CSIRO to develop total wellbeing diet for kids

A children's version of the popular 'The CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet' will be developed with federal funding. The Australian Government is putting $3 million into the ABC guide to dieting for juniors, modelled on the bestselling CSIRO health regime. The fat-fighting diet and exercise book may be distributed to the nation's four million children through schools by 2009.

Read more ...

Quotation for the week

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.

James Baldwin

More quotations about teaching and education

Education of the future?

[From Fast Company]

On the face of it, Philadelphia's High School of the Future, a
collaboration between Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and the city's public-school district, seems like the kind of out-in-left-field experiment guaranteed to inspire dissent. Yet the school opened last September to almost universal acclaim. Breathless press reports read like an old Jetsons script: Interactive whiteboards! Combination-free lockers! A laptop for every student! An NPR feature titled "In Philly 'Future' School, Books Are So 20th Century" went all gooey over the school's universal Wi-Fi and student-ID smartcards, glossing over just how these bells and whistles were supposed to revolutionize
education.

But the news reports captured only part of the project and, in many ways, the least-important part. The School of the Future is not just a high-tech overlay on the traditional curriculum--it represents a wholesale tearing apart of that traditional curriculum. The three Rs are gone; science, English, math, writing, and the rest are being taught not as separate"disciplines," but as a set of interdependent tools for understanding real-world problems. And while the School of the Future may occupy a relatively radical position on the spectrum, corporate involvement in the education system is becoming commonplace, a role that has stirred plenty of controversy.

For example - this comment from Stephen Downes:

When schools come to depend on the infusion of talent and money from a corporation, what happens when the corporation pulls out (or threatens to pull out unless the learning takes on a pro-corporate spin)?

and this from Tim Stahmer

I’m somewhat ambivalent about allowing big business to direct the course of American education. It’s certainly good that elements of the larger community are interested in improving teaching and learning.

On the other hand, K-12 education should not be all about training “a future generation of Redmond cubicle warmers” or building “a nation of pitchmen”.

Nursery Rhymes

Nursery Rhymes are generally brief, anonymously written songs or verses intended for children. Though these rhymes are thought to help develop vocabulary and counting skills, scholars have actually linked many of these rhymes to historic events. For example, some believe that "Pop Goes the Weasel" is about silk weavers bringing their shuttles or bobbins (known as "weasels") to pawnbrokers to exchange for drinking money. What event does “Ring a Ring O'Roses” supposedly reference?
More...

Switch Awards 2007: Energy Safety Week competition

The Switch Awards are open to all primary and secondary schools in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland. Schools participating in any program or activity that engages their community in energy and the environment are eligible to enter. Winning schools will share in prizes worth $30,000, including two fully installed solar systems (each valued at $10,000). Schools that register their participation before 29 June could win a $100 or $200 early bird assistance grant. Entries close Monday 17 September.

http://www.originenergy.com.au/osj/template.php?pageid=1789

Using test scores to evaluate teachers

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-02-13-effective-teachers_x.htm?csp=N009

Comment from Biglearning:
Please show me a profession where beating people over the head with threats of dire penalties for someone else's work, while taking away their autonomy, has led to sustained performance improvements. No, it doesn't matter - I still wouldn't wish it on our teachers. Even the bad ones.

Research study on preprimary care and education

Researchers from the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation have reported on the results of the IEA Preprimary Project, a longitudinal, cross-national study of preprimary care and education. Many diverse countries participated and used common instruments to measure family background, teachers' characteristics, structural features of settings, children's experiences, and children's developmental status. Consistent findings related to language and cognitive performance have implications for early childhood education.
Read on ...

Schoolboards: net dangers over-rated; bring social networks to school

[Via Tech.Blorge]

The internet isn't as dangerous as people think, and teachers should let students use social networks at school.

That's the surprising new recommendation from the National School Boards Association — a not-for-profit organization representing 95,000 school board members — in a new study funded by Microsoft, News Corporation, and Verizon.

Is it important, as Stephen Downes points out to notice those last five words?

But the study was funded by funded by Microsoft, News Corporation, and Verizon - organizations that are not exactly neutral about the outcome.

New Copyright Challenges for Schools

http://www.copyrightaware.gov.au

This website focuses on copyright law, its operation in schools in each State and its implications for various members of the school community. The nucleus of the content covers recent changes to hard-copy printing costs, moral rights for creators and the extension of copyright law in relation to advances in communication technology.

World Tales

http://www8.sbs.com.au/worldtales/frontpage.php

Australian animators have created twenty films based on folk tales, myths and legends from around the world. The interpretations of these tales highlight the beliefs from various cultures and are told in both English and the story's native language.

10 free Harry Potter activity sites

Listed here: 10 Free Harry Potter Activity Sites at Free Stuff 4 Kids

Welcome to Basin Kids

A component of the Murray Darling Basin Commission website, this section allows students and teachers to explore issues and facts relating to the area. Online content includes a quiz, puzzles, teachers' guide, specific background information and details on the recent native fish strategy.

http://kids.mdbc.gov.au/_data/page/337/animation2.swf

Global Sacred Sites

http://www.sacredland.org/world.html

Produced by the Earth Island Institute, this website profiles both renowned and less well-known sacred sites in a bid to increase public understanding of sacred places, indigenous cultures and environmental justice. The content highlights the often complex histories of these places and cultures, conflicts over preservation, the impact of tourism and diverse spiritual practices.

Figure This! Math Challenges for Families

http://www.figurethis.org

This engaging and absorbing site has been designed to allow students and their families to undertake a series of challenges that highlight the entertaining aspects of mathematics. Associated information on the site provides information to assist parents to better support their children in studying mathematics.

Design a Satellite

http://www.eduweb.com/portfolio/designsatellite

Primary students studying communication technologies will be enamoured with this interactive website. With the assistance of the animated inhabitants of Littleton, students can design a TV satellite, incorporating the necessary parameters to be able to relay signals to space.

Classics and Ancient History

MetaSites
http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subjects/classics/classicsmeta.htm
Ancient history teachers and students can access a range of document collections, databases, digital image collections, journals, atlases and encyclopedias encompassing Greek history, Roman history, Egyptian history and the history of the Near East. This website is maintained by the University of Auckland Library.

Lesson plans and resources

I have updated the following pages of lesson plans and resources for teachers.


Books like Unfortunate events
Thinking skills
Books about refugees to Australia
Values books
Reading comprehension
Books with a rugby league theme
Computers & ICTs
Thinking hats picture books
Geography
Books about self-control
Picture books for P.E.
Weather

Learning::a quotation

In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
Eric Hoffer

Enterprising Australians

Enterprising Australians provides free DVDs, teaching resources and support for schools in Victoria and Queensland.

As part of Enterprise Learning in the 21st Century they are providing free resources that are mapped to ELS for Victoria and Queensland in domains of English, Maths, Humanities-Economics, Civics & Citizenship and ICT.

The resources incorporate a unit of work, DVDs, worksheets and online support.

For more information please visit www.enterprising.com.au or call 03 9473-3688

Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need

This award-winning website is an easily used and straightforward guide to the major search engines. Teacher librarians can use this website as a teaching tool to demonstrate the range of options available when searching for information and the most appropriate search engines to fulfil a variety of information needs.

http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html

A history of light

[Via Family first]

...an interesting look at the history of light. It veers all over the map in telling the story of light, and I think you'll find it fascinating.

It begins with the origin of the universe, as espoused by Immanuel Kant in 1755. We progress through the ages as man begins illuminating the night with crude torches, mastering the dark.

Eventually, we find our way to the nineteenth century, when electricity first began to be used for lighting. Obscure devices are recounted, including Alexander Graham Bell's
sunlight-transmitted telephone.

Stage lighting is given a special emphasis, and I found the saltwater dimmers used for adjusting the volume of
light to be amazing to read about. These devices consisted ofan electrode at the bottom of a tank of brine, and another electrode that was raised or lowered in the liquid to adjust the voltage going to the bulbs. The brine would boil, heating the backstage area.

Cool stuff.

See for yourself.

Surf's Up: a cross - curricula resource for primary schools

Surf's Upis a free teaching resource developed by the Surf Life Saving Australia, it provides students with an understanding of beach safety and surf awareness

Educational podcasting for teaching and learning

[Via OLDaily]

... quality podcasts from over 360 carefully selected podcast channels for educational use - ideal for teaching and learning activities with children, young people and educational professionals.

http://www.recap.ltd.uk/podcasting/

Digital Cameras

Show your students what can be done:

Little Grebe
Digital Cameras Enhance Education

Cities Around the World

"over 6,100 photographic images from the slide collections of the American Geographical Society Library." Search, or browse by city or country, by Views, Architecture, City and Town Life, by People, or by the 100 cities with the most photos.

http://www.uwm.edu/Libraries/digilib/cities/

Geometry from AMATYC

http://or.amatyc.org/geometry.htm

Along with their substantial instructional resources, the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) has worked to place valuable mathematical materials online to aid both teachers and students. This particular site contains links discovered and vetted by George Alexander, who works on behalf of the AMATYC. Here visitors will find links to materials that can be used to teach students about the fundamentals of geometry, including plane motion, polyhedras, symmetry, and tessellations. In total, there are links to 33 resources here, and suggestions for new materials are always welcome.

Open-content learning portal

A new online content resource center, formally launched March 9 by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), will make more than 8,000 classroom materials available to teachers, faculty, and learners worldwide, at no cost. In the weeks before its public launch, more than 10,000 people reportedly visited the newly created OER (Open Educational Resources) Commons ... Full Story

Creating a Literate College Community

Marj Kirkland outlines the process of one school's approach to form a Whole School Literacy Plan. The plan focuses on the effectiveness of existing literacy initiatives and how it can further improve literacy outcomes for all students in the years ahead.
REad on ...

Educational Coloring

Pictures http://www.edupics.com/coloring.html Educational images and coloring pictures for teachers in primary school. Categories include animals, buildings, cultures, space travel, holidays, time, and transport.

DrawingNow - how to draw tutorials

http://www.drawingnow.com/index.html
Learn how to draw with step by step drawing tutorials. Includes Manga art, cartoons and 3D drawing.

Famundo for Organizations - FREE online calendar and file library

Famundo is the central hub for your organization’s scheduling and document storage where members can get an easy to read, holistic view of everything that is going on within your organization.
visit Famundo

Learning to read in Australia

http://www.assa.edu.au/Publications/op.asp?id=95
This paper from the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia outlines what is known on the process of learning to read, and reports on the Australian national survey of children's reading levels and of classroom practices in the teaching of reading. The review concluded that for any reading program to be effective, it must include throughout its first two or three years extensive systematic explicit instruction in synthetic phonics. This paper summarizes what has been done so far in response to the 2005 review.

Report gives poor grades to nation's schools

The Arizona Daily Star reports that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has joined with a prominent liberal think tank to warn of potential long-term damage to the U.S. economy caused by the failure... Full Story

Schools banning ipods to beat cheaters

Banning baseball caps during tests was obvious — students were writing the answers under the brim. Then, schools started banning cell phones, realizing students could text message the answers to each other. Now, schools across
the country are targeting digital media players as a potential cheating device.

Read on ...

Traditional children's games from around the world

http://www.topics-mag.com/edition11/games-section.htm

Discover how children from Venezuela, Mexico, Korea, China, Germany, and many other countries play different versions of the same traditional games such as jump rope, marbles, tag, top spinning, hopscotch, jacks, and card games. It includes games for toddlers.

National Autism Awareness Month: Helping Children With Autism Learn

April is National Autism Awareness Month and the OUPblog is sharing excerpts from two different, but equally useful books.

http://blog.oup.com/2007/04/children_autism/

Japanese cultural celebrations photo gallery

http://www.pbase.com/selvin/japan_culture

A collection of Japanese cultural celebration photographs: tea ceremony, lion dancers, Obon dancers, Obon Festival etc.

Japanese Crafts and activities

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/japan/
This page on Japanese crafts for kids provides ideas for simple crafts with things found around the house. Included are: Japanese doll, miniature Japanese garden, hanging fish and simple origami projects.

Art and life in Africa

http://www.uiowa.edu/%7Eafricart/teachers/lessons/index.html
This site contains a database of 47 lesson plans created by the Art and Life in Africa Project Teachers' Forum related to Art, French, Music, Science, Social Studies/World Culture. A selection graded 'Elementary' are suitable for primary school.

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation

The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation exists to develop life-long healthier and happier eating habits in a new generation of Australians by engaging them in growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing delicious and healthy food at primary school.
http://www.kitchengardenfoundation.org.au/

War and identity - education

The Anzac Day Commemoration Committee has constructed this site to help with teaching about Australia's military history and heritage. It includes an interactive component which are categorised into age appropriate levels.

http://www.warandidentity.com.au/default.asp

Australian state bans YouTube in schools

CNN.com reports that Victoria, Australia's second-most populous state, has banned YouTube from its 1,600 government schools in an effort to combat cyber-bullying.

Full Story

Highly recommended typing tutor

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/

Flash earth

Flash Earth allows you to switch between any of 8 different mapping
sites, including Google Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Yahoo!, Ask, OpenLayers, and NASA.

http://www.flashearth.com/

BECTA approval for comic-strip learning

BECTA, the Government agency supporting UK education departments in their strategic ICT developments, has approved the use of interactive comic-strip software program, Storywriter Toolkit.

Read on ...

Australia trials low-cost laptop

A prototype children's laptop, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), is showcased at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Showin Las Vegas.
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project aims to put low-cost laptops into the hands of impoverished children in the developing world, but work is already underway to trial them among indigenous populations in Australia.

Banning MySpace - at home

[Via Stephen Downes]

St. Hugo of the Hills Catholic School students were informed recently that under a new school policy, Think First, Stay Safe, the use of MySpace.com will be prohibited at school and at home.

Read on ...

2007 is...

2007 ...
United Nations Environment Programme: Billion Tree Campaign
http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/

The billion tree campaign aims to raise awareness of the importance of trees
in all cultures and how forests provide environmental protection.

Chinese Year of the Boar
http://www.new-year.co.uk/chinese/calendar/boar.htm

International Heliophysical year
http://ihy2007.org/

International Year of Rumi
http://www.poetseers.org/the_poetseers/rumi

2007 International decade of...

International decade for action - water for life, 2005 - 2015
http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/

United Nations International decade for the culture of peace
and non-violence for the children of the world 2001-2010
http://www.unac.org/peacecp/decade/background.html

United Nations literacy decade 2003-2012
http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=5000&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

United Nations decade for education for sustainable development
http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=23279&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

United Nations decade to roll back malaria 2001-2010
http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/

Homework, the tip of the iceberg

[Via Stephen Downes]

Witnessing the effects of six hours of homework after a six hour school day has had my mind churning so much that I cannot sleep. Consider this an open letter to the New Brunswick Department of Education and all educators.

Read on ...

Boosting intelligence among poor is child's play

Giving pre-school children toys to play with boosts their mental development even if they suffer from malnutrition, a report said on Friday.

The report, published in the Lancet medical journal, said several studies had found a clear link between intelligence and child's play
Read on ...

Embracing Technology in the Classroom: One Professor's Story

By Chris Procello

Laurel Amtower, professor of English and comparative literature, was becoming concerned about how to reach her students. Each semester her classes became larger, and, correspondingly, students were banking on their anonymity. Class attendance had become more sporadic and a good portion of her students sat in the back of her classes, not engaged. Assigned papers were seen as hurdles where students saw no connection between what they were being asked to do and what skills they are supposed to gain as a result of the class.

Read on ...

Targeted teaching of civics and citizenship needed

Formal education in civics and citizenship is urgently required if Australian students are to increase their familiarity with key historical civic events...

Read on ...

Schools to face national standard

PARENTS can expect a national school curriculum regardless of which party wins this year's federal election after the Labor leader, Kevin Rudd, joined the Coalition in pushing states and territories to set common standards.

Read on ...

Gaming advances as a learning tool

This article from America gives teachers ideas on how to capture the interest of
'digital natives' by using games in the classroom.

Read on ...

Sharing the enthusiasm

From Harold Jarche

As a learning professional, it’s time to take a stance. Enabling learning is no longer about disseminating good content. Enabling learning is about being a learner yourself, sharing your knowledge and enthusiasm and then taking a
back
seat

Read the whole article

BBC Plans Online Children's World

A "safe, secure" virtual world which children can inhabit and interact with is being planned by the BBC in England.
Read on ...

Some thoughts about school 2.0

From Chris Lehmann

It's really not about the computers. School 2.0 is older than that. School 2.0 is the tradition of Dewey. School 2.0 is born out of the idea that active, engaged, constructivist learning will lead to active, engaged students and people.It's about the pedagogy.Too much educational software just attempts to turn these really powerful devices into the next version of the workbook. That's criminal.Computers and internet technology should allow us create, to communicate and to research.

Read on ...

International Polar year

International Polar Year

During International Polar Year (IPY), from March 2007 to March 2009, interdisciplinary research will be undertaken into climate change and the interactions of climate, oceans, ice, land, ecosystems and human society in the Arctic and Antarctic.

Teaching activities

Antarctic Dad (MP)
Getting to know the polar regions (LS)
Melting ice (UP)
Sea level rising in South Pacific (U/Sec)

More resources on Polar Regions and Antarctica

Rand McNally delivers fee-based geography content online

Rand McNally recently launched a new web-based service to deliver comprehensive geography content, interactive games and activities, and skills-based lesson plans for teachers.

Read more ...

One hundred years of surf lifesaving in Australia

I tend to take the surf lifesavers for granted. I surf = I swim between the flags - no question. So I'm so glad to be able to celebrate with the surf lifesavers.

Here is the website -
http://www.slsa.com.au/default.aspx?s=yearofthesurflifesaver

And for the classroom
Between the Flags education kit
To celebrate the 2007 International Year of Surf Lifesaving in Australia, the National Museum of Australia has developed an education package

Treating (Teaching) Children "Equally" is Unfair

You hear these statements all the time…

We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal…
Everyone is equal before the law.
Teachers should treat all students equally.

One platitude after another…

Who can disagree with these assertions?

After all, isn't treating everyone equally the same as fairness?

Teaching is Different than Running a Lunch Counter

This article is about providing love, service, protection and caring instruction to every child.

In fact, children of illegal immigrants, the children of the same religion of the terrorist airplane hijacker, the children who come to school wearing the same dirty tee-shirt for weeks at a time…deserve to be treated fairly.

But, for all the compassion, empathy and caring that teachers hold; for all the dedication that teachers donate to students and our society by perfecting their instructional skills; treating children equally is unfair.

In fact, treating children equally turns out to be stingy, uncaring and unkind.

Here we expose some of the effects of the "Treat/ Teach all children equally" prescription…

http://classroomtoolkit.net/serendipity/archives/80-Feature-Article.html#extended

Playground fun

Playground fun aims to bring together traditional and modern playground and street games for children aged 7–9 and aims to encourage children to take part in physical activity through education.
Teaching materials contain worksheets, teaching ideas and curriculum references to help you integrate the Playground fun website and the games on it into your teaching. The Playground fun project consists of six "lessons" that promote the effective use of ICT, digital cameras and the Internet. There are also links back to the website. These lessons are aimed at Years 3 and 4 but can be adapted to suit your class.

Visit Playground Fun

Learned Helplessness: A Habit we Don't Want for Ourselves (or Our Students)

Situations exist. How we interpret situations determines our reaction to these situations. Our interpretation also determines our mood, and long-term, determines our beliefs.

Learned helplessness refers to what happens when, after countless attempts, people come to believe that their work, strategies, techniques and efforts "get them nowhere, provide no positive payoff."
If a teacher comes to believe that a situation is hopeless, and the results of their work and effort are uncontrollable, a number of outcomes (all negative) are possible.

http://classroomtoolkit.net/serendipity/archives/79-Short-Article.html#extended

Reading Recovery in the Classroom

"I consider myself to be a Reading Recovery teacher. I was trained in 1999 and worked for four years as a Reading Recovery/literacy support coordinator. During that time I worked with teachers and gave tips on how they could use Reading Recovery techniques in the classroom. I was very proud of the fact I could teach them how to use running records and sound boxes. I devised a whole list of activities that could be done in the classroom. All of this had merit, but I think I missed the bigger picture of what Reading Recovery is about. It is about looking at the children and thinking of what I can do to help them understand the reading process. It is about being explicit, not wasting time and getting the most out of them as learners. The other things are the tools we use in order to achieve our aims.
This year I have returned to the classroom. I was a bit worried as it had been a long time, and I was given a prep grade. It is funny with classroom teaching, when you are doing all the things necessary to run a class you just do it, but on reflection you think about the lunchboxes, the meetings, the parents, the ‘I want to go home’, ‘he won’t play with me’, ‘she took my lunch’ and you wonder: how did I do it all? Anyway, being a positive person, I decided if other people could manage, I could manage too.
My year started this year as most prep grades do. The children would come in to school, there would be activities on the tables and the children would move around the room as they pleased. As a Reading Recovery teacher I was very mindful about introducing them to their books, so I took the opportunity while they were playing to select a book for them that would match their needs. I was amazed at the rapid improvement in their reading levels. I was treating each child as a Reading Recovery student, introducing them to a new book and prompting them according to their needs.
I began to wonder, was it the time the children were allowed to develop or was it the explicit teaching or was it both?
So I thought I would analyse what else has changed. ..."

Read on ...

Vic schools a 'war toy free zone'

Toy soldiers, model war planes and wrestling figurines have been banned in Victorian schools.
The ban is part of a move towards political correctness.
Primary schools and kindergartens are now "war toy free zones".

Read on ...

Here is a list of the web pages for teachers that I have just

Space
History and Timelines
Booklists
Values books
Ancient Egypt
Internet Research
Maths
Special days
Kindergarten Longer Read-alouds
Year Six Novels
Books for autistic children
Asia - General

"Replacing books with computers shows promise"

The Anchorage Daily News reports that at Wendler Middle School, Sixty seventh-graders have received free-to-use laptops. While the students can't take the laptops home, they can take them into classes, use them for taking notes, and access wireless internet to assist with assignments. The theory underpinning the initiative is that if children have constant access to technology, they will read more often, learn better, and have fun while doing it.

Read more ...

Six ed-tech trends to watch in 2007

Service-oriented architecture, ‘cloud computing’ among the developments sure to have an impact on educational technology in the coming year

Read the whole article

Educated?

To be able to be caught up into the world of thought -- that is educated.

Edith Hamilton


More quotes about education and teaching

Education is ...

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

More quotes related to education and teaching

Education 2.0: The next evolution of school software has arrived

Emergence of open technologies and open-source alternatives makes customizing school software a reality

By Corey Murray, Senior Editor, eSchool News


Aiming to customize their solutions to meet the individual needs of teachers and students, a growing number of school systems are ushering in a new breed of school software that relies on open technologies--whether it's open-source software on their servers and desktops, or so-called Web 2.0 services available free of charge online.

Economics and advancements in technology are fueling this latest trend in school software, proponents of the movement say--but it's also about customization, and the desire to employ a variety of solutions as users see fit.

Read the whole article

An Author in Every Classroom

By Nick Glass

This article highlights specific ways you can replicate these personal connections to authors and illustrators by optimizing a variety of multimedia and online technologies. I will review specific types of virtual author programs, give examples you can freely experience, share how you can use them in your school, and guide you toward bringing an author into every classroom.

-->http://www.mmischools.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=12208

Learning to use technology - videos of real experiences

Here is a site of free teacher videos of teachers teaching and learning to use technology. These are National Board Certified teachers, and all of the resources are free.

ITunes.http://ali.apple.com/ali_sites/deli/nav2.shtml

Principals beg for more preschools

PRIMARY school principals will campaign for more preschools before the state election in March, following a survey that shows a clear disadvantage for children who skip early childhood learning.

The Primary Principals' Association surveyed public schools and will press Labor to match the Coalition commitment to build more preschools and provide fee relief for families. NSW has the lowest preschool attendance in the country and highest fees - about $30 a day.

Read on ...

Books for Boys

There is a challenge sometimes in getting boys to read. I have always admired the teachers who generated a love of reading in my boys. If you are looking for the sorts of books to recommend to boys, especially reluctant readers, check out the book list I have collected.

Why Teacher Unions Are Good for Teachers and the Public

In the current climate, when it is in vogue to select non-educators to administer school systems, it is vital that teachers have a voice. School reform cannot possibly succeed when teachers—who are on the frontlines of implementation—are left out of the decision-making process. If there is no “buy-in,” if teachers do not willingly concur with the orders handed down from on high, then reform cannot succeed. If administrators operate by stealth and confrontation, then their plans for reform will founder. They cannot improve what happens in the classroom by humiliating and bossing around the teachers who are in daily contact with the children. Only in an atmosphere of mutual respect can administrators and teachers produce the kind of partnership that will benefit students. And administrators cannot achieve this collaborative atmosphere unless they are willing to talk with and listen to the leaders chosen by teachers to represent them.

Read the whole article

Six trends for 2007 and the 21st century

Via Stephen Downes and ZD Net

eSchoolNews editor Gregg Downey offers six prognostications for the coming year. He has listed

Web 2.0.

Cloud computing

Service-oriented architecture

The gathering SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model)

Telepresence ...

The sixth is

21st-century learning

An organization called the Partnership for 21st Century Skills has developed a program designed to help educators prepare their students for the future. According to the Partnership, students need the following skills. The job of educators in the 21st century is to deliver them:

• Information and communication skills;
• Thinking and problem-solving skills;
• Interpersonal and self-direction skills;
• Global awareness;
• Financial, economic, and business skills; and
• Civic literacy.

Website update

I updated the website for teachers last night.

These are the pages updated.

Polar Regions
Behaviour Management
Maths
Books in sign
Science
Animals
Fiction activities
Computers & ICTs
Thinking skills
Books for teaching similes
Anorexia - booklist
Countries

and I have also updated the Quotations about Teaching and Education

and the Just for Fun pages

Social-networking sites confound schools

At least half of school systems in a recent poll do not have policies to address students' use of MySpace, Facebook, and other such sites

More than three years after social-networking web sites such as MySpace and Facebook first began cropping up online, school leaders still struggle with how to set policies regarding the use of such sites both inside and outside of school--and many school systems lack these policies altogether, according to a recent survey. Read on ...

Schools mull new Microsoft technologies

Office 2007, Windows Vista promise greater security and ease of use--but upgrading will require significant planning and training

Software giant Microsoft Corp. will begin licensing two major new releases, Office 2007 and Windows Vista, to schools and businesses at the end of this month.

The programs include a host of new features aimed at boosting security and improving their ease of use--but upgrading will require significant planning and training on the part of schools.

Read on ...

Lockie Leonard Read-alikes

Do you have students clamouring for "books lke Lockie Leonard"?

Try this list of Lockie leonard Read-alikes.

Tag: children's books

'Second Life' develops education following

Virtual world being used by some educators and youth groups for teaching, socialization
By Justin Appel, Assistant Editor


Second Life, an enormously popular program that immerses participants in an online virtual world of their own making, is being used by a growing number of educators and youth organizations as a vehicle for instruction.

November 10, 2006—An online virtual world that has become one of the web's most popular activities is also becoming an increasingly popular venue for teaching and socialization among educators and youth organizations.

Read on ...

Tag: Second Life

Momentum builds on e-books

Texas schools the latest to switch from textbooks to electronic versions

Momentum appears to be growing on the use of eBooks in K-12 education:

More and more school districts are replacing traditional textbooks with electronic versions that can be accessed through a school server or downloaded onto student laptops--and a few school systems have opted to eliminate textbooks altogether.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=6707

Atomic Learning releases free blogging workshop

desk - businessThe new blogging workshop with over 100 tutorials is perfect for learners of all abilities. The workshop engages learners, explaining the difference between various kinds of blogs, introducing them to some hosting solutions, and showing them how to setup their own blog using Blogger™.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/partners/showrelease.cfm?ReleaseID=1490

Tag: blogging

Educators slow to wise up to the gender problem

Last month, Melissa Roderick, a University of Chicago professor and leading authority on school reform, arrived at a startling conclusion: The traditional measurements of the nation's progress in improving education, which use race and income as markers, are flawed.

Why? Because boys and girls coming from the same race, families, incomes, neighborhoods and schools are turning out very differently. The girls are doing better.

Nearly half of all boys graduate from Chicago Public Schools with less than a 2.0 average, compared with a fourth of the girls. Only 8% of the system's African-American boys have a 3.0 average - a key indicator of the ability to complete college - compared with 18% of the girls.

The numbers are jarring, which explains Roderick's revelation that Chicago schools won't improve without strategies that focus on boys' achievement - the same kinds of strategies used so successfully to boost math and science skills among girls.

Read on ...

Weightless teachers carry thrills home to students

The moment he became weightless, Mike Hickey of South High School in Cleveland, Ohio, completely forgot about the science experiment he was to conduct."
After the first bounce, I said nuts to the experiments," an exhilarated Hickey said after returning from his 90-minute flight aboard G-Force One, an aircraft specially designed to simulate the zero gravity of space by making controlled free-fall descents.

Hickey and 38 other teachers took part over the weekend in the last of five "Weightless Flights of Discovery" sponsored by Northrop Grumman Corp. and Zero Gravity Corporation of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

They giggled, somersaulted, gulped floating blobs of water and pushed each other around the padded cabin of the modified Boeing 727.

"Any tiny movement shot you across the plane," said Tracy Cindric of Lincoln High School in Gahanna, Ohio.

"It was very chaotic."

The teachers, representing 28 schools in Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Arizona, Louisiana and Washington, D.C., are now expected to take their experience, their photographs and above all their enthusiasm back to the classroom and inspire the next generation of scientists, mathematicians and engineers.

Read on ...

Nine Ways to Recognize a "Learning Classroom"

Test scores are not the only way to tell if a your classroom offers a rich learning environment for your students.

In fact, test scores are possibly one of the poorest ways to gauge how learning is progressing, and these test scores darken your classroom door too late in the school year to do much about learning that's gone awry, anyway.

Here are authentic indicators of instruction that is going right in your classroom:

>>> more

Tags: teachers, learning

Wikipedia:School and University Projects

Useful page on Wikipedia that provides advice, examples and templates to assist in the use of Wikipedia in the classroom. "An advantage of this over regular homework is that the student is dealing with a real world situation, which is not only more educative but also makes it more interesting ("the world gets to see my work"), probably resulting in increased dedication. Besides, it will give the students a chance to collaborate on course notes and papers, and their effort will remain online for reference, instead of being discarded and forgotten as is usual with paper course-work."

Via Education-India

From Stephen Downes

Quotable

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

This is the quote that opened the latest Library News for Teachers.

Tags: Education, quotations

Just for fun

From the Just for fun section of the latest ezine ....

http://digicc.com/fido/

Ok so what is the formula?

Develop or Upgrade your Classroom Library

Make a classroom library a focal point in your classroom, and partition the area in some way from the rest of the room.The space should be large enough to accommodate five or six students in a comfortable manner. How do you make the space comfortable?

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Tags: library , Teachers

Primary School Competition Celebrate Australia Day 2007

Upper Primary students are now invited to participate in the national competition to celebrate Australia Day 2007 for the chance to win a digital camera for themselves or their school.

The theme is: An Australian Day: A day in the life of my community.

Students are asked to explore all the great things in their local community and to use these to capture what they celebrate about being Australian.

Students can use images and words to create a visual essay that captures "a day in the life of" their community and expresses what they value and celebrate on Australia Day.

More details...

Teacher joins exodus for better pay

[In August,] Australia lost another of our youngest and brightest teachers to the British education system.

Luke Hall, 23, a maths and science teacher from country Victoria, hopped on a jet for a new life working in London.

His departure and that of thousands of other teachers each year has led to calls by Labor backbencher Craig Emerson for a model that would allow all state school principals to pay teachers more money for good performance instead of seniority. Read on ...

Tag: teachers

Assembly prayers illegal, schools to be told

Reported in August ...

State schools will soon receive a new set of guidelines on religion, including a warning that prayers or Christian karakia in primary schools are illegal in most circumstances. Read on ...

Tags: schools

Learn genetics

From the Genetic Science Learning Centre

“Helping people understand how genetics affects their lives and society”

Includes Resources for teachers

Visit Learn Genetics

Tag: genetics, teachers

Two years' preschool for all, pay rises for staff urged

Found this clipping recently ...

A NATIONAL preschool system that gives children at least two years' education before they start school is the ideal child-care system, says a paper to be released today by 21 social policy researchers.

Read on ...

tags: preschool, teachers

Teachers sell lesson plans online

eBay for educators' helps teachers turn their hard work into extra cash

From eSchool news

A new web site launched in April, teacherspayteachers.com, aims to do for teachers what eBay has done for the masses: It gives teachers a far-reaching platform for selling their lesson plans to other interested educators. Buyers say the site helps them quickly find relevant content that can be adapted for their classrooms; sellers say it allows them to earn some extra money for their work.
Read on …

Tag: teachers

Reading, Writing and Google

Check this out ...

The Literacy Project, launched with United Nations, to cull teaching tools like, perhaps, Hooked on Phonics.

Google unveiled on Wednesday a Web site dedicated to literacy, pulling together its book, video, map and blog services to help teachers and educational organizations share reading resources.

The site was launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world's largest gathering of publishing executives, in conjunction with the United Nations and a literacy campaign organized by fair officials.

Continues ...

Tags: Literacy, Google

Digital Classroom Resources

The Digital Classroom Resources (DCR) provides a select collection of free online learning materials which are available through the site. These materials have been classroom tested and peer reviewed. Many items in the library are posted with editorial reviews and a link to a moderated discussion group focused on the materials. Visit the site …

tag: Teachers

USING WIKIS IN SCHOOLS: A CASE STUDY

By Lyndsay Grant, Learning Researcher, Futurelab

IntroductionWikis have been heralded as one of a number of new and powerful forms of software capable of supporting a range of collaborative ventures and learning activities. This paper addresses the potential uses of wikis - online editable websites - as learning tools in schools. It places wikis in the context of current relevant literature about collaborative learning, summarising major theories of learning in communities and knowledge-building in networked groups. It also looks briefly at the trends in the wider area of 'social software', of which wikis are just one example. Using wikis in school is explored further through a short-term 'case study' in a UK secondary school. The literature and research background is used to analyse some of the emerging issues surrounding using wikis in the classroom highlighted through this case study. This paper looks both at the affordances of the technology itself and the wider context of the classroom, and offers some provisional conclusions about the potential of using wikis to support collaborative learning in schools.

Read on …

Tag: wikis