Virtual
Teacher Newsletter No. 96 4th Septmber 2004 PRIORITIZE
THE
FREE ONLINE FORTNIGHTLY IT TEACHERS' NEWSLETTER
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CONTENTS
1.
Welcome
2.
Mind Candy
3.
WWWinfo dmarie Time Capsule
4.
New Printables/Watchables - the
Incredible Journey
5.
Technical Stuff G5 IMAC
6.
Web Site Focus STRANGE MATTER
7. Prioritize
8.
Great Sites
9. Readers' Requests/Comments
10
Next Issue
11.
Code of 'Netizens'
12.
Tips
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1. WELCOME
EVERYONE. It¹s been a busy
fortnight, lots of
feedback
about the GREAT AIM. next installment PRIORITIZE.
Let
me know what you think of this idea and how it can fit into
schools
and teaching. Take a look at the Incredible Journey
watchable,
and see student working with data probes.
You¹ll
love the Strange Matter site the visuals are great. Enjoy
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2.
MIND CANDY
"One
thing about the speed of light...it gets here too early
in
the morning." --Unknown
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Friday,
we had a tornado drill. We're underneath a parking
garage
and there's a PA announcement "This is a tornado drill.
Please
move quickly away from any and all windows."
Somebody
yelled out: "Quick, get to a DOS prompt!"
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3.
WWWinfo dMarie Time Capsule
A
simple tool to help locate news headlines based on the date you enter.
Quick
Page will automatically generate a Time Capsule page for you.
Advanced
Page will lead you through a "wizard" that allows you to select
specific
headlines, birthdays, songs, TV shows, toys, and books for your
selected
date. You can edit the information, or even add your own
information
to the final page! When you're through, you'll be presented
with
your own customized page that includes all the information you've
chosen,
plus typical consumer prices from that year, Academy Award
winners
that year, etc. Currently has data
for the years 1800.
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4.
NEW PRINTABLES/WATCHABLES
The
Incredible Journey. Project Based Learning using dataprobes.
http://www.glef.org/php/article.php?id=Art_1145
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5.
TECHNICAL STUFF
Apple
unveils new G5 iMac at Paris Expo
August
31, 2004 - 05:44 EDT As widely expected,
Apple
today unveiled the new iMac G5, http://store.apple.com/133-622/WebObjects/australiaEduIndividual?type=k12
which features a high-performance G5 processor and a new
design that integrates the entire computer right into the flat
panel display. That's right -- the entire computer, including
the power supply and slot-load optical drive, is built right
into the display and rests on a sleek aluminum foot -- packing
a complete computer system into just two inches of depth,
which Apple says makes it the world's thinnest desktop
computer. The new line, which will be available in mid-September,
offers 17- or 20-inch active matrix widescreen LCDs and G5
processors running up to 1.8 GHz starting at $1,978.90 AUS
for
Teachers
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The
UNSW Computing LEGO(R) Programming Workshops
Are
you in Years 6 to 9 and interested in computer programming or mathematics?
Do
you think robots are cool?
Do
you want to have fun building LEGO(R) models and then
programming
them to do specific tasks?
The
UNSW Computing LEGO(R) Programming Workshops, run
by
the School of Computer Science and Engineering at UNSW,
will
be starting in Term 4 2004 with a 5-week program using LEGO(R) components, to
put programming theory into practice.
These
workshops
are for students who have no prior experience of
programming
LEGO(R).
For
more details and to book into the workshop, visit our
website
at http://www.computing.unsw.edu.au/afterschool/
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Insanely
Great Productivity Calculator how much more
productive
are you with a Mac than a PC.
http://www.apple.com/pro/design/calculator/
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6.
WEBSITE FOCUS - Strange
Matter
http://www.StrangeMatterExhibit.com
Discover
the Secrets of Everyday Stuff. Intriguing graphics
that
work. Find out what cell phones are made of, look at
aluminum
atoms, and much more! If you are interested in
what
things are made of, this is the site for you!
How
Everyday Things are Made including Chocolate
Online
videos
http://manufacturing.stanford.edu/
Building
Big
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/
Looks
at Buildings, bridges, tunnels, descriptions and dimensions.
Try
the ŒLABS¹ that deal with forces acting on bridges. Take the
Challenges
and design your own structures, interactive.
Engineering
Challenges for Kids
http://www.dupagechildrensmuseum.org/kdn/
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7.
The Great Aim of the last Newsletter
provided
some immediate responses from a variety of folk.
Some
confusion, some well how do we do that? type comments.
We
are in fact still stuck with the current curriculum. Too much
too
teach, kids who are uninterested, not enough time to teach
higher
order thinking skills, nothing taught in depth, teacher¹s
frustrated
by the Œstandardized testing¹ mentality, test that mainly
test
only recall, not understanding and thinking etc.
Well
I think the answer is to prioritize.
Take what is great about
the
current curriculum, all the Œdriveresque¹ knowledge, and make
it
the priority. Of course ŒDriveresque Knowledge¹ is the
knowledge
that is essential to know, to survive on the planet
Teach
it first, in greater depth, give it more time.
The
rest, the Œlatinesque¹ knowledge, give it less time, make as
much
as possible elective/optional, assign an interested student
to
deliver a lesson on it. Tick it off and get back to the real business
of
teaching what is relevant and essential knowledge. Leave spaces
for
students to develop their own interests and pursue them.
Something
like:-
³for
the next 4 weeks we will be working on digital imagery and
photo
manipulation with supportive text, however if any of you
have
a great idea for a short film, PowerPoint presentation etc
that
you¹d like to pursue, get your
thoughts together, write a
brief
we¹ll discuss it next lesson.² This opens the door for
students
to start thinking for themselves, and developing their
own
interests, and once the ball is rolling, the ball is rolling.
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8.
GREAT SITES
HOT
SITES
Sites
for Band Teachers
http://www.isd77.k12.mn.us/resources/staffpages/shirk/k12.music.html
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Medieval
Castle Builder Program
http://www.42explore2.com/castle.htm
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9.
READERS COMMENTS/REQUESTS
Dear
Cathy,
I
would like to share with you for inclusion in the VirutalTeacher
website
the Maths Internet Guide showcasing 100
websites carefully
chosen
for their interactivity and grouped into five search categories.
The
activities are ideal for individual learning, homework, classroom
discussion
or students' project.
http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/~borishandal/MathsInternetGuide
Yours
sincerely,
Dr
Boris Handal
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Hello
Just
thought I'd mention a great website for kids on Greek Mythology. It's
stored
on the ABC Australia website, but the easy URL is
I'm
not sure whether you have mentioned it before. It has two gateways - a
FLASH
version (for broadband Internet, really) and an HTML one for lower
bandwidths.
Content is the same on both.
Ciao
Deon
Scanlon
Sacred
Heart School
Geeveston
Tasmania
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Cathy,
I would just like to say a huge thank you for all the
wonderful
work you do preparing Virtual Teacher. Each fortnight
I am
amazed to see the incredible work that is being done across
Australia
in the area of Learning Technologies. We teachers are
all
trying to make the shift from traditional methods to ways that
are
going to fully prepare our wonderful students to work in the
21st
century. By browsing through your
site I am continually
learning
new and innovative approaches to apply to my teaching.
This
year I am teaching Kindergarten and the students are
absolutely
spellbound when we visit other schools to observe
their
work and learn from them. We also enjoy visiting some
of
your recommended sites. This term we are investigating Animals
and
we have been so excited to visit Zoos around the world and
observe
their animals.
Thanks
for all your hard work.
Robyn
Raeside.
St
Bernadettes School
Castle
Hill, NSW. 2154
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NEXT
ISSUE Your responses to ŒPrioritize¹, send in your lists.
Send
in your great ideas and websites as well.
Let¹s
share everything. 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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