Curriculum site

For all those people who aren’t from Australia you may not know about our curriculum documents.

I’ve been working with the Saskatchewan Evergreen curriculum since being here and have found it a little challenging to sort through, especially the paper document. That folder is terribly organised. The online version is much better but I just thought anyone else reviewing my blog might like to check the New South Wales curruculum documents. Every student and Teacher is required to have a hard copy of what we call the Syllabus which is all the outcomes and indicators or objectives students in each grade need to accomplish each year. The online version is a PDF but it is still pretty good to sort through. We also have a curriculum document called modules. The modules are lessons you can teach for each topic and grade.

It comes under the the NSW board of studies curriculum but i’ve linked a few of the key learning areas or main subjects below. I hope anyone has a look through and maybe you can gain some extra or grab a few lessons for future teaching.

This is the link to the Board of Studies Primary (Elementary) curriculum site – http://k6.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/
> On the left hand side there is the list of subjects, maths, english, etc

English link > K-6 English Syllabus (Provides specific learning objectives ) http://k6.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/files/english/k6_english_syl.pdf

Or > K-6 English Syllabus modules) for specific lessons in English topics) http://k6.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/files/english/k6engmodules_syl.pdf

Maths Syllabus > http://k6.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/files/maths/k6_maths_syl.pdf

Maths Students work samples > http://k6.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/files/maths/maths_k6_ws.pdf

Science & Technology Syllabus > http://k6.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/files/science-and-technology/k6_scitech_syl.pdf

Science & Tech Support Documents > http://k6.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/files/science-and-technology/k6_scitech_supdoc.pdf

Ideas to remember for special days of the year

Anzac day – Australian and New Zealand Army Corp > remembered every year on the 25 of April.

In rememberance of these troops who were sent to Galipoli to fight the Turkish in WWII. When approaching the shores in boats at night they were directed to the wrong beach by the English and instead of landing in a position where they had cover and could surprise the Turkish forces they landed on Galipoli cove which was a cliff. The Turkish were waiting at teh top and the ANZAC’s had no place to take cover from their gunfire. Thousands of Australians and New Zealand’s died but they still managed to dig trenches into the cliff and fight there way up. The troups stayed at Galipoli fighting for months. The Australian women made biscutes to send to the troops in the trenches. These biscutes are now called ANZAC biscutes. They were and excellent source of food for the men because they have rolled oats in them for energy and very little dairy products so they keep for a long time.

Bake ANZAC biscutes with your class.

Incorporate the measurements of ingredients and oven temperature with maths learning in class.  

Recipe:

1 cup rolled oats                     1 /2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup plain flour                     1 tablespoon boiling water

3/4 cup coconut                     3 tablespoons Golden syrup

1 cup sugar                             125 grams of butter

In large mixing bowl combine oats, flour, coconut and sugar.

Melt butter and golden syrup in a bowl – don’t let it boil. Combine the baking soda with the boiling water then mix with butter and golden syrup. Mix into dry ingredients.

Mixture should not be too dry. Its ok if its quite oily from the butter.

Take spoonfuls and roll into balls, place on greased tray and flatten a little. Space them out as they will expand and may join together if too close. Bake in oven at 150 degrees celceus for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool on tray.

Very yummy – crunchy and chewy

Telecollaborative Web Projects

What a fantastic idea! This is a great way students can become aware of their global position and global influence. These tools are great fun and develop students cognitive awareness of global concepts. It can be challenging for some students to really grasp the whole world concept. Students can learn about different places and find similarities and differences between cultures by interacting with students from another country. The fact that students can develop their understanding about global concepts such as the importance of environmental sustainability and being environmentally friendly is very important to me and our future and the fact that this simple tool can help develop this understanding is great.

Check out these tools:

Flat Stanley Project

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The monster exchange

Note: This is a great tool to develop descriptive language skills

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Postcard Exchange

Note: Send postcards about your community or school to other communities involved in this program

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Life around here

Note: Students can create their own videos about their lives or country to share with others.

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Flat Classroom

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Online Content tools

Content:

Creative Commons
Wikipedia
CCMixter
Scribd
Youtube
Viddler
SparkNotes
WikiHow
ProductWiki

Online tools

BlueDot.us

Note: Now called faves >  www.faves.com – Online tool, students can set up to tag all there favorite sites.

Delicious

Note: Another bookmarking tool similar to bluedot

Google Docs

Note:  Like a Microsoft word program online. It allows people to converse online over a project and link it or send it to others easily.

Picasa Albums

Note: Online way to save photos. You can download the program onto your computer to save and edit photos and/or  you can have a web page that shows off your photos for friends and family to see.

Flickr

Note: great online tool to find quality photos of what ever you like.

iGoogle

Note: This is like your home page. You can add tools, games, news, weather… what ever you like, plus link pages to it.

Google Reader
Google Docs

Dandelife

Wayfaring

Remember The Milk
NetVibes
Zoho Suite
Jumpcut
Pageflakes
YouSendIt
LastFM
Musicovery
SlideShare
Ning
Twitter
Gliffy
Yugma
NoteMesh
Thinkature
Mind Meister
Yahoo! Answers
WizIQ
Wikispaces
Wet Paint
PBWiki
BackPack
Picnik
FotoFlexer
Voicethread
Scrapblog
Dynamic Images
Blogmeister
FD’s Flickr Toys
Frappr
Free Printable Calendars
Let Them Sing It For You
Hide My A**
Podcast People

Variety of Software for Education

Software:

Tux Paint
Tux Math
Tux Type
Google Earth
Picasa
Open Office
Jing
Google Sketchup
Google Earth
Audacity
Gimp
Freemind
Skype
Zotero

Search tools

Search Tools:

These are a selection of tools and sites for researching topics or just simple information.

Google (Maps, Photos, Video, Groups, etc.)

- Hint: If you type a question straight into the search bar of google the answer should come up at the top of the page of links.

Yahoo!

Ask

MSN Search

Dogpile

- Note: Dogpile searches for information using a selection of research tools.

Google Scholar

Skreemr (audio search)

ChaCha (human powered search)

Note: This site is great because students can talk directly to a person and ask them the exact question. (Who says technology is impersonal!)

My teaching philosophy

 Philosophy of teaching and learning

 

- All students are entitled to a fair and unbiased curriculum.

- Students have the right to be treated equally, without ridicule or bullying.

- Students have the right to be comfortable in their learning environment and feel confident enough to seek answers by solving problems, asking questions and making mistakes.

- In my future classroom I will strive to develop a relationship with students where the teacher is not the dictator of learning. I will strive to be the facilitator that promotes a learning environment that creates exciting and valuable learning experiences.

- Learning should be fun. While providing a supportive and structured learning environment it is valuable and necessary that teachers use a variety of teaching techniques and learning experiences that broaden students thinking skills and incorporate different learning styles.

-  Teachers need to seek their own answers and not be afraid to learn from and with their students.

- Teachers must be flexible and willing to change or adapt any material or curriculum to cater for individual student needs.

- Learning is a life long journey that is nurtured by a partnership between the student, teacher and school. It is our responsibility to develop conscientious life long learners.

- I believe it is imperative that teachers foster environmentally aware and conscious citizens to sustain and hopefully improve our society and environment.

- Every child is unique and has individual experiences and prior knowledge from their social environment before they enter school. These experiences should be valued by the teacher and draw on to prepare their future learning journey.

- I believe it is important to find an area at school where each child feels they have a valuable skill.  Schooling occupies a large part of a child’s life therefore it is essential that each child feels they have a significant role or talent that will maintain positive attitudes towards the institution.

- I am a social role model for students so my values, attitudes and opinions may influence children. Therefore it is my responsibility to foster critical, independent, open and fair minds.

teaching philosophy in progress

hope to create a classroom that fosters open mindedness, fair mindedness and full mindedness.  I realise not everything I teach is going to interest and engage all of my learners 100% of the time but I hope, by creating a respectful learning environment, using the 3 things mentioned above, students and I will be able to work together to improve our classroom learning everyday.

I’ve changed my mind

O.K so I was wrong to be sceptical about the purpose and point of Blogging. Up until now I haven’t been all that for it but I have changed my mind. After reading many of the Bob and Scribe posts of Darren Kuropatwa’s maths class I realise that students really do get alot out of blogging and making comments about their maths lessons. 

Its just like my professors have been drumming into me over the last 3 years, If you can teach or explain a concept to someone else you will get a better understanding of the concept yourself.  The kids are able to clarify their knowledge, ask any questions and feel proud of their efforts by the comments and notes they make in their blogs. I have also noticed most of his class have very good English skills.

So there we go, Holly has changed her mind and will do everything she can to implement blogging into her cool, technologically advanced, hip and happening classroom.