Virtual
Teacher Newsletter No. 46 March 23rd 2002 - MAP IT
BABY
THE
FREE ONLINE FORTNIGHTLY IT TEACHERS' NEWSLETTER
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CONTENTS
1. Welcome
2. Mind Candy
3. WWWinfo -ABC
4. New Printables
– Maps
5. Technical
Stuff – Hand held, Premiere’s Challenge, Courses
6. Web Site Focus
- Maps and Mapping
7. BICENTENARY OF
MATTHEW FLINDER'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION
OF AUSTRALIA
8. Great Sites
– A little bit of Easter
9. Readers' Requests/Comments
10 Next Issue
11. Code of
'Netizens'
12. Tips
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1. WELCOME
EVERYONE. Here it is another fortnight ZZZiiiiip gone.
Easter is upon us
and I have put in some last minute sites.
It feels a little
strange this year, the holidays and Easter show,
at different
times. There are some wonderful mapping activities
listed below and
excellent printable using Microsoft Word,
you heard it hear
first. Make a treasure map, make a local
area map all to
scale. Get on board with Matthew
Flinders
experience, and
check out some great map sites.
Map away.
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2. MIND CANDY
"Every job
is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph
your work with
excellence." Unknown
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Quality is
never an accident; it is always the result of high intention,
sincere effort,
intelligent direction and skillful execution; it
represents the
wise choice of many alternatives."
Willa A. Foster
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"The whole
world opened to me when I learned to read."
Mary McLeod
Bethune
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Cautious, careful
people always casting about to preserve their
reputation and
social standing, never can bring about a reform.
Susan B. Anthony
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"A teacher
affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence
stops."
Henry B. Adams
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3. WWWinfo -ABC
ABC Behind the
News a fantastic easy to navigate site
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4. NEW PRINTABLES
- Maps
Mapping Links
below, mapping Printables here.
Students create
their own maps in Microsoft Word
You saw it here
first - a great little activity.
Mapping
Instructions
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/mapins.doc
Mapping Sample http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/Map.doc
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5. TECHNICAL
STUFF
Hand Helds have
found their way to classrooms with great success
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Premieres Reading
Challenge
The Premier's
Reading Challenge encourages all NSW students
in Years 5 to 8
to read 20 books in one year.
The Premier of
NSW, the Hon Bob Carr, initiated the Challenge
as a way to
promote an interest in reading.
Students who rise
to the Challenge receive a certificate from
the Premier
http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/events/reading.php
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A whole course. Kidspiration
for PC is ALL free
http://www.atomiclearning.com/freekidspc.shtml
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SEMINARS AND
COURSES
Attention
Computer Coordinators and
Classroom
Teachers
You are invited
to attend a free demonstration of Adobe
products,
featuring Acrobat 5.0, Photoshop Elements and
Photoshop 7.
The demonstration
will be given by:-
Paul Stephens
Adobe
Bill Gillespie
Internet Project
Officer
NSW Dept of
Education and Training
Venue:- The Hills
Grammar School
43 Kenthurst Road
Kenthurst
Date:- Wednesday
3rd April
Time:- 4.00 -
6.00 pm
Coffee and tea
from 3.30pm
RSVP by Thursday
28th March to: -
Linda Zugai
NSW State Manager
Edsoft Pty Ltd
Email:-
Linda.Zugai@bigpond.com
Ph:- 02 9481 8700
Fax:- 02 9481
8800
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HERE'S SOME
SELECTIONS FROM THE LIST AT SCHOOL DAILY
2nd International
Lifelong Learning Conference 2002
http://www.edDiary.com/viewEvent.asp?eventPK=194
Date : Sunday, 16
June 2002
Venue : Rydges
Capricorn International Resort
Yeppoon on the
Capricorn Coast, Australia
9th National
Conference of the Australian Association for the
Education of the
Gifted and Talented
http://www.edDiary.com/viewEvent.asp?eventPK=229
Date : Sunday, 20
October 2002
Venue :
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia
11th State
Conference of the Queensland Association for
Gifted and
Talented Children
http://www.edDiary.com/viewEvent.asp?eventPK=210
Date : Friday, 22
March 2002
Venue :
University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
15th Biennial
World Conference for Gifted Education
http://www.edDiary.com/viewEvent.asp?eventPK=216
Date : Friday, 01
August 2003
Venue :
Convention Centre, Adelaide,
Australia
Translating Brain
Research into Classroom Practice with Pat Wolfe
http://www.edDiary.com/viewEvent.asp?eventPK=231
Date : Thursday,
04 April 2002
Venue : Stamford
Grand, Sydney, Australia
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Brizcomm
workshops
http://www.brizcomm.com.au/workshops/
Learn how to
create compelling web and e-newsletter content
at a workshop
with Yvette Nielsen, Australasia's original
content trainer.
Web Content Canberra 18-19
April, 2002
E-newsletters Brisbane 11 March
2002
Web Content Sydney 11-12
April, 2002
Web Design
Basics Brisbane 13 March,
2002
E-newsletters Brisbane 13 March
2002
E-newsletters Canberra 16 April
2002
E-newsletters Sydney 24
April 2002
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VETnetwork
Australia National Conference 2002 –
'Enterprising
People and Partnerships: vocational
education and
careers for a changing world'
http://www.vetnetwork.org.au/
Date : Wednesday,
23 October 2002
Venue : Brisbane
Convention & Exhibition Centre
Brisbane,
Australia
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Catering for
gifted children in the regular classroom.
23 April
8.45am -4pm
Mary Immaculate
Primary School Quakers Hill
Both Miraca and
her colleague Bronwyn MacLeaod
will be
presenting an opening address plus workshopping
delegates
throughout the day with the focus on
classroom know
how..very practical with tangible outcomes
by the end of the
day.
Cost is $80
(includes lunch and morning tea)
Call the school
if interested by April 5
02 9626 3999
Wendy Eves is the coordinator of this event
and is at
this school.
==============================================
6. WEBSITE FOCUS
-Maps and Mapping
Mapping is a
great activity. Here are some
sites that you will enjoy.
TerraServer
http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/default.asp
Database of
aerial images - declassified satellite photographs. Can use a
zoom facility to see
locations worldwide.
National mapping
Well, here's the
official place for this information .. "GEOSCIENCE
AUSTRALIA,
NATIONAL MAPPING DIVISION (formerly AUSLIG)
http://www.auslig.gov.au/mapping/names/natgaz.htm
'The National
Mapping Division of Geoscience Australia was formerly
known as AUSLIG,
Australia's official national mapping agency. They
now offer query
searches of the Gazetteer of Australia 2001, which is
a compilation of
over 274,000 geographic names in Australia provided
by members of the
Committee for Geographic Names in Australia'.
==============================================
7. BICENTENARY OF
MATTHEW FLINDER'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION
OF AUSTRALIA
More about
mapping - the original mapping of Australia a great
activity to
celebrate this year.
Bicentenary of
Matthew Flinders' Circumnavigation of Australia
http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/events/shipdiary/index.php
Windeward Bound
http://www.windbound.com/MatthewFlinders/introduction.htm
Coast Care
http://www.ea.gov.au/coasts/coastcare/voyage/
==============================================
8. GREAT SITES -
A LITTLE BIT OF EASTER
Goto the How
Stuff works site and search for Easter' , this site
offers lots of
info suitable for upper primary and High School students
http://www.howstuffworks.com/search/index.htm
Make a
marshmallow Bunny at
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/rabbit.html
Sitting Hen http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/hen.html
Easter Word
Puzzles http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/easter/word.html
Pokemon Easter
Egg Holders - do you believe it???
The children will
love it!!!!
http://www.members.home.net/beldridge/mepokemon.html
Try the Paper Bag
Bunnies or the Amazing Transparent Easter
Eggs on this Page
- to a happy tune of the Easter Hat Parade
or turn the sound
off)
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/1465/easter8.html
Here's a Few
Links to Easter Stories, both religious and traditional http://www.holidays.net/easter/
More Stories and
Poems for Easter - including some
Christian Easter
Downloads http://craftsforkids.about.com/kids/craftsforkids/library/misc/bleassong.htm?rnk=r1&terms=Easter+Stories
Scrambled Eggs
Anyone - shockwave game You will really love this one. http://www.searsportrait.com/family_fun/easter_99/easter.htm
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HOT SITES
English resources
Site - great fantastic huge.
http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/englishresource/
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DragonFly TV
http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/
Investigate, Know
How?, Do it, Get to It, and Talk about It are the
mantras of
Dragonflytv. PBS kids has a nice site that provides simple
experiments and
discussion boards for the things curious kids want to
discuss.
Elementary, Middle
School
Science (General)
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Ask Dr. Math
This is another
great area on Math Forum that some teachers
may not know
about. Let your students that have many
questions to ask
or those that may be too shy to ask in
class skim the
archives(Ask Dr. Math has been
around since
1994). The FAQ has answers to classic
questions, those
that you have probably answered many times.
That a great
resource for the ever curious, or those that just
want to check up
on the teacher.
Early Childhood,
Elementary, Middle School, High School.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
FindTutorials
http://tutorials.findtutorials.com/
For the
self-motivated learner, it's nice to have some tutorials that
provide just in
time learning. FindTutorials lets you, or other
self-motivated
learners, pick up some tips for popular software and
programming
languages. If you don't want to buy a "Dummy" book on a
topic, this site
is a find.
Middle School,
High School, College, Adult/Professional
Technology
(Software/Web Development), Community Interest
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inventors Museum
http://www.inventorsmuseum.com/museum_map.htm
This online
resource has different categories than other
inventor sites.
African American, Colonial, and women
inventors are
featured, as are communication inventions,
medical
inventions, and transportation technology. The
fun and games
directory has inventions from the sport of
golf. Take the
Inventors IQ Test for fun.
Elementary,
Middle School, High School, College,
Adult/Professional
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PE Central
follow links
through lesson ideas > dance lesson ideas
PE Zone
(instructions for dances and movement games)-
not as
comprehensively finished as the above site but some useful info
http://reach.ucf.edu/%7Epezone/dance/index.htm
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Aboriginal Words
If you need any
more info, there are some truly wonderful resources
available here
including various dictionaries and linguistics
resources on
Aboriginal languages
==============================================
9. READERS
COMMENTS/REQUESTS
Dear Cathy, Im not sure if you can help me but if
you can,
it would be very
much appreciated. I am doing a
Dip. Ed –
Advanced
Professional Development and one of the courses
I am doing is
computing tools for teachers. If
anyone can
direct me to a
software program that has do to with Australian
animals as my
assignment is based on an excursion to the
Daisy Hill Koala
Centre and the learning experiences will be
based for year 4
students. Your help
will be greatly appreciated.
Please email me
on m.lal@bigpond.com.
Thanks, Niti Lal
---------------------------------------
Hi Niti,
Don't go
there. The best solution is to
import photos or graphics
from the web or
use websites that exist. (given poor access to the
internet this
advice may be difficult) however the best solution is
to use the
internet not a cd based program.
http://www.ozramp.net.au/~senani/animaust.htm
Rochdale Year 5
Site is great
http://www.rochedalss.qld.edu.au/platypus.htm
Webquest
http://cte.jhu.edu/techacademy/fellows/MENTZER/webquest/austan.htm#task
Great animal
printouts at
http://www.EnchantedLearning.com/coloring/
and also try the
discovery learning puzzlemaker
http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/
If you want to
use a program use, kid pix, kidspiration or Microsoft word, select suitable
pictures and use them in the programs.
a retrieval chart is good for this topic.
ciao
cathy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cathy,
I am the
staff rep on our school's Technology Committee
(St Mary's
Bundaberg). Would you have a copy of the article
that appeared in
last week's Sun Herald, as an attachment?
We are
currently looking at options for internet access over
the next three
years, beginning in November, or in first term
2003. It would
be helpful to have an informed response to
refer to at our
next meeting in April. Many thanks.
Paul
Saxby
_________________
Hi Paul,
The article
merely stated how poor the current access to the
Internet is for
State schools. No solutions were
offered.
The current
solution is - to put it mildly - no solution. And
doesn't allow
teachers to fulfil the current curriculum
requirements. Western Australia currently has a
solution
that is
reportedly working well - I would like to have more details.
Victoria is
crashing and burning with a rather stupid policy
that all schools
should negotiate separately with their ISP's
folk down their
are tearing their hair out. I
heard that the NSW
CEO had an
excellent system in place with a quality server
sided interface,
I looked at their system at Marist College
Penshurst, Chris
Betcher is the co-ordinator there - quite a
remarkable ICT.
As you are a Catholic school - it may be
useful for you to
contact him for some advice.
They run a Novell
Netware Curriculum Server, Schoolsnet
server
administered by Ursys which accesses the CEO
Schoolsnet
system(provides everything - looks fantastic).
Hope this helps I
will report as I find out more in the VT newsletter.
ciao
cathy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cathy
I’m
teaching the text Hating Alison Ashley for the first
time to my stage
three yrs5/6 students. I’m running out of
ideas on how to
incorporate this with out using cloze
passages or
comprehension (which they have done to death).
Please
help!!!!!!!!!!
---------------------
Study Guide
http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/englishresource/alison.html
Arts
interpretation from Sofweb - scroll down the page and
download the pdf
http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/curric/arts.htm
also Talented ed
http://scs.une.edu.au/TalentEd/EdSupport/alison.htm
goodluck
cathy
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Hi Cathy
I have been
looking round your site for farming related info and
found the first
site listed very helpful for my own background.
Will be checking
our other sites as well. Thanks for all your
hard work.
Just a suggestion
if I may - the title should be "You're" instead of
"Your".
The Year 4/5 teacher in me strikes again!!
Keep up the good
work.
Kind regards
Allan Ribbons
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We are doing a
unit of Australia and live in the USA. Do you
have any Idea
where I could Find a road Map of Australia?
Is there one
available on the
net?
Dorinda
------------------
Hi Dorinda,
this site shows
major roads
http://www.auslig.gov.au/facts/map.htm
and also has some
other maps.
other links for
australia can be found at:-
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/australia.html
ciao
cathy
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Dear Cathy,
Thanks for your
email. The session that Chris attended with
Daniel was
actually held in Sydney! While we are Melbourne
based, we do have
an office in Sydney which is staffed by Mark
Lamont and Bede
Ritchie. I am sure they would be most happy
to give you a
demonstration of our software, I have copied
them on this
email.
On another note,
I had a look at your website and thought you
may be interested
in promoting some projects that we have coming up.
Our education
team at myinternet run a monthly competition
called 'School of
the Month', where our customer schools can
nominate their
website or online project, within set criteria, for
an award. There
is more information at
http://www.myinternet.com.au/SOTM/
We also have
alliance with the ABS, where we provide a
'transition' web
page into relevant statistical information that
can be used in
class settings.
http://www.schools.net.au/edu/abs
In the same vain,
we have an alliance with the Curriculum
Corporation and
we have a project coming up on the ANZACs. http://www.myinternet.com.au/edu/ccorp
myinternet
schools also have the opportunity to join
the myinternet
Footy League, a collaborative, online,
statistical
competition. http://www.schools.net.au/edu/mFL/
Kind regards,
Brenda Jolliffe
Marketing
Communications
myinternet
Limited
PO Box 650
Carlton South VIC
3053
Phone: +613 8379
2000
Fax: +61 3 8379
2033
My internet looks
fantastic – has anyone else used it????
==============================================
10.
NEXT
ISSUE Chocolate maths and Rock Hounds be
ready
some, some interesting sites and info, if you have
some
ideas on food and maths send it in, also any great
geology
sites. Have a good one.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
==============================================
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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==============================================