Sunday, June 26, 2005

Webservices & Programs used in Our Class 2005

Brief description of websites and software programs used to create this blog, Our Class 2005:
  1. yahoo/hotmail to get an email, which you need to have before joining blogger.
  2. Blogger for your blog
  3. Geocities for simple webpages to link to from blogger. For example the ASC website (in construction)
  4. Quick Topic for our forum
  5. flickr for photos. For example the photos on this post: Library Week
  6. Picasa (Hello) for photos too, but it allows you to group them in collages, etc. See these: Booking a Holiday House, Today's Work
  7. Bubbleshare & Frappr for slide shows.
  8. Paint for collages, header banners etc. Like: Photoguess,
  9. Word for doc to paste or upload onto geocities . For example: Oz Quiz,

Study Skills worksheet

10. Photoshop for competitions: Spot the Difference

11. A bit of HTML to add links to the template (right side bar) and title banners, like the one below

HTML


12.For podcasts see How to record your voice for Podcasts
13. For tutorials: CaptureCAM-PRO. Example: How to use Paint & Word to create your Blog Portfolio page/s
14. How to upload text (worksheets), audio (podcasts) and video (photostories) onto a server to be able to link from your blog.

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Chosing a new header for DEKITA

josefstuefer
Photos by Josef Stuefer

Read Dekita's request for help with chosing a photo for a new header. They have chosen Josef Stuefer's photos in flickr for us to help them pick one up for their new blog header. You can also have a look at their Dekita flickr Group to read what other people have chosen and read their comments.

Read what different people write about their choice of picture, chose your own and write to Dekita. You will not only be helping Dekita, but you will also be learning and practising you r English in an authentic (real) collaaborative situation.

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Friday, June 24, 2005

Audio Blogs & Video Blogs

Audio & Video Blogs





Audio= you can hear it
Video= you can see it

Everyone is doing it! Talking blogs! We should try it next semester.

Have a look at Teresa D'Almeida's Grade 6 student audio & video messages in Have Fun with English. It's amazing how well they speak English, considering they live in Portugal, a non-English speaking country.

Listen to them by clicking on the headphone symbols, and have a look at the different videos by clicking on the TV screens.

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Thursday, June 23, 2005

Today's Work

Today is the last day of Semester 1. We are going to work on the Art Gallery project. We had a good time there, didn't we? Some of us had a very good look at ALL the portraits in the Archibald exhibition...while others had a very long coffee, lunch or .......shopping spree!

Take time to participate in our last forum this semester. It's a course evaluation, really. How have you found the course? What activites did you like best? Which ones didn't you like? Why? Any suggestions for next semester? Be honest, we will appreciate it and it will be benefitial for everyone continuing next semester.

I've posted some work for the holidays (see below) and I will post more next week. SO KEEP WATCHING!


TheDomain

This is a photo of us going towards the gallery through The Domain. Thanks Ivy for emailing it to me. My battery was flat on the day, so no photos from me.

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Surprise Visitor

Today we had a surprise visit from one of our classmates, Cassie, who had to stop coming because she had a beautiful baby. It's a pity she can't stay for lunch. We are very happy to see her, though.

We took a couple of photos with Jian's camera. Here they are:

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Featherdale Wildlife Park

Featherdale



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These are Jian's photos from yesterday's excursion.Thanks Jian for bringing them to class. They are very good. I heard you had a good time but that you had some spare time. That's because I forgot to remind you to bring the worksheets along to finish the questions we couldn't answer in class last week (see the questions below).

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These are the questions we didn't know the answer for:
  1. How would you describe the movements of the shingleback lizard?
  2. What colour is it?
  3. How does it react when disturbed?
  4. Describe the feel of his skin covering.
  5. Which reptiles have legs? Which haven't got legs?
  6. Which reptiles lay eggs and which give birth to live babies?
  7. What cooulur eyes does the tawny frogmouth owl have?
  8. What enemies does the rigntail possum have?



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Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Holiday Work


Australian Animals (by Dorothy Waterhouse)

You are going to have a long holiday. If you want, you can try to write a report on an Australian animal. Click on the picture above and follow the instructions.

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Holiday Work


Your country (by Dorothy Waterhouse)

Write a report on your country on your blog. Click on the picture above to get some information. Alternatively you can do a google search for your info.

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Sunday, June 12, 2005

Excursion to the Art Gallery of NSW

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Next week we are going to the Art Gallery of NSW to see the Archibald Prize exhibition. Visit the AGNSW website above and answer these questions in your blog:

  1. What type of art is exhibited at the Archibald? (paintings, sculpture, landscapes, portraits...)
  2. What is the prize money?
  3. What type of people are the subjects of the paintings?
  4. Who has won this year's prize?
  5. Who won the prize last year?
  6. Which painting do you prefer, the winner of 2004 or this year's winner? Why?
  7. Is the winner of the Ardchibald prize the same as the winner of the Packing Room?
  8. Which one do you prefer and why?
  9. Who won the public prize? It was published in the newspapers on 22nd June, 2005.

Thursday 16th June, 2005

  1. Choose your favourite portrait and write about it. Why do you like it? Search the net for information about the subject (person) of the portrait and the painter.
  2. What type of people are the subjects of the portraits in this year's Archibald prize?
  3. How many do you know?
  4. Are they all Australian people?
  5. Are there any Aboriginal people amongst them?

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Thursday, June 09, 2005

Today's Work

  1. Last week we were talking about movie stars, like Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe. Go to Time4English and click on Movie Reviews. Then click on A Beautiful Mind. Don't read the review. Click BACK and do the listening exercise.
  2. Do the dictation for Vanilla Sky (starring Penelope Cruz and Tom Cruise)
  3. Forum: Do you like going to the movies? Why? What type of movies (genre)do you prefer? Do you go often? Why? Do you hire videos? In your mother tongue or in English?
  4. Think of a famous person and start searching the net. You will need information on their life (biography) and on why they are famous for next week.
  5. Mystery person. You have to guess who the mystery person is. To do it, ask questions in the comments of the Mystery Person post. They will be answered with some clues. This time there's going to be a prize for the first person to write the most accurate and complete description of the mystery person.

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Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Mystery Person






You can ask me questions. You can do it in two ways:

  1. Just post them on this post (comments) and I will write the answer here or, if you want to make it more difficult for your classmates,
  2. Post your questions on your blog. I will anser them there.

Answer 1
mansymbol

The colours are not correct (the flag has a yellow circle).

There will be a permanent link to this post below competitions (right hand sidebar)

A FEW ANSWERS:

As you can see from the flag, I'm not Aboriginal. I come from one of the countries on the map. My occupation is related to the magazine cover and I'm a man (that's the symbol on the left top corner).

Have a look at my third photo. Maybe you can recognize my nose! Also notice the colour of my T-shirt. That's a good clue!

MORE ANSWERS: My white shirt should tell you what sport I'm good at...My date of birth is: 3rd June 1986.

MORE CLUES:
I practise a sport that is currently being played on TV every night!

Monday, June 06, 2005

Last Week's Work

  • Jie wrote a very good piece on Kylie Minogue's treatment by the media. Keep an eye on her blog.
  • Silvia found out some interesting things about the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989. Check her blog.
  • Ismat's text on floods in her country has been linked in Dekita.

  • g1_u5971_cathy_freeman_2donbradman
  • We heard about how alcohol can shrink your brain and you learnt about famous Australians: Cathy Freeman, Don Bradman, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe (although he comes from New Zealand)
  • Last week's forum was about children in detention. All of you agreed that children are innocent. It's not their fault.
    Rita said:
    I think the children are innocent, even if their mothers are illegal here.If the children grow up in detention, they will not get good living conditions and good education. This will affect all their lives.
    This is Jie's opinion:
    Children shouldn't be deprived of their liberty. They have a right to breathe the air of freedom, to live like other same aged children, including going to school etc.
    Finally Wei said: In the case of illegal migrants (people who overstay their temporary visas)I don't know why their mother chose to let their children stay in detention.The childen are dependent.As a mother I have sympathy for them.I think the children are most important.Their mother can do more things for their kids, such as: return to their hometown.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Today's Work

  1. Last week we won lots of prizes in our class!Read about it here.
  2. This week we've started talking about famous people (famous Aboriginal people, like Cathy Freeman). Read this article about MelGibson. Print it and answer the questions.
  3. Look at this websites for further informatin on Mel Gibson: Here are a few fan listings for Mel Gibson:MelGibson, Internet Movie Database, The Unauthorized Mel Gibson Web Site, The Movie Times Did you find anything interesting about him? Write it on your blog.
  4. Go to Time4English and do bit of news in THIS WEEK'S ODD SPOT (listening)
  5. Also on the home page click on Alcohol Shrinks the Brain and listen to it.
    What happpened on this day, 2nd June, in 1989 in China?
  6. Go to the writing on A Famous Person (5B Intermediate), read it and do it for homework.
  7. Forum: Children in Detention. Read the letter to the editor and you can also read other articles on this topic (smh or google search). Try to read for and against articles and then write your opininon in the forum.