Click HERE to take you to the site to play the video

Beijing Olympics, One World, One Dream… This Is Sad [PIC]

Have fun with a new word each day. Visit Word Imperfect to have a look at the featured word. Great for increasing your vocab knowledge and skills!

How to Play:

I choose an obscure dictionary word. You invent a wacky meaning. I put 3 invented meanings on the voting poll below and list the true meaning. There are no prizes, just lots of fun!

BTW The author of the blog is someone familar to some of you!

You need to watch this!

NZ Sports News

Here is some information and links to another presentation tool you are going to be using.

Animoto is a free video creation service. Users can select or upload images to their account then select from a list of royalty-free music or upload their own audio tracks.  Animoto mixes the music and images to create a professional looking video in minutes. If you don’t like the video you can remix the video using the same images and audio until you get something you’re satisfied with.

Animoto is a great way for students to quickly create a great looking presentation without the teacher having to spend a lot of time teaching students how to edit or manipulate presentation software.  It is the perfect addition to your classroom’s digital storytelling kit. It is very intuitive and easy to use, in no time students have digital videos that they created! You can post or embed videos on your class site or even, are you ready for this?, download for in class presentations. Animoto for Education makes it simple to mix audio and visual for a dynamic, unique presentation in no time. It is so easy to use that students could create a complete animoto presentation in one session.

Animoto presentations are quicker to create than traditional PowerPoint type presentations making them ideal for digital storytelling in the classroom setting. Because Animoto is completely web-based, students can create videos from school and continue working on them at home. The ability to download videos is outstanding…students could save their work for offline viewing too!

If students are under 13 they can’t sign up for their own account. To use Animoto for Education with your students you can register your students with dummy accounts using dummy email addresses. Animoto is private to your school. This means that other people can’t come accross student videos or contact students through the site.

Here is an example from Tod Baker

Time to Make a Difference from Tod Baker on Vimeo.

As you are going to be using Voicethread to complete one of your inquiry tasks I thought I’d post this link from Nik Peachey. This is a video which explains Voicethread and how to embed it into your blog etc.

This is a tribute to Randy Pausch who died from pancreatic cancer on 25th July 08.

You may have seen a video of Randy on the ‘Sunday’ current affairs TV programme a few weeks ago.

Finally, here’s a link to a tribute by ABC http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LastLecture

If you have tried the ‘Free Rice’ game then you might enjoy these:

Free Corn

Give free corn to hungry people by visiting our website and referring friends and family.
As page counter goes up we give 1 kernel of corn for every 25 visitors.

Free Kibble

Click on the answer that you think is correct.
Right or wrong, you win! All you have to do is click on an answer, and every day you do, we’ll provide 20 pieces of kibble to Animal Shelters to help feed their hungry dogs.
Play Bow Wow Trivia every day - the more you play, the more kibble for the dogs!

Free KibbleKat

Click on the answer that you think is correct.
Right or wrong, you win! All you have to do is click on an answer, and every day you do, we’ll provide 20 pieces of kibble to  Animal Shelters to help feed their hungry cats.
Play Meow Trivia every day - the more you play, the more kibble for the cats!

I have just found another intersting ‘fun’ site for animal lovers. Have a look at Animal Planet where you can entertain yourself with fun online pet and wild animal games and interactives.

I have just come across this interesting game - I’m sure you will be able to begin playing quicker than me! I’ve placed it here as you might want something to do for the last couple of days of the holidays, especially as it’s raining!

The Fancy Pants Adventure: World 2

An old custom in China was the binding of the feet of females. We did have a small novel in the classroom about this, written in ’story style’.

Tonight I found a blog which has some pictures of what the feet of these women actually looked like. Rather than copying them here I am giving you the link, Bound Feet in China,so that if you are interested you can see for yourself. Remember it is an old custom!

I am pretty sure that this custom is now longer widely practised in China but there are probably some areas which have been unable to let go of  this tradition.

BTW There are other links to topics about China on this page.

Thanks to Ewan McIntosh for sharing this video. As he says, “it’s as beautiful and enchanting as many of the ‘real’ movies I’ve seen recently.”

I thought I’d share it with you. What do you think? Maybe it will inspire you to write!

Following on from the environment theme of the last few posts, I found this game, Planet Green Game,  by Starbucks Coffee Company in collaboration with Global Green, USA.

Starbucks and Global Green USA collaborated on the Planet Green Game to educate the public about climate change through engaging and informative game play while encouraging individuals to become part of the solution in their own lives.  The game also assists individuals - through simple tools and links - in advocating action by elected officials, business and community leaders.

I’m sure somebody will have a go and let us know what they think!

Another interesting presentation from the Slideshare Design competition. While it gives some thought provoking ideas about the need to save the planet, it also gives you some ideas on how to creatively present ideas.

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