Virtual Teacher
Newsletter No. 66 February28th BEWARE THE JABBERWOCK
THE FREE ONLINE
FORTNIGHTLY IT TEACHERS' NEWSLETTER
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CONTENTS
1. Welcome
2. Mind Candy
3. WWWinfo Email
Safety
4. New Printables
ICT Scope and Sequence
5. Technical
Stuff Email and ICT Seminars
6. Web Site Focus
Leonardo Da Vinci
7. Webquests
8. Great Sites
9. Readers' Requests/Comments
10 Next Issue
11. Code of
'Netizens'
12. Tips
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1. WELCOME EVERYONE
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird and shun
The
frumious Bandersnatch.",
If you look, you
will find many evil Jabberwocks and nasty
Bandersnatches in
this world out to get us, including the
dreaded frumious
SPAM on our emails, offering all manner
of weirdo
paraphernalia, from the scrofulous through to the
illegal through to the, cockamamie. Education Departments
are worried, and
feel the need to set up secure and Œsafe¹
systems for
students and teachers to use to PROTECT
them from the
evils lurking in cyberspace. This is, as Nero
Wolf would say,
ŒNincompoopery¹. Students need to
learn to
deal with the
real world, special programs developed specifically
for school use,
deprive them of learning life skills they WILL need.
They need to see
the dangers, problems, pitfalls and learn to
deal with
them. Every teenager has or will
have an email
address, and it
certainly won¹t include an .edu
extension.
Just as with child
protection education, we need to give our
students the
skills to navigate cyberspace successfully, and
use email
responsibly, the skills to be aware of the pitfalls
and problems. DO
Yahoo mail, DO Hotmail, and then talk
about misuse of
emails, inform the students parents and
arm your students
with the information they need to deal
with email and
online technology effectively and appropriately.
http://www.nycenet.edu/oit/email/emailsafety.htm
Also a letter to
parents about Email.
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/emailsafety.htm
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2. MIND CANDY
What makes a
great teacher, the ability to:-
To have total
control but to let go at the same time.
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No matter what happens, there is always
somebody around
who knew it would.
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If you refuse to
accept anything but the best you very often get it.
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Courage is not
the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that
something else is
more important than fear.
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Manager:
"For a man with no experience, you are certainly
asking for a high
salary."
Applicant:
"Well, the work is much harder when you don't
know what you're
doing!"
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3. WWWinfo
Internet and Email Safety
http://www.nycenet.edu/oit/email/emailsafety.htm
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4. NEW PRINTABLES
Scope and
Sequence for ICT
Scope and
sequence updated to include Databases
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/scopes.doc
Summary
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/sssum.doc
Year 1-7 Program
for computers in learning
http://www.schools.ash.org.au/murrumba/1_7/index.htm
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5. TECHNICAL
STUFF
Messages to be
monitored before going to schools
By Linda Doherty,
Education Writer 17th Feb 2003
Students using
email in NSW public schools will have Big Brother
Watching over
them as the Carr Government evaluates how
the technology is
used and how much extra work it requires of teachers.
This story was
found at:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/16/1045330466694.html
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Bringing ŒIT¹ to
Teachers - Free Road Train with a Difference.
This is an
opportunity to talk directly to suppliers, attend software
demonstrations
from Edsoft, robotics workshops from
Educational
Experience and see the latest audio visual products
from TCP. Enjoy
afternoon tea with our compliments,
receive a free
showbag and be in the draw to win our major prize
of a Sanyo
DVDSL20 DVD player, drawn after the final
session at
Bathurst. These special IT sessions will include
presentations and
displays from:-
LINDA ZUGAI -
EDSOFT: The Primary Session will
include Max¹s
Sandbox, Kidspiration, Clicker
4 and the latest
product from Crick Software ClozePro*.
The Secondary
session will include
Inspiration 7*,
Stop Motion Pro* and the latest Absorb
Courseware for
Physics, Chemistry and
Maths from
Crocodile Clips. Those products marked
* have
application to both Primary and
Secondary. More
information about these products is
available from
the Edsoft 2003 catalogue
or email Linda at
Linda.Zugai@bigpond.com
JOANNA HARVEY -
EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE:
An introductory
Robotics hands on workshop for Primary
& High School
teachers.
Participants will
learn how easy it is to use LEGO
Mindstorms for
Schools and implement robotics in the
classroom. The
session will also include an overview of
Robocup Junior
Australia a National Robotics competition
for Primary &
High School students. This competition gives
students an opportunity
to design, build & program
robots to Dance.
Rescue or play Soccer.
LINDA SOMERS -
TCP: This is an opportunity to experience
and compare
user-friendly data projectors, their features and
benefits. AT FOR
ALL VENUES
3.00-4.00PM
Afternoon Tea
3.00-6.30PM
Resources on Display
4.00-5.00PM
Session 1 :Software demonstration - Primary Focus
:Robotics
Workshop for Primary and Secondary Teachers
5.00-6.00PM
Session 2 :Software demonstration Primary &
Secondary Focus
Robotics Workshop for Primary and Secondary Teachers
VENUES
MARCH 10TH
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS OFFICE NEWCASTLE
MARCH 11TH
WESTPORT PRIMARY SCHOOL PORT MACQUARIE
MARCH 12TH Note
changed venue OXLEY HIGH SCHOOL TAMWORTH
MARCH 13TH ST
JOHN¹S COLLEGE DUBBO
MARCH 14TH KELSO
PRIMARY BATHURST
EMAIL Linda.Zugai@bigpond.com
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Hi Cathy,
Environment
Victoria and Smogbusters are running a debating challenge for
high school
students. The idea of the competition is to promote the use of
sustainable
transport. If possible it would be great if the debating
challenge and our
contact details could be mentioned in your newsletter.
Let me know if
you have any queries.
Regards
Lisa Litchfield
For more
information contact virginia.simpson@envict.org.au
vols@envict.org.au
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Closing date for
ATOM Award submissions Monday MARCH 12, 2003 9.00am
New ATOM Award as
the deadline is only two weeks away.
myinternet
sponsors the Best Educational Website created by a teacher.
Those entries
from teachers from a myinternet school have a discount of
$25.00 per entry.
Usually entry fee is $55.00.
Further details:
http://www.metromagazine.com.au/metro/07/images/CallForEntriesv2.pdf
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EdNA Online has
provided schools with a detailed online version of
the Australian
Schools Calendar:
http://www.edna.edu.au/noticeboards/noticelist.html?id=1981
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Got no money to
buy Lego Technic or Robolab,try this:-
This is amazing.
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Looking for
software to support the digital forms part of
the new NSW K6
Art Syllabus try Dogwaffle.
It has similar
tools to Corel's Painter and it is free.
Hint - right
click on the brush tool for a heap more brushes.
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6. WEBSITE FOCUS
EXPLORING LEONARDO
http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/
This
comprehensive site for fourth- through eighth-graders,
created by the
Boston Museum of Science, brings Leonardo's work
alive through
activities. It is divided into
four sections:
Inventor's
Workshop (Leonardo's machines), Leonardo's
Perspective
(Renaissance drawing techniques), What, Where, When?
(a brief bio) and
Right to Left (his curious habit of writing in
reverse). The online activities include three
Shockwave lessons
in perspective
and the opportunity to decipher one of da Vinci's
inventions. Is it a drill, a crane, a wrecking
ball?
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Kausal.com:
Leonardo da Vinci
http://www.kausal.com/leonardo/
Martin Kausal's
biographical site traces Leonardo's life from
his 1452 birth in
a Anchiano farmhouse, just outside the town of
Vinci, to his
death at age sixty-seven. Be sure
to mouse over
the photographs,
as additional details will pop up when you do.
Other highlights
include an article exploring Mona Lisa's
mysterious smile,
the possibility that Leonardo invented the
bicycle and two
streaming videos.
Leonardo's Codex
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/codex/
The Codex
Leicester, written between 1506 and 1510, "is a lively
record of
Leonardo's thoughts. It embraces a wide variety of
topics, from
astronomy to hydrodynamics, and includes Leonardo's
observations and
theories related to rivers and seas; the
properties of
water; rocks and fossils; air; and celestial
light. All of
this is expressed in his signature mirror writing,
as well as in
more than 300 pen-and-ink sketches, drawings, and
diagrams, many of them illustrating imagined or
real
experiments."
On loan from Bill Gates, the Codex is on display
at the American
Museum of Natural History, and at this website.
Mona Lisa Images
for a Modern World
http://www.studiolo.org/Mona/MONALIST.htm
Is a Mona Lisa teapot simply kitschy trash
or is it art? Take
a look around,
and decide for yourself. As an
alternative to
reading the
entire article, you can skip to the image gallery by
following the
link to the Table o f Images. The
Teacher's Guide
offers dozens of
great questions to stimulate discussion.
"Should
great works of art be protected from commercial use and
ridicule? Why or
why not? Does an advertisement ridicule a work
of art when that
work is used to sell, say, suntan lotion?"
National Museum
of Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci
http://www.museoscienza.org/english/leonardo/
The Leonardo da
Vinci National Museum of Science
and Technology
in Milan has a
great companion website to its massive 15000
piece collection.
First stop is Leonardo's Gallery,
with photos
of over a
hundred modern models. Next is Virtual Leonardo, a
three-dimensional
exhibit where you can interact with the
models, and
"walk" around the virtual museum. A VRML (Virtual
Reality Modeling
Language ) plug-in is required.
Other sections
include a brief
biographical time line, and the story of a
bronze horse
built in 1999 based on Leonardo's drawings.
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7. WEBQUESTS
The effectiveness
and value of the webquest or online scaffolding
increases with
improved access and faster computers.
Webquests
enable teachers
to cater for individual needs and allow students to
work at their own
pace. Here are some brilliant links to webquests
and info on
constructing your own.
http://library.trinity.wa.edu.au/teaching/webquests.htm
Make your own
Rubric for use in the Classroom excellent online
resource which
makes life much easier. Just select
your outcomes
and a rating of 1
to 4 for each outcome will automatically
appear,
great time saver.
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/
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8. GREAT SITES
HOT SITES
The Wonka Factory
http://www.wonka.com/InventionRoom/inventionroom_flash.html
Yes, the
gratuitous references to the candies are here, but check
out this room:
Knid Knockers, Oompas Rush and the Nerds
Ropes game!
Invention trivia too.
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Great OZ site.
Games Brainteasers, Puzzles, reasoning and
spatial skills.
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Parliament
of Australia
http://www.aph.gov.au/live/webcast5.asp
Get
an insiders view of the workings of Parliament from live
webcasts
at this site.
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International
Year of Fresh Water 2003
http://www.edna.edu.au/schools/themes/water.html
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Human Impact on
Water Environments - Great Unit from
Pembroke Junior
School
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Water
Conservation Unit - Fantastic - gathering information from
your local
environment.
http://pd.impaq.com.au/Talo_Online/webquests/water/wcw_index.htm
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Easy Video
Conferencing - set up a webcam for your school
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~leemshs/vidconf.htm
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There are some
great links and ideas at the NSW Country Areas
Program Site
http://www.cap.nsw.edu.au/curriculum_links/stage_one_links.htm
Here are a few
for HSIE, well presented easy to use, all current.
Human Society and
Its Environment
Stage 1 Links
http://www.cap.nsw.edu.au/curriculum_links/stage_one_links.htm
Stage 2 Links
http://www.cap.nsw.edu.au/curriculum_links/stage_two_links.htm
Stage 3
http://www.cap.nsw.edu.au/curriculum_links/stage_threee_links.htm
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9. READERS
COMMENTS/REQUESTS
Cathy:
I love your
newsletter! I am certain that
somewhere in the last
few years you
must have touched upon the subject of helping
children put
together a solar system kit. My
second-grade daughter
needs this for
the middle of March at school.
Would you be so
kind as to guide
me to web pages where I might find pointers on
how to do the
solar system? I'd appreciate it
very much.
Toty Martin
Cleveland, Ohio
USA
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Hi Toty,
The best way to
search VT is to use the google search engine on
the directory
page.
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/directory.html
There are quite a
few resources on my science page:-
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/science.html
One of my
favourites is
http://kids.f9.net.uk/flash/planets/about_planets.html
As to building
one - I like the idea of balloons of different sizes
and papie mache,
suspended on string like a mobile.
Alternatively
use differently
sized polystyrene balls, coloured, and kebab skewers
stuck into
something like a block of polystyrene.
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Dear Cathy,
Thanks for such
an informative and useful site. This year I have
been made
responsible for Mathematics in our school. I have
had many requests
for help and guidance from my fellow
colleagues in
regards to integrating maths into technology.
Can you please
help with any useful websites or the latest in
useful software
that will support Mathematics K-6??? Thanks
again Sharon
If anyone else
would like to see a sample page just let me
know and I will
email some out to you. If you, if there is
enough interest I
will start duplicating.
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Hi Sharon,
You can do a
google search of my site from the google search
engine on my
directory page
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/directory.html
One of my
favourite games is
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/megamaths/picknumber/index.html
There are also
some great sites listed on my
maths links page at:-
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/maths.html
I have written a
CD based book on multiplication tables as well
which I find
rather fun to use - however I haven't found a
company to
publish it yet. But I may relook
at it this year as I
have had
considerable interest in it. And I believe multiplication
tables are one of
the most difficult and crucial things to teach
in primary
school. I have attached one
of the pages, it has
come interactive
features - others like the sound effects are a
little harder to
send via email. The pages can
be printed or
used online as
you can see. If I get enough
interest I will
duplicate the CDs
myself and sell them direct.
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Hi Cathy,
I am just
wondering whether you know of any great sites for
casual teachers
to get resources/advice/worksheets etc..
I have just
started teaching casually in Sydney and find it
hard to prepare
last minute. Is this something
that just
comes in time? By
the way your site has given me a great
starting point
regards
Maria
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Hi Maria,
The Armament of a
good casual teacher.
1. A good book to
read - Tashi, Series of Unfortnate
Events by
Lemony
Snicket, Something that you really
like yourself and love
to read. Most of the Dr Seuss material.
2. A great poem
to learn I like, The Gofongo, My
Noisy Brother
by Bruce Lansky
3. A great writing
activity - one of my favourites is to choose
a word and use it
as many times as you can in a story.
Limit the time -
say 10 min. Then stories are read to partners
or groups or
class.
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/writing.html
4. A group maths
activity Like Euclid's Game( you can play it
on the blackboard
then the students can play it at their tables in pairs)
http://www.cut-the-knot.org/blue/EuclidAlg.shtml
5. A great art
activity - particularly good are tessellations and
pattern
making. A still life is great -
using the works of Margaret
Olley for a
stimulus. (Simple, using pencils or crayons)
6. Some songs to
sing and teach the children. And
some great
music to play and
listen to or move to.
And that's your
day. No photocopying, no messy
paints,
nothing out of
control, but lots of fun.
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Hi Cathy,
Regarding the
query from Kym re the virtual classroom for
excluded
students. Steven Heppell at
Ultralab (www.ultralab.ac.uk)
in the UK has
been running a project for such
students called
NotSchool. (www.notschool.net/what/index.html)
"Notschool.net is
an on-line
virtual learning community of
teenagers who find
themselves outside of traditional learning institutions in the
long term. It
offers them a community of learners,
teachers,
and experts who
share some innovative learning tools.
Notschool.net seeks to be a solution to returning
some of
these teenagers
to learning."
This started as a
research project but has been so successful
that it is
being made more widely available
across the UK.
Hope this helps
Michal
PS love what
you're doing!
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10. NEXT ISSUE - Easter sites and
ideas, send in ideas or
sites that are
fantastic. I will also look at
great speeches online
- for the
extra-audio experience. Have a good fortnight.
Ciao Cathy
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11. Code of the
'Netizens'
This Newsletter
is not free, despite the misleading advertising
above. The Fee is
now due. Each week you must help one
colleague on the
Internet who has less knowledge than you.
Help that person
even if you have to visit their classroom or
do a little
research and get back to them. Trust me, this will
help a lot of
people get their computer classrooms running better.
OK I'm trusting
you!!!
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12. TIPS
1. Double click
on highlighted URLS to open in browser.
2. Send in your
Questions, Questions will be published with
Answers, send in
your Answers, if you have expertise to share.
3. Nominate a
brilliant site for review and inclusion in this
newsletter.
4. Nominate a
fantastic school site for review and inclusion in
this newsletter.
5. Make contact
with other schools using fantastic programs.
6. Prepare and
innovative article for this newsletter.
7. Tell 2
colleagues about this newsletter.
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The opinions
expressed here are purely those of the editor,
Cathy Brown. All
other small print clauses apply. Such as:
Use at your own risk. Nothing in life is
guaranteed. If it doesn't
work for you send
me an email.
Editor: cathy
brown mailto:cathy@virtualteacher.com.au
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