Tweet of the week....

Thanks everyone for a great kidsedchatnz today! There were so many great tweets!

It was so hard to choose. Here are a few tweets ...

And the tweet of the week goes to.....

Well done Room 9 at Hannah at Maungaraki School!

Can we answer her question? What languages do you want to learn? Write a comment below!

Week 8 - 2013 Reflection

Wow! 2013 has been a fantastic year!

This week kidsedchatnz is all about Reflecting on 2013! This is our last kidschat for the year so we are looking forward to having everyone join us!

The children from Room 7 at Vardon School (@Vardonroom7) wrote the questions for this week's chat.

Take the time to reflect on 2013.... Here are our reflection questions for you to answer on Wednesday. 

Question 1:
What was your most favourite part of this year and why?

Question 2:
What are some of the things you have learnt this year that you have really enjoyed? Why did you enjoy learning about these things?

Question 3:
What have been some of the challenges you have faced this year?

Question 4:
What do you want to do better next year?

Question 5:
What do you want to learn next year?

Question 6:
Where are you going for the summer holidays?

Question 7:
If you could describe 2013 in one word, what word would you choose?

See you on Wednesday! From Room 7 and Mrs Natusch

PS: Have a wonderful Christmas and a great summer holiday!

Interface Awards

Last week we found out that Kidsechatnz won the Interface Awards for Best Teaching with ICT. 

Wow, how cool is that! It's great to get that exposure and recognition for a fantastic concept! The Manawatu Standard Newspaper also ran an article about our success.

Anyway a big thank you must go out to everyone who voted for us and all those fantastic classes that take part in Kidsedchatnz every week. We appreciate your support!

Edublog Awards

Wow, I just found out that Kidsedchatnz made it into the Finals of the Edublog Awards for Best Educational Use of a Social Network! How cool is that! The Edublog Awards has been running for 10 years and is a great way to celebrate all the fantastic things that are happening in ICT around the world.The winners of the Edublog Awards are decided by votes from any person around the world - so we need your votes!It is a live voting process so you can go to this website and vote and watch in real time.Thank you for supporting Kidsedchatnz, we really appreciate it!

Our Flipped Chat - 4 December 2013

What a fantastic afternoon of sharing! There were so many wonderful messages from everyone. We were so inspired. Here are a few of magnificent tweets that were shared.

The Tweet of the Week:

Great thinking Jedd. Congratulations. 

See you next week, everyone! Thanks for joining us.

Miss Revell 

Dec 4 - Topic: Flipping our Chat

This week's chat on Wednesday 4 December will be a flipped chat. Flipped learning is when you watch material that you would usually watch during the class time BEFORE the lesson. There are some great benefits:

• You can watch the content as many times as you like.
• You can pause the material, and discuss it.
• More time is available to for thinking and learning about the content during lesson time. 

 Watch this 60 second explanation:

 

We will be discussing a clip from the Soul Pancake channel on You Tube.

Kid President's 20 Things We Should Say More Often

Question 1:
Which is your favourite of the "20 things that we should say more often." Why?

Question 2:
Create your own phrase to add to this list. Why do you think we should say this more often?

Question 3:
Do you agree with Kid President when he says it's okay to disagree? Why?

Question 4: 
Robbie Novak, the Kid President has an illness called Osteogenesis imperfecta. He shows great resilience. 

What was has been the toughest thing that has happened to you? How did you bounce back?

Question 5.
Do you think the Kid President is awesome? Why?

Question 6. 
How many Kid President You Tube clips have you watched? Which one is your favourite and why?

Question 7.
What will you do to make the world more awesome? 
See you on Wednesday, Marvin's iKids and Miss Revell.

Tweet of the Week

This week the tweet of the week goes to @LadbrooksKiwi. Great idea Millie!! A big thank you to everyone who participated in Kidsedchatnz today. What an amazing bunch of tweeters we have. 

Topic for Week 7: ICT

This week the topic for kidsedchatnz is all about technology e.g. iPads, iPods, tablets, computers etc. Check out the questions below. 

1. What technology do you use in your classroom and why?
2. What is your favourite app or programme? 
3. How do you use your favourite app or programme in your classroom? 
4. Can technology improve your learning? Why or why not?
5. What piece of technology, app or programme would you like to use in your classroom and why? 
6. What technology do you think there will be in ten years time, that we don't have now? 
7. If you could design an iPad app what would your app be called and how would it help children with their learning? 
8. How can we make sensible choices when we are posting comments online? 
9. What can other children learn from joining in with Kidsedchatnz?

We can't wait to hear all your answers. From Room 2 Morningside School.

A visit from Follow

@LittleGiants7 were delighted to have had Follow visiting them.  They even took him on their trip to the Ohaaki Wetland.

They were having a lot of fun with him at our school, but Follow had to be on the move again, to find some new adventures at another school.

Tweet of the Week - Culture

Topic for Week 6 (20th November)

We have lots of cultures at our school and we would like to know what cultures you have at your school and learn more about culture.

Here are our questions for Kidsedchatnz this week:

1. What is your culture? What languages do you speak at home?
2. What cultures or languages do you learn about at school? What do you do?
3. What cultural groups activities do you do at your school? (Kapa Haka, Pasifika groups, Fia Fia celebration)
4. What are your favourite traditions from your culture? Do you celebrate these at school? (festivals, holidays, clothes, food, music, dance etc)
5. What cultural sports and games do you do at school?
6. What culture would you want to be and why? 
7. What language would you like to learn and why?
8. Do you know any apps or websites that you use to help learn about culture?

See you there.

Jin, Kauri, Renitta, Pare, Elijah, Mehaka & Mr Walker.

Tweet of the Week

Who won Tweet of the Week at today's Kidsedchatnz birthday celebration? Watch the video to find out!

Happy Birthday Kidsedchatnz!

Thank you everyone who turned out today to celebrate Kidsedchatnz's first birthday party! It was great to see lots of classes celebrating and enjoying the occasion!

Overall it was an excellent session with 750 tweets recorded between 22 classes! That's not bad going considering all the party activities (cakes, balloons, poppers etc) going on!

Anyway thanks again everyone, we are very proud of what Kidsedchatnz has become and we look forward to lots of brilliant sessions in the future!

Wednesday 13th November - Topic: Kidsedchatnz Birthday

This week's topic for Kidsedchatnz is based around Kidsedchatnz's one year Birthday. Check out the questions!

Q1. Today is Kidsedchatnz 1st birthday party, could you please leave Kidsedchatnz a birthday message?

Q2. How are you celebrating Kidsedchatnz's birthday? Can you tweet a picture of your party?

Q3. Today we are celebrating Kidsedchatnz's birthday, why do you think it is important to celebrate birthdays?

Q4. How old did you turn on your last birthday? What did you do to celebrate it? 

Q5. What was your favourite birthday present/party? Why was it special?

Q6. Kidsedchatnz has been going for 1 year, how long have you been taking part in it? Tell us about your experience?

Q7. Do you enjoy taking part in Kidsedchatnz? Why do you like it?

Q8. Is there anything you would like to change about Kidsedchatnz? What topics would you like to have in the future?

Tweet of the Week

This week's Tweet of the Week goes to....

The Changing Face of Kidsedchatnz

Breaking news! Kidsedchatnz organisation structure has changed big time! It no longer has one organiser but now has 7! Wow, how cool is that!

In August this year Pascal Dresse, founder of Kidsedchatnz left for Australia and passed the Kidsedchatnz organisation on to me. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed taking over Kidsedchatnz and during that time I have tried to grow the concept. Some of the initiatives I have introduced have been:

- Making Kidsedchatnz weekly.
- Increasing Kidsedchatnz from 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- Creating a new Kidsedchatnz blog.
- Introducing Tweet of the Week for the best tweet during the Kidsedchatnz session.
- Introducing a Kidsedchatnz Mascot and badges.
- Changing Kidsedchatnz from a Hashtag twitter chat to List twitter chat.
- Creating how to join Kidsedchatnz videos
- Running a 'Create a Kidsedchatnz Logo competition' and choosing a Kidsedchatnz logo.
- Entering Kidsedchatnz in the Interface Awards which we are a finalist.

Wow, I have been busy! 

Anyway I thought it was time Kidsedchatnz had a change and I was preparing to step aside and let someone else take up the reigns.

After a lot of thought I came to the conclusion that I love Kidsedchatnz and still wanted to be involved but maybe just not running everything. 

Solution? Co-organisers! A time share based model! Kidsedchatnz has always been a team effort with lots of fantastic classes supporting it every week. This was the perfect solution!

The idea was for everyone to run the ship for 1 week at a time. For that week you would have to get your class to make the topic/questions, promote it, moderate, choose tweet of the week and put posts on the blog. Then the next week someone else would have a turn.

So I jumped on twitter and sent out a few Direct Messages to the core/regular Kidsedchatnz teachers who take part. 

After sending out the messages I left my phone at home and went into town to get lunch. While away I was thinking, "I wonder if anyone will be keen?" 

What did I find on my phone when I returned? 21 direct tweets, 15 direct messages and numerous e-mails! BOOM! Everyone was keen! The Super 7 co-organisers were born!

So who are the Super7? Well they are Pascal Dresse - @PascalDresse, Reid Walker - @ReidHns1, Marcelle Natusch - @MNatusch, Marnel van der Spuy - @1MvdS, Simone Gentil - @simone015, Juliet Revell - @Juliet_Revell and me, Stephen Baker - @PalmyTeacher

Wow, what a fantastic team! We all actually know each other reasonable well from our years of collaborating and connecting on twitter.

Our goal is to grow the concept and keep it going as a great learning vehicle for the kids! What do you think? Is it going to work?

 

Kidsedchatnz Mascot on the Move!

Over the last few weeks 'Follow' the Kidsedchatnz mascot has been visiting Henderson School in Auckland. He has had an awesome time exploring their school and has made lots of new friends!

Anyway his trip has come to an end and tomorrow he is heading off to the @LittleGiants7 at Broadlands School, near Taupo. 

Here are a few photos from his time in Auckland!

The Rise of Kidsedchatnz

Check out this article about Kidsedchatnz in today's Education Review Magazine. It was written by Pascal Dresse with a little help from some of the Kidsedchatnz regulars! 

Isn't it cool? It's great to see Kidsedchatnz getting some national exposure and recognition! 

Wednesday 6th November - Topic: Inquiry Learning

This week's topic for Kidsedchatnz is Inquiry learning and the topic/questions have been generated by @LittleGiants7. I think they have done a wonderful job putting together these thoughtful questions! Here they are!

Q1. How do you begin (or what are the steps you follow for) an inquiry
study in your class?

Q2. Are you learning through asking questions or do you just have to
remember facts? Which do you think is the best way to learn?

Q3. What different types of questions are there and what is the reason
for asking these questions?

Q4. What kinds of questions do you think would help with an inquiry?
Can you give some examples that you have recently used?

Q5. Are there any e-tools that you use to help you with/in your inquiry?

Q6. Can you share something new that you have learnt during an inquiry?

Tweet of the Week

This week's Tweet of the Week goes to......

Today's Kidsedchatnz Session

Today was a very interesting Kidsedchatnz session! I started the Kidsedchatnz session with about 30 kids in my room tweeting from 3 different classes. After about 5 minutes the internet at Russell Street School crashed and there was no one available to fix it! Oh no, what a downer!

Since I was moderating the session I had to find a way to tweet the questions. What did I do? Answer, my trusty iPhone 5! Luckily I could use the hotspot on my phone to get myself and 4 kids from my class onto the internet. What happened to the other 26 kids? Well they had to return to their class or normal learning programme. Lots of sad faces!

So what happened during the session? Well we recorded 580 tweets between 22 classes! Not bad for such a crazy session! (I spent most of it trying to fix the internet!)

Here is R5 (What's left of them), tweeting!

Kidsedchatnz's 1st Birthday Party

Wow! Kidsedchatnz is turning one! Pascal Dresse started Kidsedchatnz in 2012 and a year later it's still going strong!

To celebrate we are going to have a special Kidsedchatnz birthday party on Wednesday 13th November at 2-3pm! The topic is going to be based on Kidsedchatnz and feature a mixture of questions.

We want to make this a special Kidsedchatnz session so clear your diaries everyone and make sure your class takes part

A New Craze Is Sweeping The Nation!

Check out this amazing video made by Steph Campbell and her fantastic class @room72013.

They made the video to let their school know all about Kidsedchatnz and showed it at their school assembly.

All I can say is what a great job! A new craze is sweeping the nation!

Wednesday 30th November - Topic: The Arts

This week's topic for Kidsedchatnz is the Arts and the topic/questions have been generated by @9Vardon. I think they have done a great job! Here's the questions!

Q1. What kind of art do you like and why?

Q2. What is one thing you have learnt in the Arts this year?

Q3. What materials have you used to create your artwork this year? What is your favourite material and why?

Q4. What do you think has been your best piece of artwork this year and why?

Q5. What stories have you told with your artwork? What is one kind of art special to your culture?

Q6. Can you share with us any digital art resources/app/websites that you use?

Tweet of the Week

This week's Tweet of the Week goes to Tane in R6 at Russell Street School. Tane is 7 years old and has just started joining in to Kidsedchatnz.

Well done Tane, the judges of Tweet of the Week think this is a great tweet!

Kidsedchatnz Mascot

The Kidsedchatnz mascot has been hanging out with @PalmyKids in Palmerston North over the last weeks. It had a fab time but unfortunately we had to send it out into the big wide world!

Where did it go next? Well it has just arrived in Henderson, Auckland and will be staying with @Rm1HNS.

While it was in Palmy the kids came up with a name for it. So what is it's name? Well Aye came up with the name 'Follow'! We thought this was a great name as Kidsedchatnz is all about following each other on Twitter!

Here's a few photos of 'Follow' on his journey!

Today's Kidsedchatnz Session

Today was another fantastic Kidsedchatnz session! We had 25 classes taking part (that is a record!) and recorded 801 tweets in the hour session!

It was also great to see 8 new classes turn up for the session!

Here's a few photos of some of the classes taking part!

Wednesday 23rd October - Topic: Sports

This week's topic for Kidsedchatnz is Sports and has been generated by @VardonRoom7. Haven't they done a great job? I can't wait to talk about my favourite subject! Here's the questions!

Q1. Do you like sport? Why or why not?

Q2. What sport skills have you learnt at school?

Q3. What has been the most important sport skills you have learnt and why?

Q4. What sports teams does your school have?

Q5. What is the most popular sport at your school?

Q6. Are you part of a sports team? Why or why not?

Q7. Who is your favourite sports person and why?

Tweet of the Week

This week's Tweet of the Week goes to.....

 

Today's Kidsedchatnz Session

Wow, what a great Kidsedchatnz session we had today! We had 20 classes involved and recorded 853 tweets in one hour! That's a Kidsedchatnz record for most classes and most tweets!

Well done everyone, I wonder if we can reach 1,000 tweets next week?

Anyway here are some photos of the classes taking part!