Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Help put a qualified Teacher Librarian in every school in Australia.

 Please sign the online petition started by "The Hub" at the link below:

Online petition - A Qualified Teacher Librarian in Every School






















Due to the abundance of information and "misinformation" there is a vital need for students to be guided by trained teachers to assist them in developing essential "information skills". 

We can not expect students to become "Information Literate" by throwing them into the sea of information and just hoping they don't drown!!


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“Talk About Art” at the regional Gallery on Saturday, 31 October.

 A message from Judy Atkinson:

I hope that you might find the following event at the Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery (next door to Coffs Harbour City Library) of interest.
 
At 10.00 am Saturday 31 October John McDonald author, historian and art critic for the Sydney Morning Herald will be presenting “Talk About Art” in the Regional Gallery. John is an erudite and at times controversial speaker but he is always entertaining. Cost $5, payable at the door and this includes refreshments. 
 
For further information, please contact the Art Gallery on 6648 4863.
 
 Regards
 
 Judy Atkinson
Library Programs Officer
Coffs Harbour City Library & Information Service
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Term 4 Coffs Harbour Teacher Librarian Network Meeting

 To all Teacher Librarians in the Coffs Harbour area please come along and join the network where you will be supported and have the opportunity to share your learnings with others. Help us help each other.


Meeting this term at
Coffs Harbour Primary School Library
3.30pm
Wednesday 11th November
We will have a guest speaker, Dan Brown, from World book, showing us around the updated World Book Web Site.
2nd on the list of course is our Christmas Dinner venue and date.

Looking forward to seeing you
Don't forget to bring something to eat with the cuppa/coffee

Lyn Howlin
Teacher Librarian
Coffs Harbour Primary School
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Sunday, October 25, 2009

Let's use cellphones for learning.


Obama's new Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, offers an enthusiastic endorsement of using digital tools like video games and cellphones in the classroom. He's a pragmatist; his attitude is that kids are on this stuff all day anyway, so why not put them to educational use?


from Rachel   A chat with Obama's new Secretary of Education




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Many Teacher Librarians are still struggling to get adequate support..SINK or SWIM

Please help by filling out this quick survey...It will take 2-3 minutes tops.

Your support is most appreciated.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Where the Wild Things Are

 
Looking for  multimodal stimulus for some great lessons.

Watch the Trailer: "Where the Wild Things Are' directed by Spike Jonez
(be warned there is an ad before the trailer plays)

Read the article:

‘Where the Wild Things Are’

Published Oct 9, 2008
From the magazine issue dated Oct 19, 2009

View the Wild and Beautiful images.


Tuesday, October 13, 2009

"Dewey Does Decimals" from David Strempel

 David has kindly allowed me to share this work with you: Enjoy.!!


A student once asked me to write a poem on the Dewey System 
for the School magazine:

Dewey Does Decimals



Melvil DeweyImage via Wikipedia

"When Melvil Dewey was a lad,
  Books in libraries were so bad,
  They were piled up in ugly stacks,
  By which were lies and which were facts
  And which were red and which were white
  And which were large and which were slight.

  “This has got to stop,” said Mel,
  “These libraries are a living hell,
  I just can’t get no satisfaction.”
  And then he had an inspiration.
  “There’s got to be a better system.
  I’ll think it through, and then I’ll list ‘em.”


  It took him days and weeks and years,
  He went through paper, ink and beers.
  It took long walks with his dog Bluey,
  And then it came to Melvil Dewey –
  A way of finding books so fast
  “This is the way, hooray, at last!”





  “I’ll put all books in ten main classes,
  I’ll write that down, now where’s my glasses?
  Then each class into fields I shall divide ‘em,
  And then each field and subfield and so on ad infinitum
  For more specific things, I’ll use some decimal places,”
  Whispered Mr. Dewey, hitching up his braces.

  Mel used the lowest numbers for generalities,
  Like mysteries, computers, journalism, bibliographies.
  The 100s were for noble ideas and thoughts of philosophy,
  And thoughts of thoughts and logic and psychology.
  He set aside 200 to two hundred ‘n’ ninety nine
  For ideas of the supernatural and of the divine.


  300s were for social sciences – law and education,
Civics, sociology, customs and vocation
  400s got the Language stuff – dictionaries ‘n’ grammar as well,
  “This ain’t so hard after all,” mumbled a smug Mel.
  500s he gave to Sciences – maths chem and zoology,
  Botony, palaeontology, biol and geology.

  600s for Technology, medicine and invention,
  TV, engineering ‘n’ agriculture got a mention.
  700s – the Arts – architecture and for painting,
  And music and sculpture, photography, recreating.
  800s for Literature – poetry, and plays (like Mystery),
  900s for Geography, cities, countries and for History.

  “Well that’s it then,” said Dewey to his Great Unca Scrooge,
  If this thing catches on it really will be HUGE,
  And if it don’t, why then, I’ll use my imagination,
  I’ll do a Mao, leave libraries and go and lead a nation.”
  Fortunately it worked for him, Mel Dewey and his dogue,
  But next he had to invent the old card catalogue.


  I’m not too sure I told it all the way it really went,
  But next time to a library you go or you are sent,
  Remember Melvil Dewey, the librarian and his pup,
Who gave us all good libraries, neatly divided up.
  And spare a thought for librarians with strange looks on their faces,
  Sitting in their back rooms trying to work out decimal places."


Melvil Dewey's Decimal SystemImage by Klara Kim via Flickr

  David Strempel   Teacher Librarian



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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Where the Wild Things Went Online Project 2009



This project is open to all PreK - 6th grade classrooms worldwide.
The project dates will be October 12 to October 30, 2009.

 
 This project offers teachers 3 ideas to share with their students.


Join in the fun as we learn about
extending a story, endangered animals, and verbs.



Loxodonta-african (African elephant) at Howlet...


Resources will include Worksheets, Standards, and Links for all the ideas.

Kindergarten 5 day plan



You are also welcome to join our ning at http://projectsbyjen.ning.com to expand the project!!



Registration now open.



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Friday, October 2, 2009

"Bear & Chook" books rap...coming soon

 Sharing a message from Ian Mc Lean (with permission) with you:
   
The book rap is  based on two picture books, "Bear & Chook",
and the newly-released "Bear & Chook by the sea",
is aimed at students in Early Stage 1 (Kinder) and Stage 1 (Years 1 & 2).

Several schools have already introduced themselves, there are some great comments turning up on the Teachers' section, and there are already things to look at in the Gallery.


This book rap will also feature participation by the author, Lisa Shanahan, and illustrator, Emma Quay. An online video, of Lisa and Emma reading "Bear & Chook by the sea" at Caddies Creek PS, and answering students' questions, will be an exciting addition to the usual teaching resources.

The rap is being coordinated by Jenny Scheffers (TL at Caddies Creek), 
"Scan" editor Cath Keane, and yours truly.
Interstate and international schools are welcome, and 
there is no cost involved in book rapping.


The rap pages on the NSW DET website are still under construction and will be open for viewing from NSW's Day 1, Term 4. 
The rap itself will commence in Week 2, Term 4,
in the week of 26 October 2009.

What is already open for viewing is the blog associated with this rap at:
http://rapblog6.edublogs.org/

You can see there the weekly tasks which students will undertake.

If you're trying to visualise the scope of the programming and planning, syllabus outcomes and rap sheets, you might like to check out previous recent raps, such as the 2008 Stage 1 "Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge" book rap, in which the discussion component was also in a blog format:
http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/raps/wilfrid08/index.htm

You can also email cath.keane@det.nsw.edu.au for further information about the rap. 




Please join us, and spread the word! 




Click here to check out the website:  Bear and Chook
"This touching story is about Bear and Chook,
two very different 
but very good friends 
and their ambitions and dreams."

Don't forget to bring your warm honey toast!       Happy holidays! 





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Thursday, October 1, 2009

Digital Literacy for Educators.

agqtpLogo


This project was funded by the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training as a quality teacher initiative under the Australian Government Quality Teacher Programme.
This course is a 20 hour course for 
teachers and teacher librarians 
in primary and secondary
schools throughout NSW.

The course comprises 1 full day face to face workshop in a location across NSW followed by an online program to be completed by Term 4, 2009. Participants will learn about:
  • Digital literacy and associated learning and skills for teachers to use in the classroom
  • Web 2.0 tools and other digital tools for learning....see below for overviews of the workshop and online course
 Download and register today - workshops extended to the beginning of Term 4 - register now!

Workshop venues:
25th Sept - St Ignatius College, Riverview
20th Oct - Port Macquarie
20th Oct - Coffs Harbour
24th Oct - Wagga Wagga

 from Australian School Library Association Website 

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Copyright.....Updates from tweeters at ASLA 2009

The following advice was received via tweets from participants at
Australian School Libraries Bi-Annual Conference 
currently being held in Perth, Australia.

If you're not teaching your teachers and your students about Creative Commons, you should be!


Worksheets available on Creative Commons on the Smartcopying website. Resources also available on Creative Commons website...



Teach students to use Creative Commons resources for digital projects.
Make sure you license generated content so others can use it too!
If you leave it blank, it's copyright and restricted.

Image representing YouTube as depicted in Crun...Image via CrunchBase

Do you read the Terms and Conditions? YouTube and all commercial services have restrictive terms of use that you might not realise.

New information sheet on YouTube at the smartcopying website

Thanks for your tweets: editormum75; cathyoxley; janning and sbrennan
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Infomuves: Information management, education and the shift to virtual worlds.

Check out this SlideShare Presentation from Kim Flintoff at ASLA 2009: