Australian Museum: resources for education

While toddling about the Australian Museum site being gobsmacked by science photography, I thought I'd locate a couple more useful links to pop on the blog.

The Education Services site has a bunch of possibilities to explore, including videoconferencing, teacher previews/talks, competitions and more. http://australianmuseum.net.au/education-services

The Collections section is the gateway to exploring an extensive number of options, including biodiversity, natural science collections, interactive science activities, cultural collections and more. http://australianmuseum.net.au/research-and-collections

Also:
Animals http://australianmuseum.net.au/animals
Minerals and fossils http://australianmuseum.net.au/minerals-and-fossils
Cultures (including Australian Aboriginal  and Ancient Egyptian material) http://australianmuseum.net.au/cultures

Worth sharing with your Science staff, Society and Culture teachers, Aboriginal committee/liaison group/Aboriginal studies teachers, History teachers and others.  You don't have to be in Sydney or NSW to make use of many of the resources on the site.

Cheers

Ruth

Amazing science photography

There are three finalists in this year's Eureka Science Photography prize.  Take a look:

http://australianmuseum.net.au/image/Breakfast-on-the-Fly
http://australianmuseum.net.au/image/Burn-Out
http://australianmuseum.net.au/image/A-kaleidoscope-of-dust-and-gas-in-Orion

and maybe share them with your Science staff?

You can also search on past Eureka Science prizewinners (there are lots of other categories as well as Science Photography - it's near the end of the list) by clicking here.

There are also Eureka teacher resources, state-specific and all!  Find them here: http://eureka.australianmuseum.net.au/teacher

No blog entry yesterday.  Yup, I know.  Not slackness, just a crazybeans day.  As happens.

Cheers

Ruth

Old Spice and Libraries

As a keen watcher of The Gruen Transfer (an ABC television show about advertisements, advertising and marketing) I recently learned about the world's best ad 2010, one for Old Spice aftershave:



A tad bewildering, on first view.  All one take, and all 'real' except for the hand with an oyster/tickets/diamonds.  Original URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE

The company has follow-up spots in which the Old Spice Man talks about topics suggested by people.  And whaddya know, here's one (in the same sorta style as the ad) about libraries:



What can I say?  I'm here to share.  Original URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu-KBxOtJxs&feature=player_embedded

Cheers

Ruth

PS.  Couldn't resist.  Here's another one.



Original URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLTIowBF0kE&feature=channel

The past may come back to bite you...

There's a sign on the window by my office door that points out that I'm not young enough to know everything (kids read it sometimes, and go, well, of course...)...and yet sometimes you see the bulletproof young heading towards disaster - or at least, problems - assuming they're teflon-coated, when you know they aren't.  Internet privacy's one of those problems.

In The Web Means the End of Forgetting, (NY Times) Jeffrey Rosen discusses how publication of information about individuals can influence present circumstances, future prospects, eliminate opportunities.

We’ve known for years that the Web allows for unprecedented voyeurism, exhibitionism and inadvertent indiscretion, but we are only beginning to understand the costs of an age in which so much of what we say, and of what others say about us, goes into our permanent — and public — digital files. The fact that the Internet never seems to forget is threatening, at an almost existential level, our ability to control our identities; to preserve the option of reinventing ourselves and starting anew; to overcome our checkered pasts.

Worth reading.  One to share with colleagues, students and children.

Cheers

Ruth

PS. if the lemon tree in your garden is utterly ignored except when you can pick fruit from it, does that benign neglect qualify it for 'organic' status?  If so, today's lemon cupcakes with chocolate icing had organic lemon zest in them... Hurrah for a cupcake Monday!

Official movie site: Tomorrow When the War Began

The official site for the film of Tomorrow When the War Began, based on the excellent book series by John Marsden, has just been launched.  Find it here: http://www.twtwb.com/ . 

How does the website fit in with the film's marketing: “Our goal was to engage the current fan base of the John Marsden novels and create a truly engaging interactive site that could feed their appetite for content and broaden our audience leading into the film’s release. Tequila understood our vision to interact, engage and create a site that fits with international standards”, said Cate Smith, Marketing Director Paramount Pictures Australia.

“Extending the narrative into the interactive space is really where we see the future of entertainment marketing. It’s a real privilege to work with like-minded people when working on projects like this,” said Russ Tucker, Tequila’s Creative Director. (source)


43 days left before the film premieres...

Cheers

Ruth

...about to toddle off and work with Year 7 on a biography assignment we've called: Who Are They? And Why Should I Care?  Invented it for one class and the good news spread - today's will be the third class to do it.  Woo hoo!  The kids don't do another Powerpoint? groan!, but instead have set requirements including a model related to their person.  Much more fun.

You know you're back at school when....

...you hear lots of holiday stories from the kids.  I've found an excellent question to ask is, "And the best part of your holiday was - ?" - gets some great replies.  Although I could have done without the detailed description of one kid's vomit -

- but Miss, you could see -

I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!!

And at recess I got a detailed description of hunting feral pigs (to help the farmers).  Pig-dogs, knives... don't ask.  More than I evah knew before.

The happy life of teacher librarians.  All the news that's fit to print, and some you'd rather avoid.  Bless 'em.

As you could probably tell by the silence on this blog, the end of term got VERY busy around here.  Had a great holiday, back with a more ideas to play with and share.

Cheers

Ruth

Tomorrow When the War Began: HQ Theatrical Trailer

John Marsden's Tomorrow When the War Began series has a lot of fans who've been enjoying this latest trailer for the film (which will be in cinemas in early September 2010).  I know it looks like it doesn't fit on the page, but play it - it does (you can fullscreen it too).



Found this on the Tomorrow-Movies (fan?)site here.  They sourced it from here.

Cheers

Ruth

Oustanding teachers fight for recognition

From Megan Johnston in this week's Education section of the Sydney Morning Herald, an article about outstanding teachers and the impact of school leadership.  It begins:

Pause a moment to ponder your school years. Most of us would remember fondly at least one teacher for their enthusiasm, spirited classes and willingness to push students to achieve their best. At some stage, however, many people have also encountered the opposite: a mediocre teacher who struggled with students and delivered dreary lessons.


Teachers at either end of the spectrum are now recognised as potentially the biggest influence on a student's academic achievement. Research has widely shown the effect is greater than the type of school or even who heads it.

But what separates top teachers from their lacklustre counterparts is not exactly clear. Creative nous, intelligence and resources obviously play some role, but the most dynamic schools are more than the sum of their teachers.

And, as many educators, parents and researchers will attest, the quality of a school is often determined by the people who lead it.


"You can have good teaching without having a good school but you can't have a good school without good leadership," says Professor Stephen Dinham, the research director of teaching, learning and leadership at the Australian Council for Educational Research.

"Leadership is an enabler, bringing the school together and driving it forward," he says.

But effective leadership is no simple matter. Many experts, Dinham included, believe it comes in many forms and is not restricted to the formal role of principal.

A senior education lecturer at Charles Sturt University, Dr Jane Wilkinson, refers to "lighthouse teachers" as those who guide their peers. "The ones with credibility, the ones others look to - we're talking about very influential teachers," she says. ''They … are recognised as leaders because of their credibility in the classroom."

Read the rest of the article here and consider the lighthouse/leadership role possibilities of teacher librarianship...

Cheers

Ruth

GIFSL*55: Keep Calm and Carry On

It's become very popular, in the last couple of years, the WW2 Keep Calm and Carry On poster.  We have one in the library, a present from Year 12 last year.  The year group and their year adviser really liked the idea expressed and also giving this to the library for the whole school to be able to see, enjoy and think about.  It's a lovely focal point.

This is 2m tall, vinyl over a wooden frame.  Remo General Store has two sizes, Regular and Big (ours is Big): prices range from $165AU to around $600AU, depending if you order it framed (add shipping to those prices - and the framed options are only for Sydney).   They have other vinyl poster designs too.  What's good about vinyl is its durability (no silverfish munching!) - this should last a long time we hope (it doesn't get any direct sun, either).  The link below shows you some of their other vinyl poster designs.  They also stock some other Keep Calm items, such as Tshirts.

OK, so now you're saying OUCH in a big way?  Keep calm....(but don't forget the possibility of seeing if your end-year group, whether it's 6, 10 or 12, needs any suggestions for their School Present...)

There are other options.

• Barter Books in the UK rediscovered this poster (read the story here) and sell copies at a VERY reasonable price (even with postage to Australia).  Keep Calm and Carry On is GBP3.60, and its companion posters, Freedom is in peril, defend it with all your might and Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory are GBP4.60.  They can fit more than one in a mailing tube (ie. keeping postage costs down).  They also have Tshirts, mugs, aprons, postcards and so forth with the Keep Calm design.  Think what you could do with a pack of postcards... (and note that I've given you an excellent bit of info for a trivia night question, with the two companion posters).  Framing doesn't have to cost a bomb: one neat inexpensive trick is to buy a slightly larger frame (I found one in Ikea for under $10), buy a mat board sized to fit the whole frame (ie. no expensive hole-cutting) and put the poster on top of the mat board in the frame.  Easy to switch them around, too.
• Larkmade in Victoria has the poster for $25 plus shipping (poster in a size to fit Ikea Ribba frames) and Keep Calm homewares.  They are also a very charming rural small business worth supporting.
• Real Shopping, an online shop associated with Real Living magazine, has a canvas version (size isn't given, but I'm guessing it's neither tiny nor huge), ready to hang.  $44, free shipping in Australia.

The poster isn't copyright, so there are a gazillion folk out there with versions (some more ethical than others). Try searching http://www.etsy.com/ for "keep calm" and you'll find colour variations, and all sorts of associated merchandise.  Dozens of ways to keep calm.

For a quirky twist, take a squizz at the Flickr pool of design variations - some very clever (hmmm, is there an English writing task possibility there???).  (Be warned, some of the Flickr suggestions are not school-age friendly, so don't show the site without previewing.)

Sometimes, it's handy to look at that big red sign and remind myself to keep calm.  Sometimes, kind kind people point it out to me (can't imagine why...).  Bless their little cotton socks.

Cheers

Ruth

gifsl = good ideas for school  libraries

The happy life of teacher librarians: a Monday conversation

Hi Miss
Good morning!
How was your weekend?  Did you enjoy the quilt convention?
[note: we had previously discussed our quite different weekend plans]
Sure did.  Got these fabrics to make a quilt for a sick friend [I happened to have the fabric bundle in my hands when he accosts me, so I razz him a wee tad by showing them to him, knowing I'll be admiring his weekend loot.  He evinces polite, brief interest, and I know I should let him off the hook, he's BURSTING to talk about his weekend.] And you?  How was your Supernova comic convention?
I was hugged by Optimus Prime! [thanks be I recollect he's a big Transformer.  I think]
Wow!  Do you have a photo of it?
No...but I have photos of me with other characters
Bring them in to show me.
And I got a Green Lantern ring!
Fabulous!
And this Scott Pilgrim graphic novel - it's great, you should get it for the library.  There's only one bit to worry about, and they don't actually have sex.
Right...
And I hung out with [a group of Australian comic book creators, name escapes me], and it closed at six and they had to chase us out of the building.
Sounds like a great day.
It was!
Don't forget to bring in those photos to show me...

The happy life of teacher librarians: weekend edition!  And I can now capably refer to 'cosplay' and 'glomping'.  The comic crew was [momentarily] proud of me.  Not bad for an old lady (they'd already told me that the only people at the quilt show would be nannas, like 70+...!).

Cheers

Ruth

PS Found great little display item at Ikea on the weekend.  Will share it this week.  Cheap, useful, lots of potential, reusable.  Bargain!

It's a busy life!

Sorry for the hiatus in posts - so much else keeping me busy! 

Had great fun yesterday working with Year 11 extension English students in a double period.  The teacher and I wanted them to think about how novels begin, so I put together a document with the beginnings of about twenty-two novels, from Ludlum to Atwood to Novik to Shan to a variety of teenlit authors.  The students could look at the book covers only (not blurbs, not open them) and had to work out which beginning went with which book, just using clues from the text and the covers.  They started off thinking it was an IMPOSSIBLE task.  Love setting impossible tasks and watching students find they're do-able...  I told them that if they got it out, I would shout them a hot chocolate (I'd stocked up with a pot of Choc-o-latte that morning).

About six were guessed fast because one or other student had read them.  They had to think, and consult each other (it was an all or nothing competition, they had to collectively arrive at their choices).  Discussion went on about what covers were signifying, and what the words of various beginnings implied - chicklit, thriller, fantasy and so forth.  Students would say, I think this cover is for this beginning, and would then have to justify their choice and see if others agreed.  If they got it right, and all agreed, and had justified their answer, I took the book from the long table at which they were all sitting, so they could see what was left to match up.

And they got it out.  And were not only very pleased with themselves for solving the 'impossible task', but pleased with the hot chocolate (I like random/intermittent rewards like this - but not the every-lesson lollipop, which seems unduly expensive and seems also to lead to whining kids).  We're part way through going around the group and asking them which three beginnings they like best - the next stage of this is looking in greater detail at writing techniques, comparing, contrasting, considering what they can find to add to and improve their own writing.  Interestingly enough, as we tally favourites, the Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale, one of my favourite book beginnings - everything is there in that first chapter about the gymnasium) is proving to be popular with the students, too.

They're coming back in a fortnight for their next double.  More fun to be had!

I've been working with some Year 7 English classes on a biography assignment too (which is called, "Who are they and why should we care?") in which they have to think of ways to present their information in an interesting way - eg. in a model.  They've been enjoying that.  At the end, they get 10 votes each to give to other students in their class - only one vote per colleague - and this is taken into account as part of the marking.  A certain amount of friend-voting goes on, but the outstanding ones draw votes from friends and colleagues.

With Year 11 Visual Design, on a longer term assessment task on picture books, we're at the beginnings - illustration techniques, writing techniques and so forth - they have to produce their own picture book.  The Vis Arts teacher and I selected a bunch of picture books to show them - it was fascinating to see our overlapping but not identical focus, me a tad more on words, she a tad more on images/techniques/artwork.

And so it goes, and so it goes.  That's just some of the iceberg keeping my workdays happy and occupied.  I'm sure yours are the same!

Cheers

Ruth

Top 10 customer service skills for library staff

From this terrific blog entry at The Learning Round Table, A Collaborative Learning Experiment: Top Ten Customer Service Skills for Library Staff:

1. Greet every customer
2. Be aware of non-verbal clues
3. Listen
4. Restate the problem or question
5. Be empathetic
6. Provide alternatives to “No”
7. Reserve judgment
8. Get (back) to them as soon as possible
9. Follow your gut instinct
10. Thank them for using the library

Trust me.  Go and read the entire article.  Then (as I did) pat yourself on the back for what you do; and work out what you can do better, or start doing.  One to share with all library staff.  From a customer's point of view, that list is the service you'd like to get, isn't it?

And is this customer service replaced by the internet?

I think not.

Cheers

Ruth

Life Matters on the national inquiry into school libraries

The Radio National program Life Matters had an eleven minute segment on the national inquiry into school libraries and teacher librarians, including an interview with Karen Bonnano.  Listen here.

Cheers

Ruth

Found via Twitter.

Read the new Twilight novella about Bree Tanner FREE for the next month

Toddle on over to http://www.breetanner.com/ to read this novella free until 5 July 2010. (According to this SMH article).

Don't forget to advise the Twilightery at your school.  I blogged about this at the start of the term, but figured you'd appreciate a reminder.  There will also be a hardback version for sale, is the information I have.

Cheers

Ruth

PS I'm scheduling this to publish on Skerricks on 8 June to accommodate the time difference between here and the US. 

Top design sites and blogs

A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald's glossy mag about the design store, Top3 included a useful list of their top design sites and blogs.  Top3 has only three types of any one item -those they consider the best (so the Top3 site itself also has design education potential).

The Top3 top ten sites for design inspiration:

• ThisNext
• MoCo Loco
• Core 77 design magazine and resource
• indesignlive
• The Design Files
• 2modern design talk
• Designspotter
• designboom
• Stylepark
• Dezeen design magazine

Lots of material there for your students and teachers doing design and technology subjects.

Cheers

Ruth

PS We've just finished and installed a spiffing bit of art in the library - a second cousin of the word walls.  More (including pictures, please goodness Blogger will cooperate on the picture front) next week...

Sites2See

Sites2See are great info packages on all sorts of topics (eg. Volcanoes).  They contain images, evaluated links and more - they're put together by CLI (Centre for Learning Innovation, part of the NSW DET) and published on TALE (Teaching and Learning Exchange).  Some TALE content is DET intranet only, but the Sites2See are freely available on the internet.

For yourself, try browsing the range of available Sites2See (note their size is neatly optimised for netbook-sized screens).

You know the way some kids just go to Wikipedia because they know it and it's familiar?  Try suggesting they add Sites2see to their searches, to land on these excellent information packages.

Cheers

Ruth

What is Evernote and why would I use it?

Evernote's on my horizon, but not yet part of my daily practice (when you can't install applications on work computers, it does have an impact).  But it might be... and this blog entry has a comprehensive look at how it's useful for collecting and sorting information.

Cheers

Ruth

Found via Twitter @willrich45

In praise of teachers...

Feeling like it's hump day, Wednesday, a bit teacher-weary?

Read this entry on the Alien Onion blog.  It's fabulous.

If I was making my own list:

Mrs B, who let the school choir sing the latest cool music, like Fernando by Abba.  Even if it was transposed up so we had to screech in some sections.  And who taught me the soprano descant for Silent Night.  I can still sing it.

Mr B, who loved putting on school musicals, so we got to be a part of that wonderful experience - yay for Oklahoma!

Mrs A, the fiercest, most uncompromising PE teacher ever - and the one we most wanted to have

Mrs B, (a different one) who showed me a little of the beauty of mathematical equations.  I bought a calculator after my HSC and have never looked back, but still remember that aha! moment.

Ms B (a third one!), who made 3 unit English a joy - Romeo and Juliet, Ted Hughes - still some of the best literature study I've experienced

Mrs ?? whose name eludes me, but whose weekly coloured chalk illustrations from children's books made her term as primary teacher librarian when I was in grade 5 utterly memorable

Mrs E, who taught Ancient History with style, verve, and many handwritten purple fordigraph sheets: I've never forgotten that Alcibiades won the trifecta.  Or that scent of metho from freshly-produced fordigraph sheets...

At tertiary level:

WC: best English literature tutor ever.

MH, who inspired me to be a teacher librarian.  Thank you.

Who would be on your list?

Cheers

Ruth

who once had one of my Year 12 students say how much she remembered my salad sandwiches.  Right.  You never know the impact you're going to have...!!

Have you discovered Instructables?

Recently, I needed origami instructions for a dead simple box (a Year 7 class assignment had the class members voting on each other's work, and so each kid needed a box for the raffle ticket 'voting slips').  Googlegooglegoogle and this box from Instructables is perfect - simple, fast, works with any rectangle of paper/cardboard.

Instructables (Make, How-To and DIY), if you haven't come across it, is an almost inexhaustible supply of how-to, from the sublime to the Unusual, and every byway in between.  Here, for example, are some of the links from the home page when I looked at it recently:

• Vertical Garden
• How to make your first real robot
• Iron Man - how to make various kinds of gear from the recent film/s
• Easy origami
• How to make a dog bone shaped cookie cutter
• Mobile veggie garden
• Turn signal biking jacket (with light-up left/right arrows)

And so it goes.  Usually step by step pictures with instructions on the tools and materials you need, sometimes video tutorials as well.  A cornucopia of ideas.

One to share with a whole lot of faculties - Science, Industrial Arts, Design and Technology, Agriculture....

Once again, no pics because Blogger won't play nice.  Sigh, again.

Cheers

Ruth

PS The science teacher who points out the absence of science-y entries on this blog can note that's two science-relevant entries in two days...!!

Better Health Channel - excellent, reliable health info

If your students (or teachers eg. in PE or Science or Home Ec.) are after reliable health/medical information from an Australian source, try the Victorian government's Better Health Channel website.  Fact sheets, patient info, image library, quizzes, medical dictionary, medicines guide, a whole kit and caboodle of stuff that's a safer bet than Wikipedia (where, apart from the issue of veracity, you sometimes run into techno-vocabulary that's beyond the scope of school kids). 

The site will often come up high in Google searches, but why not direct the kids straight to a good site, rather than letting them loose in the wilderness that is health info on the internet?  The language level is accessible and clear for kids to understand, and the fact that it's Australian is important (if you're in Australia) - recipes reflect local ingredients, medicines have their correct local names, further links to support groups etc aren't going to recommend a fabulous organisation in Idaho or Yorkshire...

I was going to include a graphic (the site logo), but Blogger didn't want to play. Again. Sigh.

Cheers

Ruth