Virtual Teacher Newsletter No. 40 2001 - $93.5 MILLION DOLLARS
THE FREE ONLINE FORTNIGHTLY IT TEACHERS' NEWSLETTER
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CONTENTS
1. Welcome
2. Mind Candy
3. THE COOPER COLUMN
4. New Printables - Programming Template
5. Technical Stuff - Cookies CGI and Online courses
6. Web Site Focus - Disasters
7. HUMAN RIGHTS DAY (10 DEC)
8. Great Sites
9.Readers' Requests/Comments
10 Next Issue
11. Code of 'Netizens'
12. Tips
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1. WELCOME EVERYONE. "$93,500,000 B.O. goes whole
Hogwarts record-shattering domestic preem
You're a box office wizard, Harry. Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer's Stone" etched its name in movieland
history over the weekend with a record estimated bow of
$93.5 million. (Variety November 2001) trailer at http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/harry_potter_trailer2.html
Go Harry,
If this is the Entertainment Industries answer to the
current crisis and subsequent economic down turn, I like it.
What's more it's working. My daughter attended one of the
Premiers and loved it. I can't wait to see "Lord of the Rings".
I have just finished reading "Artemis Fowl" - loved it.
Escapism I love it, especially when there is such a lot of
great launch pads. Thanks to Barbara Braxton, who I can't
keep the secret any longer, some insider results for the
INAUGUAL YOUNG AUSTRALIAN READERS AWARDS.
The winning titles were those titles published by
Australian authors in 2001 voted the most popular
by the students of Australia.
So ...drum roll please ......
YOUNGER READERS
Dear Writer - Libby Gleeson
OLDER READERS
The Day my Bum went Psycho - Andy Griffiths
PICTURE BOOKS
Turtle Song - Kim Michelle Toft
Others that polled well were
Younger Readers
A Wee Walk - Margaret Clark
Tashi and the Dancing Shoes - Anna Fienberg
Have Courage, Hazel Green - Odo Hirsch
Older Readers
Shadow Dance - Robert Hood
Alex Jackson, Grommet - Pat Flynn
Augustine's Lunch - Laura Budd
Picture Books
The Waterhole
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2. MIND CANDY
Hello! You have reached the automated answering service
of your school. In order to assist you in connecting the right
staff member, please listen to all your options before
making a selection:
To lie about why your child is absent - Press 1
To make excuses for why your child did not do his work - Press 2
To complain about what we do - Press 3
To cuss out staff members - Press 4
To ask why you didn't get information that was already enclosed
in your newsletter and several fliers mailed to you - Press 5
If you want us to raise your child - Press 6
If you want to reach out and touch, slap or hit someone - Press 7
To request another teacher for the third time this year - Press 8
To complain about bus transportation - Press 9
To complain about school lunches - Press 0
If you realise this is the real world and your child must be
accountable/responsible for his/ her own behaviour, class work,
homework, and that it's not the teachers fault for your child(ren)
lack of effort, hang up and have a nice day! !
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"Don't just learn the tricks of the trade. Learn the
trade." James Bennis
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"What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing."
Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
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"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art
is knowing which ones to keep." Scott Adams
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"Go ahead and do the impossible. It's worth the look on the
faces of those who said you couldn't." Walter Bagehot
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" Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire."
William Yeats
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" One test of the correctness of educational procedure
Is the happiness of the child." --- Maria Montessori
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Here are a collection of diametrically apposed proverbs
that make amusing fodder for class discussions and
short writing tasks.
Actions speak louder than words.
The pen is mightier than the sword.
Look before you leap.
He who hesitates is lost.
Many hands make light work.
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Clothes make the man.
Don't judge a book by its cover.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Better safe than sorry.
The bigger, the better.
The best things come in small packages.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Out of sight, out of mind.
What will be, will be.
Life is what you make it.
Cross your bridges when you come to them
Forewarned is forearmed.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
One man's meat is another man's poison.
With age comes wisdom.
Out of the mouths of babes come all wise sayings.
The more, the merrier.
Two's company; three's a crowd.
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3. THE COOPER COLUMN: What did you steal from your
students today?
MAIN SUMMARY What did you steal from your students
today? is the sort of question teachers should ask
themselves after each days teaching. The answers will
surprise! John Edwards used this theme in his keynote
address to the International Conference on Thinking in
Auckland last January. Art Costa on his New Zealand
tour where he was taking seminars for teachers.
He had a similar theme ...
Article Body
Questioning is a good example of this. If we are to
do more than pay lip service to our desire to provide
for life long learning, the ability to ask the right
questions is an essential skill. Yet we steal from our
students the very fundamentals they need to do so.
Thus in most schools it is the teachers that get to
ask the questions.....................
........ the rest at the link below it is quite thought provoking.
Alan Cooper
acooper@clear.net.nz
Article from theSchooldaily
http://www.theschooldaily.com/articleView.asp?articlePK=10051
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4. NEW PRINTABLES
Programming Template
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/template.do
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5. TECHNICAL STUFF
WANT FREE Cookies, Site Searches, Clocks, Gusts books
etc Check out Matts' Script Archive
http://worldwidemart.com/scripts/
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JUST WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR - A new fully
on-line master of education degree will be available next
year through Deakin University. The University of Queensland
is spreading the word by sponsoring a massive children's book
trade project to be trialled at several Brisbane schools in
coming weeks. Dr John Worthington, who masterminded
the idea while completing his PhD at UQ, said the Children's
Book Shuffle was simple and now he planned to discover its
effectiveness
http://email.ni.com.au/Click?q=0a-ZnBCIrrscyFXTltIwU36S5sR
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A school asks families to donate unwanted books, which
are collected, sorted and stamped before being displayed
for children to choose under the supervision of teachers.
Sponsored by UQ's School of Education, the pilot
event will be held at four primary schools during the last
week of November and first week of December.
Details: http://www.jweducation.com/20011121.html
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For all those who asked about online courses - here we have it
Graphics and Photography
http://purple.nd.edu.au/coms/bj/units/co110/co110c/110cindex.htm
Intro to Digital Video
http://purple.nd.edu.au/coms/bj/units/co110/co110g/110gindex.htm
this site has a number of other topics as well.
And our very own
Education Department of Western Australia
CMIS Evaluation provides an information service for
Western Australian teachers to assist them in the selection
of quality curriculum resources that support the Curriculum
Framework. These resources encompass the widest possible
range of formats, from print to digital, to enable teachers
to select those that match a particular purpose or student
learning style.
http://www.eddept.wa.edu.au/cmis/eval/
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6. WEBSITE FOCUS -Disasters
Lots of readers had great sites to add to this list, here they are:-
Natural Disasters: General Links http://www.kedronss.qld.edu.au/home/betsym/index/natdis.htm
http://www.sfc.wcape.school.za/reference14sfcj.htm http://trackstar.hprtec.org/main/display.php3?track_id=83216
(Select view in frames option)
http://www.zeta.org.au/~staglib/naturaldisasters.html
FEMA for kids http://www.fema.gov/kids/
Fantastic looking kids site - real kid appeal.
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT Australia
http://www.ema.gov.au/index2.html
DISASTER MITIGATION (perhaps more for teacher
background - or challenge for brighter students)
NASA links to volcanoes and earthquakes http://www.athena.ivv.nasa.gov/curric/land/index.html
NATURAL DISASTERS including blizzards, tsunamis and more http://www.cln.org/themes/volcanoes.html
BUREAU OF METOEROLOGY ( Australia. Find current
and general information about climate and weather
conditions, including warnings and disasters.
HAZARDS AND RISKS Charles Sturt UNIVERSITY
has produced the Hazards and Risks Virtual Library
to give comprehensive coverage of links to all
types of disasters including fires, geological events,
weather hazards, chemical disasters, pest infestations
and the impact of disasters.
http://life.csu.edu.au/hazards/topics.html
WEATHER AND CLIMATE. From Community Learning
Network, an excellent set of theme pages with links
to educational resources. Topics include Air Quality,
Clouds, El Niño, Floods, Global Warming/Climate
Change, Hurricanes, Lightning, Ozone Depletion,
Tornadoes, Water Quality.
http://www.cln.org/subjects/weather_inst.html
PLANETDIARY Provides a weekly update of articles
on the environmental state of planet Earth focusing
on natural phenomena and events such as floods,
fire, fauna, flora, earthquakes, drought, health,
volcanoes, oil spills, radioactivity, tornadoes, and
tropical Storms. Has good background on each
phenomena with annotated links, and archives of
recent articles. Contains Internet activities and
lesson plans for teachers and students.
http://www.phschool.com/science/planetdiary/
NATURAL DISASTERS This Thinkquest site provides
easily read information on the destructive forces of
nature. Profiles tornadoes, tsunami, volcanoes,
hurricanes, and drought. Supported by multimedia
presentation. http://library.thinkquest.org/16132/
RELIEF WEB This site provides current information
on prevention, preparedness and disaster response. http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf
Savage Earth is the companion site to the PBS TV
series of the same name. It includes
information, links and teacher notes on Earthquakes,
Volcanoes and Tsunamis (tidal waves). Natural disasters. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageearth/
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: United States - USGS. This site
offers up to date information related to earth sciences -
volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes and drought.
The mission statement of the USGS is in part to minimise
the loss of life through natural disasters.
WEB DIRECTORY Comprehensive listing of sites related
to environmental issues. Indexed alphabetically and
includes, among many other topics: Disasters -Earthquakes,
Land Conservation - Mountains, Wetlands. Pollution -
Air/Water Pollution, Hazardous Waste. Science - Biology,
Geology, Oceanography. Weather - Institutes, Remote Sensing. http://webdirectory.com/
EARTHQUAKES EARTHQUAKES From the Southern
California Earthquake Centre. "This SCEC educational
module has been designed to provide students with the
opportunity to interactively investigate the nature of
earthquakes. The module has been divided into three
major subject sections, "What is an Earthquake?
"The Distribution of Earthquakes", and "Measuring
Shaking". Each section presents background material
and interactive learning activities allowing students to
understand such characteristics of earthquakes as their
associated faults, rates of occurrence, magnitudes, and
geographic distribution."
http://www.scecdc.scec.org/Module/module.html
EARTHQUAKE THEME PAGE includes educational links and
teacher activities related to earthquakes. Natural disasters,
Earth science, Plate tectonics.
http://www.cln.org/themes/earthquakes.html
BAMBIL PRIMARY Disasters and Survival page
http://www.schools.ash.org.au/bilambil/disasters2.html
VIRTUALTEACHER - disaster page
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/disasters.html
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7. HUMAN RIGHTS DAY (10 DEC) Here are some
Informational sites from the Wonderful Kerry Smith a of EDna
1. Amnesty International Australia
2. Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/
3. Australian Human Rights Information Centre
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/ahric/index.html
4. Vision Australia Foundation
http://www.visionaustralia.org.au
5. Accepting Diversity - an Interactive Handbook in Progress
http://www.tolerance.it/eng/index.html
6. Amnesty International - Annual Report 2001
http://web.amnesty.org/web/ar2001.nsf/home/home?OpenDocument
7. Children's Rights Across the World
8. Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)
9. Human Rights
10. Physicians for Human Rights
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8. GREAT SITES
COOL KIDS SITE
Just fantastic. The "Just for Kids' site has lots of cool
activities and links to help you with your
homework, school projects and just for fun.
Just click on the student who is looking after
the area you are interested in.
http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/students/kids/vclass/index.htM
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HOT SITE
Check out the Peoplescapes website and read the personal stories
http://www.peoplescape.com.au/
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And more Christmas Craft
http://www.make-stuff.com/christmas.html
http://www.teachervision.com/lesson-plans/lesson-6604.html
http://www.themeunits.com/Christmas_bk.html
http://www.mothers-home.com/activities/xmascrafts.htm
and from the wet folks in Tasmania
http://www.discover.tased.edu.au/ec/teachers/Xmas/Default.htm
including the electronic advent calendar, Christmas
around the world with a click on map and other goodies.
Well done Tasmania.
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9. READERS COMMENTS/REQUESTS
Hi Cathy,
Would you kindly let me know, when apple has the next
free seminar for educators? Thanks
Regards,
Murali Penumarthy
Hi Murali,
I will attempt to keep everyone updated re seminars
through the newsletter, so if you know of any great
seminars, please let me know, I am most interested
in the free ones. Updates of the Apple seminars can
be found at:
http://www.apple.com.au/seminars/
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I Hi Cathy,
Many thanks for your newsletter.
You may like to pass on the following links.
1. Apple and Digital Film Making
The Gold Coast MacUsers Group - useful Apple links for
teachers at:
http://www.schools.ash.org.au/bilambil/users.html
plus, specifically for those into film ...
2-pop The Digital Filmmaker's Resource Site at:
Cheers
Jenny Eather
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10. NEXT ISSUE - I have been fascinated by some new
research into CAPD - I know these kids, you know these kids -
don't know what I'm talking about???, intrigued, see next VT.
Do know what I'm talking about?? - let me know what you
have discovered.
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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