Registering for the Wiki Programme

I was absent on Thursday. Do not like to stay absent from from class but I had no other choice. I contacted Myrtle over the weekend and she explained to me what exactly needs to be done regarding the Wiki. So we intend to get together sometime over the next few days. Myrtle has chosen a name for our Wiki -knowledgeislight- it sound great and I think it is appropriate for our wiki. We need to decide will our wiki be for a high or primary school and like I told her that because grade 7, 8 and 9 is part of the GET phase I do not see why we cannot keep it to a primary school level.  I look forward to working with my group members. I am so tied up with the marking as we are currently busy with exams. Seems the marking will take me through the holidays as our marks need to be in by the first week in the new term. So it seems it will be very hectic for me as I need to personally see to my family, studies and also my schoolwork.  I guess it boils down to time management. I am busy working one that.  I also had a chance to read through the comments of the assignment that are due next week. Must work on the rough drat.
Love you guys

Assessment marks

Sandy gave back our test results, essay results and I made it! I know I could have done better.
She also reflected on the mistakes that we made and what we need to look out for, in the future. Sandy mentioned that I made some unneccessary- mistakes and that I need to be more careful in the future. On discussing the web-evaluation test it was pointed out how one can easily take for granted- that a website is authentic. One can easily be fooled but one needs to do cross referencing. I learnt quite a lot today. Today the group leaders were pointed out and I am very happy to be in Mertle and Wendy's group. I know we will make a great team because we have one thing in common: to make a success of this big project.

Looking forward guys!

Love
Josephine

Web Evaluation Test 2 September 2010

I guess the web evaluation test was not that bad and we as classmates had a lengthy discussion afterwards. Like Sandy has told us - we had done this before but it seems that one needs to do this all the time. Even If I did not pass the test I am confident now because I will know what to look for when evaluating the websites and even when I try to link some of it to forward it to my friends. This was a good exercise.

Thanks Sandy

Mixed feelings

Recently I completed an essay on Information Overload. I gathered so much information from the net that I realized that maybe I could have done better in my research. I developed these feelings after doing some reading on web evaluation - what exactly one needs to look at when you do research, i.e is the content valiid, when last was it updated, list of credentials of publishers, coverage etc. I think now I will look differently at web pages and also maybe instill that in my learners. I think I will do a couple of lessons on that because like me, they might also make the mistake of just choosing any information that pops up ( I think that is why I had so much information ). One really needs to scan the pages properly before downloading information. Today I also feel depressed as my son and his friend was accidently shot whilst on their way to the shop. The thugs got away but my son's friend was killed instantly. The motive unknown. Anyway, this is very traumatic for me and my family. My son was released from hospital. Today we are writing a web evaluation test and I'm looking forward to see how Sandy has set the test. Hope we all pass this test.

Love Josephine

Creating a Wiki for your school library

Today Sandy explained to us how we can create our own wiki for our school library. I have had my own thoughts about wikis, i.e not encouraging learners to make use of any wiki, how some people can be spiteful and put bad comments when contributing or whatever has been contributed can be destroyed but after listening to Sandy, (partially - because I was struggling to get some foreign language deleted from my blog! Sandy managed, after much effort to get the setting right. Thanks Sandy. I afterwards caught up with some reading on wikis) it sounded very interesting and because this is a group project I look forward to working with assigned members. Now we will be able to put our skills to the test as to what we have been taught over the past weeks. Imagine you will be able to check if someone in your group is not contributing, how knowledge can be shared collectively, quickly and thoroughly. This is amazing! I told myself I need to get connected to the internet as quickly as posssible (with the increase being implemented, I am very hopeful) because then I will be able to track whoever has made any changes. Now I have a different mindset about wikis. I like the idea of interlinking and becauseI have already practised that skill, I cannot wait for the collaborative sessions where I will be allowed to share understandable information with other librarians in Manenberg! Great stuff!

Thanks for a great session.
Josephine

Listservs - 19 August 2010

I enjoyed this session very much. This session dealt with Listservs, how you can join and form part of discussion groups, how messages can be sent to other groupmembers and how you cqn contribute by making comments although it is not expected of you to do so. A number of Yahoo Groups - interesting to know is that some of these listservs are open to anybody or in some cases not. Step by step we were shown how to join a group - Infolink. Still waiting on their response.
Sandy also showed us how we can organize our mailboxes. This is good so It makes one feel better organized.
Thanks Sandy

Regarding Internet Filtering

I got to campus and I felt very depressed. The past weekend I so much wanted to comment on some of classmates blogs and I was unable to. I felt like I just need to catch up in class. So some of the classmates reported on their topic and Sandy did the slide show facilitation. Whilst Sandy was busy I was doing some of my comments( to catch up and to make me feel better). I also managed to make some notes at the time of her presentation so I can say that Internet Filtering is a good thing especially for me as a parent because I will be able to monitor what my children at home and school are doing on the internet and she also showed us the different websites where these software can be obtained. As with the other session I also enjoyed this one because I ave done quite a bit.
Thanks for organizing us our student cards.

Love
Josephine

New ideas for all classteachers

Hi Linkers

I have come across an interesting website classmaker which I am sure will be of beneficial to all you guys. Please share it with your colleagues at school?

Love
Josephine

Something new for today

Today I learned something new regarding hyperlinking.

5 August lesson

The sesson on Thursday was very informative. We learnt new skills, opening and closing hyperlinks, how to share with your colleagues information that you found on other websites etc. This is something entirely new to me and I guess with much practice it can only go better.
Some of my classmates shared information regarding their researched articles which deals with e-books. Sandy then took us through the entire lesson i.e definition, what e-books look like, how we can read it as if it is a website ( iphone, kindle etc) It also seems as though it has more advantages than disadvantages.

Currently I do not have internet access at home, ( I am still in the process of getting myself organised with regards to that) sometimes I experience difficulties at school such as server being off or during my free admin time I must invigilate and this seems to be a big problem for me.

The best was when Sandy showed us the websites where we could access the e-books for free! Now I can share these websites with my friends and colleagues at school.

Great stuff Sandy!

Thanks
Josephine

e-books

I really enjoyed the lesson today because some new skills were taught to us like, how you can comment on someone else's blog, how you can do a hyperlink and I guess one can only become good at this when you practice a lot. I completed at least one of each. Some our classmates reported on e-books (definition, what e-books looks like, how we can read it as if it were a website; e.g iphone, kindle etc, that it has more advantages than disadvantages and also the websites where we can access the e-books from. Cool - now I can catch up on some of my reading.

Thanks for todays lesson.

Lesson plans for teachers

I came across some interesting material on The Death Penalty which I would like to share with you.

Lesson plans for teachers

I came across some interesting material which you can use in your classroom.

Intervention Programme

It seems that Intervention Programmes are a good thing. But it seems that some learners do not realise the seriousness of the matter when it comes down to them being part of a group which displays low literacy levels. Of the 18 lerners that were put on the programme only about 5 learners pitched for class. This is really upsetting because one really want to go the extra mile to help them. I later discovered that some of the learners had to go for their first language class which is Isixhosa. It seems that the small group that I worked with is very enthusiatic about improving their marks. We worked in the lab - We went on the website "whoswhoinsa". I also showed them how to search for biographies and autobiographies. This was what the lesson was about and the instruction was that they had to write a biography about themselves. We focussed on punctuation because some learners write without using punctuation marks. The emphasis was also on reading. I think they enjoyed it as much as I did.

Web Applications

What an interesting session! I realized that with the new knowledge that I acquired today, life as a teacher could be so much easier. So much information ( one of my classmates commented " I have never spent so much time in front of the computer") but the session was enjoyable and inwardly I became excited wanting to share this with my son and my colleagues! Like Sandy suggested that we just need to think on how we are going to apply this in the classroom /lessons or better yet how it can work for your learners ( because lessons can become boring ). I have learnt about podcasts, web.1 , web. 2 their differences and what I mostly liked was when she pointed out how we as teachers can share and collaborate with others. I definitely will apply what I have learnt. It is also going better this week logging on to my blog, going into my g-mail account etc.

Thanks for the session.

ICT applications

I enjoyed today's session although I struggled a bit. I could copy and paste pictures in my blog, save it in my desktop and this made me feel good. I guess it will be good if one can do this more like practicing, then I think it will go more easier.

Thanks for this session.

registering my blog

I looked forward to starting this Semester with Sandy Zinn. The course which she will be doing with us is ICT Applications and it sounds quite interesting. So many computer terminology! Knowing Sandy , I am very confident that she will help us "old" students

Once I registered I was very eager to get started on my first blog.