Allanah's Appleby Showcase

In the last week of our school holidays Jason Hando from Macarthur Anglican School in north Sydney put out a call for educators from around the globe to discuss their experiences with Web2.0 tools. The call was taken up by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Jen Wagner and my good self. I was aware I was boxing above my weight but am always up for new learning with others around the globe. These opportunities always present opportunities for me to learn as well as share. Jason made a wiki to co-ordinate the venture. The concept was a fun one- that of speed dating!!! The idea was that participants would have 15 minutes to speak with each of the experts via Skype and then move on. Sheryl, Jen and Jen's cat, Mac were on one computer and I had to hold the fort on the other.Scary stuff. I can really recommend you listen to Sheryl and Jen's podcast which is much more eloquent that mine! 10MB 18 minutes

Ryan impressed us with his go-karting trophies that he brought to school to how us for news time. Appleby School is lucky to have a go-kart track really close to it. Dino and Ryan travel all over New Zealand to go to go-kart meetings. Ryan, Elliott and Kieran recorded this podcast. 1.5MB 2.47 seconds

We are learning about living in America and our friends in Binghamton, New York, are helping us answer some of our questions. They sung us some songs and said the Pledge of Allegiance for us. We tried to say it with an American accent but are not too sure how it will sound to American ears. We also learnt God Bless America which we sing with much enthusiasm. Then we thought we would sing New Zealand's National Anthem in Maori and English. Lastly it was my birthday last weekend and our friends in Wales sung Happy Birthday to me in Welsh and English which was lovely and well worth sharing. 4.6 MB 6.46minutes

This week Nicole, Tegen and Shania chose, prepared, photographed, recorded and edited this podcast all on their own. Other children helped them with the bee drawings. It is great how children are getting more and more confident at using the technology and speaking clearly for an audience. A few children are even making podcasts just for fun before school! 1MB 1 minute 36 seconds

ANZAC Poem They shall not grow old As we who are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, Nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun And in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM Shania, Tyler and Elliott put together this podcast about their attendance at New Zealand's ANZAC day dawn parade. ANZAC stands for Australia & New Zealand Army Corps- a grouping of our soldiers who fought and died on the battlifields of Gallipoli in the Great War. It was on 25 April 1915 that some say New Zealand was born as a nation, through the sacrifice of our soldiers on foreign soils. 1.7MB 2.52 minutes

One of the families from Appleby School has recently left to go to Valencia, Spain for a few months to be involved in the America's Cup. Zoe's Dad, Rod, is helping install animation software designed by New Zealanders that will help people all over the world get more enjoyment of the America's Cup because they will be able to see in 3D where the yachts are up to. Rod came to school and spoke to our senior classes about what he is going to do and then we each took a photo and spoke about it so you would know more too. The beginning sound bite is of when the New Zealand yacht 'Black Magic' won the America's Cup in 1995. We hope to hear more from Rod while he is in Valencia. Wouldn't it be great if we brought the America's Cup back to New Zeland. 3.3MB 6 minutes 18 seconds

Ko Waimea te awa. Waimea is our river. We care about it and want to be healthy. This week we had the opprtunity to go to the river and test it for clarity, conductivity, acidity, flow, temperature and to see how many animals were present in the water. It was exciting because the water level kept on rising because of the extra big high tides that we have been having were pushing the fresh water back up the river! After all those tests we decided that our river was healthy and we pleased about that. The sound volume is not great in places but it was recorded on the move. This week Brittany, Amberley and Miriam prepared our podcast. 2.3MB 4 minutes and 21 seconds

Today before school I had the privelege of chatting with new on-line friends, Mrs Sullivan and her class of Year Five students from ,Horace Mann Elementary School Binghamton School District in New York, USA. We have been chatting through Skype for a week or two and a preparing a collaboration between out two classes that will foster links between our schools and help us to learn more about each other. It was close to their school home time and things were totally unprepared but the young voices from America sounded full of excitement at the prospect of making a new link with us. We look forward to further links in the future. 2.1 MB 3 minutes 31 seconds

We were lucky enough to be able to talk with Dr Barrie Frost from Ottawa, Canada, who is a very clever neuro-scientist. One of his research projects is to study the migratory paths of monarch butterflies. He showed us some incredible photographs that took our breath away. We learnt some really interesting facts about these incredible butterflies. Here Dr Frost tells us some of the wonderful things that the monarch butterfly can do. 3.7MB 6 minutes 15 seconds

This is our first truly mobile podcast recorded on location at our Wakefield School Swimming Carnival with the iTalk attached to my iPod. It was lovely to be able to capture the candid reflections on the day's events as they happened. It was a great morning, very well supported by the parent community. I was able to speak with children, parents, organisers and friends of Appleby School. 1.8 MB 2 mintutes 44 seconds

Jessica Ahlberg came to visit us in our classroom today. She is an excellent artist who has illustrated three children's books. We enjoyed asking her questions about what she does. She liked being with us as well and came to watch us swim. Jessica is just visiting New Zealand and is going to fly out to Los Angeles on Wednesday. We wish her all the best with her work. We really enjoyed having her with us and we learnt a lot from her. The skish, skish noise in the background is the sound of the cicadas in the trees calling for each other. A cicada is a flying insect thing that sheds its skin as it grows. Children like to collect the shells at playtime. Elliott composed the theme music for this podcast. 5.2 MB 8 minutes and 43 seconds Technorati Profile

We started our new school year this week in the sweltering New Zealand sunshine. We used my new 80GB video iPod and iTalk attachment to record our holiday introductions. I was really pleased with the ease of use of the iTalk so you can look forward to further podcasts out in the field rather than being tied to the computer or traditional microphone. A very cool first attempt. We got some encouraging feedback on our podcast from another school I taught at many summers ago, Coley Street, in Foxton which was nice. Welcome to the podcasting world, Coley Street. We look forward to hearing from you. Children have been enjoying listening to last year's podcasts on my 'old' iPod Nano. Most had never used one before and quickly caught on to the click wheel controls. 3.4 MB 4 minutes 50 seconds

This is the last of our poems for the summer. School starts again at Appleby on 7 February and we will start podcasting again as a fresh group of students learn the art of podcasting. This poem is written by Dianna Noonan, a well known NZ poet. The poem mentions a pukeko feather. Pukeko are a beautiful native bird of New Zealand with feathers the colour of paua. Pukeko Web Site The poem was cleverly presented by Gloria, Emily, Georgia, Ruby. 500 KB 51 seconds

The school holidays are nearly over. Our northern hemisphere listeners may think it strange to have our long summer holidays over Christmas but we go back to school for the new school year on 7 February. The photos were gathered from Flickr. I recently got into using Flickr because I have added an uploader from iPhoto directly. You may like to look at our Flickr photos of Tiny Ted, our geocache bear's, travels. I have added a link from our podcast's main page. This poem was read by Jessica, Jordan I, Raven and Brittany. 1 minute 11 seconds 1.2MB

This poem is a poem dedicated to all the grandfathers in the world who love and care for their grandchildren. It was ably read by Susa, Maddison and Jillian. The photographs were gathered from the internet. 1.5MB 1 minute 30 seconds

Here is another poem written by Philippa Werry. The photos were taken on one of our school camps. Every year I take the class somewhere. This time it was to the Abel Tasman National Park, We stay in tents at a camping ground and go out on the launch along the coastline and walk back through native bush. Class Blog about our camp Abel Tasman National Park The poem was read by Sam P and Tyler 648KB 52 seconds

'Write a Poem' was written by Desna Wallace in the Part 2 Number 2 2001 NZ School Journal. Multiple copies of school journals are a wonderful free resource given to all NZ primary schools to support the teaching of literacy. There are four general levels of journal published four times a year. I only have good things to say about these journals. Seeing advertising is now visible on Podomatic here is a link to a reading resource you can buy. Allanah's Book. I get a grand total of $1.32 per book sold from which I have to pay tax and Accident Insurance (ACC). Paper cuts can be hell. Yippee! I'm a millionaire! It was ably presented by Sam J, Fynn and Jackson P and Dino. 655Kb 39 seconds

On the last day of school for 2006 we recorded some of our favourite poems that we had learnt over the past year. Our plan is to publish a new poem each week over the holidays so you wouldn't forget about us. We know that a lot of people listen to our podcast in the northern hemisphere and your school only takes a short break over Christmas. We go back to school in February- that is a long time to take a break. Check out our blog to keep in touch. 1.4MB 1 minute 18 seconds

One of the features of Appleby School is its wonderful yearly Pet Show Day. This year's one was really great with lots of entries in all the events. What a great day we had.

Through our podcasting we have found kindred spirits in linking with Cefn Fforest School in Wales. We have exchanged letters, emails, photos, blog posts, gifts and a very small geocaching bear which is travelling about in Nelson having a wonderful time. Look for photos on our Moturoa Blog of his travels. After a couple of practice runs, Cefn Fforest School teacher, Paul H and I arranged to record a Skype conversation this morning. Children in my class decided on a question they would like to ask Paul and we started chatting. It was a great experience for the children. I was really pleased with their new confidence in speaking. I am sure their podcasting experiences over the last six months have really improved their oral literacy and confidence. We have come such a long way in those six months. My digital natives take it easily in their stride and think of it all as unexceptional. I have learnt a great deal and feel at home with the technology. Podcasting has given me a greater audience also which I am app