I wanted to send out a quick hello, and goodbye, to those of you that I have taught recently.
Some of you have my name on your timetable for the transition program next week, but I won’t be there. Instead, I have been asked to move across to our Vines Road campus to help out there as the campus-executive. This might be for only a week, or it might be for the rest of the year. It depends on what is needed.
Either way, I will still be around the place generally, probably rattling around on my $70 push-bike, and I’ll see you characters then.
I know that you won’t be able to access this video at school, but it is a quick demonstration of how you can add notes to text in Microsoft Word. It’s a simple tool, but really useful for understanding the structure of a document.
Perhaps this link will work from school. We’ll see.
In the interest of full disclose, I admit that I had forgotten that you can shake your iPod and get a random word from the dictionary.com app. Josh reminded me.
And also, Ben and Justin are the Super Scrabble champions of the week. No-one else has even come close to their amazing efforts.
Students who have been in my classes in the last couple of years will know about the almanac. Basically, for the rest of you, it is a collection of recipes for writing essays and guides to writing for school. Each time I improve it, it gets a bit longer, but I think that it’s a pretty useful resources at this stage.
So download a PDF copy now. I went to all this trouble to revise it; it may as well get some use.
As we mentioned in class yesterday, many images online are under copyright and you cannot legally just grab them and use them for your own purposes. Just because something finds its way on the internet does not mean that is has no rightful owner.
With this in mind, here are two places that you can find images that the owner agrees to let other people use.
On Google Images
Many of the images on Google images are protected by copyright, but there is a way to search for those which you are allowed to use.
First, go to Advanced Search.
Second, one the second botton option, choose labelled for reuse.
Third, search away. You will noticed that is says labeled for reuse on the results.
Flickr
Most image on Flickr are protected by copyright, too. Here is how to search for images that you can used.
First, go to Advanced Search.
Second, towards the bottom of the page, choose the box next to the words, Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content
Third, search away. You will see the words Showing Creative Commons-licensed content on the results page.
Year 12s, I have marked those finished context essays. If you are available for class this week, I am happy to give you an idea of how you went.
Year 10 Grammar and Writing student, I have not written the first draft of your reports yet, but I’ll probably do that tonight. Or, of course, I might just watch Adventureland and draft those reports on Monday night.
As those of your who have met me will know, I do love a good word. Sometimes I just like the sound. But most of the time, I like a word that captures a nuance, or subtle meaning, just so.
With all of this in mind, you might like to read through a few of these words, words that some people think we should make more use of.
I’ve had a bit of a look, and there are many, many wonderful words in there.
I think that I’ve mentioned to most of my classes that I was preparing for a presentation myself. As you might imagine, I put in quite a bit of work – about twenty hours worth for a five-minute talk.
I finally delivered this talk on Saturday to a crowded room of about eighty people. Just like you characters, I was pretty nervous beforehand, but once I got into it all that preparation paid off and I just ploughed through it.
I’ve got some video, which I’ll put on YouTube. You won’t be able to see it at school, but if you are interesting in seeing me get a taste of my own medicine, then have a look from home.
The other day in Grammar and Writing, we were talking about the magic tricks, the secrets, that allow you to live an easy and trouble-free life of luxury.
