Virtual Teacher
Newsletter No. 57 September 6th 2002 – IT’S
GOOD TO BE OLD
THE FREE ONLINE
FORTNIGHTLY IT TEACHERS' NEWSLETTER
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Newsletter
Archives can be found at:-
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/archives.html
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CONTENTS
1. Welcome
2. Mind Candy
3. WWWinfo
– Ecological Footprint
4. New
Printables - Freeware Money and
Coins
5. Technical
Stuff – Professional Reading ITC
6. Web Site
Focus - Circus
7. Letter Writing
8. Great Sites
9. Readers' Requests/Comments
10 Next Issue
11. Code of
'Netizens'
12. Tips
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1. WELCOME
EVERYONE. It's Good to be old. To
all you old
teachers out
there, including me, who are feeling the pressure
of the
technology push, the innovation push, the new syllabus
push, stand
tall, WE are doing a great job.
Studies
show that a
teacher's success in the classroom is directly tied to
their level of
experience and their grasp of the subject matter.'
Equalizing
Experience Levels At Rich and Poor Schools Is a Must
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6846-2002Aug28.html
Experience is
the most valuable asset a teacher can have.
This great piece
of research, basically confirms what we have
always known,
experience counts. Like everything
it is really not
as simple as
that, sweeping generalisations rarely reflect the truth.
There are
brilliant teachers of all ages and all levels of experience.
The secret is
never to be boring, always make learning an adventure,
for both you and
your students. Get great ideas,
invent new ways
to learn about
old topics, be enthusiastic, be an active learner yourself.
This is true in
spades for ICT, there is always something new to
learn, no-one
can ever say they know everything, new programs
and ideas are
always being invented. It’s fantastic, exciting
and motivating
to work on the NEW, with a bit of the OLD expertise.
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2. MIND CANDY
"Develop a
passion for learning. If you do, you will never
cease to
grow."
Anthony J. D'Angelo
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"Be curious
always! For knowledge will not acquire you: you
must acquire
it." - Sudie Back ~
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MEIHEM IN CE
KLASRUM – Spelling Reform
by Dolton
Edwards
Because we are
still bearing some of the scars of our brief skirmish
with II-B
English, it is natural that we should be enchanted by
Mr. George
Bernard Shaw's current campaign for a simplified
alphabet……………..
In 1946, for
example, we would urge the elimination of the soft
"c,"
for which we would substitute "s." Sertainly, such an
improvement
would be selebrated in all sivic-minded sircles
as being
suffisiently worth the trouble, and students in all sities
in the land
would be receptive toward any change eliminating
the necessity of
learning the differense between the two letters.
In 1947, sinse
only the hard "c" would be left, it would be
possible to
substitute "k" for it, both letters being pronounsed
identikally.
Imagine how greatly only two years of this prosess
would klarify the
konfusion in the minds of students. Already
we would have
eliminated an entire letter from the alphabet.
Typewriters and
linotypes, kould all be built with one less letter,
and all the
manpower and materials previously devoted to
making
"c's" kould be turned toward raising the national
standard of
living………………………..
http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~mjm62gwg/humour9.htm
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"If the
English language made any sense, lackadaisical would
have something
to do with a shortage of flowers."
--Doug Larson
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"If the
English language made any sense, lackadaisical would
have something
to do with a shortage of flowers."
--Doug Larson
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Q: What do you
call a Local Area Network in Australia?
A: The LAN down
under.
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3. WWWInfo
Test Your
Ecological Footprint
http://www.phm.gov.au/ecologic/bigfoot/mid/
GREAT site fun to do, as well as informative.
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4. NEW
PRINTABLES/Downloadables
Great Freeware
Program Money and Coins - Australian Version available
http://www.adders.org/freeware/lchange.html
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5. TECHNICAL
STUFF
Professional
Reading ITC
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Digital Video in
Schools
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~cumulus/digvideo.htm
Atomic Learning
Downloadable Story boards
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6. WEBSITE FOCUS
-Circus
The Circus is a
great theme. Circus Maths from
Edsoft is a
great program to
integrate across the k-6 years as well as teach
maths and have a
lot of fun.
A few years ago
I did a circus theme with a class - fantastic.
We produced our
own acts for the circus. Identified the main players.
Distributed the
roles. Groups had to work out a performance piece
and practice it
themselves. Design their own costumes, and prepare
their own intros
to be read by the 'Ring master'.
Also had set
designers to
prepare the stage. We prepared flyers and posters
to advertise our
circus had a circus parade – essential, and
performed it at
a school assembly.
Introduced
circus music included
Barnum and
Bailey
Little song for
infants "The Circus is coming" song.
Lucy in the Sky
The Daring Young
Man on the Flying Trapeze
etc
Post performance
we looked at the history of Circuses, including Australian Circuses http://www.circusroyale.com/
Also some of the
animal issues involved. Athletic
training etc
It was so much
fun I think I'll do it again.
Circuses.com is
a great site with lots of info.
There is a special children’s section. As well as Facts sheets on
many of the famous Circuses.
Name the Clown
Page
http://wheelerclown.tripod.com/Clownpage/famousclowns.html
History of
Clowning
http://www.clown-ministry.com/history.html
Circus Links
http://www.e-znet.com/kids/CircusLinks.html
How to Juggle
http://www.home.eznet.net/~stevemd/juggle1.html
Circus
http://www.eduscapes.com/42explore/circus.htm
Here’s a
great Circus site with a webquest and some great links – even some jokes,
circus lingo and Themed units of work.
http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/circus.htm
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7. Letter
writing – Environmental Activist
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and
Write Someone a Letter
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?ID=294#LESSON1
What kids say
about the environment (sample letters)
http://www.angelfire.com/mi3/gmpr/kidcomments.htm
Letter writing
tips for children from amnesty international
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/education/youthcomp/7-11activity5.pdf
Peta (people for
the ethical treatment of animals) guide to letter writing
http://www.peta-online.org/alert/tkit.html
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8. GREAT SITES
WWW Virtual
Library Great Resource - Huge
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Maths lemonade
Stand
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/mathgames/lemonade/index.html
Other Maths
Activities from CoolMaths
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Digital Video
Education
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~cumulus/digvideo.htm
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HOT SITE
Mr Shakespeare
- comprehensive site about
Shakespeare
http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/
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Argo library
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PC User Help
Station
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Sofweb
Eduweb
http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/curriculumatwork/
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Theme pages for
Elementary School teachers
http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/CITE/themes.html
Thematic
Workshops for tired Teachers
http://www.midgefrazel.net/themes.html
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9. READERS
COMMENTS/REQUESTS
Hi Cathy,
Cheers for a
great website. I'm a teacher on Christmas Island and contact
with 'the
outside world' is great!! I'm hoping you and/or your readers can
help me out with
some info/templates about Maths Think Boards. I think they
are just
excellent learning tools. I'm also looking for some Concept
Keyboard stuff.
Hope you can help. My email is jhayden@cidhs.cx.
PS Think Boards
are divided into 4 quadrants- objects,numbers and
signs,pictures
and stories. Children complete each quadrant. They may start
in the numbers
and signs with 5 + 5 = 10 and have to complete the other
quadrants with
objects a matching story and a picture.
Julei Hayden
Can anyone Help
with this????
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Cathy, a friend
introduced me to a new search engine this week.
It's great for
teachers because it already has the blocks for parental
control on it.
It's located at: http://www.kartoo.com
Try it out. By moving your mouse over the sites provided, it
gives a brief
synopsis of what is on the
site! My students will love it.
Terrie Rust
What does
everyone think of this search engine??
I think it I
s very cool.
Love the presentation., much more user friendly,
I’ve
already popped it on my links bar.
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Hi Cathy
Re: Andrew's
request
Here's a site
with a full, free interactive unit on The Wave by
Morton Rhue
http://www.ies.tradeplaza.co.nz/
Hope he finds it
useful.
Daphne
Thanks Daphne
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Hi Cathy
Thanks for
another informative newsletter. Just to let you know the link in
the newsletter
for the sports worksheets etc. is incorrect. It should have
sport.html at
the end not sports.html.
Help for Andrew
re. the novel The Wave. There is a free unit on The Wave to
download on the
following site. It is very comprehensive and includes a
printable
booklet for students and teachers. I have used it in part for a
Year 11 class.
International
Education Services
http://www.ies.tradeplaza.co.nz/free_downloads.htm
Regards
Pam Thompson
Thanks Pam you’re right about the link – sorry folks
Help please
Cathy. I am a homeschooling parent and I'm
going through
the Northern Territory to Queensland and
require some lessons. Perhaps a website with
relative
SOSE tailored to
the relevant state/territory? Can you
help? Great
site, fantastic links keep up the good work,
much appreciated
by a very busy mum!!!!!!!!!
Hi
Don't quite know
what you are after. There are a
lot of links
for Australia on
my site at
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/australia.html
Something there
may help. Also the Queensland government webquest
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Galaxy/2623/awebques.htm
ciao
cathy
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Hi Cathy!
I'm looking for
a site to help our support school develop some
great resources
in the area of life skills maths.
Our students
love to use the
computer so links to virtual reality-type maths
sites would help
our kids with access and motivation.
Dean Dunham
Teacher-in-Charge
Mersey Heights
Support
Hi Dean,
I am unsure of
what you specifically require - and also the age of your students - take a look
at some of the sites at:
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/maths.html
This site is
also interesting and interactive.
http://www.learner.org/exhibits/dailymath/
ciao
cathy
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Dear Cathy, well
thanks to a link to a travel buddy site from your
newsletter ( not
the most recent one ) we have a visitor from Ms.
Baker's grade 3
Florida USA, Murray the Mustang
and we would like to
share this with
your readers in the hopes that perhaps as in the States,
a grass roots
movement spearheaded by caring children could help us to
be better in our
duty of care to all animals.
Here is part of
his latest letter home and a photo for your website,
Dear Ms. Baker,
Hi how are you
all at home?
Yesterday I
learnt about Brumbies and was shocked to find that the
Australian
government doesn't treat them as well as the Government in
the USA which
has protected us Mustangs since
1971. They still cull
wild horses,
many of whom are descended from unwanted World War I mounts
and use them for
petfood. It is lucky that some horse gentlers from the
States have come
to help train people here and some Australians have
started an
adoption agency. Michael hopes to give a wild horse a home
some day.
bye for now,
Murray
useful sites and
references
http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/facts/2002/pets/brumbies_19.html
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/s428087.htm
http://www.wildhorseandburro.blm.gov/america.htm
the quiz is good
here's the answers!
http://flwildhorse.org/surprise.html
Ms. Baker's
travel Buddy page http://sjvcatholic.tripod.com/travel.html
Our travel buddy
page http://forthferalz.tripod.com
cathy
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10. NEXT ISSUE - Who Dunnit links and
Real Life Maths ,
I’ll also
be reviewing some Handwriting/Computer Skills books
– that I
recently consulted on – rather interesting. As always
send in any
suggestions. Have a good one. Ciao
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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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