One last post from me...

I just wanted to write to you all and say thank you for all the effort you put in this year.  I have really enjoyed teaching your class and getting to know each and every one of you.

You are all amazing people who have bright futures ahead of you.  I believe that each and every one of you are capable of gaining Excellence endorsements next year.  I'll be checking to make sure you do!  You should all be getting Excellence subject endorsements for English, so make sure you put the effort in and make me proud.

Next year I am going to be upstairs in Ah 12, so pop in for a chat and let me know how things are going.

To Bonnie and Venus - I am going to miss you two a lot!  I've loved teaching you these past two years and wish you all the best at your new schools.  Keep in touch!

I've just set up a facebook page for Alfriston College, so if you are on facebook give that a like to keep up to date with all our latest successes and news (as I said, I just set it up, so the number of current 'likes' is a little sad).

So, best wishes everyone.  Have a happy and safe holidays.  Merry Christmas!

Reading Romeo + Juliet - Due 5 /11

Read Act 1, Scene 5; and Act 2, Scene 1 and 2.

Divide a page in your book into four squares (you could do this on a blank piece of paper, using Word or find an online tool).

In one square write a summary of the scene.
In the second square write new words that you haven't heard of before or do not know.
In the third square, write 5 questions you have about the scene.
In the last square, draw a picture of an event from the scene.

Reading Romeo and Juliet Due 21/11

Read Act One, Scene 2, 3 and 4.

Divide a page in your book into four squares (you could do this on a blank piece of paper, using Word or find an online tool).

In one square write a summary of the scene.
In the second square write new words that you haven't heard of before or do not know.
In the third square, write 5 questions you have about the scene.
In the last square, draw a picture of an event from the scene.  

If you want to get ahead, next week you will have to read the next part of the play.

Attitude Presentation

Write me a paragraph or two about the Attitude presentation held at school for the Year 10's on Friday.

Best one goes in the newsletter and you get Whanau points - try get them done by the end of Monday at the latest.

Romeo + Juliet Due 24/10

Read Scene One from Romeo and Juliet.

Divide a page in your book into four squares (you could do this on a blank piece of paper, using Word or find an online tool).

In one square write a summary of the scene.
In the second square write new words that you haven't heard of before or do not know.
In the third square, write 5 questions you have about the scene.
In the last square, draw a picture of an event from the scene.  

Shakespeare

You should all have a Shakespeare speaking Voki character on your blog!

Holiday Home Learning Due 17/10

Next term we are going to be learning about Shakespeare and study his play Romeo and Juliet.

During the holidays I want you to conduct research about Shakespeare (his life, his plays, the theatre they were performed in) and the times he lived in (what people believed, the political climate).
You can present your information however you choose, but it must display what you have learnt.

No home learning this week

And I am away at a funeral tomorrow, so please be lovely for the reliever.
I expect to see some decent looking newspapers when I turn up to work on Monday morning!

Magazine people: try get some work done on your pages if possible.  I've left the USB's in the glass on my desk.  Make sure they get returned and not left in the computers!

A few of you have essays that need to be handed in to me.  Please get the reliever to put them in the clear file pocket that they have with the lesson outline in it, so I can mark them on Monday.

One other thing, can you click on your blog title in your dashboard, go to settings in the menu on the left and in there click on 'posts and comments'.  In here, can you find where it says 'word verification' and change the setting to 'no' then save it.  It's really annoying having to type all the silly words out every time I want to leave a comment on your blogs.

Have a great weekend.

Reading Due 19/9

Find something to read.  What is it?  Tell me about it?  In at least 2 - 3 paragraphs.

I would love to hear about the latest books you are enjoying at the moment :)

You could always write another review on Goodreads and post the link to it up on your blog or as a comment below.

Screenr Lesson Due 12/9

This week I want you to use Screenr and teach people something that you can do on the computer.

It might be something like writing a blog post, using one of the web tools we've tried out, adding a video to your blog, creating a photo collage, using photoshop etc.  If you have an idea that you are unsure about, leave a comment about it and I will get back to you.

Make your screenr video and post it up on your blog - you can grab an embed code, just change the width to suit your blog (450 - 500 px will be good on most your blogs).  You need to talk and explain what you are doing.  You need to be professional - it should be something appropriate to show other teachers and students.

Usually in Year 11 you have to give a speech teaching the class something so think of it as practise for that!

Here's an example Screenr video I made to teach other staff about Moodle:

If you are having trouble, try using Jing or Screencast:
http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html
http://www.screencast.com/

I personally haven't used them, but they appear to be similar.


Thanks for your poems.  If you haven't got one up yet, please get onto that asap.  I will be entering them tomorrow (Thursday).
If you wrote about a current AC teacher the other week, I flicked them the link to your blog.  I hope you don't mind; they were very appreciative :) 

Write a poem for the NZATE Junior Writing comp. Due 5/9

This week for home learning you are to write a poem to enter into the NZATE Junior Writing (Poetry) Competition 2012

Write a poem of no more than 40 lines about an object in your house.
Suggestions: Choose an object and brainstorm everything you can about what it looks,
sounds, tastes, feels and smells like, where it came from, why you have it, what is the best/
worst thing about it, a memory associated with it, what you’d like to forget about it ...
....now use your brainstorm as the beginning for your poem and see where it takes you. 

Prizes:
The winner at each year level (Yr 9 and 10) wins $100 and their poem will be published
in the October issue of English in Aotearoa
The two runners-up at each level win $50 each.
I'll send your poems off to be entered into the competition - you just have to post them on your blogs.

Last week, a lot of you made silly mistakes in your writing.  Please check back and edit any incorrect grammar and spelling.  A lot of you didn't even do the home learning - get it typed up please.

Wallwisher and Your most inspiring teacher! Due 29/8

Most of you didn't update our Wallwisher which was last week's home learning.  It seriously takes 2mins max, so please do this.

This week's home learning is to nominate your most inspiring teacher for the Warehouse Stationery competition that is running.

On your blog: write about who you nominated and why.  Put forward your argument about why they should win.  This could be a couple of paragraphs, a thank you letter to them, a prezi presentation, a voki presentation, a glogster poster - it's really up to you :)

Update our Wallwisher

Apparently a website is being set up for the school library and the librarian would like to highlight good books on it.  So, this week for home learning can you please put up as many good books as you can think of on our Wallwisher.

http://wallwisher.com/wall/10IMNEnglish

Olympic Opinions Due Wk5 15/8

What sport to you think should / shouldn't be included in the Olympic Games?

Write a 2-3 paragraph essay explaining your opinion.  Use fact and evidence to back up your points.  Reference your material.

Here is a page with ideas to get you started.  You might want to look up what 'sports' were included in the past and are not now - for examples 'Windsurfing' will not be at the Olympic games after this year. You might also want to look up what has been considered for acceptance in the past.

Olympic Moments Due wk3 2/8

The greatest moment in Olympic history was.... because....

Using the start above, write a piece about the Olympic Games.  You will need to conduct some research and give your own opinion about events.


Some of you still need to get your subcard completed.  I will be checking these again on Friday.

Design a Subway Card Due 25/7

This week you need to put your static  image skills to use and design a Subway card.

Here's the link about the competition that is running: http://www.subway.tx.co.nz/tp/view/email/tep920j499873s4q66f1n9956241c10226332z

Design your card, enter it and then post up a pic of it on your blog.

Holiday Homework Due 1st Wednesday Term 3

Make a Movie!

You can do this by yourself, in pairs, a group - I don't mind.

You could make a movie about your holidays, re-make a music video, come up with your own script for a short film, make a mini documentary or a montage of photos to music (you can check out the pretty average videos that I have made for my blog on vimeo if you don't know what I mean).

It's easy to put together movies in Movie Maker, which is free to download.
Once you have made your movie upload it to You Tube or Vimeo - you can make it private so the rest of the world can't see it if you wish.

Grab the embed code for your video off the site you have uploaded it to and pop it onto your blog so I can check your awesome work.

Now, if you are having trouble with any of these things, let me know and I will try help out.  However, there are heaps of tutorials available on line.  Just use google.

Home Learning Week 8

I'm giving you a week off.  I am behind with marking your work (my sincerest apologies) and I don't think it is fair that I give you more to do when it won't be looked at.

You could use it to:

• Do your science fair projects.
• Read a book or magazine for your own enjoyment.
• Start up a blog on a topic you like, or keep a journal.
• Make me something nice.
• Learn French by podcast (coffee break French is quite good)
• Go for a walk or run.
• Find out what writing competitions are happening and enter them.
• Look up some of the 'instruction' posts done by other learners in the class this year and make something for your family.

Survey for you to complete

I have a survey I would like you to complete.  Just 10 questions.  Can you please try fill it out for me by Friday Week 8.

Click here to take survey

Thanks :)

Collaborative Story Due 13/6

Hello,

Just a reminder that your 3 day ep idea home learning is due today.

How are we going with the collaborative stories?  There should be 2 -3 pieces of the chain completed by now. Email me if someone in your group is holding the process up.
If you've read this - annoy the rest of the class to get theirs done.  Text them.  Message them on facebook.
I will give out a prize to the group who gets the task completed first.  Someone from the group send me an email when it is done.

If you're at home twiddling your thumbs with nothing to do, why don't you go to the local library.  Check out the wallwisher that we put together earlier in the year for good book suggestions.

Enjoy the last of your five days off.  I'm about to go to more meetings and hopefully learn some interesting things.  See you on Friday.

<3 Miss Kelly

Collaborative Story Due 13/6

Over the next two weeks you are to write a story in a group.  The groups are below.  You are to write at least two paragraphs each.  The first person in the group writes theirs and then the second person in the group carries on the story over on their blog and so on.  You can comment on the next persons blog, facebook them or tell them in class that it is their turn - they have been tagged in.


If you don't have internet access you need to write it on paper then hand it in to me to go up on your blog.


The first person has to pick and include three of the following topics.  They need to appear in each part of the story unless someone writes them out:
-Dog
-Paris
-Ambulance
-Elderly man
-Tractor
-Marathon
-Manurewa


The groups are:
Group 1:
Alexis
Alison
Ameleigh
Angelo


Group 2:
Anne
Bonnie
Brandon
Breanna

Group 3:
Brittany
Brooke
Daniellah
George

Group 4:
Georgia
Jacob
Joel
Lauren
Louise

Group 5:
Maria
Mighael
Mitchell F
Mitchell H

Group 6:
Nikkisha
Nila
Patrick
Rajneel

Group 7:
Ruta-Kau
Serisha
Teigan
Tiara

Group 8:
Tiffiny
Timothy
Venus
William

3 Day Episodes Due 6/6

Your task this week is to come up with your own 3 Day Episode that could run next time we have them at school.

What would you call it?
What would you do each day?
Is there a trip?
How much does it cost?
What independent learning qualities will people develop?

Post up your plan and include pictures that illustrate the type of learning that might take place during your 3 Day Episode.


I will try get you feedback on your stories from last week soon.  We'll get them ready to be submitted for the competition before it closes :)

Home learning Due 23/5

Your home learning for the next two weeks is to write a short story to enter into the BNZ Literary Awards for the Young Writers category.

You can read about the competition here.
I expect to see something next week when your home learning is usually due in so that I know you have made a decent start (or get a completed draft done so I can give you feed back and then you can spend the next week fixing it up).

If you have no idea where to start I have some story spinners you can use in class to give you prompts (pop in as I don't see you guys for a while) or try googling writing ideas or story starters.

What other blogs are there? Due 9/5

This week I want you to have a search around on the internet and find some other blogs to read.
If you like them, follow them so you get a little update on your blogger home page when you log in.

If you choose to follow the other blogs publicly, they will show up in a list on your blogger profile.  Looking at other people's profiles might be a good way to find some new blogs to look at :)
Sometimes bloggers have a list of blogs they like on the side of their site and you might find some cools sites that way too.
Bloglovin is a great site for following blogs and finding new ones too.
Or, you could do a classic google search.

Write a summarising 3 - 5 blogs you follow to tell the rest of the class about them.  Here's a little mock up of the type of thing I am after using my baking one as an example:

Baking Makes Things Better
Baking Makes Things Better is a baking blog run by two friends, Melissa and Courtenay.  They met each other at university before they both got jobs teaching English at the same school.  While they were working together Melissa set up a shared baking blog and although Courtenay has since moved out of Auckland they both continue to contribute to it.  Each week they post up new recipes and photos of things they have tried out.  I like Baking Makes Things Better because the food looks delicious, the content is regularly updated and the authors usually write a little paragraph before they post up the recipe.  I would recommend this blog to anyone who likes baking or eating sweet food.  You can find their blog here or check out their facebook page here.

Home learning Due 2/5

Hello,

Welcome back and I hope you are looking forward to term 2 (if not, just remember you'll be on holiday in another 10 weeks!).

This week I've given you extra time to get the holiday home learning completed :)

I also want you to comment on other class members blogs, because everyone likes getting comments.  Give them decent comments too - not stink one liners like "This looks fun".  You can comment on their old posts if you like, it doesn't have to be the latest one.  Try comment on at least 5 peoples blogs and make sure to visit and comment on someone's that you don't really know; the people in your class have been putting together some pretty cool stuff.

Have a great first week back,
-Miss Kelly

Term 1 Holiday Homework Due 2/5

Prezi Presentation and a Photo Essay

1. Prezi Presentation:

Make a Prezi presentation about your holidays.  Mind map what you did, share information and add pictures.
The site is easy to log in with using Facebook.  Once you've finished making your Prezi presentation put the link up on your blog.
If you can't figure out how to use Prezi, google some tutorials or look up some of the videos on you tube.  Add something to your presentation each day so you don't forget what you've done each day :)


2. Photo Essay:
You need to produce a photo essay on a topic of your choice.
Don't know what I'm on about?  Let Wikipedia enlighten you...

"A photo-essay (or photographic essay) is a set or series of photographs that are intended to tell a story or evoke a series of emotions in the viewer. A photo essay will often show pictures in deep emotional stages. Photo essays range from purely photographic works to photographs with captions or small notes to full text essays with a few or many accompanying photographs. Photo essays can be sequential in nature, intended to be viewed in a particular order, or they may consist of non-ordered photographs which may be viewed all at once or in an order chosen by the viewer"

So, you could make one about one of your days during the holidays, an event or a place you've visited.

Reflection T1Wk9 Due 4/4

Write a reflection on your first term in Year 10.  Reflect on both your time in class and your home learning.  If you are stuck with what to write, try having a paragraph which highlights the 'pluses', another for the 'minuses' and one for 'other' or 'interesting'.

Quick note

If you are reading this because you are on your blog tonight doing your home learning at the last minute - shame on you!  But, I'm glad you are getting this message all the same.
If you have something that you have read (your novel, magazine etc) bring it in for class tomorrow as you are going to have a bit of time to work on your reading assessment (about 30 - 40 mins).  If you don't have anything, that is all good - I have some magazine / books in class that you can use, I just thought I would let you know in case :)

Create a Voki T1Wk8 Due 28/3

This week for home learning you need to use Voki to create your own online talking avatar, like the one above.

Play around with what you want it to look like then make it talk - you can record your voice or type in what you want it to say.

Some possible things you could make it say are:

-Some info about you and your blog

-A fictional news report

-Your highlights of term one

-It could read part of one of your previous blog posts.

When you are finished, click publish.  You will be taken to a page that looks like this:

I changed the size of mine to large, copied the code, then pasted it in my new blog post (click on 'HTML' next to 'compose' in the top left of your new blog post page before pasting in the code - you can switch back to 'compose' mode after you have pasted in your code to see how it is displaying).

Also this week, I want everyone to have tried out using Wallwisher and have recommended a book on the wall I set up for our class.  If you are recommending the book that you wrote your review on, stick up the link to it too.  Thanks to those of you that have already done this - your suggestions are great!

So, you need to head along to the Voki and Wallwisher websites.

Home learning recap and Wallwisher

Just a reminder, this weeks home learning (due Wednesday 21st March) is either one of the writing tasks based on the Kony2012 video or a review of your novel - which ever one you haven't completed yet.

Also, head along to Wallwisher and add a sticky note to the wall I have set up where you can recommend books you have read to the rest of the class.  You can access it here: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/10IMNEnglish
Make sure you put your name on it, try add a picture of the cover, or if it is the book you have written a review on put in the link to it.

Enjoy your time off from English tomorrow afternoon and have a great weekend!

Kony2012 Writing T1Wk7 Due 21/3

You've probably seen or heard about 'Kony' if you're on facebook.  We've watched the video about in class and I want you to use it as a springboard into your own piece of writing.

Some ideas are...
-Research and write about someone who has fought for peace or equality.
-Research and write about someone like Kony who has committed crimes against humanity (You can do Kony himself).
-Write an opinion piece about the campaign.
-Research and highlight another humanitarian issue.
-If you believe in the Kony cause, you could write a letter to the government or someone in a position of power trying to get their support.

Remember if you have done research for your piece to include references to where you got your information from.  You need to write at least 3 paragraphs.

Here's the video if you want to watch it again:

Novel Review T1Wk6 Due 14/3

Right, you should be reading a novel for your reading assessment (the one I gave you the booklet for last week).
This week for home learning you need to write a review of your book and it needs to be at least 3 paragraphs.

I would like it if you signed up on Good Reads and posted your review on there (if you use Good Reads for your review, copy and paste it on to your blog too so your blog keeps updated with lots of lovely posts).
This is a great site for sharing what you have read and you can see recommendations for what you might like to read next based on they types of books you have enjoyed in the past.
If you review your book on here, invite me to be your friend so I can see it - you can do this by searching for 'Melissa Kelly' once you've clicked on the 'add friends' like on your profile page.
Read some of the other reviews left by members to get ideas on what you could mention in your one.

Getting your Wordle onto your blog

There's a couple of things you can do to put your Wordle on your blog.

1. You can save your Wordle to the public gallery (there is a button to do this under your Wordle picture).  This will produce a code under your wordle that you can copy and paste into your blog - switch the writing mode of your post to HTML (button on the top left) before pasting in the code.

Using this method is not the best as your Wordle will be too small to read.  Please use the method outlined below.

2.  You could take a "screen shot" or "screen capture".  Here's a link to a web site that gives instructions for creating screen shots on various kinds of computers: take-a-screenshot.org.

 

To make your Wordle larger on screen, you can use the "Open in Window" that appears at the bottom of the Wordle image. You can resize the pop-up window as you like.

 

Once you've created your image, edited it as you like, and saved it in an appropriate format, you must upload that image to your blog.  You can do this by clicking on the picture icon in the menu on the blog post page.

 

Hopefully this makes sense.  Check out other people's blog posts to see what they've done :)

Create a 'Wordle' about yourself T1Wk5 Task Due 7/3

Two tasks this week:
1. Start reading a novel.  You have a reading assessment coming up which is worth level one credits.
2. Create a Wordle about yourself and display it on your blog.

What are your strengths? Interests? Personality traits?  Tell me in a Wordle.
A wordle is a word cloud (if you don't have a computer you can make a paper poster or pop in an make one during a break time) which you can generate on the Wordle website.
You type in a bunch of text and it will make the word picture for you (like our 4 C's posters around the school).  If you want some words to appear bigger in your word cloud, type them in the text box a few more times than the other words before creating your wordle.
I'll post some info up on how to get Wordle images to display on your blogs shortly.

Photography

So, for your instruction following task I've asked you to include photos if possible.

There are millions of photography help sites around on the net, so do a google search and find something that appeals to you.  This page has a basic Top Ten list of tips, which is a good place to start.
There are also some great tips on the blog 'A beautiful mess' and Elsie (who writes the blog) has recently posted up some 'tip' posts.  There's info on food photography, taking outfit photos, outdoor photography, photographing with back light and sun flare, and how to get great indoor photos.  These posts are quite short and include photos to help you understand what is being shared.

I find when I am taking pictures for my baking blog (which I share with my friend who used to teach English at AC too!) that taking them in a place with lots of natural light is best and to never use the flash on the camera (it makes ugly shadows on the food and the colour isn't right).

Think about the background of your picture too - we try to use nice papers and fabrics in the background of our pictures so it's not just the same boring old table visible.

Also, think about the composition of your picture.  Sometimes close up photographs of little details can be great - if your camera has a macro setting try using this :)

You can always try editing your photos before posting them up too.  Picasa is a great free programme you can download or Picnik is a great on-line site you can try out (not for long though, it's apparently moving).

Have fun!

Procrastination...

I thought this video would appeal to some of you as you are very refined in the art of procrastination!

Remember you have your 'How well can you follow instructions?' homework due on Wednesday 29th Feb.
I'm slowly getting through marking your Creative Writing pieces - sorry if you don't have a comment from me yet, it's been a busy week.  I aim to have them done before the weekend is through.  Speaking of which, have a great weekend!  See you Wednesday :)

How well can you follow instructions? T1W4 Due 29/2

Your task this week is to follow some instructions.
You need to find something like a recipe, some instructions on how to make some origami or something similar.  Why not make your family dinner one night or bake them a yummy treat?
The instructions need to be for something you've never made before and they can't be something simple like how to boil an egg or make toast! (show me them to get them approved if you are unsure.)

Your post needs to:
-Explain why you choose your particular instructions and where you got them from.
-Give the instructions.
-Have a photo of your finished product (and can include step by step photos if you can manage it).
-Summarise how you found everything - were the instructions hard to understand?  Did your finished product turn out as you had hoped?

I'll post up some photography tips later in the week :)

The picture is from my blog Baking Makes Things Better

Creative Writing T1W3 Task Due 22/2

This week you have to produce a piece of creative writing.
However, you need to use a dice (here's an online tool you can use) to help you decide what needs to be included in your creative writing from the lists below.

Roll one - Character:
1. A photographer
2. An alien from outer space
3. A homeless child
4. Your best friend
5. A famous pop star
6. A 93 year old woman

Roll two - Setting:
1. A wedding reception
2. A fancy restaurant
3. A shopping mall
4. At school
5. At a swimming pool
6. At a sports event

Roll three - Time:
1. After a big meal
2. After an argument
3. Late at night
4. During the first week of the school year
5. During a forest fire
6. During a concert

Roll four - Situation / Challenge:
1. An important decision needs to be made
2. A secret needs to be confessed to someone
3. Someone has found or lost something
4. Something embarrassing has just happened
5. A death has occurred
6. Someone feels like giving up

So, if I rolled the dice shown above, my story would: include a famous pop star, a shopping mall, take place during the first week back at school and something embarrassing would have happened to one of the characters.

Your piece of writing needs to be at least four decent sized paragraphs and needs to be completed before our class on Wednesday 22nd February.  You could post a paragraph or chapter up a day and keep your readers in suspense!

Also, if you haven't done so already, you need to follow this blog through your blogger account.  You can do this by scrolling down to your 'reading list' on the blogger dashboard page.  Click 'Add Blog' and type or paste in this blogs web address. 

Welcome to English in 2012!

Welcome back to AC and to English for 2012!

I'm so excited to continue teaching all the awesome people I already know from teaching 9IC and I am looking forward to getting to know all the new faces from 9IN.

So, it is the first proper week back and that also means it is your first week of homework.  Here's what you have to do...

1. Create a blog.
2. Send me the link - either leave a comment on this post with the link or email it to me.
3. Follow this blog.

If you already have a blog that was being used for English in 2011, it is on the 9IC blog list and you can still access it, then you do not need to start a new one or send me then link.  DO NOT DELETE YOUR OLD POSTS!

    4.  Write a post about your holidays.

• You need to include either a link (try make the link just a word that you can click that will take you somewhere else on the internet - for example, I went and saw Tin Tin in 3D during the holidays) or a picture.
• It needs to be at least 2 paragraphs.
• This needs to be completed by Wednesday 15th February.