Thanks so much for organising and maintaining this wonderful expereince for the students. Year 7 and 8 at Richmond High have not completed all blog points due to time restraints but have definitely gained insight into their culture, their strengths, their individual and group identity all students have responded positively to all lessons.

Thank you all again for the time and energy gone into developing and maintaining this project. Look forward to the next rap.

Joanne O’Brien and Kathie Heather
Richmond High School

To recognise the kids’ “extra” efforts, we are preparing Quality Portfolio documentation & special awards for Assembly Presentation first thing next term, so it will be lovely to include grabs of their entries with the logo too.

Thanks Co-ordinators for your support,
happy holidays
Judy

Term 2 is almost at an end, and we have heard that some schools are stuggling to complete their responses to the last few rap points and the Rap Wrap Up.

There’s no reason why new messages can’t be added to the blog after the advertised date of the rap finishing up. If you’re running behind at your school, please feel free to keep posting early next term!

Regards,
Ian McLean and the Coordinators

Thanks for introducing yourself!

You’ve hit on the keys to rapping success. Do what is achievable for your situation! Share your successes! Let the students’ enthusiasm carry the work to new audiences, until everyone is wanting to try it out. Here at Penrith, we are constantly amazed with the pearls of wisdom our young people pop out during their negotiated preparation of rap responses, and it’s so good that it all gets recorded for posterity.

Your avatar is working perfectly for me! What seems to happen with Edublogs is that images from the blog get stored in your browser’s cache (or sometimes stuck somewhere in the NSW DET intranet, perhaps), and these original images can continue to appear – even after you try refreshing the page.

Clear the cache and try again, or check out the blog on a computer you’ve not used for blogging before. The new avatar should show up. Sometimes an avatar will be incompatible with certain browsers. Last rap, on one computer I could see a beautiful lyrebird logo belonging to one school, but on another computer it was always a black square.

This computer I’m using today refuses to show me the Rap Cordinator’s “pen” avatar and we get the generic bald person’s head/shoulders shot. At home the pen is always presented.

Regards, Ian

I’ve been tardy with my introduction, sorry.

I’m Judy Okunev, Teacher Librarian at Wollumbin High School at Murwillumbah. I’ve been advocating book raps to teachers in recent years but unsuccessfully, as the timing didn’t fit and/or it seemed like extra work, so this time I thought I’d get some kids interested and try it outside classes, to see how the kids react & get something to show teachers.

It’s been a bit of a struggle, as it has meant the kids coming in their recess or lunch breaks & getting follow-up ideas on paper, hence different kids for different rap points. Janette Saunders, our Indigenous Mentor, has also been involved, and together we have discussed the rap points with the kids and helped them develop responses. They have been really pleased to see their ideas on the net and to get your responses.

Ian, I’m having difficulty getting the school logo set as an avatar. All I’ve managed to do is turn the blog image black, even though the logo appears as my avatar at EduBlogs on my profile. What do you think I’m getting wrong?

Regards
Judy

Everything seems to be working again here at Penrith PS.

Uploading of posts seems to be proving tricky this week. Although I’ve been able to post as the Rap Coordinator, my student-level username ends up getting an error page. It may be a temporary problem that will clear itself. I decided to email home my students’ messages from yesterday and today, and uploaded them successfully to the blog from there. It certainly pays to “Control C” (Copy) your message before posting it because, if you end up with an error page, you still have a copy of the post in your clipboard, and can then “Control V” (Paste) it into a Word document or an email.

We’ll keep you posted re our ongoing troubleshooting attempts.

Meanwhile, I’ve just posted some jpeg images of our school’s Stage 3 students’ “Identity” artwork, which they’ve prepared for our annual K-6 NAIDOC art exhibition. After the students run a NAIDOC assembly, the whole school goes on a walk, from classroom to classroom, to enjoy and critique each class exhibit. It’s always a great day. This year, the Identity rappers will share snippets of their favourite rap responses during the assembly.

Click here to view our new gallery.

Just remember to scroll down, and then click on the small images to see larger versions.

Regards, Mr McLean
Penrith PS

It’s great to see all the contributions coming in reflecting some hard work in class. If you have anything you’d like to add to the Gallery please send it through to Ian McLean. If you would like to share some of the ways you feel your class is benefiting from the rap using the blog, some of the exciting or challenging moments, please feel free to share it with other Teachers on this page.

All the best,
The Rap Coordinators

We would be so happy for you to send in any pictures or symbols that your groups make about identity and belonging as the rap progresses. Send your images to Ian McLean and he will place them in the gallery!

Regards, Lizzie Chase
Rap Coordinator

Thank you for sending the great mindmap your students made for Rap Point 1. I’ve posted the jpeg image to the site at:
http://rapblog2.edublogs.org/

Just remember to scroll down, and then please click on the small image to see a larger size. I much appreciate the ingenuity of using the white backing paper while three storeys up! Well done!

Regards, Mr McLean
Penrith PS