Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Driverless Cars - Fact of Science Fiction?

I am always intrigued by what the future may hold - particularly when it comes to technology.  I have seen an enormous amount of new technology be introduced into our daily lives during my short lifespan.  It seems that Volvo is pushing the envelope in its quest to have autonomous vehicles driving on everyday roads.  Check out the article below to find out more:



Monday, May 28, 2012

Persuasive Speaking Help - Yr 8 English

Here is the video that we watched in class - don't forget that this is one video in the series.  There may be others in the series that you want to check out when writing your speech.


Niger's Food Crisis

As part of our study of developing countries we have been exploring issues related to poverty and access to basic human needs like food and water.  Last week the ABC's 7:30 report aired a short report on the food crisis currently happening in Niger.  You can view this report by clicking HERE.


Thursday, May 3, 2012

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud - for Yr 8 English

Here is the information that we were discussing in class relating to William Wordsworth's poem.  This will be helpful when you are writing the 'Craftsmanship' paragraph for your analysis.

Structure - 4 stanzas of 6 lines each

Language - traditional old English as it was written in the early 1800s

Imagery - extensive use of personification and the title itself is a simile

Movement - the rhythm is flowing in a calm and steady manner

Sounds - No real use of alliteration or assonance.  Very deliberate use of rhyme with a ababcc pattern

Have fun writing your analysis.


Cloud Storage - Dropbox and Google Drive


If you have ever lost your USB you know how frustrating it can be to lose all of your work.  If you are interested in using cloud storage to keep your files safe and to enable you to access them anytime anywhere, then maybe Dropbox could be a good solution for you.  Keep in mind that Dropbox only offers a small amount of space (2GB) for free, so this should be used for files, not as a place to store your music and videos.  Check out the link below to see if this is a tool that could help you in keeping your work files safe and accessible:



If you sign up using this link and then install Dropbox on your home computer you will get an extra 500mb of storage space for your account.

If you have a Gmail account then you now have access to Google Drive – Google’s cloud storage option that provides you with 5GB of free storage space.  Keep in mind that sometimes you cannot access Gmail from school, so this may limit the access to your school files.

I encourage you to begin looking into cloud storage as a way to ensure your files are safe and always accessible.