Welcome to the Teachers’ Toolkit e-Newsletter Issue 8. It is the second half of the school year already … Term 3 is underway!

We hope that you have enjoyed using Teachers’ Toolkit Magazine Issue 7. Remember that you and your colleagues can download this and all past issues of the magazine directly from our website: www.teacherstoolkit.net.au. This is very useful if you happen to miss an issue or you wish to recall an earlier article.

Teachers’ Toolkit Magazine Issue 8 is currently in development and will be delivered in early September. We have some great features and resources to share with you in Issue 8 so don’t miss it.

In this e-newsletter you will find:

• Important Dates To Remember
  
• National Schools Tree Day
  
• MacquarieNet: Australia’s Leading Online Reference Library.
  
• Ready, Aim, Snap!: Reconciliation Australia
  
• National Literacy And Numeracy Week 2007
  
• Active After-School Communities
  
• Whales On The Move
  
• Kids’ Well-Being—Through Their Own Eyes
  
• Indigenous Literacy Day
  
• More Play And Less TV.
  
• Food Allergies And Epi-Pen
  
• Digi-Kids And A New Way Of Learning
  
• Census 2006 Data
  
• The School Concert: A Cool Solution To A Hot Problem.
  
• String Bags Not Plastic Bags
  
• Jamm 4 Genes: 3–5 August 2007
  
• Oxfam Trailwalker Sydney 2007
  
• New Resources
  
• Extra Note (1): In A Flat World Imagination Is The Key: Thomas Friedman
  
• Extra Note (2):The Art Of Memorising Simple Things
  
• Extra Note (3): Did You Know?

Important dates to remember

Here are some special dates (with hyperlinks) to consider for occasional classroom activities:
27 July: Schools Tree Day
30 July: Dental Health Week
3 August: Jeans 4 Genes Day
6 August: Energy Safety Week
17 August: 40 Hour Famine
18 August: Children’s Book Week
18 August: National Science Week
24 August: Daffodil Day
1 September: National Biodiversity Month
3 September: Australian National Flag Day
5 September: Indigenous Literacy Day
17 September: Australian Citizenship Day
26 September: World School Milk Day

As always, we acknowledge the wealth of information to be found on the EDNA website’s Australian Schools Calendar. For further details consult the EDNA website at www.edna.edu.au.

National Schools Tree Day: Friday 27 July

This important Planet Ark event ‘grows’ every year with more and more schools registering to take part and do something for our environment. If you haven’t already registered, you can do so online at www.planetark.com/register or by calling the Tree Day Hotline on 1300 88 5000. Remember to look again at Teachers Toolkit Issue 7 for the Tree Day feature article to help you make this day a success at your school.

Talking of the great work that Planet Ark does for the environment, Planet Ark are working with Sensis to create a website that helps people locate nearby recycling services for the more difficult products. For details, visit the website www.recyclingnearyou.com.au or call 1300 733 712.

MacquarieNet: Australia’s leading online reference library

Have you taken up the free offer to access one of Australia’s best online reference sites? If not, then here’s something for you and your students to experience and enjoy.
MacquarieNet: FREE TRIAL
MacquarieNet gives you and your students access to a wealth of information on Australian topics and indigenous studies. Why not set up a free one-month trial for your school today?
Contact: support@macquarieonline.com.au to take advantage of this great offer.

National Literacy and Numeracy Week (NLNW 2007)

Literacy and numeracy skills underpin all other learning. The ability to read and write and understand numbers is essential to be a participating member of society. National Literacy and Numeracy Week is an Australian Government initiative that promotes and celebrates literacy and numeracy achievement across the country. The theme for 2007 is Making a Difference. Go to Teachers' Toolkit:  Lesson Plans - NLNW 2007 to download Christopher Cheng's reading tips and Beth Powell's numeracy activities.

Active After-School Communities

The Active After-school Communities program, developed by the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) as part of the Australian Government’s Building a Healthy, Active Australia package, is celebrating confirmation of the program’s extension to 2010. More than 110 000 children have participated in the program of safe, fun, physical activities and over 15 000 people have been trained as coaches. New research undertaken by the ASC draws a detailed picture of just how successful the program has been in getting children, parents and the community moving.

Active After-school Communities is an after school-hours program that provides Australian primary school-aged children with more opportunities to be physically active. The program is committed to delivering a quality experience for children and, with a strong focus on local community involvement, it also aims to equip communities to deliver the program themselves.

To help gauge the impact of the program so far—on parents, teachers, students, deliverers, local sporting clubs and, of course, the children—the ASC is undertaking extensive research and evaluation each year the program is running. Go to Teachers’ Toolkit Resource Links. to download: the full article and to learn more about the program.

Whales On The Move

Our friendly humpback whales are on the move again as they migrate up and down the east and west coasts of Australia. The whales breed inside the Great Barrier Reef and on the North-West shelf along the west Kimberley coast. Time to revisit the Whales and Whaling article that appeared in the September 2006 issue of the magazine! You can find this article online at the Teachers’ Toolkit website under ‘Lesson Plans’. Go to Teachers' Toolkit Lesson Plans to download the article. While you’re online, take a look at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) site which details work being done to help protect our whales.

Kids’ well-being—through their own eyes

This new study by the NSW government can help teachers, other educationalists and parents understand and support kids’ well-being and help kids 'feel good'.
The key findings of the study were:

• well-being for children is complex and multi-faceted, covering both negative and positive dimensions and should be understood in a holistic way
• three aspects are critical to children's sense of well-being: having agency or power to take independent action; feeling and being safe and secure; and feeling that they are a good person.

For a copy of the report, An Overview of Children’s Understandings of Well-being, contact the NSW Commission Children and Young People for or visit  Kids NSW . The report may also be downloaded via the Teachers’ Toolkit website at Teachers’ Toolkit: Education Resource Links. To submit feedback or opinions about the report please email kids@kids.nsw.gov.au.

Indigenous Literacy Day: 5 September

Can you imagine a world without books and reading?
For those of us whose lives are so integrally linked to books and reading, the question seems almost ridiculous. For many remote indigenous Australians the question is redundant simply because they cannot read … not only books but everyday items like the newspaper, medication labels, recipes, safety instructions, bank statements, election ballots—the list is endless.
The Indigenous Literacy Project is a partnership between The Fred Hollows Foundation, the Australian Publishers Association (APA) and the Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) that grew from the very successful 2006 Australian Readers’ Challenge (ARC). The goal is to help raise urgently needed funds for literacy in remote indigenous communities.
In 2007 the single fundraising event will be Indigenous Literacy Day (ILD) to be held on September 5, 2007.

More play and less TV.

Some new research carried out by the Australian Institute of Family Studies starts to highlight how four-year olds spend their days and track their relationship between daily activities and development. See an abstract of the early research at AIFS Early Research Abstract. While visiting the site, take a look at some of the other articles pertaining to ‘family matters’. Might also be a useful link to provide for parents.

Food Allergies and Epi-Pen

Did you know that about 30,000 Australians now carry an Epi-Pen, for use in the event of a severe food allergy attack (Anaphylaxis)? Time to revisit the article in Teachers’ Toolkit Issue 2 or download the article from Teachers' Toolkit Lesson Plans: Anaphylaxis Aust

Digi-kids and a new way of learning (Dale Spender)

We at Teachers’ Toolkit enjoy following Dale Spender’s articles and so we like to share these with you. Go to the following site and read Dale Spender’s views on how all sides of politics are not doing enough to address the digital age and how our students learn: Digi-kids and a new way of learning.

Census 2006

During 2006, we ran articles regarding Census 2006 and how schools could become involved in some of the data-gathering. The results of census 2006 are starting to be released and make for fascinating reading and analysis and offer many opportunities for classroom activities. Hopefully we will be able to run a full feature and provide heaps of ideas and activities to help best use the data from census 2006. In the meantime, go to the ABS website and click on ‘2006 Census Data’.

The School Concert: A Cool Solution to a hot problem

Michele Quirk, a very experienced primary teacher with a good 32 years of face-to-face teaching under her nails, has sent in some fantastic ideas for relieving those annual school concert headaches. Michele shares her experience by identifying 22 elements that form the ‘bedrock of ideas’ for devising a successful and humorous play. Visit Teachers’ Toolkit Lesson Plans: The School Concert.
You too can share your classroom ideas with us and the wider Teachers’ Toolkit Community. Send your ideas to: info@teacherstoolkit.net.au.

String Bags not Plastic Bags

The campaign to persuade shoppers to abandon plastic bags in favour of reusable non-woven polypropylene ‘green’ bags has been moderately successful. However, the polypropylene bags are not biodegradable. Remember the old-fashioned string bag? String bags can be stuffed into a small space, have an impressive carrying capacity and strength AND can be composted at the end of their life! Estring, a West Australian company, makes string bags in several bright colours for $2.50 each. Get one now and you could be ahead of the fashion curve. We at Teachers’ Toolkit reckon that these bags are the go!

Jamm 4 Genes: 3–5 August 2007

Jamm 4 Genes is a registered charity fundraiser to support the ongoing research and operations at the internationally renowned genetic research facility, the Children's Medical Research Institute. On August 3–5, 2007 live music venues, schools, and businesses across Australia will raise money for a great cause—healthy children. It’s easy to get involved in Jamm 4 Genes by putting on a music-related fundraiser. You can be very elaborate and organise a big event, or you can keep it simple and just turn a standard gig into a fundraiser. Go to the Jamm 4 Genes website to learn more about this good cause.

And talking of music, there are some good things happening in music education. A good source for information is Music, Play for Life, an initiative of the Music Council of Australia www.musicplayforlife.org.

Oxfam TRAILWALKER Sydney 2007

24–26 August 2007
Oxfam Trailwalker is the world's greatest team challenge. And it's also one of the toughest. The challenge is to get your team of four across 100km of Australian bush in less than 48 hours and, collectively, to raise at least $1,000 to help to overcome poverty and suffering around the world.

Each team must commit to raising at least $1,000 to support Oxfam's work in 26 countries including indigenous Australia. By raising money for Oxfam Australia you will be making a tremendous difference to people's lives. Fundraising is a challenge, but it's also great fun!

Teachers’ Toolkit is supporting TEAM 162, so if you want to join the support team and donate for a great cause, click on http://www2.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/Sydney/team/162 and offer your support.

New Resources

We are continually adding information and weblinks about new educational resources being released. Here’s a couple:

Picture Australia
Picture Australia, hosted by the National Library of Australia, enables access to more than a million digitised images from a variety of Australian and international agencies. Check out their site and particularly some of their Picture Trails at www.pictureaustralia.org.

Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF)
ACTF have just released the much-anticipated Education Resource companion to the multi award-winning series, Mortified .Go to Teachers’ Toolkit Resource Links to download the articles.

Little Ears
Little Ears is a new storytelling magazine for Australian children, parents and early childhood teachers. Little Ears is a magazine intended to give busy parents and early childhood teachers a variety of stories to use with their children and/or students. Storytelling is an important purpose of the magazine, while it’s also a great tool for early readers to practice their reading skills. For a free electronic preview of the magazine go to www.littleears.com.au and download from the home page or else visit Teachers’ Toolkit: Education Resource Links.. The magazine will be available in selected newsagencies (NSW and VIC) from September 3 and via subscription from the Little Ears website.

First Australians: Plenty Stories
First Australians: Plenty Stories is a collaboration between the National Museum of Australia and Rigby to provide primary classrooms with a comprehensive resource to successfully implement Australian indigenous studies. ‘Understand Our Places, Our Culture, Our Voices’ … and teach Australian Indigenous studies with confidence. Learn more about this new resource at www.rigby.com.au or download some information at Teachers’ Toolkit: Education Resource Links.

Choosing the Right Stuff
Choosing the Right Stuff is the official shoppers’ guide to food additives and labels, kilojoules and fat content. Shoppers consistently ask for more information about exactly what food labels mean. An easy-to-use shopper' s guide has been designed to answer those questions and it also includes the official list of food additives by number, name and use. Could be a good resource for classroom activities, canteen managers and for recommending to parents. Visit: www.foodstandards.gov.au to learn more.

Extra Note (1)

In a flat world imagination is the key: Thomas Friedman
Thomas Friedman, in a recent speech given at the Sydney Institute, wonders what to tell your children regarding imagination and success. One of things he tells his kids is that the single most important thing they can learn in school is to ‘learn how to learn’ because what you know today is going to be outmoded so much faster tomorrow. He tells young people: ask their friends one question—Who is your favourite teacher?—and take their courses. It doesn't matter what they teach. The first place you learn how to learn is from a great teacher and the first place you learn how to love how to learn is from a great teacher, which is why teaching is more important than ever. The second Friedman he tells his kids is a little kind of mathematical formula: CQ+PQ is always greater than IQ. That is, curiosity quotient plus passion quotient is always greater than intelligence quotient. Friedman would rather have a young person with a high curiosity quotient and a real passion quotient for learning over the kid with the high intelligence quotient.
Read this fascinating article at In a flat world imagination is the key: Thomas Friedman. Friedman’s views have considerable implications for teaching and learning.

Extra Note (2)

The art of memorising simple things
Recent research has shown that the boom in mobile phones and portable devices that store reams of personal information has created a generation incapable of memorising simple things. The tech-savvy under-30’s could remember fewer birthdays and numbers than the over-50’s!

Extra Note (3)

Did you know?
How much water is required to produce each of these items?

Find out how and why at www.waterfootprint.org.
PS
Did you also know that a Japanese scientist recently concluded that producing a kilogram of beef in Japan is responsible for the equivalent carbon dioxide emitted by a European car every 250 kilometres, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days! Oh my, what next?

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