AccessArt

http://www.accessart.org.uk

AccessArt is a charity employing new and creative approaches to teaching and learning particularly for those who learn best visually, spatially and kinaesthetically. The AccessArt web site is a richly textured, dynamic and inspirational resource bank aimed at pupils, students and life-long-learners, as well as teachers, gallery educators and artists.

Visit online workshops and the AccessArt forum to explore sculpture, drawing, photography, installation art, colour and the 'Immersive Learning Space' which celebrates teenage creativity.

Download pdf's which enable an exploration of materials, techniques and ideas.

sites for new teachers

Over 125 sites, categorized and briefly described. http://tinyurl.com/zp4ee

Maths Hangman

http://www.subtangent.com/maths/hangman.php

An interactive version of this old fashioned game. It would be great to use with an interactive whiteboard and is suitable for upper primary age. It has a collection of math related words, but also allows user input on the word.

The Universe in the Classroom [pdf]

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2007. http://scout.wisc.edu/

From dark matter to the transit of Venus, "The University in the Classroom" has all the astronomical bases covered for educators. This electronic educational newsletter is published by The Astronomical Society of the Pacific and has been published since 1984. Each issue is designed to help teachers learn more about astronomy themselves, and then they can bring this new knowledge into their classroom. On the newsletter's homepage, visitors can read the current issue, subscribe to receive updates, and also browse through the archives, which stretch back to late 1984. Within each issue, visitors can read an in-depth exploration of a certain astronomical subject, complete with classroom activities and links to other related resources.

http://www.astrosociety.org/education/publications/tnl/tnl.html

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

http://www.olympics.com.au/Education/

The Australian Olympic Committee has produced a national primary resource containing over 60 primary cross-curriculum lessons themed around the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. The resource is available to download for free from olympics.com.au by joining the a.s.p.i.r.e. school network. It is available from 8 November 2007.

Film Australia Digital Learning's Digital Resource Finder

http://www.filmaust.com.au/learning

The Digital Resource finder is a quick and easy-to-use search engine for teachers and educators that features over 1000 free Australian video clips to view or download, combined with dedicated curriculum-based notes and class activities utilising its extraordinary 60 years of documentary archives.

Slide rule for a good night's sleep

http://www.unisa.edu.au/news/2007/190707.asp

Researchers at the University of South Australia have found that a general lack of awareness about the amount of sleep that children need at different ages is a contributing factor to sleep loss. As part of a broader public health strategy addressing sleep, health and learning in children, they have developed the Sleep Slide Rule for use in the classroom to illustrate the relationship between children's age and their sleep needs.

Free Resources: Teaching Tools from the National Air and Space Museum

The National Air and Space Museum offers a variety of classroom resources, including online activities and teaching materials, designed for use in learning across the curriculum.
The museum’s online activities include:
-Airplane Anatomy – A curriculum program focused on the Wright brothers and the first airplane.
-Black Wings – A curriculum program built around the stories of African-American aviation pioneers.
-CyberCenter – A simulated research center at the National Air and Space Museum. Students can try on the role of an intern (level one), a research assistant (level two) and a principal investigator (level three).
-Geography from Space - An online quiz that tests geography knowledge. The Geography from Space 2007 contest begins in the fall.
The Air and Space Museum also offers electronic field trips available via the Apple Learning Exchange, interactive videoconferenced lessons and professional development workshops.
In addition, free posters and classroom materials are available online.
National Air and Space Museum, http://www.nasm.si.edu/education/index.cfm.

Reading for Junior Primary

Here's a great reading website for JP students. The Starfall learn-to-read website is offered free as a public service.

It is US based and 4 sections from ABC to learn to read and I'm reading.

www.starfall.com

It has some thematic sections as well. A good addition to a book-based reading program!

Could be used at home.

Earthquake Science Explained

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2007. http://scout.wisc.edu/

-A Series of Ten Short Articles for Students, Teachers, and Families [pdf]

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/2006/21/gip-21.pdf

That swirling bard of American letters and transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson, once opined “We learn geology the morning after the earthquake.” This need never be the case for educators and members of the general public who give careful consideration to this excellent pamphlet created by the United States Geological Survey. Compiled by Matthew A. D’Alessio, this document contains ten short articles on earthquakes designed for classroom use. The articles originally appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, and they include such titles as “Find the Fault: Recognizing Active Faults”, “Looking into the past with earthquake trenches”, and “How do we make buildings and roads safer?”. Additionally, each article contains helpful graphics, illustrations, and photographs.

Videos show how math, science relate to real-world applications and careers

Math and science educators will find free video resources that can help connect their lessons to real-world applications at TheFuturesChannel.com. The site produces short documentary-style videos that take students behind the scenes with professionals from a wide range of careers. As the subjects of these video clips discuss why math and science are so important in their respective fields, they help answer the common question, "Why do I need to learn this?" The site's Hand-On Math section features movies on counting numbers and integers, algebra, fractions, geometry, measurement, and statistics. One clip incorporates measurement into a video about college students who must measure food for animal feedings. Teachers can download classroom activities based on the video content. All videos and classroom activities are available free of charge. http://www.thefutureschannel.com/index.php

The Effects of Project Work in a First-Grade Classroom

A Little Goes a Long Way
This article discusses how a brief project-based unit promoted the learning of children in a first-grade classroom. The children attended a public elementary school located in a southeastern university town in the United States. Approximately 94% of the students in the school were from economically disadvantaged families. No children in this classroom were Caucasian, and most of them came from single-parent households. We compared the children’s learning and performance in a teacher-directed science unit on animals versus a project-based unit on chicks. Results revealed that more state-mandated objectives were covered during the project-based unit than during the teacher-directed unit and that children had “more to say” by using more words and expressing more specific and accurate ideas after the project-based instruction. The project also provided more enriched learning opportunities than the traditional teacher-directed unit. Implications for early childhood teacher education are included.
Read on ...

Virtual staffroom

: conversations with leading teachers about technology in the classroom

http://www.virtualstaffroom.net/wordpress/

Virtual Staffroom is run as a community podcasting project by Chris Betcher. The site provides educators of young people with the opportunity to engage in conversation and dialogue which explores the impacts that new technologies will have on classrooms. By providing a communication channel for leading teachers to voice their ideas about 21st century classrooms, it hopes to enable others to tap into that collective wisdom and make the classrooms of tomorrow the best possible experiences for our students.

What Explains Toddlers' Linguistic Leap? Math

Simple math may explain why toddlers experience a sudden burst of words—and why some talk earlier and more than others.
Read on ...

The Water Cycle and Global Warming [pdf]

[From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2007. http://scout.wisc.edu/ ]

The Baylor University College of Medicine continues to work at a furious pace on their delightful BioEd Online site, and educators everywhere love them for their work and dedication. Recently, they placed this “ready-to-go” lessson on the water cycle and global warming online, and it’s a true delight. As with the other lessons in this series, the materials here include a brief description of the lesson’s objective, along with information on the intended audience, the materials required to complete the lesson, and so on. Teachers will note that they will need to download a slide set, several activity sheets, and a “State of the Climate Report” offered from the National Climatic Data Center

http://www.bioedonline.org/lessons/water-cycle.cfm

Library of Congress: Poetry

[pdf, Real Player]
http://www.loc.gov/poetry/
On a recent visit to the Library of Congress: Poetry website, the first line of a poem by William Stafford appeared on the top of the page. The poem in question was “At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border”, and it just one of many poems that can be found on this simple delightful site. Amidst this cornucopia of poems, visitors can also learn about the current poet laureate and take in a few webcasts from the “Poet Vision” series. It is an august group indeed, and some of the programs include those that profile Rita Dove, Louise Gluck, and Stanley Kunitz. Visitors can also look over a list of poetry news and events and breeze on through the related resources offered by the Library of Congress. Educators and students will want to pay close attention to the “For Teachers & Students” area, where they can find resources designed to bring poetry into the classroom in an experiential fashion.

Venn Diagrams

[Via The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2007. http://scout.wisc.edu/]

[Macromedia Flash Player]

http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/3/pa=content&sa=viewDocument&nodeId=1555

Unions, intersections, and differences: This can all be quite confusing to students trying to enter the potentially tricky world of Venn Diagrams. Fortunately, Alfredo Jiminez of Pennsylvania State University, Hazleton has created this handy Flash-enabled teaching application designed to provide students with an engaging way to learn about this subject.

The project is party of the Digital Classroom Resources at the MAA Mathematical Sciences Digital Library, and visitors will find this particular learning activity quite easy to use. The interactive tool contains seven sections, including those dealing with the principles of union and intersection, distributive properties, and De Morgan’s laws. Within each section, visitors can try their hand with a series of short questions and then take advantage of some review materials and, of course, a few basic tests.

The Mysterious Bogpeople

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2007. http://scout.wisc.edu/

[Macromedia Flash Player]

http://www.bogpeople.org/

Despite the seemingly spooky title of this site, visitors should not be afraid of entering and exploring around the contents of this very interactive site.

Created through a collaborative partnership between organizations such as the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Drents Museum, this site concerns itself with the artifacts and material world created by the so-called “bogpeople” of northwestern Europe who lived approximately 10,000 years ago. Visitors can explore their world through sections that include “Science”, “Timeline”, “Profile” and “Mediatheatre”. The “Mediatheatre” section is a good place to start as visitors can view short film clips that cover the mysteries of the bog, fishing with a harpoon, and the fabled Ubbena wheel. Moving along, the “Timeline” area gives some nice chronological context to the events and transformations covered by the site, and the “Science” area includes some insights into what archaeologists do in the field.

BBC: Schools – Games

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

An extensive and varied collection of educational games, vetted and assessed under the auspices of the BBC, are available for both primary and secondary students. The games are graded according to age and themed by subject.

Bullying at School and What to Do About It

http://www.education.unisa.edu.au/bullying/

The serious problem of bullying is the focus of this comprehensive site created by Ken Rigby, who is an Adjunct Research Professor and educational consultant at the University of South Australia. Content includes background information, practical advice, a video and additional links to related sites.