Edlib

The Learning Leader

2012-01-31T11:56:00.005+11:00

Our strategic focus at Catholic Education Parramatta in 2012 is 'Learning by Inquiring'. To help guide us in this focus we will be using Douglas Reeves book 'The Learning Leader'
Douglas Reeves, author of The Learning Leader says ‘the best analytical leaders are not masters of answers but rather persistent questioners.’
Learning Exchange has access to both the print and eBook version of Learning Leader as well as many other articles written by Douglas Reeves.

The Learning Leader: How to focus School Improvement for Better Results.

Electronic book version

The Learning Leader : How to Focus School Improvement for Better Results

by Reeves Douglas B, 2006 | ASCD

This book introduces the Leadership for Learning Framework, which gives readers a tool for measuring and understanding how their own actions influence student achievement.

Staff and teachers at Catholic Education Parramatta can access an electronic copy of 'The Learning Leader' book via our Ebook library. This can be be viewed online or downloaded to your Desktop. Or you can download it your iPad via the Blue Fire reader app. Scan the QR code on the left to take you to the Ebook Library version.
(You will be prompted to login to Staffnet.)
Use your smart phone QR code reader to read the QR code pictured adjacent. Try Qrafter for iOPad or ScanMee for iPhones or use Google to locate other QR code readers for other smartphones. Many smartphones come with their own QR code reader/scanner.

Print Version
Available for loan from Learning Exchange

Other resources authored by Douglas Reeves
Ebooks from the Ebook Library via Staffnet

Renewal Coaching Workbook

by Reeves Douglas B; Allison Elle, 2010 | John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

In their groundbreaking book, Renewal Coaching, Douglas Reeves and Elle Allison offered coaches, managers, teachers, and consultants a research-based, sustainable approach...

Leading Change in Your School : How to Conquer Myths, Build Commitment, and Get Results

by Reeves Douglas B, 2009 | ASCD

Providing real-life examples of leaders who have successfully met the challenge of change, distinguished author and researcher Douglas B. Reeves shows educational leaders how they can create the conditions...

Reframing Teacher Leadership to Improve Your School

by Reeves Douglas B, 2008 | ASCD

School improvement expert Douglas B. Reeves proposes a new framework to promote effective and lasting change through teacher leadership and action research.

Articles	(Contact Learning Exchange for access to the following articles)

Leadership for Student Empowerment.
By: Reeves, Douglas B.. Educational Leadership, Nov2008, Vol. 66 Issue 3, p84-85, 2p
The article discusses how school superintendent Sheldon Berman increased self-efficacy of students in the Hudson Public School district in Massachusetts and the Jefferson County Public School district in Kentucky. The author discusses a service learning program Berman implemented in the Hudson Public School district that requires students participate in community service and encourages student involvement in school management and decision making. He discusses the adaptation of the program to urban schools in the Jefferson County Public School district and the use of inquiry-based mathematics instruction, reading interventions and a different history curriculum.

Challenging Inequity, Insisting on Excellence.
By: Reeves, Douglas B.. Educational Leadership, Oct2008, Vol. 66 Issue 2, p85-86, 2p
The article discusses conflicting methods of reducing achievement gaps for students of different races and socioeconomic contexts. The author notes an method supported by the Efficacy Institute, an educational organization, that emphasizes high educational standards for all students, the promotion of motivation and self-efficacy in students and curriculum reform based on student feedback.

CRAFTING Strategic Plans.
By: Butler, Kevin. District Administration, Mar2008, Vol. 44 Issue 4, p36-41, 6p, 2 Color Photographs, 1 Illustration
The article offers information on the key principles to enhance K12 leadership at school districts in the U.S. Douglas Reeves, founder of the Leadership and Learning Center in Colorado, mentioned some simple principles that can help K12 leaders be more effective in creating and communicating objectives to staff and improving accountability. Reeves added that teachers and staff bring about change by seeing and buying into benefits of new initiatives.

Accountability at a crossroads.
By: Reeves, Douglas B.. Leadership, Nov/Dec2004, Vol. 34 Issue 2, p12-37, 6p
Abstract: Argues that the United States needs school leaders who will make accountability decisions that are grounded in research, not popularity. Effective leaders as architects of the boundaries; Motivation of students by choice and empowerment; Legitimate criticisms of standards; Building on strengths; Searching for strengths; Drawing meaningful influences; Adoption versus implementation.

Video resources
Educational Leadership with Dr Douglas Reeves (interview by Kris Needham 4:45 mins)
Discussion around relationships betweens School leaders action and student outcomes

Virtual learning and libraries with QR codes

2011-10-10T15:57:00.000+11:00

Learning Exchange has recently utilised QR code technology in two different ways to extend learning and access to digital resources.
Firstly, we have implemented a virtual library resource stand external to the library for clients who physically can't access our library easily.

This mobile resource stand displays QR codes that point to selected ebooks.

Each QR code comes with a small blurb about the book and instructions about using the QR code.

For more information see the media release on the Catholic Education Parramatta website.

Secondly we developed a' QR Code Learning Quest' to demonstrate how QR codes can be utilised in learning via libraries.

Participants from a range of our school libraries took part in the quest using our iPads. Participants found the quest fun, engaging and they also got to know more about the resources in the library. I have included a preview to the facilitators instructions and participant worksheets via a flipsnack book. Not all pages are available via the flipsnack book.

or you can download the whole document here.

Get started with QR codes and Learning

2011-07-25T15:57:00.011+10:00

The use of QR codes (Quick response codes) are really taking off across all aspects of our lives. There are great opportunities to use them in learning and many educational bodies and libraries are taking on the challenge.
(Picture at right from the Daring Librarian - Hot QR codes in the classroom and library)

Following is some great resources to get you started using QR codes in learning.

What is a QR code?
A QR Code is a matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by QR scanners, mobiles phones with camera, and smartphones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on white background.
Depending on the information used to create the QR code, it might direct the viewer to a website, show a text message, make a phone call, or more.

Inspiration
Want to connect with your learners - create a virtual learning space or library. See how one business connected with its customers by QR codes.

Implications for teaching and learning
See my previous post about QR codes - implications for teaching and learning.

What can I include in a QR code?
From: The complete guide to QR code technology

Website URL
Telephone Number
SMS Message
Email Address
Email Message
Contact Details (VCARD)
Event (VCALENDAR)
Google Maps Location
Wifi Login (Android Only)
Paypal Buy Now Link
Social Media
iTunes Link
YouTube Video
and more…

Creating your QR code
There are a number of online QR code generators. You can search for one that suits your need.
A few I have tried that work well
Kaywa QR-Code Generator
Simple QR generator that is a good one to start with for generating a code to link to a website or deliver a text message.

BeQRious
Get a bit more adventurous with this QR code generator.
Link to a map or embed images in your QR code (like this one at right as an example)

Things to consider when creating your QR code
1.Keep your url short by using a URL shortening service like TinyURL.
2. There is a minimum optimal size for printing the QR code. (32x32mm)

For other ideas on how to make your QR codes work effectively see The Three Rules of QR Codes.

How to use QR codes in Learning
Try a Scavenger hunt - called a Scan-Venger hunt in QR code talk. for this and other ideas, Cybraryman has an extensive list of great ways to use QR codes in learning so why reinvent the wheel. Go straight to his webpage on QR codes and access:

40 interesting ways to use QR codes in the classroom
QR literature quest
Swamp Frog First Graders: Mystery Math QR Code Scanning
and lots more

How to read QR codes
Again there are tons of free QR readers for any smartphone or iPad. Try searching for reader or scanner in the App store. A few we have tried that are good are:

QRset
QRreader
Qrafter

QR codes in the Library
Hot QR codes in the classroom and library provides some good photos and ideas of how libraries have used QR codes to engage their learners.

Implementing QR codes in the Classroom
Vicki Davis on her CoolCat Teacher Blog has a very practical QR code Classroom Implementation Guide.

Another useful resource is QR codes in Education.

Copyright tools for schools - Creative Commons resources

2011-07-08T10:20:00.008+10:00

Creative Commons licenced materials are a good place for schools to start when looking for resources such as music, film clips and photographs to use in their projects and teaching resources. Schools can use these materials for noncommercial work as long as they attribute the creator.
The following links give good information about Creative Commons and how to find resources that are licensed Creative Commons.

Creative Commons for Music Educators

Creative commons material for Video resources
Youtube and Creative commons content via YouTube Video Editor.

Information about accessing Creative Commons material via the YouTube Video Editor is explained on the YouTube blog.

Attributing creators the easy way
Judy O'Connell on her HeyJude Blog has highlighted the easiest way to attribute images you use from Flickr.
I quote "Alan Levine has written a Flickr Attribution Helper – a browser script that embeds easy to copy attribution text to creative commons licensed flickr images. Greasemonkey is an add-on for Firefox browser. Stephen Ridgeway, from New South Wales Australia, created a video that explains how to use the Flickr CC Attribution helper (thank goodness – a blog post by itself would never do it!). Download and install the Flickr Attribution helper (after you have installed Greasmonkey)."
See the video:

Where can I find more information about Creative Commons?
Smartcopying is the official site for copyright information for schools. There are comprehensive information sheets and FAQs about all aspects of copyright including Creative Commons.

Creative Commons Australia provides free licences and tools that copyright owners can use to allow others to share, reuse and remix their material, legally. From here you can also search for licensed works that you can share, remix or reuse.

Console games in the classroom

2011-03-15T13:12:00.002+11:00

The impact of console games in the classroom: Evidence from schools in Scotland, 2010.
This research was commissioned by Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) in partnership with Futurelab.
The main focus of the project was to identify the educational benefits of console game- based learning in primary and secondary schools. Research was carried out in classrooms in Scotland to explore learning with games played on games consoles, such as PlayStations, Xboxes and Wiis.
Key findings
− Game-based approaches present an excellent opportunity to engage students in activities which can enhance learning and produce a range of educational benefits;
− Game-based learning approaches need to be well planned and classrooms carefully organised to engage all students in learning and produce appropriate outcomes;
− Game-based learning approaches build on many children’s existing interests, skills and knowledge and can narrow the gap between children’s home and school cultures
Includes case studies of classroom level activity using console games.
Read the whole pdf document 'The impact of console games in the classroom: Evidence from schools in Scotland'.

How are digital games used in schools? Europena Schoolnet, 2009.
Teachers use electronic games in their classroom teaching. Why do they choose to do so? What types of games do they use? What do they do with them? How do they integrate them into the curriculum? What pedagogical objectives are they aiming for and what results do they obtain from their pupils? In other words, what can be the interest of this approach for an educational system? This study includes case studies of schools use of games in the classroom.

Digital games in schools: a handbook for teachers.
Complements the study How are digital games used in schools?,

Moving learning games forward: obstacles, opportunities and openess, Education Arcade, 2009.
Argues that:
1. games can engage players in learning that is specifically applicable to “schooling;” and
2. there are means by which teachers can leverage the learning in such games without disrupting the worlds of either play or school.
This paper looks at where the strengths and challenges of both classrooms and games lie and situate “learning games” at the most productive intersection of these separate environments. We will examine these issues through concrete examples of existing best practices, and speculative designs currently under development at MIT’s Education Arcade, and elsewhere.

Jesus - a portrait by Gerald O'Collins

2011-03-02T10:12:00.005+11:00

Jesus: A Portrait, Gerald O'Collins.

Electronic copy
Staff and teachers at Catholic Education Parramatta can access an electronic copy of 'Jesus a portrait' book via our Ebook library. This can be be viewed online or downloaded to your Desktop. Or you can download it your iPad via the Blue Fire reader app. Scan the QR code on the left to take you to the Ebook Library version.
(You will be prompted to login to Staffnet.)
Use your smart phone QR code reader to read the QR code pictured adjacent. Try ScanMee for iPhones or use Google to locate other QR code readers for other smartphones. Many smartphones come with their own QR code reader/scanner.

A physical copy of this book is also available via the Learning Exchange.
Contact us on 9677 4344 or email us at LEX@parra.catholic.edu.au if you have any questions about access.

For further reviews on this book click on the following links

http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/BOOK_20080828_1.htm

http://www.catholicireland.net/books/faith-theology-a-the-church/1681-jesus-a-portrait

http://www.catholicleader.com.au/news.php/reviews/a-portrait-of-jesus_44785

Kitchen Gardens in Schools

2011-02-28T13:24:00.006+11:00

A useful resource for schools thinking of starting their own Kitchen Garden can be found at Kitchen Gardens in Schools.

In the Parramatta Catholic Education Diocese many schools are using Kitchen Garden to improve oral language of our students. 'A naturalistic approach to language involves students in active physical participation. It offers support for students’ language, thinking and social development. As students develop physically and cognitively, and begin to explore their environment, they start to understand and use their growing language skills for an expanding range of purposes.' (Love and Reilly, 2010)
This blog provides practical information, links to resources and wonderful photos which will inspire any school to start their own kitchen garden.

Voice Care for Teachers

2010-11-10T10:28:00.004+11:00

Learning Exchange has a DVD available for teachers that focuses on tips on how teachers can protect their voice.

Voice Care for Teachers includes useful strategies about managing noise, information about classroom acoustics. The DVD also looks at the many factors that can impact on the voice and teachers share stories of their own voice problems. Produced in 2007, it has been written and produced by speech pathologists Dr. Alison Russell (Adelaide), Dr. Jenni Oates (Melbourne) and Cecilia Pemberton (Sydney) who all have expertise in the prevention and management of voice problems.

The DVD is available for borrowing from Learning Exchange. Also the DVD is available for individual purchase from the Voice Care for Teachers website.

Web-based article

It's no joke if you croak
Published in The Times Educational Supplement on 7 May, 2010
By: Phyllida Furse.
Teachers use their voice more than actors do. Voice coach Phyllida Furse offers tips to newly qualified teachers on protecting this natural asset.

Ebscohost database article
The following article is an Ebscohost database article available via Staffnet. contact Learning Exchange on 9677 4344 for access to this article.
By: DeGroot, Joanna. Teaching Music, Nov2008, Vol. 16 Issue 3, p54-55, 2p,
This article offers information on voice health problems, its symptoms and suggestions. According to Mary Lynn Doherty, assistant professor of music education at Northern Illinois University, the importance of vocal health is usually misunderstood by students and teachers though it has been a major point of concern. Doherty states that vocal health is vital for music teachers and they are more prone to these problems than general people. She also provides several tips related to voice problems.

Using iPads/iPods in classrooms with special needs students

2010-10-19T11:57:00.005+11:00

MangoMon is a commerical organisation providing online tools for special needs students. They also have some good ideas on teaching and learning uses of online tools and technologies. For uses of iPods and iPads in classroom see this article. An interesting video on this page shows hearing impaired students learning via the use of an iPad. Scroll halfway down to see video.

Spectronics, another special education supplier also provides some good links to the use of iPads in education in their article "Educational Apps and resources for the iPad and iPhone".

CEO Parramatta also provides links to the use of Ipads in Special Education via the Learning and Teaching with Ipads blogspot. See the Special Needs Uses tab.

Team teaching - collaborative teaching

2010-10-15T14:51:00.008+11:00

Learning Exchange has recently added an Ebook to our collection of resources on collaborative teaching.
Ebooks are available via our Staffnet - Resources - Ebooklibrary or for more information email lex@parra.catholic.edu.au

"TeamWork : Setting the Standard for Collaborative Teaching, Grades 5-9" is full of captivating stories and insightful conversations. "The teamers" provide an honest and richly detailed explanation of collaborative teaching in action. They deliver the straight scoop on teaming, offering insights on these and other key topics:how to shape a shared purpose for learning by mining the talents of students and colleagues;how to build strong partnerships with parents, principals, and other key people who influence the lives of young adolescents; how to deepen curriculum integration by "cutting the fluff.
Along with this the publishers Stenhouse have provided a downloadable study guide that complements the book. The study guide is available from their website. In addition this webpage provides access to podcasts on "what it takes to make a team successful" as well as articles like "Team teaching with careful planning it is not a luxury".
A list of the other resources we hold on this topic can be found at this previous post.

Transmedia books

2010-08-19T09:45:00.010+10:00

What is transmedia?

Wikipedia defines it thus: as storytelling across multiple forms of media with each element making distinctive contributions to a fan's understanding of the story world. By using different media formats, transmedia creates "entrypoints" through which consumers can become immersed in a story world.

According to Henry Jenkins, author of the book Convergence Culture, transmedia storytelling is a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes it own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story.”

What is transmedia and is it different than crossplatform?
Jill Golick explains in her blog post on Transmedia her understanding of transmedia as being a subset of crossplatform. She believes all transmedia is crossplatform, but not all crossplatform is transmedia.

"When I use transmedia two conditions have to be met:
The story world must be expressed on at least three platforms. It can be more, many more, but three is the minimum.

The expression of the story world on each platform must be unique, not the same content repurposed on a different platform. So Harry Potter, in which the movies, video games and other elements are all retellings of the books that JK Rowling wrote? Not transmedia. Julia Child’s autobiography, My Life in France, Julie Powell’s blog The Julie/Julia Project and Nora Efron’s movie, Julie and Julia? Transmedia. (I have a post elaborating on this thought on the blog TransmediaTracker.)

Transmedia books to explore

1. Skeleton Creek

“Skeleton’s Creek – Ryan’s Journal” is the first book in a new series by author Patrick Carman. Carman has already experimented with New Media in his Atherton series and, once again, he returns to the format with this new book and series which is, ostensibly, a kind of ghost story – with a secret society thrown into the overall mystery. Taking into account that this book is aimed at adolescents, the results are almost entirely positive with Carman weaving a successfully creepy and suspenseful tale, while taking advantage of the internet to augment his story.

ref: http://dauntlessmedia.net/patrick-carman/skeleton-creek/skeleton-creek-1-ryans-journal.html

2. 39 clues

YA book series like The 39 Clues, which ask participants to read the book and investigate clues online.

39 Clues tells the story of two children, Amy and Dan Cahill, who are thrust into a global hunt for clues that will reveal the secret to the Cahill family’s power. The series is a cross between The Westing Game and The Amazing Race as the two children compete against members of four branches of the Cahill family to uncover the secret histories of famous Cahills including Benjamin Franklin, Anastasia Romanov, and Amelia Earhart. Although the series initially portrays their competition as cutthroat caricatures of their respective family houses, the series gradually reveals the complex motives of their fellow competitors.

While the story is primarily told through the books, each novel serves as a launching pad for further exploration, as a number of clues are hidden within each book’s pages. For instance, in The Maze of Bones, a series of apparently misnumbered pages spells out a secret message that aids the reader in solving a puzzle on one of the six collectible cards that came with the book. By going to the 39 Clues website, the reader can complete a puzzle solving mission culminating in an online game that explains the message.

Scholastic assembled materials to help teachers using 39 Clues in the classroom, and libraries have organized 39 Clues discussion sessions “to attract a new crew of young patrons through their doors to meet, share, and sleuth to solve the fantasy adventure as a team.”

3. Level 26 books

Level 26.com and the Level 26 books combine to form a "digi-novel," a multi-platform experience that moves the reader from passages in the books to videos and interactive content right here on the Level 26 website.

How do I participate in the digi-novel?

Read the books, sign up for a profile, and enter codes to unlock the Cyber-bridges.

The first installment in the series "Level 26: Dark Origins," will be available in stores and online September 8th. As you read the book, you'll see calls-to-action that direct you to this website to sign up for a profile and enter codes to unlock Cyber-bridges. These cinematic Cyber-bridges take the experience to the next level, immersing you in the action and putting you inside the twisted mind of a serial killer.

4. Nubs

The book Nubs is a true story about a dog and a Marine in Iraq. The website includes facts about the story, a book trailer, photo gallery, and a review of the locations in the story. Use this book to start an exploration of animal and journey stories. Think about ways you could create your own multi-platform story.

5. Cathy's story

Written for a young adult audience, Cathy's Book, Cathy's Key and Cathy's Ring by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman includes an evidence packet along with a website for each book. A website is also available for fans who want to discuss the book. The fictional character has Facebook and Flickr accounts you can visit.

Ref: http://eduscapes.com/earth/informational/transmedia.html

Other transmedia to explore

Metro2033 is a computer game. The premise is a post-apocalyptic Moscow where humanity has retreated to the subway Metro system. On the surface are mutants and desolation. Below is factional subterranean tribal states in the Metro tunnels.

Metro 2033 been getting rave reviews as a game but what’s interesting in the context of Transmedia is a) that its based on a novel and b) that the original novel was self-published online.

Murder on Beacon Hill app

Normally, viewers experience the story of the murder as they travel a mapped route around Boston’s Beacon Hill, watching sections from the video at eight different stops. At the film festival, though, audiences will stay firmly in their seats, watching all 33 parts of the video in continuous order. “We were just blown away at how watchable the story is in a theatrical setting,” BIFF director Patrick Jerome said in a statement. “It’s quick-paced, full of juicy details, and, to our knowledge, it’s the first location-based application to screen at a film festival.” Untravel Media, founder Epstein says the film’s acceptance at BIFF is a sign that the filmmaking community is gradually waking up to the possibilities of transmedia storytelling—in particular, storytelling that immerses viewers in a thoughtful way in real geography. “For a few years now we’ve been talking about doing more than your typical audio guides and walking tours,” Epstein says. “With the iPhone, apps can be fairly rich, so filmmakers know their stories won’t be reduced to little clips, but that the actual story can be expanded and become more engaging.”

RDA the new era in cataloguing

2010-08-10T11:21:00.005+10:00

A new era in cataloguing is about to take place with the introduction of RDA. RDA: Resource Description and Access is the new descriptive cataloguing standard that will replace the Anglo American Cataloguing Rules2 (AACR2).

In CEO Parramatta the library system support staff will be working closely with our library software supplier SirsiDynix to integrate changes as need be as well as keeping our school libraries informed. The aim of this post is just to provide a bit of background information about RDA for all library staff.

The aim of RDA is that cataloguing rules be easy to use and interpret and be applicable to an online, networked environment. Additionally it aims to provide effective bibliographic control for all types of media, and encourage use beyond the library community.

An example of one change is to provide users with better data about content and carrier of the content. General material designations (GMDs) and specific material designations (SMDs) used in AACR2 will be replaced in RDA with new elements to describe content and carrier. The current GMDs are a mixture of terms designating both content and carrier. For example, the GMD “videorecording” can be used for both videocassettes and DVDs. OPAC displays based on the current AACRC2 rules do not always give the user a clear indication of the content of the resource and the type of carrier the content is contained in. Let us take the example of a user wanting to view a particular feature film, say “The Titanic,” on a specific type of player. What he or she really wants to know is that the content of the resource is a moving image, and that the carrier is either a videocassette or a DVD. The OPAC display should be able to make these characteristics explicit. (Ref: The Potential Impact of RDA on OPAC Displays by Philip Hider and Ann Huthwaite)

If you want to know more about RDA the National Library of Australia has a page of articles, links and presentations about RDA at their RDA webpage.
A slideshare presentation Tools of our trade by Ann Chapman of London Metropolitan University also neatly summarises the differences.

Tools of our Trade (RDA, MARC21) 2010-03-15

View more presentations from Ann Chapman.

School vision

2010-08-10T11:19:00.001+10:00

Articles
Available via Ebschost databases. If having access problems please contact lex@parra.catholic.edu.au

Partnerships for... inspiration.
Rossiter, Sue
Education Journal; Dec2008, Issue 113, p37-37, 1p
The article focuses on the importance and role of students in the process of building new schools and their strong association in new surroundings and school experience and expectations. It states that students are involved for the development of school vision and redevelopment of the construction of school. It also notes that the Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People's Services aims to transform outcomes for young people and their families.

What is vision & How do you get one?
Scoolis, James
Thrust for Educational Leadership; Nov/Dec98, Vol. 28 Issue 2, p20, 3p
Discusses the importance of vision in an educational organization. Definitions of vision; Ways to develop effective school visions; Details on the document entitled `The Walk,' an activity that asks participants to provide specific information that will be used in vision creation.

Why change doesn't happen and how to make sure it does.
Schwahn, Charles Spady, William
Educational Leadership; Apr98, Vol. 55 Issue 7, p45, 3p, 1 Color Photograph
Looks at strategic alignment for achieving the schools vision and productive changes for children. How successful strategic alignment occurs; Five rule for productive change; How educational leaders in Yarmouth significantly more than 2,000 people in the strategic planning process.
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=590581&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Books
• Literacy leadership : six strategies for peoplework McAndrew, Donald A. 2005
• The new principal's fieldbook : strategies for success Robbins, Pam 2004
• Heroic leadership : best practices from a 450-year-old company that changed the world Lowney, Chris. 2003
• Centering educational administration : cultivating meaning, community, responsibility Starratt, Robert J. 2003
• Primal leadership : realizing the power of emotional intelligence Goleman, Daniel. 2002
• Joel Barker's Leadershift [kit] : five lessons for leaders in the 21st century Barker, Joel Arthur. 1999
• The strategic human resource leader : how to prepare your organization for the six key trends shaping the future Rothwell, William J., 1951- 1998
• The Tao of personal leadership Dreher, Diane, 1946- 1996
• Focus your vision [kit] Jones, Dewitt 2005
• Transforming schools through powerful planning Psencik, Kay 2004

Ebooks
Available for browsing from EBook library. Purchase of any books available upon request from Ebook library. Contact LEX for more details.

• Generating Buy-In : Mastering the Language of Leadership Walton, Mark S.AMACOM 2003 9780814427668
• Rethinking Educational Leadership : Challenging the Conventions Bennett, N; Anderson, L SAGE Ltd. 2003 9781847876164
• Values for Educational Leadership Haydon, Graham SAGE Ltd .2007 9781848605015
• Passionate Leadership in Education Davies, Brent; Brighouse, Tim SAGE Ltd. 2008 9780857026958

School change

2010-08-10T11:16:00.002+10:00

Articles
Available via Ebschost databases. If having access problems please contact lex@parra.catholic.edu.au

 4 core strategies for implementing change.
Loesch, Paul C.
Leadership; May/Jun2010, Vol. 39 Issue 5, p28-31, 4p
The article focuses on core strategies suggested to be taken by schools in narrowing the achievement gap among students. It stresses that school districts should adopt to change in order to implement better means of improving student performance. It also states that identification of the problem and devising a plan are factors which contribute to a successful problem-solving in the field of education. Moreover, it emphasizes that schools should abide with definite goals.

Implementing school-wide behavior change: Lessons from the field.
George, Michael P. White, George P.
Schlaffer, Joseph J.
Psychology in the Schools; Jan2007, Vol. 44 Issue 1, p41-51, 11p, 1
In this article, we examine two schools that successfully adopted school-wide positive behavior interventions and highlight some of the common features that contributed to their success. As part of our analysis, we draw upon the theoretical literature on organizational change to discuss factors that supported these successful school-wide
reform efforts, including the contributions of administrators, teachers,
and school psychologists.

Books

• The challenge of change : start school improvement now! Fullan, Michael. 2009
• Leading change in your school : how to conquer myths, build commitment, and get results Reeves, Douglas B., 1953- 2009
• What's worth fighting for in the principalship? Fullan, Michael. 2008
• Lead more, manage less : a five essential behaviour management insights for school leaders Richmond, Christine. 2007
• Activating the desire to learn Sullo, Robert A. 2007
• Leading schools in a data-rich world : harnessing data for school improvement Earl, Lorna M. (Lorna Maxine), 1948- 2006
• The principalship : a reflective practice perspective Sergiovanni, Thomas J. 2006
• Leading for results : transforming teaching, learning, and relationships in schools Sparks, Dennis. 2005
• Writing better : effective strategies for teaching students with learning difficulties Graham, Steven, 1950- 2005
• Teaching in the knowledge society : education in the age of insecurity Hargreaves, Andy. 2003
• Change forces with a vengeance Fullan, Michael. 2003

Ebooks
Available for browsing from EBook library. Purchase of any books available upon request from Ebook library. Contact LEX for more details.

• Building Leadership Capacity for School Improvement Harris, Alma; Lambert, Linda Open University Press 2007 9780335225699
• International Handbook of School Effectiveness and Improvement : Review, Reflection and Reframing Townsend, Tony Springer 2007 9781402057472
• Reframing Teacher Leadership to Improve Your School Reeves, Douglas B. ASCD 2008 9781416607670
• Leading Change in Your School : How to Conquer Myths, Build Commitment, and Get Results Reeves, Douglas B. ASCD 2009 9781416608929

Emotional intelligence and teaching

2010-08-10T09:43:00.007+10:00

Articles

Available via our Ebschost databases. If having access problems please contact lex@parra.catholic.edu.au

Emotional Awareness and Emotional Intelligence in Leadership Teaching.
Ashkanasy, Neal M. Dasborough, Marie T.
Journal of Education for Business; Sep/Oct2003, Vol. 79 Issue 1, p18-22, 5p, 1 Chart
Recent research has highlighted the importance of emotional awareness and emotional intelligence in organizations, and these topics are attracting increasing attention. In this article, the authors present the results of a preliminary classroom study in which emotion concepts were incorporated into an undergraduate leadership course. In the study, students completed self-report and ability tests of emotional intelligence. The test results were compared with students' interest in emotions and their performance in the course assessment. Results showed that interest in and knowledge of emotional intelligence predicted team performance, whereas individual performance was related to emotional intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence and Education: A critical review.
Humphrey, Neil, Curran Andrew Morris Elisabeth, Farrell Peter, Woods Kevin
Educational Psychology; Apr2007, Vol. 27 Issue 2, p235-254, 20p, 1
In recent years there has been an increased interest in the role of emotional intelligence in both the academic success of students and their emotional adjustment in school. However, promotion of emotional intelligence in schools has proven a controversial pursuit, challenging as it does traditional "rationalist" views of education. Furthermore, research findings in this area have been inconsistent at best. In this article we discuss the following key questions relating to this important debate. What do we mean by emotional "intelligence"? What impact would improved emotional intelligence have on learners' emotional health and well-being, academic achievement, and other adaptive outcomes? Can emotional intelligence be taught? It is felt that these are the key issues for consideration in developing policy, practice, and further research in this area.

Emotionally Intelligent Interventions for Students with Reading Disabilities.
Pellitteri, John Dealy, Michael Fasano, Charles Kugler, John
Reading & Writing Quarterly; Apr-Jun2006, Vol. 22 Issue 2, p155-171,
The construct of emotional intelligence provides a framework for understanding emotional processes in students with reading disabilities. The components of emotional intelligence include the perception of emotions, emotional facilitation of thinking, emotional knowledge, and emotional regulation. This article examines underlying affective processes as they relate to cognition, motivation, and social functioning. Ecological and individual interventions for influencing learning and social adjustment are described. Consideration is given to the emotional factors in the school environment, the interpersonal interactions of peer groups, opportunities for facilitating emotional learning, and dynamic affective–aesthetic responses of the individual during the reading process.

THE ANALYSIS OF THE EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE SKILLS AND POTENTIAL PROBLEM AREAS OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATORS.
Kaufhold, John A. Johnson, Lori R.
Education; Summer2005, Vol. 125 Issue 4, p615-626, 12p, 2 Charts, 3
The study's purpose was to examine emotional intelligence skills and potential problem areas of elementary educators. The study provided elementary educators with a self-assessment of emotional intelligence skills to utilize in the workplace and beyond. An improved understanding of personal skills and weaknesses may lessen educator's risk of psychological burnout. In addition, increased awareness of children's emotional intelligence skills offers educators an alternative means of student assessment. The study's research population consisted of a cluster sample of elementary educators. Each educator varied in regard to length of time in profession and level of education. Many variables were increasing the likelihood of psychological burnout for these educators. The significant findings of this study reveal that elementary educators do not perceive any personal, "enhanced" emotional intelligence skills. The comparison between Master's level and bachelor's level educator's perceptions of personal emotional intelligence skills were similar. Master's level teacher viewed themselves as having higher self-esteem, stress management, and anger management skills, while Bachelor's level teachers perceived themselves as having more enhanced assertion skills.

Books

Emotional intelligence : why it can matter more than IQ Goleman, Daniel. 2005
Anger management : for middle school students Morris, Elizabeth. 2004
Assertiveness : for middle school students Morris, Elizabeth. 2004
The new leaders : transforming the art of leadership into the science of results Goleman, Daniel. 2003
Project leadership Lewis, James P., 1941- 2003
The Heart masters : a program for the promotion of emotional intelligence and resilience : managing the difficult emotions Bellhouse, Robert, 1956- 2003
Primal leadership : realizing the power of emotional intelligence Goleman, Daniel. 2002
The Heart masters : a program for the promotion of resilience and emotional intelligence for junior primary school students Johnston, Glenda. 2002
Emotional intelligence in everyday life : a scientific inquiry Ciarrochi, Joseph. 2001
The Heart masters : a program for the promotion of emotional intelligence and resilience in the middle to senior years of primary schools Fuller, Andrew. 2001
The Heart masters : a program for the promotion of emotional intelligence and resilience in the junior to middle years of secondary school Fuller, Andrew. 2001
Stop! think! choose! : building emotional intelligence in young people Mapes, Katta, 1949- 2000

Ebooks

Available for browsing from Ebook library via Staffnet. Purchase of any books available upon request from Ebook library. Contact LEX at lex@parra.catholic.edu.au for more details.

Emotional Intelligence In Action : Training and Coaching Activities for Leaders and Managers Hughes, Marcia M.; Patterson, L. Bonita; Terrell, James B. Pfeiffer 2005

Teaching With Emotional Intelligence : A Step-by-Step Guide for Higher and Further Education Professionals Mortiboys, Alan Routledge 2005
A Coach's Guide to Emotional Intelligence : Strategies for Developing Successful Leaders Terrell, James Bradford; Hughes, Marcia M. Pfeiffer 2008
Emotional Intelligence Coaching : Improving Performance for Leaders, Coaches and the Individual Neale, Stephen; Spencerarnell, Lisa; Wilson, LizKogan Page 2009

Use of Interactive Whiteboards to support literacy

2010-08-05T14:02:00.003+10:00

Do Interactive Whiteboards Improve the Motivation and Attitudes of Reluctant Readers?
The aim of this action research project was to investigate whether guided reading sessions could be enhanced through the use of an interactive whiteboard.

Interactive Whiteboards, Productive Pedagogies and Literacy Teaching in a Primary Context.
The classroom use of Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) at Richardson Primary School (ACT) has
produced improvements in students’ Literacy. These improved outcomes have been evidenced
both with anecdotal observations of parents and teachers, as well as in formal standardised
testing results.

Our Ebscohost databases also have a range of good articles on Interactive Whiteboards and literacy. Staff have access to Ebscohost databases via our Staffnet intranet. For any help with accessing the following articles contact Learning Exchange.

Ebscohost articles (see above for) access details
The visual helps me understand the complicated things’: pupil views of teaching and learning with interactive whiteboards.
Wall, Kate,Higgins, Steve,Smith, Heather
British Journal of Educational Technology, 2005
This study is one element of a government-sponsored evaluation into the introduction of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) to Years 5 and 6 in English primary schools. This element of the research aimed to gather information regarding pupil views of IWBs and the impact these tools can have on teaching and learning. To extend current literature, the method targeted pupils’ views of how IWBs can impact on metacognition: thinking about learning.

Teaching for scientific literacy with an interactive whiteboard.
Murcia, Karen
Teaching Science - the Journal of the Australian Science Teachers Association 2008
Developing scientific literacy drove the teaching and learning experiences provided to pre-service primary education teachers. Interactive whiteboard (IWB) pedagogy was used to engage and motivate these students' to explore science's role in making sense of our world and to understand key scientific concepts. Active science learning connected to social contexts was facilitated in workshops by the use of the technology. Using the IWB as a convergence tool facilitated the development of creative teaching resources that linked internet sites and on-line activities with hands on science investigations. It enabled fluid access to real life science contexts and supported a range of learning styles.

The use of the interactive whiteboard for creative teaching and learning in literacy and mathematics: a case study.
Wood, Ruth,Ashfield, Jean
British Journal of Educational Technology 2008
This paper considers the ways in which the interactive whiteboard may support and enhance pedagogic practice through whole-class teaching within literacy and numeracy. Data collected from observations of whole-class lessons, alongside individual interviews and focus group discussions with class teachers and Initial Teacher Education students, has provided opportunities to consider the potential of such technology to facilitate a more creative approach to whole-class teaching. The data suggests that, in the first instance, the special features of information and communications technology such as interactivity, ‘provisionality,’ speed, capacity and range enhance the delivery and pace of the session.

Books available from Learning Exchange

The Interactive Whiteboard Revolution: teaching with IWBs, Chris Betcher and Mal Lee, Acer Press, 2009.

QR Codes - implications for teaching and learning

2010-08-04T19:55:00.008+10:00

What is a QR code and how can we use it in teaching and learning?
A QR Code is a matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by QR scanners, mobiles phones with camera, and smartphones.
The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data. QR stands for Quick Response.
Although initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR Codes are now being used in a much broader context.

What are the implications for teaching and learning
Educause explains: 'QR codes link the physical world with the virtual by providing on-the-spot access to descriptive language and online resources for objects and locations. In this way the codes support experiential learning. They offer expanded pedagogical value in exercises that draw students into creating and contributing content. In history projects, students might research information about local sites, write up what they have learned generate QR code for their content, post the codes at key destinations, and tour the sites where a network of information from other students has been posted'
Educause also see the potential of QR codes to move students away from keyboards as input devices in learning environment. Instead they scan QR codes to locate, interpret, review evaluate and create content.
ref: 7 things you should know about QR codes'

Uses of QR codes in Teaching and Learning:

The potential of QR codes in Education

Potential Qr Codes Education Emerge 2009

View more presentations from andyramsden.

Uses of QR codes in libraries

eg: Half Hollow Hills Community Library uses datamatrix codes on end stacks to lead patrons to subject guides on the web.

Phones, books and QR codes for a match made in literary heaven

Through the magic of QR codes, Ubimark has published an edition of Jules Verne's Around The World in 80 Days which allows you to 'click through' to more information using your phone.

101 uses for QR codes

eg: Novels – add scan codes for sidebar stories about the characters or author commentary. Recipe Book – scan the code to see the “how to” video.

Generate your own QR code
Try Kaywa QR code generator:

Reading QR codes
You need a mobile phone with a camera and a suitable QR scanning app. Try ScanMee for iphones or use Google to locate other QR code readers for other suitable apps. Most smartphones on a Telstra plan come with an inbuilt QR scanner.

See the QR codes we made earlier at the top of this post. Try scanning them to see where it takes you.

Learning and Teaching with ipads

2010-08-01T15:48:00.014+10:00

Currently 15 of our schools are evaluating the use of iPads in supporting teaching and learning.
The evaluation, discussion and learnings from this pilot are available to view on the Learning and Teaching with iPads blog.
Along with this there are links to a range of resources, apps and teaching ideas on iPads in teaching and learning.

Inclusion and Diversity

2010-07-22T12:35:00.005+10:00

Resources held by Learning Exchange

Inclusion in action Foreman, Phil. 2008
Education for inclusion and diversity Elkins, John. 2008
Special teaching for special children? : pedagogies for inclusion Lewis, Ann, 1950- 2005
The inclusion toolkit. Book B, Troubleshooting Thorburn, Jan. 2004
The inclusion toolkit. Book A, Planning Thorburn, Jan. 2004
Quick-guides to inclusion. 3 : ideas for educating students with disabilities Giangreco, Michael F. 2002
Adolescents and inclusion : transforming secondary schools Bauer, Anne M. 2001
The inclusion handbook. Book B, Troubleshooting : practical guidelines for teachers with special needs students Thorburn, Jan. 1999
Restructuring high schools for all students : taking inclusion to the next level Jorgensen, Cheryl M. 1998
Cooperative learning and strategies for inclusion : celebrating diversity in the classroom Putnam, JoAnne W. 1998
Quick-guides to inclusion. 2 : ideas for educating students with disabilities Giangreco, Michael F. 1998
Restructuring high schools for all students : taking inclusion to the next level Jorgensen, Cheryl M. 1998
Quick-guides to inclusion : ideas for educating students with disabilities Giangreco, Michael F. 1997
The integration/inclusion feasibility study McRae, David. 1996
Integration & inclusion in action Foreman, Phil. 1996
Inclusion : a guide for educators Stainback, Susan. 1996
The illusion of full inclusion : a comprehensive critique of a current special education bandwagon Kauffman, James M. 1995
Making school inclusion work : a guide to everyday practice Blenk, Katie, 1954- 1995
Cooperative learning and strategies for inclusion : celebrating diversity in the classroom Putnam, JoAnne W. 1993

Image by Tuchodi. Creative Commons Licence Attribution - Share Alike

Transition Resources: a collection of teaching resources to assist students with special needs

2010-06-01T15:41:00.122+10:00

The resources listed have been identified by the Learning Exchange as valuable tools to assist teachers in facilitating activities for students with special needs and to achieve successful student participation in transition from school to work.

The following print or journal resources are available through the Learning Exchange. You can request access to these items by visiting the Learning Exchange or contacting us via email to lex@parra.catholic.edu.au. A pdf version of this resource booklet can be downloaded from the Learning Exchange website.

The Web based resources below are hyperlinked for instant access.

The resources listed have been split into sub-headings of Transition.

Life Skills

Life skills: 225 ready-to-use health activities for success and well-being (Grades 6-12).

Section 4 covers life skills whilst section 6 covers nutrition.

Life skills activities for secondary students with special needs.
This resource has 190 ready to use lessons with reproducible worksheets ranging from Interpersonal, communication, money management, timetables nutrition & problem solving skills.

Life skills activities for special children: including 145 ready to use lessons…
Includes nutrition, time-telling, hygiene, using public transport, telephone usage etc.

Life skills practice.
This manual has worksheets to help transition from school to the workplace with an understanding of common job skills, being part of a team, understanding money, using manners, making phone calls, etc.

Steps for the future.
This Macintosh software program conveys a positive message, as players follow the story of a young man overcoming a disability. It also addresses issues including bullying, peer pressure and binge drinking, as well as difficulties in finding a balance between work, study and life.

The straight talk manual : a self-esteem and life skills workbook for young people aged 9-14.
Some topics covered are friendships, healthy body, waste management.

You can do it! (Kit) VHS + Activity handouts
This kit provides activity worksheets on self assessment of life skills used.

You can do it too! (Kit) 2 x VHS + Activity handouts
This kit allows the student to be motivated through activities involving effort, goal setting, time management, persistence etc.

Social Skills

Social skills activities for special children: including 142 ready-to-use lessons with reproducible activity sheets.

Section 3 ‘Developing positive social skills’ will benefit the student in body language usage and voice tone amongst other important skills needed for effective communication.

Social skills lessons and activities for grades 7-12.
This workbook will aide the student into starting a conversation through role-play and assist in many other social aspects needed in their transition to the workplace.

The social skills handbook: practical activities for social communication.
Covers appearance, using the telephone, etc. This resource gives ideas for a teaching approach to life skills needed in the workplace using video, realia and ephemera materials as props.

Time/Time Management

Lets tell the time to the half and quarter hour.

This picture/text boardbook is in 3 parts; a clock, digital time and text time. The student has to match the correct 3 parts.

Lets tell the time to the hour.
This picture/text boardbook is in 3 parts; a clock, digital time and text time. The student has to match the correct 3 parts.

Maths activities using time clocks: for lower secondary students.
Usable worksheets for instruction on Train timetables, 24 hour clock, yearly calendar and digital and analogue clock exercises.

Tell the time: mathematics
This workbook has worksheets for telling the time in digital and analogue with action story problems, in telling the time using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Tell the time: support materials.
There are team games, calendar Bingo, explanation of the seasons, days of the week and 5 x table to name a few examples.

Time.
This workbook has reprintable worksheets discussing digital and analogue clocks, bus timetables, counting time in 5’s, etc.

Money/Maney Handling

Life skills: picture maths.

These worksheets will benefit students with visual learning through clear illustrations for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.

Money: level 3.
This workbook has illustrations of the Australian currency, shopping lists with illustrations including fresh fruit and vegetables.

Money and finance: mathematics activities on a financial theme for lower secondary students.
This workbook has examples of the Australian currency. There is an explanation of how to use EFTPOS and ATM machines.

Survival maths: food shopping.
This workbook has mathematical money problems with illustrations of food items and text.

Survival maths: money.
This workbook will assist the student to identify change to be given, adding money and rounding off.

Money skills: for Macintosh and Windows. Ages 4 –7.
Can be used with an interactive whiteboard with five activities teaching counting, adding money and making change with over 50 difficulty levels in Australian currency.

Health and Nutrition

Health: developing awareness of health and personal development (Level 7).

This workbook includes time management, communication, advertising and healthy eating.

Personal awareness: years 7-10 teaching kit.
This workbook has activity sheets and ideas for discussion on topics of self-esteem, effective communication, individual differences, managing stress and goal setting.

Teacher Resources

Connecting with others; lessons for teaching social and emotional competence, Grades 9-12.

Some areas covered in this manual are communication, cooperation, personal growth and preparing for adulthood, through games, quizzes and worksheets.

Images: a you can do it! Education resource
Reproducible illustrations for communicating a culture of achievement and social well being (Year 7-12).

You can do it! : program achieves grades 9-10.
This workbook is divided up into lesson plans for the following units; getting started, confidence, persistence, organisation & getting along.

You can do it! : program achieves grades 11-12.
This workbook is divided up into lesson plans for the following units; getting started, confidence, persistence, organisation & getting along.

Web-based Resources - Retail

Junk food ads aimed at children (Author unknown)

Shows the student how powerful the psychological persuasion is of advertising towards children, using graphics that aren’t reality.
4:05 mins.

What’s in the shopping bag? PBS kids Go!
A colourful webpage with illustrations of a retail product where the student has to answer interactively what is in the advertised box. The answers are revealed by hitting the ‘send’ button.

Psychology of supermarkets. (student – Author unknown)
Shows an adolescent walking into the supermarket with a list of 6 items and his food choices walking the aisles.
4:17 mins.

Supermarket psychology: entrances, layout & shelving. Food Investigators Series, SBS.
Takes a tour around our Australian supermarket layout giving explanation why products are placed at a certain place on the shelves.
3:05 mins.

Web-based Resources - Customer Service

Customer service video. (Students-Author unknown)

This video is an ideal communication tool to show students how to approach the customer and what NOT to do.
6:40 mins.

Mr. Bean – Bad customer service. Official Mr. Bean.
Shows a cartoon caricature of Mr. Bean in a china shop whilst assistant is on the phone….a NOT what to do video.
2:48 mins.

Web-based Resources - Telephone skills/Communication

Telephone etiquettes and manners. Let’s talk.

This video instructs the student how to answer and make a personal call, or business call.
Slideshow/voice presentation with adolescent images.
4:49 mins.

Web-based Resources - Safety in the Workplace

Captain Safety—Episode 4, Avoid workplace hazards. (Author unknown)
This cartooned clip is lighthearted but straight to the point on eliminating workplace injuries due to day to day hazards.
2:56 mins.

Captain Safety—Episode 7, Preventing back injury. (Author unknown)
This cartooned clip is lighthearted but straight to the point on eliminating injuries to the back in the workplace and at home.
4:50 mins.

Manual Handling back to basics. Safety media.

This instructional video highlights lifting procedures in a PowerPoint sequence using line drawings.
3:12 mins.

Web-based Resources - Personal Hygiene

Smell check (Author unknown)

This video has a cartoon character showing how to groom himself before he enters the public. Very comical and adolescent jargon. Aimed at male hygiene.
4:36 mins.

Food Safety Music– you’d better wash your hands—Animation (Author unknown)
A parody of The Beatles ‘I wanna hold your hand’. Gets the point across through song and animation.
2:19 mins.

Web-based Resources - eBooks and Journals

eBook Titles

Food choices: the ultimate teen guide. 2010
This guide provides teens with a new look at food and eating, guiding teens into a greater knowledge of food and healthy eating discussing numerous topics related to food and eating.

Helping kids and teen with ADHD in school: a workbook for classroom support and managing transitions. 2009
This fully photocopiable workbook will help you to work collaboratively with young people to learn, test strategies, set goals and develop comprehensive support plans around individual needs.

Life skills activities for secondary students with special needs. 2nd ed. 2010.
Ready-to-use lessons for teaching basic life skills to adolescents with special need. This book offers teachers a unique collection of more than 200 worksheets to help adolescents build the life skills they need to achieve independence and succeed in every day life.

Journal Titles

Teaching exceptional children. 2001 to current.
Feature full-text articles dealing with practical methods and materials for classroom use aimed at teachers of children with disabilities and children who are gifted; an official journal of the Council for Exceptional Children, Arlington, U.K.

Collaborative teaching

2010-05-25T14:25:00.004+10:00

The following articles are available fulltext via our Ebscohost database. You can request access to these articles by contacting Learning Exchange or you can access the Ebscohost databases via Staffnet-Resources-Library-eResources.

A Collaborative Conversation.
By: Staenberg, Linda; Vanneman, Susan. School Library Monthly, Dec2009, Vol. 26 Issue 4, p15-17, 3p, 1 Black and White Photograph
Abstract: An interview with school librarian Susan Vanneman and classroom teacher Linda Staenberg is presented. When asked about their perceptions of collaborative teaching, they refer to the limited cooperation and coordination among librarians and educators. Vanneman reveals that the team became a Professional Learning Community that focuses on lesson design, strategies, and extension activities. Staenberg suggests to share a vision through open communication to effectively collaborate on projects.

Building Guided Inquiry Teams for 21st-Century Learners.
By: Kuhlthau, Carol C.; Maniotes, Leslie K.. School Library Monthly, Jan2010, Vol. 26 Issue 5, p18-21, 4p, 5 Charts
Abstract: The article tackles on how to design a teaching team that uses a guide inquiry approach in meeting the needs of 21st-century learners. It outlines the five kinds of learning in the inquiry process which are curriculum content, information literacy, learning how to learn, literacy competence and social skills. It discusses the use of core and extended teams in implementing the guided-inquiry learning, and illustrates its application in primary, middle and high school levels.

Co-Instructing at the Secondary Level.
By: Rice, Nancy; Drame, Elizabeth; Owen, Laura; Frattura, Elise M.. Teaching Exceptional Children, Jul/Aug2007, Vol. 39 Issue 6, p12-18, 7p
Abstract: The authors discuss strategies for successful collaborative teaching at the secondary level. Some tips for success include understanding your partner's teaching style, determining that all involved parties have a willingness to co-teach, and scheduling shared planning time. The United States Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004) along with the United States No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandate that special education instruction must be closely tied to the general education curriculum, making successful collaborative teaching all the more important. It is noted that a study conducted with general educators revealed that some of the most relevant qualities for a special education instructor include professionalism and content knowledge.

Collaborative School Communities that Support Teaching and Learning.
By: Irwin, Judith W.; Farr, William. Reading & Writing Quarterly, Oct-Dec2004, Vol. 20 Issue 4, p343-363, 21p
Abstract: After reviewing the literature on the power of collaborative community in schools, the authors describe interview data collected from educators involved in collaborative change projects related to literacy. First, the authors interviewed a teacher from a middle school team that had changed their literacy instruction toward a more inclusive and authentic pedagogy. Second, the authors interviewed participants from a similar one-year collaborative change program in one elementary school. The data describe experiences of teacher decision-making within communities that are characterized by respect for differences, mutual caring and support, and inclusive decision-making processes. The subsequent loss of a sense of collaborative community in the school study is partially explained by factors that intervened in the ensuing years and was accompanied by a shift away from authentic literacy experiences and back to the use of worksheets and standardized programs.

Collaborative Teaching to Increase ELL Student Learning: A Three-Year Urban Elementary Case Study.
By: York-Barr, Jennifer; Ghere, Gail; Sommerness, Jennifer. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, Jul2007, Vol. 12 Issue 3, p301-335, 35p, 2 Diagrams, 2 Charts Abstract: Urban schools, noted for their diverse student populations and variety of instructional resources and personnel, often are challenged in providing a coherent and differentiated instructional program for the wide array of learners served. In this article, we describe coteaching instructional models to support ELL students in elementary general education classrooms. ELL and general education teachers collaborated in planning, teaching, and reflecting on their instruction. Despite an expedited timeline for implementation and decreased personnel resources in the 2nd year of the study, collaborative teaching relationships were productive and rewarding. Of greatest importance, ELL student achievement increased substantially. Implications for practice include building the knowledge that supports collaboration, strategically allocating instructional personnel, and providing ongoing opportunities for collaborative learning and development.

Coteaching Revisited: Redrawing the Blueprint. By: Kloo, Amanda; Zigmond, Naomi. Preventing School Failure, Winter2008, Vol. 52 Issue 2, p12-20, 9p, 3 Charts Abstract: Coteaching involves 2 certified teachers: 1 general educator and 1 special educator. They share responsibility for planning, delivering, and evaluating instruction for a diverse group of students, some of whom are students with disabilities. In this article, the authors review models of coteaching and the research base for coteaching and describe coteaching as it is currently practiced. After arguing that educators have not yet realized the potential of coteaching, the authors propose a new framework for looking at coteaching and a blueprint to guide its implementation differently in different instructional environments.

Learning About Mason: A Collaborative Lesson With a Struggling Reader.
By: Compton-Lilly, Catherine. Reading Teacher, May2010, Vol. 63 Issue 8, p698-700, 3p, 1 Black and White Photograph
Abstract: This article describes a collaborative lesson that a first-grade teacher created with her teaching colleagues to help her identify and address the reading challenges that one of her students experienced. She had been working with the student for several months, but had made little progress. The collaboration involved a small group of educators who worked with the student using the Reading Recovery program. Reading Recovery can be used with groups of students or individuals. The article explains how a collaborative lesson works and provides details of the particular plan for the student in question.

'Working Smarter By Working Together'.
By: Honawar, Vaishali. Education Digest, Oct2008, Vol. 74 Issue 2, p17-21, 5p Abstract: The article presents an exploration into the use of collaborative teaching methods as a mean to improve the impact of education in the United States. An overview of the philosophy and practicality of the teacher-collaboration model is given, highlighting its distinction from traditional ideas of the individual-teacher to individual-student paradigm. Comments are offered warning against the challenges of the method, citing the need to avoid intra-teacher conflict. The importance of applying collaborative teaching as a paradigm for specific needs rather than a formulaic method is also asserted.

Books and multimedia resources available from Learning Exchange

Collaborative teaching in elementary schools: making the co-teaching marriage work! Murawski, Wendy W. 2010
Collaborative teaching in secondary schools : making the co-teaching marriage work! Murawski, Wendy W. 2009
Purposeful co-teaching: real cases and effective strategies,Conderman, Greg, 2009
A guide to co-teaching: practical tips for facilitating student learning, Villa, Richard A.,2008

Integration of technology to support learning

2010-04-29T15:17:00.005+10:00

Tech Tales: Marco Torres on Empowering Students Through Multimedia
Marco Torres, a social studies teacher and technology director at San Fernando High School, explores how the creation of multimedia projects empowers his students, as well as those who participate in the San Fernando Education Technology Team (SFETT).

Marco Torres: Challenge based learning in action (video)
St Agnes Catholic High School, 2009

Hawaiian students use sophisticated tools to learn and to learn to solve problems
Before Tamlyn and Quinn did their descriptive writing, they created storyboards about the action they wanted to represent in an assignment on "expanding the moment" -- making the story more intense by describing a fleeting instant in great detail. From their storyboards, they each created a computer animation of the action. Frame by frame, the animation in turn sparked their imaginations and helped them create word pictures. "It gives you ideas about what you see," says Quinn. HyperStudio and Kid Pix were among the computer programs they used.

Technology and Academic Achievement
Les Foltos, New Horizons for Learning
Recently, a growing number of researchers have published studies that provide substantial evidence that technology can play a positive role in academic achievement. Several organizations like Edutopia, the North Central Educational Lab (NCREL) and the Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology (CARET) are documenting research studies that link technology to increases in academic achievement. Two studies are reflective of the growing body of research on technology's role in academic achievement.
Two research studies offer clear direction for educators who are trying to answer the questions raised by Secretary Paige. Both studies argue that improvements in student learning occur when technology is paired with instructional strategies like project-based instruction, which actively involves students in intellectually complex work that demands higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills. Henry Becker's research adds further weight to the argument that technology is a particularly strong tool for supporting active, inquiry-based learning. Becker argues that the kind of active learning necessary to master principles and concepts and explain student work is easier to implement in a technology-rich environment where "students have a rich array of information to work with (rather than only preselected, quality filtered textbook content), when communications structures enable students to pose relevant questions to appropriate individuals…and when technology-based tools such as databases, analytic software, and composition software help them to extract understanding from information" (Becker, 2000).

Critical Issue: Using Technology to Enhance Engaged Learning for At-Risk Students
North Central Regional Educational Laboratory
An increasing number of educators are calling for high standards and challenging learning activities for at-risk students. New technologies can provide meaningful learning experiences for all children, especially those at risk of educational failure. Schools that capitalize on the relationship between technology and education reform will help students to develop higher order skills and to function effectively in the world beyond the classroom. Achieving such fundamental change, however, requires a transformation of not only the underlying pedagogy (basic assumptions about the teaching and learning process) but also the kinds of technology applications typically used in classrooms serving at-risk students.

Mixed Ability and/or Streaming

2010-04-28T15:37:00.006+10:00

Between-class achievement grouping for literacy and
numeracy: academic outcomes for primary students
AARE 2008 Conference in Brisbane QLD
Suzanne Macqueen, University of Newcastle, Australia

Achievement grouping has been practised in a number of forms and contexts for over a century, and has been the subject of copious amounts of research. Despite a general consensus in the research that between-class achievement grouping provides no overall benefit for students, the practice has persisted in various guises. Recent research in this field involving primary school students and teachers has investigated the affective outcomes of such practices, but academic outcomes at the primary level have not been studied in recent decades. This paper examines the academic outcomes of between-class achievement grouping in primary literacy and numeracy classes. The conclusion reached is that the current regrouping practice provides no academic advantage for students.

What lessons can schools learn from streaming by ability?
Tim Harford , 3rd January, 2009.
Published on Undercover Economist.
I have written before about “peer effects” in education, which are the influences, positive and negative, that classmates and school friends have on each other. They are hard to identify with much certainty. Bright children might make friends with each other without actually improving each other’s test scores. Or pushy middle-class parents might all flock to the same popular school. Or a class of smart kids might attract a good teacher. All these situations would produce clusters of high and low achievement, yet no true peer effects need be at play.

School streaming 'hurts' less-academic students'
New Zealand Herald, Tuesday May 20, 2008
By Vaimoana Tapaleao
Children at the lower end of a streaming system at school do worse, but it has no affect on brighter students, a British study has found. Less-able children achieve poorly when they are placed with children of the same ability but achieve better if they study with the rest of the class. More-capable students perform well regardless of whether they are in an exclusive class of high achievers or taught in a mixed-ability class, according to the latest reports of the Primary Review - led by Cambridge University.

Streaming and setting do not affect results.
Times Educational Supplement, 5/16/2008, Issue 4788
The article discusses research by the Primary Review, located at Cambridge University, and its investigation into how streaming and setting impact the educational outcomes of primary school children. It is noted that in Great Britain ability grouping in education has been politicized in that Conservatives preferred setting. The report did find that grouping in this way did impact the children socially and that the basis of the groupings was sometimes "arbitrary."

THE CAMBRIDGE PRIMARY REVIEW
Children, their World, their Education: final report and recommendations of the
Cambridge Primary Review, 608 pp, Routledge, October 2009. ISBN 978-0-415-54871-7 (pb), 978-0- 415-54870-0 (hb).
This 608-page report draws on over 4,000 published sources as well as the Review’s extensive evidence from written submissions, face-to- face soundings and searches of official data. Part 1 sets the scene and tracks primary education policy since the 1960s. Part 2 examines children’s development and learning, their lives outside school and their needs, aspirations and prospects in a changing world. Part 3 explores what goes on in primary schools, from the formative early years to aims, curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, standards and school organisation. Part 4 deals with the system as a whole: ages and stages; schools and other agencies; teacher training, leadership and workforce reform; governance, funding and policy. Part 5 draws everything together with 78 formal conclusions and 75 recommendations for future policy and practice. A report of this length and complexity is not readily compressed into a four-page briefing: here, by way of taster rather than summary, are some key points from the report’s concluding chapter.

GROUPING STUDENTS FOR SUCCESS: ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE WITH EQUITY
Independent schools Queensland, 2007
Is there any benefit to grouping students depending on ability? If so, what type of grouping provides conditions for optimal performance?

The research on grouping students by ability is a difficult area because student performance is affected by many variables, including class size, ability range, teaching methods, resources, the degree of differentiation, the attitudes of the teacher and the curriculum content. However, there is some agreement worthy of note with regard to how to best group students.

Primary pupils' experiences of different types of grouping in school
The benefits and disadvantages of grouping by ability, 2004
The practice of grouping by ability in school was popular after the Second World War. It subsequently fell into disfavour, according to the authors, for a combination of reasons. These included:
• evidence of low self-esteem and social alienation of lower stream pupils;
• inconclusive evidence for positive effects on attainment;
• a shift of educational focus towards equality of educational opportunity.
Over the last decade ability grouping in at least one subject has again become common in primary schools because it is perceived as a means of raising standards.

Grouping pupils and students – what difference does the type of grouping make to teaching and learning in schools?, 2004
Selection and ability grouping are issues that can cause heated debate amongst teachers, leaders and parents, as they can hold very different opinions about which of the alternative approaches to grouping they prefer. Those who favour streaming and setting make claims for its effectiveness in terms of pupil or student achievement; those against point to the 'unfairness' of the system and its potentially negative effects on pupils' and students' self esteem. This month, we look at a detailed study of ability grouping to help practitioners consider the various effects different grouping practices have upon learners.

Learning spaces

2010-04-28T15:09:00.009+10:00

Understanding and managing classroom space
(pdf)
Classroom environment interacts powerfully with teaching and learning, so how can you ensure teachers throughout your school are making the best use of the space to maximise the learning that goes on? Jane McGregor explains how, even when changing the size of the space is not possible, there is much that can be done to change how the space within classrooms is used.

Optimal Learning Spaces Design Implications for Primary Schools
(pdf)
To achieve optimal design solutions is a complex and challenging goal. This report seeks to frame the multitude of opportunities within just a few major design principles derived from the basics of how people experience spaces in response to the environmental data they gain through their senses and synthesise in their brains. This leads to a focus on naturalness, individualisation and level of stimulation. The resulting practical opportunities have been illustrated / evidenced with case studies and we hope that this material will stimulate significant thought and experimentation about school design amongst clients and designers alike.

Redesigning the classroom environment
The layout of the classroom affects the behaviour of all those in it.
In my work as an educational psychologist I often encounter the difficulties that the physical environment poses to class teachers and children and I have been very struck by the way in which the layout of a classroom affects the behaviour of all those in it.

Educause has a variety of useful articles on Learning Space Design

View photos of school furniture for todays learning spaces:
Silverton Public School
Ordrup School Denmark
St Margaret Mary's Merrylands
and many more via
The Learning Exchange gallery

Previous references to Learning Space Design on this blog can be found by clicking on the "Learning Spaces" tag found on the right hand side column of the blog (may need to scroll down the web page to find the tag)

Readers Theatre resources

2010-03-24T10:59:00.008+11:00

Web based resources for Readers Theatre

Teaching strategies for Readers Theatre
can be found at:
MyRead: strategies for teaching reading in the middle years

Readers theatre scripts can be found at:
Aaron Shepherds Readers Theatre Editions
Reader’s Theater Editions are free scripts for reader’s theater (or readers theatre) adapted from stories written by Aaron Shepard and others—mostly humor, fantasy, and world tales from a variety of cultures. A full range of reading levels is included, with scripts aimed mostly at ages 8–15. The scripts may be freely copied, shared, and performed for any noncommercial purpose, except they may not be posted online without permission.

For those who are also members of the Mindful Learning Mindful Teaching Ning there are further resources available on the Readers Theatre page.

Griffiths Primary Readers Theatre (video)

Blessed Mary MacKillop on her way to Sainthood

2009-12-21T09:10:00.005+11:00

Blessed Mary MacKillop moves closer to canonisation as a second miracle attributed to her has been accepted by the Vatican's congregation for the causes of saints.

There are a range of educational resources and programs available for schools to learn about Mary MacKillop and her place in Australian Catholic history.

Mary MacKillop place in North Sydney has a museum and runs educational programs, guided tours and retreats for school groups.

The Mary MacKillop website also provides a range of online educational and prayer resources for all schooling levels. They also provides links to a range of Religious Education syllabuses which provide learning about Mary MacKillop and the Sisters of St Joseph. When students are studying themes in these syllabi, they can be integrated with the story of Mary MacKillop and the Sisters of St Joseph.

CEO Sydney provides a webpage of Mary MacKillop resources including Support Material for Schools In the centenary year of the death of Blessed Mary MacKillop 2009 and liturgy resources.

The Sisters of St Joseph provide a brief history of Mary's life and work at their website page - Mary MacKillop's story as well as more resources including Pope Benedict's words about Mary MacKillop in July 2008.

Resources available for borrowing from TLRU.
*Sainthood in Australia : Mary MacKillop and the print media, McCreanor, Sheila J. 2001
*Mary MacKillop [videorecording] ; Caroline Chisholm, Powell, Madeline. 2000
*Mary MacKillop's sisters : a life unveiled Henderson, Anne. 1997
*Igniting sparks of reconciliation and compassion : prayer and ritual for staff gatherings in Catholic schools today Abbott, Margaret. 1996
*The official MacKillop papal.visit 1995. the beatification of venerable Mary Mackillop and the visit by his holiness Pope.John.Paul II to Sydney, Australia 1995
*Mary MacKillop resource kit, 1995
*The story of Mary MacKillop. [Teacher text] Doyle, Bernadette. 1995
*The story of Mary MacKillop. [Student text] Doyle, Bernadette. 1995
*Mary MacKillop : a tribute, Wilson, Andrew. 1995
*Wallaby track woman: Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart. Mary MacKillop Secretariat.1995
*Mary MacKillop women : what are they doing now? Kenny, Margaret P. 1995
*Mary [videorecording],Pavlou, Kay. 1994
*Mary MacKillop unveiled O'Brien, Lesley. 1994
*Long have I loved you [videorecording]:Mary MacKillop-a woman of vision Dynan, Bruce. 1992
*Advent, Christmas, saints Lovell, Philippa. 1990
*The Josephite story : the sisters of St Joseph: their foundation and early history 1866-1893, Foale, Marie Therese. 1989
*Mary and Frances : a story about Mary MacKillop and the Sisters of St Joseph,Spence, Eleanor. 1986
*Mary Mackillop : a great Australian, Goodwin, Joan. 1985
Mary MacKillop, a woman before her time, Modystack, William, 1936- 1982

Young people and the "Earn or Learn" policy

2009-10-26T10:21:00.005+11:00

The Governments new "earn or learn" policy is masking youth unemployment says the Welfare Rights Centre in a Sydney Morning Herald article "Statistics hiding 50,000 jobless.

A recent report from the Foundation for Young Australians "How 2009 How Young People are Faring (HYPAF) report" shows that the proportion of teenagers not learning or earning full-time has jumped from 13.4% a year ago to 16.4%, the highest level since the recession of the early 1990s. This raises questions about how well the education system engaged and retained students. Foundation chief executive officer Adam Smith says "This (data) takes us into whole new territory about how schools need to change to make sure the education system matches the needs of the workforce,"

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program

2009-10-16T14:04:00.003+11:00

The Teaching and Learning Resources Unit has recently subscribed to the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program. The aim of the program is to engage children in growing preparing and sharing fresh food through developing a kitchen garden and preparing their own fresh food.

The program is designed for years 3-6 but could be adapted for older or younger students. Kitchen garden activities enhance learning in all KLAs;
* Promoting personal and social development through team work
* Reading and comprehension of technical instructions
* Physical activity in the garden,
* Creative arts skills through the creation of beautiful food and an attractive garden
* Science and sustainability issues are included as children work through issues such as climate, water management, plant cycles and soil health
* Mathematics is given real-life application through measurement, calculation, estimation and comparison.

The programme would also support religious education themes of care and respect for creation, care for ourselves, sharing in God’s creation, and thankfulness for Gods gifts to us.

The Subscription includes an implementation manual,an introductory DVD, and access to the members’ only section of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation website For the login details to the website please contact the TLRU on 9677 4344 or 9677 4345.

The Kitchen Garden at St Francis of Assisi Primary School Glendenning.

Boys, Blogs and Belonging

2009-10-15T15:47:00.007+11:00

Yesterday 35 librarians met for a staff development day at The Children's Bookshop at Beecroft. The event organised by the Teacher Librarians of Parramatta Diocese was entitled Boys, Blogs and Belonging.

The day focused on the sharing of information, knowledge and skills in literacy development of students in the classroom via Web 2.0 tools and deep understanding of the appropriate resources to support learning. Including a refresher on the copyright issues around the use of these digital tools.

There was a review of new books by Paul Macdonald, the owner of The Children's Bookshop. Paul has a Masters in Education and has almost twenty years experience as an English teacher at both Primary and Secondary levels. His working life has extended to writing English texts, lecturing and consultancy. Paul’s particular interest is the fostering of boys’ literacy, enthusing reluctant readers and the development of reading schemes to extend gifted students. Paul’s session discussed a range of books for boys and girls with a particular focus on the need to encourage reading for pleasure as a means to advance literacy. Paul stressed that “Books are not dead – they are just changing their face”. In fact there has been a growth in the teen reading market. Paul also discussed the blurring of boundaries between children’s, teens and adult books.

The day ended with a visit by an author-in-residence, illustrator and writer Nina Rycroft. Nina gave us an insight into the work process of creating illustrations for a picture book. Nina has just completed her own picture book called Ballroom Bonanza and discussed how she developed her ideas for the book and the illustrations.

The day provided an opportunity for teacher-librarians to extend their knowledge of what is new and relevant to supporting learners K-12 in reading and writing. Identifying and selecting appropriate resources to match reading ages is just one area where teacher librarians are able to support literacy learning in schools.

Learning through music

2009-10-15T15:41:00.003+11:00

Male Voices: Stories of boys learning through making music
Scott Harrison ,
ACER Press, May 2009

Male Voices is filled with stories of boys and men participating in the creation of music. It brings together leading thinkers and practitioners in the field of music from the conductor of the award-winning, mould-breaking Birralee Blokes, Paul Holley, who comments on the phenomenal success of his choir, through to internationally recognised scholars, Dr Scott Harrison and Dr Bob Smith, who bring research into adolescent participation and indigenous music-making respectively. This book offers a variety of viewpoints. Academics help to position the study of male engagement in music throughout the life cycle, while teachers in private and state schools across the country offer their views alongside those of professional musicians.

The book also focuses on the interface of technology and music, instrumental music, and how music contributes to academic skills, social interaction and life skills. From the banks of the Yarra to remote communities of the Far North, Male Voices presents a diverse range of experiences, with parents, teachers, musicians, men and boys offering perspectives on their experience of music, for the benefit and understanding of others.
(Review from ACER Press)

This book available to borrow by contacting TLRU@parra.catholic.edu.au.

Teaching and Learning Critical Pathways

2009-10-12T15:45:00.007+11:00

Recently CEO Parramatta had a visit from Barbara McMorrow, a Professional Learning Director from Catholic Principals Council of Ontario, Canada (CPCO)
Barbara has been working in schools and networks on Teaching & Learning Critical Pathways collaborative analysis of student learning – a process where teachers bring data on students of interest – stuck, not progressing – and use a collaborative process to understand and analyse the student’s situation and determine critical pathways for teaching and learning for these individual students. This Ontario initiative aligns with system priorities in Parramatta using data, learning story, collaborative practice, school based professional learning and networking.

Why the Teaching Learning Critical Pathway and Why Now?
The Teaching-Learning Critical Pathway (T-LCP) is a model used to organize actions for teaching and student learning. The T-LCP is the work of the professional learning community (PLC). The T-LCP was inspired by a strategy presented by Carmel Crévola,
Peter Hill and Michael Fullan. In their book entitled Breakthrough, they present a model called the Critical Learning Instructional Pathway (CLIP). Their idea is that classroom practice can be organized in a practical, precise and highly personalized manner with the outcome being increased student achievement. Their central question is “How do we know that our actions are resulting in improved student learning?” (Abstract from article)

Teacher-Learning Critical Pathways
A Website from the Ontario Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat.

The Teaching- Learning Critical Pathway (TLCP): A Resource Guide

Canadian Coalition of Self Directed Learning. The Canadian Coalition for Self-Directed Learning is an organization of secondary schools throughout Canada that are dedicated to the personalization of learning which takes into account individual student characteristics, talents, interests and academic backgrounds. CCSDL schools believe that learning flourishes in an environment where the learner is able to control and direct their learning.

The Mary Ward School community is committed to realizing the potential of all members of their learning community in an environment that encourages collaborative decision making and collegial relationships among administrators, teachers, support staff, students and parents.

What is Self Directed Learning
In Self Directed Learning the control of learning shifts from the teacher to the learner. The learner is seen as a owner and manager of their own learning, where learners set their own goals and their own approach to the learning task within a learning framework. Self directed learning aims to have learners manage implementation of their own learning as well as actively evaluate their own learning. While learners exhibit a great deal of independence this learning model is also seen as highly collaborative as learners interact more with their peers and teachers.

Resources on Self-Directed Learning
ERIC digest on Self Directed Learning
This website summarises the concept of Self-Directed Learning and provides a list of references
ERIC Identifier: ED459458, Publication Date: 2001-12-00
Author: Abdullah, Mardziah Hayati, Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading English and Communication Bloomington IN.

Articles from the Self Directed learning website
This site supports teaching self-directed learning (SDL) and becoming a self-directed person.

Simulations and Games in Education

2009-10-12T11:42:00.004+11:00

An article in The Australian (7 Oct 09) discusses the uses of simulations in education. In "Are we learning or is it fun and games" Enthusiasts say that simulations "are a powerful teaching tool when used in conjunction with case studies" but not everyone agrees.

Background on Games and Simulations

"A simulation is a model of events, items or processes that do or could exist"1
'A game is a goal-directed activity that often has a competitive nature and works within a framework of accepted rules" 2.
Traditional models of learning often "emphasize an objective and knowable perspective on reality resulting in a focus on building capacity to recall internalized knowledge"3. In todays world of rapid changing technology and easy access to vast amounts of information this traditional model may not provide students with the critical thinking skills they need to operate in todays ever changing work environment.
"Educational simulations are one of the technological approaches available to education to facilitate the building of skills such as critical thinking.
Traditionally, simulations are something that bridges the gap between the typical classroom setting and the real world where actual practice occurs. They have been used to assist in the capacity for students to understand and use information to solve problems that are actually relevant to a real context"4.
1-4 from State of the Field Review, Simulation in Education Final Report
May 12, 2006 Michael Magee Alberta Online Learning Consortium Calgary AB

Resources for Games and Simulations in Education

State of the Field Review, Simulation in Education Final Report
May 12, 2006 Michael Magee Alberta Online Learning Consortium Calgary AB
This report reviews the literature available on Simulations and Games in Education. It discusses issues around the instructional design involved as well as the educational issues of teacher and learner belief systems and the role of assessment.

Educational simulations
The purpose of this web site is to promote the development of education via simulation. A list of online simulation resources categorised by curriculum area.

How Online Simulations Work in the Classroom
Edutopia
Simulations expert Christopher Walters provides the following thoughts on virtual simulations for classroom use.

Resources held by TLRU
Good video games + good learning : collected essays on video games, learning, and literacy, Gee, James Paul. 2007
Playing to learn : video games in the classroom, Hutchison, David, 1968- 2007
What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy, Gee, James Paul. 2003

The Spirituality of Teachers in Catholic Schools

2009-09-18T13:00:00.003+10:00

The Spirituality of Teachers in Catholic Schools prepared by the Christian Research Association was commissioned by the Principals' Association of Victorian Catholic Secondary Schools to explore how teachers in their schools understood spirituality and spiritual formation, how this related to the ethos of the schools, what they saw as contributing to or detracting from their spiritual development, and in what ways they felt the schools could better contribute to the teachers' spiritual formation.
Available for borrowing from the TLRU via email to TLRU@parra.catholic.edu.au

Environmentally sustainable schools

2009-09-18T12:12:00.011+10:00

Recent web resources
How green is your school?
Around 7,000 schools in England have signed up to the Eco-Schools programme and more are joining every week says the Teacher Expertise website. Set up in 1994, the programme is run by the Foundation for Environmental Education with the aim of involving young people in finding solutions to environmental and sustainable development challenges. It is a concept which is proving highly popular. It sets out to show children that by taking small steps, such as recycling or composting, they can have a big impact on the global environment as well as their own community. For the full article on this topic click here.

Planning and funding environmental improvements to your school grounds
This article from Teachingexpertise website summarises a number of environmental programmes in the UK. One programme run by REEP (Religious Education and Environment Programme) aims to provide unusual and thought-provoking resources for teachers promoting the links between religion and the environment. It works with all faiths and is non-denominational. Central to its work is the REEP awards. These are open to schools in England, Scotland and Wales, regardless of age group or spiritual orientation. The task is to design a garden that reflects spiritual and community values and to submit the design using ICT. The website www.reep.org provides free resources to schools and the organisation also holds training days to support entrants into the garden awards scheme.

Eco school project at Kirkley High School
A case study of Kirkley High Schools plan to establish itself as an eco-school. To achieve the aim, local and global environmental issues had to be developed through discrete curriculum time, through cross curricula links and through extra- curricula activities.

Other online resources
On Holy Ground
This site enables easy access to an ecological vision statement (On Holy Ground) for Catholic Schools and agencies.
On Holy Ground provides a rationale and planning framework to assist catholic schools and organisations to become more ecologically sustainable and live out their ecological vocation
Catholic Earthcare Australia
Earthcare Australia's mission is to help promote understanding among people that Creation is sacred and endangered, and must be protected and sustained for present and future generations yet unborn.
NSW Sustainable Schools network
Catholic schools are joining the NSW Sustainable Schools community
http://www.sustainableschools.nsw.edu.au/
Australian Sustainable Schools Iniatitive
(AuSSI) involves a holistic approach to education for sustainability with measurable environmental, financial, educational and social outcomes. It implements improvements in a school's management of resources and grounds and integrates this approach into the existing curriculum and daily running of the school. Students participate in an action learning - or learning by doing - process.
Sustainability Education (Aust. Govt Dept of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts)
Sustainability education develops skills, knowledge and values that promote behaviour in support of a sustainable environment. It is not confined to formal schooling. It also occurs in a wide range of non-formal education settings at work and at home.
Living Sustainably: the Australian Government's National Action Plan for Education for Sustainability
The aim of Living Sustainably: the Australian Government's National Action Plan for Education for Sustainability, launched in April 2009, is to equip all Australians with the knowledge and skills required to live sustainably. The plan has been prepared in conjunction with the National Council on Education for Sustainability by the Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.
Education for Sustainability in School Education
This site aims reviews a number of programs to attempt to answer the following questions:

Cleanup the world

Cleanup Australia

Selected resources held by TLRU
Available for borrowing

The Garden Planet DVD
Awakening Universe DVD
Care for creation
Ecology at the Heart of Faith
Leaving smaller footprints
Best practice in environmental education in New South Wales schools
Activate your students : a problem-based learning approach to sustainability
Cradled in human hands : a textbook on environmental responsibility
Literacies in place : teaching environmental communications
Blueprints for greening schools : principles, policies and practices for environmental education in Australian secondary schools

St Andrews Marayong, John Paul II school and their environmental activities

Find more videos like this on Experiment

Staff Bullying in Australian Schools

2009-09-17T14:05:00.004+10:00

Research on Staff Bullying in Australian Schools has recently been released in a report "Investigation of Staff Bullying in Australian Schools" by Dan Riley, Deirdre J. Duncan and John Edwards. It is the result of national survey which gathered responses from primary and secondary schools in both the Government and non-Government sectors.
The report covers:
Who are the bullys
Who are the targets
What forms of bullying of staff occur
The effect of bullying on the individual

This book is available for borrowing from TLRU or you can purchase a copy for your school from the Co-op bookshop for $19.95.

An executive summary is available for viewing online via University of New England Schoolbullies website.

Learning stories / Narrative assessment

2009-09-03T13:56:00.011+10:00

Learning stories
This document by Professor Susan Hill, Associate Professor in Early Childhood Education, University of South Australia describes the use of learning stories in capturing the context of the learning environment that appears to be enabling or constraining learning.

Learning and Teaching Stories: New Approaches to Assessment and Evaluation
Podmore V. & Carr M. 1999. Paper presented at the AARENZARE Conferenceon Research in Educaion, Melbourne, December.
This document outlines the research in New Zealand on using Learning stories for assessment and evaluation and details the frameworks and procedures used.

An ABCD of Developing Curious Minds
2007 Conference on Thinking: Curious Minds Think and Learn by Exploring the Unknown
Norrköping, Sweden
Margaret Carr (University of Waikato, New Zealand)
Wendy Lee (Educational Leadership Project & University of Waikato
In this short paper Margaret and Wendy discuss their interest in the ways in which teachers notice, recognise, respond to, record and re-visit episodes of learning, including curiosity in action. In particular, they look at how early years teachers in New Zealand are writing ‘Learning Stories’ as formative assessments to encourage an orientation towards exploration, curiosity, and resilience in the face of failure.

http://education.ed.pacificu.edu/bailey/resources/papers/Lstories/whatare.html
Mark Bailey, 2004
This paper focuses on the use of Digital Learning Stories (DLS) as an approach for constructing and presenting understanding . Student-documented DLS tend to be more effective with children who are a bit older and therefore more capable of documenting their learning, and reflecting on the process and contents.

Learning Story template
The Learning Story template is intended to allow LEOTC providers and schools to create their own Learning Stories. The template has been developed on the basis of best evidence of learning research in LEOTC environments both nationally and internationally. It has been widely circulated for comments and feedback, and formatted with the teachers and students (the end users), meaningfully taken into account.

Examples of learning stories
These Learning Stories have been produced using the Learning Story template in full or by adapting the template and creating short films. The venues were chosen to show best practice, and a range of curriculum learning areas and student age groups. The 'teacher’s voice' is from the teacher responsible for the visit. This may not always be the person who arranged the LEOTC visit but will be the teacher responsible for the management of the visit on the day.

Using children’s learning stories to assess their mathematics learning in preschools and schools
Elspeth Harley Bob Perry Nicole Hentschke, AARE.
This paper reports work done with preschool educators ,tracing how powerful ideas in mathematics were identified in current preschool practice, how they were linked to the Developmental Learning Outcomes in the mandatory curriculum documents and how the technique of learning stories (narrative assessment) was established as a valid assessment regime compatible with key principles of preschool education.

Learning Stories and Children's Powerful Mathematics
The professional development focus on children’s powerful mathematical ideas, combined with action research that encouraged educators to identify these ideas within children’s experiences and to document these through learning stories, form the basis of this paper.

The stories we share: Using narrative assessment to build communities of literacy participants in early childhood centres
Ann Hatherly
AJEC, Vol. 31 No. 1, March 2006, pp. 27-34.
This article draws on data collected as part of the development of Kei Tua o te Pae, Assessment for Learning: Early Childhood Exemplars (Ministry of Education, 2004), a New Zealand resource designed to engage teachers in reflection about assessment practices within the framework of Te Whāriki. It tells the story—the author’s story—of the ways in which documented assessment, using techniques more associated with storytelling than with observation, invites participation of children, families and teachers and thereby becomes the means through which a community of literacy-learners and participants is developed. It is argued that, given the increasing pressure on centres to provide for literacy, documented assessments offer many possibilities for not just describing but also constructing literacy learning in meaningful contexts.

Connected learning stories: mathematics
http://www.cli.nsw.edu.au/cli/e-learning/Stories/stories_maths.shtm
Provides example stories of successful classroom practice the Mathematics KLA illustrate a range of approaches and strategies for incorporating information and communication technologies (ICT) into teaching and learning.

Using children’s learning stories to assess their mathematics learning in preschools and schools
Elspeth Harley Bob Perry Nicole Hentschke, AARE
This paper reports work done with preschool educators as part of the Southern Numeracy Initiativ. It traces how ‘powerful ideas’ in mathematics were identified in current preschool practice, how they were linked to the Developmental Learning Outcomes in the mandatory curriculum documents and how the technique of learning stories (narrative assessment) was established as a valid assessment regime compatible with key principles of preschool education.

Narratives for learning: Sharing giftedness through learning stories
Valerie Margrain, Massey University
Paper presentation to Reaching Forward: National Conference on Gifted Education, Rotorua, March 13-15, 2009.
Learning stories, as a narrative assessment method, provide rich opportunities for documenting and sharing examples of giftedness in social contexts. The documentation method is one that it accessible to teachers, parents and students, and able to capture broad multicategorical aspects of giftedness, including creative, cultural and leadership domain, and dispositions for learning. Examples of two learning stories of 4-year old precocious readers are included in this paper to illustrate assessment for learning and to make learning visible.

Narrative Assessment: identity and equity for disabled students
Geoff Moore, Sue Molloy, Missy Morton, Keryn Davis
University of Canterbury, UC Education Plus, College of Education, New Zealand.
Assessment that is student-referenced and related to the learner’s dispositions, (competencies) is a hopeful way forward for these students. This project is highlighting how the use of narratives (Learning Stories), enables teachers to capture rich descriptions of learning in relation to The New Zealand Curriculum key competencies and learning areas, in the context of culturally responsive pedagogy (Bishop & Glynn, 1999). Learning Stories not only look back, but they are constructive and forward looking through providing teachers and learners a process of seeking and interpreting evidence to open up possible learning pathways. They are also enabling teachers to view the students as mindful and competent in learning contexts; able to access learning in and through The New Zealand Curriculum.

Curriculum accountability in the early years
From August 2005–July 2006, sixteen preschools engaged in a practitioner research project to critically examine and investigate the interweaving of learning and pedagogical objectives, and to document children’s learning and development against the DLOs, using narrative assessment called ‘Learning stories’. As part of the project, a draft matrix underpinned by a social pedagogical approach, was developed for piloting. The matrix has a focus on educational effort and commitment, shifting from expectations in terms of output to expectations in terms of inputs for each child.

Exploring narrative assessment to promote empowerment of educators and parents of children with special educational needs
The use of narrative assessment by early intervention teams is explored in two case studies in New Zealand where early intervention provisions are guided by an inclusive special education policy. Team members, including parents and teachers, received professional development on the use of learning story assessment, and shared their learning stories at planning meetings. The project highlighted the empowerment of parents and educators through the use of learning stories for assessment and planning. Challenges to the adoption of narrative methodologies in inclusive early intervention contexts are identified.

Selected Books

Developing early literacy: assessment and teaching
Susan Hill 2006
Held CEO 428.0071 HIL

Patterns of narrative discourse: Multicultural life span approach
Alyson McCabe
Held CEO 401.41 MCC

From observation to reflection: A practitioners guide to programme planning and documentation
Joy Lubawy, 2008.
This book provides practical examples at how to observe learning, how to document this in a learning story framework and then connecting your reflections and understandings with the curriculum and your program. Joy’s work in this book has drawn inspiration from the New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum document Te Whariki, the theories og Multiple Intelligence by Howard Gardner and the work of Reggio Emilia.
Held CEO

Assessment in early childhood settings.: learning stories
Margaret Carr 2003

Programming and Planning in Early Childhood Settings (4th Edition), Thomson Learning
Arthur L (2008)
Held CEO

Education reform via Charter schools?

2009-08-13T10:11:00.004+10:00

We must consider radical ideas in education reform
Jennifer Buckingham a research fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies discusses the need for reform to improve education for our most disadvantaged children.
Indigenous children who live in very remote Queensland have failure rates of 58 per cent. A further 28 per cent just meet the minimum benchmark in reading. That's a rate eight times higher than the national average.
One idea is Charter schools.
Read more here

The Charter Connection from The Centre for Education Reform provides more details on Charter schools in the US.
Charter schools are...

* innovative public schools
* designed by educators, parents or civic leaders
* open and attended by choice
* free from most rules and regulations governing conventional public schools
* and accountable for results.

Imagining the future of the school library

2009-08-12T16:31:00.002+10:00

Imagining the future of the School Library

Without a doubt, the school library remains one of them most symbolic, protected, and expensive ’spaces’ on any campus. But will future designers of school libraries be recreating sacred book spaces of the past or will technology and the ‘consumer’ inspire new design strategies for the future?
With this in mind, DesignShare spoke with 2 passionate library experts — Doug Johnson and Rolf Erikson — to gain better insight into serving the information needs of students, schools, and communities via the future of school library planning and design. Doug is the author of The Indispensable Librarian: Surviving (And Thriving) in School Media Centers and the Blue Skunk Blog; Rolf is the lead author of Designing A School Library Media Center for the Future.

Welcome to the Library say goodbye to the books
The article is about Cushing Academy's move from a traditional library to a learning centre.
Instead of a traditional library with 20,000 books, we’re building a virtual library where students will have access to millions of books,’’ said Tracy, whose office shelves remain lined with books. “We see this as a model for the 21st-century school.
As part of this plan administrators plan to distribute the electronic book readers, which they’re stocking with digital material, to students looking to spend more time with literature.

Alternative new teacher training/education models

2009-08-12T11:58:00.007+10:00

The Underpinning Knowledge Bases of an Alternative Teacher Education Model
From 1999 the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong has run an alternative model of teacher education known as the Knowledge Building Community (KBC) Project. This program has been acclaimed nationally. What makes this program so unique is its design that abandons the traditional model of teacher education that consists of lectures and tutorials; instead this alternative model of teacher education is based on several underpinning pillars of professional knowledge. The KBC program has been described as a “negotiated evaluation of a non-negotiable curriculum based on a constructivist model of learning and knowledge building”. However, the basic aim of this program is to deal with the perennial problem of contextualising students’ professional learning, by linking abstract theory as closely as possible to the contexts and settings to which it is applied, i.e. the primary school classroom.

The role of teacher training schools in the basic education of Finnish teachers.
Discusses the role of teacher training schools (TTSs) in the basic education of Finnish teachers. Advantages of TTSs for practical training; Problems of TTSs; Future of Finnish TTSs.
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=9511031132&site=ehost-live

Employment based teacher training
Employment-based teacher training (EBTT) comprises training programmes that allow trainees to work in a school and follow an individual training programme leading to qualified teacher status (QTS). The school pays the trainee as an unqualified teacher.

Apprentice teacher scheme attacked
Teenagers with just a handful of GCSE passes are to be recruited to secondary schools to work as teaching assistants. The Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, wants to recruit more than 4,000 apprentices to work full-time in schools. They would work as teaching assistants with youngsters up to the age of 14. If they liked the job, they would be able to train as teachers.

Teacher training scheme praised
Inspectors have heaped praise on a training scheme which is helping to produce some of the best young teachers in Leicestershire. The project, started by a group of primary schools, has trained 100 new recruits to teaching, and many of them have already gone on to successfully teach thousands of children in the city and rest of the county.
Normally people who have finished a degree and want to become a teacher go on to a postgraduate course in education at a university.
But graduates of Leicester's Scitt (School-Centred Initial Teacher Training) spend much of their time in the classroom, and it is this that has so impressed Ofsted.

Apprenticeship for Teaching: Professional Development Issues Surrounding the Collaborative Relationship Between Teachers and Paraeducators

The collaborative apprenticeship model: Situated professional development within school settings
Professional learning is a social enterprise where peers rely on the expertise and support of one another to adopt innovative practices. Reciprocal interactions in a community of practice, where teachers take responsibility for each other’s learning and development, may provide an effective means of supporting situated professional learning. We propose a collaborative apprenticeship model featuring reciprocal interactions as an approach to promote professional development, encouraging peer-teachers to serve as modelers and coaches of strategies and ideas aimed at improving instruction. collaborative apprenticeship is designed to help teachers learn and implement new teaching skills and strategies through four development phases, beginning with implementation of best practices from a mentor to the development of their own. Teachers, in turn, contribute new ideas to their teaching environment and become future mentors in order to sustain skills and strategies across a community of teachers. In addition to the model, we discuss various influences related to affect, beliefs, environment, culture, cognition, and personality that characterize the nature of reciprocal interactions in order to stimulate collaborative apprenticeship.

Webbased Cognitive Apprenticeship Model for Improving Preservice teachers performances and attitudes towards instructional planning
Through web-based conferencing, the expert teacher leads pre-service teachers to observe his/her cognitive modeling displayed by web-based multimedia and guides them to
constructing initial conceptual models of how to write and implement an instructional plan. During this procedure, web-based multimedia is used to demonstrate the cognitive modeling of an expert teacher in a real
classroom context by simultaneously presenting the instructional plan and the video case for the expert teacher’s articulation of why and how to write the instructional plan, or the instructional plan and the video case about teaching demos based on the instructional plan. Moreover, through issues posed in discussion forums, expert teachers guide pre-service teachers to focus on key points of cognitive modeling displayed by web-based multimedia and to share ideas with others. Finally, by interacting with expert teachers and peers in the internet chat room, pre-service teachers construct their own personal conceptual models through sharing, debating, modifying, and discussing.

Does School-Based Initial Teacher Training Affect Secondary School Performance?
(Citation only but its findings interesting from abstract)
This article investigates the effects of trainee teachers on secondary school student outcomes. The additional resources which schools receive from being involved in teacher training offer them an opportunity to raise standards, but this has to be set against the possible losses due to school students being taught by inexperienced beginning teachers and the diversion of mentors' efforts away from the classroom. Inspection evidence is used to assess whether trainee teachers affect school students' test and examination results. The findings of this research are that the number of trainees has no significant effect on school results at A-level or General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), or on the overall value added between Key Stage 3 and GCSE level. However, at Key Stage 3 level at age 14, while there appears to be a very small depressing effect on achievement in schools with low numbers of trainees, there is a significant positive effect on achievement in schools with larger numbers of trainees. (Contains 3 figures and 3 tables.)

Stephen Heppell on school design

2009-08-05T11:22:00.005+10:00

Building learning futures: a research project at ultralab within the CABE/RIBA "Building Futures" programme, Stephen Heppell et al, 2004
This report focuses directly onto the evolution of pedagogy in the school sector and its implications for design. It contains details drawn from the most eclectic of sources over a full year; it offers some solid recommendations which need to be
acted on and it offers some lightly drawn scenarios to provide a provocation for the many creative people involved in this whole debate.

Learning Environments of the future, Stephen Heppell et al, 2004.
This report looks at the influences impacting on the effectiveness of the
design process: changing pedagogy; new technologies; political policy and will.

Teacher quality

2009-07-27T14:26:00.006+10:00

A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald suggests that differences between teachers play only a minor role in how well a child will learn.
Teacher quality makes little difference, July 24, 2009
The global study, led by the University of New England, monitored 500 pairs of identical twins during their first three years of school.
They were divided into two groups: twins who shared the same teacher, and siblings who were split across different classrooms.
The same genetics and home life ensured the twins had the same ability to learn. The study was designed to reveal any differences linked to their teacher alone.
Professor Brian Byrne said the finding contradicted the views of educationalists who claimed teacher quality could account for a variance of up to 40 per cent in a child's learning outcome.

An excerpt from Maralyn Parkers Daily Telegraph column on this research points out:
Professor Byrne said the study did not measure the quality of the teaching, as the researchers did not actually visit any classrooms. However he said the majority of difference in childrens’ literacy levels in their first three years of schooling, 60 to 70 per cent, was due to genetics.

Byrne’s research is being undertaken under the auspices of the Australian Twin Registry
The latest paper available online from Byrne is “Genetic and environmental influences on early literacy, 2006”

Byrne discussed findings from the above research in an article in the Armidale Times. “Twins Aid research” in 2007 saying “We’re not finding big effects of different schools - or even different teachers - on the literacy levels of children within the same school year.”

Other articles from Byrne
Byrne, B. (2004). "Guest editorial on behaviour genetics." Australian Journal of Psychology Special edition.
Byrne, B., C. Delaland, et al. (2001). "Preliminary Results from a longitudinal preschool twin study of early reading
development." Annals of Dyslexia.
Byrne, B., R. K. Olson, et al. (2006). "Genetic and environmental influences on early literacy." Journal of Research in Reading
29: 33-49.
Byrne, B., S. Wadsworth, et al. (2005). "Longitudinal twin study of early literacy development: Preschool and kindergarten
phases." Scientific Studies of Reading 9: 219-235.

Some other research in this area
U.Va. Study Finds Teaching Quality Inadequate in Most U.S. First-Grade Classrooms
Interestingly, the study found that factors traditionally thought to influence quality, such as class size and teacher credentials, had little influence on classroom quality. Instead, the study found that high classroom quality is linked more strongly to teachers who are both creating a positive social climate and offering strong instructional support.

Estimating Teacher Effectiveness From Two-Year Changes in Students’ Test Scores
Teacher fixed effects show a significant association with some, though not all, observable teacher characteristics. Experience has the strongest effect, with a large effect in the early years of a teacher’s career.

How much of the variation in literacy and numeracy can be explained by school performance?
Family background is known to have a substantial impact on students’ literacy and numeracy results. This raises questions about whether any of the remaining differences in results are due to school performance — or whether they are merely due to random noise. This article reviews research from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study, based on student-level analysis. It then presents new evidence based on publicly reported school-level data from Western Australia. Combining test results with data on schools’ socioeconomic characteristics, this study estimates the degree to which some schools outperform those with similar characteristics. On a ‘like schools’ basis, school differences are shown to be persistent across subjects, grades and years.

Professional learning

2009-06-09T15:30:00.003+10:00

Articles
Online learning for school leaders, Professional educator, Vol 7, No 4, Nov 2008, pp18-20.

Whats that sound? ‘Tweet’: new perspectives on leadership and learning, Access Vol 22, Iss 4, 2008. Pp23-25

Below are Hardcopy books available for borrowing from TLRU
Contact the TLRU via email to TLRU@parra.catholic.edu.au or on 9677 4344

Learning for leadership : building a school of professional practice
authors, Michelle Anderson ; Christine Cawsey.
Camberwell, Vic. : ACER Press, 2008.
371.10994 AND

Towards a moving school : developing a professional learning and performance culture
John Fleming & Elizabeth Kleinhenz.
Camberwell, Vic : ACER Press 2007.
371.1440994 FLE

Better schools better teachers better results: a handbook for improved performance management in your school /Vic Zbar, Graham Marshall, Paul Power.
Camberwell, Vic. :|bACER Press,|c2007.

Leadership coaching for educators : bringing out the best in school administrators
Karla Reiss.
Thousand Oaks, CA : Corwin Press, 2007.
371.2011 REI

From first-year to first-rate :|principals guiding beginning teachers
Barbara L. Brock, Marilyn L. Grady.
Publication info :Thousand Oaks, CA :|bCorwin Press,c2007.
371.201 BRO

Leading effective meetings, teams, and work groups in districts and schools
Matthew Jennings.
Alexandria, VA :|bAssociation for Supervision and Curriculum Development,|cc2007.
187 p. ;|c25 cm.
371.207 JEN

Learning-driven schools: a practical guide for teachers and principals
Barry Beers
Alexandria, VA, ASCD, 2006.
371.1 BEEk

The team leadership coaching guide : growing you, your team, your organisation.
[St. Ives, N.S.W.] : Australian Growth Coaching, 2006.
658.4092 TEA

The principalship : a reflective practice perspective
Thomas J. Sergiovanni.
Boston : Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2006.
371.20120973 SER

Coaching leadership : building educational leadership capacity through coaching partnerships
Jan Robertson.
Wellington, N.Z. : NZCER Press, 2005.
371.2011

Strengthening the heartbeat: leading and learning together in schools
Thomas J. Sergiovanni.
San Francisco :Jossey-Bass, 2005.
371.200973 SER

Preparing teachers for a changing world :|bwhat teachers should learn and be able to do
edited by Linda Darling-Hammond and John Bransford
San Francisco, CA :|Jossey-Bass, 2005.
371.71 DAR

Creating dynamic schools through mentoring, coaching, and collaboration
Judy F. Carr, Nancy Herman, and Douglas E. Harris.
Alexandria, Va. : Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, c2005.
371.203 CAR

Understanding by design professional development workbook / Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins.
Alexandria, Va. : Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2004.
375.001 MCT

A look at transfer : seven strategies that work
Robin J. Fogarty and Brian M. Pete.
Moorabbin, Vic. : Hawker Brownlow Education, 2004.
371.3 FOG

Professional teaching standards
NSW Institute of Teachers.
Sydney : NSW Institute of Teachers, [2004?].
371.144 PRO

Leading learning : making hope practical in schools
Bob Lingard ... [et al.].
Buckingham [England] ; Philadelpha : Open University Press, 2003.
371.209943 LEA

Teaching in the knowledge society : education in the age of insecurity
Andy Hargreaves.
New York : Teachers College Press, c2003.
371.2 HAR

Results-based professional development models
St. Vrain Valley School District, professional development.
Longmont, CO : St Vrain Valley School District, 2003
370.71 RES

Stirring the tidal pool : reflective practices for school improvement
Catholic Education Office, Diocese of Parramatta: Parramatta, N.S.W., 2003
CD ROM
371.2 SYN

The leadership coaching guide for growing you and your organisation
Publication info: [St Ives, N.S.W.] : Australian Growth Coaching, 2003.
658.4092 LEA

Leading learners, leading schools
Robin Brooke-Smith.
London ;|aNew York :|bRoutledgeFalmer,|c2003.
371.2 BRO

The reflective teacher [kit] : using action learning to improve teaching.
East Perth : Dept. of Education, WA, 2002.
1 videocassette, 1 book.
371.39 REF

Leadership for learning :|bhow to help teachers succeed
Carl D. Glickman.
Publication info: Alexandria, Va. :|bAssociation for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2002.
371.102 GLI

Developing teacher leaders : how teacher leadership enhances school success
Frank Crowther ... [and others].
Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Corwin, 2002.
371.106 CRO

Building a learning profession
Lawrence Ingvarson.
Deakin West, A.C.T. : Australian College of Educators, 2002.
371.10994 ING

From option to imperative : towards a culture of teacher development in Catholic schools
Michael Bezzina & Aengus Kavanagh.
Parramatta : Catholic Education Office, 2002.
371.146 BEZ

The heart of teaching : how we can use student work to strengthen our professional practice?
developed by Australian National Schools Network in partnership with the Coalition of Essential Schools (USA).
Lindfield, N.S.W. : Australian National Schools Network, Faculty of Education, University of Technology, Sydney, 2001.
1 ringbinder ; 31 cm + looseleaf pages; 1
videocassette; 1 DVD.
370.1 HEA

A model for mentoring our teachers : centers of pedagogy / Robin Fogarty ; [editor Dara Lee Howard].
Cheltenham, Vic. : Hawker Brownlow Education, 2001.
371.102 FOG

Teacher evaluation to enhance professional practice
Charlotte Danielson & Thomas L. McGreal.
Alexandria, Va. : Educational Testing Service, 2000.
371.144 DAN

Evaluating professional development
Thomas R. Guskey ; foreword by Dennis Sparks.
Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Corwin Press, Inc., c2000.
370.7155 GUS

Principles in action [videorecording] : award-winning professional development.
[Aurora, Colo.] : McREL, 2000.
1 DVD (ca. 55 min.) : sd., col.
371.1460973 PRI

Personal Development Health and Physical education

2009-06-09T15:30:00.002+10:00

Reality check: effective school-based drug education, Professional educator, Vol 7, No 4, Nov 2008, pp 24-27.

Weighing it up: thinking about the implications of school based obesity prevention initiatives. ACHPER healthy lifestyles journal, vol 55 No 1, pp 19-22.

Catholic schools

2009-06-09T15:28:00.001+10:00

Teaching and Learning as Wayfaring, Momentum Nov/Dec 2008, pp8-11

A model for improving Catholic School System vitality, Momentum Nov/Dec 2008, pp12-16

Libraries

2009-06-09T14:44:00.001+10:00

Banning books – the shifting ground, info@aslansw, Aug 2008, pp4-5.

School library websites virtually extending learning support, Scan, Vol 27, No 4, Nov 2008. Pp 17-27.

Collaborating in assessment: the teachers librarians role, Scan, Vol 27, No 4, Nov 2008, pp46- 48

The impact of school library services on student achievement and the implications for advocacy: a review of the literature, Access Vol 22, Iss 4, 2008. Pp15-20.

School libraries building capacity for student learning in 21C, Scan Vol 28, No 2 May 2009.pp 17-25.

School libraries and continuous improvement: a case study, Scan Vol 28, No 2 May 2009, pp26-31.

Special education

2009-06-09T14:42:00.001+10:00

Verbal working memory and story retelling in school-age children with Autism, Language, Speech and Hearing Services in School, Vol 39, No 4, Oct 2008, pp 498-511.

Are schools meeting the needs of students with ADHD, Vol 32, No 2, Sep 2008, pp 187-198.

Behavior and communication, Down Syndrome NSW newsletter, Summer 2008-2009, pp17-19,

Dyslexia and related disorders, SPELD NSW newsletter, Nov 2008, Vol 40, No 4, pp 10-11.

Language support program website. The Language Support Program (LSP) is a substantial program comprising direct assistance to teachers in developing strong oral language competency in children and young people to maximise their learning potential.

Religious education

2009-06-09T14:40:00.000+10:00

From the Vatican to the classroom Part2: examining intertextuality and alignment among church, local diocesan and school religious education documents.
Journal of Religious Education, Vol 56 No 4, 2008.

St Paul on the Lord’s supper, Liturgy News, Dec 2008, pp3-5.

Weaving the threads of meaning: a characteristic of children’s spirituality and its implication for religious education, British Journal of Religious Education, Vol 30, No 3, Sep 2008, pp 235-245.

Literacy

2009-06-09T14:35:00.001+10:00

Successful engagement in an early literacy intervention.
Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, Vol 8, No 2, Aug 2008, pp123-150.

Accelerating preschoolers’ early literacy development through classroom based Teacher-child storybook reading and explicit print referencing. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in School, Vol 40, No 1, Oct 2008, Pp 67-85.

Copyright

2009-06-09T14:23:00.003+10:00

Copyright in the classroom: Teaching with Audio-visual resources. Screen Education, Iss 52, Summer 2008. p 24-28.

Copyright for school websites at Smartcopying

Copyright information for Wikis and Blogs at Smartcopying: Using wikis and Blogs

Curriculum Press Express - Book bytes resource downloads

2009-06-09T09:53:00.004+10:00

Are you planning a novel study as part of your literacy program? Would you like the convenience of having all the activities carefully prepared for you and high quality worksheets ready to print off, all for only $10.00?

Well, look no further than Curriculum Corporation’s new website Curriculum Press Express. This site houses the new series of Let’s Read e-bytes created to complement the value for money and expedience that the Let’s Read print collection already provides teachers of middle years students.
• You need only buy the e-byte relevant to your choice of novel study
• There are 27 fantastic novel studies to choose from, including such popular titles as:
o Specky Magee by Garry Lyon
o The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
o Daughter of the Regiment by Jackie French
o Cairo Jim on the Trail to ChaCha Muchos by Geoffrey McSkimming
• You download only what you want and when you want it, so you pay less
• All the materials are ready-to-go at the touch of a button, so you don’t have a hard copy resource to clutter up your desk and potentially get misplaced
• All the activities have been classroom tested.

You will also make a further great saving if you purchase class sets of selected novels online through our website.

To celebrate the launch of Curriculum Press Express, are offering you a special free trial download!

Go to Curriculum Press Express to get your free copy of Let's Read: Sprung! a resource of classroom activities for novel study, written by respected writer and educator, Jane Caughey.

Numeracy

2009-06-04T16:35:00.002+10:00

The following hard copy journal articles are available from the TLRU.

The quality teaching of primary school mathematics – part A, Square one, Vol 18, No 3, Sept 2008, pp 13-16.

“But what about the oneths?” A Year 7 student’s misconception about decimal place value. The Australian Mathematics Teacher, Vol 64 No 4, 2008, P12-14

Refugees

2009-06-04T16:34:00.002+10:00

The following hardcopy journal articles are available from the TLRU.

Refugee students no longer strangers in the system, The New South Wales Education Magazine, Term 3, 2008, pp 8-9.

Planning the learning environment for refugee background students, Pen 162, pp1-8.

Assessment

2009-06-04T16:32:00.001+10:00

The following hard copy journal articles are available from the TLRU.

When assessment is about learning, Literacy learning: the middle years. Vol 16, No 3, Oct 2008, pp 27-37.

Assessment interwoven with Teaching and Learning, Literacy learning: the middle years. Vol 16, No 3, Oct 2008, pp (insert i-viii).

Assessing student thinking about arithmetic: videotaped interviews. Teaching children mathematics, Vol 15, No 2, Sep 2008, pp106-111.

Collaborating in assessment: the teachers librarians role, Scan, Vol 27, No 4, Nov 2008, pp46- 48

Reggio Emilia resources

2009-06-04T14:45:00.003+10:00

The following resources are available for borrowing at the TLRU

Bringing learning to life : the Reggio approach to early childhood education
Cadwell, Louise Boyd. 2003
372.21 CAD

Reflections : Reggio Emilia principles within Australian contexts
Millikan, Jan. 2003
372.21 MIL

Making learning visible : children as individual and group learners
Project Zero. 2001
372.210945 MAK

Il futuro e una bella giornata = The future is a lovely day,
Davoli, Mara. 2001
303.49 ILF

Reggio tutta : a guide to the city by the children
Davoli, Mara. 2000
372.21 REG

Children, spaces, relations : metaproject for an environment for young children
Ceppi, Giulio. 1998
372.21 CHI

Bringing Reggio Emilia home : an innovative approach to early childhood education Cadwell, Louise Boyd. 1997
372.2101 CAD

First steps toward teaching the Reggio way
Hendrick, Joanne,
372.21 FIR

Constructivism : theory, perspectives, and practice
Fosnot, Catherine Twomey. 1996
370.152 CON

An Amusement park for birds [videorecording]
1994
AV 371.36 AMU

Open window [electronic resource]
Malaguzzi, Loris. 1994
CO 362.71 OPE

Challenge (Kew, Vic.)
University of Melbourne. Early Childhood Development Unit.
Periodicals

Reflections on the Reggio Emilia approach : a collection of papers
Lilian G. Katz ... [et al.] 1994
372.21 REF

Design and marketing of libraries - the Picton library

2009-06-04T09:33:00.003+10:00

A team of librarians "The shanachies" are touring the world looking at libraries. They have videoed each library tour and have blogged it at Shananchie tour. This one of Picton library shows some interesting design and promotion ideas.

Road to Melbourne: Picton Library from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.

Gaming in Libraries

2009-06-04T09:26:00.004+10:00

An interview with Scott Nicholson on gaming in libraries. Scott is running an online course on gaming via Youtube during Jun 2009 called Gaming in libraries. The American Library Association also has a website Libraries, Literacy and Gaming.

Scott Nicholson interview from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.

Managing behaviour

2009-03-12T10:40:00.002+11:00

The TLRU has recently purchased the Bill Rogers series "Managing Behaviour" on DVD. We have multiple copies available for loan. Please contact the TLRU via email to TLRU@parra.catholic.edu.au or phone 9677 4344 to borrow the following items.

The Managing Behaviour series includes the following :

Positive Correction
In this training video Bill discusses and gives in-class demonstrations of the following skills: Privately understood signals, tactical ignoring, distraction & diversion, partial agreement, pause direction, question & feedback, take up time, choice direction, cool-off time, rule reminders.

Prevention:
Bill explores: The four R's of classroom management, noise meters, class meetings, and models the skills of peer negotiation, rehearsal, reframing, planned encouragement, communicating calmness and collegial support.

Consequences:
This video has Bill answering questions commonly asked by teachers: What about frequent offenders? How can a school address bullying? What consequences can be applied to swearing and other offensive behaviours? How to exit a child from the classroom? What to do if a child runs out of the classroom when they are corrected? How to use cool-off time?

Repair and Rebuild:
This video focuses on: restitution, mirroring, follow up meetings, hard class syndrome, attention deficit disorder, student motivation, playground management, re-entry after suspension and apologies.

Bill is an Educational Consultant, author, Lecturer and Adjunct Professor of Education at Griffin University (Queensland, Australia). A teacher by profession, he now lectures widely on discipline and behaviour management issues; classroom management; stress and teaching; colleague support; developing peer-support programmes for teachers and developing community orientated policies for behaviour management, based on whole-school approaches.

He works in every area of education (primary, secondary and tertiary) conducting in-service programmes for teachers, lecturing widely at colleges and universities, work with parent groups and with students.

School library design

2009-02-19T09:43:00.006+11:00

Developing a 21st Century Library Media Center.
PDF document.

The 21st Century Library Media Center initative in New York City includes 5 campuses, 25 schools, and 12,715 students using a collaborative design process to rethink the potential of libraries on large campuses as hubs for learning and community. Phase II will seek expand similar redesign to 18 more schools at 4 campuses. The design process is illustrated here in photographs, layouts, sketches, and renderings. 18p.

Designing libraries: the gateway to better library design

Designing Libraries is an information resource and a forum for anyone with an interest in or involvement with library planning and design.

The Transformation of the Library by Ellen Kollie
School Planning and Management, July 2008

Facilities Planning for School Library Media and Technology Centers, 2007

by Steven M. Baule

Baule has experience as classroom teacher, library media specialist, technology director, and assistant superintendent for information technology. His wealth of experience in facilities planning shows in this second edition of his popular planning book. In simple but not simplified terms, he provides information on how to put together a planning team; how to perform a needs assessment for the library media center or technology lab; how to create bid documents and specification charts; how to develop time lines; and how to plan to move into the new facility once construction is complete. The helpful appendix contains checklists that will keep users organized and on track. Choices made in construction and furnishings will probably be around for more than 20 years, so anyone who is going to build or renovate a facility will want this book. (Not currently held in CEO Library)

Rethink!: Ideas for Inspiring School Library Design, 2007
Rethink! is a new publication edited by Dr Susan La Marca. It includes discussions about, and numerous illustrations of, library design, learning environments, ICT, future scenarios, and architectural and interior design perspectives. The book also contains a special section by marketing and retail consultant Kevin Hennah that shares ideas for innovative merchandising strategies, layout and traffic flow, signage, promotion and colour. (Not held currently in CEO Library but held in a few school libraries)

Designing a School Library Media Center for the Future, 2007
by Rolf Erikson, Carolyn Markuson
Designing a school library media center may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so take advantage! In this hands-on guidebook, school library construction and media specialists Rolf Erikson and Carolyn Markuson share their experiences of working on more than 100 media center building projects around the country, using conceptual plans from actual school libraries.Combining all aspects of design for the school library media center - floor plans, furniture, technology, bidding, and evaluation - this newly updated edition addresses: current and future technological needs of the student population; unique needs of the community library that combines school and public library services; sustainability and conservation issues to help designers and planners "go green"; accessibility requirements, including all ADA regulations from the first edition plus the latest material on learning styles and accessibility; and, cost control and ways to minimize mistakes using proven bidding and evaluation methods.With 30 new illustrations and floor plans and an updated glossary of technical terms, readers will be knowledgeable and organized when discussing plans with contractors and vendors. Using the guidance here, you'll avoid the classic building and renovation hazards and build a library media center for the future!
Not currently held in CEO Library

School design/learning spaces for special education needs

2009-02-18T08:50:00.003+11:00

The Department of Education and Science in Ireland has recently drawn up a set of planning and design guidelines for learning spaces for pupils with special educational needs in mainstream primary and post primary schools ...
* Including Pupils with Special Educational Needs in Schools in Ireland

Latest on School Design

2009-02-16T10:35:00.004+11:00

The TLRU has recently purchased the following book:

The Language of School Design: Design Patterns for 21st Century Schools by Prakash Nair.

Prakash Nair is a partner with Fielding Nair International, an award winning school planning firm.

If you would like to borrow this book please contact the TLRU via email at TLRU@parra.catholic.edu.au

A number of documents from Prakash are also available on the web.

Schools in 2020 - middle years perspective

Other links to Prakash Nair click here.

Also this blog contains an extensive list of links to related documents on Learning Spaces and School design. To find these click on the appropriate tag from the tag list on the right hand side.

Religion resources via the Web

2009-02-04T16:02:00.004+11:00

Papal encyclicals online

Catholiclife resources

BUBL Link (UK) Catalogue of Internet Resources : Religion
Librarians' Internet Index : Religion

Resources for Catholic Educators

The Five Gospels Parallels

Assessment resources available from the TLRU

2009-01-29T15:18:00.006+11:00

Contact the TLRU via email to TLRU@parra.catholic.edu.au to borrow any of the following cited resources.

A useful website: ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING
(Thanks to Nicole for this link)

Title: Improving student achievement : a practical guide to assessment for learning / Toni Glasson. Publication info: Carlton South, Vic. : Curriculum Corporation, 2009.

Title: Transformative assessment / W. James Popham. Publication info: Alexandria, VA : Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2008.

Title: Assessment for learning: a stimulus for professional discussion [video recording]
Publication info: {Melbourne]:bCurriculum Corporation, 2007

Title: Differentiated Literacy Coaching : Effective Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment [electronic resource] Publication info: Alexandria : ASCD, 2007.

Title: Using the clinical assessment interview to determine problem solving strategies in mathematics [videorecording] :Year 1. Publication info: [Parramatta, N.S.W.] : Teaching and Learning Resources Unit, Catholic Education, Diocese of Parramatta, 2008.
(Year 3 and Year 5 also available)

Title: Comprehensive assessment of reading strategies. Teacher guide.
Publication info: Heatherton, Vic. : Hawker Brownlow, 2006.
(plus others in the series)

Title: Teaching and learning with TORCH / Helen Lamont.
Publication info: Camberwell, Vic. : ACER, 2006.

Title: Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching / Susan Hill.
Publication info: Prahran, Vic. : Eleanor Curtain Publishing, 2006.

Title: How to succeed with learner-centred assessment / Jeni Wilson & Kath Murdoch.
Publication info: Carlton South, Vic. : Curriculum Corp., 2006.

Title: Formative assessment in the secondary classroom / Shirley Clarke.
Publication info: London : Hodder Murray, 2005.

Title: Spelling : approaches to teaching and assessment / Peter Westwood.
Publication info: Camberwell, Vic. : ACER, 2005.

Title: Test better, teach better: the instructional role of assessment / W. James Popham.
Publication info: Alexandria, Va. : Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, c2003.

Title: Unlocking formative assessment : practical strategies for enhancing students' learning in the primary and intermediate classroom / Shirley Clarke, Helen Timperley and John Hattie.
Publication info: Auckland, N.Z. : Hodder Moa Beckett, 2003.

Title: Assessment of children and youth with special needs / Libby G. Cohen, Loraine J. Spenciner. Publication info: Boston : Allyn and Bacon, c2003.

Title: Classroom assessment resource. Stage 2 : English K-6 and Mathematics K-6 syllabus outcomes. Publication info: Ryde, N.S.W. : N.S.W. Dept. of Education and Training, 2002.

Title: Classroom assessment resource. Stage 3 : English K-6 and Mathematics K-6 syllabus outcomes. Publication info: Ryde, N.S.W. : N.S.W. Dept. of Education and Training, 2002.

Title: Enhancing student achievement : a framework for school improvement / Charlotte Danielson. Publication info: Alexandria, Va.: ASCD, 2002.

Title: Using classroom assessment to guide instruction [kit]. Publication info: Alexandria, Va. : Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2002.

Title: Writing assessment. New South Wales stage 1 : a comprehensive assessment tool for reporting in writing following an outcomes approach.
Publication info: [Greenwood, W.A.] : R.I.C., 2002.

Title: Miscues, not mistakes : reading assessment in the classroom / M. Ruth Davenport.
Publication info: Portsmouth, N.H. : Heinemann, 2002.

Title: An observation survey of early literacy achievement / Marie M. Clay.
Publication info: Auckland, N.Z. : Heinemann Education, 2002.

Title: PROBE [kit] : reading assessment / [designed & written by Chris Parkin, Catherine Parkin, Brian Pool].
Publication info: Lower Hutt, N.Z. : Triune Initiatives, 2002.

Title: Reading assessment. Early stage 1 : a comprehensive assessment tool for reporting in reading following an outcomes approach.
Publication info: [Greenwood, W.A.] : R.I.C., 2002.

Title: Progressive achievement tests in reading : comprehension test form 3
Publication info: ACER: Hawthorn, Vic., 2001

Title: Reading and learning difficulties : approaches to teaching and assessment / Peter Westwood. Publication info: Camberwell, Vic. : ACER, 2001.

Title: Assessment of children : cognitive applications / Jerome M. Sattler.
Publication info: San Diego, Calif. : J.M. Sattler, 2001.

Title: The literacy profiles in practice : toward authentic assessment / Patrick Griffin, Patricia G. Smith, Noel Ridge. Publication info: Portsmouth, NH : Heinemann, 2001.

Title: Maths assessment. Stage 1 : a comprehensive assessment tool for reporting in mathematics following an outcomes approach. Publication info: [Greenwood, W.A.] : R.I.C. Publications, 2001.
(Stage 2 and 3 also available)

Title: Literacy benchmarks : years 3, 5 & 7 : writing, spelling and reading : with professional elaboration. Publication info: Carlton South, Vic. : Curriculum Corp., c 2000.

Title: Numeracy and learning difficulties : approaches to teaching and assessment / Peter Westwood. Publication info: Camberwell, Vic. : ACER, 2000.

Title: Starting with assessment.
Publication info: Sydney : NSW Dept. of Education and Training, 2000.

Title: Starting Year 1 : assessing literacy and numeracy : using early stage 1 outcomes.
Publication info: Sydney : NSW Dept. of Education and Training, 2000.

Title: Maths assessment. Book 2 / Andrew Woods.
Publication info: South Melbourne : Oxford University Press, 1999.

Title: Student-generated rubrics : an assessment model to help all students succeed / Larry Ainsworth and Jan Christinson.
Publication info: Orangeburg, N.Y. : D. Seymour Publications, c1998.

Title: Authentic assessment : a report on classroom research and practice in the middle years / Phil Cormack ... [et al.]. Publication info: Canberra : Australian Curriculum Studies Association, 1998.

More on Learning Space design

2008-11-21T16:08:00.002+11:00

Educause has a good webpage that focuses on Learning space design.

Included is a section on conference resources which have the following topics :
* Teaching and Learning in Two New Smart Classrooms: Research Findings on the Pedagogical Implications of Space Design (11/18/2008)
* Laying the Foundation for Innovative, Flexible, and Consistent Classroom Technology (11/11/2008)
* Bringing the Information Commons Home (11/10/2008)
* Emerging Learning Spaces (11/10/2008)
* A Planning Process for Successful Learning/Information Commons (11/07/2008)

as well as Publications:

Learning Curve: Adapting Library Workspaces (11/07/2008)
Students, Technology, and Learning: Strategies for Success—Proceedings (07/30/2008)
7 Things You Should Know About Second Life (06/11/2008)
The Space Is the Message: First Assessment of a Learning Studio (04/11/2008)
ELI Discovery Tool: Learning Space Workshop Guide (01/18/2008)

Jump into the Creativity Pool

2008-11-14T14:53:00.003+11:00

Our national broadcaster has recently launched a new collaborative social media space called Pool. A site that could be a very useful resource for schools.

Creative Commons Australia had the following to say about Pool.
Australia’s iconic public broadcaster, the ABC, has just launched a new CC-friendly social media space, Pool, designed to provide a “place for creative content makers to upload their work, publish and collaborate.”

Pool lets creators working in all mediums - from animation, to music, to video, to text - share and broadcast their work to others. Like most participatory media sites, users can create profiles, upload and download material, and search tags for related material. But unlike other popular sites, the focus at Pool is very clearly on quality and experimentation.

School design/ learning spaces

2008-11-12T15:05:00.008+11:00

Schools for the future: designs for
learning communities:
Building Bulletin 95, 2002.

download a copy from Teachernet

Schools for the future
Teachernet Ideas for building design, teaching innovations and environments for the future. pdf documents for downloading. ...

OECD Programme for educational building
The OECD Programme on Educational Building (PEB) promotes the exchange and analysis of policy, research and experience in all matters related to educational building. PEB members consist of individual governments and research agencies throughout the world. Its work is of relevance to policy-makers in national and regional authorities responsible for educational facilities, to architects, system level and institutional managers, and to researchers in the field.

PEB Exchange, the journal of the Programme on Educational Building
This journal addresses issues related to providing a quality educational infrastructure in a cost-effective way.
The Journal OECD Programme on Educational Building (PEB) promotes the exchange and analysis of policy, research and experience in all matters related to educational building.

Designing for the future of learningShare innovative best practices happening around the world in the field of school design. The audience includes architects, educators, planners, builders, policy leaders, school board members, and all stakeholders interested in designing for the future of learning.

School buildings information centre
This is the website of the Schools Capital Assets Design Team of England's Department for Education and Skills, promoting best practice in design, use, and management of school facilities. The website contains information on school building design guidance, asset management, environmental health and safety, including acoustics, energy efficiency, lighting, fire safety, and costs.

Schooldesigns
Searchable database of photos, project descriptions and floor plans for schools across the country that have been featured in American School & University's Architectural Portfolio and Educational Interiors Showcase issues. The database is also searchable by firm name, project city and state, and special subcategory such as renovation or landscape.

School design for inclusion/special needs
Inclusion

Support spaces

Classroom Design for Living and Learning with Autism

Learning space design

The pyschology of learning environments
Ken A. Graetz
EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 41, no. 6 (November/December 2006): pp. 60–75.
How do we create learning environments that will respond to the increased presence of networked devices, the transition from lecture to collaboration, and the growing importance of virtual environments and build the classrooms of the future that facilitate usability, engagement, collaboration, and learning.

Leading the transition from classrooms to learning spaces,
Diana Oblinger, NLII White Paper, October 2004
Diana discusses learning spaces and how the notion of a classroom has expanded and evolved. The space is no longer defined by "the class" but by "learning".
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/NLI0447.pdf

Augsberg Teaching and Learning Spaces
Augsberg College learning spaces design is guided by a set of agreed-upon teaching and learning principles. This document outlines the teaching and learning goals and design principles that can implement them.
http://www.augsburg.edu/ctl/tls/TLSPrinciples.pdf

Designing Spaces for Effective Learning. A guide to 21st century learning space design. (2006).

Innovative school learning spaces (2007)
Albany Junior High School New Zealand

Planning sustainable schools for the future
Presentation by Brian Caldwell
Design should focus on students

Video resources

Glen Waverley Secondary College
Spaces for Learning: designed to support the development and implementation of the Years 7-9 Learning Community through a transformed pedagogical model. The pedagogy aims to support powerful learning and deep understanding through inquiry. The building disturbs a traditional model of schools and learning spaces and will allow teachers and students to be liberated from past practices and organisational structures.

Large Learning Spaces _ John XXIII Primary
News report on the Kinder learning space at John XXIII Catholic Primary School, Stanhope Gardens, NSW, Australia. John XXIII Kinder has 93 students, 3 teachers and a teacher aide in a single open learning space.

Schools designed for learning
For students at the Denver School of Science and Technology, learning takes place in an environment that is engaging, instructive, and comfortable. The building is an example of design supporting learning, and it provides spaces that are both flexible and inspiring. In addition, the school is outfitted with cutting edge technology—the building is a wireless environment, and each student works with a laptop computer. These students learn in new and exciting ways every day. It is truly a school that has been designed to promote student achievement, and you will see many examples of this powerful idea in the video.

Learning spaces
Ever wondered what goes into designing an award winning school? Watch and learn, from The Riverside School (India, Gujarat, Ahmedabad)

Learning spaces: a visual journey
Video from Appalachian State University about learning spaces

Learning spaces

NZ research trip to Christchurch
Video images of open planned learning space. A group of teachers from Victoria, Australia, recently visited Christchurch to see two schools and two libraries looking at the design of learning spaces and how they effect teaching and learning

Resources from the TLRU

The June/July 2008 issue of Teacher: the national education magazine, has the following articles around learning environment design.

Inspiration: environmentally sustainable design
Schools are some of the best places to implement good sustainable building design practices

Learning spaces
If the design is right, students can move effortlessley between online and offline learning spaces and devices.

The above articles are available from the TLRU by request.

Leadership and excellence in schools

2008-11-05T12:15:00.003+11:00

Linking leadership to student learning: the contributions of leader efficacy, Educational Administration Quarterly, Vol 44, No 4, Oct 2008, pp 496-528.

Collective leadership effects on student achievement, Educational Administration Quarterly, Vol 44, No 4, Oct 2008, pp 529-592.

Excellence for all, Educational Leadership, Vol 66, No 2, Oct 2008, pp 14-17.

Learning from world class schools, Educational Leadership, Vol 66, No 2, Oct 2008, pp 44-51.

Michael Fullan - Michael Fullans website contains a large number of resources and articles.

Refugee resources

2008-11-05T12:07:00.003+11:00

How can refugee youth make a good start, ATESOL Newsletter Vol 34, No 1, Mar 2008.

Queensland Program of Assistance to Survivors of Torture or Trauma have a number of useful resources for counsellors and teachers in schools. The following brochures can be downloaded from their site at QPASTT publications

A teachers guide to working with students from refugee and displaced backgrounds

A school counselling guide to working with students from refugee and displaced backgrounds

Students from refugee and displaced backgrounds - a handbook for schools

Refugee student support kit: for teachers, school counsellors and school communities

Emotional intelligence

2008-11-03T12:29:00.002+11:00

Developing emotional intelligence: a case study, Principal Matters, Spring 2008, pp36-38.

Emotional intelligence in schools, Directions in education, Vol 17, No 4, 15 August 2008, p2.

Copyright

2008-11-03T12:13:00.003+11:00

Copyright resources for schools:

Smartcopying website. The Official Guide to Copyright Issues for Australian Schools and TAFE.

Copyright kitchen

The Copyright Kitchen is a resource for those working in vocational education and training (VET) who deal with copyright issues in their day-to-day work. It breaks up copyright information into categories built around who you are, where you work and the task at hand. To get started, select from one of the categories listed on the left and start browsing.

Australian Copyright Council. Provides information advice and training about copyright in Australia. Produces publications, does research, and make submissions on copyright policy issues.

Copyright or Copywrong. Resources about film and DVD piracy including online and print resources.

Copyright issues

Google booksearch: universal access or copyright breach, Online currents, Vol 22, No 3, 2007, pp 89-95.

Google book search settlement: The Association of American Publishers (AAP) reports that a groundbreaking settlement has been reached in the US, after two years of negotiation to settle two class actions brought against Google.

Indigenous education

2008-11-03T12:10:00.002+11:00

Curriculum wisdom from the elders, Principal Matters, Winter 2008, pp12-13.

Helping indigenous children manage grief and loss, Every child, Vol 14, No 3, 2008, p11.

Special education - focus on ADHD

2008-11-03T12:06:00.004+11:00

Language deficits in ADHD preschoolers, Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties, Vol 13, No 1, May, 2008, 39-49.

Are schools meeting the needs of students with ADHD? Australasian Journal of Special Education, vol 32, No 2. Sept 2008, pp 187-198

Latest journal articles from hardcopy journals

2008-09-15T09:31:00.004+10:00

iPod spirituality, Presence, vol 14, no 3 Sep 2008, p6-9.
Technology changes the way we do things, sometimes in suprising ways. It can even change the way we practice our spirituality.

Making partnership real, EQ, Spring 2008, p6-7.
Discusses how culture of the school can be altered to reduce parental hostility, stimulate parents personal development and help to build community capacity and social capital.

The bullying that follows you home, EQ, Spring 2008, p24-26.
Bullying had evolved and the age old threats experienced from playgrounds and school buses now extend to mobile phones and computer screens.

Young children and bullying, Every Child, vol 14, No 3, 2008, p 22-23.

Authenticity in a virtual world, EQ winter 2008, p11-12
In light of the increasing pervasiveness of the internet Tom Hoerr makes the case that focusing on developing Emotional intelligence must become a school priority and should be an integral part of student assessment and faculty development

Encouraging teenagers to read - reigniting some good ideas, info@aslnsw, Issue 3 2008, p6-7.

Learning for Leadership, Teacher, Sep 2008, p 11-15.
Learning leaders need to have guiding conceptions of school leadership. But there are numerous ways that leadership can be described.

Pedagogy

2008-08-11T12:18:00.001+10:00

Blended learning : tools for teaching and training
Barbara Allan.
2007.

Teaching boys : developing classroom practices that work.
Amanda Keddie & Martin Mills.
2007.

Literacy

2008-08-11T12:13:00.002+10:00

Teens, technology and literacy, or, Why bad grammar isn't always bad
Linda W. Braun.
2007.

Guided reading [kit] : years 1-4.
Learning Media
2002.

Conversations with a poet : inviting poetry into K-12 classrooms
Betsy Franco.
c2005.

Technology

2008-08-11T12:02:00.004+10:00

iMovie '08 & iDVD : The missing manual
David Pogue.
2007.

The little Mac book X
Robin Williams.
2008.

Mac OS X Leopard : the missing manual
David Pogue.
2007.

Photoshop CS3 : one-on-one
Deke McClelland.
2007.

Teach yourself visually Mac OS X Leopard
Lynette Kent.
2007.

Library

2008-08-11T11:55:00.003+10:00

Get connected : tech programs for teens
RoseMary Honnold
c2007.

A handbook for media librarians
Katharine Schopflin.
2008.

Leadership : the challenge for the information profession
Sue Roberts and Jennifer Rowley.
2008.

The library in the twenty-first century
Peter Brophy.
c2007.

Making search work: implementing web, intranet and enterprise search
Martin White
c2007

Organizing information from the shelf to the web
G G Chowdhury and Sudatta Chowdhury
c2007

Information Literacy

2008-08-11T11:46:00.004+10:00

Information literacy meets library 2.0
Peter Godwin and Jo Parker.
2008.

Learning to learn : a guide to becoming information literate in the 21st century
Ann Marlow Riedling.
2006.

Reading

2008-07-03T16:57:00.005+10:00

Corrective reading:an evidence-based remedial reading intervention, Australasian Journal of Special Education, Vol 32, No 1, Apr 2008. pp 23-54.

Reading and Identity: the google generation, Literacy Learning: the middle years, vol 16, No 2, Jun 2008,pp 53-58.

The assessment of reading comprehension difficulties for reading intervention, Australian Journal of Learning difficulties, vol 13, No 1, May 2008, 51-62

Archery of reading, Access, Vol 22, Iss 2, 2008, pp 9-26.

Improving and sustaining literacy throught pedagogical change and the SALT project, Practically Primary, Vol 13, No 2, Jun 2008, pp18-19

Religious education

2008-07-03T16:57:00.002+10:00

Getting time and space for prayer, Momentum, Apr/May 2008, pp 40-43.

Developing a pyramid of intervention: a framework for assisting students who do not meet minimum academic standards, Principal matters, Winter 2008, pp26-31.

Implementing systemic reforms in a challenging context: developing effective RE curriculum for 21st century leaders, Journal of Religious Education Vol 56 (2) 2008, pp46-50.

Occupational Health and Safety

2008-07-03T16:51:00.000+10:00

OHAS
Don’t let teaching cripple you, how to avoid back pain in the classroom, Teacher, May 2008, pp 28-29.

Voice care for teachers [DVD], 2007. Available to borrow from the TLRU.

Digital education

2008-06-12T14:03:00.002+10:00

A disturbing domain: discussed the growing phenomenon of cyber-bullying and outlines what teachers can do to address it., Education review, vol 18, No 3, May 2008.

Authenticity in a virtual world, EQ Australia, Winter 2008, p11-12.

Menace or motivator: students have educational needs in mathematics that can potentially be met by interactive, educational activities on mobile phones. EQ Australia, Winter 2008, p41-42.

EQ Australia Winter 2008 edition special edition on education in a digital/virtual world.

Mathematics

2008-06-12T13:36:00.003+10:00

Why kids don’t like maths, Directions in Education, Vol 17, no 4, 14 Mar 2008, p4.

Engaging students in purposeful mathematics, Reflections, Vol 33, No 1, Feb 2008, pp 28-30.

Reflections on learning number: a new approach to percentages, Reflections, Vol 33, No 1, Feb 2008, pp 15-18.

Problem solving support for English language learners, Teaching Children Mathematics, Vol 14, No 8, April 2008, pp479-484.

Information literacy and libraries

2008-06-12T13:32:00.001+10:00

Practice makes perfect: improving student research skills through evidence-based practice, Jonathon Heard, Access, vol 22 Issue 1, 2008, pp15-21.

The Australian collaboration free web educational resources, Access, vol 22 Issue 1, 2008, pp 9-13.

Finding what you're looking for: a reader-centred approach to the classification of adult fiction in public libraries, Australina library journal, Vol 57, No 2, May 2008, pp 169-177.

Leadership

2008-06-12T11:53:00.004+10:00

We do make a difference: shared moral purpose and shared leadership in the pursuit of learning, Michael Bezzina, Leading and Managing, Vol 14, No 1 Autumn/winter 2008, pp 38-59.

Shared leadership: building productive relationships, Teacher, May 2008, pp52-55.

Imagining school leadership. Professional Educator Vol 7 No 2 June 2008, pp 16-21.

Numeracy blocks

2008-05-05T12:58:00.001+10:00

Researching Numeracy Teaching Approaches in Primary Schools
action plans
http://www.dest.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/048F6AEA-FDEA-4138-A2B3-3C917103299F/4541/Appendix_2.pdf

ELNO - Balanced Numeracy

http://www.det.act.gov.au/teaching_and_learning/literacy_and_numeracy/early_literacy_and_numeracy_officers_elno/elno_-_balanced_numeracy

Numeracy block - sample

http://scnumeracyplan.wikispaces.com/Numeracy+Block+-+Sample

TC491 Learning and Teaching Mathematics:
lesson planning

http://uob-community.ballarat.edu.au/~jomeara/pete/GDE/Lesson%20Plan-%20Mathematics.doc

Refugees

2008-05-05T12:46:00.004+10:00

Planning the learning environment for refugee background students, PEN 162, pp 1-8.

The following book is available:
A guide to working with young people who are refugees,: strategies for providing individual counseling and group work, The Victoria Foundation for Survivors of Torture, Inc, Parkville, Victoria, 1996.

Digital education

2008-05-05T12:43:00.000+10:00

Ten tips for Digital movie-making, NSWCEG newsletter, Term 1, 2008, p 2.

Student perceptions of IWB’s as a teaching and learning medium, Australian Educational Computing, Vol22, No 2, Dec 2007, pp 10-15.

Through the maze: social bookmarking for a real network, Professional Educator, Vol 7, No 1, Apr 2008.

Mathematics

2008-05-05T11:38:00.001+10:00

Connecting classrooms: the NSW Department of Education and Training (DET) has developed a range of learning objects to support the teaching of mathematics k-6 syllabus, EQ Australia, Autumn 2008, pp 46-48..

Making research accessible: essential mathematics research, essential mathematics practice, Square One, Vol 17, No 4, Dec 2007. pp9-12.

Virtual manipulatives on the interactive whiteboard, APMC, Vol 13, No 1, 2008, pp 9-14.

Creating or selecting intervention programs, NCTM bulletin, Mar 2008, p 4.

Searching for the right answers (exploration of need to develop maths programs to meet the needs of the indigenous community, EQ, Autumn 2008, pp 24-26.

Websites:
Investigating learning objects in Mathematics K-6

http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/primary/mathematics/k6/learningobjects/index.htm

Mathematics intervention resources website
www.nctm.org/intervention.aspx

Assessment

2008-05-05T11:34:00.003+10:00

Using assessment data to enhance you reading program, Connected Newsletter, Mar 2008, pp4-6.

The following book is available for loan:
Transformative assessment
James Popham
ASCD: Alexandria VA, 2008

"This book is the place to start for educators considering formative assessment, curious about why their school system is embracing formative assessment, or wondering why the "formative assessments" they're using aren't producing the desired results."

Religious education

2008-05-05T11:33:00.001+10:00

Making god known, loved, and served: the future of catholic primary and secondary schools in the United States, Catholic Education: A journal of inquiry and practice, Vol 11, No 3, Mar 2008, pp 276-312.

Teaching and Learning

2008-05-05T11:32:00.001+10:00

Motivational pedagogy: locking in the learning, The Australian Educational Leader, Vol 30, Number 1, 2008, pp 22- 27

K-12 education
P-16 Education – Special issue on the potential effects of a vertically integrated education system, Phi Delta Kappan, March 2008

Professional learning

2008-05-05T11:31:00.002+10:00

Reflect and learn, Teacher, April 2008, pp 36-37.

Special education

2008-05-05T11:29:00.000+10:00

‘Meeting initial needs in literacy’ (MINILIT): A ramp to MultiLIT for younger low-progress readers, Australian Journal of Learning Disabilities, Vol 12, No 2, 2008, pp 67-72.

Asperger’s coming out of our ears: making sense of a modern epidemic, ANZJFT, Vol 29, No 1, Mar 2008, pp1-9.

Planning the learning environment for refugee background students, PEN 162, pp 1-8.

Literacy

2008-05-05T11:27:00.000+10:00

‘Meeting initial needs in literacy’ (MINILIT): A ramp to MultiLIT for younger low-progress readers, Australian Journal of Learning Disabilities, Vol 12, No 2, 2008, pp 67-72.

Using assessment data to enhance you reading program, Connected Newsletter, Mar 2008, pp4-6.

Leadership/Principalship

2008-03-14T10:03:00.004+11:00

Books
Launching your first principalship :a guide for beginning principals /Barbara L. Brock, Marilyn L. Grady.
Thousand Oaks, Calif. ; [London] :Corwin, c2004.

From first-year to first-rate :principals guiding beginning teachers /Barbara L. Brock, Marilyn L. Grady.
Thousand Oaks, CA :Corwin Press,2007.

Avoiding burnout :a principal's guide to keeping the fire alive /Barbara L. Brock & Marilyn L. Grady.
Thousand Oaks, Calif. :Corwin Press, 2002.

Journal articles
"Living on barbed wire": Resilient women administrators in educational leadership programs, EAQ, Vol 44, No 1, Feb 2008, pp3-29.

Identifying future leaders with potential, Principal matters, Autumn 2008, p12-15.

Religious education

2008-03-14T09:53:00.002+11:00

Books
Cornerstones of Catholic secondary religious education :bprinciples and practice of the new evangelisation /Kath Engebretson ... [et al.].
Terrigal, N.S.W. : David Barlow Publishing,2008.

An introduction to Catholic education :current perspectives /Michael T. Buchanan, Richard Rymarz.
Terrigal, N.S.W. : David Barlow Publishing,2008.

The Australian Muslim student /Manar Chelebi ; edited by Kath Engebretson.
Terrigal, N.S.W. : David Barlow Publishing, 2008.

Journal articles
Ethics in a global world,: the Earth Charter and religious education, British Journal of Religious education, Vol 30, No 2, p165-170

elearning

2008-03-14T09:43:00.003+11:00

Books
Seven steps to ICT integration /cMargaret Robertson, Ivan Webb, Andrew Fluck.
Camberwell, Vic. :ACER,c2007.

Journal articles
Digital movie making in the library, Scan, Vol 27, No 1, Feb 2008., p14-15,
Demystifying web 2.0 technologies, Scan, Vol 27, No 1, Feb 2008., p16-19
Wikis - can they be useful for learning, PEEL seeds, No 96, pp37-43.
New technologies and literacy development, Directions in Education, Vol 17, No 1 25 January 2008, p1-2.

Educational innovation

2008-03-14T09:35:00.003+11:00

Books
Jousting for the new generation : challenges to contemporary schooling David Loader ; with contributions from Amanda McGraw and Mary Mason.
Camberwell, Vic. :bACER,c2007.

Journal articles
From chalkboard to keyboard. Technology innovation advance the evolution of Australian classrooms. Teacher, March 2008, p4-6.

Sudanese and other refugees' educational needs

2008-03-04T14:50:00.007+11:00

EBSCO full text articles
The following article is available from our eResources database via Staffnet for the staff of CEO Parramatta Diocese. Call Lisa at the Teaching and Learning Resource Centre on 9677 4344 for more details.

ESL resources failing African refugees , The Australian, 4 November 2005.

Internet resources/articles

The following internet resources can be accessed by clicking on the hyperlinks for each title.

Sudanese education project report

The Educational Background of Sudanese Refugees: A quick guide for Australian teachers, by Rebecca Atwell

Cultural and linguistic diversity: issues for schools

Hopes fulfilled or dreams shattered. Centre for Refugee Research University of NSW.

Course offers workplace awareness training for young refugee people

Muir, D. (2003). English and literacy teaching and learning strategies for newly arrived humanitarian refugee students from Sudan. Sudanese Australian Integrated Learning (SAIL) Progr

Sudanese Australian Integrated Learning (SAIL) Program website

References to books, book chapters and articles

Please contact Lisa at the Teaching Learning Resource Unit on 9677 4344 if you require any of the following books or articles.

Anderson, A. (2004). Issues of Migration. In R. Hamilton & D. Moore, Educational Interventions for Refugee Children: Theoretical perspectives and implementing best practice.
London: Routledeg Falmer.
(in press) Brown, Miller, J. & Mitchell, J. African refugees with interrupted schooling in the high school mainstream: ‘always at the back’. (Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 2006)
Carrasquillo, A. & Rodríguez, V. (2002). Language minority students in the classroom. 2nd Edition. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Carrasquillo, A. Kucer, S. & Abrams, R. (2004) Beyond the Beginnings: Literacy Interventions for Upper Elementary English Language Learners. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Miller, J., Mitchell, J. & Brown, J. (2005) African refugees with interrupted schooling in the high school mainstream: dilemmas for teachers.
Prospect: An Australian Journal of TESOL, 20 (2), 19-33.
West Coast AMES (2002). Teaching to learn: Exploring alternative teaching strategies for oral/aural learners. Australian National Training Authority Adult Literacy National Project.
Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.
Westwood, P. (2001) Reading and learning difficulties: Approaches to teaching and assessment. Victoria, Aust.: ACER Press.
(2004) Social Languages and Schooling: The uptake of sociocultural perspectives in school. In Hawkins, M. (Ed). Social and cultural approaches to language learning and teaching,
and teacher education. Clevedon UK: Multilingual Matters.
(2003) Identity and language use: The politics of speaking in schools. In Pavlenko, A. & Blackledge, A. (Eds) Negotiation of identity in multilingual contexts (Clevedon UK: Multilingual Matters).

Mathematics

2008-02-11T13:30:00.000+11:00

Integrating mathematics and social issues, Mathematics teaching in the middle school, Vol 13, No 5, Dec 2007, pp270-275.

Recognizing students emerging algebraic strategies, Mathematics teaching in the middle school, Vol 13, No 5, Dec 2007, pp 278-282.

Division by a fraction: assessing understanding through problem writing, Mathematics teaching in the middle school, Vol 13, No 6, Feb 2008, pp 326-332.

Integrating content to creat problem-solving opportunities, Mathematics teaching in the middle school,Vol 13, No 6, Feb 2008, pp 352-360.