February 2009 Back-To-School Special Edition

Everyone at Teachers’ Toolkit welcomes you back to school and hope that you enjoyed a happy and relaxing summer holiday. With batteries recharged, a new school year begins, with new faces offering the chance of new rewards, new challenges and new frontiers to be crossed.

We wish you and your colleagues a satisfying 2009 school year and we reassure you that Teachers’ Toolkit will continue to offer a wide range of support to assist your classroom work.

In 2009, Teachers’ Toolkit will continue to bring to you:

• A resource-packed issue of Teachers’ Toolkit Magazine every term.
• Regular updates on the Teachers’ Toolkit Website including extra features and resources not found in the magazine.
• Early bird notices if you are registered for the next delivery of the Teachers’ Toolkit Magazine.
• The Teachers’ Toolkit e-newsletter each term. Ensure you are registered to receive this — registration is FREE.
• Giveaways galore scattered throughout the year.
• Regular links with the MacquarieNet and Macquarie Dictionary Online resources.
And much much more ....

Share this with your colleagues, including those new to your school, and suggest they also register for all the Teachers’ Toolkit benefits.

Teachers’ Toolkit Magazine Issue 14 will be arriving in your schools early March.

Now seems a good time to take another look at Pat Edwards’ Recipe for Education Broth. Pat Edwards is a former teacher and author, now happily retired in Queensland.

Recipe for Education Broth.(for which there are always too many cooks!)

Ingredients:

• 1 teacher, female or male
• 30 or so children, reasonably fresh, in assorted shapes, sizes, colour and sex, all approximately the same age

Method:

1. Place children in a container called a classroom.
2. Add several large chunks of Literacy and Numeracy.
3. Chop up a few handfuls of HSIE/SOSE and Science & Technology and sprinkle on top.
4. Toss in just enough Physical Education (to let off steam), Music (tor sweetness),
5. Creative arts (for taste) and Health & Personal Development (to help smooth out any rough edges).
6. Simmer steadily for four 10—11 week periods, removing from the heat at regular intervals to ease any build up of pressure.
7. Stir occasionally. If you need to bring things to the boil quickly, add several complaining phone calls or letters, or snippets of your staffroom discussion on a newspaper article about the inadequacies of schools today.
8. At the end of cooking time remove the main ingredients (i.e. the children). Some will be in the same condition as when they went in, while a few might be tender, having absorbed all the juices. Others will have risen to the top achieving the desired outcome. A handful will be still tough, stringy and sharp to the taste. These are the ones by which a teacher’s success will be judged.

To help start off the year, here are just a few features to interest you.

13 February 2009: Apology Anniversary Breakfasts

See below for the details on how to celebrate this event, register your Apology Anniversary Breakfast and obtain some resources.

Did you know that 2009 is The Year Of...

• International Year of Astronomy
• International Year of Human Rights Learning
• International Year of Natural Fibres
• International Year of Reconciliation

Be on the lookout for related teaching resources to become available in Teachers’ Toolkit Magazine.

MacquarieNet Poetry Competition 2008

Thank you to all those students who submitted their poems to the MacquarieNet Poetry Competition 2008. We had heaps of fantastic entries from a lot of budding poets. Here are the winners and runners-up. Read the winning entries or else follow this link and search Poetry Competition in the Download Lesson Plans section). Another big thanks to Les Murray for undertaking the role of judge for the competition.

Upper Primary School Category
Congratulations to Anthony Rocca from Nazareth Catholic College, SA,
for his winning entry Red.
Runners-up:
Jody Xia - Nazareth Catholic College, SA
Mitchell Rogerson - Mildura West Primary School, Vic
Myoori Seevanayagam - Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar, Vic.

Middle Primary School Category
Congratulations to Ben Toms from Cudgen Public School, NSW,
for his winning entry Why Say Sorry?
Runners-up:
Sophie Binks - Moreton Bay College, Qld
Madeline Rudar - Broughton Anglican College, NSW
Joselin Hollingsworth - Greenmount Primary School, WA.

Apology Anniversary Breakfasts

13 February 2009

Sharing stories, taking the next steps...

“We can today resolve together that there be a new beginning for Australia. And it is to such a new beginning that I believe the nation is now calling us... So let us seize the day. Let it not become a moment of mere sentimental reflection. Let us take it with both hands and allow this day, this day of national reconciliation, to become one of those rare moments in which we might just be able to transform the way in which the nation thinks about itself, whereby the injustice administered to these Stolen Generations in the name of these, our parliaments, causes all of us to reappraise, at the deepest level of our beliefs, the real possibility of reconciliation writ large.”
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, 13 February 2008

On 13 February 2008, Australians everywhere stopped to hear Prime Minister Kevin Rudd deliver the national apology to the Stolen Generations. The apology provided the foundation for us to heal together and provide justice to the Stolen Generations. It is also helping to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and make reconciliation a reality for the benefit of us all. In workplaces, schools, public spaces and homes, we stood together and shared this memorable moment in our nation’s history.

On the first anniversary of the apology, Australians are invited to come together again to remember where they were and how they felt one year ago, to reflect on what’s changed and what hasn’t, and to talk about what comes next.

Organisations and community groups of all kinds are encouraged to hold Apology Anniversary Breakfasts. And to help set the scene and make the breakfasts successful and meaningful, Reconciliation Australia has produced the following resources:

• Ideas on what you can do as an organisation or individual to build on the apology and help close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians
• A 30 minute documentary film about the apology
• A poster featuring the wording of the national apology by the Prime Minister
• A simple fact sheet answering common questions about the Stolen Generations and the apology
• A collection of quotes about the impact of the apology from members of the Stolen Generations and other Australians
• An online database for you to register your breakfast.

To register your Apology Anniversary Breakfast and request resources go to www.reconciliation.org.au.

Further resources are also available from the National Sorry Day Committee and the Stolen Generations Alliance.

Reconciliation Australia
Ph: +61 2 6273 9200 Fx: +61 2 6273 9201 www.reconciliation.org.au

Reconciliation Australia acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land and community. We pay our respect to them and their cultures, and to the elders both past and present.