Free NAPLAN support for your students

Enjoy the bonus NAPLAN support from this fabulous free site.

Studyladder is an online english literacy & mathematics learning tool.


"Studyladder is a highly effective, logically organised, Mathematics and Literacy program. It has been developed by experienced educators to inspire and motivate learning.
It is suitable for Primary students and is very easy to use - students simply login with a username and password to access all the learning material. Teacher accounts are free and if you have a smarkiddies account you can use your existing username and password."
Barbara Schaffer School Tools blog Study Ladder

I think it is time...do you?

Have a read:

A new vision for a new paradigm: An open letter to 

the Australian School Education Minister from Karen Knock

Karen is the Director of Development at Sydney Centre for Innovation in Learning (SCIL), the research and development centre located within Northern Beaches Christian School on Sydney's northern fringe.

Lead the change

SCIL is focused on people, places and pedagogy as catalysts for change in education. Founded as a school-based research and development unit at Northern Beaches Christian School in Sydney, Australia, SCIL is the voice of change, sharing the work of NBCS with a world-wide audience.
SCIL Research Papers

Karen asks:
"What does it take to inspire, empower and equip leaders for world where change is the only constant?" What do you think? Would you like to add any other important comments or ideas to this open letter?  
There are a few things I would like to add to this letter but I will reflect on them for a little while first.  

Digital Citizenship must be taught...but where? how? when? by whom?

Dr Tanya Bryon is a clinical psychologist and head of the independent review into how we can help parents and their children get the best from new technologies while protecting children from inappropriate or potentially harmful material. 

On 6 September 2007, the U.K.Prime Minister asked Dr Tanya Byron  to conduct an independent review looking at the risks to children from exposure to potentially harmful or inappropriate material on the internet and in video games.

The Byron Review is about the needs of children and young people. It is about preserving their right to take the risks that form an inherent part of their development by enabling them to play video games and surf the net in a safe and informed way. 

• Safer Children in a Digital World: Full Report (PDF, 2756kb)
• Safer Children in a Digital World: Executive Summary (PDF, 110kb)
• Safer Children in a Digital World: A Summary for Children and Young People (PDF, 970kb)
• Safer Children in a Digital World: a summary for children and young people (126kb, PDF)
• There are some very interesting comments, drawings and presentations by children in this article. 
• For those who are time poor- Dr Tanya Byron's conclusion:
• "My Review has never been about stopping you from having fun or taking 
• advantage of  the many different opportunities in games and on the internet. 
• It is about making sure you can still do everything that you really enjoy, 
• in the safest possible environment and in ways  that are right for your age. 
• I just want to make sure that all the protections that are available in the real 
• world to keep you safe are present in your ‘virtual worlds’ too.
• 
  
• For example, when you go swimming in the real world, there will always be 
• a number of safety measures to stop you getting injured or drowning
• – there will be clear signs around the pool; arm bands for beginners; 
• shallow ends for younger children; and lifeguards on standby to assist. 
• This is just how it is online where websites are sometimes tailored for 
• younger users, so there is nothing inappropriate in them. So, they may
• check your age before they allow you on the  site, and instead of lifeguards
•  there may be  ‘moderators’ to keep checking everything is alright. And, just 
• as you are  taught how to swim, you will be taught by your parents and  
• other adults in your life how to stay safe online, especially if you find 
• yourself in difficult  digital waters.
• 
  
• We’re all encouraged to have balanced diets in order to grow 
• healthy and strong, and in  the sameway we should think about having 
• healthy and balanced media diets. This means  we should think about
•  the amount of time we spend playing video games and going on the internet 
• and make sure we still spend time with our  families and friends, 
• having fun in other ways. We need to make sure that you and your 
•  parents have all the support you need to make the most of these 
• new technologies with confidence, and be ‘NetSmart’ and  ‘GameSmart’.
• 
  

NSWDET change to DEC....stay tuned

• Our Acting Director-General, Pam Christie, announced: "Under the new arrangements the name of our Department is now the Department of Education and Communities and will be responsible to three new Ministers:
• The Honourable Adrian Piccoli MP, Minister for Education
• The Honourable Victor Michael Dominello MP, Minister for Citizenship and Communities, and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs
• The Honourable Graham Annesley MP, Minister for Sport and Recreation.
 

The new Department of Education and Communities will bring exciting opportunities for all of us in Education and Training to work in closer collaboration with our new colleagues in Children's Services and the Office of Sport, Recreation and Communities."

The Department of Education and Communities will have two main offices:

1. The Office of Education - this will comprise the current Education and Training functions and include Children's Services.
2. The Office of Sport, Recreation and Communities -The Office of Sport, Recreation and Communities comprises the following:
   • Aboriginal Affairs
   • Commission for Children and Young People
   • Community Relations Commission
   • Hunter Region Sporting Venues Authority 
   • Illawarrra Venues Authority
   • NSW Institute of Sport
   • Office of Volunteering 
   • Parramatta Stadium Trust
   • Sport and Recreation
   • Sydney Cricket Ground 
   • Sydney Olympic Park Authority
   • The Children's Guardian
   • Youth
   • Veterans' Affairs

For more detailed information read: Public Sector Employment and Management (Departments) Order 2011

The old NSWDET department is making a number of changes to its key communication materials to reflect its new name - Department of Education and Communities.

These materials include the department logo and stationery. The new logo and electronic stationery have been developed, however, we are holding off implementing them until we have more information.. 

#Coming soon- a temporary website (to reflect the scope of the new department) and content adjustments to the existing DET corporate site. More details to follow- Log in to the Intranet to The Buzz for future updates.

YouTube intend to send people to Copyright School

Help is on its way!!
YouTube launched a redesigned copyright center and a brand new copyright school . These new services are designed to educate YouTube users about what is and is not a copyright violation .  " It's ultimately your responsibility to know whether you possess the rights for a particular piece of content before uploading it to YouTube" from THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2011

YouTube Copyright Education (remixed) "If we receive a copyright notification for one of your videos, you'll now be required to attend "YouTube Copyright School," which involves watching a copyright tutorial and passing a quiz to show that you've paid attention and understood the content before uploading more content to YouTube."


Check out the Copyright Education page for information on:

World Autism Awareness Day

Message for 2011

Classroom Ideas for Children with Asperger's Syndrome

Important Things for Teachers to Consider About Students with Asperger's Syndrome

Cyberbullying 'Turn It Around'

Visit our Cybersafety resource page and our Internet Safety resource page.

Teachers and students in the 21st Century classrooms are:

This wordle was created by staff and students in 1074EBL Learning with ICT, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. Students were asked to list verbs representing what teachers and students do in 21st Century classrooms.
It is interesting to see what they have observed so far.

Exploring the new digital world and its implications.

Copyright-What's copyright?

Copyright & commons on Prezi

JewelBeat Use these free royalty free music tracks & free sound effects for any production - advertising, education, video, photos, YouTube...etc.


Royalty free production music by JewelBeat

Copy of Creative Commons on Prezi

Flickr Creative Commons

The Frank Hardcase animation is the part of a Crime Stoppers Australia initiative against music piracy. The video features animated character Frank Hardcase as an investigative journalist whose light hearted but insightful reports provoke students to think about the effects of the illegal file sharing of music.

Helping dyslexic children within the classroom.

Dyslexics in the Classroom -  One of the astonishing things a recent United Kingdom study  discovered was that 75% of the population claim to understand little or nothing about how dyslexic people think.
With dyslexic thinkers making up an estimated 10% of the population, most people have either a friend, loved-one, relative, colleague or client with dyslexia. So why are we so in the dark about how dyslexics think? 
Dyslexics in the Classroom
Full Story 


Frequently asked questions about dyslexia

No two dyslexic children are exactly alike, and the symptoms listed below are just the more common ones:

• a noticeable difference between the pupil's ability and their actual achievement;

• a family history of learning difficulties;

• difficulties with spelling;

• confusion over left and right;

• writing letters or numbers backwards;

• difficulties with maths;

• difficulties with organizing themselves;

• difficulty following 2- or 3-step instructions.

Recognising dyslexia.

"Beneath The Surface"
By Alexander aged 9 years
Winner in a DI "As I See It" competition 

Helping dyslexic children within the classroom.

There is a wide range of teaching methods available to assist with teaching dyslexic children.

News and Dyslexia Research

Working towards digital citizenship.

Shifting from Cyber-Bully to Digital-Citizen on Prezi
Ben Jones:  presented  to North Sydney Region Teacher Librarian's about leading Digital Citizenship in their school

Read: Digital Citizenship | Arncliffe PS for a great outline to suit primary school.

NEW National Professional Standards for teachers announced

Education Ministers announced the release of the National Professional Standards for Teachers on 9 February 2011.  The Standards were endorsed by Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs (MCEECDYA) in late December 2010. 

The Standards support the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians and the National Partnership on Improving Teacher Quality.  

Glossary available 

National Professional Standards for Teachers Frequently Asked Questions FAQS

Related articles

• Thinking about teaching & Graduate Standards (heyjude.wordpress.com)

Why get students blogging?

 If you are considering starting blogging or just want to find out more visit:Teacher Challenge (Connecting teachers through free professional learning) which is supported by Edublogs.

Blog with students – Visit these Week 1

At the site above you can locate links to help you :

Blogging With Students

Activity 1 - Set up class blog
Activity 2 - Rules and Guidelines
Activity 3 - Commenting

Student Blogging Activity 1 (Beginner): Setting Up Your Class Blog

Student Blogging Activity 2 (Beginner): Setting Up Rules & Guidelines

More PowerPoint presentations from kathleenm

Student Blogging Activity 3 (Beginner) – Teaching Quality Commenting

Are you still unsure? -not convinced that blogging is a good idea yet? Try viewing this post from Kathleen:

A Reflection on the Benefits of Classroom Blogging

If you are ready to have a go consider these first: Five Steps to Starting a class blog

Five Steps to Starting a Class Blog

Once you have started these tips may help you manage your blogging well: Tips for students and teachers    

The Do's and Don'ts of blogging may well be of assistance to you also.

NSW DET teachers now have access to a free safe blogging platform called blogED. You will find many tips and much support material in the portal. Your Principal needs to apply for your school to be able to use blogED. 

Check out  blogED Prezi  Engaging Learners with blogED  by  Barbara Schaffer produced July 2010

You could also check out: BlogED by craig snudden on Prezi

Mrs Ratcliffe has written some supportive posts to help NSW DET teachers implement blogED and blogging: 

What is a blog?

How to blog in NSW Schools

 BlogED embeddable sites

Kid friendly howto for embedding in BlogED.

If you would like to see what others have done already on blogED you can search @: site:.www.det.nsw.edu.au/blog/ - Google Search

Happy blogging!

Related articles

• 2010 Edublog Awards Nomination (kcaise.wordpress.com)

Step into a really easy global connections project. The Postcard Project.

The Postcard Project "in the spirit of developing global connections and getting to know a bit more about other peoples cities/countries."  The project is being co-ordinated by Sarah Leakey, a teacher from New Zealand.

Image Attribute: Postcard JBeach Licensed Under: NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic 

 Such a simple, easy way to encourage your students to develop global awareness. The postcard project provides a real purpose for writing and would fit well when students are looking at their community, same and different.....

Join in the fun- it is easy and low cost- even using old-fashioned snail mail which will really emphasise the way it was (slow) and the way most of them now know-(instantaneous). It could fit in well with The Way we Were....History studies...Then and Now

The project is very flexible (low stress) : "Join in once in the year or ongoing throughout the year."

Are you ready to use your Connected Classroom and the Video Conferencing facilities?

BOS TV - the 2011 videoconference schedule coming soon

The Board’s 2011 videoconference schedule will soon be available on Schools Online.
Topics will include:
· Australian curriculum in NSW updates (primary and secondary)
· Moderation of HSC assessment marks
· Developing HSC assessment policies
· Running subject selection sessions
· Managing ‘N’ determinations
· Disability provisions (formerly special examination provisions)

Videoconferencing is an excellent way for schools to book a whole group of staff to hear important Board advice from the source.

Love to hear from you

Playing to Learn - We do it from very early days as a baby. Why stop??

"Playing to Learn? - Children love to learn, but at some point they lose that and become adults that don't like formal learning. Let's explore why "play" has gotten such a bad rap and figure out how to get it back in education" says Maria Anderson. Have fun watching her prezi below:

Playing to Learn? by Maria Andersen on Prezi 

Games are not like they used to be. They have a very high social component to them. There are claims that "gamers are able to detect, for example, new information coming at them faster" in the article:Video Games Boost Brain Power, Multitasking Skills by Michelle Trudeau. Brain researcher Jay Pratt, professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, says that "playing these video games changes your ability to learn, and to find and integrate new information."

Daphne Bavelier is professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester. She studies young people playing action video games. Having now conducted more than 20 studies on the topic, Bavelier says, "It turns out that action video games are far from mindless." Both Pratt and Bacelier agreed that moderation is the key.

Did you know that Games Based Learning was identified by the 2011 Horizon Report as two years to adoption. That is not very long. We need to get our heads around this.

According to James Gee in his article:Deep Learning Properties of Good Digital Games How Far Can They Go? "Digital games are, at their heart, problem solving spaces that use continual learning and provide pathways to mastery through entertainment and pleasure."  

Gee states in his video for Edutopia, “Kids want to produce, they don’t just want to consume.”

Would it surprise you that the future of schooling may lie with video games? Read: http://www.economist.com/node/14350149?story_id=14350149  and see what you think.

 Gaming to re-engage boys in learning, a great TEDxPSU talk may expand your thinking a little further. The boys motivation is clear and evident in these games. We need to embrace the games' ability to advance deep learning.

In the article: Game based learning in the classroom  Phillipa Cleaves noted that more than 50% of Yr6-12 students are more interested in practicing problems based around games; over 55% of Yr6-12 students are more engaged in a subject when GBL is used and  nearly 60% of all Yr6-12 students find GBL makes harder concepts easier to understand. These statistics show that we would be on a winner to ensure students used quality games for some of their learning.

Ben Jones, in Computers in schools: IT is becoming child's play, states: " It is no longer a question of when but the more important question of how will we use them for teaching and learning? " Jones presents six ways of using consoles in education and then examines the various consoles on offer.(See the link below for more information on gaming consoles.) Jones also indicated that we need to engage parents and community in the process, as many have ill-informed preconceived ideas about gaming and games. It is  vital that parents and teachers work in a close partnership as we create new learning environments to facilitate optimal learning conditions for our students in this fast changing digital age.  Gaming Consoles in Education 

‘We need to get away from “we’re doing computers”; it’s more “we’re doing learning” with technology integrated in all lessons without having to decamp to the IT block,’ says Andy Goff, director of iLX, a research centre where teachers learn how to get the most from video game consoles. "IT is changing in schools and our key focus is improving literacy and numeracy."

Some parents may say they don’t send their children to school to play computer games and Richard Healey, manager of the Birmingham East City Learning Centre, shares their concerns. He admits: ‘There is a PR job to be done there but we have evidence to show it encourages children to attend school and learn.’ School communities need to ensure that parents are educated along with their children.

For teachers considering introducing game based learning into their classrooms these tips at Educators Connect Digital Games to Learning  may come in handy.

As Phillipa Cleaves (on yammer) summed it up: "game based learning (GBL) is all about collaboration, achieving milestones and advancing. It is such a great way to learn." 

I would love to introduce some of our classes try one of the Mystery Matters games 
from Centre for Learning Innovation (CLI). Be aware access is only available through the DET portal.

Mystery Matters is a series of learning games for students in years 4 to 10. Take a look at the Games information list on the right to see what games are ready to play and what games are coming. Select a game in the list to see what the game is about and when it will be released.

Teachers – take a look at the product brochure (.pdf 169kB) for more information. Each game also has comprehensive teaching notes you can view when you play the game.

Related articles

• Playing to Learn? How to get fun back into education (ictelt.blogspot.com)
• Suggested Reading: A 7 series piece on "What teachers can learn from video games": http://www.cleanapple.com/blog/?page_id=351 from Ben Jones
• What exactly are kids learning?:which has many great references to follow for those who wish to explore this area
• Newsletter: Games-Based Learning #1 (ictineducation.org)
• Games in Education (ictineducation.org)
• Lisa Nielsen: 10 Reasons Students Say They Prefer Learning Online