June 29

A new blog to support Book Week

In association with the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s NSW Branch, teacher librarians Ian McLean and Jackie Hawkes have set up a blog to help students to explore the 2016 CBCA Book of the Year Awards, the “Notable books”, Short List, Honour Books and gold-medal winners, and to support CBCA NSW initiatives, such as the Kids AAA event.

Kids AAA blog

Check it out at: HERE.

August 11

Resources from the PD day

In this blog entry, you can quickly locate the digital resources used by the presenters at our Term 3 professional learning day, held on Monday 10th August (Week 5).

* Progressing with Oliver:
Research Projects – Evidence of how Oliver and Orbit are supporting student learning
(A) Primary: Julie Grazotis (Banks PS – their Oliver ClassMovie is linked HERE) and Ian McLean (Penrith PS).
(B) Secondary: Jenny Dengate (Glenmore Park HS) & Lolita Garcia (Richmond HS).

* STEPS Book Forum – Engaging your school learning community: Julie Grazotis (Banks PS) – Click down to Page 2 of the PDF.

* CBCA Update: Jackie Hawkes & Honor White (CBCA NSW representatives)

Book Week poster
Ian demonstrates the phone app that brings this year’s CBCA poster alive!

* Promoting reading through dynamic author/illustrator visits: Jenny Scheffers (Caddies Creek PS)

* Website of our Guest Author: Randa Abdel-Fattah (Click on the hyperlink).

Randa Abdel-Fattah
Randa Abdel-Fattah

May 15

Integrating Inquiry Learning and Web 2.0 Technologies into the Australian Curriculum

PMBW Logo

Registrations Closing Soon!

Thank you to those members who have already registered. Just a reminder that online registration for our Term 2 Conference with Lyn Hay is now open. Registration is through Syba Signs – (not MyPL). You can view information about the conference and register online at
www.sybaacademy.com.au/BookingRetrieve.aspx?ID=275822

Alternatively you may wish to print off the attached day’s program and registration form and fax your registration. When registering either online or using the downloadable PDF registration form, please select the box to indicate that you are a member of the partner PMBW organisation. This will ensure you receive the discounted registration cost of $135 (plus GST).

You are more than welcome to bring a teaching colleague, however the cost to the colleague will be $199 (NOT the PMBW discounted price).

You may indicate that you would like an invoice to be sent rather than pay up front. The venue is the Novotel at Parramatta (previously known as The Sebel). Delegate numbers are strictly limited so please be early with your registration!

The PMBW Committee, in partnership with SybaSigns Academy, look forward to sharing in a most exciting and rewarding day of professional learning and networking!

Jenny Scheffers (Teacher Librarian, Caddies Creek PS)
Chairperson
Penrith, Mt Druitt, Blacktown and Windsor Teacher Librarian Professional Learning Group

Lorraine Baxter (Teacher Librarian, Werrington County PS)

June 19

Our site’s QR code

About a year ago, TLs started hearing references to QR codes, and you might have noticed the distinctive, square barcodes turning up on advertising posters, business cards and websites. The committee did a little further investigation. After uploading a recommended QR code app, such as I-nigma, from iTunes QR codes certainly seem to have some clever possibilities:

QRCode
PMBW TL professional learning group

Hopefully, you’ll start seeing the above graphic appearing on our group’s correspondence. Try it with a QR app and it should lead you to this blog’s URL. Generate your favourite URLs using:

QRCode
QR codes Kaywa generator

November 22

PD day minutes

Tuesday 8 November 2011 – St Clair PS
Teacher Librarian: Susan Burke
Welcome: Mrs Judy Loader (Principal St Clair P.S)
Thank you to everyone for attending, Thank you to Susan and staff, Enjoy the day in St Clair’s library.

Welcome & General Business: Jenny Scheffers (Chairperson PMBW Committee)
Acknowledgement of traditional custodians
Thank you to TLs for attending
Housekeeping matters – Susan
Welcome and thank you to the presenters
Welcome and thank you to the sponsors for their attendance and donation of lucky door prizes
Thank you to Syba Signs (not in attendance) for donating lucky door prizes in return for circulating their brochure
Thank you to author Aleesah Darlison for donating two of her books for prizes
Folder contains the following documents: Agenda and Evaluation Form and Syba Signs brochure
Meeting venues 2012
Term 1 Afternoon Tea meeting – Ian McLean (Penrith PS)
Attendance by Lizzie Chase to promote courses available
Term 2 Professional Development Day – Sue Pitt (Plumpton HS) or Alison Johnson (Cambridge Park HS)
Term 3 Afternoon Tea meeting – Catherine Cattermole (James Erskine PS)
Term 4 Professional Development Day – ? Conference year
Next committee meeting – 23 November at Penrith Panthers 3.45pm – approx 5.00pm. Meetings alternate between Penrith Panthers and Blacktown Sports Club. New committee members are welcome. Speak to a committee member if in need of more information.
Badge draw at the end of the day – prizes donated by sponsors
Please complete the Evaluation sheet.

Guest Speakers: Leonie Wittman (Project Leader, Learning Design, CLIC) & Colleen Blancato (CLIC)
Cyber Safety/Digital Citizenship Introduction
Instigated due to the roll out of laptops to students and DEC opening social networks to students after school hours – led to a pilot program for students in Year 10 ‘Staying Safe Online’
This year program has expanded K – 10
Resources made available to schools for students, staff and parents.
Digital Citizenship PowerPoint Presentation
You are a Digital Citizen if you use the internet to comment on things seen or read, research, shop online etc
Students spend a significant amount of time online. Need to be a safe and responsible user of the internet.

Social networking is an important part of young people’s life. 97% of generation Y have joined a social network.
DER team developed six domains of Digital Citizenship (DC). These domains provided guidelines for producing resources.
Digital conduct – learn how to conduct yourself responsibly
Consider your digital footprint
Stay safe in online relationships – recognise and report inappropriate conduct
Maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle when learning
Stay within the law while working and socialising online
Appropriately manage money and shopping online
Domain themes – Cyber Safety and Cyber Bullying
Digital Citizenship website – to go live at the end of the month and includes three sections
Primary (K-6) a series of 11 lessons
Secondary (7 -10) a series of 18 lessons
Information for parents
www.digitalcitizenship.nsw.edu.au
Lessons are also available through TaLe at www.tale.edu.au
Developed under copyright licence – NEALS and Creative Commons, includes games and videos
Teachers – online course available through MyPL – New Scheme registered
DC will be included in the Australian Curriculum
How schools choose to implement the program is up to them
Developed Resources – units of work are aligned to Syllabus Outcomes where appropriate Themes are revisited and developed through the stages
ES1 – One unit developed ‘Be Aware Before You Share’ – includes activities and teacher’s notes
S1
S2 – Four units of work plus Smart Notebook resources
S3 – Units of work covering net nasties, netiquette, Cyber Charter, Copyright and Plagiarism. Includes activities and videos and links to Web 2 tools.
S4 – Learning activities cross subject areas – focus on DC / Netiquette
S5 – Topics include Digital Footprint, Friend or Spend, eIssues, Careers Online, File sharing and Dash4cache.

Guest Speaker: Robin Morrow (International Board on Books for Young People)
Mirrors and Windows: Why IBBY is important
Robin Morrow – National President of IBBY
IBBY founded in Zurich, Switzerland in 1953
There are now 70 sections of IBBY throughout the world
Promote Australian authors and illustrators to the world and world books to Australia
Belief that every child has the right to become a reader and have access to quality books
Programs include the Hans Christian Andersen awards, International Children’s Book Day, Children in Crisis (working with children affected by disasters) and IBBY Honour List
Celebrate International Children’s Book Day on 2nd April (Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday). Ideas for activities will be found on the website
Mirrors and windows – one child’s mirror is another child’s window
Looking to expand membership base – no longer a subgroup of ALIA
Membership subscription – $25 Individual membership, $100 Institutional membership
Further information about IBBY – www.ibby.org” or IBBY Australia at ibbyaustralia.worpress.com

Sponsors Presentations
Dominie
Cambridge University Press

Guest Speakers: Phil Knight (ICT Consultant K-12, Sydney West Region, Nirimba Education Precinct. Colleen Blancato (CLIC). Laureen Sheppard (Teacher Librarian Katoomba HS)
BlogED found on DET Portal under My Learning Tools tab. This tab will not be found until you are authorised by your Principal to use the tool. Principal must tick the correct box in AMU. Possible audience – private (your school), cross school or Public
Access BlogED dashboard
Manage Blog – set or update blog settings, description, audience, owner, authors, design changes, Blog members
Blog Design – select theme for header, add widgets, change header image (can’t do in standard), import from Web 2 programs eg add a Voki avatar, upload songs from ‘Groove Shark’ and QR code from ‘QR creator’
Create post – title, type content, add tags and publish
Members can comment
Refer to BlogED support resources found under the My Learning Tools tab for instructions and video clips on how to use BlogED
Laureen Sheppard has a Blog titled ‘Oasis Library – View from the Mountains’ for tips on using Oasis.

Concurrent Workshops
A: Primary session – Aleesah Darlison
From country girl to check out chick and finally – published author!
www.aleesahdarlison.com
Grew up on family farm – small country town location
Loves animals – inspiration for writing
Writing tips
Write about what you know and love
Construct a character analysis for each character
Visuals help when writing
Design maps of the fictional location
Make use of inspirational places you have visited
Books
Puggle’s Problem – illustrated by Sandra Temple
Puggle is a baby echidna
Warambi – illustrated by Andrew Plant
Theme of bats and preservation of species
Book trailer available
Totally Twins – illustrated by Serena Geddes
Written in Diary format – lists, doodles, text messages
Theme of friends, family and fitting
Persephone – shy, sensible and sensitive
Portia – theatrical, outgoing, bossy and messy
Unicorn Riders – illustrated by Jill Brailsford
4 books released
Same characters are featured but each story stands alone
4 main human characters and 4 unicorn characters
Stories empower girls
Each character finds inner strength to overcome a challenge
Suitable ages 7+
Inspiration – childhood spent collection and adoring unicorns
Aleesah – available for school visits and workshops
Visit the website for free downloads.

B: High School session – Ruth Buchanan Colo HS
Why you’ll be glad you added Twitter to your personal learning network

National Year of Reading
A message from Jackie Hawkes
NYR thinktank meeting 
Penrith City Library, High Street Penrith (next to the Plaza)
Monday November 28 
3:30pm to 5:00pm
Not limited to Penrith area people. All welcome.
The meeting will include information about:
National Year of Reading
Work of Judith Ridge (Westwords and The Western Sydney Young People’s Literature Development Project)
DEC initiatives and support for NYR – Colleen Foley
Penrith City Library activities – Sarah Dean
Children’s Book Council activities – Jackie Hawkes
Informal think tanks for teacher librarians to share brief ideas that encourage our readers to keep reading

Next Committee meeting: 3.45pm Wednesday 23 November at Penrith Panthers Club.
Meeting concluded: 3:30pm

October 16

Professional learning day on Tuesday 8th November

We are hosting an exciting professional development day on Tuesday 8th November (Week 5 Term 4), at St Clair Public School, St Clair. Please see the program (below), which provides full details of the day.

Online registration through MyPL@DET is now available. The course title is PMBW Term 4 Teacher Librarian Professional Learning Day and the course number is NR02539. Please register as soon as possible as numbers are strictly limited. When completing the online registration, please select the payment option Cheque, as there is NO DIRECT DEBIT available. Your initial registration will be listed as Tentative. Once your payment of a $40 cheque has been received, your enrolment status will be changed to Confirmed.

Cheques, together with details of your name and school, should be posted to:
Attention: Lee Arundel, c/- Blacktown South Pubic School, 183 Flushcombe Road, Blacktown 2148
Please make the $40 cheque payable to Blacktown South Pubic School. There is no GST involved in this registration payment.

If you have any special dietary requirements, please contact the catering company directly yourself:
All Events Catering
Richard & Jan Keith
Ph: 9484-4632 or mobile 0418-615-442

The Committee looks forward to sharing a dynamic day of professional learning and networking with you!

Term 4: Professional Learning Day
Tuesday 8th November Week 5 Term 4 2011
Venue: St Clair Public School
Host Teacher Librarian: Susan Bourke
Address: St Clair Public School, Timesweep Drive, St Clair
Phone: (02) 9670-1966
Parking: Some in ground parking, limited street parking and St Clair Shopping Centre within walking distance
Cost: $40
RSVP: online registration & payment closes 25th October

Note: Registration is through MyPL@DET. The number of delegates is strictly limited. Registration will not be confirmed until $40 cheque (payable to Blacktown South Public School) has been received. There is no GST included in this payment. Cheques, together with details of your name and school, should be posted to:
Attention: Lee Arundel, c/- Blacktown South Pubic School, 183 Flushcombe Road, Blacktown 2148

AGENDA for Professional Learning Day

8.15am Registration

9am Welcome by Principal: Mrs Judy Loader; Housekeeping: Susan Bourke

9. 15 am – 10.30am Cyber Safety and Digital Citizenship: Leonie Wittman, Project Leader, Learning Design, CLIC

10.30 – 11am IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People): Robyn Morrow

11 – 11.10am Sponsors’ Presentations: Dominie and Cambridge University Press

11.10 – 11.55am MORNING TEA and Sponsors’ Displays

12 – 1.15pm BlogED: Phil Knight, ICT Consultant K-12, Western Sydney Region Nirimba Education Precinct

1.15 – 2pm LUNCH and Sponsors’ Displays

– 3pm Concurrent Sessions:
Primary Session: Guest Author: Aleesah Darlison
High School Session: Why you’ll be glad you added Twitter to your personal learning network: a practical workshop: Ruth Buchanan Colo HS

3.00 – 3.30pm Concluding Evaluation / Lucky Door Prize Draws.

July 2

No more Yammering – meet Maang!

Yammer logo

Yesterday, the NSW Department of Education and Communities’ professional “microblogging service”/social-networking web facility, Yammer, gave way to Maang *. The DEC moved from its 12-month Yammer trial to SocialText Signals, which they were able to customise to a degree and renamed “Maang”. Maang is a work networking tool, similar to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. It allows DEC staff to engage in conversations in a closed professional network. There is also a dedicated Group for teacher librarians, IWB users, etc – and several schools have started up their own Groups.

Maang logo

* Kamilaroi (also Gamilaraay, Gamilaroi) word for “message stick”.

June 6

Minutes of professional learning day at Caddies Creek PS

Welcome & General Business: Jenny Scheffers (Chairperson PMBW Committee)
• Acknowledgement of traditional custodians
• Thank you to TLs for attending
• Caddies Creek PS Library – 7 day library – thank you to Marlene
• Housekeeping matters
• Welcome and thank you to our presenters, sponsors – P.O.S.M (Point of Sale material) Pty Ltd & The Children’s Bookshop
• Thank you to Lorraine for publicising today’s meeting
• Term 4 Professional Learning Day – Wednesday 9 November (Week 5) at St Clair PS (Register online at MyPL@DET – type course code into MyPL)
• Folder contains the following documents:
 Agenda
 Term 3 Afternoon Tea flyer – Wednesday 31 August (Week 7) at Blacktown South Public School, Flushcombe Road, Blacktown 3.45 – 5.00pm, Host Teacher Librarian – Lee Arundel
 Evaluation Form.

Federal Parliamentary Enquiry – Lyn Hay and Ross Todd, ASLA & ALIA have set up a blog – asking TLs to be proactive and provide information (data) for evidence based practice on the website
• Syba Signs brochure available – includes Ross Todd’s new publication ‘Curriculum Integration’
• Jan Clarence (Surveyor’s Creek) & Alice Terry (Jamison H.S) are retiring
• Badge draw at the end of the day – prizes donated by sponsors.

Guest Speaker: Colleen Foley (Manager Team Leader, School Libraries and Information Literacy, NSW, CLIC)
Support for Teacher Librarians: DET update
• Now part of the NSW Curriculum & Learning Innovation Centre (CLIC)
• Refer to Handout – ‘School Libraries supporting teaching and learning in a digital age’
 www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/
 Key Contacts
 Scan
 Raps and book raps
 Links4Learning
 Information Literacy, reading & e-resources

• Federal Enquiry
 Available online (direct link through ‘Hot Topics’)
 Look at overview and recommendations
 Model of NSW Department of Education and Training held up as a good one for others to follow
 Importance of evidence based practice

• Australian Curriculum
 Information Literacy (ISP) recognised as an essential 21st century skill operating across the curriculum
 Is this or related ICT capabilities made explicit enough for 21st century curriculum?
 NSW not yet implementing the Australian curriculum

• Links4Learning in My Library
 L4L is available 24/7 to all DET school staff and students in ‘My Library’
 Go to H3 Library Management to change information in ‘My Library Links’ section
 A search in ‘My Library’ will capture L4L sites
 L4L includes some freely available e-books
 Access to electronic resources
 TL still needs access to Oasis DOS Enquiry for library management functions
• Updated one day Oasis training package is available – includes a module on ‘My Library’
• Raps and Book Raps
 New look
 Raps archive
 Not a concern if time frame for a rap is not strictly followed
 Book Week picture book rap coming for Term 3
 Shaun Tan Rap – Term 2 for stages 2 & 3 – new front page interface – links to PRC & CLIC on front page.

Guest Speaker: Paul MacDonald (The Children’s Bookshop)
Review of the Shortlisted CBCA titles and What’s Hot
• The Children’s Bookshop is celebrating its 40th year
• Email Paul for a copy of his presentation at staff@thechildrensbookshop.com.au
• ‘Future Minds: How the digital age is changing our minds, why this matters and what we can do about it’ by Richard Watson
Discusses the need of books for reading for pleasure, shared experiences, the need for permanent historical artefacts and the need to promote hard reading to encourage resilience
• Kids spend up to 40 hours per week looking at a screen – any screen
• Book Trailers – kids promote reading to each other – Google book trailers
• 2011 Shortlist
 CBCA 2011 Theme – One World, Many Stories
 Provides a focus to be advocates for reading
 Visit Mrs Mac’s Library website for links to Shortlisted books and more
• Picture books are booming at the moment
• Picture books dealing with manners are popular
• Teen/Adult – the market is blurring
• Non-fiction is struggling – moving to coffee table items.

The Children’s Bookshop: 10% discount for Teachers, 15% discount for books, 20% discount for class sets, provide lists for literature circles and class sets, host network meetings.

Sponsor• P.O.S.M (Point of Sale Material) Pty. Ltd – Keith Ward & Peter Wickenden
• www.posm.com.au
• Phone: 0296441466
• Approx. 3500 products – retail display, product presentation
• Many products will be of interest for use in the library eg adhesive plastic strips to display children’s work, trolley, baskets, wall mounts for hanging posters, ceiling clips, label maker, snap opening frames, zig zag system for book display, white boards and led lighting.

Concurrent Workshops: Implementing Guided Inquiry
A: Guided Inquiry in Primary Schools – Jenny Scheffers (Teacher Librarian Caddies Creek PS), Peter Lehner (Assistant Principal Caddies Creek PS), Dylan Macdonald and Ethan Prasetya (Year 6 students Caddies Creek PS) & Colleen Blancato (Teacher Librarian Hassall Grove PS)
• Jenny: Refer to handouts ‘Putting Guided Inquiry into Practice – a Primary School perspective’ & ‘Year 6 CPT Guided Inquiry unit Antarctica’
• Definition – SCAN 2006 Ross Todd
• Framework – Research River – posters created by Lee Fitzgerald
• Colleen: Useful Web 2.0 tools include ‘Weblists’, ‘Wallwisher’, ‘Glogster’ and ‘linoit’.
B: Guided Inquiry in a High School – Cathy Hill (Head of Library & Information Science P-12), Belinda Davies (Year 7 Core) & Yvonne Hammer (Head of Gifted and Independent Learning, St Paul’s Grammar School, Cranebrook)

Guest Speaker: Leanne Samootin (K-12 ICT Consultant Western Sydney Region)
Presentation: Web 2 and Search Engines
• Weblist – http://weblist.me/
 Free sign up
 Can search for lists
 Make up own list
 Leanne’s weblist – Click here: ICT Tools for TLs in Schools
• Fred
• Eyeplorer – visual search engine
• Glean Learning Tools – information literacy tools
 Boolify – http://www.boolify.org
 Comparison Search – www.gleancomparisonsearch.org (grades 4 – 12)
 Who Is – www.gleanwhois.org (grades 5 – 12)
• WolframAlpha – www.wolframalpha.com computational knowledge engine
• Watchknow – www.watchknow.org organised list of videos
• Gapminder – www.gapminder.org another way of looking at statistical information, look at trends over time
• Other Worlds – http://otherworlds.yolasite.com
 Creating multimedia stories – stages 3 & 4
 Focus on using web 2 tools
 Framework for creating digital stories
 e-book guide
• Topicmarks – http://topicmarks.com/ summarises text
 Free – need to sign up
 Accepts word document, pdf, paste a link
• Bibme – http://www.bibme.org/ online bibliography maker
• Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com/ social book club.

Next Committee meeting: 3.45pm Thursday 16 June at Blacktown Sports Club.
Meeting concluded: 3:30pm

October 3

Ready to rap with “Bear & Chook”

There is already activity over on the “Bear & Chook” books rap blog site. This book rap, based on two picture books, “Bear & Chook”, and the newly-released “Bear & Chook by the sea”, is aimed at students in Early Stage 1 (Kinder) and Stage 1 (Years 1 & 2). It officially commences Term 4 Week 2 (26 October, 2009). But please, by all means, drop by rapblog6.edublogs.org/ and have a look around any time.

Several schools have already introduced themselves, there are some great comments turning up on the Teachers‘ section, and there are already things to look at in the Gallery. This book rap will also feature participation by the author, Lisa Shanahan, and illustrator, Emma Quay. An online video, of Lisa and Emma reading “Bear & Chook by the sea” at Caddies Creek PS, and answering students’ questions, will be an exciting addition to the usual teaching resources. The rap is being coordinated by Jenny Scheffers (TL at Caddies Creek), “Scan” editor Cath Keane, and yours truly. Interstate and international schools are welcome, and there is no cost involved in book rapping.

I’ve had a few questions from first-time teacher book rappers, and people who last did a rap in the previous email listserv format, regarding the whereabouts of the support material (programming and planning, syllabus outcomes and rap sheets) for the “Bear & Chook books rap”. The rap pages on the NSW DET website are still under construction and will be open for viewing from NSW’s Day 1, Term 4. When live, they will be linked from:
schools.nsw.edu.au/raps/index.htm
The rap itself will commence in Week 2, Term 4, in the week of 26 October 2009.

If you’re trying to visualise the scope of the programming and planning, syllabus outcomes and rap sheets, you might like to check out previous recent raps, such as the 2008 Stage 1 “Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge” book rap, in which the discussion component was also in a blog format:
schools.nsw.edu.au/raps/wilfrid08/index.htm

You can also email cath.keane@det.nsw.edu.au for further information about the rap. Have a great holiday and don’t forget the warm honey toast!

Regards,
Ian McLean
Teacher librarian and rap co-coordinator,
Penrith PS