School News Archive

Parents line up to give students ethics lessons

(Wednesday 30th September 2009)
Parent groups at seven NSW primary schools want to operate the program being devised by the St James Ethics Centre. (SMH)

Oasis of the Seas

(Wednesday 30th September 2009)
Behind the scenes videos about the design and construction of what will be the world's biggest cruise ship.

iWork.com Updated

(Wednesday 30th September 2009)
This video tutorial provides an overview of the recently updated iWork.com document-sharing service.

Cronulla Dust Storm Photos

(Tuesday 29th September 2009)
Some great photos taken by Jo at Cronulla (NSW), at the height of last week's dust storm.

NASA images of dust storm

(Tuesday 29th September 2009)
Satellite images of the thick dust plume that had covered the east coast of Australia last week.

ASTD 2009

(Monday 28th September 2009)
With 150 enthusiastic teachers registered for this Illawarra conference, tomorrow's ASTD 2009 should be another fantastic TPL event.

Almighty row over ethics class in schools

(Monday 28th September 2009)
The NSW Government's religious education advisory panel will fight a pilot program that offers ethics classes to primary school students who opt out of scripture. (SMH)

It's OK how we communic8

(Monday 28th September 2009)
The digital age means a new era of communication, according to Australian academics and researchers. (SMH)

The fear is boys who will be boys forever

(Saturday 26th September 2009)
"There must be a renewed urgency to ensuring our sons are readers of books as well as watchers of screens." (Tim Hawkes - SMH)

Bill Gates: My 1979 Memories

(Wednesday 23rd September 2009)
30 years on, Bill Gates looks back on the early days of Microsoft.

IWB - The Emporer's New Clothes?

(Monday 21st September 2009)
Do IWBs really support a Quality Teaching environment? Or are they just another (expensive) fad, blindly embraced by ladder-climbing bureaucrats?

All homework, no play?

(Monday 21st September 2009)
The merit and need for some homework is generally accepted in secondary schools, but the practice has crept all the way down to kindergarten, where its benefits are highly contentious. (SMH)

Stykz (Mac, Win, Lin)

(Monday 21st September 2009)
Easy to use stick figure animation application - includes features such as onionskinning, individual manipulation of line segments within figures, layering of figures and lines, etc. Free.

NSW Minister postpones revamp of special needs teaching

(Friday 18th September 2009)
A plan to dilute the expertise of special education teachers so they can be spread more thinly across an increasing number of children with disabilities has been put on hold. (SMH)

Caringbah PS

(Thursday 17th September 2009)
Neat school website that includes a Web 2.0 calendar, and some great examples of movies created by students.

Call to Publish School Funding Data

(Wednesday 16th September 2009)
In the absence of information about funding from state and federal governments, and from private sources such as fees and donations, it becomes even more difficult to make meaningful comparisons between schools. (John Kaye)

Motherhood needs rule out new AP

(Tuesday 15th September 2009)
After winning an Assistant Principal's position on merit at Marrickville West PS, Ms Salter's job offer was withdrawn because she was returning from maternity leave and wanted to work part-time. (SMH)

Did You Know 4.0

(Tuesday 15th September 2009)
Make sure that you watch it right 'til the end!

Librarians in NT Schools

(Tuesday 15th September 2009)
95% of NT schools do not have a Teacher Librarian, and many schools have a Library budget of less than $1000pa. Maybe our political leaders could address this issue if they really believe that the NAPLAN testing regime is anything more than political media-fodder.

Tower Crane Animation

(Monday 14th September 2009)
How do those huge cranes on construction sites grow with a new building? Great animation for the budding engineers in your class.

Parents don't want league tables

(Monday 14th September 2009)
Close to two-thirds of parents want new laws to prevent the creation of school league tables, according to a national poll. (SMH)

League tables remain banned

(Monday 14th September 2009)
After several days of debate in the NSW Parliament, the NSW government was defeated in its attempt to overturn the legislation banning the publication of league tables in NSW schools. (NSWTF)

NT worst performer in national literacy tests (ABC)

(Saturday 12th September 2009)
Here is a prime example of a simplistic interpretation of NAPLAN results. Wait for more meaningless league tables from other tabloid media outlets.

Students betrayed by HSC

(Saturday 12th September 2009)
The UAI is a one-dimensional measure of a student's track record. (SMH). Much the same can be said for the interpretation of NAPLAN data.

The Beatles' Words

(Friday 11th September 2009)
Some weekend reading - a Wordle image of the words most used in the Beatles' songs. You can make your own Wordle cloud at Wordle.net.

Hide the Blogger Navigation Bar

(Friday 11th September 2009)
Remove the blue navigation bar that is displayed at the top of your Blogger page. Good idea for schools that use this service for their school or class news, as the Blogger navigation bar provides quick links to other (maybe inappropriate) blogs.

Are Dictionaries Obsolete?

(Thursday 10th September 2009)
Do we still need dictionaries in the age of Google? (Julia Angwin - Wall St Journal)

Student Blogging Guidelines

(Tuesday 8th September 2009)
A refreshing perspective on "online rules" developed by middle-school students in a US school.

NSW gets its geek on

(Monday 7th September 2009)
Just another hollow, feel-good, "plan"? "NSW Premier Nathan Rees this morning reinforced the state’s commitment to “open government” with the apps4nsw program - a public competition with prizes of $100,000 for the development of innovative digital applications and web services using public and government data." (Crikey) Believe it when you see it!

iPhone Screen Capture

(Monday 7th September 2009)
Grab screen shots from your iPhone for use in documents, presentations and web sites.

Barriers to the Integration of ICT (pdf)

(Monday 7th September 2009)
A lengthy review of literature and research concerning the factors which influence the successful integration of ICT in teaching and learning environments.

ASTD 2009

(Friday 4th September 2009)
Only a few places left in the popular workshops at this annual conference that provides new ideas for the integration of ICT in the classroom. Register online now.

SpeedTest

(Friday 4th September 2009)
Check your broadband connection speed - upload, download and ping tests in a neat "dashboard" interface.

MathsClass - Sketch up

(Wednesday 2nd September 2009)
Some secondary maths ideas and discussions for the use of Google Sketchup on netbook computers.

Reading 2.0

(Tuesday 1st September 2009)
Will Richardson discusses the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on traditional literacies. (YouTube)

ScratchED

(Tuesday 1st September 2009)
Have you discovered Scratch? Here are some great examples, ideas and discussions from schools.