A visit from Eden College in Durban

Recently a school from Durban, Eden College, visited our school. They had come to Cape Town to present their play 'Streetwise" to schools around Cape Town. Our school is also 'big' on drama and they asked us if we would be willing to host their team for the week. Various teachers and parents each hosted a pair of their students. They put on two shows at our school, one for the Foundation Phase and one for the Intermediate/Senior Phase. These photos were taken on the last day of their visit when they were thanking all their hosts just after their last performance.

I love creativity!

I am passionate about integrating the curriculum with technology. And I love it when a teacher gives a suggestion for a computer lesson for me to do with her class and adds her own sprinkle of creativity to the lesson. Last week one of the Grade 5 teachers said her class had been on a wonderful outing to the Shark Centre, which they had really enjoyed. She wondered if they could write thank you letters on bluish sea-like backgrounds when they came to the computer lesson. And then, to top it all the class arrived wearing shark hats! Once again I couldn't resist taking a photo of them with their finished products!

Songsmith is a blast!

Songsmith is a fantastic programme from Microsoft. Its free - I think. It certainly was when I got it. I use it as a reward in computer lessons where students have been working really well. They love it. To work Songsmith, you think of your own words, decide on a drum beat, sing along and Songsmith creates a song for you. In this picture you can see a group working on a song. When I saw how much they were enjoying the programme I quickly grabbed my camera to take a shot! Microsoft Research has put a very helpful video demonstration of the programme on YouTube. I think this programme has great potential in a classroom. Groups could create words about something - Maths, grammar rules, information - and then set it to music.