Journal Week 4.

M&M's mmmmmm.......... I got to eat m&m's this week whilst completing a maths activity with excel which involved m&m's. We began by sorting the m&m's by colour into the candy colour chart, we then were given a quick lesson on how to use excel. By using the program excel, it gives students the tools and knowledge to be able to turn figures into charts. In this case by creating a table in excel with the different coloured m&m's in one column and the quantity of each coloured m&m in the following column. We then created a imaginative graph which collaborated the results. It is also imperative to remember when using m&m's in the classroom to make sure students are not allergic to them. Safety first.

I found the activity quite intriguing and believe it could be an engaging and fun exercise for students. I enjoyed collecting images of m&m pictures from the Australian m&m website (http://m-ms.com.au/)to creatively enhance and beautify my graph and chart. Whilst completing the activity my thoughts were, how simple materials and methods  which incorporate ICT are an intelligent and intriguing way to get students to enjoy learning programs such as excel. This activity assisted to refresh my memory of excel, as I haven't used the program since secondary school.

I thoroughly enjoyed the second activity which followed. We were introduced to a wonderful website www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/, which is an interactive and interesting way for students to learn about Aboriginal dream time stores. The website has a collection of various stories which relate to Aboriginal spirituality and traditions told by animation with music and no words. It teaches students to able to analyse stories by picture only and to create their version and understanding of the story being told.

The dream time story I watched was called 'Morning Star'. The animation was a gorgeous story about some of the Aboriginal rituals associated with death. The colour of the animation and music helped me to analyse the key themes of the story, which was a man was walking through the bush hears people screaming because a man in their camp has died. It then goes on to enlighten the viewer with the various rituals of life, birth, life and death.

The final part of the activity was to re-tell my version of Morning Star with inspiration. By copying and pasting the important images of the story to inspiration, I created a collage or some might call it a story board. I did however have difficulty completing this task, it took me a little longer to finish my story board compared to my peers.  I have posted the final product on my blog, I hope you enjoy my shortened version of Morning Star.

I am appreciating every lesson every week, and I am bursting with excitement to be able to share what I have learnt with my students some day.

Stay tuned to see what Greg has in store for group 2 next week!! Oh, I wonder?

Mel.