Some stunning fun animations here for displaying text.

A talking animal perhaps?

A troubled tomato?

Perhaps a bit of Antonio Machado?

It’s all here!

Below is my seven minute micropresentation from Teachmeet styley thingy (I think that name could stick!) at the eTwinning Ambassadors meeting #etwpdw.

In my seven minutes (I think the lovely @digitalmaverick gave me a little longer….) I talked about

1. using Wallwisher to collect ideas, have asynchronus discussions and review learning / progress.  I set up an example Wallwisher just prior to my presentation and asked my Twitter pals to contribute.  Thank you!

2.using Google Maps to keep an online track of postcards being exchanged in our eTwinning project Greetings across the miles, as well as cards from Postcrossing.  The actual postcards are displayed on the school wall, but by plotting them on a Google Map pupils get an idea of how far the cards have travelled, the position of countries and much more that enhances and extends the experience beyond a piece of paper arriving in the post.

3.using Storybird to write collaborative stories.  I ran out of time at this point and had to be very brief but my idea was to use Storybird to write stories across countries as follows –

• agree on a set of visuals.
• each group writes the story in their own language -or in a common one.
• stories are shared.

I bet no two stories would be the same!

As soon as I liberate it from @digitalmaverick, i’ll upload the video of my presentation.  But until then, if you have any questions, please contact me.

Yesterday, as the European eTwinning Ambassadors PDW at National college of School Leadership in Nottingham drew to a close, I took part in what Drew Buddie aka @digitalmaverick entitled ‘a Teachmeet style-y thingy’.

Drew introduced the idea of an ‘unconference’ explaining both TedX and Teachmeet before opening the floor to others to share their 7 minute micro or 2 minute nano presentations.

I was first up – see the next post for my presentation – and later for a video of it (if it’s not too hideous!)

Other presenters were-

Lieven from Flanders who shared his magnificent projects, all documented on his blog. These included repurposing old computer mice, decorating them and then using TuxPaint to animate them (MouseArt), using Pivot to make animations of bubbles (B@llobees) and also to make animated characters @ni & M@te who travelled to other schools and found out about them.

Two things that particularly struck me were firstly when Lieven said he liked ‘making the unexpected valuable’ which struck a chord, and also the use of technology to back up and enhance more traditional methods eg the Kindergarten pupils made bubble pictures with paint and straws, and those pieces of art were used as the background for the Bubble animations.

Next up was Paddy who talked about his eTwinning project Wii will rock you which used the Nintendo Wii as a stimulus.  I enjoyed this presentation as Paddy underlined that it was not all about playing games, but that the games were the starting point for other activities – writing letters, designing CD covers, planning tours with travel plans and money considerations, cooperation with other children, publicity and negotiation.  They also worked on a joint sports day with a school in ireland with some ‘traditional’ sports day activities as well as Wii based ones.

Then Susi Arnott shared about using comic strips and Comic Life, and how the process of looking at comics enhanced the understanding of texts and enhanced literacy skills.  She mentioned Bitstrips which I will be investigating!

Drew used Twitter to ask why people went to Teachmeets- responses included:

‘the range of ideas’

‘a cross subject sharing of ideas’

‘non threatening’ collaborative spirit’

‘celebrating work done in my classroom’

‘meeting like minded colleagues leads to great PLNs’

‘at least 20 ideas for use tomorrow’

‘widens my ideas’

Nick Falk finished up the meet with a nano-presentation on the use of QR codes and QR readers in mobile phones.  Very interesting, and something I need to investigate!

No camel, no fruit machine and no alcohol; but otherwise pretty like a normal TeachMeet! Oh, and no cupcakes.  Sorry @niiloa

Michael Purves shared his ‘tale’ this morning.  A pretty inspiring tale it was too, taking him from a ‘despondent, stuck in a rut’ teacher into an eTwinner extraordinaire running eTwinning projects between 40+ countries.

His journey started in 2007 when he was browsing the LTS  website with a colleague and came across eTwinning.  Having registered his interest, his first project was with a Finnish school and was a comparison of food and sport called A healthy passport.

At an eTwinning PDW in Ischia, his next project was hatched, based on the premise that animals speak different languages – dogs say guau in Spanish but woof in English etc.

Perhaps his biggest project was Schoolovision, a Eurovision song contest for primary kids.  With over 40 countries involved it was a big project, involving video recording and editing, voting by Flashmeeting and blogging.  He goes for big projects as his latest is a Snapshot of Europe with pupils across Europe taking photographs of their local environment in four categories.

Schoolovision2009

Schoolovision2010 and now

Michael shared the benefits of eTwinning-

for him, it led to a new dimension in his teaching, a renewed sense of belief in his teaching, an ‘I can’ attitude, and lots of fun, laughter and friendship.

For his pupils, a growing ‘digital literacy’, fun and friendship, a greater understanding of one another, plenty of cooperation and the opportunity to plan and make desscions about their own learning.

And for the school, international recognition.  For example, his class have been on Newsround on the web!

A super douper ambassador – and not a Ferrero Rocher in sight.

Now looking at paper.li – making a daily ‘newspaper’ of Tweets!  This can be done for a user, # or @.  I’ve just made one – let’s see what happens!

http://linkedin.com – how do we use it?  Completely professionally is the general answer!

http://www.twingly.com – a way of creating ‘channels’ of websites based on RSS feeds

In a session at the moment led by @niiloa.

At the moment we’re playing with Todays Meet – anyone wanting to say hi to us can leave us a comment http://todaysmeet.com/etwnot

Next on the agenda is a discussion of the pros and cons of Facebook.  As a primary teacher, I don’t use it in class nor to communicate with pupils but I know there are arguments for using it with older pupils.

And onto Twitter – whoop!!!  Such a wonderful tool for learning, sharing and developing.

More later!

Jude has just – finally!!- finished a topic on Ancient Egypt.

Isaac received a postcard home from his German teacher, Herr Götschel, this week for getting full marks in three tests.

So, in their honour and in celebration of their achievements, here’s one of their favourite tunes!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe3FG4EOgyU

And the lyrics in German –
Ich bin Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil.
Komm aus Agypten, das liegt direkt am Nil.
Zuerst lag ich in einem Ei,
dann schni-,schna-,schnappte ich mich frei

[Refrain]
Schni Schna Schnappi
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp
Schni Schna Schnappi
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp

Ich bin Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil,
hab scharfe Zähne, und davon ganz schön viel.
Ich schnapp mir was ich schnappen kann,
ja ich schnapp zu, weil ich das so gut kann.

[Refrain]
Schni Schna Schnappi
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp
Schni Schna Schnappi
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp

Ich bin Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil,
ich schnappe gern, das ist mein Lieblingsspiel.
Ich schleich mich an die Mama ran,
und zeig ihr wie ich schnappen kann

[Refrain]
Schni Schna Schnappi
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp
Schni Schna Schnappi
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp

Ich bin Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil,
und vom Schnappen, da krieg ich nicht zu viel.
Ich beiß dem Papi kurz ins Bein,
und dann, dann schlaf ich einfach ein.

[Outro]
Schni Schna Schnappi
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp (schnapp!)
Schni Schna Schnappi (ja!)
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp (schnapp!)
Schni Schna Schnappi (mhmm!)
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp (ja!)
Schni Schna Schnappi
Schnappi (hmm) Schnappi Schnapp

And in English –

Artist : Schnappi

Title : Schnappi das kleine Krokodil (English)

—————–

I am Schnappi the little crocodile.

I come from Egypt, it lies right on the Nile.

At first I lay in an egg,

Then I schni- schna- snap myself free.

Schni Schna Schnappi

Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp

Schni Schna Schnappi

Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp

I am Schnappi the little crocodile,

I have sharp teeth and they are quiet pretty.

I hog what I can snap,

Yes I snap because I can do it so well.

Schni Schna Schnappi

Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp

Schni Schna Schnappi

Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp

I am Schnappi the little crocodile,

I like to snap, it’s my favorite game.

I creep onto my mommy,

And show her how I can snap.

Schni Schna Schnappi

Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp

Schni Schna Schnappi

Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp

I am Schnappi the little crocodile,

And because I’m snapping I don’t get there very much.

I briefly bite into my dad’s leg,

And then I easily shrink.

Schni Schna Schnappi

Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp (Snap)

Schni Schna Schnappi (Yes)

Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp (Snap)

Schni Schna Schnappi (Mhmm)

Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp (Yes)

Schni Schna Schnappi

Schnappi (Hmm) Schnappi Schnapp

I am loving this site España en 50 gráficos.

Lots of information about Spain presented in graphic form.  Much of it is beyond the ken of my pupils but I know they’d love these sections.

1. Names

Click on a name on the list on the left, and it shows you how many people in each province have that name.  Really interesting for looking at regional differences.  For example, Antonia is popular in the South of Spain but not so much in the North.

2. Así es nuestra selección de fútbol.

A team photo of the World Cup winning football team with information about them.

3. Así ganamos el Mundial

A really interesting graphic showing who passed to whom!  It seems that most people don’t pass to Torres ;o)

Worth exploring, especially if you’re teaching older pupils who need to look at economics and politics!