Virtual Teacher
Newsletter No. 72 May 30th 2003 NEWTONıS LAWS
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 FAIR TRADING
4.
New Printables - Empowered Editing
5.
Technical Stuff Adobe Seminar, Apple X
6.
Web Site Focus - Tessellations
7.
Digital Portfolios
8.
Great Sites
9. Readers' Requests/Comments
10
Next Issue
11.
Code of 'Netizens'
12.
Tips
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1.
WELCOME EVERYONE. An incident the other day with a
couple
of lads and an altercation. A thousand playgrounds replay
this
same scene with Nietzschian like 'eternal recurrence'. Somebody
gets
angry and throws a punch, what do you expect, nothing? Right. Wrong.
It
was a mathematician who first recognised this and drew worldwide mathematical
attention to it. Who you say - why
Newton of course.
So
here in every playground across the nation is a first hand example
of
the Newton's 3rd Law:- "For every action, there is an equal and
opposite
reaction." The 'action' is the
first punch, the 'opposite reaction'
is
the second punch. In this case,
the punching case, the second
punch
will probably be enhanced, that's called 'positive feedback';
ie.
the opposite reactor decides to throw an even bigger and better
punch. This is a bit of fun, however it is an
interesting way to tackle
conflict
be it physical or verbal.
Mathematicians have already worked
out
that if you dish it out, you'll get it back, probably with interest.
It's
not just, your experience, my experience or breaking the rules,
it's
The Bone Fide First LAW of Motion.
http://www.aloha.com/~isaac/3laws/3mid.htm
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2.
MIND CANDY
The
starting point for strategic planning is not the present but the
future
- a vision of where you want to be.... It is essential too that
the
vision is based on the guiding philosophy, core beliefs, and
purpose
of the organisation',
ERO Report 95
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'We've
got to do fewer things in school. The greatest enemy
of
understanding is coverage... You've got to take enough
time
to get kids deeply involved in something so they can
think
about it in lots of different ways and apply it.'
Howard
Gardner
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"How
does one become a butterfly?" She asked pensively.
"You
must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up
being
a caterpillar".'
Trina Paula
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'If
you can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can
teach
him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the
learning
process as long as he lives.' Chinese prove
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The
principle goal of education is to create men and woman
who
are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating
what
other generations have done'.
Jean Piaget
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3.
WWWinfo
Fair
Trading - A students Guide to Consumer Rights - Great
site
includes history and advice.
Never
sign anything that you haven't read or understood - especially
if it
has blank spaces. There's rarely a cooling-off period and if you
do
cancel, you may be up for a hefty cancellation fee.
Renting
Moving in Living there Your rights Renting contacts
Wheels
Wheels contacts
Shopping
and refunds Internet shopping Credit Managing
your
credit card Credit contacts
http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/secondarymenus/equitygroups/schoolprojects.html
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4.
NEW PRINTABLES - OLD PRINTABLE
I
have revamped the EMPOWERED Editing instructions and
also
included the VIRUS.doc, these
pages are elementary
editing
lessons.
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/teachtool.html
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5.
TECHNICAL STUFF
Adobe
Acrobat 6 Roadshow
Do yourself a favour, attend an excellent
professionally run
FREE seminar from Adobe this month. Donıt miss the magic
of Adobe Acrobat 6.0.
³Roll up for one of these informative
sessions and discover
everything Acrobat 6.0 can do close up
... we promise you'll
find it hard to believe your eyes! ³
Its all happening 2nd-13th June - for the
event closest to you
http://www.juicemedia.com.au/adobe/magic/home.asp
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Apple
Australia Great Offer
22
May 2003
Apple
Announces X for Teachers Program
Free
copy of Mac OSXv10.2 to Australian K-12 Teachers
Mac
OSX for Teachers program
Apple
Australia is pleased to announce the X for Teachers
program
which will provide all Apple approved K-12 Australian
teachers
with a free copy of Mac OS X v10.2 when they join the
X for
Teachers program between 2 May and 27 June 2003.
The
program is designed to show teachers the stability and
manageability
of Mac OS X and how it gives them a powerful
foundation
for integrating technology into their classrooms.
Mac
OS X v10.2 is Appleıs latest operating system. Mac OS X
v10.2 has over 150 improvements and features, many driven by
the
needs of educators, including a faster and more reliable Classic
mode
for running Mac OS 9 applications, Universal Access,
simplified
Finder for younger users, system lock down management,
Sherlock
3, QuickTime 6, Mail with junk mail filtering, Open
Directory,
Windows File and Print Sharing, and more. And with over
4,000
Mac OS X applications
available, including hundreds of
education-specific
titles, educators have a wealth of third-party
solutions to use
in the classroom.
http://www.apple.com.au/edu/macosxforteachers/
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MAXIMISING
POTENTIAL OF CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY
Teaching
and Learning with Technology
7th
National Conference
12th
13th June 2003
The
Boulevarde Hotel Sydney
I
will be speaking on
Teaching,
Learning and Technology Capturing the Opportunity for
Customised
Learner-Centred Instruction.
Other
Speakers include Steve Coote MLC School,
Renata
McKenzie Roseville College,
Wendy
Herbert Sydney Girls High etc.
Should
be a great 2 day conference.
To register
contact Talina Bicakcian in Sydney on 02 9425 760
"IES
Conferences" iesconferences@optusnet.com.au
And
let them know you heard it in VT.
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6.
WEBSITE FOCUS - Gigafloppingly Brilliant TESSELLATIONS
I
have been completely side-tracked this week - love the side-track,
working
with tessellations - great stuff.
From this art, language arts, mathematics and computer skills, through
all years.
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/maths.html
Mathematicians define
"tessellate" as covering a plane with a
pattern, and it is a concept that
interests scientists and
artists, as well as mathematicians.
Starting with Art Look at the work
of Escher (gradesK-12)
http://artchive.com/ftp_site_reg.htm
Particularly good examples of his work on
tessellations are
³Fish² and ³Sun and Moon²
Intriguing Tessellations http://members.aol.com/tessellations/
Marjorie Rice discover four new
tessellating pentagons in
the late 1970's. (grades 6-12)
Tessellating Animation
http://www18.big.or.jp/~mnaka/home.index.html
Japanese artist Makoto Nakamura has taken
tessellations a step
beyond the plane with his awesome
animations. See his
tessellated birds fly, his tessellated
fish swim, and his
tessellated dancers dance.
Use this site to describe animated
tessellations. Ask students
to describe the tessellations using
metaphor andı first and thenı
statements. Ask
students to write a written description of each
Tessellation and then turn off the
computer and draw it using
their descriptions. (grades K 2)
Next, visit Nakamura's Jigsaw
Puzzles reassemble tessellated
cats, pigeons, gorillas and more.
Totally Tessellated
http://www.abc.lv/thinkquest/tq-entries/16661/index2.html
It has a section on M.C. Escher, the
Dutch artist and father
of modern-day tessellations. The
essentialsı section had
detailed information about drawing
tessellations. (grades 6-12)
What is a Tessellation? http://mathforum.org/sum95/suzanne/whattess.html
This Math Forum page is a great
introduction to tessellations
for those who know some geometry. (grades
4- 8)
Draw your own tessellation on Paint²
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/Tessell.pdf
Art and Math http://mathforum.org/sum95/suzanne/tess.intro.html
Tessellations Tutorials
Tessellation Online Tools (grades K-5)
Tessellation Town http://www.mathcats.com/explore/tessellationtown.html
Tessellation Town maths cats is a particularly excellent site.
Pattern Blocks http://www.arcytech.org/java/patterns/patterns_j.shtml
Virtual Manipulatives
http://matti.usu.edu/nlvm/nav/frames_asid_169_g_1_t_2.html
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7.
DIGITAL PORTFOLIOS
Overview
of Literature
http://www.icponline.org/feature_articles/f2_00.htm
Great
Sample of Kindergarten Digital portfolio done on Kid Pix
http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/sbeck/electronicportsamples.htm
Thomastown
East Primary Schoolıs Whole School Approach to
Digital
Portfolio Planning
http://www.thomastown-east-ps.vic.edu.au/portfolio1/portfolio1.html#Anchor-Portfolio-57926
Virtual
Teacher Digital Portfolio Using Inspiration
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/digiport.htm
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8.
GREAT SITES
Very
Cool Quiz Sites - make your own as well.
http://cybil.tafe.tas.edu.au/~capsticm/quizman/qmhome.html#
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Plan
your Own Classroom Layout Online
Plan
your own layouts site
http://www.cfg.gov.uk/fs_folder/pages/fslayout.html
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A
resource site for lower primary teachers lesson plans.
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Adrian
Bruce's simple instructions for creating symmetrical
shapes
using paint.
http://www.adrianbruce.com/Symmetry/pain
Donıt
forget to go to 'next' and try the quiz as well
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Racism
No Way Upper Primary Middle Secondary
http://www.racismnoway.com.au/
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Maths
Worksheet creator
http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/math/
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Disaster
Links Great set of links from Alfredton Primary School
http://www.alfredtonps.vic.edu.au/disasters.htm
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9.
READERS COMMENTS/REQUESTS
Cathy
Excellent!!!!
I am
a student studying outdoor education.
I am about to present
information
technology and mathematics to first year students. I am a
1st
come 2nd year student. your site
has been invaluable and I will
hopefully
use your free newsletter as a part of my presentation. I
think
it would be invaluable for these students to immerse themselves
with
the lingo and the like that is teaching.
thank
you
Paul
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Hi
Cathy,
This
is really good.
http://www.greeneclipsesoftware.com/eclipsecrossword/downloadfull.html
and
it is free.
cheers
adrian
bruce
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Thanks
Bruce hereıs a great crossword maker for all those who
are
after one.
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Cathy,
I
seem to be annoying you a lot today, but I just returned from
long
service and am catching up on lessons for the next few
weeks,
making sure everything is relevant etc. In your template
entitled
"Empowered Editing" you refer the kids to a file on the
server
(Cathy in the Library Folder) on How Viruses Work. http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/editing.pdf
Their
task is to follow your directions to edit
Any
chance of getting a copy?
Regards
Terrie
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Hi
Terrie,
I
made a few changes to Empowered editing and also included
the
Virus.doc as well. Really any
document with mistakes on any
topic
you like can be used for this. Both can now be downloaded at
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/teachtool.html
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Cathy
Something
weird must have happened to VT69 on my main computer
as I didn't
get it. It's my problem not yours as I've just found it on the kids computer.
This info is late but I hope this site
http://www2.lhric.org/pocantico/spiders/spiders.htm
can
be useful to Jan (VT69) It's got heaps of good stuff.
keep
up the good work
Terrie
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This
is a fantastic site Terrie - Just loved it.
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Hi
Cathy,
I
have just received my first letter and have really enjoyed reading
through
it. Is there any way I could see past newsletters with out
having
all 70 sent to me? Any archives?
Barb.
Canada
Hi
Barb,
Archives
are available at:-
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/archives.html
A
good method to use is a site search for topics of interest using
the
google search tool on the directory page.
This search tool
only
searched virtual teacher and the newsletters are fully indexed.
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/directory.html
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Cathy
Can
you help? The answer is simple and I've read it somewhere
but I
can't find it now that I really need it!
When
the ch'n are using WordArt, their WordArt graphics all
lock
together and they can't move them. They can resize them
but they're
still stuck next to each other.(I'm using the lesson in
VT
templates on WordArt)
I
know I have to turn something off or on!! Can you help?
Terrie
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Hi
Terrie,
The
graphics/picture will move using text input ie using return and
space
bars unless you 'format' the picture/graphic.
To
move the picture anywhere on the page, double click on the
picture/graphic,
this bring up a menu, click on the layout tab,
select
'tight'.
The
other tabs are interesting too, you can fiddle around with the
transparency,
colours contrast and brightness etc.
This dialogue
box
can also accessed through the "Format' menu, at the very
bottom
will be the word 'picture', click on this and it will bring up
the
same dialogue box.
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Hi
there
Our
records indicate that your organisation's website contains
hyperlinks
which go to the website of the NSW National Parks
and
Wildlife Service (NPWS). These links would all start with http://www.npws.nsw.gov.au
The
NPWS recently launched a completely new website.
Unfortunately,
this means that none of the NPWS links on your
organisation's
website will work any more.
The
new NPWS website is now found at
http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au
If
you have any trouble finding anything that you were previously
linking
to on the new site, don't hesitate to contact me.
Regards,
Anthony
Hutchings
Web
Editor, NSW National Parks Service
------------------------------------------
Dear
Sir/Madam:
Please
consider creating a link from your "Australia" page to my
Educational
resource "Nineteenth Century Exploration of Australia," at:
http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/australia/
I
maintain a series of sites on the Web on various subjects;
this
most recent
one
has been profiled in the "Scout Report" and elsewhere.
Thanks
very much for your time and attention!
--Charles
H. Smith, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Western
Kentucky
University,
Bowling
Green KY U.S.A.
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10. NEXT ISSUE
I
will try and cover intranets and setting them up, Darwin and
LOTE
sites. There has been some great
ideas and feedback
lately,
keep writing.
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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