Category Archives: Professional learning

Technology and education box of tricks

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The Technology and education box of tricks is a multi award winning website. The A-Z internet resources for education page lists numerous tools while briefly outlining their uses.

box of tricks

The creator of the site is Jose Picardo who is the

Head of Modern Foreign Languages at Nottingham High School, where I teach Spanish and German, and I believe fervently in making education compatible with the needs and expectations of our students through the effective use of technology.

LOTE teachers will also find lots of interest on the site.

Studies of Asia Resources wiki

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The  Studies of Asia wiki is a fantastic resource for every primary or secondary school. Although specifically developed for Victorian schools and the Victorian Essential Learning Standards, the resources available are accessible by anyone, anywhere. The wiki states that it aims ‘to create ‘asia-literate’ students, teachers and schools with skills, knowledge and understandings of Asia to equip them to live in today’s world and the world of their future.’

studies of asia wiki

Monthly newsletters inform readers of professional development and other opportunities as well as classroom resources and study tours.

There are also links to classroom resources that include virtual tours of China, as well as teacher resources that demonstrate how Asian studies can be integrated into The Arts and English.

Acknowledging the National Curriculum Board Draft Papers, the wiki states:

With the release of the National Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians followed by the National Curriculum Board draft papers the importance of providing students with educational experiences that take into account the changes over the past 20 years is critical. “India, China and other Asia Pacific nations are growing and strengthening their impact on the world, representing a huge shift in geopolitical power and sparking the need for all Australians to become ‘Asia literate’. Asia literacy has emerged as a priority area for Australian schools. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd recently stated that he ‘wants Australia to become the most Asia literate country in the western world’. Similarly, the Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has commented that ‘it is impossible to conceive of a future Australian education system that does not take Asia seriously’.

This wiki is an excellent resource for each and every school.

School Library Websites

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The School Library Websites wiki provides examples of best practice school library websites that covers Elementary (Primary), Middle School and High School (although there doesn’t seem to be any examples of High Schools as yet).

School lib web site 1

Many of the sites featured are from the US, but any school library professional is welcome to join and submit their own websites to the lists. As the wiki states:

This site is meant as a wiki-clearinghouse of effective practice.  It is, by no means, a comprehensive list. Rather, it represents the collective recommendations of participating colleagues. Please join us by contributing your own suggestions of exemplars of effective practice.)

In addition, there are links to

Our practice:
Reports
Book and Reading Promotion
Digital Storytelling
Inquiry/Information Fluency Instruction
Pathfinders
Digital Citizenship
Presentations
Building Tools
SchoolLibraryBloggers
SchoolLibraryTweeters
Knowledge Building Centers

This wiki is well worth a visit.

TL Virtual Cafe

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The TL Virtual Cafe wiki is the home of Webinar events for teacher and school librarians worldwide.

tl virtual cafe

These events are listed on the wiki and are free for anyone anywhere. As long as you have Java installed on your computer and you have a headset with microphone, you can be a part of the action via the Elluminate online conferencing platform. The events will be held on a monthly basis.

One nice little surprise is that these events are held out of school hours for US participants, which means they occur at around 12noon AEDT or 9am Perth time. The event held on 1 March (2 March in Australia)  – School Library Web Presence – had 177 participants and was extremely stimulating.

All  links for the Webinars are available on the wiki. Organisers are keen to have input on forthcoming topics, so stop by, join up and have your say.

Consultation on the draft Australian Curriculum: English, mathematics, science and history

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The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority have just released the” draft Australian Curriculum for English, mathematics, science and history (K-10). It will be available for consultation and comment from 1 March 2010 to the end of May 2010.”

The website continues to explain the process:

How you can get involved in the consultation process

ACARA’s consultation processes for the draft Australian Curriculum will be conducted in partnership with state and territory curriculum and school authorities.

ACARA encourages involvement of all stakeholders during this key stage of curriculum development.

Opportunities will be available to provide feedback on the draft curriculum through:

  • Completion of an on-line survey
  • State/territory and national consultation forums
  • Some short-term, trialing activities with teachers and schools using the draft curriculum materials.

On-line survey

Teachers and other stakeholders in the broader education community will be able to review the curriculum materials and provide targeted feedback through an online survey. This will include the options of annotating the work, posing questions and providing written comments.

Stakeholder consultation forums

State and territory consultation forums

Throughout the consultation period, ACARA will conduct forums in each state and territory to gather feedback on the draft K-10 curriculum.

Participation in these consultation forums will be coordinated by the relevant state and territory education authorities.

National forums

In addition to the state and territory forums, ACARA will convene national forums during the latter part of April 2010, inviting nominated teachers, national professional associations, education and discipline academics, to provide expert feedback on the draft K-10 curriculum.

Trialing activities

ACARA, in collaboration with state and territory education authorities, have selected schools to be involved in some short-term trialing activities. About 150 schools will undertake a range of planning, teaching and assessing activities using the draft K-10 Australian Curriculum. The 150 schools include a cross-section of schools based on jurisdiction, geography, size, sector, and socio-economic status.

Schools will participate by developing teaching program/s and assessments, teaching part of the content and providing student work samples, and testing the functionality, accessibility and usefulness of the online curriculum.

This practical application will provide ACARA with very useful feedback to review and improve the draft materials.

All educators are urged to investigate and comment on proposals within the time frame.

Term 1 Events in the Victorian Virtual Conference Centre

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Krystie Alleaume, the Senior Project Officer at the Innovation and Next Practice Division of the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development has sent the following information for all Victorian teachers. (Please note that your school does NOT have to have a subscription to Elluminate to access these sessions. Just ensure that you have Java enabled on the computer you wish to use and that you have a headset and microphone to communicate with.)

We have some exciting free events planned for Term 1 in the Virtual Conference Centre. Most of these do not require you to sign up. To join a session, you can now:

1.      Visit our event calendar at: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/researchinnovation/virtualconferencecentre/program/default.htm

2.      Click on the date of the event you wish to attend.

3.      Click on the title of the event to see more details.

4.      Click the session link provided and join the conference up to 60 minutes before it is scheduled to begin.

5.      You can also have an automatic email reminder sent to you by selecting ‘Remind me by email’ from the ‘Other Event Actions’ drop down box.

Spread the word among your colleagues about our new monthly professional learning series called ‘Monthly ESL Matters’. And for those of you that joined our weekly Tech-Talk Tuesday sessions last year, you’ll be pleased to see that they are back on the calendar for Term 1, 2010.

TERM 1 EVENTS:

·       Monday 1 March – “Classroom Video Production – Part 2: Post-production and editing”, presented by Brendan O’Brien (Hume Region)

·       Tuesday 2 March – “Tech Talk Tuesdays: What a Bright Idea – Blogs for professional networking”, presented by Judith Way and Anne Mirtschin

·       Thursday 4 March – “Introduction to Microsoft OneNote 2007”, presented by Ben Walters (Microsoft Corporation)

·       Tuesday 9 March – “Prep Assessment Period: The English Online Interview”, presented by Victoria Hall

·       Tuesday 9 March – “Tech-Talk Tuesdays: Building a Digital Classroom”, presented by Anne Mirtschin

·       Tuesday 16 March – “Gaming and Social Networks in Education”, presented by Adrian Camm (McGuire College)

·       Tuesday 16 March – “Tech-Talk Tuesdays: The Power of Mobile Technology in Learning”, presented by Louise Duncan (Shepparton High School) and Anne Mirtschin

·       Thursday 18 March – “Introduction to Microsoft Communicator and LiveMeeting”, presented by Jonathan Spellman (Microsoft Corporation)

·       Tuesday 23 March – “Essential Web 2.0 Tools for Educators”, presented by Narissa Leung (Loddon Mallee Region)

·       Wednesday 24 March – “Monthly ESL Matters: Reporting and Assessment for ESL students”, presented by Janet Saker and Daina Coles (ESL Unit)

·       Thursday 25 March – “Global Projects with iEARN”, presented by Rob King (Gippsland Region)

·       (Term 1 Holidays) Tuesday 30 March – “Tech-Talk Tuesdays: What is needed to bring education into the 21st Century?”, Discussion group facilitated by Anne Mirtschin

Looking forward to seeing you again soon in the Virtual Conference Centre!

SLAV turns 50!

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The School Library Association of Victoria is 50 years old! Happy birthday SLAV. To celebrate, there will be a multitude of events occurring during the year. To keep in touch with these, SLAV have set up a Ning:

SLAV50 ning

and a Facebook account:

SLAV50 Facebook

as well as information on Twitter via @SLAV50.

New, current and former members are encouraged to make contact via one of these three avenues to help us all share and celebrate.

Feature blog – Rhondda’s reflections – Wandering around the web

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Whitefriars College Head of Library and Information Services (and School Library Association of Victoria President) Rhondda Powling began her extensive blog in June 2008. Rhondda posts several times a week and always includes a list of useful tools.

Rhonddas blog

Rhondda explains about the development of the blog:

As a teacher librarian in a Melbourne boy’s secondary school I have a unique role,  with a cross-curriculum view as well as working with teachers in specific subject areas.   I need to keep abreast of what is happening in the wider world, and I don’t just mean the sometimes narrow, educational world of secondary schools. The Web world allows me to access so much information that can be useful for my own professional development as well as giving me tools and ideas to for student learning and teacher education.

I want our students to leave our school with, if not a love, than a healthy interest in learning.  I would like to have a part in inspiring young people in their learning during their school years and, when they leave our school, they do so as well-rounded learners, confident that they have the tools to cope with, or problem-solve, anything that may come their way.

I try to support the teachers I work with, both in the classroom and as part of the curriculum team by sharing new ideas, tools, educational theories, etc. or creating tools they can use.

This site was set up for me to take the time to reflect on what I have learnt about the web and what I have learnt about what is working with students. I also see the blogging world as one that everyone can share create a collective knowledge far greater than if we were on our own.

Reflecting on teaching and learning is an important aspect of being a teacher. Rhondda’s blog provides not only an outlet for her reflections, but a forum for other people to join in her thoughts and discussions. As an RSS subscriber to Rhondda’s blog, it is always amazing to see her vast lists of useful tools that appear on a weekly basis. A blog definitely worth checking out!

ALA great websites for kids

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Thanks to Helen Boelens for passing on another great site. The American Library Association and the Association for Library Service to Children have developed a page entitled ‘Great websites for kids‘.

ALA great websites

Each site listed has a brief summary, a link and an age guide. Although some sites are not particularly relevant to Australia or other countries, there are many that are. Worth a perusal.

“School Libraries Seek Relevance Through Virtual Access”

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The article “School Libraries Seek Relevance Through Virtual Access“, in which US school libraries are the subject, appeared on the Education Week website a few days ago and is certainly worth a read.

Some readers may know of the funding issues that have hit US school libraries in the last few weeks. This article, which quotes Buffy Hamilton and Joyce Valenza, outlines how some proactive school librarians have been changing the use and vision of school libraries and as such, how libraries are viewed by students, teachers and parents.

The advent of Web 2.0 tools and the way that some school librarians have embraced them are discussed, particularly with the view that these school librarians have kept their library relevant to their students:

In addition to teaching students and teachers how to navigate information, libraries have now become a place where students go to create and produce, said Carolyn Foote, the district librarian who works at the 2,500-student Westlake High School in Austin, Texas.

“Students are producing all sorts of products—YouTube videos, PowerPoint presentations, online slideshows, podcasts—and so as librarians, we need to have the skills to work with all those different formats and help students learn how to produce in those formats,” she said.

Consequently, it’s increasingly important for librarians to be familiar with new technologies and Web 2.0 tools, she said.

“There’s a lot of debate in the library field about whether you can even be a 21st-century librarian if you aren’t willing to embrace some of those Web 2.0 tools and be very proficient in them,” Ms. Foote said. “There’s a real need for us to be participating all the way through the [creation] process, and we need the skills to be able to do that.”

The library as both a place and a service, or a state of mind is discussed; the importance of a flexible, attractive physical space as well as the Web 2.0 tools which can connect students to the world through the library are vital. A great article advocating the excellent work many school librarians do.