[OLPC New Zealand] anyone near Pukekohe noon Friday?

[Barry Vercoe]

I'm teaching an XO class at Pukekohe North Primary this Friday, 11:30 - 
1:00 and could use some help.

This school is Decile 1a, has two divisions, one total immersion Te Reo, 
the other English.
To show the flexibility of the XO I've requested a mixed class of 12 
children, 1 XO per child, 6 XOs in Te Reo mode, 6 in English.
I'll be running from an English XO, with HDMI projection to guide all 
the children -- possible since the Sugar interface is largely iconic.  
The teachers will be looking on to observe the level of engagement of 
the children.

I did this last Monday at Matakana Island primary, north of Tauranga, 
and it worked rather well.  On that occasion I had two local helpers, 
one covering some deeper proxy info (the local Internet was a bit 
obscure), the other some Te Reo (not essential but reassuring).

Looking for a couple of volunteers for whom Pukekohe is not a stretch.  
The olpc-nz subscriber list view seems broken, so I don't know whom I'm 
addressing here -- sorry !!  But if you're local and could make it to 
the school, this would be appreciated.   I'll be arriving at 10:45 to do 
classroom setup.

I expect to run through 6 or 8 XO activities like Maze, Speak, Memorize, 
Turtle Blocks, Chat, Distance, Record.  Some of these require 
Collaboration (one of our strong features), but this always needs 
policing for kids the first time, and we want to be efficient in this visit.

If you're not up-to-date on the XO-Duo (touch screen plus a physical 
keyboard) you'll enjoy this encounter.   You should first look at our 
web site  www.one-education.org.nz.   This includes some olpc Australia 
pages that cover the Activities rather well.

My need is for some extra hands to hover over the students while they 
explore.  They'll likely be 3rd and 4th Years, mildly manageable with 
enough grown-ups hovering.  We'll also be joined by Dr Sue Watson, 
former head of KEA and now CEO of Summit Education Asia Pacific, who'll 
jump right in with us to get a feel for how the XO deals with 
educational challenges.

If you can join us you'll find this informative and fun.  But please let 
me know.

Thx
-- barry
-- 

CEO One Laptop per Child NZ Charitable Trust
14/2 Sixth Avenue
Tauranga 3110 NZ
+64 (0)21 627 421