Welcome to the first issue of the Teachers’ Toolkit Newsletter. We will be creating this newsletter on a regular basis to further inspire, ignite and inform you and your students. We will continue to offer a variety of classroom support that will help equip, encourage and, to the best of our endeavours, make life in the classroom full of great learning experiences — just like the magazine!

It is our intention to regularly notify, remind and link you to some of the ideas, activities and resources ‘beyond the classroom’ that will assist your daily classroom work. We hope to cover aspects such as:

• the latest education news
  
• highlights of and reminders about each issue of the Teachers’ Toolkit Magazine
  
• forthcoming features in Teachers’ Toolkit Magazine
  
• special days and events to celebrate
  
• challenging editorial comment
  
• views, reviews and feedback — we welcome comments from teachers and resource developers
  
• special web-based resources
  
• conferences and meetings around the country and internationally
  
• fun and light relief items to help brighten and ighten your day.

Teachers’ Toolkit Magazine Issue 3 (due into schools mid-June)

• Planet Ark (www.planetark.com/treeday/schools) is a major contributor to this issue and will be helping schools register for National Tree Day.
  
• Winter is fast approaching and you will be able to check out ideas and activities to help prepare for winter flu and learn all about Avian Flu.
  
• Did you know that that there are over 240 million people playing football (soccer) in over 200 countries? We take you to the 2006 FIFA World Cup (www.fifa.com) but focus upon the cultural diversity of ‘the world game’.
  
• There’s much, much more to look forward to in Issue 3!

Life in the Freezer
While National MP Barnaby Joyce has just returned from the Antarctic region and recommended the mining of mineral resources, we at Teachers’ Toolkit preferred Andy Baird’s (Education Officer, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery) work as presented in the March issue. If you haven’t already taken a look or explored the Islands to Ice Exhibition, it is well worth discovering and if you can’t get to Tassie go to www.tmag.tas.gov.au. Remember to rug up!

Duyfken 1606 Replica Voyage
If you haven’t already discovered this one go to www.duyfken.com to follow the current voyage retracing the original 1606 expedition. Read the daily updates of the Captain’s Log and follow the Duyfken’s progress as it sails around Australia. Who was Willem Janszoon and what did he do to help discover Australia? We are in the process of creating some ideas and activities to help you with integrate this fascinating voyage into your classroom.

Australia’s Cultural Diversity
We live in a multicultural country and therefore we need to ensure that our students understand our diverse country and all its people. To help classroom teaching and learning, Blake Education and the Australian Multicultural Foundation have just released a new program called Harmony & Understanding. This program contains a series of non-fiction titles with supporting teacher guides. Go to www.blake.com.au.

Will textbooks survive?
In a recent media article (www.smh.com.au/news) it was stated that textbooks as a source of student learning will soon disappear in preference to e-learning and the use of laptops and smartboards by students. While textbooks were never intended as the sole classroom teaching and learning resource, are we likely to see printed textbooks disappear completely within the next five-10 years? Teachers’ Toolkit takes a bet each way in giving teachers printed support mixed with some fantastic web links to help enhance the classroom experiences.

Helping parents help their children
Keep an ear out for the 18 May launch of the Raising Children Network (RCN). The Raising Children website is a government-funded resource that gives parents the power to make informed choices about how they raise their kids. We are sure that your parents and carers will greatly appreciate being guided to this very resourceful website. www.raisingchildren.net.au

Kids and media (download Lesson Plans)
Speaking of helping parents, don’t forget the very useful page in the November issue which was provided by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation about children’s TV viewing. You can now download, photocopy and distribute this page. Teachers’ Toolkit is helping teachers help parents help students!

Now relax!
Put your feet up and smile with these jokes from some Year 5 students at Rochedale State School.www.schools.ash.org.au/rochedale/jokes2.htm.

Thank you for subscribing to the Teachers’ Toolkit Newsletter. We welcome feedback and comment on this newsletter, as we do on any other aspect pertaining to the Teachers’ Toolkit Magazine.
Email: info@teacherstoolkit.net.au