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If you are a high school teacher looking for fresh ways to introduce students to tricky concepts such as The Big Bang, ocean acidification and plate tectonics then check out Advancing Scientific Literacy in Earth Science.

This handy new resource uses cloze reading activities to introduce students to science concepts and vocabulary. Packed with engaging code crackers, word searches and double puzzles, which requires students to unscramble text to find missing words then insert them in the text, students will expand their vocabulary and hone their reading skills at the same time. For non-specialists, it includes an indispensable answers section.

Advancing Scientific Literacy in Earth Science is part of a new series written by Wellington-based science teacher Julia Burton that covers biology, physics and chemistry. While it's aimed at Years 8-10, teachers of intermediate students will find it a practical resource to have on hand for independent or collaborative form room activities. The non-fiction texts also make ideal reading activities too as students are required to predict sentences and check word meanings.

The Advancing Scientific Literacy series is available on our website, where they can be previewed using our online viewer.

From Yvette Krohn: One teacher's journey

I must admit that I am one of those teachers who absolutely love their job.
 
I started teaching in South Africa almost 20 years ago and, although teaching conditions were tough, (minimal resources, no non-contacts, classes of 40+) I relished every moment in the classroom and attained great personal satisfaction from the successes of my students. It was no different when I arrived in New Zealand and started teaching at John Paul College in Rotorua. The students’ attitudes and work ethic were somewhat different to what I was used to, but I quickly adapted and discovered that teaching, no matter where, was definitely the best job in the world.
 
They say that life is what happens when you are busy making other plans, and over the next 13 years that was certainly true for me. I rapidly ascended the career ladder and became an Assistant Principal at John Paul College, as well as being a regular on the English marking panel in Rotorua. I had considerable success in the classroom, too, aiding 10 of my students to achieve scholarships in two years. My success came largely from incorporating philosophical theories into my teaching and so I decided to do my Masters research on this topic at Lincoln University in 2006, where I later became a lecturer. I also continued my teaching career at Burnside High School, where my students achieved a further 24 scholarships over three years.
 
It was while I was presenting a workshop at the NZATE English Conference in 2009, that an opportunity arose to do something more with my research. A woman approached me afterwards to recommend that I publish my work as educational resources and gave me a number to ring. After much trepidation, I called Geraldine at Essential Resources and the rest is history! I was met with such friendliness, professionalism and encouragement that the whole process became one of my most rewarding. Thanks to Geraldine and Tanya (who is clearly the best editor in the world!) I now have two series comprising of six books to my name and the resource writing bug has well and truly bitten me.
 
I am based at Trident High School in Whakatane now, where I am the NZATE representative for the Central North Island. I also have a husband and two beautiful daughters aged 1 and 3, so the life that happened to me while I was making other plans is definitely the life that I would have chosen had I been less busy! It’s funny how things work out that way…

Yvette Krohn has taught English for the past 18 years, first in South Africa and later in New Zealand, where her main role has been teaching high-level thinking courses, including gifted and talented education, extension and scholarship classes. She has been a faculty head of languages and an assistant principal, as well as a lecturer of communications and learning styles at Lincoln University. Passionate about thinking skills, Yvette has a particular interest in incorporating philosophy, psychology and social theory into the English curriculum.

Yvette's books are available on our website, where they can be previewed using our online viewer.

Quote of the Week

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From Wendy Clarke

I have had a great week. My new poetry books, Make Poetry Come Alive arrived in my snow-covered letter box two days ago. It is the most exciting thing to send your work off and some time later receive it back beautifully edited and illustrated, they look just great. Some lovely person at Essential Resources always puts peppermints in with the books. I wish all of my mail had sweeties in the envelopes!

The other great thing that happened to me this week was receiving notification that two of my students from a gifted writers’ programme were commended in a competition run by the New Zealand Poetry Society. This means that their poems will appear in this year’s anthology.

I have the privilege of teaching some very clever year 7 and 8 students from Arrowtown School (that’s near Queenstown). The funny thing is they think they are learning from me, in fact I learn far more from them. Over the years of running these programmes I have many times wished that I could write as well as they do.

Happy writing everyone.


We love your poems and creative ideas – so pleased you are happy with the books Wendy. Paula and Fraser have really enjoyed working on them. ~ Geraldine

Quote of the Week

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If you're a teacher of junior students looking for poetic inspiration then check out Wendy Clarke's latest book Make Poetry Come Alive!, which is packed with fun, engaging ideas and poems to entice young children into writing poetry.

Each book contains practical teaching tips and poetry starters to encourage creative writing as well as 20 poems and follow-up activities. These are perfect for shared reading time and students will also enjoy reading them independently. Here at Essential Resources we love our canine friends so we've included Wendy's poem Dog for you to enjoy, although our pin-up pooch Molly would be understandably miffed if she thought the poem was written about her.  Have fun reading them!

The Make Poetry Come Alive! series will be available on our website from Monday, where the books can be previewed using our online viewer.








You can also download two sample pages from Make Poetry Come Alive! Book 2 (Ages 7-8) below...

We've returned from the Challenging Learners Conference and Everglade School's e-Wrapper Mini Conference with a fresh perspective on inquiry, thinking skills and mobile technology.

The Challenging Learners Conference organised by the wonderful team at Learning Network NZ brought together facilitators from New Zealand, Australia and the UK to deliver workshops on the theme of raising student engagement and achievement.

Kath Murdoch talked about how to personalise learning in the classroom. For inquiry teaching to be successful, teachers need to see students as capable theorists and researchers. Teachers need to give students opportunities to research topics they are passionate about and provide rich experiences so students can ask questions, make observations and test their theories. One simple idea to get started is to ask students to write down all the topics they are passionate about and pin it on a passion wall. Students continue to add to the wall throughout the year and other students can refer to it to find experts in the class. After completing a passion project, students teach their peers which is a perfect example of students at the heart of learning.

It was fantastic to hear practising teachers sharing their ideas and experiences alongside the keynote speakers, adding to the rich educational conversations happening at conferences.

Thanks to Everglade school too for inviting us to the e-Wrapper Mini Conference.
It was great to see so many teachers delivering innovative workshops. Trevor Bonds engaged his audience with questioning: our most important cognitive tool, while Stuart Hale left us all wanting to explore mobile technologies in the classroom.

If you're organising a conference, let us know the date, location and relevant web links so we can keep teachers in the loop.

Have you been inspired after attending a conference this year? Tell us who inspired you and why.

Quotes of the Week

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It’s always great to get out of the office and talk to enthusiastic teachers with passion for their area of expertise.
 
Last week I travelled to the Technology Educators New Zealand (TENZ) conference at the Otago Museum to support our latest published author, Deidre Senior. Deidre was a co-ordinator and keynote speaker at this event. A professional educator for 18 years, Deidre is deputy-principal at Oamaru Intermediate, with a passion for integrated approaches to technology teaching.

The Technology in Action series was inspired by Deidre’s experience at leading change at her school. About 60 conference attendees, colleagues and friends joined Deidre for a lunch-time launch, a glass of wine and a few nibbles. As with anything in life, it’s great to celebrate success, and having the tenacity to follow through a book from concept, writing, and working with the publishing team through to seeing teachers’ response to the finished product is something Deidre should be rightly proud of.
 
Oamaru Intermediate School has an enviable technology approach where instead of focusing purely on the independent skills within soft materials, hard materials, art, design, and food technology the students are learning the techniques of developing a project brief, elements of industrial design, problem solving, responding to community needs and client engagement. Along with this is a shared language across all subject types and a deeper knowledge of the curriculum outcomes. With so much of themselves in their designs, the students feel a higher level of self-worth around their projects; teachers are enjoying more engaged classrooms; and the community is enjoying students responding to their community and environment. One example of this is the tile display about to be installed in Oamaru’s community gardens.
 
Without exception, the teachers at Deidre’s workshop were inspired by the approach and eager to see which parts of the technology puzzle they can incorporate into their schools.

From Selena Gallagher

I first discovered Harry Potter in 2001. We were staying with friends and I was in need of a book to read to my sons as part of our nightly reading ritual (a practice which has had tremendous benefits – but that’s another story). There was a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on the shelf. I’d heard of it, of course. But, to be honest, all the hype in the media had put me off a bit. Still, I started reading chapter one to my sons that night. The rest, as they say, is history! I can honestly say that I was hooked from that very first chapter. At that time, the first four books had already been released, so I was able to read all four in quick succession. After that I joined the millions of fans waiting, impatiently, for the release of each new book.

The timing of the Harry Potter phenomenon was serendipitous, as it coincided with the exponential growth of the internet. This fuelled the phenomenon, as armies of fans congregated online to endlessly debate, theorise, speculate and analyse the series. Communities developed built solely around the shared love for a book series, and these communities encompassed tremendous diversity of young and old(er!) fans from all walks of life. It was perhaps this facility for sharing that helped to build my own love for the books. Each new reading peeled back another layer of meaning, like an onion, and discussing the books online, with like-minded people, revealed hitherto unseen symbolism and insight.

When I began to develop enrichment workshops for gifted students, the Harry Potter series was a natural choice for a theme. Their appeal for gifted readers was unquestionable. Avid readers delighted in the sophisticated wordplay, humour and references to mythology, not to mention the finely constructed minutiae of the world that J K Rowling created. The pleasure I got from sharing my appreciation of the books online was multiplied tenfold by sharing the series with the students. While they had already read and enjoyed the books, their understanding was enhanced tremendously by the opportunity to engage in activities around the books and discuss them with me and with each other. For instance, when a student who has previously missed it suddenly realises that the Mirror of Erised is really the mirror of desire, their reaction is brilliant to behold as they then begin to question what else they missed and realise they have to read the books all over again!

Having shared my Harry Potter themed workshops with select groups of students, I realised that it would be wonderful to share them with a wider audience, so I contacted Essential Resources with my idea for a book. From the initial expression of my idea to the production of the finished book, the whole process has been straightforward, accessible, and incredibly fast. So much so in fact, that it is almost as if the team at Essential Resources have worked some magic of their own! 

Literacy Magic is available from our website where it can be previewed using our online viewer.




 









Thanks Selena, the book is brilliant. Tanya, Gwen and I have loved working with you on this magical project and look forward to the next adventure. ~ Geraldine

Quote of the Week

Feel free to right click and save this weekly quote as your desktop (above) or
iphone wallpaper (below). Or you could print and hang it as a personal reminder!