Virtual Teacher Newsletter 29TH JULY 2006 No. 129 – CHANGE OR DIE
THE FREE ONLINE FORTNIGHTLY IT TEACHERS' NEWSLETTER
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CONTENTS
1. Welcome
2. Mind Candy
3. WWWinfo
4. New Printables - Text Types
5. Technical Stuff - G4 & Netscape 6.1 & Blender
6. Web Site Focus - Outer Space
7. Better Bookweek Links
8. Great Sites
9. Readers' Requests/Comments
10 Next Issue
11. Code of 'Netizens'
12. Tips
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Canberra over the holidays, fantastic. I saw G for George at the
War Memorial’s new exhibition, splendid, amazing, a huge
immersive display with sound and pictures. The other standout
was old parliament house, the guides were brilliant, everyone
with their own personal spin on the old building, nothing scripted
and boring, and the café was also great. Check out the new
virtual Canberra site below. Change is imperative in our schools
we need to rethink, reassess, and innovate constantly if we
are to meet the needs of our students. Challenge your thinking
with Summerhill, successful thinking models like those used at Apple.
How hard is change for you? Read about how hard it really is
at the fastcompany website – you will be surprised. Maybe you will
look at change in a whole new way.
Have a great fortnight
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2. MIND CANDY
Remember Neill’s famous quote:
“ I would rather Summerhill produced a happy street sweeper
than a neurotic prime minister.”
http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/pages/handbook.html
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There may be bullying at Summerhill, but I have not seen it. It
may be that the older kids set themselves up as kings over their
juniors, but I do not perceive a hint of it. What I do see is
children of eight jumping unexpectedly on the back of
fifteen-year-old boys, and being carried round with perfect
good humour; younger kids upset by some sudden reverse
being comforted by an arm round their shoulder from an older
kid; kids sitting in odd corners talking eagerly about the matter
of the moment, with entire disregard for whether their
interlocutors are their own age, or younger or older by a year,
three years, or six years ... It would be stupid to suggest that
they do not all have their own special friends, but I do not think
any of them have any special enemies
http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/pages/index_continued.html
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Steve Jobs's turnaround at Apple shows the impact of reframing
and telling a new narrative that's simple, positive, and emotional.
When he returned to the company after a long exile, he recast its
image among employees and customers alike from a marginalized
player vanquished in the battle for market share to the home
of a small but enviable elite: the creative innovators who dared
to "Think different.”
What about a life and death situation?
Your own life or death. What if a well-informed, trusted authority
figure said you had to make difficult and enduring changes
in the way you think and act? If you didn't, your time would end
soon -- a lot sooner than it had to. Could you change when
change really mattered? When it mattered most?
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/94/open_change-or-die.html
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Images over 100 years old are in the public domain. Here are a few
sites with some great imagery, copyright free.
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Public_domain_art
http://srufaculty.sru.edu/david.dailey/public/public_domain.htm
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4. NEW PRINTABLES/Viewables
http://www.virtualcanberra.com.au/?=sttCanberra
This is a fantastic new site.
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5. TECHNICAL STUFF
Free Online resources
Store Links to your Bookmarks online
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Worksheet Wizard
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Animation students link up with professionals for modern-day
mentoring.
An altogether different model, built on
student creativity and consistent critiques. The goal isn't simply
to get the work finished but, rather, to get it right.
http://www.edutopia.org/magazine/ed1article.php?id=Art_1579&issue=jul_06
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6. WEBSITE FOCUS – SETTING THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT FOR
IMPLEMENTING TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE
Principals have the right and the responsibility to say, as
Michael Fullan suggests effective leaders today should, “In this
building, we are going to squeeze every bit of value we can
out of our investment in digital technology, so from here
on out we are all — including me — going make use of
technology as an accelerator to improve our effectiveness
in supporting kids in their learning.”
http://www.edutopia.org/community/spiralnotebook/?p=85
Download the "Suggestions for a Principal Who is New
to the MLTI" document
http://www.mainelearns.org/story_detail?story_id=611
Download
Literacy in the Digital Age document from enGauge
http://www.ncrel.org/engauge/skills/skills.htm
Use it at a staff meeting and discuss its implications.
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7. CATHY'S FORUM – SETTING THE RIGHT ENVIROMENT FOR TECHOLOGICAL CHANGE.
How does your school principal meet this challenge? What are
some examples of great practises in schools? How does you
school encourage changes in technology and pedagogy?
This forum is about the great ideas currently being used
in schools to facilitate change and how great executives
particularly principals, support them.
If you have a great story send it in to inspire us all.
Does it Matter? It sure does.
Send you responses in as usual, I’M SURE A LOT OF YOU
WILL HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT THIS.
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7b Your Responses
OUR SCHOOLS ARE FAILING TEENAGERS
Hi Cathy,
Yes the subject certainly is a biggy, but it's in our teenage years
that the problems manifest very significantly. Children are
inherent NATURAL learners from their first day of birth. The
troubled teenage years reflect a culmination of years of
unnatural learning or simply learning wrong. Our major
obsession with testing has made the whole system cock-eyed.
Take away the tests & exams & view each child as an individual
& can you imagine how different things could be??
Regards,
Sherree Chambers
(Gold Coast)
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Hi Cathy,
I agree with the issues raised regarding the relevance of high
school teaching strategies in relation to teenagers. My son left
school at the end of year 10 because he felt it was not relevant
to him. He could not get the stimulation he needed and was
forced into subjects that were a waist of time and not relevant
to his interests or future direction.
Luckily he was offered a computer technician's position full time
and is loving it (apart from missing his holidays!). Not every
teenager is so lucky.
There seems to be a gap between the TAFE system,
Universities and secondary schools, where teenagers are
left in the cold if there interests are not
academic in the traditional sense or hands on such as trades.
Many areas like computing are not well covered in the TAFE
system and you can't access university courses at that age
without VCE. Why should we force our kids to be
trapped in a form of education which is not meeting their
needs - especially if they are talented in one area?
We must find a way to encourage individualism in the high
school system or we are doomed to creating a huge population of disconnected adults in the future.
Leone
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8. GREAT SITES
HOT SITES
Over the Hedge Experience
http://www.overthehedgemovie.com/
Take the kids to the movie – explore the website, talk about
animation, characters, storyline – great.
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Printing techniques
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2001/whatisaprint/flash.html
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9. READERS COMMENTS/REQUESTS
Cathy,
The teacher who needs to use the English Curriculum system in Beijing will find lots of information at:
http://www.curriculumonline.gov.uk
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk
You can obtain (free, if you're a teacher in the U.K. - don't know
if they charge others) from the DFES (Department for Education
and Skills) publications like "The National Numeracy Strategy –
More Numeracy Lessons".
Thanks for your newsletter, Cathy.
Angela Fuller, England
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10. NEXT ISSUE - Alternative schools and educational
Philosophies, and what can be used within the current
educational system. Please send in any great ideas you
have to share.
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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