To all educational bloggers using Blogger itself there is a way to get rid of the banner headline which contains the icon for next blog ( this allows any viewer of your blog to click onto a randomly selected next blog - not a good idea in an educational setting ) Allanah king on her blog 'life is a race not to be first finished' has some very interesting snippets of advice including the code needed to get rid of this banner. There are also links to Allanah's work on 'Adding Bling to your Blog' do take a look and let Allanah know what you think.

With the added problem at the moment of having to keep any eye on at least 3 time zones ( 2 European plus New Zealand ) - I have decided it is high 'time' we had a visual way in which to keep an eye on Time itself in addition to placing our new friends on a map so that we can picture where they are. This is the start of our display on our New European Projects, we are engaged in 2 - one which has been running for some time and a brand new project being run jointly by ourselves and a school in Nerviano near Milan, Italy ( not on the map yet !!! )

Moving on from my photographic disaster - by the way many thanks for the comments Allanah and Daniela, it is a cautionary tale and something that any of us can easily overlook. I will be asking other staff for some general pictures of all of our pupils in their National Costume - the one good shot saved was a shot of our 'Chocolate Fish' from New Zealand prior to them being given to our ClassBlogmeister bloggers.

Class Blogmeister Bloggers from Cefn Fforest Primary

We have just started using Class Blogmeister which is an educational blogging community run by David Warlick's Learning Project. Our main blogspace has become a hive of activity for my kids, I know that it is something new and is bound to have an immediate take up which will slow down - but at present I have pupils in my class begging for 'computer time' during their playtimes and lunchtimes in order to blog ( we have over 12 bloggers now). I have suggested that our now experienced 'bloggers' assist the less able ( and those who don't have a computer at home ) to get 'blogging'
As World Book Day approaches I have set the task for my class to blog about their favourite books - so watch this space for more reports on the Class 3H bloggers - do put some comments on their work they will be really pleased to get comments ( Thanks Miss K your comments have really boosted the bloggers confidence in what they are doing ).
Well done to the Cefn Fforest Year 3 Bloggers.

Many thanks to Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach who has invited a group of committed users of web 2.0 technology in education to act as e-learning mentors for a group of student teachers that she tutors at William and Mary University in Virginia.

I certainly feel honoured to be invited to join the group which includes many bloggers and podcasters that I hold in high regard such as Bud the Teacher, Jeff Utecht, Vinnie Vrotny and Allanah King among others.

I am sure that the enthusiastic input from the 'experts' from around the globe can only enhance the experiences of this group of students.

We had a brilliant afternoon on Thursday when we drew pictures of ourselves as part of our new link with schools in Europe.

Global Links

Our links around the world and at home here in the UK are really gathering pace now. We have exchanged e-mail addresses and skype details with Kenmore Park First School, and one of their Year 3 teacher Pam Williams. We hope to develop our project along the lines of giving each other instructions for making design technology 'Moving Monsters', we also hope to create for each other a 'mural' made up of individual jigsaw images showing the views and customs of our own areas.( found in British Council booklet 'Learning World' issue 14 January 2007)

Our link with Allanah King and Moturoa Class Appleby School New Zealand is ticking over even though the they are currently still on their summer break - back soon...

We have dipped our toes into the E-Twinning Project - this is a site which puts together schools all around the European Union- allowing them to develop links between classes and pupils.
We are moving towards links with 2 schools in Italy ( one in Lazio and one in Lombardy)who are working with Lower Primary aged pupils, The school in Lazio has been working with schools all across Europe looking at customs and the toys and games that the pupils in each country play with. The other school uses a traveling toy to discover how people live in other countries.

Cefn Fforest Primary School visit BETT 2007

On Wednesday 10th January - Four pupils from Cefn Fforest Primary School accompanied by Headteacher Mr Nick Gannon and yours truly were invited to attend an awards ceremony for the 2006 Making The News internet journalism Competition. The 4 Year 6 pupils won in the category 'Best Overseas Story', they had organised, filmed and edited an interview with a visitor originally from Nigeria ( it was very fortunate for the pupils that our school recently purchased an Apple MacBook - without it ( and using a PC laptop) the editing process would have been almost impossible within the time).
For their efforts the pupils were invited to London to be awarded their prizes by Warwick Davis ( the diminutive actor who played the lead in the film 'Willow' and more recently Professor Flitwick in the Harry Potter films ) - they received a cheque for £100 and a goody bag containing mugs, T shirts among other things. The more exciting day for the pupils was the chance to browse the exhibition floor collecting promotional pens, rubbers and other stationary ( each having gathered at least 40 pens!!!!!) - great sport for all.
From my point of view, I had the chance to do some networking of my own, I had arranged prior to the visit to meet up with Chris Fuller a well known blogger and podcaster in the mfl field ( Chris has most recently been in negotiations with the BBC over its online resources BBC Jam ). It was really good to finally meet up with a 'real live' blogger in the flesh, my pupils had the chance to have a quick chat with Chris before we all had to go our seperate ways and head home. Unfortunately I missed Terry Freedman on Wednesday but I am sure that I will bump into him soon. ( I did visit the NAACE stand Terry however you had not arrived )

Chris made a good point while chatting that he was surprised that there weren't more blogs about BETT 2007, I must admit that I haven't had time to check this out. I believe that apart from Chris, Joe, Terry and myself there must surely be others and I wait to be pleasantly surprised.

bett07

** SCHOOL'S OUT**
Finally after what appeared to have been an eternity the Autumn Term ended for our pupils on Thursday ( we had a training day on Friday - so didn't finish until 3pm on the 22nd) - the upside of a late finish is that we won't be back in school until 8th January. We had some relaxation time in the final week of term and my Year 3 pupils were keen to show off their dancing and singing - I used our mini dv camcorder to record their efforts ( I challenge you to view and not to chuckle a little) and posted the video's to our Making the News page on - http://kmi4schools.e2bn.net/wales_cefnfforestprimary/index.htm it is the article entitled 'fun in Year 3'. our carol singing soloist is posted on http://cefnfforest.podomatic.com ( and I apologise for me mumbling away in the background!!!!! sorry).

I wish all readers and fellow bloggers and pocasters a very Merry Christmas and a fruitful New Year - I plan to catch up with some Web 2.0 friends ( Joe Dale and David Noble ne Booruch) at the BETTT show in Olympia on Saturday 13th January ( I guess that as we hve never actually met we had better wear a red carnation in our button hole !!!! or have a secret password, joking aside, it will be good in this virtual world to actually have a face to face meeting in the 'real' world... see you guys

HAPPY CHRISTMAS to all

Friday 8th December - photographer from the TES arrived at 9.30am, I had gathered a small group of pupils together and we were ready to Skype New Zealand. All of the technology worked and we were soon chatting, that included the photographer who joined in our 13,000 mile conversation while he snapped away. Allanah and the children were very patient as we were posed and photographed,the conversation continued, however it must have been a very strange conversation from the New Zealand end, however all went well, the Skype line held up, and we signed off when the photo-shoot ended allowing Allanah to go the bed...Well Done everyone, excellent work.

Skype Chat to Podcast

Following a skype chat over the weekend, Moturoa Classroom at Appleby School near Nelson New Zealand and myself near Abergavenny in South Wales had agreed a time on Monday evening (8.30 pm Wales - 9.30 am New Zealand) for a chat.
The skype discussion was part of an ongoing e-pal link that we have with the pupils from my school ( Cefn Fforest Primary) and those 13,000 miles away in New Zealand.
With the time set I sat waiting for the call and sure enough along it came and I could hear the excitement in the classroom so many miles away.
Little did I realise the 'grilling' I was in for from the pupils in the class. They each in turn introduced themselves very clearly and politely asked their important questions - the range of subjects covered was wide, but I felt honour bound to answer their questions, as they had gone to the trouble of asking them.
the half an hour chat flew by as we chatted and all to soon it was time for them to return to their school work. Allanah King their teacher had recorded our chat and has now published it on her Podomatic page so it can now be found on http://allanah.podomatic.com .
The project continues as we plan to repeat the process from our school speaking to Allanah and 'grilling' her on a variety of subjects.
We are presently trying to work out how to speak to each other in 'real' time ( the 13 hour time difference doesn't help ), my guess is that we will have to have pupils in school at around 8pm in order to catch NZ at 9am in the morning -we will see.... watch this space.

** Thanks for your interesting questions kids **

** follow up to new MacBook, I am gradually becoming more confident in its use and have now started digital video work and podcasting using it more to come...

skype in education