KPE on TV One "Close Up" programme

Last post we told you that TV One had sent people out to film our students and that they had talked to Leoden, Sela and Tanielu as they recorded the last episode of KPE. Well, on Friday night, 28th February 209, it was finally on "Close Up" and if you click here you can view the segment online.
This is what they wrote about our school:

"Today we have seen the adults brain trust getting together to work out ways to keep people in work and create jobs. We have been to a school where the children have plenty ideas of their own. They are at the forefront of learning, using hi-tech media like blogging, cloud computing and pod casting every day. While the how-to aspects of those concepts are still a mystery to many of us, to the students of Point England primary in Auckland, it's second nature. Robyn Janes reports on a small school boxing well above its weight in the world of technology. "

If the link above stops working after a while (when it becomes old news!) then we hope this one will be around for longer - choose chapter two.
Did you watch the programme? Tell us what you thought when you saw it.....

Christmas books from New Zealand

Subscribers to our blog will be aware that we publish podcasts about books written by New Zealand authors. Over the Christmas period we want to remind you of some of the Christmas stories that have been podcast by KPE. These Christmas books not only share the spirit of Christmas but they also remind everyone in the cold, Winter of the Northern Hemisphere that down in New Zealand we do Christmas differently because we are having Summer holidays and we are at the BEACH!
Over the past three years Pt England kids have reviewed several Christmas stories...
Episode 15 of KPE is 'Chimney-less at Christmas'' by Anna-Miringa Scott and was presented by two Year 2 girls, Sela and Paulitia. Their whole class read this very kiwi Christmas book in the lead up to Christmas. They learned a rap which goes with the book, and this podcast featured some very enthusiastic rapping from the whole class of 6 and 7 year olds.
Next was Episode 22 of KPE, presented by Darion and Cindy, and it was about "The Christmas..Hiccup...Play" by Elizabeth Pulford. In this story it’s Abbey’s big night as Angel Gabriel in her school’s Christmas play, and she’s got the hiccups. Time is running out as Abbey is offered numerous hiccup-curing suggestions by her backstage pals—none of which are of any help. This is a light-hearted tale about the magic of the stage and overcoming opening-night nerves.

Then in KPE Episode 161 Tamika and Sam tell us about "The Christmas Caravan" by Jennifer Beck. This book tells the story of Simon and his mother who live in a caravan park on the outskirts of town. They do not have a lot of money, but one Christmas something special happens for them. And isn't that what should always happen at Christmas? Simon sees a competition in the newspaper for decorating your house and he asks his mother if they could decorate their caravan and enter. They have a lot of fun using recycled materials to make their caravan look very Christmassy. Although they can't compete against the flash houses and their lights, they do get a special prize from the mayor. He tows their caravan to the beach so they can enjoy a typical New Zealand holiday at the beach in their caravan!

A very Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all our blog followers and those who subscribe to KPE on iTunes.

Preserving Culture

The students in Room 18 have a very cool movie to share with you. Mrs Lagitupu and her class of Year 6 students have been working on this for some time and they are very proud to publish their finished movie. They have not only written, filmed and edited the movie themselves but as you will see when you watch it, they have been all over Auckland in the filming process. You will see the markets in Otara, the Museum in Auckland, a Niuean hair cutting ceremony, Samoan tatooing, visit a Kohanga Reo and much much more. Prepare to be amazed.....

KPE Episode 194: "The Supertastic Marvelistic Storiez and Poemz"

"The Supertastic Marvelistic Storiez and Poemz" 4 kidz by kidz! John, Tinei, Jaydn and Simone went to Auckland's North Shore to track down the authors of this book. This book is a collection of short stories and poems that have been written by students from Stanley Bay School. We had enjoyed hosting them at Pt England School last year when they came to learn about podcasting from our Year 6 students.
Their goal is to raise money for a local cancer charity, Kenzie's Gift. We read this book and chose our favourite stories before we set out to interview the authors of the stories. It was a treat to meet the students from the 2 classes involved in this project, to hear all about how they set about writing and publishing a book, and to make a podcast for KPE with them. This podcast is different from our usual format because we are actually interviewing the authors and we have a number of people contributing to it. We have really enjoyed making the podcast and we recommend this book as an excellent read. You should go to their website and order copies of the book for yourself (- or for your school library if you are an adult). Let us know what you think of this collaborative episode in the comments below....

Happy 3rd Birthday KPE

It is pretty amazing that we have been podcasting KPE for 3 years now. We started back in 2005 and our first podcasters are in Year 9 at secondary school! When we first started out with Mrs Lagitupu, Mrs Tele'a, Miss Meleisea and Mrs Burt, we really didn't have any idea what we were doing (because no-one we talked to knew what a podcast was back then), but we set a goal of publishing one episode every week. We wanted to give our kids a chance to tell the world about the books they were reading and a bit about New Zealand at the same time.
Well today we have published 191 episodes of KPE and we know that not only have we achieved our goals but Pt England kids have read a LOT of New Zealand books.
We have a short movie to celebrate our birthday (thanks very much to Jordan in Room 17 for the fabulous graphics) and we have published a Voice Thread as well. We would love you to figure out how to use the Voice Thread and to leave us a birthday message. We know lots of you have listened to KPE so please join in the celebration with us.....

Congratulations Stanley Bay School

Last year many of you will remember us having a group of students come and visit us from Stanley Bay School in Devonport. We showed them what we had learned about making podcasts and we had some fun making podcasts together. Then we posted a vodcast of the event on kpeTV. We have uploaded a copy of that movie below incase you missed it.
We were very excited for them when we started seeing in the media that these kids have become authors of a book and have published it. Of course we wanted to read it so we ordered a couple a copies for our school library and some of us are reading it so we can be the first to podcast their book. Keep an eye out for that podcast in the near future. And congratulations to Stanley Bay School from the kids at Pt England School!

Thank you from all of us at KPE

Thanks listeners We have been posting our podcasts to our blog here at blogspot for one year now and we want to say a big THANK you to everyone who has ever visited our blog or downloaded our podcasts from iTunes. We love it when you leave comments for us and we like sharing our reading with people from around the world. We have read so many cool books in the past year and we have reviewed 112 of them on our podcasts in the last 12 months.
We posted a cluster map widget on our blog when we started it and it has recently been archived. that means they started our map again from nothing. Luckily we took a snapshot of it the day before they took it away and you can see where all our visitors have come from over the last year. There were 4143 people from more than 50 countries. That is very cool.
Tell us if you know about someone from another country who has visited our blog or listened to our podcast. We would love to hear about it.

"Rock Our World" with Maui

"Maui and the Sun" retold and illustrated by Gavin Bishop
At Pt England School we are fans of Gavin Bishop and like reading the books he has written and done the artwork for. A group of our Year 5 and 6 students have recreated this story to share with students around the world as part of the Rock Our World project we have been involved in. One of the things were were learning about with ROW08 was the sun, so we decided to share this Maori legend.
We have published several podcasts about books by Gavin Bishop. Check out Bidibidi and Kiwi Moon and Chicken Licken to see some of them.

If you like what we have done, you could check out more of our Rock Our World work posted on our Flickr account.

KPE Remembers ANZAC Day 2008

This year ANZAC Day has landed right in the middle of our school holidays so we have not been able to record new podcasts as part of our remembrance.
We would like to remind you that over the years Korero Pt England has published several podcasts of books with ANZAC storylines. Links to the podcasts are included in this post. You may need Quicktime to view them, and kids, if you are at school you will need to type in your passwords to get through schoolzone :) We have chosen three stories that are all about animals! Tell us what you think...
First we have a link to the final podcast made by Kelvin and Leauma in Episode 155. They talk about "The Donkey Man" by Glyn Harper - a story told from the viewpoint of a donkey who carried wounded soldiers and supplies at Gallipoli.
Next we have a story about a very brave dog called Caesar and his handler ‘Uncle Tom’ who helped save the lives of ANZAC soldiers during the First World War. This podcast about 'Caesar the ANZAC Dog' by Patricia Stroud is published by Victor and Montell who are now in Year 8.
Finally we recommend you listen to Alosina and Wilmenna discuss "The Bantam and the Soldier" by Jennifer Beck. They are also in Year 8 now and this story takes place in the midst of the fighting in France during World War I when a soldier named Arthur forms a special friendship with a bantam he calls Bertha.
So there you have it. We bring you a donkey, a dog and a bantam who are all involved in special ANZAC stories.

Waitangi Day - Te Tiriti o Waitangi

February the 6th is Waitangi Day in New Zealand and we have all had a holiday from school. To recognise Te Tiriti o Waitangi KPE is publishing on this blog a podcast made many episodes ago by Jadyn and Shonty Lee. It is published on iTunes as KPE Episode 76.

"The Tree Hut Treaty" by Wiremu Grace is a book that all schools in New Zealand have in their libraries. Shonty Lee and Jaydn tell us about the story and also give us an overview of the Treaty of Waitangi as they discuss the themes of the book.

The picture book follows the adventures of four young New Zealanders looking for a way to resolve a disagreement over a shared tree hut. They come up with the idea of a treaty and the book follows the process and principles that are agreed upon to create their treaty and resolve their disagreement.

The story is presented twice: once in English and once in Maori, with each of the two covers being the beginning of each version (upside down to each other, meeting in the middle - and at the centre is a page about the Treaty of Waitangi).

It was published as part of the Treaty of Waitangi Information Programme, which was established to increase public knowledge of the Treaty of Waitangi. It gives us a simple introduction to the concept of a treaty.

This is the first podcast these two students had published.

Tell us how YOU spent Waitangi Day in 2008.

Podcasting with KPE in 2007

Sharon Rose, Sarah and Lorenz put together this movie to summarise what has happened with Korero Pt England in 2007. You will be surprised at how many different opportunities our podcasters had because of KPE! These three people have had the opportunity to tell heaps of adults all about KPE in 2007 and they have become very polished public speakers - as well as good readers. This was their final publication for KPE before they left Pt England to go to Intermediate school.
Good luck in everything you do team. You have been fantastic!

Kiwi Kids Use ICT

Kiwi Kids Use ICT
http://interwritelearning.shycast.com/contestant/90/
Kia ora from Pt England School in Auckland, New Zealand. We have entered the Interwrite Learning Classroom Makeover Video competition and we made the finals!
Can you believe it? We can't! 4 schools from America and our entry from New Zealand. Talk about taking on the big guys - what are we thinking you might ask? Well we are thinking about having fun, but we are also thinking about the cool things we could do with that prize. So come on, vote for Us! Pleeeease?
The song we used for our movie is a parody of “Stop, drop and roll” which is a song originally performed by talented NZ hip hop artists ‘Mareko’ and the ‘Deceptikonz’.
This movie is a collaborative effort by the Senior school team starring a group of 9-10 year olds and our very own rap star in the making: Mr Palmer. Our school uses ‘ICT’ or ‘e-learning’ to help raise student achievement as well as to celebrate our learning. Produced and masterminded by Miss Erick!

So click on the link above and vote for us. You will need to create a username and sign in to be allowed to vote. And you only get one vote. While you are there, why not support the other kiwi school who are finalists in the Grade 6-8 section, Ilminster Intermediate from Gisborne.

Finally, if you would like to view/have a high quality version of our entry, subscribe to kpeTV on iTunes because it is available there.

Mele's Holidays

Our students teaching Teachers

Some of our students have been working hard these holidays showing teachers how to Podcast. On Wednesday October 3 Mele, Sarah, SharonRose, Leauma and Lorenz attended a conference for teachers called ULearn at Sky City in Auckland. We were in a big room along with students from 5 other schools. More than 100 teachers from schools around New Zealand came and watched what we were doing and lots of them asked our students to show them how to make a podcast or a vodcast. They were very busy for an hour and a half, but they had lots of fun AND got to eat some yummy food.
One of the teachers we made a podcast with comes from Scotland and he showed us his friend's school's podcast. His name is Ewan McIntosh and he has come to ULearn to talk to the teachers about how they can make school more exciting for us - yay!
After we had told the teachers all about podcasting went we went up the Sky Tower for a look. We even had our faces painted.

Room 15 is visited by the Mayor

The Mayor of Auckland City visits Room 15.
You have already heard the podcast in the previous post, and now we have a video to show you - of the day the Mayor of Auckland City, Mr Dick Hubbard, came to Pt England School. His media people made this clip and said we could post it on our blog. It is also playing on the Mayor's own website - how cool is that!

Our Recent Podcasters

Have a look at some of our podcasters from a website called animoto.

KPE is starting a blog

Hi there to everyone who listens to KPE.
We have had requests to start up a blog so that our listeners can leave us comments and tell us what they think of our podcasts, our podcasters and the books they have reviewed.

So here we are, on blogspot. Unfortunately we couldn't get the name KPE as someone else has already grabbed that, but fortunately we also podcast with kpeTV, our video podcast. You may need to bookmark this page to make sure you can find us easily.

Our first question was, where to start with posting summaries of our podcasts as we have done so many. Who would have thought when we started out in August 2005 that we would be still going strong 100 podcasts later! Well done to all you fantastic podcasters. We have decided to start our posts at Episode 80. If you want to make comments about earlier podcasts, perhaps you could do it under this post.

We know that lots of kids listen to KPE as part of their Reading activities in class. We are suggesting that instead of writing your reflections in a book, why not post them here so that everyone can enjoy them - especially the podcasters.

Don't forget that you can subscibe to KPE on iTunes and you will have all our new episodes download automatically to your iTunes account.

We look forward to hearing what YOU have to say!

The Pt England Podcasters