Free children’s ebooks for ages 3-7+ | Oxford Owl

Teachers enjoy exploring these free ebooks.
Free children’s ebooks for ages 3-7+ | Oxford Owl

Wacky ways to get your students reading.....

Wacky, but true....

Wacky ... but true is a monthly magazine format mix of freaky, fun and fascinating facts produced in the Hunter region,NSW. 


Now in its fifth year of production the magazine is proving to be a winner in homes and schools across Australia and overseas.


Research has shown that 73% of Australian youngsters prefer reading 
magazines to any other type of reading, and this magazine is sure to 
be a winner with its short, pithy items and eye-catching artwork. The magazine is edited and published by Michelle Down, an experienced primary teacher/ librarian. She says she loves doing the writing and research and feels the magazine is filling a gap in providing children with reading material that increases their general knowledge in a fun way.
  
Wacky, but true is one of the few quality children's magazines published in Australia.

 Any two magazines from this series may be read as Premier's Reading Challenge books; up to five more can be read as personal choice   See Series lists for individual titles. 

If you have not had this magazine previously you can access back copies of the Wacky, but true magazine to order.

Wacky, but true.... is now available online as an e-mag. Check out a sample of the online mag below.

Super specials  for school site licences are available now.

Unlimited numbers of students can read the magazine on any computer at any time while at the school and:

- Teachers can enable a class to read Wacky together and work through the question sheets
- Individual students can access the magazine at any time for remedial or extension work while at the school
- Great opportunity for comprehension work.


A site licence that allows your school to place the magazine on your server and allow full student access  for only $149.
Teachers can apply to receive FREE activity sheets based on stories in the magazine. These will be emailed to you each month to be used in conjunction with the magazine.
Do you have students who love to write and would love a wide audience of their peers? YES? Then check out the INKROOM.

Michelle has recently begun the InkRoom, which is an avenue for budding authors to submit their work. Children send their stories and poems to the InkRoom website for others to read and comment on, and the best are published in the Wacky magazine each month. Prizes are awarded for the best submissions.

The InkRoom is a subsidiary of Wacky … but true magazine. 
Use of the InkRoom will:

• Provide students with an incentive to write
• Encourage and inspire group participation
• Provide examples of quality writing
• Encourage the development of writing skills
• Inspire students through peer review of their work
• Publish articles and win rewards for gifted students
• 
  
• Disclosure:
• I have no personal affiliation with the author of this magazine nor will I gain any financial benefit from bringing this  site to your attention.

$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!!

100 Ways to show students you care.....

 Juan Uribe has just finished a new video called "100 ways to show students you care".



Have you got some other favourite ways you could share?

Final Report-BER Implementation Taskforce

Building the Education Revolution
Implementation Taskforce: final report.
Commonwealth of Australia, 2011.


Released in July 2011, the Taskforce's findings include: “The NSW and Victorian governments were responsible for delivering 37 per cent of the program. Education authority complaints as a percentage of all BER complaints=51.51% for NSW Government Schools (as at 3 May 2011)

We believe their poorer performance [than that of other states]  on both cost and observed quality has been influenced by the  hollowing out of public works capacity over the last 20 years,
which has limited the ability to effectively manage an outsourced delivery model.


Their school communities were also disenfranchised. It was a mistake not to embrace school communities more effectively in decision making.

A proportion of schools could have worked directly with a managing architect to self manage their projects. Quality would likely have been higher, the schools would have had some involvement
and complaints lower. 
(p. 12.) 


Summary of the five Recommendations:
1. Education authorities are due to receive final tranches of federal funding on 7 September 2011.

2. The Taskforce is sufficiently disappointed with the low level of inclusion of environmentally
sustainable design (ESD) features in P21 projects. To deliver an achievable and relatively simple metric which could make a significant impact, the Taskforce recommends all future school buildings require calculation of a predictive energy use (kWh per m2 per annum) and CO2 emissions (kgs per m2 per annum) prior to funding approval and that the latter must be initially 20 per cent below a national benchmark with a schedule of increasing reduction targets for the ensuing 5 years.

3. The Taskforce recommends that DEEWR, through the Standing Council of School Education
Ministers, develop and implement a national mandatory policy on air conditioning in all
government schools such that regional inconsistencies around borders are eliminated and to
ensure that energy efficient approaches are adopted. Once such a policy is in place, school
communities should not be able to compromise the integrity of these ESD features of school
buildings via the retrofitting of alternatives such as split systems.


4. We have however witnessed deficiencies in the quality of workmanship, in project management, in public works capacity and in the framework of private certification. Australia confronts a significant infrastructure and maintenance spend over the coming 20 years. The Taskforce recommends that the Productivity Commission update its work on the construction industry.                                 
adapted from http://www.nswtf.org.au/files/libbulaug2011.pdf



5. We recommend that the Australian Institute of Building Surveyors (the peak professional body
representing Building Surveyors in Australia) review the work of the Taskforce and incorporate
the lessons within future compulsory professional development training material for its
membership with the aim of enhancing the public confidence of the integrity of the private
certification process.

Free treasures from around the world .....and in seven languages

The World Digital Library project at the Library of Congress

World Digital Library

Library of Congress for Teachers                         

 It's free!!!

 It's in 7 languages.

 It includes cultural treasures:

               - maps

               - photographs

               - books......  from partners around the world! 

Follow them on Twitter @  http://twitter.com/WDLorg

Help support environmental responsibility

 Do you use Reflex copy paper in your school?  They no longer have a Forest Stewardship Council certification logo as proof of their green credentials.  

The loss of the FSC logo on Reflex Paper comes as the Ethical Paper campaign notched up yet another milestone. Over 10,000 people have now signed the pledge to not buy Reflex until Australian Paper stop using timber from our unique native forests.  Read more at http://www.wilderness.org.au/regions/victoria/reflex-stripped-of-fsc-certification

Take Action Many thanks to Georgia Phillips for sharing this. 

                 

Help the Leadbeater's possum by signing the Ethical Paper Pledge. 

Are you looking for answers? Not just for teacher librarians....

Marion Silk from ASLA NSW 

Over the past few months. there have been questions & discussions on this listserv about e-books, digital literacy, Clickview & alternatives, the future of print resources, student research needs - to name but a few.

You can get ANSWERS, TALK to representatives & see DEMONSTRATIONS of many programs and solutions at the Trade Exhibition at ASLA XXII Conference....ALL IN THE ONE PLACE!!    

  

Here is a brief selection of what will be available:

Q.  Will you launch into e-books and how can you manage a growing digital collection ?

n  Access-It:  Web-based management of e-books and digital material; which integrates seamlessly with SCIS; ClickView; Active Directory and LDAP; Single Sign On; automated emailing; texting, and many others

n  Softlink :  A suite of advanced library and information management including Integrated Library Management Solutions, reference and research tools used by thousands of schools across Australia, U.S., NZ  & UK.

n  Readcloud: The World’s first social eReading software platform designed for educators, We provide education institutions with a digital distribution mechanism for eBooks.

n  Wheelers: a comprehensive library supplier with an active database of over 10 million books. Experience the first eBook platform that has been developed, and priced, specifically for school libraries.

Q. Which delivery platform for digital resources would best suit your school?

n  Clickview: combines innovative digital video software and a digital video library and it allows any number of students to view digital video, at any time, at their own pace, using a school's existing computer and network infrastructure

n   DVC: DVC technology backbone provides educators and students with access to the ultimate in multimedia educational experiences, along with the ability to integrate with and utilise other learning platforms such as on-line learning management systems.  In addition to providing a vast library of content, including over 10,000 educational videos, study guides etc pre-loaded on the DVC system, DVC gives you the tools to continue to grow and manage your library, often for free.

Q. Where can you go for quality print books to support the new curriculum?

n  Macmillan: one of the leading educational publishers in Australia, with a vigorous publishing program catering to the needs of Primary and Secondary schools by producing a quality range of Library, Literacy, Digital, Text and Teacher Resource Books.

n  The Booklegger: Supporting school librarians with curriculum related library books for over 30 years.

Q. Which packages will  best support your students’ research needs?

n  Britannica Digital Learning: Through each of the age-appropriate resources, Britannica provides instructional and research content that will fit the needs of every user from one simple access point.

n  EBSCO Publishing: Through a collection of tens of thousands of magazines, books, newspapers and various other publication types from renowned publishers, EBSCO Publishing serves the content needs of all school students and staff.

n  Library Webs: Online educational research service providing an Internet Library of approximately 80,000 carefully selected links. Students using LW have immediate access to authoritative Internet resources and are able to stay focused on their learning outcomes

n  World Book Forward Learning: Schools and libraries around the world consider World Book products to be a vital resource, providing valuable, accurate and up-to-date reference information in all communication mediums: print and online.

Q. What is happening with reading, literacy & children’s literature?

n  National Year of Reading 2012: linking together all the great things that are already happening around books, reading and literacy, and giving them an extra boost, with inspirational programs and events taking place across the country. Find out what is happening…..

n  AUSTLIT/QUT: AustLit is a collaboration between the National Library of Australia and a network of Australian Universities, including Queensland University of Technology (QUT)

Get ANSWERS

at the Trade Exhibition

ASLA XXII Conference

2-5 October, 2011

http://www.asla.org.au/pd/conference/