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Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

Farmville – Lost Black Sheep

Posted by Adrian on Oct-21-09

farmville

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When it comes to Farmville sheep wandering across my Facebook news feeds I’m starting to believe catharsis is so much more fun than rationality :-)

Feel free to send this to anyone who you think needs to see it. hehehehe

Warhammer & Digital Storytelling

Posted by Adrian on Oct-18-09

dawn_of_war

Another of the things I love about machinima is the irreverent humour. Feel free to make humourous suggestions for the dialogue of this comic :-)

Plus, I think I mentioned it before, I love leaving these sorts of things on display in classes for a week and having the students think about what should be added to the language bubbles. Mulling it over for a while tends to produce great results.

Alternate Digital Storytelling

Posted by Adrian on Oct-17-09

wow_comic

In the coming weeks I’m flying off to Mackay to run a whole day Gifted & Talented workshop on machinima.

I’ve been working on ideas for this workshop for the last few months and am just about to launch an online image bank that will not be blocked by school filters.  (If you know what I mean hehehe).

I’ve already completed a collection of Dawn of War, Second Life and, thanks to JoKay, World of Warcraft images. I anticipate that these collections will go live in the next few days.

Call for Help - If you can help out with PG rated images from your favourite video game feel free to email them to me so anyone can have a go at this type of story telling.

Get Some Genius Action Figures on Your Desk!

Posted by Adrian on Feb-27-09
Oddfellow Genius Pack

Over the last few months these guys have been great discussion starters. I love having them sit on the desk, not only for inspiration, but also to get students asking questions about the lads and their work.

Recently my three year old daughter has taken to playing with the characters in her doll house. I’m finding it strangely good fun to see Freud and Dora the Explorer sharing a kitchen or bathroom ;-)

There are heaps of these guys to choose from. I think I’ll get  The Artist Collection for a art teacher friend of mine as it has Dali, Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Warhol & Van Gogh in it. A history teacher friend of mine is getting the Revolutionaries Pack for his desk as he feels that, ‘History teachers just can’t have enough revolutionaries in their lives’. I also have an English teacher friend who is getting the  Writers Collection for her desk.

Now it needs to be noted that I had a few dramas in getting these guys shipped to Australia. Firstly I tried the official Jailbreak Toys Website where the prices were very reasonable and there was an excellent variety of figures, but due to a shipping anomaly it was going to cost $57 US (almost $100 Oz) to ship my order. Needless to say I didn’t go with this option.

Dali

I then tried Amazon but they don’t ship these figures to Australia but would be a good option for my American readers.

After that I turned to Ebay and Salvador today arrived just in time for my birthday tomorrow.

cheers

Adrian

NB This is not a paid blog post, I just find these guys a wonderful addition to my desk :-)

I Like This Spelling Strategy A Lot

Posted by Adrian on Feb-25-09
Spelling Strategy - A Lot

Here is a spelling strategy I use a lot in my classrooms. It will fix alot. hehehehe

Another Homophone Poster

Posted by Adrian on Feb-20-09
too poster

Here is my poster for the homophone in which ‘too’ means ‘also’.

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‘Better’ words than ’said’

Posted by Adrian on Feb-20-09
How is it said

I’ve just fixed an animation and added some new teaching notes on how to encourage children to rise above the mundane in their writing.

Hmmmmmm, Wordpress really doesn’t want to embed the flash animation. You’ll have to head off to the website to see it.

Better Words Than Said – animation and teaching notes

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Second Homophones Poster Ready

Posted by Adrian on Feb-20-09
Homophones

I’m having a really productive day today so here is my second homophones poster.

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First Homophone Poster Up – too

Posted by Adrian on Feb-20-09
Homophone poster too Here is my first homophone poster. I’m rather pleased with the way the little alien dudes came out. Feel free to print out the A4 version for your classroom walls.

Wordle & Poetry

Posted by Adrian on Aug-8-08
Wordle Poetry Today I’ve put together a scaffold for people wishing to experiment and be a little more creative in the publishing of poetry.

The poetry scaffold is a step by step guide to creating a verbal collage about each student. It encourages reflection and experimentation.

My son added a Wordle to his blog based on his blog tags and I made mine by ‘Pasting a heap of text’ into Wordle. We enjoyed playing with this tool and I think your students will also.

Have fun with Wordle

Adrian

PS Try performing this poem by readng it with a different volume and intonation for each word. Maybe even with a soundtrack behind it of Miles Davis :)

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