We visit Cefn Fforest School

Today Mini-Dylan and Miss K were warmly welcomed to Cefn Fforest School. Moturoa and Mr H's class in Wales had been working together for a few years and it was great to meet some of the kids in the school that we had only spoken to via Skype or through our blogs- just like Dino had done in May 2007.
Here we had a line up of everyone- if you look carefully you can just see us in the middle of then photo. It was lovely to meet Bethan who had been the star of our article in the Times Educational Supplement in January 2007 about using Skype in the classroom. Thank you Cefn Fforest School for a fabulous welcome.
After that great visit Mr H took us to visit Caerphilly Castle. The castle was huge and very, very old. I could just imagine how it must have been long ago.
It was really grand- I wasn't game to stand underneath this part of the castle in case it fell down completely.
Mini-Dylan loved being home in Wales for a few days.
And then- guess what? It snowed on me- you might have to click on the photo to see the snow flakes but they were definitely there.
Mr H and I stopped for a photo shoot by the castle moat which had frozen solid in places. I am holding a bit of frozen moat.

Mini-Dylan Comes Home

After a couple of years touring the world Mini-Dylan came back to the land of his ancestors for a visit. To show you just how cold it is Miss K took this photo of a roadside waterfall!
Miss K and Mini-Dylan were visiting with Mr H from Cefn Fforest School.
Miss K saw this robin red breast while she was there- we only have black robins in NZ.
On our travels we saw Roald Dahl's church- I didn't know that Roald Dahl had anything to do with Wales- when I got home that day I Googled Roald Dahl and found out that was born in Wales- see Miss K is learning things all the time!

After

Miss K visits a really, really old town in England

Miss K has been really busy touring the world finding out all sorts of new and interesting things. Today's visit was to Bosham- a tiny village on the south coast of England. It is a couple of thousand years old- imagine that!
Here is Miss K in the old churchyard- you can see some of the gravestones- they are so old you can't even read what's written on them. It was all very pretty.
See those crosses by the church door- they were put there by knights who had gone away to the Crusades and come back safely a thousand years ago.
Many of the houses around the village had thatched roofs- thatch is sort of a long reed that grows around that area.
It was all very beautiful and old.

Mini-Dylan tours Admiral Nelson's ship- Victory

Today Miss K and Mini-Dylan a whole lot about Nelson's and England's history by touring Admiral Nelson's ship- Victory that was in the Battle of Traflagar against the French.
I was very impressed with the Victory. At first I thought it was a replica but it was the very real thing. This ship was the flag ship in the Battle of Trafalgar between England and the French where Admiral Nelson was mortally wounded. I was astounded to learn that the ship carried over 800 sailors and boys in dreadful conditions. The tour guide showed us all over the ship from Nelson’s luxurious cabin right down to the bilge of the ship where they stored the gunpowder in leather bound powder kegs on a base of shingle to stop the barrels moving and igniting a spark.



I learnt where the phrase ‘three square meals a day’ came from. The sailors’ dinner plates were made from square wooden plates and they got three square meals a day. The meals themselves were pretty rancid but the sailors were allowed to drink hefty daily allowances of grog which is probably the only thing that kept them going.


You weren’t allowed to take photos on the tour but I still managed to get this one. You can see all the cannons ready to fire their shot. It was real deadly fighting machine.

Mini-Dylan nears home

Mini-Dylan is starting to feel a stirring in his bones and he smells the coal fires of the valleys of South Wales nearby. Today he is with Miss K in Portsmouth a sea-side city on the southern coast of England. In the photo you can see the Spinnaker Tower from across the bay at Gosfort.

You can't tell from the blue skies but it was awfully cold- the water in the bird bath outside was frozen solid.

It isn't 2009 in England yet but Tiny Ted and Miss K wish all of New Zeland a very happy new year and she looks forward to seeing you all again in 2009.

The Tower of London

Now we moved on to visit London. We spent today having a guided tour of the Tower of London. I was expecting more of a tower but it was more castle like really. We were very impressed with it. The Tower was very beautiful really and just dripping with history of queens being beheaded and traitors being cut up in bits and spread over town. England has a pretty bloodthirsty but entertaining history.

It was a great tour and we learnt heaps.

Mini-Dylan and Miss K land in Hong Kong

Miss K and Tiny Ted are on a bit of a world tour and the first stop is Hong Kong- we enjoyed a trip by junk out on the harbour.
Tiny Ted had to hold is breath with all the smog- but it was a great view over central Hong Kong from the very top of Victoria Peak. You get there by going up a very steep cable car.
At night they have this really awesome light show where a whole heap of skyscrapers all light up in time to music. Here is a photo of me waiting for the display to start.
To give an idea of how many skyscrapers there are I took this photo from out in the middle of the harbour. Hong Kong has 7 million people living in it and they just about all live in buildings like these!

18,000 Hits

Today we rolled over a new milestone- 18,000 hits on our blog. Well done everyone.

A new way to present our stuff

I am so looking forward to getting back to Appleby School and sharing all the cool things I have been learning about this year. One tool I just learnt about today is Capzles where you upload photos and movies and music and it plays a bit like a slideshow and people can leave comments.

Mr F, an educator from America, has already left a great comment for Gloria and Fynn. To play the slideshow just click on the play button.

The second item is a video- to watch it click on it to make it big.

If you want to hear my cool audio just click on the little speaker button.

To see the thing in full screen click where it says full screen on the bottom right hand side.

What do you think??

High School Musical 3

You didn't know it but Miss K got a part in High School Musical 3. Here is the proof!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Where in the World?

Just for fun we decided to make a video of us dancing. People sent me videos from all over the world and we put them together into one video and here it is.

Math Games

This is Tasman school playing maths games.
Were practising basic facts. Today a small group of children at Tasman School tried their hand at blogging. This is the first time we have had guest bloggers on our blog.

Athletics at Tasman School

This is Tasman School practising for the Athletics day.
SUPERMAN !!!!!!!!

Conference Video

During the school holidays as you know I went down to Christchurch for an ICT conference. While I was there I was asked about the things we do on our class. Here is what I said..



Other videos about education can be found here.

Mini-Dylan Tours New Zealand

On the way back from the Christchurch Conference we saw a little snow on the Lewis Pass so had to get out and have a little play. Mini-Dylan had never seen snow in NZ before so rather liked it.

And then he got to go up into the cockpit of a plane to see what the world looked like above the clouds. Miss K took a video to show you what it looked like.

Dolphins in the Abel Tasman

This weekend I showed a bunch of overseas visitors around a bit of Nelson and thought we would go out on the water in the Abel Tasman. While we were going to Anchorage we got ourselves surrounded by a pod of dolphins. I am in awe of dolphins and thought you would like to take a look as well.

ULearn08

Here is Miss K down in Christchurch for a computer conference. I made a poster to share the sorts of things we do in our classroom.

I was a finalist in the 2008 Microsoft Innovative Teacher Awards. I got to go up on stage to receive my prize- a web cam and a wireless keyboard. Very cool. When my name was called everyone went, 'Woohoo!!' which was fun.

Baby Animal Alphabet

Sooo cute. Here is a Baby Animals Alphabet link I am sure you will enjoy that gives you the all the animals in alphabetical order.

A New Hot Counter Map

Mr H has this map on his blog and I wondered how it would look on ours. It shows where in the world people are looking at our blog from so if there are two stars in different places you can see where in the world the other person is- live!

If you want one of these on your blog just click on the little green circle on the bottom right of the map to take you to the map website. Choose what kind of map you want- copy the html code into your blog posting page and then click compose and it should be sweet.

17,000 Hits

Things have slowed down a fair bit on this blog seeing I haven't been teaching this year but it is noce to see things still ticking over we are set to pass 17,000 hits very soon. Not a bad effort.

Storm Videos

This week you would have seen all the storms around New Zealand. Children from Meadowbank School in Auckland made a video all about it. It reminded me of our Hurricane Katrina video we made a while back so I have posted them both on our blog.

Here is our video that highlights the effect of the Hurricane.



Here is the video from room 23 at Meadowbank School.

More from San Francisco

Miss K has been working really hard while she was in San Francisco. Here she is with her new Adobe brand jacket looking out from a rooftop restaurant.





Mini-Dylan went out on the water in San Francisco Bay to view the Golden Gate Bridge. Enjoy the video!

Miss K

Sausalito

Today we thought we had pretty much done San Francisco city apart from girl shopping that I didn't want to inflict on Colin as we wandered downtown to catch a transit bus to Sausalito. It was a short trip but interesting to drive through ordinary suburbs of the city. Sausalito was a lovely smaller centre on the coast without the feel of noise like downtown- it reminded me a little of Day's Bay in Wellington with all the craft shops and the like.
We caught the ferry back into the city. Here is me with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.


Little Mini-Dylan is enjoying the trip with me. Today the Adobe Summit starts and work begins.

How is school going???

San Francisco Day Three

Today after a lazy start we wandered about looking for a cable car to catch into downtown.After that adventure we started to chat with a couple of nice policeman. From TV shows we get in NZ you would think that USA policemen would be mean types but these guys were very happy to chat and laugh.And then I started chatting to a very talkative homeless guy who was going to college and waiting for subsidised housing. I was evidently sitting in the his spot on some steps taking a rest from all the sightseeing. We were suprised at how together this homeless guy was and wondered why he was spending his days asking for money on the streets and going through rubbish bins and sleeping in doorways. He said he was a US armed forces veteran waiting for subsidised housing. I hope he gets it soon. He seemed like a nice person.
We enjoyed wandering through China Town as well. Mini-Dylan enjoyed chatting with some very pretty Chinese ladies. Chinatown is full of bustle and noise.

Then up to the 52 floor of the Bank of America Building for pina colada cocktails and a look at the misty view. We met with a couple of lovely local ladies who enjoyed chatting with a couple of leg weary kiwis.

Mini-Dylan enjoyed a small pina colada as we look out over the bay. The journey to the 'bathroom' was the poshest in my 51 years. A lovely Asian woman welcomed me and directed me to an empty cubicle. As I left she turned the gold faucet on for me and showed me where to source the soap. On washing my hands she passed me a warmed towel to dry my hands. I don't think tipping is a good idea but if I had taken a penny to the dunny she would have got it!

Have a great day back at school todayand be nice to Mrs P.

Miss k

San Francisco Day Two

Today we did the tourist bus thing around San Francisco on an open top double decker bus.It was a great tour and we learnt a lot about the city and ists past from his talk. I took lots and lots of photos from the bus as it went over the Golden Gate Bridge and when I get on a decent internet connection I will post the video. Here am I at one end of the bridge looking back over the city views.

Then it was off for a spot of shopping- you should see this one shop called Nostrum Westfield. It was HUGE with nine floors of shopping and interlinked escalators all over the place.

THEN- I saw the big APPLE and a queue of people waiting to get an iPhone. I went inside and spoke to an Apple Genius- that is what their job is called. He helped me buy an 8GB iP od Touch- it is SO cool.
I can't wait to surf the internet from it through a wireless connection.

The stetch limo is what I neede to carry all my shopping home to the hotel!!

San Francisco- We Are Here!

My computer clock tells me it 12.09am in NZ time but we're flying through the time zones and have just flown back into yesterday.

I have never crossed the international date line before and will cross the equator into the northern hemisphere some time on our trip across the Pacific Ocean. Remember our study Comparing Hemisphere's from last year.

Well now I will get to see for myself what the the northern hemisphere is like- I will look for swirling water, gravity, where the sun is in the sky and what the seasons will be like. Here is a photo of me at Sydney airport with a visual dictionary of Aussie words. It made us laugh.

We booked the cheapest flights we could which meant I had to fly to Auckland, then to Sydney and then the last leg to San Francisco. The plane is packed full of people all trying to sleep sitting upright- we have seen three stink movies in a row so I thought I would start a blog post and hopefully will get the opportunity to post it when we get to America!

Fellow teacher, Colin, from Marina View School in Auckland and I are on an adventure to
fly to San Francisco to represent New Zealand at the Adobe Educational Leaders' Summit
next week.

We are flying over early so we can have a bit of a good look around before the
summit starts.

Mini-Dylan is on this adventure with me and we hope to get out and about seeing some of
the sights and sounds of the big city.
Mini-Dylan had a quick Budweiser beer to quench his thirst as it is summer in San Francisco, California.

Maybe you can go on Google Earth and have a look at the path we are taking across the
Pacific Ocean- look for the Golden Gate Bridge as we hope to go for a bike ride over it on
Monday.

Any questions you want to ask or things you would like me to do write them in the
comments and I will see what I can do.

The next few days are open as to what we want to to but on Monday we intend to hire
push bikes and bike over the Golden gate bridge and get a boat back to the city- that
sounds like a fun idea. I want to go shopping in a big department store, maybe go to
Yosemite National Park and generally soak up the atmosphere of being in a totally
different culture. I have been to Australia a few times before and it feels like when I visit I
am visiting my cousin- staying in America is really new territory for me.