Bell Primary School

One of our most innovative, popular thinkers takes on-in exhilarating style-one of our key questions: Where do good ideas come from? With Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson pairs the insight of his bestselling Everything Bad Is Good for You and the dazzling erudition of The Ghost Map and The Invention of Air to address an urgent and universal question: What sparks the flash of brilliance? How does groundbreaking innovation happen? Answering in his infectious, culturally omnivorous style, using his fluency in fields from neurobiology to popular culture, Johnson provides the complete, exciting, and encouraging story of how we generate the ideas that push our careers, our lives, our society, and our culture forward. Beginning with Charles Darwin's first encounter with the teeming ecosystem of the coral reef and drawing connections to the intellectual hyperproductivity of modern megacities and to the instant success of YouTube, Johnson shows us that the question we need to ask is, What kind of environment fosters the development of good ideas? His answers are never less than revelatory, convincing, and inspiring as Johnson identifies the seven key principles to the genesis of such ideas, and traces them across time and disciplines. Most exhilarating is Johnson's conclusion that with today's tools and environment, radical innovation is extraordinarily accessible to those who know how to cultivate it. Where Good Ideas Come From is essential reading for anyone who wants to know how to come up with tomorrow's great ideas.

THis is our PD Site

"Teachers have known forever that happy, engaged students are better learners - especially when it comes to tough material. And learning how to spell is so hard for many kids."

This morning I received an email from a reader who was looking for some recommendations for websites that her students can use to learn and practice new vocabulary words. I have made a couple of lists on this topic in the past but it's been a while since I updated them and a couple of the items in those lists have gone offline. Therefore, I put together a new list of the websites that I recommend.

For some students the hardest part of starting a creative writing assignment is generating an idea to write about. Here are seven good sources of writing prompts that you can share with your students.

"Shaun Tan's picture books have won numerous awards and been adapted to theater and animated film. His stunning wordless graphic novel The Arrival depicts the immigrant experience with unforgettable emotional impact. Get to know this illustrator from Perth, Australia by watching our November 2007 video interview. Learn how he got his start as a children's book illustrator, how he developed his ideas for The Arrival, and what inspired his vision for the book. Tan also describes the meaning behind a few key drawings in The Arrival, and offers advice for young artists."

For some students the hardest part of starting a creative writing assignment is generating an idea to write about. Here are seven good sources of writing prompts that you can share with your students.

"Students will create their own message in their alphabet"

Overview of the book 

The Arrival is a migrant story told as a series of wordless images that might seem to come from a long forgotten time. A man leaves his wife and child in an impoverished town, seeking better prospects in an unknown country on the other side of a vast ocean. He eventually finds himself in a bewildering city of foreign customs, peculiar animals, curious floating objects and indecipherable languages. With nothing more than a suitcase and a handful of currency, the immigrant must find a place to live, food to eat and some kind of gainful employment. He is helped along the way by sympathetic strangers, each carrying their own unspoken history: stories of struggle and survival in a world of incomprehensible violence, upheaval and hope.

Sofia and her friend Mareka are watching Professor Julius Sumner Miller's television science show, Why is it so? Janice arrives and meets Sofia's mother and grandmother. She needs Sofia to translate the conversation and Sofia deliberately tells each party the wrong translation

Some activity ideas for Shaun Tan the arrival as well as other picture story books. 

Excerpts from Red Leap Theatre's production of THE ARRIVAL by Shaun Tan Premiered Civic Theatre, March 2009 Developed with the assistance of Auckland Festival's Watch This Space Programme and Creative New Zealand For more information see www.redleaptheatre.co.nz

We asked Shaun some questions about why he decided to produce Sketches from a Nameless Land, the companion title to The Arrival. Here he talks about the book as a manifesto for the art of illustration. For more information on The Arrival and Sketches from a Nameless Land, see www.thearrival.com.au

We asked Shaun some questions about why he decided to produce Sketches from a Nameless Land, the companion title to The Arrival. Here he talks about the way The Arrival mirrors a multicultural society as well as the background characters of the city. For more information on The Arrival and Sketches from a Nameless Land, see www.thearrival.com.au

Academy Award winner, illustrator and author Shaun Tan takes you through the creative process in the privacy of his studio. Shaun Tan's award winning animation 'The Lost Thing' screened with a live music score at the 2011 GRAPHIC Festival on August 20 in the Concert Hall.

Using Shaun Tan's book the Arrival in the classroom. Free lesson plans and ideas to incorporate Shaun Tan's book "the Arrival" into your classroom.

Some great information and teaching ideas for the collaborative work by Shaun Tan and John Marsden