LEQTLS

"Collaborative learning is a type of learning where a group of people pool their resources and attempt to learn together. Even if the "group" is just two people working together, collaborative strategies can help to stimulate interesting debate and allow learners to discover a new perspective on material. Many educators are now turning to collaborative learning strategies to help their students to learn. Here are 10 of the best collaborative learning tools available on the web today."

* It develops creativity and critical thinking * Students who are shy or afraid to talk in class get a chance to speak out their minds * It empowers students voice to deliver rich, deep message that is capable of conveying a powerful message. * It helps students explore the meaning of their own experience, give value to it, and communicate that experience with others. *It promotes the notions of life long learning and independent learning * It develops students communicative skills * It is a reflective process that helps students reflect upon their learning and find deep connections with the subject matter of a course or with an out-of-class experience. * It fosters students sense of individuality * It also gives students an opportunity to experiment with self-representation and establish their identity *Students creating digital stories develop proficiency with multimedia applications

"Welcome to Book Club 2.0. This is a place for you to list or find virtual book clubs for students, teachers, and anyone else in education."

Newspapers from the 1700s-2000s Over 800 newspapers across the US Millions of additional pages added every month

Handbook designed ny NY librarians. Very comprehensive

World Book Day was designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and is marked in over 100 countries around the globe.

A blog about search, search skills, teaching search, learning how to search, learning how to use Google effectively, learning how to do research. It also covers a good deal of sensemaking and information foraging.

Why Picture Books Are Important by Jackie French Picture books are "twofers" - two for one. You have the story in words, and in pictures too, but never quite the same story, so it's richer than either text or pictures alone. But mostly, picture books are magic. In a picture book, turning every page is a new adventure. Every page is a smile.

Libraries are increasingly getting hip to using Twitter as a tool, with many offering the service as a point of contact with librarians. But Twitter is an excellent tool for librarian learning as well, offering lots of great opportunities for discussion. Many Twitter chats exist for the literary and library world, and we've discovered 20 of the absolute best for librarians to check out.

"RDA new cataloguing rules Why new rules, and what has it got to do with me? Resource Description and Access (RDA) is the cataloguing standard being introduced to replace Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, second edition (AACR2). National Library of Australia has announced that it will implement RDA in early 2013 (Australian Committee on Cataloguing n.d.). RDA will initially impact on cataloguers, and in the longer term will shape how end users of catalogues and discovery systems find the information they require. Therefore it is important for all people working in the library and information industry to have some understanding of the purpose of RDA and its implications for the library catalogue."

A few years ago I wrote about using CAPL (Culturally Authentic Pictorial Lexicon) as a resource for locating images to use in language lessons. Over the weekend Larry Ferlazzo wrote about CAPL's Pictolang service which prompted me to look at it again. CAPL now supports thirteen languages. Browse through the CAPL collection if you're looking for images to use in a world languages lesson. To find a Creative Commons licensed image to use in your lessons visit CAPL, click browse, then select your language to search for images that represent common words in that language. Pictolang is a CAPL service that offers four image-based language learning activities. The Visual Word Trainer is simply a flashcard activity that shows students an image and the word or words that picture represents. The Picture Match Game shows students one word and they have to find the picture to match it. Word Match Game shows students one picture and they have to find the word to match it. The Analyst Game is probably the most challenging of the activities. The Analyst Game shows students a picture and they have to identify where that picture came from.

Everything English for Australian Schools (EEAS) NATIONAL CURRICULUM - ENGLISH PERMISSION GRANTED BY ACARA For each Year Level from Prep (Kindergarten) to Year Seven, this exciting new program (EEAS) has: *AYearly Overview of the Content Descriptors and Achievement Standards for English, as per the National Curriculum (ACARA), and in which term/s they will be addressed *The Components of the English Program and the time allocation for each component, that is, how this Key Learning Area is organised (Reading, Unit Work, Focussed Learning Episodes: Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation) *Assessment Criteria - Five Point Scale for the Achievement Standards as per the National Curriculum (ACARA) *Spelling Program *Term Folders that contain: a.A Term Overview of the Content Descriptors and Achievement Standards as per the National Curriculum (ACARA), and how they will be addressed during the term b.Units of Work (two per term) c.Student Workbooks to support implementation of the Units of Work d.Assessment Criteria to match the Assessment tasks from the Units of Work and Reading Program e.Weekly Overviews (8 week overviews) outlining what and when to teach each week. Preparation needed before commencing the unit, and a list of resources that support implementation of the unit

Photos have all sorts of homes on the web: Instagram, Flickr, and Picasa, not to mention the images still on your camera or tucked away in your computer. Snapjoy (free) is a new web service that puts those pictures in one place. Import photos straight from Instagram, online albums, or your hard drive, and Snapjoy automatically rearranges them into a Timeline.

In April 2012, Softlink conducted the third annual Australian School Library Survey. This paper outlines the findings from the 2012 Softlink School Library Survey into Australian school library budgets, qualified staffing levels and NAPLAN literacy results. Principal findings from the 2012 Softlink Australian School Library Survey include:  There is a positive relationship between well-resourced libraries and higher student literacy outcomes  School library resourcing is inconsistent across school type (primary, secondary, P-12) and education provider (Government, Catholic, Independent)  The majority of school libraries had no change in budgets in the past 12 months  Very few school libraries received additional resources for implementing the National Curriculum  Staffing levels remained unchanged for the majority of school libraries during the past 12 months  There is a strong intention to purchase eBooks in the coming year  Mobile technology (iPod, iPad, smart phone and tablet) use by students is widespread across all school types and education providers and is having a greater impact on the role of the school library  Access to resources outside of the library is considered important by 75% of teacher librarians  80% of all teacher librarians understand the need to integrate with their Learning Management System but only 43% have done so  Teacher Librarians see opportunities to remain relevant and current to staff and students through embracing eBooks and mobile technology  Challenges continue to be: gaining funding, finding a balance between the physical and digital collection, collaboration with teaching staff and the recognition of Teacher Librarian's skills and their evolving role The outcomes from the 2012 survey again show the correlation between school library budgets and literacy levels. This link between funding and literacy is an issue facing schools and their libraries worldwide.

A colleague of mine recently shard these 10 great ideas to impove literacy skills in the classroom. They are simple to play and can be applied to nearly all year levesl. Enjoy.