edna.edu.au

edna for schools is an edna newsletter published fortnightly during the Australian school year.
The newsletter calendar is available at http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/schooled/schools_news/pid/210

Theme - Christmas
Diary dates
KLA focus - Multiculturalism
Getting to know edna
Opportunities
Featured sites
News from our sponsors
Recently added resources
Just for fun

Newsletter theme: Christmas

Christmas seems to come upon us very quickly, at a time when teachers have many other things to do to. edna has compiled a collection of quality Christmas themed resources. The theme page is available at: http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/schooled/school_theme_pages/christmas

Diary dates

St Nicholas' Day, 6 December 2008
http://url.edna.edu.au/63SV

Summer Solstice, 21 December 2008
http://url.edna.edu.au/UxxG

Chanukah, 22 December 2008
http://url.edna.edu.au/nyub  

Conferences and events in Australia

Early Years Learning Framework consultations, 2 December 2008 - NSW
http://url.edna.edu.au/V8eV

Early Years Learning Framework consultations, 12 December 2008 - VIC
http://url.edna.edu.au/ZPgV

View all conferences and events listed with edna:
http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/events

Conferences and Events Overseas
http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/events/pid/2015

Early Childhood Events
http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/ece/ece_events

Online Conferences and Events
http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/events/pid/2016

KLA focus - Multiculturalism

edna’s multiculturalism theme page presents a collection of resources within the edna repository related to global education. These resources are available at:
http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/schooled/school_theme_pages/multicultural

Getting to know edna

To help with planning, the 2009 Australian Schools Calendar is now available for download in Word format:
http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/course/view.php?id=834. 
The printed version of the Calendar will be mailed to schools in January 2009.

Opportunities

2009 Young Gourmet Le Cordon Bleu farm to table challenge
http://www.younggourmet.com
The challenge is for school teams to grow, produce, package, market and sell regional, international or cultural food created using traditional artisan growing or production methods. There are a number of required tasks which can align with curriculum from all key learning areas. Competition materials can be downloaded from the website.

National Science Olympiads - Registration open
http://www.aso.edu.au/www/index.cfm
The Australian Science Olympiads provide students with opportunities to enhance their knowledge, understanding and skill in Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

Educational Lending Right: School library survey
http://www1.curriculum.edu.au/scis/partnerships/elr.htm
Did you receive the Educational Lending Right (ELR) school library survey package at the beginning of term 4?
If your school was selected for this year’s survey please complete the survey and send or email the results to ELR as soon as possible.  By running the survey on your library automation system and sending in the results, you are contributing to the cultural program set up by the Australian government to provide financial support to Australian authors, illustrators, translators, compilers, editors and publishers.

Featured sites

OzProjects - December celebrations around the world
http://www.ozprojects.edu.au/course/view.php?id=51
This project has been created as place to share information and link to useful resources about December celebrations around the world. The project includes an online quiz, a link to Kerpoof Studio with an OzProjects log in so that we can create a gallery of pictures and links to many quality interactive resources about Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, St Lucia's Day, Ramadan and Japanese New Year. Most of the resources are suitable for use on an interactive whiteboard. The project also encourages students and teachers to add information about their own December celebrations to a shared glossary.

EnhanceTV – The Christmas tradition
http://www.enhancetv.com.au/shop/product.php?productid=12668727&cat=0&page=2
Suitable for primary students, this feature article explores the history and symbolism of Christmas. People from different cultures celebrate differently, with the article detailing various festivals from around the world.

News from our sponsors

InspirED
http://www.inspired.edu.au/
InspirED is a collaborative initiative between Education.au and the Australian, State and Territory school education jurisdictions to deliver quarterly email newsletters, one in each school term, to teachers, school leaders and education administrators around the use of ICT in teaching and learning. The newsletters will provide information about recent developments in ICT in education, and innovation in Australia's education jurisdictions.
The current issue of inspirED features articles about interactive whiteboards, cyber safety, and integrating e-learning into the curriculum, among others. Subscribe for a chance to win an 8GB iPod Nano.

Screen Australia
http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au
Why not have a look at DIY Doco whilst planning your next year's teaching? DIY Doco is a website that engages students in the creative process of documentary story telling. The site is inquiry based offering students the 'tools' for discovering documentary. The initiative assists with the development of media literacy skills that can be carried across a range of texts. Explore DIY Doco at:
www.screenaustralia.gov.au/learning/diydoco

Recently added resources

Additions to School Education
http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/schooled/pid/17
This feature at edna allows visitors to check what has been added to the edna repository recently. The link above relates to additions to the school education part of the repository. For additions to the whole repository use http://url.edna.edu.au/wfsU

Australian sites

Your Money Starter
http://www.fido.gov.au/yourmoneystarter
Your Money Starter has been designed to enhance financial literacy. The recently added ‘Insurance and Super: a financial literacy resource for secondary schools’, which includes interactive online games, is currently being distributed to every secondary school in Australia.
 
Making the grade: school report cards and league tables
http://www.cis.org.au/issue_analysis/IA103/ia103.pdf
This paper examines the school report cards scheme being considered by the Australian government and recommends a balanced approach to performance incentives for Australian schools.

International sites

Google Earth – Rome
http://earth.google.com/rome/
Google Earth has recently launched Ancient Rome in 3D.  In the Ancient Rome 3D layer you see Rome as it looked in 320 A.D., tour buildings, visit sites and learn about how the Romans lived.

Kids Down Under
http://www.gigglepotz.com/caustralia.htm
The Kids Down Under project allows participants to submit writings and photos about what it is to be a child in Australia.

Just for fun

Rain Deer Orchestra
http://dingo.care2.com/cards/new/0422/Do-a-rain-deer.swf
Squash the Reindeer noses to play a Christmas tune!

This newsletter will be the last newsletter for 2008.  A new look newsletter is planned for the beginning of the new academic year. To receive the new look edna for schools newsletter in 2009, please email any new subscription details to jcarter@educationau.edu.au

The edna for schools newsletter does not seek to be comprehensive or authoritative and views expressed here are not necessarily the views of edna's stakeholders.

Send your contributions to news-editor@edna.edu.au. Contributors are advised to read the edna for schools - guidelines.
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