Happy New Year!

Now that 2008 is upon us, Parkview CLC would like to notify you of up and coming events at the City Learning Centre. This year we will be running various CPD Inset Courses for our Network Teachers like Podcasting, Creating Websites quick and easily, CAD and many others.
Alongside the CPD days we shall also be running sessions for both Primary and Secondary classes in our Network Schools like Wikispaces, Lego Robolab, Ocean Odyssey, Animation, Journeys and many more. All the information can be found on this website and future dates for courses will be posted shortly.

Scream Green Screen

Members of the Parkview Book club at the Business and Enterprise Secondary School scripted, produced and edited a news video based on the story 'Snapshot' by Robert Swindells.

Using Green Screen technology the children produced a 3 minute film incorporating the facts of the book and trying to get readers to choose this book in the Key Stage 3 dares competition . They created an excellent piece of work using various skills: writing, creating and adding the music, acting and finally editing all the pieces in an organised manner.
Also last week, Bordesley Green Girls School enjoyed the company of the clc staff in their final session of an Art and Design project which was based on Portraits.

Art and Media Medley!

This week Bordesley Green Girls School will complete their Art and Design project in creating self portraits. Using Photoshop, the pupils will learn how to apply various techniques to a picture and produce a self portrait in different colours, shades, textures etc. Also, a visit to Small Heath Sixth Form will have A' Level students creating their own animation for a Media Studies session. This is an ongoing project that has a couple more sessions left before its completion. More on the outcome of these stories at the end of the week.

Animation and More!

Last week Parkview City Learning Centre went to Small Heath Sixth Form to help the students create coursework for their 'A' Level Media Studies Project. Students were asked to produce, script and direct the opening credits of an original childrens TV show. Students came up with some very creative ideas including a Panda rock band and also aliens in the shape of letters.
Over the course of six weeks pupils will produce a final film which will be submitted as coursework. Parkview CLC ss enjoying working with such creative and well motivated students and looks forward to hosting some of their work on this site.
Also this week pupils of Parkview Secondary School came in to complete their sports commentary Podcasts with music and sound effects. We hope to have a special Podcast page up soon.

Wacky Wiki Writing

Creative Writing was on the agenda this week for two Year 6 classes. In the early part of the week, Parkview CLC enjoyed the company of the pupils from St Saviours Primary School who came to learn some new creative writing techniques.

The children navigated through a virtual Adventure Island, constructing Wiki Links from one page to another. They were introduced to new ideas using the internet which allowed them to write a description about certain places in the World; leaving the CLC with their own Wiki Web Page that can be updated in school. Other events included Kar2ouche Training and an Outreach Art - Photoshop session to Bordesley Green Girls School. On the Agenda next week we have some Moodle Training booked at the CLC and more outreach sessions for Art and Design and Media Studies.

RSS reader

RSS feeds are a great way of saving time - they send updates of websites and blogs to you without you having to visit your favourite websites all the time. Have a look at the video below for an intro...

Nice Summer project?

Well, the academic year is thundering to a close and we are getting ready for next term. We're hoping to run a large number of INSET courses, new sessions and some old faithfuls. Have a look at our website at www.parkviewclc.bham.org.uk for more ideas and to book us.

Anyhow, I came across this website and I thought it'd be a great summer project using disposable cameras (or maybe digital). You could use google pages to create a website of the pupil's photos too.

Whatever you do, have a great summer and get some rest for that long Autumn term!