FABULOUS COGs site in 2010!!

 I would like to share a special message from Cath Keane (SCAN Editor)

"Some of the COGs updated resource lists are now available at http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/teachingideas/isp/k_6/cogsresources.htm

There is also a link from the School Libraries and Information Literacy home page at http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/

Unfortunately, the updated COGs site is not live yet. All will be FABULOUS in 2010!

Have a wonderful break,"

Cath

Cath Keane

Scan Editor

School Libraries & Information Literacy

Curriculum K–12 Directorate

3a Smalls Road, RYDE, NSW 2112

Ph: (02) 9886 7501 Fax: (02) 9886 7413

email: cath.keane@det.nsw.edu.au

www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/

Learning Technologies-Looking at MOODLE? Try these sites

 Charlie O'Sullivan @ primaryschool  provides a comprehensive list of Moodle sites for primary schools interesting in trying this learning technology. The list includes sites to search and explore, slideshares, tutorials and Teacher Reference.

Moodle For Elementary Grades

View more presentations from James Gates.

Upgrade ActivClassroom range to ActivInspire free of charge.

Activ Inspire has replaced Activ Studio.

ActivInspire Personal Edition allows teachers, students, parents and
others to benefit from the feature-rich environment of ActivInspire,
completely free of charge!

As stated on their website:

If you already use any of the core products in the ActivClassroom range - ActivBoard, ActivSoftware, ActiVote, ActivExpression ActivPanel - you can upgrade to ActivInspire Professional Edition until 30 September 2010.

ActivInspire Personal Edition allows teachers, students, parents and others to benefit from the feature-rich environment of ActivInspire, completely free of charge!

Find out What's NEW?

Blogging About The Web 2.0 Connected Classroom: What Is A Great Teacher?

Blogging About The Web 2.0 Connected Classroom: What Is A Great Teacher?

Sanyo PLC-XL50 Projector Filter Cleaning Guide by stuhasic

 Thanks to Stu you can have the cleanest best working projector of any class!!


Sanyo PLC-XL50 Projector Filter Cleaning Guide from stuhasic on Vimeo.

10 tips for starting out with IWB's

If you are looking for further strategies to employ on your IWB have a read of this:

Ten tips for starting out with interactive whiteboards

"This list was created to help all those who are getting started, need encouragement, or want to take things a bit further."

30 years from now, will children's books primarily be electronic or remain mostly on paper?

 Have your vote.

Will kids continue to "colour in" on paper?

What about fine motor skills?

Will kids still build with lego? play with cars on car mats?

Love to hear what  you think

Safe passwords are essential.

How to choose a safe password - Animated Explanations

Animated Explanations  offers animated movies, interactive tutorials and instructional videos, on the topics of health, technology and  work, all free for you to view and to embed in your website.

A big thank you to our wonderful volunteers at school.

Volunteers make an extraordinary contribution

to Australian society.
They are most important in our schools.
We need them.

Check out the latest free skills, training and education resources for volunteers, managers of volunteers, trainers and not-for-profit organisations here.

International Volunteer Day is on December 5 this year.

Top Christmas resources available.

EdNA's Christmas theme page

 provides links to a collection of resources to celebrate Christmas including stories, recipes and art and craft activities.

Are you AAADD? Be warned!! Many of you will encounter this disorder this term!!

AAADD- KNOW THE SYMPTOMS.....PLEASE READ! Thank goodness there's a name for this disorder.  Somehow I feel better,even though I have it!!  Recently, I was diagnosed with A.A.A.D.D. -  Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.  This is how it manifests:  I decide to water my garden.  As I turn on the hose in the driveway,  I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.  As I start toward the garage,  I notice mail on the porch table that  I brought up from the mail box earlier.  I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys on the table,  put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table,  and notice that the can is full..  So, I decide to put the bills back  on the table and take out the garbage first.  But then I think,  since I'm going to be near the mailbox  when I take out the garbage anyway,  I may as well pay the bills first.  I take my check book off the table,  and see that there is only one check left.  My extra checks are in my desk in the study,  so I go inside the house to my desk where  I find the can of Coke I'd been drinking.  I'm going to look for my checks,  but first I need to push the Coke aside  so that I don't accidentally knock it over..  The Coke is getting warm,  and I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.  As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke,  a vase of flowers on the counter  catches my eye--they need water.  I put the Coke on the counter and  discover my reading glasses that  I've been searching for all morning.  I decide I better put them back on my desk,  but first I'm going to water the flowers.  I set the glasses back down on the counter,  fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote.  Someone left it on the kitchen table.  I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV,  I'll be looking for the remote,  but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table,  so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs,  but first I'll water the flowers.  I pour some water in the flowers,  but quite a bit of it spills on the floor.  So, I set the remote back on the table,  get some towels and wipe up the spill.  Then, I head down the hall trying to  remember what I was planning to do.  At the end of the day: the car isn't washed the bills aren't paid there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter  the flowers don't have enough water, there is still only 1 check in my check book, I can't find the remote, I can't find my glasses, and, I don't remember what I did with the car keys.  Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today,  I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day,  and I'm really tired.  I realize this is a serious problem,  and I'll try to get some help for it,  but first I'll check my e-mail....  Do me a favor.  Forward this message to everyone you know,  because I don't remember who the heck I've sent it to.  Don't laugh -- if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!!

 edna Schools Calendar 2010 Design Competition

 

Want to get a winning edge on your design portfolio and win an Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection and a Wacom Intuos 3 design tablet valued at $900?... then enter the edna Schools Calendar Design Competition.

They are seeking entries from students or schools to produce an electronic Schools calendar.

Get your winning entry in by Monday 30^th November 2009.   

Check out the link above for further information.

DET blog....BlogEd getting closer

The DET blog (BlogEd) is nearing full release – 

Read a summary of the key features  .

The blog will be made available to all DET (schools/TAFE) teachers in Term 1 next year.

Final testing is being conducted within the current trial schools & TAFEs.

Resources will be available via the portal (videos/Pdfs/FAQs).

A familiarisation package is also being trialled- but hopefully the blog is its own vehicle for ‘intuitive usage’ and promotion.

Love to hear what you might use it for in your classroom or library.

Responsive Classroom Newsletter - November 2009 - The Power of Teacher Language

Responsive Classroom Newsletter - November 2009 - The Power of Teacher Language

Posted using ShareThis

Welcome to MathsKit… A collection of everyday and essential links for Maths teachers.

Check out a great selection of :

Graph paper

 Dictionaries

 Calculators

 Games

 Interactives

Timers and Clocks

Game for teams-Stu Hasic's Quiz Boxes

 Stu’s Quiz Boxes

is an exciting, interactive and educational computer-based gameshow available to everybody.

As Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) and data projectors become more widely used in schools, there is a need for motivating, interactive and educational software to complement them.

With Stu’s Quiz Boxes, you can quickly and very easily create your own quiz files.

You can also make it a multimedia quiz by adding your own MP3 files to each question if you want.

Brainstorming..Thinking freely...sharing ideas...

When undertaking these tasks take care NOT to discourage any ideas!

Don't throw out the bad bananas!!

 “Bad bananas. Sour milk. Mix them together and you’re well on your way to banana bread, my friend. The same principle works with ideas."

from Funny Twiter Users  

 You may just end up with 

 some delicious banana bread!!

For brainstorming ideas and activities

try these links:

bubbl.us - free web application for brainstorming online

Free brainstorming-mapping software 

SCAMPER  

Use it to discover more ideas when you are running out.
Use it to stimulate new ways of thinking about the problem, perhaps to kick you out of your current rut.

Webspiration: Online Visual Thinking Tool

Slip Writing

Slip writing is a very effective and powerful strategy for generating ideas which children then compare, classify, group, label and generalise upon.

Online Mind Mapping - MindMeister

Ten Brainstorming Rules

Seven Secrets to Good Brainstorming

Some are simple truths: Morning meetings work best; 3 - 10 participants should take part; and cookies always spur creativity.

Six Surefire Ways to Kill a Brainstorm

MindMeister has also released an app for iPhone and iPod Touch for those eureka mind- mapping moments

P&C thanks teachers for their dedication.

FEDERATION OF PARENTS AND CITIZENS’ ASSOCIATIONS OF NEW SOUTH WALES

Locked Bag 40, GRANVILLE NSW 2142

Telephone: 1300 885 982        Fax: 1800 655 866

Website: www.pandc.org.au

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***

MEDIA RELEASE

P&C thanks teachers for their contribution to building Australia’s future

The Federation of Parents and Citizens’ Associations of NSW recognises that quality teachers are critical for providing quality education. Through their daily work, teachers make a significant contribution to sustainable development by building and developing their students’ capacity and desire to learn.

World Teacher’s Day on the 30^th of October is an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the work of teachers and school principals in Public Schools around Australia.

President Dianne Giblin states that

"Every day, we as parents, entrust our children to teachers who in partnership with us work to enrich children's knowledge, experiences and development as individuals and as valued members of society.  Parents and teachers working in partnership school communities to share in the vision and the realization of great futures for our children. Something which we would all agree is a rich investment in building Australia’s future.”

The Federation would like to thank teachers for the wonderful work that they do for our students within the Public Education system in order to build Australia’s future.

Contact:           Dianne Giblin, President                      0404 802 637

Helen Walton, Publicity Officer            0402 918 799

                     

Thursday 29th October 2009

Hae-Jung Kim

Research and Communications Officer

Federation of Parents and Citizens' Associations of New South Wales 

Locked Bag 40

Granville NSW 2142

Telephone: 1300 885 982

Fax: 1800 655 866

E-mail: research@pandc.org.au   

Is it cool? Humourous poem about TEACHERS.

Love to hear what you thought

Scorcher- Online maths game

Looking for a free online maths game?  You could try this:
HOTmaths Scorcher features

* Build your confidence and skills with mental arithmetic (Basic or Advanced).
* Challenge yourself in speed and accuracy with randomly generated questions.
* Compete with students from your school and around the world.
* Practise for as long as you want, whenever you like.

Compete in HOTmaths Scorcher online FREE by email

Love to hear what you think of it.

Digital Education Revolution online tutorials.

Received all those laptops and students are keen to use them  but .......

Not sure where to start?

 

From the Sydney Region ICT Forum....

There is an enterprising Year 9 student in a DET school 

publishing online tutorials related to the notebooks 

and the new software (Adobe mainly I think)...

might be useful to those of you in high schools @

http://dernsw.wordpress.com/

Bitstrips for schools..get kids creating

Students, individually or as collaborators, create characters and choose from a variety of scenes and props to create comic strips, which they can then share, print, and comment on. Teachers can review comics as they are created.

We can see kids having a ton of fun with this tool and learning a lot about design, content creation, and media while they're at it.

Kids get to be creative; teachers get a new, interactive tool to reinforce learning; and everyone goes home smarter and happier.

Check out this promo/demo video showing the software hard at work in a real classroom environment.

If you're into creating comics you could also try this:

Using PowerPoint to make comic books

Creating comic books using the features of PowerPoint.

brought to you from Innovative Teachers Network

 

Do you need to improve your work/life balance?

 Watch the Ease the Load series from:

Real-life examples of how to manage your workload efficiently and productively, 

while improving your work/life balance.

There are 18 videos in this series.

Love to hear what you think of them.

Are schools any more than FACTories?

"This is why schools are nothing more than FACTories for job position replacement parts."Michael Martine 
 said in reply to  
An Operating System for the Mind.....  

This article is a very deep and engaging blog entry...encompasses 21stCentury Skills.....specifically, "the question isn't whether skills can be taught in isolation, but rather whether they must be taught in the context of some common base of knowledge and whether students ought to be tested on the basis of that knowledge."

NSW DET TWITTERS-message from Stu Hasic

To find #NSWDET tweeters more easily, 

please add yourself to the directory with 

these instructions: http://trunc.it/22a7e -

spread the word......

Is this the way to go now? Is this another way to go?

Check out the picture books, as well as the other bonus features Era has included on the website.

Each WINGS title comes with four interactive activities, including reading comprehension, drawing tool and games. Children can listen, read, draw and interact with their favourite books online in a fun and educational environment. 

One book from each series is available for FREE on in2era.com.au. You can review the full book, including all features and accompanying activities. Select a product below to view the book. 

Monsters, Mythology, Fairy Tales, Heroes, Creatures and Dreams

New links for the above 

themes have been uploaded at:

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Image by massdistraction via Flickr

Talk about bringing you down to size......

Hope you can swim....

The world has moved into IG3. 

Education is moving into IG3.

IG3 = information generation 3!

On Saturday I participated in a very exciting, first of its kind,

Image via CrunchBase

learning opportunity. At home, safe, on my computer, I was able to engage in a most stimulating
"Leading a Digital School" conference through Twitter.

I was not the only one.

Read Stu Hasic's account:@ http://bit.ly/BRIJt

You Better Start Swimmin’ or You’ll Sink Like a Stone

Are your kids going APE?

• A stands for accuracy (read the correct words)
• P is for pacing (not too fast, not too slow, just right)
• E is for expression (your voice goes up and down, gets loud and soft).