Future Teaching Today

Last week over 180 teachers from Catholic schools in the Diocese of Lismore gathered at St Augustine’s Primary School in Coffs Harbour for a ground breaking conference on interactivity in the classroom.

Dr Anne Wenham, Director of Catholic Schools believes, “This conference is the first of its kind and a great testament to the existing skill base in our school. This technology has enormous potential to improve classroom learning and student engagement. We are proud of our staff and feel that these changes will gather momentum.”

The conference used the skills of over 20 teachers employed in local Catholic schools plus two invited keynote speakers, Dr Renata Phelps (Southern Cross University) and Judy O’Connell (Parramatta CEO) both known for their expertise in this area.

Conducted over two days and using classrooms with students present, this conference took on a very different approach to usual professional gatherings. Teachers participated in a variety of workshops on movie making, using Google in classrooms, Learning Objects, school intranet sites, Flash presentations, data projectors, podcasting and how to set up and use blogs and wikis. The classroom focus involved SMART, Promethean and Interwrite boards.

A wiki has been set up for follow up comments and ideas. Evaluations of the two days were extremely positive. Many teachers commented that this was the best professional development they had received. Already teachers are asking about next year’s conference. We would recommend this model of professional development to other school systems. If you are interested in more specific details of the conference please do not hesitate to contact us.

One Shot World Tour: Australia

"Best read with Vegemite......."

Get a different perspective on Australian literature through this great initiative from a bunch of non-oz bloggers. Along the way you will be taking your own One Shot World Tour of fantastic literature blogs.

Nick Earls by Colleen at Chasing Ray .

Margo Lanagan interviewed at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

Melina Marchetta at Writing and Ruminating.

Anna Feinberg and her Tashi series at Big A, little a .

Simmone Howell interviewed by Jenn at Not Your Mother's Bookclub.

Kathy Hoopmann's award winning All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome reviewed at Chicken Spaghetti.

How Sassy Changed My Life, The Red Shoe by Ursula Dubosarsky and more Margo Lanagan
by Gwenda at Shaken and Stirred.

John Marsden's Tomorrow series is discussed at Jen Robinson's Book Page

Jaclyn Moriarty and Penni Russon's Undine feature at Finding Wonderland

Alyssa Brugman's Finding Grace discussed by Little Willow at Bildungsroman.

Catherine Jinks and her four "Pagan" books by Liz at A Chair, a Fireplace & a Tea Cozy.

Does My Head Look Big in This? and John Flanagan's The Icebound Land feature at Interactive Reader

Queenie Chan interviewed by the YA YA YAs

Hot Men of Children's Literature: Australian Edition and John Marsden and "The Rabbits" (Part Two) (Part Three) at A Fuse #8 Production

Peter Temple interviewed at Light Reading

Am I Right or Am I Right? by Barry Jonsberg at Mother Reader .

Photo by Los Cardinalos

Be Cybersmart: Researching the Internet Wisely

This video comes from a series produced by The Mid-Atlantic Regional Technology in Education Consortium (MAR*TEC) at Temple University in partnership with The CyberSmart!® Education Company. In this video Joyce Valenza (internationally known teacher librarian) provides a great overview of the issues to consider in researching the internet wisely. Show it to students, staff meetings, or parent information sessions.

The purpose of these videos is to introduce the "new literacies" to educators — the challenges of safe, ethical, and effective technology use in support of teaching, learning, and living in the 21st Century. Further videos on Internet Safety, Social & ethical issues, and more are available here.

In2Edu - Education treasure trove!

"I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right." Albert Einstein

The In2Edu site provides an astonishingly comprehensive range of approches and resources for teachers - including fabulous support information literacy learning in schools.

The site features an information literacy programme/model called STEPS, born of a desire to help pupils make sense of and be creative with information. What makes STEPS unique is the range of variations that enable you to adapt it to different curriculum areas and different ages.

All 5000 best education links/favourites/favorites on this site were updated/verified July 2007.

They have developed a full information literacy programme similar to BIG 6/ SAUCE etc. It is supported with a range of downloadable resources and online activities to practise skills. Materials, posters, teaching tools and ideas are available across many curriculum areas. In fact, it takes ages to navigate all the dropdown menus and links to discover the wealth of information available. Rich tasks and deep thinking is included, and Blooms taxonomy underpins the rubrics.

Check out the downloads available, or navigate to the 'rich topic' curriculum choices below.

Discover Information Literacy