Catch the Wave

Recently I rediscovered the photo software ‘Picasa’. I’d had version 2 on my old laptop,but hadn’t got around to downloading it onto my new laptop. Then one of the teachers I work with wanted a programme to make a collage of photos and I suggested Picasa. Once we’d downloaded it, I discovered that Picasa 3 is a real improvement on the old version. It has a lot of choices for collaging photos and also makes neat photo stories similar to Photo Story 3. These can be then be uploaded to youtube – directly from PIcasa. Then all you have to do is copy the embedding code and paste into your blog. That makes it pretty easy. The collage I made is of classic cars which were parked outside my apartment building a couple of Saturdays ago.

Living in Whakatane I’m noticing how quickly the seasons change. We’re only 7 days into spring, but already the sky is bluer, the sun is warmer, the sea sparkles and everything looks greener. I even feel inspired to go for a walk.

Recently I’ve made several freeware discoveries. Teachers I work with needed a programme which would compress photos in bulk. ‘Jpeg 4 Email ‘ does this and it’s really easy to use. You just need to set the size you want, make multi-selections and drag the photos into the Jpeg for email window. You can then save the compressed photos into a new folder. It’s really useful for adding photos to a blog as well.

The second goodie is ‘Switch’, which converts sound files (e.g. .wma) to MP3. You can also multi-select.

Another discovery is the ‘vidtoMP3 website‘ which will save just the music from a video as an MP3. I know you’ll find a use for that one!

I also added the chroma key to Windows Movie maker so I can make blue screen movies. Follow the steps on this wikiHow page I think it’s better to use a green screen though because lots of people wear blue clothes. I ended up with an armless person in my underwater movie because she was wearing a long sleeved blue top!

I’ve been with the eBest ICT Cluster in Whakatane, New Zealand for four months now. Our main cluster goal for 2008 is to develop a thinking programme for each school that reflects the needs of the 21^st century learner. Each term we have a whole day ‘Leaders Think Tank’ and an ‘ICT Lead Teachers Workshop’. This year we are looking at a variety of thinking strategies and ways to implement them in daily classroom practice.

The eBest ICT Cluster website is our sharing and collaborating environment and contributes to our development as a learning community. Here, teachers share their planning and resources and the files reflect the use of Bloom’s Taxonomy, Thinkers keys and Habits of Mind in their teaching practice.
The website URL is www.ebest.co.nz

You don’t need to be a member to use the site and the resources are available for everyone to download free. If you find the resources useful, please add a short post to the eBest Blog. I’d love to hear what you think of the website.

Well here I am in sunny Whakatane, in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. I’ve actually been here for five weeks, but there have been lots of things to do and places to explore … so you’ll have to forgive me for not posting. I’ve bought a little place down by the river next to the botanic gardens.

While I wonder if this is a good time to buy real estate (I keep reading gloomy predictions about the market in the newspapers) I really love living in my own place again after six years renting in Wanganui.

Whakatane has sensational scenery. All I have to do is point my digital camera and click and I get the most amazing photos! I’ve used some of the photos I’ve taken to make the eBest ICT Cluster website banner

The local newspaper (Beacon) is printed 3 days a week and amazingly costs only 40c on Tuesday and Wednesday and 50c on Friday!! It has a great website and you can even download a .pdf of the classified advertisements.

Whakatane has an impressive ‘3 bin’ recycling system, taking away your rubbish, plastics, bottles, paper and green waste from the curb.

Another neat thing is that I’ve got a new Toshiba laptop (with 2 Gig of Ram!) and an aircard – so now I have Internet wherever I go – which is pretty much essential. I love it. And I finally got my home wireless Internet going … so now life is almost perfect. I just need to win lotto and find a perfect man. (Yeah, I know!)

The teachers in the eBest ICT Cluster are positive, confident, talented and enthusiastic – it will be fun learning together. If you’re coming up this way, let me know and I’ll show you around.