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great overview of different approaches to integrated  Curriculum

Looking at the New Directions for school leadership and the teaching profession discussion paper, the only evidence presented to support the assertion that Victoria's education outcomes are not improving is the report "Challenges in Australian Education: results from PISA 2009: the PISA 2009 assessment of students' reading, mathematical and scientific literacy" Specifically the New Directions paper focuses on reading literacy, where in 2009, 14,251 students were given a two-hour pen and paper comprehension test. To get an idea of what types of competencies the reading test is assessing we can look at the sample test , with questions range from comprehension about a letter in a newspaper, the ability to interpret a receipt, comprehension around a short story, an informational text, and interpreting a table. While it doesn't seem unreasonable to want our students to be able to accurately perform these kind of tasks, these tests are not a true or accurate representation of the skills and competencies our students need in today's technology driven world.

This is a great wiki in general for maths students and teachers. I particularly like some of the practical application of maths to everyday situations. For students to link real world concepts to abstract concepts is important for students to engage in their learning. It also links creative thinking in maths. Which in my opinion is what maths is all about. 

Awesome blog post on Movie making and literacy skills. Some great pedagogy happening with this group of students. I really like Kynan's philosophy of letting the students learn rather than intervening with teacher direction. Final cut express is a rather complicated piece of software but it looks like these kids have eaten it for breakfast

A great poster creator. Worth a look students can upload images and manipulate them to look like posters. Students can export out to blogs etc or print. Could be useful online tool for short presentations of student work. 

a fantastic post about class and student blogging. Some great links for blog support and ideas. A must read if you are unsure about the widgets and sidebar. This is compulsory reading for level 3 teachers who should be considering students having their own blog.

Google Docs is such an incredible tool for college students, offering collaboration, portability, ease of use, and widespread acceptance. But there are so many options, both hidden and obvious, that there's a good chance you're not using Google Docs to its fullest capability. We've discovered 52 great tips for getting the most out of Google Docs as a student, with awesome ideas and tricks for collaboration, sharing, and staying productive.

Blog post with ideas about keeping students moving during Project Based tasks and encouraging students to collaborate and share 

Students learn mathematics by DOING mathematics, and not by watching someone else do mathematics. In recent years there has been an explosion in the number of high quality digital resources available from the Net and elsewhere that allow students to investigate, explore or consolidate the topics they are learning in their maths class.

This is a great tool for encouraging students and parents to comment and discuss as a group. With Voice Thread you are able to upload images and have students record an audio track over a slideshow. Then, once it's posted, members can post audio comments. You are also provided with an embed code to put into your blogs. Browse some of the examples and see how it works.

Another great list of online tools for creating music. These are worth exploring if not only to inform the students that they exist. Holiday challenge via a class blog perhaps?

40 awesome apps for science students

This ties in with the iPad Pd we did last Wednesday. Outlines and discusses the importance of documentation. Technology has the capacity to document the student learning experience and better still tech will facilitate students doing for them selves.

The Buck Institute for Education (BIE) received a generous grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to help promote and provide deeper learning opportunities for teachers and students. Recognizing that 11,000 teachers will participate in BIE's 3-day PBL 101 workshop in 2012, the Hewlett Foundation helped BIE expand its professional development resources and expertise online. Now BIE can work with every school and every teacher through PBL University (PBLU). This summer, PBLU will pilot several Common Core aligned Math & English/Language Arts projects with complementary 2-week online classes. Teachers can receive PBL Teacher Certification from BIE, if they choose to complete all the necessary classes and implement the project with their students.

Every Australian student will study the arts from their first year of school under the new national arts curriculum, which was released today for public consultation.

A+ Click is a free site full of online mathematics games for students at all grade levels. You can find games on A+ Click by selecting a grade level then selecting a topic. Alternatively, you select just a topic or just a grade level and browse through all of the games. Students do not need to register in order to play the games.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about thinking. More specifically, I have been thinking hard about the absence of thought in education. The absence of thought in students, teachers, administrators and policy-makers. This year's political discourse is a wider-world reminder of the ubiquitous lack of thought on the part of otherwise educated adults. We know more but are oddly - increasingly? - thoughtless. Why? Thinking, in the sense in which I am interested, is not mere mental work (or idle mental noodling). There is certainly lots of that going on everywhere. Thinking in the educational sense is not about doing one's work. Little thought need go into a typical course pacing guide or by a student in filling in a Venn diagram. Those are mental tasks. Such work cannot by itself yield a truly thinking person.

Simple but effective discussion about what is student centred learning. 

Great sight with a huge list of sites where students can create Art Work online