Reflection T1Wk9 Due 4/4

Write a reflection on your first term in Year 10.  Reflect on both your time in class and your home learning.  If you are stuck with what to write, try having a paragraph which highlights the 'pluses', another for the 'minuses' and one for 'other' or 'interesting'.

Quick note

If you are reading this because you are on your blog tonight doing your home learning at the last minute - shame on you!  But, I'm glad you are getting this message all the same.
If you have something that you have read (your novel, magazine etc) bring it in for class tomorrow as you are going to have a bit of time to work on your reading assessment (about 30 - 40 mins).  If you don't have anything, that is all good - I have some magazine / books in class that you can use, I just thought I would let you know in case :)

Create a Voki T1Wk8 Due 28/3

This week for home learning you need to use Voki to create your own online talking avatar, like the one above.

Play around with what you want it to look like then make it talk - you can record your voice or type in what you want it to say.

Some possible things you could make it say are:

-Some info about you and your blog

-A fictional news report

-Your highlights of term one

-It could read part of one of your previous blog posts.

When you are finished, click publish.  You will be taken to a page that looks like this:

I changed the size of mine to large, copied the code, then pasted it in my new blog post (click on 'HTML' next to 'compose' in the top left of your new blog post page before pasting in the code - you can switch back to 'compose' mode after you have pasted in your code to see how it is displaying).

Also this week, I want everyone to have tried out using Wallwisher and have recommended a book on the wall I set up for our class.  If you are recommending the book that you wrote your review on, stick up the link to it too.  Thanks to those of you that have already done this - your suggestions are great!

So, you need to head along to the Voki and Wallwisher websites.

Home learning recap and Wallwisher

Just a reminder, this weeks home learning (due Wednesday 21st March) is either one of the writing tasks based on the Kony2012 video or a review of your novel - which ever one you haven't completed yet.

Also, head along to Wallwisher and add a sticky note to the wall I have set up where you can recommend books you have read to the rest of the class.  You can access it here: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/10IMNEnglish
Make sure you put your name on it, try add a picture of the cover, or if it is the book you have written a review on put in the link to it.

Enjoy your time off from English tomorrow afternoon and have a great weekend!

Kony2012 Writing T1Wk7 Due 21/3

You've probably seen or heard about 'Kony' if you're on facebook.  We've watched the video about in class and I want you to use it as a springboard into your own piece of writing.

Some ideas are...
-Research and write about someone who has fought for peace or equality.
-Research and write about someone like Kony who has committed crimes against humanity (You can do Kony himself).
-Write an opinion piece about the campaign.
-Research and highlight another humanitarian issue.
-If you believe in the Kony cause, you could write a letter to the government or someone in a position of power trying to get their support.

Remember if you have done research for your piece to include references to where you got your information from.  You need to write at least 3 paragraphs.

Here's the video if you want to watch it again:

Novel Review T1Wk6 Due 14/3

Right, you should be reading a novel for your reading assessment (the one I gave you the booklet for last week).
This week for home learning you need to write a review of your book and it needs to be at least 3 paragraphs.

I would like it if you signed up on Good Reads and posted your review on there (if you use Good Reads for your review, copy and paste it on to your blog too so your blog keeps updated with lots of lovely posts).
This is a great site for sharing what you have read and you can see recommendations for what you might like to read next based on they types of books you have enjoyed in the past.
If you review your book on here, invite me to be your friend so I can see it - you can do this by searching for 'Melissa Kelly' once you've clicked on the 'add friends' like on your profile page.
Read some of the other reviews left by members to get ideas on what you could mention in your one.

Getting your Wordle onto your blog

There's a couple of things you can do to put your Wordle on your blog.

1. You can save your Wordle to the public gallery (there is a button to do this under your Wordle picture).  This will produce a code under your wordle that you can copy and paste into your blog - switch the writing mode of your post to HTML (button on the top left) before pasting in the code.

Using this method is not the best as your Wordle will be too small to read.  Please use the method outlined below.

2.  You could take a "screen shot" or "screen capture".  Here's a link to a web site that gives instructions for creating screen shots on various kinds of computers: take-a-screenshot.org.

 

To make your Wordle larger on screen, you can use the "Open in Window" that appears at the bottom of the Wordle image. You can resize the pop-up window as you like.

 

Once you've created your image, edited it as you like, and saved it in an appropriate format, you must upload that image to your blog.  You can do this by clicking on the picture icon in the menu on the blog post page.

 

Hopefully this makes sense.  Check out other people's blog posts to see what they've done :)