Room 3’s Blog

Have a good look at this!

This is a Coca Cola site but it looks to be fun. Can someone check it out for me and let us know what it’s about?

Happiness Factory

I know that our Science Fair is all but over but you might like to have a look at this, from Wesley Fryer:

“Meet the Robinsons” is one of my favorite movies for many reasons. The way in which the film celebrates creativity, innovation, and perseverance in the face of difficult circumstances is wonderful. Louis, the hero, is an aspiring science fair inventor, who eventually realizes his dreams and creates (or discovers) inventions which help shape the world into better, greener, and more beautiful forms.

In Ontario, Canada, 16-year-old science fair contestant Daniel Burd may be a real-life Lewis Robinson. According to Brandon Keim writing on the Wired blog, Burd conducted experiments for his science fair project which “isolated the microbial munchers” which can make plastic decompose in three months rather than thousands of years.

What a fantastic discovery!

Here’s my suggestion for your next project: Nuclear fusion at room temperature. Naysayers will tell you it can’t be done, but don’t believe them. You CAN do it. Keep moving forward!

As some of you have been asking about the difference between tags and categories, I am doing something I have discouraged all of you doing - copying a complete post from someone else! I hope this will explain the topic clearly.

This post on using Tags and Categories on a blog was written by Michael Martin from Pro Blog Design.

In terms of coding, categories and tags are almost identical. A category system could very easily be used as a tagging system, and vice versa.

So what is it that makes the two different? And how are they best used?

Understanding and Using Categories

Categories are best imagined as a paper filing system. Each page in the system must be filed away in the appropriate drawer. There are only a set number of drawers, and so each must cover a rather wide blanket.

In your blog, categories are best used in exactly the same way:

The number of categories should be small. Resist the temptation to add new categories because a long list of them will not be read or browsed by anyone and so, is of no use.

Each post goes into one category. The categories are a way of giving a post permanent storage, just as the drawers do. You cannot put one piece of paper into two drawers, and in the same way, a single post should go into a single category.

Categories are navigation elements. Categories are not simply a way of labelling posts, they are a core element of your navigation. Your categories should be factored into your site’s architecture and navigation, and displayed appropriately.

Categories in URLs. A category represents the traditional folder system of a HTML website. Using permalinks with category names included is a good way of displaying the tiered architecture of a web site. Consider this URL - http://domain.com/category/post-name/ - If I want to return to the post’s category (i.e. go “up a level” in the architecture), I simply slash the post-name off the URL.

Complement the Categories With Tags

The most common problem with tagging is that it is used for the same purposes that categories are. Your tags aren’t categories. They are complements to your categories.

Think of tags as the colorful little page markers you might use to flick back to your favorite pages in a book. The tags don’t describe the book as a whole, instead they describe individual sections of the book.

Use the same tags over and over again. The tagging system is useless when the tags you use vary. For instance, if you have a series of posts on writing articles, you could tag them as “journalism,” “writing,” “copywriting,” or a hundred other variations. The important thing is that you choose one of them, and then reuse it on every post you ever write on the topic.

Tags do not need to be displayed in the sidebar. Tagging is not a part of your navigational structure, and so it does not necessarily have to be displayed in the sidebar. Why not simply list a post’s tags at the end of the post? The contextualisation will make them much more valuable to readers, and could even be used to replace “Related Posts,” plugins and such.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Take a look at this:

Fido Puzzle

I have just read about a blog by an American Teacher who is currently teaching in China, Viking in China.

Fortunately for me and my students, my friend and colleague, Jason Long is teaching in China this spring and sharing his observations and experiences via a blog titled Viking in China. In his most recent blog entries Jason shares his observations and experiences regarding the Olympics. One of the more interesting pieces of news from Jason is that some Chinese are boycotting American and European goods in response to the protests in the United States and Europe.

I think it would be worth some of you reading Jason’s posts of his observations and interactions with the Chinese people. This may give you another perspective of life in China for the ‘ordinary’ people! If you have any questions you might like to post them on Jason’s blog.

I thought you might enjoy this! I hope it’s not blocked at school.

This is a website created by Genesis Energy for New Zealanders of all ages who want to help the environment. It’s different because it reveals how small lifestyle changes can have an impact on the real world.

You start by adopting a tree. When you make small changes to your lifestyle your tree grows. When you encourage others and they make changes your tree grows even more.

These changes are called Pledges. There are Pledges for the household, kids and grown-ups. You just choose a Pledge that appeals to you. You can start easy and work your way to the harder Pledges.

You can choose your type of tree. Your tree is part of a virtual forest and a nationwide community. You can see what Pledges your friends are doing, join a group, give gifts to trees owned by other people, and win prizes.

Like all the best things in life, it’s simple but effective. And it only takes a moment to join up and adopt a tree. You can start here.

This is something we could discuss as a class and have a class pledge - like turning off the computers everyday, turning off the lights when we really don’t need them on. Any other suggestions?

This video was posted on You Tube a couple of days ago. It was 14 months in the making, visits 42 countries, and involves a cast of thousands.

Where the Hell is Matt (2008)

While clearing out my long list of bookmarks I came across a blog from Mr Eames of Muritai School and on his blog he has a slide show of his class showing their wearable arts from 2007. Check it out, you may get some ideas for our show next term.

Not so amazing because I can see students in this class doing this. What do you think?

Western Oregon’s Sara Tucholsky is carried around the bases by Central Washington’s Liz Wallace, left, and Mallory Holtman after injuring her knee following her home run during their softball game Saturday April 26, 2008, in Ellensburg, Wash. With two runners on base and a strike against her, Tucholsky uncorked her best swing and did something she had never done, in high school or college. Her first home run cleared the center-field fence

I found this through some Diigo bookmarks and was wondering what you think of these definitions! What would you add as your own definition of ‘being poor’?

Being Poor

Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.

Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends’ houses but never has friends over to yours.

Being poor is coming back to the car with your children in the back seat, clutching that box of Raisin Bran you just bought and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last.

Being poor is off-brand toys.

Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house.

Being poor is knowing you can’t leave $5 on the coffee table when your friends are around.

Being poor is hoping your kids don’t have a growth spurt.

Being poor is stealing meat from the store, frying it up before your mom gets home and then telling her she doesn’t have make dinner tonight because you’re not hungry anyway.

Being poor is not enough space for everyone who lives with you.

Being poor is feeling the glued soles tear off your supermarket shoes when you run around the playground.

Being poor is making lunch for your kid when a cockroach skitters over the bread, and you looking over to see if your kid saw.

Being poor is people thinking they know something about you by the way you talk.

Being poor is your kid’s teacher assuming you don’t have any books in your home.

Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor.

Being poor is a six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap.

Being poor is never buying anything someone else hasn’t bought first.

Being poor is checking the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.

Being poor is feeling helpless when your child makes the same mistakes you did, and won’t listen to you beg them against doing so.

Being poor is a cough that doesn’t go away.

Being poor is knowing where the shelter is.

Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.

Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.

Being poor is seeing how few options you have.

You can read them all here -  Whatever: Being Poor. There are a lot more definitions in the comments to this blog post.

Many people are blogging about this video and website. This comes from Andrew Churches.

This is a great video, a great message, a great site and a great cause.

The Message is simple, its honest and its clear. Take care of the girls in the villages, provide them with an education, support them rather than abuse them or treat them a property, and…… many of the worlds problems will disappear. Don’t waste the talent, the potential.

Visit The Girl Effect website

I’d love to hear your comments on this important issue!

Monday:

Was a public holiday so everyone hung out at home enjoying the long weekend.

Tuesday:

We had maths in the morning but I had finished everything so got a little bit of freetime to work on my blog posts. After morning tea we had Tech Arts. The year 7’s are doing cooking and year 8’s are doing fabric. I made Banana Cake with chocolate icing(sooo healthy). It was soo yum though. After lunch we had a new task due on the following Monday. We have to write a report on either elephants or wetas using the notes that Mrs Crowe has given us.

Wednesday:

Today was pretty much a normal day. Maths in the morning, writing, all the usual things. But we had a huge discussion on China and Tibet and all of the things we think are going on there. We are starting a big study on the 2008 Olympics and how some people are trying to “Boycott” them. This discussion went on for quite a while and I’m pretty sure we all learnt at least one thing. Some of us learnt what the Dalai Lama was.

Thursday:

This was pretty much a normal day for me but most of the others went off to Band in the morning while the people who don’t do it stayed behind and did english with Mrs Shaw. After morning tea while some of the people went to Jazz band we did French. We all had to present a French play which was lots of fun. We had to say hello and ask someone what their name was and how to spell it. We got to add other things in if we wanted to as long as we could pronounce it properly. After lunch I would normally have Maori but instead we had Badminton. That was sooo much fun. It was really funny but we had to leave early so we didn’t get a full session.

Friday:

We had sport today which was great fun. There was a choice of hockey, netball, basketball, and some more which I can’t really remember. I was in basketball and we played for our house. My team won two games and lost one which was pretty good!

It was a pretty average week in Room 3 but there were a lot of things that were a LOT of fun!

Here is something you just have to watch.

Watch this amazing animation, and wonder!

Thank you to Grumpy Old Teacher for the link.