Inspired by illustrator Bronwyn Bancroft

Congratulations to Year 4 at Pilgrim School, Aberfoyle Park Primary School Campus, South Australia, for sharing a great new Photo Peach slideshow, “Our favourite parts of Australia”. The students were inspired both by the artwork and written text of “Why I love Australia” by Bronwyn Bancroft (which is one of this year’s CBCA shortlist, Category: Picture Books), and the digital slideshows Penrith PS students have been creating in recent months.

Final five

The final five groups of students have completed their persuasive slideshows from storyboards created during Term 2: Guided Inquiry Endangered animals (Stage 3 science & technology).


by Caitlyn & Arona


by Jazmin, Seth, Matt A., Rachael & Jared


by Tom, Matt J. & John
Compare the above slideshow with the students’ original storyboard.


by Skye, Emma T., Mitch, Kyle & Natalee


Vijay, Talita, Toni & Lachlan

Enjoy! Share! And please feel free to comment.

As mentioned previously, just a few points to consider with Photo Peach: Use it as judiciously as you would a series of Youtube clips. Don’t permit students to do open browsing; Photo Peach is a Web 2.0 facility that is open to anyone, and the slideshows are “unrated”. Also, if you notice that new comments have been added to a slideshow you’ve made, please preview the slideshow again before using it with students so you can monitor (and moderate/remove) unwanted comments. (Or close off comments altogether.) Consider a subscription to Photo Peach, which enables you to add your own or Creative Commons music, a wider range of transitions, and the capacity to download slideshows to your hard drive, web space or a CD.

All downhill from here!

The penultimate batch(?) of completed persuasive slideshows: Guided Inquiry Endangered animals (Stage 3 science & technology).


by Harry & Olivia


by Maria, Kira, Elyse & Tori


by Hamish & Amber


by Raina, Kahn, Elias & Jaymz


by Nicole, Emily, Binta & Kayla

Enjoy! Share! And please feel free to comment.

As mentioned previously, just a few points to consider with Photo Peach: Use it as judiciously as you would a series of Youtube clips. Don’t permit students to do open browsing; Photo Peach is a Web 2.0 facility that is open to anyone, and the slideshows are “unrated”. Also, if you notice that new comments have been added to a slideshow you’ve made, please preview the slideshow again before using it with students so you can monitor (and moderate/remove) unwanted comments. (Or close off comments altogether.) Consider a subscription to Photo Peach, which enables you to add your own or Creative Commons music, a wider range of transitions, and the capacity to download slideshows to your hard drive, web space or a CD.

Three more slideshows: endangered animals

Another batch of completed persuasive slideshows from Stage 3: Guided Inquiry Endangered animals (Stage 3 science & technology).


by Amy, James & Ashley


by Luke, Mitch, Hayden, Corey & Tristan


by Aimee & Long

Enjoy! Share! And please feel free to comment.

As mentioned previously, just a few points to consider with Photo Peach: Use it as judiciously as you would a series of Youtube clips. Don’t permit students to do open browsing; Photo Peach is a Web 2.0 facility that is open to anyone, and the slideshows are “unrated”. Also, if you notice that new comments have been added to a slideshow you’ve made, please preview the slideshow again before using it with students so you can monitor (and moderate/remove) unwanted comments. (Or close off comments altogether.) Consider a subscription to Photo Peach, which enables you to add your own or Creative Commons music, a wider range of transitions, and the capacity to download slideshows to your hard drive, web space or a CD.

Latest persuasive presentations

A few more groups of Stage 3 students have completed their persuasive slideshows from the storyboards they created in Term 2: Guided Inquiry Endangered animals (Stage 3 science & technology).


by Suresa, Emma, Sarah & Lily


by Tahlia, Christina, Corey, Angela & Christian


by Chloe, Cecelia & Marcya


by Jayde G & Rhys

Enjoy! Share! And please feel free to comment.

As mentioned previously, just a few points to consider with Photo Peach: Use it as judiciously as you would a series of Youtube clips. Don’t permit students to do open browsing; Photo Peach is a Web 2.0 facility that is open to anyone, and the slideshows are “unrated”. Also, if you notice that new comments have been added to a slideshow you’ve made, please preview the slideshow again before using it with students so you can monitor (and moderate/remove) unwanted comments. (Or close off comments altogether.) Consider a subscription to Photo Peach, which enables you to add your own or Creative Commons music, a wider range of transitions, and the capacity to download slideshows to your hard drive, web space or a CD.

Time to check out Maang?

A few of us have spent way too much of our vacation playing around on Maang, the NSW DEC’s new microblogging facility that replaces Yammer. It has been like two weeks of the really fun bits of a professional development day, mixed with watercooler talk. So much to learn, so much to discover, so much to share. I know that I’ve explored only the tip of the Maang iceberg and that it holds many more surprises as we learn more.


Maang logo

If you have never dabbled in Facebook or Twitter, but feel like you probably should know something about how social media works – and so many of our students spend a lot of their time (seemingly) perfecting their skills in same – Maang is an ideal opportunity for you to go beyond the possibilities of a professional listserv and to do so among curious colleagues who are also learning. What I’ve enjoyed so far is not just socialising and sharing with TLs in the dedicated Maang groups (there is a Teacher Librarian group with 142 members so far, a Bookweek group, a blogEd group, and many others), but conversing with principals, beginning teachers, IT specialists, teachers located in schools where I used to teach, etc. There have been several online reunions with colleagues from previous schools, and that has been stimulating, too.

Listservs have their own conveniences, plusses and minuses, but it’s important to investigate what else is out there in Web 2.0 Land, and to practise, practise, practise.

New South Wales Department of Education and Communities staff can find Maang by clicking on the hyperlink that now appears in the DEC Portal’s “Quick links”. Or go to:
https://maang.nsw.edu.au/st/signals

Some browsers will mention a “certificate” problem, but it is a glitch in Internet Explorer.

Hope to see you over at Maang!

Max sets sail

Max sets sail (#9)

My latest eBay purchase just arrived on the front step. Max sets sail (“Where the wild things are”) in a delightful Hallmark Christmas ornament, just in time for Midwinter Christmas – and Book Week. Sadly, this wild thing – a favourite from my own childhood – was missing from the recent live action film. I really expected him to at least make a cameo appearance.

New puppets

New puppets

Bargain shop stock tends to arrive in waves, and certain items can disappear without a trace. I thought I’d seen the last of the endangered animals puppets that were so prevalent in the bargain shops a few months ago. This week, several stalls at Paddy’s Market, in Haymarket, had cheap puppets in the same style and I found it hard to pass up the $4 parrot, kookaburra and kangaroo puppets. I even found a $1.50 key ring with a joey, who seems to be in the same scale as the kangaroo.