Take a look at Googles Santa Tracker

https://santatracker.google.com/#village

Hour of Code

Code - The New Literacy

How the BB-8 Sphero Toy Works

FHS End of Year Music Celebration

Thanks to Sebastian for his video camera work on the night.

School Website Link http://www.forresthill.school.nz/WebSpace/88/
   

"Alice in Wonderland" Scratch Design Studio

Celebrate the 150th Anniversary of "Alice in Wonderland" with this Scratch Design Studio during the upcoming Hour of Code this December!

Make a project that has something to do with Alice In Wonderland. Some ideas include:

- Your favorite scene from the book or movie.

- A drawing of your favorite character.

- Make an 'Alice In Wonderland 2' Scratch project with all your ideas.

- Write a spin story about what you wish would've happened.

- Talk about which character do you identify with the most and why. 

https://cdn.scratch.mit.edu/static/site/projects/thumbnails/8926/1634.png

Never seen the movie or read the book? How about making a project about what you think the movie is about, and what you're hoping it will include? :D


Having trouble coming up with ideas? Take a look at these Sprites & Backgrounds to help you:https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/86557166/ Feel free to remix as well!


Don't know how to make a link? Go to this awesome tutorial to see how:http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/47097052/


SDS (Scratch Design Studio) is a themed studio where any Scratcher can submit a project that matches the current theme so long as it meets the requirements shown above.


As always, thanks to the SDS curators for making SDS possible! Check out the curators tab to see the current SDS curators.

This studio will also be used for the upcoming Hour of Code in December!

To have your project added to this studio, please post a comment with a link. You can find a link to your project by clicking the 'Embed' button on the project page. The link will be directly below the Facebook logo.


Please submit a single project made no earlier than one month before the start of this Design studio. However, you can update your project, and it'll be eligible again. If you have an older project that would fit, add some new features and feel free to submit the updated version!


All projects must meet the community guidelines and be appropriate for all ages!


It may take some time for your projects to be added. Please be patient, we add projects oldest to newest; no need to double post!


Do you have an idea for a future design studio? Visit the studio linked below, read the studio description, and then submit your idea in the form of a project here:http://scratch.mit.edu/studios/93627


Questions about Scratch Design Studio? Check out the Scratch Wiki's article on it:http://wiki.scratch.mit.edu/wiki/SDS


Check out this project to see how new SDS curators are selected:https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/55738732/

Please do not simply ask to be a curator!


Check out this account for new updates on the SDS, new SDS curators and more! @SDS-Updates


Thanks to @St19_Galla for the thumbnail! :D

Hour Of Code - Monday 7th December 2015

Start here https://studio.code.org/ sign up and choose your pathway:

The Scratch Team and Cartoon Network team up for Hour of Code

Follow the links to great Scratch activities for Hour of Code:

Hide and Seek

Bearstack Story

B-Ball Hoops

The Hour of Code is Coming!

Minecraft - Hour of Code: INTRO

Go to the activity:
https://code.org/mc

Star Wars - Hour of Code: Introduction

Go to the activity:
https://code.org/starwars

Education Reform | Brian Aspinall | TEDxChathamKent

What is Computational Thinking?

GEG NZ Spotlight - Computational Thinking in Education

Abstraction - A Programming Concept

Coatesville School AG Day

My photo made the North Harbour NEWS:

View other photo taken on Coatesville School's annual AG day:

http://coatesvilleschoolagday2015.weebly.com/

The Frontiers of Computational Thinking | Interactive 2015 | SXSW

Shake Out 2015

Go the All Blacks!

In two days and 16 hours the Rugby World Cup 2015 will kick off between Australia and New Zealand. It will be held in the famous grounds of Twickenham, London. My prediction for the game is a win to the ALL BLACKS! 

4

Prof. Jeannette Wing -- Computational Thinking

Amazing Technology Invented By MIT - Tangible Media

Play-i (now Wonder Workshop) - Delightful Robots for Children to Program

Ayah Bdeir: Building blocks that blink, beep and teach

Who would like to play with Little Bits? 

http://littlebits.cc/

I would!

AnnMarie Thomas: Hands-on science with squishy circuits

Maker ideas for junior school. I remember this talk from awhile back now. It's over four years old now.  Forgot all about it. Time to give it a go. What do you think? Lets make play dough!

http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu/squishy-circuits

Gamefroot

Click the link to play. Zeliard MkII. Like the Gamefroot engine my game is a work in progress. It has been a fun afternoon working together and learning how to build a game in Gamefroot. Thanks Dan for your time and patience working with all of us today. 
My verdict on Gamefroot - Great potential. A bit buggy for my liking. However an update is due any day that should stabilize things. I will continue and finish my game. I plan to teach a group of students how to use Gamefroot this term and see what they come up with. Will look towards 2016 before introducing it to whole class group. You require a good internet speed for previewing you work. With N4L coming in 2016 this should make it easier. Best suited to upper primary or higher. I would not use this with under Year 5. Gamefroot is not comparable to Scratch that has a far lower entry level.      

Staircase Numbers - Google CT Project

My Project- Staircase Numbers

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,...

ASTOUNDING: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + ... = -1/12

Infinity makes for crazy mathematics! Can anyone explain this in plain english?

We Know What To Do: Gary Stager at TEDxNYED

Dot Day Drawing 2015

Click the X with arrows at the bottom of the slide to see in full screen:

WeDo Lion

Join Dot Day - Express your creativity!

What is Dot Day?

International Dot Day, a global celebration of creativity, courage and collaboration, began when teacher Terry Shay introduced his classroom to Peter H. Reynolds’ book The Dot on Sept. 15, 2009.

Watch the story that started it all on YouTube The Dot

Code a Dot Challenge

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/75600402/

How to play:

Create a dot picture from your favourite sprites.

Controls:

1. Use the MOUSE to position your sprite.

2. UP-ARROW to grow your sprite.

3. DOWN-ARROW to shrink your sprite.

4. RIGHT-ARROW & LEFT-ARROW changes costume.

5. SPACE-BAR draws the sprite as a dot.

6. Remix and add your own cool costumes. Please feel free to remove me and my cat!

7. In the tradition of dot day you should sign your creation. You will need to edit the name sprite and make it your own name. To place your mark(name) click the S-KEY to show, move to the spot you want it and press the X-KEY to stamp it in place.

8. IMPORTANT - when your drawing is complete right click on your creation and SAVE PICTURE AS STAGE. This seems to only work if in edit mode and press the stop button. If not you will need to screen capture another way.
9. C-Key to clear screen and start again.

This is my code. To make your own go to the project link above. Click See inside. You can make changes from here. However to remix, save and share you will need to have an account. It's free to sign up so why not. If under the age of 13 you will need parents permission and email. 

Forrest Hill School students have a shared account called -  "dotday"

When done please share to Padlet.

Created with Scratch

Junior Ideas for iPad

In Memory of Oliver Sacks

I first heard about Dr Oliver Sacks when I was studying psychology at Auckland University in the early 90's. I found him inspirational. The way he conveyed his stories was much more interesting to me than reading cold hard facts from a textbook. I purchased his book "The man who mistook his wife for a hat". I would still have a copy today if I hadn't let another student borrow it. His story "Awakenings"  was made into a movie. I thought Robin Williams captured the essence of Oliver Sacks so well. I'm not sure what Sack thought. But I loved the movie. It's ironic the Williams died before Sacks.

No doubt there are many clever and influential neurologists the world over but Dr Oliver Sacks was one of a kind. He told stories in a way that touched people. You didn't have to be a neuroscientist to understand and appreciate his work. Hats off to you Dr Oliver Sacks (9/7/1933 - 30/8/2015), thanks for sharing. 

 

Oliver Sacks, author and neurologist, dies at 82
MALCOLM RITTER, AP SCIENCE WRITER
Last updated 06:48, August 31 2015

       

Why Oliver Sacks is One of the Great Modern Adventurers

By Ron Rosenbaum

Smithsonian Magazine | Subscribe December 2012

Watch Oliver Sacks: What hallucination reveals about our minds - TED2009

Computational thinking: A digital age skill for everyone

Currently enrolled in Computational Thinking for Educators by Google. Learning more about CT.

Learning with SketchUp Make 2015

The Dot

Just make a mark and see where it takes you!

What is Genius Hour? - Introduction to Genius Hour in the Classroom

How playing an instrument benefits your brain - Anita Collins

This weeks TED ED Talk:

Is Minecraft the Ultimate Educational Tool? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital...

SketchUp 2015 First 3D Drawing

KidRex - Kid Safe Search Engine

KidRex - Kid Safe Search Engine: http://www.kidrex.org/

Try KidRex for safe and kid friendly websites

Other kids search engines I recommend:
Kidzsearch

SquirrelNet

Lure of the Labyrinth - The goal of the game

Your goal in Lure of the Labyrinth is simple: it's to find and liberate the pets (including your pet) that seem to have gone missing in the odorous and mysterious place called the Tasti Pet Factory. The goal may be simple, but how you achieve it isn't. Let's just say that you're going to meet a group of extremely unpleasant monsters ... and that you're going to have to outsmart them many, many times. If you're successful in this endeavor, you and little Rover or Spike (or whatever your pet's called) will both be on your way home soon. And if you're not ... well, you'll just have to play the game.

Once you have read the goal can you make a brief comment to show you have read the goal and understand it. If you have any questions please ask in the comments.     

Inside Moss: Modular Robotics' Robot Construction Kit

Cubelets! Thousands & Thousands of Tiny Robots

Takaharu Tezuka: The best kindergarten you’ve ever seen

SketchUp Basics for K-12 Education - 1

BiblioNasium

Room 17's Fantastic MS Paint Cartoons

Made with Google Slides

by Mr R

John Green on Paper Towns and Why Learning is Awesome | TED Talks

Game Information - Mythology and Lure of the Labyrinth

Game Information - Mythology and Lure of the Labyrinth:

The world of Lure of the Labyrinth is an amazing world, filled as it is with outrageous - and often disgusting - MONSTERS. You'll be interacting a lot with these monsters as you play Lure of the Labyrinth. So we thought you might want to know a little more about them.

The first thing you should understand is that some of the Lure of the Labyrinth's monsters are totally new and invented for the game. They have names like Scrubby and Imp and Salamander. Then there are other monsters that are drawn from various world mythologies. These include characters like Yeti (from Tibet) and Eloko (from Central Africa) and Medusa (from Greece). The mythology-based monsters inLure of the Labyrinth don't always look exactly like their specific models. Sometimes they're more like a combination of very similar characters from different mythologies. And they don't always act exactly like their specific models, either. For instance, Medusa was so horrifying in her original Greek myth that anyone who looked at her was instantly turned into stone. Now we don't think anyone will turn into stone when they see Medusa in Lure of the Labyrinth ... but then again, we've been advised by our lawyers not to make any promises! What we can say, though, is that each of the Lure of the Labyrinth's monsters will eventually appear - with a short "bio" - in the Bestiary section of your TPC once you actually encounter them in the game.

And beyond that, if you want to meet the monsters, it's time to start playing Lure of the Labyrinth ...

 

TEDxYouth@HMB: Jesse Schell - Start Thinking Now

Dr. Jesse Schell on "Games, Curiosity and the Future of Education"

http://www.jesseschell.com/

[New] Sketchup pro, Sketchup 2015 | Sketchup Tutorial For Beginners

This tutorial is very long and detailed. I'm going to try it. I think I'm going to listen to it in parts. You will need good concentration!   

TED Ed Club - Step One Completed

How big is Earth?

Lure of the Labyrinth

Camp Google

Go to Camp Google to find out more. Why not join!

TED Ed Clubs: The power of the story with Drew Dudley

TEDxToronto - Drew Dudley "Leading with Lollipops"

Announcing TED-Ed Clubs!

Could Forrest Hill School have is own TED-Ed Club?

This Day

This Day 2001 the first artificial heart was implanted.

How Artificial Hearts Work - HowStuffWorks:



'via Blog this'

Hands-Off Teaching Cultivates Metacognition | Edutopia

Hands-Off Teaching Cultivates Metacognition | Edutopia

The LEGO® Story

Don Wettrick on Pure Genius

RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

The world's largest LEGO model - Amazing time lapse video. 5 MILLION bricks !!!

Lego Worlds! Very Cool.

Create Your Own Planet FHS

Add your projects here Create Your Own Planet FHS

Featured project:

Google Photos

All Hail the Mighty Kick Wall!

Well done to Miss Smythe and the Kicking Wall Group. Great effort and result!

Cook's Petrel by Room 18

Make Learning Count

Brendon Burchard

1. You have to know what you want of your life before you become a master learner. If you don’t know what your goals are or dream life should look like, you don’t know WHAT to learn and, worse, you won’t be COMMITTED to truly learning it. Advanced learning requires clear focus and a definitive WHY for learning - without these you won’t stay disciplined enough to learn anything with real depth.

2. Avoid starting from scratch. With no model to begin from - no example or strategy you are following - you’re reinventing the wheel and doomed to waste time. So, what proven framework, person, strategy, or step-by-step instruction are you following in order to learn this new area?

3. Make a PRACTICE of mastering skillsets. A practice is a recurring habit or routine that deepens your skill in any given area. The important thing here is to make a daily practice of anything you truly want to learn. Without daily exposure and immersion in the area you are trying to learn you will never achieve mastery. Learning must be an everyday discipline.

4. Get feedback. As you begin something new, all leaps forward, all major advancement, rests on getting immediate feedback and direction. Learning is a social process, so ask other people for suggestions and direction as you move forward so you can adjust your approach. Don't listen to the haters, but never forget their can be valuable feedback from others even if you don't like how they delivered it.

5. Have a deadline. Without a timeline for developing your competencies, you’ll never act or you’ll fall off track. No deadline means guaranteed distraction. So, WHEN do you need to learn this new topic or reach the next level of skill? What’s the consequence if you don’t learn it by then? Knowing the answer to these two questions will accelerate your learning.

I'd like to teach the world to code! [collaboration]

Did you know you could embed your Scratch Projects on your blog post? Or any website for that matter. This is a cool project promoting Scratch. The original project was the idea of Mitch Resnick and it started off with just  the tune and words. This remix is a fantastic collaboration and really brings the project to life. Once the project is loaded click the green flag!  

   

Co:Writer Universal

Teach for Google Overview

I try out the free courses and report back soon. Should be interesting.
https://www.teachforgoogle.com/

Do Ink Green Screen Basics

We are planing a green screen wall in the library entry this year. Here is a iPad app that will be great to try out when the wall is done. Enjoy the tutorial. Do Ink is a cool app a must download on our iPads.

Terry Moore: Why is 'x' the unknown?

Tutorial: Google Slides

DIWire Desktop CNC Wire Bender

MakerBot presents Shape Maker

MakerBot presents Shape Maker

MakerBot Stories | The Browning School

Planet X - Scratch Project Tutorial

Voicemail - Westlake Boys Choir

The Westlake Boys Choir known as the voicemale choir came to FHS today. This choir is conducted by Mr David Squire. They performed 3 pieces. The first piece they played was a Hungarian Soldier song. This song was all about a young soldier writing to his beloved wife. This soldier was described to be angry. In this piece the trumpet was played and also the drum was played. I gave this song a 9/10. The next song they preformed was about Christmas but not a song like Rudolf the red nose reindeer that we knew it was a new song to me about the angels when they where looking at Jesus and their golden light shining down on him. This song to me sounded like a lullaby, it was beautiful. So I have given it also a 9/10. The final song they sung was a song that had been written by a previous member of the voicemale choir. This students name was Robbie Ellis. The song was about a Howler Monkey. This was a very full on song that gave me lots of information about those particular monkeys. I learnt that they live in Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Mexico. I gave this song a 10/10.

Later this year the voicemale choir are going to be performing at the town hall, competing in a concert called The Big Sing. In this choir the song I enjoyed the most was the Howler Monkey song as it was about an animals and I love animals. Also it taught me many facts as stated above and finally it was very full on and it kept me interested. The thing about this choir that I loved was how they had different melodies. Some where high and some where low.

Overall this was a spectacular performance that I found super entertaining and interesting.

Taken from Ella's Blog  Tuesday 26th May

Voicemail

Fifa U20 World Cup 2015

Under way!

Opening Ceremony

Our friend Jordan 

Full QBE Stadium approx crowd of 25000

Saying hi to the fans

Add caption

Warm ups

Our view

Nasty collision

Players on the ground

Goal Keeper receives some attention  

Keeper recovered

Played well - Noah Billingsley

Another close call!

Fifa U20 World Cup Game 1 - North Harbour Stadium Albany. New Zealand vs Ukraine. Result 0-0. Great day for football at Albany. Disappointing result but exciting second half. Drama with goal keeper collision! Number 20 Noah Billingsley came on and had impact. New Zealand so close towards the end. But at the end of the day the score was a fair reflection of the game.
Next game - Tuesday NZ vs USA. Will you be there to support our boys? Kick off 7pm.

Cry of the Taniwha

"Cool Nukes" sneak preview - Des Hunt reads from his new book.

Thanks Des for leaving a copy of your draft script pages 1-9  

Glenn Capelli on Teaching

Published on Oct 22, 2012

And When I Die by Laura Nyro and recorded by Blood, Sweat and Tears teaches us how to Design and Deliver education and training for today's World. Part of Glenn Capelli's Keynote presentation to 1500 educators. www.glenncapelli.com

Steve Jobs - Pure Genius! "Think Different"

Start with the WHY in what you do...

Des Hunt @ Forrest Hill School

Check out: Des Hunt visits Forrest Hill School (Arataki Blog Post) Read the comments written by the students. 

Video Link

Video Link

Video Link

Thank you Des Hunt for visiting our School.

"World's First" $9 Computer

Interview with Des Hunt

Animator vs Animation

Mums Teacher by Daniel

My mum had some very interesting stories that is why I want to share one with you.

In South Africa my mother’s year four teacher had was called Mrs Aukamp. She was tall and scary and perched right at the end of her nose she had big round glasses. She wore a skirt and high heels.  She could also be very disgusting, she used to pick her long nose and flick her snot at kids. Everyone was really petrified of her. My mother bawled her eyes out when she heard that she was in Mrs Aukamp’s class.

Inside Mrs Aukamps class there were three rows of desks.  She arranged the children according to their  behavior. She had the naughty and  slow to learn kids in one row.  The average  kids in the middle row. and the brainy ones in the last row.  Mum was placed in the back of the middle row.  Mrs Aukamp was a very mean teacher that is  is why she threw chalk or even dusters at people. If you didn't do your work at you would have to do a bit of working at playtime. The morning wouldn’t be that fun if you didn’t know them you would have to write them down ten times.  

One day that my mum will never forget was when a girl called Shelly Phillips dared to talk back to Mrs Aucamp. Mrs Aukamp picked her up and put her in the rubbish bin and said “you are rubbish”. The class was very quiet for the rest of the day.

After all this my mum became a teacher.

I find my mum amazing with teaching much better than Mrs Aukamp. My mum has relieved me and my class numerous times and most of those times she took us out for a game.

I’m very happy that my teachers weren’t like Mrs Aukamp.

To read the update please visit Daniel's blog.

Happy Scratch Day - May 9th 2015

Unfortunately I am not able to host Scratch Day this year. However there are two being hosted in NZ. Check them out @ Happy Scratch Day. One is hosted by Erika Rhodes at Paraparaumu Community Centre and the other by Jill Pears Linwood College in Christchurch. Have a great day!

Scratch Ideas to share:

I found this group of tutorials on YouTube that are well worth looking at for students who are interested in making their own games.  Invent with Scratch 2.0 Screencast YouTube Playlist

Mother Day Cards - Every thought about making mum an e-card for Mothers Day. Scratch Ed has a fun example http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/discussions/teaching-scratch/mothers-day-project.

But if you want an alternative to Scratch Tynker.com provides a step by step tutorial - Mother Day Card.

Happy Scratch Day All!

Get engaged with Nearpod!

This is a nice idea. Teachers designing and pushing out the learning to their students. Looks like it could be fun and engaging for students and teachers. When I figure out how I'm going to use this with my students I'll share the outcomes here, I think I'll start by exploring the topic of cyber safety,

Scratch Design Studio presents - Create A Planet!

3, 2, 1, Lift Off! Design your own planet in this new SDS!

A few suggestions for your project is to include a drawing of your planet, a few facts about it, and some activities that you can do on this new planet! Have fun, get creative, and REACH FOR THE STARS!

Struggling with your project/contribution? Try remixing, or checking out this template:https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/55873404/
_____

Don't know how to make a link? Go to this awesome tutorial to see how:http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/47097052/
_____

SDS (Scratch Design Studio) is a themed studio where any Scratcher can submit a project that matches the current theme so long as it meets the requirements shown above.

As always, thanks to the SDS curators for making SDS possible! Check out the curators tab to see the current SDS curators.
_____

To have your project added to this studio, please post a comment with a link. You can find a link to your project by clicking the 'Embed' button on project page. The link will be directly below the Facebook logo.

Please submit a single project made no earlier than one month before the start of this Design studio. However, you can update your project, and it'll be eligible again. If you have an older project that would fit, add some new features and feel free to submit the updated version!

All projects must meet the community guidelines and be appropriate for all ages!

It may take some time for your projects to be added. Please be patient, we add projects oldest to newest; no need to double post!
_____

Do you have an idea for a future design studio? Visit the studio linked below, read the studio description, and then submit your idea in the form of a project here:http://scratch.mit.edu/studios/93627

Questions about Scratch Design Studio? Check out the Scratch Wiki's article on it:http://wiki.scratch.mit.edu/wiki/Scratch_Design_Studio
_____

Check out this account for new updates on the SDS, new SDS curators and more! @SDS-Updates
_____

Check out this NEW and IMPROVED project to see how new SDS curators are selected:https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/55738732/
Please do not simply ask to be a curator!
_____

Logo by @Ionosphere

Completed CS002x: Programming in Scratch edX

I was planning to do this course with and selection of Year 6 students. This did not come to fruition however I did completed this course myself. Some aspects of this would have been appropriate for my students and because it's an open course we could go back to it and try these activities. We will see what Term 2 brings.

My next course:

This is another course run by Professor Klopfer of MIT. His courses are interesting and well structured. I would recommend them any wanting to start a MOOC. 

This is the outline:

Unit 0: Welcome and Orientation (4/1/2015)
Live Event: Ask Me Anything with Professor Klopfer Thursday, April 9, 2015 12:30 PM UTC
Unit 1: Foundations (4/8/2015)
Unit 2: How Games Mean (4/15/2015)
Unit 3: Design and Protoyping (Part I) (4/22/2015)
Live Event: Hangout on Air with select prototype critiques Wednesday, April 29, 2015 2:30 PM UTC
Unit 4: Design and Protoyping (Part II) (5/6/2015)
Unit 5: Assessment and Classroom Integration (5/20/2015)
Unit 6: State of the Field (5/27/2015)
Live Event: Unhangout with breakout groups and peer feedback in preparation for Final Project submissions Wednesday, May 27, 2015 11:00 PM UTC

You can enroll for free at edX.org