Monthly Archives: June 2012

School Holidays! Celebrate the National Year of Reading with special activities

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Why not use these holidays to inspire a love of reading. Activities that bring a story to life can also bring a family closer together. The Book Chook blog has a post this week full of ideas of how to do this.

Zoe Toft says she “Plays by the book” because

  • it’s fun!
  • it gives me a focus and outlet for my desire to be creative
  • it helps me find a mutually enjoyable way of being with the kids
  • it shows the kids how much I value the book
She goes on to explain ways to bring a book to life with three failsafe activities
  • getting out the playmobil and make a landscape to mirror what is in the book
  • using the same medium as the illustrator to do your own pictures
  • baking a cake based on an image in the book

Copyright and Piracy: TV and Film use in the classroom

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ATOM have produced a resource to assist teachers to integrate ethical use of film and television in outcomes based classroom activities. English, History, Civics and Citizenship, Legal Studies, Media, Information Technology, Values Education, Economics subject areas all have links to resources and activities that promote analytical inquiry and critical thinking.

Calculators for every purpose – free!

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The illustration below links to a blog post listing free online scientific and graphic calculators. Many do not need downloading as they are used online.

Google is now a graphing calculator. Enter the equation in the search bar and you get your graph. You can even do multiple functions, just separate them by a comma. You can also zoom and pan in the graphs. You can also do other calculator functions using the search bar.

21C Skills for teachers and students

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The following link to the blog post from Educational Technology and Mobile Learning provides access to various tools for 33 different skills. It is wonderful to have such a varied and pertinent list including the tools needed to succeed in each skill all in one place. Both teachers and students shoud be aware of skills they need to keep up with digital learning in the 21Century. Here is a great place to start!

The 33 Digital Skills every 21st Century teacher should have

Transit of Venus in the IRC

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Due to Sydney’s cloud cover, only a few students were able to view this event when their Science teacher, on the ready with special glasses, allowed them to rush outside during short breaks in the cloud.

In the IRC at lunchtime we watched short videos about the Transit of Venus, a simulcast of the event and finally some live footage.

We are very grateful to Paul Floyd’s blog nightskyonline that contained these videos as well as links to live coverage.

eBooks – New Book, New Reading, New Reader

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Jamie McKenzie has been offering free online educational articles and information on his site From Now On: the educational technology journal for years. I have followed his work for over ten years. These days one would say he is part of my PLN.

His latest article is about eBooks Vol 21|No 4|March 2012.
As books become more interactive the possibilities in the educational environment are enormous and exciting. This article is a great place to begin learning about how to embrace change.

The New Book, the New Reading and the New Reader: We’re talkin’ ’bout revolution This article discusses:

  • reading as a dialogue
  • reading as an exploration
  • and the challenge for schools?

Jamie McKenzie also has made available his own eBook, The next best thing, from this site. It has just become part of my collection!