Draft National Curriculum

The Draft National Curriculum is being launched today by Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard.  Here are some quick links.

• Federal Department of Education National Curriculum page (just a brief outline, then refers you to ACARA)
• ACARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, responsible for the documents)
• Want to get involved in the consultation process? Click here.
• Want to read resources, including information sheets from ACARA on each subject? Click here (or if you just want one subject's information sheet: English, Maths, History, Science).

Curriculum drafts:

• Draft Maths curriculum pdf
• Draft Science curriculum pdf
• Draft History pdf
• Draft English pdf

PDF copies of the draft curricula in Maths, Science, History and English are from this Melbourne Herald-Sun article.

(The SMH is apparently very preoccupied today with Spencer Tunick's photography at the Sydney Opera House).

Cheers

Ruth

GIFSL* 51: take photos (with an added bonus: Skerricks: all singing, all dancing live version!)

(Actually, I lie.  No singing, no dancing.)  But it's lovely to have received some invitations to speak at teacher librarian meetings and conferences about re-imagining/enhancing/sprucing your school library.  So if you're going to the Sydney TL conference in Leichhardt in March, the Northern Sydney TL conference in Terrey Hills in March or MANTLE (website will show the 2010 program soon) in Newcastle in May, it will be lovely to meet you.

One of those looked like it might have to be done using the Connected Classrooms videoconferencing and Bridgit, so I would have been at my own school but beamed on a telly with my presentation on a whiteboard at the meeting venue.  Circumstances altered and I'll be able to attend in person, but I'm thinking I'd like to add being able to do that to my skillset.  Always good to learn something new!

I spoke at two conferences last year,  ASLA (NSW) and Western Sydney TL - they were fairly close together in time, so I didn't tweak my presentation enormously between the two (although I did tweak it - there's always something to make better/more effective). It was great to get the positive feedback and know my contribution had been useful.  This week, looking over the presentation (I don't have notes, the PowerPoint is my prompt as I find that more interesting, less 'rote' and besides, like lots of teachers, you switch me on, I talk... and I enjoy public speaking), I can see plenty of room for more tweaking/changing, even though it's only a few months down the track.  New things we've tried.  Improvements to the library.  More goodness to share!

I cannot encourage you enough to take photos of your library.  At least once a term, or more often if you change something (as we do with our foyer/entrance area).  Not only to record what you've done, but also to remind you of the evolution of your library, to see what's better than it was before.  I just wish I'd photographed my current school library when I walked into it first ten years ago, so I could have those photos to compare with how it looks now. 

One of the ways in which this blog has been really useful to me is the way in which providing illustrations for it has made me fish out my camera more often than I might otherwise have done, to catch 'before' shots as well as 'after'.  The camera's lens, and the reality of a photograph, can help see more clearly what one likes and what one would like to change/improve/develop. I've only got to look at the renovation of the library entrance (several entries from May 2009 on the blog illustrate this - use the archives over on the right) for just one example.

Other ways to use photographs (hurrah for the digital camera) include our framed row of student readers and (which used some of those photos again, as well as others taken at lunchtimes etc) our Christmas tree.

Cheers

Ruth


*GIFSL: good ideas for school libraries

The happy life of teacher librarians: the best book, miss

What do these two have in common?

Today, I had two kids come to see me, entirely separately, just to tell me that the book they'd borrowed from here was 'the best book I've ever read, miss'.  Just lovely to know that, to know I'm choosing books that are finding friends; and good to get a heads-up on ones with which I'm less familiar.  One excellent part of the happy life of teacher librarians.

Cheers

Ruth

GIFSL* 50: The COOL clock

Most school clocks are plain and functional, and there's nothing wrong with that.

But when you're a school library aiming to present an exciting environment for learning, reading, working, being...

...and you go to somewhere like Target when they have one of their semi-regular 40% off all clocks sales...

...which means that for less than thirty dollars you can have a clock like this behind the borrowing desk...

Oh, you'd like a better view?

I know, a plain 'school clock' would do the same job.  So does a plain vanilla anything vs a snazzy version.  But we've had a lot of (spontaneous) positive comments from kids and teachers, for such a simple change (and if you're wondering about the previous one, no clock goes to waste in a school where they're needed for exams as well as on walls).  It adds sizzle to the library for not many dollars and not much time/effort (just keep an eye on those discount store catalogues, or take a look around half-yearly sale time).  Maybe some years down the track it might look dated, but right now it looks modern and has a nice energy to it, with the interlinking design.

If you'd like to explore some fabulous clocks made from recycled junk by Pixelfish  (I only found this Etsy seller after buying our clock), take a look at these:

(screenshot from Pixelfish's store - click this link to see the current selection)

They're fabulous.  Every one a conversation starter and statement of style and panache!

And the day after I drafted this blog entry a colleague came by, commenting on the clock and on the hunt for an interesting/cool one for her husband's birthday - I showed her the Etsy site and her eyes  lit up.  Ha!  The flypaper mind I have proves its worth again... it just amuses me how things coincide, sometimes.

Cheers

Ruth

PS. Will I admit that the fact that you can't tell the time on our new clock to the exact minute is a little bit handy when you've had an extraordinarily busy lunchtime and you want to call pack up time a minute or two early without a charmingly pedantic kid pointing out that you ARE calling pack up time early?  Dunno.  You might think less of me.  But I'd rather tell you the truth... Which is why I didn't make up some ridikkulus guff about the design representing the library linking you to information, or whatever.  Could've - but nah. 

PPS: FIFTY IDEAS FOR SCHOOL LIBRARIES! How cool is that!  Got any particular favourites?  Let me know in the comments...

*GIFSL = Good ideas for school libraries

Bookmarks: Valentine's Day and Olympics

Valentine's Day bookmarks: We also photocopied this bookmark design onto pale pink cardboard, but they were all shy of the camera...  One set of words, but a different font for each of the eight per sheet on one side, with a piece of prose I wrote last year; and the cheerful 'your library' ditty on the back of each one.

One side of the Olympics bookmarks features a quote from Pierre de Coubertin.

The other side features the Olympic motto, in Latin and in English, because I dunno about you, but even if I could guess Fortius as being about strength, I'm not confident that I'd have guessed Citius as faster...

The little box with the library credit burgles a slogan/vision statement a teacher librarian pal uses all the time at her school.

Learn...to do your best.

She didn't mind my borrowing it.  I adapted it to be the library-promo piece.

You'll notice that, for these, the design is the same on each bookmark and I've done the variety thing with relevant colours of cardboard.  Easy.

We hand out a bookmark to each borrower when they borrow.  I've blogged about them before, why as well as other designs I've created (check out the 'bookmarks' tag from the tag cloud over on the right).  The short version is less about Keeping Books Noice and more about a moment of helpful generosity to each borrower, something useful; and a piece of informative advertising to remind them of this library each time they use it.

A year or more after we started doing the bookmark thing, the borrowers expect it; a few sweet crazy kids collect an example of each new design... and they haven't cost us a bomb in either software or cardboard.  Every school has a program like Microsoft Publisher.  Every school has coloured cardboard... it's not hard to design your own...

The Olympic bookmarks are generic you may notice; nothing about the specific/current games, which means I can use them again.  Same thing applies to other themes; many can be annually revisited, rather than designing new each time.  Sure, I'll probably tweak, but it's also good when your're busy-AS to fish out last year's bookmark design for this theme and just print up bookmarks.

I've seen some beautiful bookmarks in other libraries, colour printed and so forth; because we hand these out with every loan, we go through rather a lot, which is why most of ours are like the ones above, theme-related and photocopied onto coloured cardboard.  Inexpensive, but not ineffective.

Cheers

Ruth

GIFSL* 49: Winter Olympics 2010

Following on from Valentine's Day, our next theme for bookmarks and entry and banners relates to the current Vancouver Winter Olympics.

The banners were ones we had made last year; they suit the winter idea, but we used them before and will use them again because the design on the fabric is intriguing, somewhat surreal, full of stories.  For the Winter Olympic thing, it has snowy mountains, and the cool blueness - but these banners are definitely getting other outings.  The fabric is Annamoa in blue, from Ikea.  Some mad crazy fabulous illustrations on the various colours in that range (each colourway has different illustrations on it).

The world time clocks in the foyer include Vancouver time.

On the noticeboard behind the desk, we feature (rather plainly, but you cain't do everything spiffing all the time) the Olympic motto and a quote from Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, along with the Vancover logo.

And there you have, in some respects, why I've used the Games; the ideal of doing your best, and the idea of doing, the attempt being more important than the win.  Not a bad idea to promote.

The bookmarks feature these two quotes and the Olympic rings, and golly gee, nothing about Vancouver 2010 specifically - so I'll be able to roll 'em out next Olympics.  Economy of effort!  As usual, printed on coloured cardboard - red, blue, yellow, green and white - reflecting the colours of the Olympic rings (in the case of the last one, the black on the white, which is vastly cheaper to do than the reverse!)

Hey, did you notice the allusion to the Olympic rings on the bookcase?

The top shelves?  Colours are in the right order, too.  Aren't coloured spines handy for decor???  Just yesterday I had some lovely junior girls say how they liked the Olympic rings on the bookshelves (they spotted it without prompting), and how the library has different themes and always looks nice.  Which was lovely to hear, since we do it for them.

Always happy to read your comments...

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL: Good ideas for school libraries

GIFSL* 48: Valentine's Day 2010

I know, I'm sorry, too late for you, but hey, bookmark this or bung it in your Delicious list or save it in your reader, and you can use it next year.  And the year after...

Valentine's Day is a convenient starting 'theme' for the school year - being nice to others, in the most general sense, combined with 'love reading'.

We had bookmarks, featuring the prose I wrote last year (read it here).  Cardboard colour choices? Pink and red.  A bookmark for every borrower, library PR, useful for the borrower and summat for nuffink that the kids appreciate.

We unpacked last year's Valentine banners (featuring a quirky fabric marrying hearts and skulls, just the thing to appeal to teenage taste).  Read all about how to make them here.

Note the bookcase selection: pinks and reds and a few purples, and while the pinks give it a girly cast (there are not a lot of uber-boy books with pink spines) the reds mix it up so there's something for every browser/reader/borrower.  Books picked on a colour theme can be rather handy at helping the kids find books they might not have found before, too.  Apart from the obvious purty factor.

Hey, did you notice something else on which I have not yet commented?  Up in the air...

Ah, God bless Ikea's little cotton socks for having a heart theme for Christmas 2009.  These wooden hearts, sold two to a pack, were severely reduced after Christmas and I snaffled them up.  Perfect for Valentine's Day; and their scale good for this purpose, as they don't get lost.  It's awfully worthwhile checking our holiday decorations after the event and seeing if there are bargains to be had that can be deployed in your school library.

If you wanted to do something similar, you could try heavyweight cardboard, painted, or even balsa wood cut to shape and painted.  Neither one immensely difficult nor immensely expensive.

I'm also very grateful that, while we have a high ceiling through most of the library, we do have lowish ones in the small foyer area, which allows us to do things such as hanging these hearts.

What did the kids think?  Cool, miss.

It was a nice mood and way to start what's proving to be a hectic, busy, cheerful year.

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL = Good ideas for school libraries