Tooth Tally 2011 is taking registrations!!

TOOTH TALLY! worth shouting about for "littlies" (yr1-2)
The 2011 Project runs from 1 February 2011 until 30 April 2011.
Taking part is free and the only cost involved is your participation.

Register for 2011 

1-2C Tooth Fairies 2010 on PhotoPeach
I have participated for the past few years with classes in their library lessons  but look forward to class teachers coming on board this coming year. Kids LOVE the activities because it is all about THEM!

Each class will have it's very own page in 2011.
Ideas and Resources galore
Teaching-Lesson Plans for NSW DET based outcomes 
Teacher's Page includes many downloadable resources.
Denton Avenue School make a bookemon.

Make Books Online at Bookemon!			read	send

Look at the 2010 Tooth Fairy drawings

Many teeth are lost
Come and join the fun....

Music Music Music....improve student outcomes while having fun!

 Music is fun. Music makes us feel happy. Music stimulates the brain. Music is correlated with children building a wider vocabulary, gaining improved listening skills, and can help in developing an understanding of concepts.

In many brain research studies, evidence strongly points out that children who use music and movement learn information more easily and retain it longer. "It activates three different centers of the brain at the same time: language, hearing, and rhythmic motor control." Don McMannis, an expert on children's music 

 Bus Songs – This website has many songs divided by genres. For all the songs it lists lyrics and for some they have videos and/or audio clips.

 Sites2See Why Music? -secondary programs and support resources

 Whack-A-Note- Can you identify the right note? Learn which note lands where on the staff, and click it as fast as you can! This activity is designed to help students recognize music notes as they appear on a treble clef.

Image via Wikipedia

 Grooveshark allows a teacher to set a playlist of songs that cannot be altered by students.

Musicovery is an interactive and customised webRadio service. Listeners can rate songs, resulting in a personalised program.

KIDiddles – This website has song lyrics and audio. Sign up for free printable lyrics sheets and  put them up on your SMART Board for the whole class to follow along.
 Image via CrunchBase

Don't forget YouTube for great songs like: Clean It Up  The Cat in the Hat and friends sing a song to help them clean up. There are plenty to choose from.

Mama Lisa’s World  – This website has songs from around the world. The songs can be searched for by continent and the lyrics are written out in the original language and also translated into English. Some of the songs have sound clips and sheet music.

 Musica Viva In Schools Zone.

Have fun - Experimenting with sound in the studio, creating a web page, designing the ultimate concert, exploring a day in the life of a musician and investigating a large range of musical instruments.

Classroom Apps -great selection of musical tools, including some free ones.

The Music Lab- from San Francisco Symphony
 -Use the Composerizer to create your own music.

Having kids listen to music for five minutes and write about the way it makes them feel, or playing an instrumental track and encouraging them to write and sing lyrics, are just two ways to spark creative energy and engage students in the learning process. "It's natural for children to make music," says Madden, who notes that kids often sing to themselves in idle moments. "With music, you can get right to them and open their minds to the idea of learning other subject areas, of becoming learners, and of respecting their teachers."  http://www.edutopia.org/sing-sing-sing

Talk, Respect and Connect

 Have any of you taken a look at the 'talk, respect and  connect' site? 

You'll  have to register with a DET email address.

It's a great tool to help schools build stronger partnerships with their Aboriginal community and facilitate engagement of Aboriginal students with school drug education.

 Image via Wikipedia
Love to hear from you

Thwarting world supremacy through mathematics....Villainy Maths

Ever wanted to work as a secret agent? To stop a criminal mastermind from taking over the world – one fast food restaurant at a time? Then the Villiany Inc site is for you. Introduce your students to AVU: thwarting world supremacy through mathematics. :)

Villainy Inc, an innovative site for middle grade mathematics students. The site contains activities that explore statistics and probability, algebra, geometry, decimals, percents, negative numbers, and more. In addition, they have added reading supports to ensure that all readers can access the content.

But what is Villiany Inc all about?

Villainy, Inc. Basics

In Villainy, Inc., the user becomes a secret agent working to foil Dr. Wick, ID's plans to overtake the world. The secret agents infiltrate Wick's headquarters in each mission, working under secret orders from the 

Anti Villainy Unit (or AVU).

Villainy, Inc is an animated story about Dr. Eugene Wick, ID, and his sidekick Platypus. Wick and “Platy” have ridiculously goofy plans to take over the world. For example, in Mission 1, Wick wants to turn the Gulf of Mexico into a golf course.

Your students will take on the role of an advisor to Dr. Wick’s company, Villainy, Inc. Outwardly, they seem to go along with Wick’s schemes. But, secretly, they are really working with the Anti-Villainy Unit (the AVU) as double agents, using their math skills to make sure Wick never succeeds.

Each story offers tongue-in-cheek dialogue along with comical animated characters and scenes that set the stage for mathematical success.

The site is extremely well done with colourful animations and fast streaming videos and sounds. Students of varying reading levels are catered for, and they can turn on (or off) the subtitles to the videos. The student tasks are well set out, and teachers can view all concepts being covered through the teachers section.

Need an in-depth guide to the Missions? Our Mission Teacher’s Editions have everything you need — story synopsis, explanations, scripts, vocabulary lists, answer keys, and other web resources. They offer in-depth information about each activity in the Mission, the tools used, the helpers’ advice, and what you or your students should notice on-screen as your students work.

Design features that support readers:

• The animation is closed captioned and narrated for students to develop fluency as they read along silently.
• The prose is clear and written in a style that middle school students can easily read.
• Animations are appealing and engaging.
• The size/style of the font and amount of print on a page are accessible and motivating.
• Graphical information (cities on a map, for example) offer additional information via pop-up feature for easy reading.

Cross-curricular possibility
Invite a language arts colleague to read the Mission scripts ahead of time with students. The better the students understand the plot, the more they can focus on the math. Scripts are included in our Mission Teacher's Editions. 

Printable worksheets are available to introduce, record, and extend the mathematical learning in each Mission's activities. 

  adapted from Ideasfor teachers

For MORE great Maths games visit:

Games in Education Wiki-Mathematics

Leadership that lasts...about social justice...embraces the principles of diversity

Professor Andy Hargreaves  is the Thomas More Brennan Chair in Education at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. Andy Hargreaves’ teaching and research at Boston College concentrates on educational change, performing beyond expectations, sustainable leadership and the emotions of teaching.

Andy’s current research is funded by the UK Specialist and Academies Trust and the National College for School Leadership and is concerned with organizations that perform beyond expectations in education, sport, business and health.

Andy Hargreaves is the author of The Fourth Way: The Inspiring Future for Educational Change. Read the 143 pages at Google books

“Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley, always one or two steps ahead of the field, have done it again. An extremely balanced and insightful treatment of the first three ways of change, in which the authors clearly display the strengths and limitations of each model. And then they go to town in mapping out the fourth way—a concise and compelling framework for change that integrates teacher professionalism, community engagement, government policy, and accountability. The Fourth Way is itself a powerful ‘catalyst for coherence’ in a field that badly needs guidance. Read the book and rethink your approach to educational reform.”—Michael Fullan, Educational Consultant, Author, The Challenge of School Change

The FourthWay is a framework for sustainable education reform that integrates teacher professionalism, community engagement, government policy, and accountability.

Professor Andy Hargreaves spoke at the ACEL Conference  in Sydney this September October 2010. At this conference Andy Hargreaves listed 5 areas of focus to create the ideal 21st century society: social justice, collective responsibility, human rights, only taking what you need (sustainability), and trust and transparency.  

How can we help develop these ideas in our community?

Inspiring an inclusive vision -dream

Ability to use data as a basis for inquiry as a community.

Principles of sustainable leadership

Further reading:  

Hargreaves and the 4th Way

Hargreaves and the 4th Way Part 2

The Global Read Aloud Project

Welcome to the Global Read Aloud Project. 

 

The idea is simple; one book to read aloud to your students, some chapters a week, and then have students share their thoughts somehow. 

 

How much sharing you do is up to you; just reach out and connect!

Through one book we can connect the world.

Join fellow educators and students as we share "The Little Prince" beginning September 20th, 2010.

20 pages a week, as much sharing as you wish.

Information

• How do my students share?
• FAQ
• How Do We Sign Up?