Email, Spam, YouTube Subscriptions and Snopes

One of the many wonderful things about having Google Apps at our school is that our students are able to have GMail accounts. This really does enable them to have the functionality we adults enjoy with having an email, with the added bonus of learning to use it in a supportive school environment. It allows teachers to play a role in helping guide them in appropriate use.

In Grade 5, some students expressed their frustration at the many emails they were being sent by YouTube to their school accounts. Some were puzzled as to how this happened in the first place, so we set about addressing the issue.

While logged in to their school GMail account, some students had (deliberately or inadvertently) subscribed to some YouTube channels. This most likely happened at home, where other family members share the same computer. Daily notifications were coming to their Inbox, alerting them to new content.

The quickest way to solve this problem was to show students where they can manage their subscriptions, and remove subscriptions that they weren't interested in, or might distract from their learning.

We explored how to unsubscribe from other emails too, e.g. marketing or other spam emails, using the unsubscribe link at the bottom of such emails. Other options include reporting the email as spam (the exclamation point in the circle above the email), or creating a filter to delete unwanted emails.

The subject of chain-mail or stories that employ scare tactics to get users to forward the email on to others, was another topic of discussion.

Frequently, students recognise that an email might be chain-mail and untrue, although they forward it on just in case, thus perpetuating the problem. Snopes.com is a great website to check the validity of emails they receive. Simply type the keywords into the search box, and you will find out whether it is true or false, when it originated and how it has been spreading.

Our aim is that students learn the skills to effectively manage their school email accounts, which will help them manage any other email accounts they may have.

iBooks Author Intro

IBooks Author is an amazing tool that allows you to create your own multi-touch book that can be viewed on an iPad or an Apple computer that runs the Mavericks operating system.

You can create media rich books that enhance the reading and learning experience for your readers.

There are a few important things to know about the program before getting started. Have a look at the videos on our Vimeo Channel that will help you get started with iBooks Author.

This is the first video in the series and an intro to iBooks Author.


The rest of the videos can be found in a playlist on Vimeo.

Grade 1 Poetry Books using Book Creator

Our Grade 1 students have been thoroughly enjoying their poetry unit. They have looked at the poems of different authors, tried to emulate their style, and have create their very own poems.

We wanted to capture the beautiful poems the students had written, so we decided to make an eBook with Book Creator. The added value we gained in using a digital format is that the students could include a voice recording of their poem.

In class, we set up a couple of Justands (iPad Stands) with the app open. Students took turns to take a photo of their poem, add their name, and record their voice.

As a nice follow-up activity, students showed their parents how to do it during student-led conferences last week.

We have published a couple of the poetry anthologies to WriteNowBooks.org, so if you would like to download the books yourself, please do!

Grade 1 BRo Poetry Anthology

Grade 1 LoW's Poetry Collection

Doodlecast in the Infant School

In the Infant school, our youngest students in K1 and K2 have been using Sago Mini Doodlecast to share their thinking about what they are doing in class.

The teachers love that the app is easy to learn for both themselves and their students.

Here are some samples from some students. The first looked at the trash that one class created in a week. The second is looking at how students knew how many counters there were in a set.  



 There is Doodlecast Pro which gives more functions and is more suitable for older students too.