Category Archives: Teaching resources

My Place in History

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Recently I was introduced to this new program for Australian Primary Schools.

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My Place in History, a new educational programme for Australian upper primary schools, is a web-based programme designed to teach students about the concepts of change and diversity – of backgrounds, in family structures, and the many economic, political and social circumstances in both our distant and more recent history that have contributed to who we are today and how we all came to be living in Australia.

Family history experts, Ancestry.com, created this resource to encourage understanding of family and social history from an early age by utilising the very latest in online technology and historical information. My Place in History has been designed for teachers by teachers and is tailored to each state’s individual curriculum.  A collection of specially designed online resources and activities have been developed to make learning about history and their family’s role within this both educational and engaging.

My Place in History

Students will explore their own personal family history, creating family trees online, whilst learning about the key drivers of change within society during the lives of their ancestors – wherever they came from – and how these changes impacted their own identity, as well as that of their family and society more generally.

Over the course of the programme students will look back over two generations of their own family and how society changed during the lives of their older family members and ancestors.

Unit 1: Change through History

Students will learn about significant changes that have occurred over time in transport, communication, manufacturing, housing, leisure, food, technology, purchasing, and medicine.

Unit 2: My Society through History

Students will develop an understanding of history as it applies to their community. The initial focus is on the school; the subsequent focus is on a section of a nearby community.

Unit 3: My Family History

Students will research and understand a minimum of two generations of their own family through the use of oral history and interactive resources.

The website also provides fun, educational games for students and an opportunity for teachers to privately upload and store their own digital resources free of charge.

My Place in History looks like a great resource for the ubiquitous family tree project.

International Children’s Digital Library

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A library for the world’s children. Isn’t that a wonderful thing? The International Children’s Digital Library is just that.

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It’s Mission Statement reads:

The mission of the International Children’s Digital Library Foundation (ICDL Foundation) is to support the world’s children in becoming effective members of the global community – who exhibit tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas — by making the best in children’s literature available online free of charge. The Foundation pursues its vision by building a digital library of outstanding children’s books from around the world and supporting communities of children and adults in exploring and using this literature through innovative technology designed in close partnership with children for children.

The ICDL Foundation is a non-profit corporation.

Some of the resources on the site include:

  • Simple Search
    Search for books in a fun graphical environment using our most popular categories.
  • Books by Countries
    Search for books by continent by spinning an interactive globe.
  • Advanced Search
    Search for books using a compact, text-based interface with our full category hierarchy.
  • Keyword Search
    Search for books by title, author, or keyword, in dozens of languages.
  • Recently Added Books
    Read the books just added to the ICDL collection.
  • Award-Winning Books
    Access books that have won awards worldwide.
  • Using the Library
    Get ideas about how you can use the library – as a child, parent, teacher, librarian, or any other reader.
  • White Ravens List
    Explore the database of exceptional children’s books selected by language specialists at the International Youth Library.
  • Full Book List
    See all the books in the ICDL and sort by title, author, illustrator, language, and publication date.
  • Author & Illustrator List
    Access a complete list of the authors and illustrators whose books are included in the ICDL.
  • Featured Books
    Take a look at some of our readers’ favorite books.
  • Collections
    Browse the books in our special collections.
  • Exhibitions
    Browse exhibitions of books on a particular theme – activities included.

The site is obviously a work in progress and relies on donations to expand its offerings, however it is an intriguing and worthy project.

WatchKnow

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WatchKnow is an organised collection of videos for children.

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As the site explains

Imagine hundreds of thousands of great short videos, and other media, explaining every topic taught to school kids. Imagine them rated and sorted into a giant Directory, making them simple to find. WatchKnow–as in, “You watch, you know”–is a non-profit online community devoted to this goal.

This video explains exactly how the site works. So if you are looking for videos to support learning and teaching, WatchKnow is certainly worth checking out. Thanks to @joycevalenza for the link.

Student blogging with Verona Gridley

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Verona Gridley, classroom teacher at St Luke the Evangelist School has developed an excellent blog that acts as a resource for her students.

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Verona explains how she uses JuniorsJig with her students.

When our students reflect on what they have learnt in class, they are proficiently taking out some of their implicit understandings and clearly documenting it in the form of a blog. By both reading and commenting on others’ blogs, students start to learn from each other. A blog is a tool. It is a learning tool that can be tapped into by students, parents, and the global community.

Our Class Blog has enabled me to integrate all curriculum areas by promoting multiple literacies and skills. Through reflection on our discoveries and experiences we are able to share and deepen our understandings. It shows growth over time of our new learning, connecting with experts and finding out from broader sources.

There are growing connections with readers that show the great advantages of being part of a network and receiving feedback from contributors within a broader community. Our class has received feedback from all corners of the globe. When we received comments from beyond the school community a new digital dimension is opened. Overseas teachers, students and parents are taking the time to read our blog and leave meaningful and thoughtful comments.

Students are aware, that they are able to reach out beyond the schoolyard to share discoveries and experiences and in turn touch someone enough to leave a thought or offer a new perspective. Our young students can reach an authentic audience, that gives feedback and contributes new ideas and thus become part of a tangible global community.

I love the idea of students having a global and authentic audience and I believe that students take more care and effort with writing that will be read and commented on by a number of people. Congratulations Verona for providing this opportunity for your students as well as using your blog to communicate with parents and friends of the school.

Melbourne Museum free iPad app

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Melbourne Museum has developed a free iPad app to enhance Museum visits.

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The website explains:

Celebrate Melbourne Museum’s tenth birthday and rediscover, explore and share some of Melbourne Museum’s most iconic stories and treasures from this celebratory iPad app.

Please touch the exhibit lets you explore some of Melbourne Museum’s iconic objects including Phar Lap, Australia’s most famous horse, and the Museum’s massive skeleton of a blue whale – as well as some of the less well known, such as fragile birds eggs and tiny, gemlike beetles.

Other popular Museum experiences featured in Please touch the exhibit include Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre, the Forest Gallery, the Melbourne Storyexhibition and some of the new exhibitions in the Science and Life Gallery.

You’ll find the free app here.  What an exciting way to add value to school excursions!

DeweyDigger

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Have you seen DeweyDigger yet?

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By clicking on one of the Dewey classifications, you are then presented with a range of topics that would be found under that classification.

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Clicking on one of those you are then presented with a range of options to dig further.

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Beware that some of these options include advertisements and one that I saw was for gambling. However, the initial stages of the site could be very useful for teaching the concept of Dewey. Worth a look.

1000poppies.org

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Today sees the timely (Remembrance Day) release of the new Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development project 1000 poppies.org.

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The website states:

This project aims to create a space where students from around the world can share stories and experiences, linking the local and the global in an on-line environment and create their own response to honouring the service and sacrifice of veterans and those affected by war to express their hopes for lasting peace.

The Innovation and Next Practice Division of the DEECD states

It is not only intended for students, adults can participate as well. Over the coming months it will be supported with a range of learning and teaching materials.

An excellent resource for schools!

Out of this world – a Prezi

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Heather Stapleton, the Library Technician at St Joseph’s College Geelong has created an excellent Prezi. She explains why she developed the Prezi:

The following Prezi has been created to support the Year 9 English unit on Science Fiction. The boys study The giver in this unit and are also required to read a sci-fi novel of their choice. The latter can be difficult for some of our reluctant readers so I thought I would do a trial run with a Prezi presentation. The boys are familiar with PowerPoint and use it regularly so I wanted to present the book suggestions in a different way and not risk ‘death by PowerPoint’. The book selection caters for a wide range of reading abilities and interests.
Science Fiction is a genre that is very rich and varied. I have loosely grouped the selections in sub-genres but many of the titles crossover. The presentation was done this way to assist the boys and act as a guide for them to find a book of their own choosing.

Out of this World on Prezi

Best viewing of this Prezi is Fullscreen in manual mode. To achieve this press the play button and once it loads move your cursor over More and click onFullscreen that appears above. Press the arrow keys to move through the presentation at your own pace. To improve the quality of the YouTube book trailers reduce their size by using the scroll button on your mouse. You can also use your mouse to pan and zoom freely within the presentation.

The Maze runner book trailer featured in this presentation is an Animoto creation by Sarah Ehlers. This could be an excellent activity for students.

Thanks Heather for showing readers your excellent Prezi and the motivation behind its development.

Update and final thoughts on Tania Sheko’s Flickr project

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You may remember reading about Whitefriars College teacher librarian Tania Sheko‘s collaborative learning project using Flickr. The project has now concluded and a few of the students have shared their thoughts, reflections and ideas about what they loved most about the project.

Tania explains:

As part of the evaluation of this project, I interviewed a few students to get their feedback. You have no idea how long it took me to convert the interviews to film and embed them in this blog. Sorry about background noise!

Thanks to Tania and her students for a number of posts about the project from the beginning right through to the end. Sounds like it was a great success and thanks for sharing.

Supporting learning through reading lists

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Librarian extraordinaire Dr Joyce Valenza has (yet another) great idea for supporting and encouraging reading in her school.

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By developing this wiki with reading lists, information on texts, study guides, rubrics, book trailers, book reviews, directions and general requirements, students in years 9-12 (and their parents) have a head start on the year’s required reading for English classes.

What a terrific way for students to be prepared for the year ahead. As always, Dr Valenza’s wiki is an example that we can use as a basis to develop our own ideas for supporting our students’ learning.