$41 million promised for online curriculum support.

The Hon Peter Garrett MP

Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth

23 September, 2011

Media release

“The new Australian Curriculum will be the first fully digital curriculum. It will be accessible online to every school and teacher and will be linked to a wealth of additional materials that will be continuously expanded and updated over time,” he said.

“The extra funding announced today will go to Education Services Australia to deliver the new package, working in partnership with education authorities and other groups to source or develop new resources.
“We’ll also be offering online professional development support and resources for teachers, to help them deliver the new curriculum as it is rolled out over the coming years."

 For further information:

$41 million for online curriculum support to benefit teachers and students

"ACT schools have started implementing the curriculum this year, while most other states and territories will start to implement some subjects from 2012. For more information on the Australian Curriculum, visit: www.australiancurriculum.edu.au.

But be warned -relying on a digital curriculum alone as the answer to developing learning strategies and skills is very short sighted. At the “Schools for Tomorrow” Conference that focused primarily on technology and innovation in schools there were business leaders, entrepreneurs, developers and many other thought leaders (where almost everyone was tweeting from an iPhone), Tyler found it most refreshing to hear panelists emphasise over and over the critical importance of human interaction — both student to student, and teacher to student — to the process of learning. 
Students need to learn how to learn. They need guidance and support to learn.  As Tyler said we need to look at how we can use technology to help students learn. 

Empowering Schools and Classrooms

On 11 August The Minister for Education Adrian Piccoli announced that the Department of Education and Communities would commence consultation on empowering local public schools at
https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/about-us/news-at-det/media-centre/media-releases/empowering-local-schools-to-enable-better-teaching-and-learning

Empowering local schools to enable better teaching and learning

 He announced that the NSWDEC are moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach and states that that's come very much from feedback from school principals and teachers and parents. They want to see greater flexibility because they recognise – and the NSW Government recognises – that every school is different, every community is different and as such each school needs different things.

 Message from the Director-General, Michele Bruniges on 


http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/news/announcements/yr2011/aug/lsld/index.php

Local Schools, Local Decisions 

"As a teacher and parent I understand the importance of making sure we have a system that supports schools to respond to the individual needs of children in the classroom, and not one that tries to impose a one size fits all approach.

This consultation process is an exciting opportunity to reshape the way the Department operates by empowering schools to make more decisions to improve the quality of the teaching in their classrooms and improve the learning outcomes for all students."

Join the online forum to have your say: 

• Introduction
• Making decisions
• Managing resources
• Staff in our schools
• Working locally
• Reducing red tape 

NSW Director-General of Education Dr Michele Bruniges discusses the State Government's move to consider offering more authority to schools on News on ABC 23 September.

It's time!!! Please take action....We need your voices

 ALIA Schools Group - What a difference a school library makes campaign - next action

       Anne Girolami, ALIA Schools Convenor wrote to ALIA School Group members encouraging them and all their associates and friends to push for the "School libraries and teacher librarians in 21^st century Australia Report" to be tabled in Parliament.

We have been advised that we need to make a louder noise for the Report be placed on the Parliamentary agenda. It is vital that the office of the Minister on Education and Employment takes notice of our concern. Therefore this next action, in the campaign, is to post a bookmark to Canberra.

What do you need to do? Simply print the file below. It contains a template of the bookmark and a letter explaining the reason for this action. Follow the instructions provided in the letter making sure you include your signature and address. Unsigned bookmarks will not be recognised by the Minister’s office. Feel free to use colour paper or to add some colour to the text. Please do not change the words.

There is an urgency to ‘make this noise’ as we only have a three week window of opportunity. The sending of the bookmark, which takes no more than 15 minutes to complete, needs to be undertaken by Monday 10 October 2011.

We strongly urge you to post the bookmark and to encourage everyone you know, from any place in Australia, to send it too. Everyone’s single act, together, will create the postal avalanche which is needed. Please give some of your valuable time to do this.

      You can also help by choosing to ‘like’ the Facebook page   
      ASLA     What a difference a school library makes.

Terrific collection of primary school curriculum websites

This months special area: The Life of Plants 

I love the Learning Technologies Page, the Productivity Tools page  and the Educational Directories page. 
There are very many valuable pages including Free Resources for Parents


Are you looking for an interesting webquest or project to join? 
Try the Webquests and Projects page.

It's almost time to ask: R U OK ??

Saturday, September 10 was World Suicide Prevention Day. In an attempt to raise awareness of this, one of our own, Sharon McGuinness, has shared her story in the Sydney Morning Herald today. Left Behind By Suicide

 Please read her story and then go to  R U OK Day  to find out about on September 15, go to http://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/ to find out more about depressive mental illnesses or contact Sharon directly sharonmcg@bigpond.com and offer to sponsor her in her fund-raising attempt for the institute.
 
 For Australian events and campaigns related to World Suicide Prevention Day:

R U OK? initiatives have 3 key objectives:

1. Help employees and students feel good about themselves by connecting with, and supporting others.
2. Increase connection and support within groups.
3. Through reducing stress and depression, help reduce Australia's suicide rate.

Stress and depression are the largest contributors to lost productivity in Australia.

You can sign up for:

R U OK? at Work

R U OK? at School

R U OK? at Uni

R U OK? in Sport

R U OK? in Health

What is R U OK? at School?

This initiative was developed by students, for students. With support from ReachOut.com, teenagers from across Australia have contributed to the development of R U OK? resources, which they hope will raise awareness among their friends and ensure everyone at school is asking each other “R U OK?”

Add a little fun and see what happens...

and a little more.... and a little more.... Oh what fun!!!

Couldn't make the Equity Conference? It's out on video

The opening video to the conference is now available on You Tube at 


Don't miss the outstanding video:

The 5th Biennial Equity Conference 2011, opening montage

It is not available to be embedded at this stage.

"Physical As Anything" is up and running.

This new website, Physical As Anything, produced for Teachers, Parents and Health Workers, contains both medical and educational information on more than 50 medical, developmental and psychological conditions of childhood and adolescence.


The site supplies heaps of resources for teachers to assist in providing effective support to these students.


It was created by professionals from The Childrens' Hospital, Westmead  and the NSW DET Disability Programs Directorate and produced by the Centre for Learning Innovation.


The quirky artwork and the introductory video are by well known artist and musician, Reg Mombassa

Can your robot dance?

Join in MacICT's So You Think Your Robot Can Dance video competition.

Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre is conducting a robot dance video competition to see which robot is the best dancer in Australia. 
Enter the competition to win prizes and battle it out to be the top of the charts.
Any robot will do but please video it/them dancing to the music 
  ” Walk Like You’re Band New” @
http://3dedrats.wordpress.com/sytrcdcompetition/ 
 Lots of fun! FREE to enter

Changing classrooms- Changing Learning Spaces

Check out The Flipped Classroom Infographic A new method of teaching is turning the traditional classroom on its head. What’s a flipped classroom - and why now?
Can you see this model being an effective way to ensure students learning in any of our curriculum areas? in any of our Primary schools or in our High Schools?
Have you already started flipping your classroom in some ways?

If this doesn't appeal -What about getting REAL? IHS Project REAL
Read what the kids think of their new way of learning!!