TrekChina0907 helps Newick House "Special Agents"

TrekChina0907 has been asked to fund one part of the WebPlay project for some of Newick House's younger pupils in Years 3 and 4. This is a Local Project, but once pupils have learned how to use the skills and WebPlay tools they will graduate to the International Project in Years 5 and 6. Newick House School has successfully taken part in WebPlay Projects for five years. The pupils benefit in developing a range of skills and in having some memorable fun in the process.

On the WebPlay Local project, the pupils will become secret agents, the staff become the middle ranking secret agents and actors who are playing the really senior spies come to the school to add authenticity - and a lot of fun! The Newick House secret agents have to collaborate with agents in another school to solve a crime - and it all ends up with a special party where the two school groups finally meet in person. Until then, the identity of the other school is a mystery. Pupils communicate with other secret agents on the WebPlay website using think.com. throughout the project, so their ICT skills as well as their imagination and acting skills get a real boost.

Although Newick House has made an annual commitment to paying the necessary funding to take part in the project, it has not been easy for other schools to finance their participation. If there are no local partner schools, the pupils don’t have the same quality of experience of the project. TrekChina0907's generous donation will assist Newick House by ensuring they can work with partner schools - and will let pupils in both schools benefit from a high quality integrated project that seems even more powerful when pupils with a range of special needs are included.

There is more information on the WebPlay website (http://webplay.org/index.php), including a case study about Newick House's previous involvement - (http://webplay.org/programme_evaluations.php)

Kevin

Updated Google Maps

The Google Earth files for the Trek have been updated. There are now two versions for each day....one shows only the track taken and key milestones....the other includes photographs, one or two other cool things, and also a number of "quick views" - to make it easy to "fly" around the route we took.

You can find these if you click on the "Our Route" tab above (a shortcut is here)

To use these first click on the trek day you want to see (this will download the file to Google Earth) then click on Tracks, ACTIVE LOG, Views. Have fun!!

PS
If you don't already have Google Earth - you can download a free copy here

The "Live Link" to Assembly

Sorry to take so long to post this. Some video clips were taken during the "live link" we did from China back to Newick House school. I've done my best to stitch some representative bits together. The sound quality is not great - but you'll get the idea. Sadly not everone who talked was filmed.

You can feel the excitement and interest.

Be warned - you might need a box of tissues to hand!

For those that don't know.....we created a PowerPoint slideshow, with photos of the first three days trekking, and managed to send that to the school, over the Internet, in advance. The school then played the slideshow in the Assembly Hall at the same time we played ours in China! We used a cell phone with a "loud speaker" at our side and a audio-conferencing device back at the school so that everyone could hear us. We could talk and listen both ways.

Click here for a shortcut to the posting we made on the blog after the live link was over where you can see a photo of what things looked like at our end, thousands of miles away in China!!



PS
Sorry that the end of the very last word got chopped off, I guess the camera ran out at that point....but you know what was being said!! :-)


PPS
For the Trekkers, we'll put all of the various clips together with photos on a DVD before Christmas!

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chinese chicken dance

you may have already seen this on my blog, but i wanted to add something here (and give adam an opporunity to post another "funny" comment). it is from my visit to xi'an huiling school.

xi'an huiling is a special needs school in xi'an. intrepid travel believe in responsible tourism and hence arranged for us to visit the local school and support the young adults. it could not have been more appropiate. you can read more about it on my blog or view pictures from my xi'an album.

the students at xi'an huiling love having visitors. however, they are very shy and keep to themselves except when they are performing! and then they want everyone to join in. here we are at xi'an huiling doing the ol' chicken dance - in chinese!

say something!!!

someone please say something!!!! i keep checking the blog to see if anyone has put up pictures or video, made comments or added a new post and hhhhmmmm nothing...

i want back on the wall!!!!!

Look at the difference you've made already!

Here is the new minibus at Newick House which funds from TrekChina0907 have contributed to.

A little competition for you!!

What caused the following to happen?

Answers in the comments section please!!!

Mutianyu

A few short snippets from the first few hours trekking. Little did we know that these were the easy bits! I like the incredulous question "we're actually going all the way up to that thing????". Well - yes and a bit further and then all the way back again!!! :-)



PS Did the Monguls wear suits of armour??

Exercise

After a hard days trekking it was important to stretch and chill.....and here are some of the more enthusiastic trekkers entering fully into the spirit of things!!

I miss...

Eating meals with 30 friends;

Drinking 3 litres of water and 4 beers a day;

Enjoying sticky rice;

Concentrating hard to make sure the next step isn't a trip;

Being a bannister for Christine;

Waking up and not being in as much pain as I expected;

Singing badly;

The sweat;

Rolling with the 3208s;

Reading the blog;

Laughing, a lot;

Being with you all...

Suits, really boys.....?

Just in case you were wondering how famous we really are, check this out...

Thankfully, the article has their names under the photo otherwise you'd never recognise this lot all dressed up in their finery....never saw that on The Wall!

we are the champions

kevin's trekkers star in their second hit video... catch the preview here!!!



it is a bit dark but if you tilt the screen at just the right angle...
hope i'm not video overloading!!!

video of the little b@$t@rd...

not that the title in any way reflects my feelings toward the climb to this tower... it is actually called that!

i thought it would be nice to share with those at home ;-p