Handy Weblinks for Teachers & Students

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/QR-codes-teaching-andrew-miller

https://besthistorysites.net/ancient-biblical-history/general-resources/

https://www.bighistoryproject.com/home

https://www.abc.net.au/education/#!/home

Above are a few weblinks that may be helpful for either teachers or students.  Two are history based and the other is our ABC education page - which covers a large range of materials.  Check them out if you have a free moment or two.  There is also a link with 12 Ideas for teaching with QR Codes.  

Some 'Days' to celebrate

March 3rd is World Maths Day, is a chance to put your skills to the test, practice math skills and to get involved in a worldwide event that celebrates the history of maths.  This is a competition run through Mathletics. 

https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/world-maths-day/

March 20th is World Story Telling Day, where you can celebrate the art of oral storytelling.  It's also a day for people around the globe to listen to, and tell stories in as many different languages as possible.  Most of us go through the day engaging in oral storytelling without even realising that we are doing so.  Have you made up a bedtime story for your child?  Told a friend about your most embarrassing moment? or retold a childhood memory with a sibling?  These are all oral storytelling examples. 

https://nationaldaycalendar.com/world-storytelling-day-march-20/

World Poetry Day is 21st March.  This is a day to encourage people to read, write, teach and publish poetry, and to recognise the amazing cultural contribution poetry makes to the human society.  Poetry is another form of story telling, and has been used for centuries to pass along knowledge, history and information.  The ancient Bards travelled around the countries, taking their stories, in verse format, to share.

https://observances.global/world-poetry-day/

(Oh, and February 14th is Library Lovers Day - just saying!)   😉

Happy Wattle Day 2020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wattle_Day

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-01/wattle-day-celebrating-110th-anniversary-and-growing-prominence/12574654

http://www.wattleday.asn.au/for-schools/songs/WattleDaySong

http://www.wattleday.asn.au/about-wattle-day/2020-week-of-the-wattle-around-australia-1

About 110 years ago, saw the first Wattle Day celebrations - and although we don't hear much about it, in pockets and corners of our country, they are still happening.  

The popularity of Wattle Day surged during World War 1, when sprigs of wattle were sold to raise funds for organisations such as the Red Cross - and wattles covered the first monument to World War 1 when it was unveiled by the Governor-General on September 7th, 1915.

Wattle and Wattle Day can symbolise pretty much anything we want, but they relate pretty generally to: Spring, being Australian, the Australian environment, and history. Spring has many positive values such as optimism, bounty and abundance, reliability, colour, new life and so on. We can celebrate our 'Australianness' on Wattle Day in quite a different way from Anzac Day, which in recalling past wars glorifies Australian qualities of courage and mateship. 

Wattle Day, by contrast, looks forward (to Spring) and can celebrate the nation's genuine qualities of good humour, fairness, generosity, informality and democracy.  

It could be argued that a celebration of 'Australianness' symbolised by wattle, the popular national floral emblem, combined with a celebration of the coming of Spring could be a very special occasion every year. An added attraction is that Wattle Day dates back more than eighty years and is a part of Australia's history.

It may be time to bring Wattle Day back again - and to celebrate Australia rather than a myriad of festivals from other countries around the globe? 

Wattle has been regarded as the flower of Australia partly due to the fact that at any given time of the year, somewhere in Australia, a wattle will be blooming.

History, Coronavirus and Us

https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-with-covid-19-tech-is-making-history-repeat-itself/

https://www.businessinsider.com/pandemics-that-changed-the-course-of-human-history-coronavirus-flu-aids-plague?r=AU&IR=T

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-01/coronavirus-regional-health-risk-factors/12088072

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Australia

At this particular point in time, it appears that we are all part of an event that will quite likely change our lives and our society forever. 

Few things in our lives will rival this event. It’s going to leave a deep impression on a multitude of people, especially our kids. But, however we may panic or stress, we have to acknowledge something quite remarkable — we are, right now, part of a history-making moment.
  

The impacts on our culture are already happening, from the many cancelled events - entertainment, sports or even simply family activities. The issues with the world's economy and so much more.  All lessons to be learned that probably should have been learned long before.  A good look at us as a society - and it isn't always a pretty picture, is it?

But this is only the beginning. This is much too big an event not to fire the imagination or creativity of the human mind.  Like most other historic events, there will be a “before” and an “after” COVID-19. It’s hard to take it all in stride, but we should pay close attention to the “during” because we’re living in this moment, the now — the big and the small of it all.  

So maybe we should stay focused on what is actually happening? Pay attention because we’re all living in this moment. Be in the moment. We’ll be telling our kids and grandkids about this — and when we do, maybe it’ll be because they’ll be asking us, “Was it just like it was in that movie? Or in that book? Or in that song?”

And - we’ll know, because we were there!   

Resource websites that may be of use

Below are a few weblinks that cover a range of  subjects and ideas and may be of use somewhere along the line.  Check them out and see what you think. 

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/55327/how-hands-on-projects-can-deepen-math-learning-for-teens

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/55393/five-apps-students-can-use-to-make-podcasts

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/ca/books/bkf3/imaps/    (interactive History maps)

https://education.abc.net.au/home#!/home

http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/1538       

http://www.eslgamesplus.com/fun-games/     (Printable board games)         

Big History Project Weblink

Check out the Weblink below on the Big History Project.  
This is free - and includes easily accessible lessons which are updated regularly and highly customisable.  It advertises itself as:  13.8 Billion years of History!  Free!  Online!  Awesome!

Take a few minutes and have a look - see if it is as good as it claims.  

https://school.bighistoryproject.com/bhplive

History and Lies

Check out this link from the Mindshift blog about history, lies and how history could be possibly be used as a weapon.  Thought provoking or what?

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/51857/lies-my-teacher-told-me-and-how-american-history-can-be-used-as-a-weapon

Australian History as Fiction

Another new title for our shelves - this one is part of the My Australian Story series which are historical novels for older children.  Each book is written in the style of a fictional diary of a young person living during an important time period or an event that happened during Australian history.  

We already have a number on the shelves, dealing with subjects such as Ballarat goldfields, Bombing of Darwin, Cyclone Tracy and this new one is about the Snowy River Scheme.


Blurb:
Eva Fischer has moved to Cabramurra, the highest town in Australia. Eva feels on top of the world too. Surrounded by people of every nationality, Eva makes new friends and tries strange foreign food - such as pizza. Eva learns to ski and ride, and even learns that being half German isn't so bad after all. But all around her, momentous things are happening. The Snowy Mountains Scheme is underway, huge dams have been built, tunnels constructed, homes abandoned, people lost...

 They are a great series, well written and suck you into the story.  Well worth a read.

New magazines

We have changed some of the subscriptions to the magazines in the Library.  There are a few new ones coming in and a few that were not being used have been deleted. Doing our best here to keep the collection current and interesting for everyone.

Added to the collection is:  'Hyper', which is a gaming magazine along with "Histricool', 'Vegie Patch' and also 'Wacky but True'. 
Amazingly, Tennant Creek even gets a mention in the 'Wacky but True' magazine - come and check it out!

History and Holidays

I came across this on the Teacher Librarian listserv the other day and thought I would put up the link as it may catch someone's interest.

Some of the data was interesting in how things have changed over the years.  From the days of books chained to the shelves to todays mobile libraries being delivered on phones and computers which requires little effort, it is a whole new ball game out there.

Most of our work now isn't about guarding shelves of dusty tomes, as well as being decapitated and ripped to pieces on the steps of the library while defending it - but about finding, curating and providing access to all sorts of information.

I am not sure whether to be nostalgic or relieved......

http://librarysciencelist.com/libraries-of-the-future-visualization/

Wishing you all a safe and happy 4 week school holidays. 

Digital Resources and Information

Below are a couple of links to some more Web 2.0 tools that may come in handy. 

The first is a link from the Resource Hound blog.  This time it is for Interactive History Maps.   They start with Pre-History, such as the Continental Drift Theory and end with the  Roman Empire.  They have a good audio and easy to follow instructions
http://theresourcehound.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/interactive-history-maps/

Dropbox is a free service that enables you to bring your photos, documents and videos anywhere and share them easily.  You will never have to email yourself a file again.  I use this one myself quite a bit if I have to work on things at home.  It also has the capabilities to allow you to collaborate on things with colleagues. 
This is cloud computing - so remember to BACK IT ALL UP on your computer.  Don't just rely on the cloud to take care of it or you may be in for a nasty suprise. Of course, this is also sheer common sense.
https://www.dropbox.com/

Content Curation is something has always occurred in schools - resources were gathered around the topic being taught to help explain and to expand student's understanding.  The difference is that previously it was always 'hard' content - books, posters, kits etc while nowadays there is a huge wealth of digital resources.  Many of these are often found while searching for something else and often cannot be located when needed.  This blog article offers 6 different methods or tools to help you to collect, collate and share what you have found.  Curation is about collecting, but it is also about explaining, illustrating, bringing in different points of view and updating the view as it changes.
http://resourcelinkbce.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/6-ways-to-keep-track-of-digital-information-a-resolution-for-2013/

Enjoy.