We hope you all had a great Easter break
and have come back ready to Skwirk hard!
Term 1 turned out to be very busy in the
Skwirk office. Over 150 schools joined Skwirk in the 1st Term
of 2012. These varied from schools of 17 pupils in Amanbidji,
NT to schools of 1100 students in Como, WA. On top of that
over 6650 parents joined their children up to Skwirk in Term
1. Welcome to all our new Skwirkers.
We would also like to thank Charlestown
East Public School and St. Philips in Waratah for allowing us
to film the different ways they are using Skwirk. Look out
for these videos in coming weeks.
In this issue we cover all the latest in
the Skwirk office, including our Xoom 2 competition, a
teacher review on Skwirk in the classroom, the latest Skwirk
Teacher video series and a couple of great Skwirk parent
reviews. We also have more toys from Habro, a video showing
how Skwirk is being used in classrooms on the Motorola Xoom
and our video/animations of the term. Enjoy
Skwirk in the Modern Classroom
Charlestown East Public School was the
first of the schools where we filmed Skwirk in action. Have a
look at how Skwirk is being used on tablets at the school,
adding to another way students and teachers can utilize our
content.
Skwirk Merits
Did you know that your school can now get
all your teachers free access to Skwirk?
Did you know that parents can get 50% off
of a 12 month Skwirk license through your school?
How? Easy.
The Skwirk Merits campaign is new, fresh
and simple. Everyone's a winner!
Step 1. Schools, send us an email
from your school email address to info@skwirk.com.au . State that you
would like to sign your school up for the Skwirk Merits
campaign.
Step 2. Your school will be sent a
unique discount code.
Step 3. Pass this code around to
the parents at your school. This will give them 50% off a 12
month Skwirk subscription for them and their child. Simply
type in the code when they join Skwirk here: https://www.skwirk.com/Skwirk2/Subscription/Subscribe
Step 4: Every time a parent joins
Skwirk using your discount code, your school receives a
Skwirk Merit.
Step 5. When your school receives
25 Skwirk Merits, we will give all your teachers free access
with the license to use Skwirk inside the classroom for 12
months.
If you would like us to set up that promo
code and send over the Skwirk logo for your newsletter let us
know.
There are still plenty of options available
for schools, so contact The Skwirk Team if you have any
queries or questions.
Schools
Why We Love Skwirk at Charlestown East
Public School, NSW
Drew
Janetzki using Skwirk on the Motorola Xoom in the
classroom
Skwirk was brought to our school after a
presentation by a local school who showed us how the
resources had not only transformed their teaching and
learning program, but more importantly, how engaging and
relevant the content is for all students.
As a result, Charlestown East purchased
Skwirk and it is now used on a daily basis with our
interactive Smartboards and computers (Kindergarten to Year
6) to explore, explain, and engage students, so they can
understand key concepts in depth.
All of the major KLAs (Key Learning Areas)
are covered including Literacy, Numeracy, Human Society and
It’s Environment as well as Science and Technology. A unique
feature of Skwirk is the Australian voices, as well as the
depth of content of all of the above mentioned KLA’s. This
was not the only appealing aspect to the program; it was also
the excitement students experience from Skwirk.
Students love Skwirk; whether it is playing
a game, reading along or playing an animation. Skwirk has
cleverly created an educational product that is relevant and
meets syllabus outcomes. It is also highly engaging and
appealing to all of our students.
Within the English section, students are
exposed to highly engaging videos that relate to every strand
of the curriculum. Spelling, text types, writing, grammar,
reading, handwriting, computer skills, talking and listening,
as well as language, are all covered under Skwirk.
The Numeracy section features highly
engaging videos that relate to the curriculum. Measurement,
Space and Geometry as well as Numbers are all covered.
The choice of animation, the ability to
choose an activity, and the option to read along is very
appealing to all forms of learners.
Within HSIE, our students in Stage 1 are
currently investigating Workers in the Community and in Stage
2, they are exploring Machines. Our Stage 3 students are
exploring Global Connections.
All of these concepts have become more
engaging thanks to Skwirk.
The unique aspect of Skwirk to our teaching
staff, is that all of the units are aligned to syllabus
outcomes. This re-assuring aspect ensures that there is no
guess work or re-programming for any staff member. It is
almost fool proof for any teacher, including those with
limited ICT knowledge. From our experience as teachers, there
are only one or two clicks and you have the exact content
your students require to start their lesson or enhance their
learning.
With the introduction of portable tablet
computing, Skwirk is being used at the touch of a finger and
allows all of our students to follow up on concepts being
taught. Students recently used the Motorola Xoom, which
operates using the Android system and support Flash based
programs.
With Skwirk being in the palm of our
students hands, it has changed the way they learn, engage and
interact with technology. Our school librarian has been over
the moon because of Skwirk’s vast eBook range, which features
over 2, 000 e-books that cover all stages.
Luke Dunford, one of our Year 6 leaders and
Minister for Technology thinks Skwirk is
“a great classroom asset and is one of the
most educational websites that helps me learn.”
Our teacher/ librarian, Mrs. Donna
Reinhard, uses Skwirk to target specific Stage 1 outcomes in
the strand of Measurement. Mrs Reinhard believes that ,
“Skwirk is a very enriching and engaging program for all of
our students”, and regularly uses Skwirk in library
lessons.
Thankyou Skwirk for bringing back the fun
to learning for our students at Charlestown East Public
School.
Drew
Janetzki
Assistant Principal - Charlestown East Public
School
Event Watch
The Skwirk Team is happy to announce that
we will be the main sponsor of the Catholic Primary Teacher
Librarian Conference on May 11th in Canberra. Are you going
to be there? Let us know. It will be great to talk about what
we are doing at Skwirk and how you are using our content in
the classroom.
Video Bites
If there is one thing we have noticed over
the years from our Skwirk Schools and subscribers, it’s that
everybody uses our content differently. We have gone out to
schools and seen teachers and students fit Skwirk into their
lessons and studies in so many different ways. We thought
that this needs documenting, so we sent our media team with a
camera to record Skwirk being used in classrooms.
Our second in the series focuses on a Year
5 Teacher, and how he implements the Skwirk content into his
lessons.
How cool is that. Remember, there is no
right or wrong way to use Skwirk!
Did you know?
The geography of Egypt had a
significant effect on the development of the Egyptian
civilisation. The Nile flowed through Egypt and
flooded every year. The floods brought fresh deposits
of fertile soil which ancient Egyptian farmers used
to develop a prosperous agricultural economy. The
Egyptian civilisation grew from the farmer's
crops and all aspects of society were connected in
some way to agriculture and the inundation. The Nile
was called iteru, the river. It originated in
tropical Africa and travelled over 1300 kilometres
from Sudan to Egypt.
Parents
Skwirk had some fantastic reviews from
parent bloggers and websites around the web in the past few
months. Here are a few examples:
TEACHERS NETWORK Teachers, we are
constantly working to facilitate your classroom teaching and
this comes from your feedback and input. We are always on the
lookout for new content developers and writers, and if you
feel you have something to add we would love to hear from
you, info@skwirk.com.au
Please drop us a line anytime – we love
hearing from you!!!
Competition Time
Motorola have donated one Motorola Xoom 2
to Skwirk to give away to one lucky parent/home subscriber in
May. All you need to do is join Skwirk on one of our home
packages (3, 6 or 12 months) and you will be entered into the
draw.
Motorola tablets are the perfect education
and learning companion. Full support for flash 10.3 means
that students can enjoy a rich and immersive internet
experience.
The latest Motorola tablet - Xoom 2 tablet
offers chamfered corners for an even more comfortable hold
for kids, teachers and parents alike. Its scratch resistant
glass and water repellant coating provides added protection
against school bags and life's accidental spills. A 10.1
wide HD screen makes the visuals on the Xoom 2 makes brings
learning to life and images are mind-blowingly real.
An added innovation to the latest Motorola
tablet is an inbuilt app called Motocast. This app enables
streaming from desktop PCs direct to the device for secure
and easy remote access to files, video, photos and other user
content. Plus, sharing content is made easy when a HDMI out
cable is connected to the table allowing it's content to
be viewed on the big screen.
Built on the Android platform, the Motorola
Xoom 2 supports a host of apps that are both educational and
fun as well as enabling you to watch video, play games, enjoy
music or use it as an e-reader for learning or relaxation on
the run.
The Skwirk Store
Great news. Hasbro have provided more
prizes for our Skwirk store. This term prizes include
Beyblade Spin Control Top’s, Kre-O Combat Chopper and Furreal
Friends Dizzy Dancers.
Skwirk Tours
We have added three new tours to our
youtube page which give a better breakdown of the Skwirk
content for Primary and Secondary students, along with a
teacher tour.
Check them out:
Primary Tour:
Secondary Content:
Skwirk for Teachers:
Skwirk and the iPad
The iPad generation is here and with
schools now buying tablets in bulk, Skwirk is exploring ways
to have our content available for iPad users. Flash content
does not currently work on the iPad, however a new app,
called iSwifter, has helped to change these restrictions. The
majority of Skwirk content will work through the iSwifter,
which means more mobile access.
Check out this video for more
information:
If you have any further questions regarding
Skwirk, please contact us at (02) 9438 3637 or email info@skwirk.com.au
Schoolzine
One of the most common points of view that
most educators agree with is that when parents are engaged in
their child's school life their child is more motivated
and focused, which leads to better educational outcomes. How
to increase parent engagement and participation is the
challenge that many schools face with so many competing
priorities for time and resource.
Schoolzine is dedicated to providing many
options for schools to communicate with their parents in a
fast and professional manner. While our specialty is the
E-Newsletter we also provide to schools the options of SMS
Text Messaging, E-News Flashes, Polls and Surveys, Parent
Teacher Bookings, Database Management and Statistical
Reporting - All by one provider and completely Australian
owned.
Any Skwirk customers that sign up to the
Schoolzine system during the month's of May and June will
receive their first 5 newsletters for free. Just mention
'Skwirk' when calling.
All information and representation contained herein made in good
faith and believed to
be accurate and correct at the time of publication. While information
from other
sources is also presented in good faith no responsibility for the
accuracy
of this information is accepted.
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