discovering how the world works through the study of earth sciences, biology, paleontology, etc. I also took religious studies - you know, studying the history of and practice of religion from an academic perspective. I graduated many moons later after a study, work and travel [20 countries in all] cycle, with a B.A. in religious studies and Biology mainly, with a little politics, philosophy, sociology and Spanish thrown in.
I found I became more tolerant in some ways and less in others. I continue to struggle with my critical dismissal of some of the more outlandish beliefs held by some religious folk whilst harbouring a tendency to want to believe in some peculiar and foolish things myself - I guess these both count as ways in which humans attempt to make sense of the world; understand life, the universe and everything.
As an answer to the life's mysteries 42 doesn't quite do it for me ;-) although i do respect Douglas Adams' perspective more than most.

So, who [or is it whom?] should i tag???
I think some of the people I would pick have either done it or would mock me for sending it through.... but i'll pick them anyway plus some others

efreeman
barbs1
suzievesper
heymilly
Amanda! [cos I know she's reading without participating and she has to upskill in ICT this year]
eT
Mr Teehan

why do we blog?

2009-01-12T17:38:00.003+13:00

Some teachery perspectives on why we blog with our students, the benefits, etc....
Thanks to "Her Majesty" for passing this on :-)

http://thenjournal.org/feature/175/