This is a must for all media teachers. It won an Oscar yesterday for Animated Short Film.

The entire 16-minute film, Logorama, features recognizable logos and characters from the ads of over 3000 large corporations.
Logorama premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Kodak Short Film Discovery Prize.

See trailer
Other segmentsThe producer, Nicolas Schmerkin , declared: “I have to thank the 3,000 non-official sponsors that appear in the film. And I have to assure them that no logos were harmed in the making of the project.”

A good film to show how pervasive modern advertising has become.

Take the time to see others films which were nominated in this category- French Roast, Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty, A Matter of Loaf & Death and The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte).

1. Most are are caused by a sudden slip on a fault. An earthquake occurs when plates grind and scrape against each other.

2. The lithosphere which contains the Earth’s outer crust.

3. No. Scientifically reproducible predictions cannot yet be made to a specific hour, day, or month.

4. The seismograph is an instrument used to amplify and record the motion of the ground during an earthquake. Seismograms are the records produced by seismographs and used to calculate the location and magnitude of an Earthquake. They show how the ground moves as time passes.

5. Place on the earth’s surface, exactly above the hypocenter of the earthquake? 

6. The hypocentre is the rupture occured place, within the earth; the epicentre is the point on the earth’s surface directly above the hypocentre.

7.

Haiti 2010 7.0

Chile 2010 8.8

Sichuan Province, China, 2008 7.9

Sumatra, Indonesia 2004 Between between 9.1 and 9.3

8. Magnitude values typically fall between 0 and 9, with each increase of 1 representing a 10-fold increase in energy. The higher the magnitude the worse the destruction.

9. Magnitude is a measure of earthquake size and remains unchanged with distance from the earthquake. Intensity, however, describes the degree of shaking caused by an earthquake at a given place and decreases with distance from the earthquake epicentre.

10. Richter scale range - 0 to 9, though no real upper limit exists. Richter Scale, The Richter Magnitude Scale
11. 1906

12.  The first waves to reach the seismographic stations are primary or P-waves.

13. San Andreas fault

14. The “Ring of Fire” is the zone of earthquakes surrounding the Pacific Ocean — about 90% of the world’s earthquakes occur there.

15. Aftershocks

Record numbers of headmasters have been fired because of poor school exam results.
At least 163 heads or their deputies were fired in 2009!

Learn more:
‘Record numbers of heads’ sacked
Sacking of school headteachers ‘rises by 75%’

Happy International Women’s Day!

A global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future.

Learn more:
International Women’s Day 2010
Equal pay for equal work
International Women’s Day
A History of International Women’s Day in words and images
Clara Zetkin

2010 is also the 40th anniversary of the publication of Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch, one of the most celebrated texts of the women’s liberation movement.
Read further:
An inconvenient truth
Family time still a struggle for working women
The revolution isn’t over yet
How the ‘new feminism’ went wrong
Germaine Greer ‘didn’t understand women’
‘Germaine Greer? She has no idea what makes women tick,’ says Nowra
Change is a feminist issue
The Better Self? Germaine Greer and ‘The Female Eunuch’ Louis Nowra - The Monthly
Loved or hated, but still Germaine
Video featuring Gernaine Greer:
An Evening with Germaine Greer - Shakespeare’s Wife
YouTube Links

The Archibald Prize is regarded as the most important portraiture prize in Australia. This year’s finalists will be announced on March 17 and the winners declared on March 26.

Meanwhile take a preview:
Gallery
Read further:
Corby, Gilchrist vie for Archibald prize
Convicted crims the Archibald’s early birds
Education links

Congratulations to everyone for joining in on our concern about bullying . A great effort by Rod Chester and the online team, The Courier-Mail , and radio station 97.3 FM for running the Say No to Bullying campaign.

Are you wearing ORANGE today?

Participate online:

Say No On Facebook
Resources for the classroom
Read further:
InDepth - Say NO to Bullying
Kevin Rudd’s advice on bullying

Live broadcast at Kenmore State High School, Alyssa Daniels 16.  Photo Bruce Long

What a great idea! Educating students in class about download bills!

Students throughout many schools across England and Wales are being taught about the way premium rate phone services are marketed and how the charging systems work. PhoneBrain explains how to use phone-paid services, such as voting on TV shows, entering competitions, and downloading mobile games and ringtones, safely to avoid unexpected charges.
PhoneBrain for Teens

This year’s nominated documentaries are worth some attention. A must for all high school library DVD collections. Quite a few of the films have classroom study guides as well.

Burma VJ 2009 documentary film directed by Anders Østergaard. It follows the September 2007 uprisings against the military regime in Burma. Filmed entirely on hand-held cameras with the footage was smuggled out of the country.
The Cove 2009 American documentary film about the annual killing of dolphins in a National Park at Taiji, Wakayama, in Japan.
Food inc. 2008 film by Robert Kenner which examines large-scale agricultural food production in the United States.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers 2009 documentary film directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith. The film follows Daniel Ellsberg and explores the events leading up to the publication of the Pentagon Papers.
Which Way Home 2009 documentary film directed by Rebecca Cammisa. The film follows several children who are attempting to get through Mexico to the United States.

The media is to blame for the sexualisation of young girls, according to a new report by respected counselling and health psychologist, Dr Linda Papadopoulos. Her report was commissioned by the Home Office as part of its strategy for tackling violence against women and girls.

From her report:
The world is saturated by more images today than at any other time in our modern history. Behind each of these images lies a message about expectations, values and ideals. Women are revered – and rewarded – for their physical attributes and both girls and boys are under pressure to emulate polarised gender stereotypes from a younger and younger age. The evidence collected in this report suggests these developments are having a profound impact, particularly on girls and young women.

Children and young people today are not only exposed to increasing amounts of hyper-sexualised images, they are also sold the idea that they have to look ‘sexy’ and ‘hot’. As such they are facing pressures that children in the past simply did not have to face. As children grow older, exposure to this imagery leads to body surveillance, or the constant monitoring of personal appearance. This monitoring can result in body dissatisfaction, a recognised risk factor for poor self-esteem, depression and eating disorders. Indeed, there is a significant amount of evidence that attests to the negative effects of sexualisation on young people in terms of mental and physical health, attitudes and beliefs.

Learn more:
Airbrushed pictures ‘need warning labels’ to prevent insecurity in young girls, government report warns
‘The whole of society is hyper-sexualized’
Airbrushed pictures ‘need warning labels’ to prevent insecurity in young girls, government report warns

Read more:
Media blamed for sexualisation of children
Children are ‘over-exposed to sexual imagery’ claims report

Toddlers & Tiaras is a disturbing new reality show which premiered on January 27, 2009. It features child beauty pageant contestants and their families as the children prepare for their pageant shows.
YouTube preview
Teen Girls Fight To Take “Toddlers And Tiaras” Off The Air
Living Dolls Wonen’s Weekly

Read further:
Overt sexualisation is endemic and women’s magazines are perhaps most to blame
Challenging the sexualisation of girls
Letting Children Be Children;Stopping the sexualisation of children in Australia

The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has released the draft K–10 Australian Curriculum in English, mathematics, science and history for online viewing and consultation. It is available now until 23 May 2010.

The Australian Curriculum focuses on how 10 general capabilities and three cross-curriculum dimensions contribute to, and can be developed through, teaching in each learning area.
The 10 general capabilities are: literacy, numeracy, information and communication technology, thinking skills, ethical behavior, creativity, self-management, teamwork, intercultural understanding and social competence. The three cross-curriculum dimensions are: Indigenous history and culture, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia and Sustainability.

The site enables individuals and groups to provide feedback by commenting directly on the draft curriculum and completing an optional online survey

National curriculum ‘a back to basics’ - Tanya Chilcott and Emma Chalmers

Read news articles on Naional Curriculum:
Julia Gillard opens learning debate with launch of new national curriculum
History curriculum ‘could fail’
Fears new history course too ambitious
Back-to-basics approach for Australia’s classrooms
Grammar rules in the new curriculum’s principles of learning
Letters, sounds at core of new curriculum
The death of history?
Don’t ignore our heritage
Claim many teachers ‘not good enough’ to teach new curriculum
Teachers too busy for debate
A sound beginning
Teachers to be ordered back to school to learn how to deliver new ‘back to basics’ national curriculum

* Teachers air their views on national curriculum

Some comments from QUT educators:

Professor Annette Patterson, Head, School of Cultural and Language Studies in Education

“The emphasis on literature in the proposed English national curriculum is very welcome as is the sustained focus across the year levels on aesthetic and cultural aspects of literary studies.

“The curriculum retains many of the strengths of current state-based English curricula. It aligns its approach with current thinking on the importance of explicit teaching about language. This alignment will help foster the idea that the teacher’s role in enabling learning is a very important one.

“There’s a tendency to over-emphasise the importance of phonics in the early years as a means of teaching reading.

“This is regrettable as a balanced approach to teaching reading is essential for success.

“A balanced approach ensures that children are exposed to a range of different ways of learning to read and optimises the chance of learning through the approach that best suits the individual child.”

Professor Lyn English (Mathematics)

“The curriculum does not appear to be radically different from existing curricula. A few aspects are being introduced earlier, others a little later.

“My main concern is that the listing of content for each grade level does not adequately reflect or support the rationale, aims, and the highlighted emphasis on reasoning presented at the start of the document. For example, the document preamble stresses that the curriculum will foster creativity, problem solving, a range of reasoning skills, and other important future-oriented processes.

“I fear these might not be addressed adequately when implemented. The ‘basics’ of today and of the future are not the basics of the past; they have fundamentally changed and the curriculum content and its delivery needs to reflect this.”

Professor Stephen Ritchie (Science)

“The first stated aim of the Science Learning Area is for students to develop an interest in science, presumably to address well-documented concerns about students’ waning interest in the sciences.

“Yet, the document lists numerous disconnected content topics to be covered each year that could have been copied just as easily from the table of contents of any existing traditional text book in high school science.

“Only superficial reference is made to unifying ideas like sustainability, and how cultural aspects of science (cf. Science as Human Endeavour Strand) might be linked to the topics for Science Understanding.

“If interest in science was the chief goal for the design on the National Curriculum in Science, this document has not delivered.

“Teachers will now need to be supported by supplementary resources and professional development to achieve what the document has failed to do - link the three strands of content in interesting ways.”

Dr Chris Sarra, executive director Stronger Smarter Institute at QUT

“For Indigenous children there is tremendous potential to feel a sense of ‘connectedness’ to schools, as well as pride in knowing and understanding that the history of our people does indeed have a valid place in our classrooms.

“For non-Indigenous children there is the opportunity to understand and celebrate the notion that they are friends and schoolmates to those who are descendants of the oldest living human existence on the planet.

“For educators there is tremendous scope here to engage positively with local Indigenous people in communities to develop relevant learning experiences.

“If one is to read correctly the intent of the national curriculum, it seems determined to move beyond romantic white notions of Australian history.

“Fortunately it also seems determined to move beyond black armband views of history. It may surprise some to realise that many Aboriginal people will be pleased about this shift beyond such representations of Aboriginal history.

“We have always been a historically proud and robust group of people who have simply asked other Australians to know and understand the truth about us and our history, not to feel sorry for us.

“The new curriculum directions has some scope to enable such knowledge and understanding without the need for other Australians to feel threatened, guilty, betrayed or sorry.”

Our oceans are becoming an ecological nightmare. Recent computer simulations reveal that oceanic garbage patches may be more common than even scientists generally recognise. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is often touted as “twice the size of Texas.” How many more are out there and what can be done to clean such monumentally vast expanses of fragmented bits of plastic?

Raising awarenes about the severity of the pollution problem is eco-adventurer David de Rothschild who is planing to sail the PLASTIKI from San Francisco across the Pacific to Australia. The boat’s twin hulls are made of 12,500 plastic bottles filled with dry ice and the rest of the boat is made of a hard, tough, self-reinforcing plastic material called PET.

Read further:
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The Pacific Ocean’s Garbage Patch needs more study
Scientists find giant plastic rubbish dump floating in the Atlantic
The Plastiki Expedition
Sending a Message in 12,000 Bottles
Plastic rubbish blights Atlantic Ocean
The voyage of the Plastiki
Sea of plastics
People Eat Fish That Eat Fish That Eat Plastic

How do we turn around negative student behaviours?

One solution is the introduction of SEL- Social Emotional Learning

From Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and Student Benefits: Implications for the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Core Elements

SEL is the process through which children and adults acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills associated with the core areas of social and emotional (SE) competency:
Self-Awareness: identifying and recognizing emotions; accurate self-perception; recognizing strengths, needs, and values; self-efficacy
Self-Management: impulse control and stress management; self-motivation and discipline; goal setting and organizational skills
Social Awareness: perspective taking; empathy; difference recognition; respect for others
Relationship Skills: communication, social engagement, and relationship building; working cooperatively; negotiation, refusal, and conflict management;help seeking
Responsible Decision-making: problem identification and situation analysis; problem solving; evaluation and reflection; personal, social, and ethical responsibility

Does SEL work? Research findings indicate:

* 9% decrease in conduct • problems, such as classroom misbehavior and aggression
* 10% decrease in emotional distress, such as anxiety and depression
* 9% improvement in attitudes about self, others, and school
* 23% improvement in social and emotional skills
* 9% improvement in school and classroom behaviour
* 11 % improvement in achievement test scores

Learn more:
Why social and emotional learning is important
Social and emotional learning (SEL) is about learning how to manage feelings, manage friendships and solve problems. These are essential life skills that support wellbeing and positive mental health. Social and emotional skills promote children’s ability to cope with difficulties and help to prevent mental health problems. Children who have developed social and emotional skills find it easier to manage themselves, relate to others, resolve conflict, and feel positive about themselves and the world around them.

Programs in action
Sample SEL activities
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Ed Qld
Research Brief for Schools
What Does Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Look Like in a School System? 

Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guideline
Primary Library Charter
Study questions learning-styles research
Building Connections
Learning Technologies 2010
Mapumental
Safe TV
Free iPod Video Converter

Winter Olympics answers:

1. Every 4 years
2. Ethiopia
3. Italy (Turin)
4. cross-country skiing and rifle shooting
5. Both the United States (1932, 1960, and 1980) and France (1924, 1968, and 1992) have hosted the Winter Games three times.
6. March 12 to March 21, 2010
7. Ski Cross
8. USA see Medal Tally
9. Snowboarder Torah Bright
10. Ignatius Jones and David Atkins
11. Skeleton racing
12. Björn Dæhlie has won more medals than any other winter athlete. He is viewed by many as the greatest Winter Olympic athlete of all-time . Speedskater Apolo Ohno has earned his seventh career medal, making him the most decorated American Winter Olympian in history!
13.1998, Nagano, Japan
14. Bobsleigh
15. 1924
16. 1936 Germany
17. The Winter Olympics officially began in 1924 in Chamonix, France.
18. “With Glowing Hearts” and “Des Plus Brilliant Exploits”
19. Slalom is an alpine skiing discipline, involving skiing between poles spaced much closer together than in Giant Slalom
20. The next Games will be hosted by Sochi in 2014.

Now 12, Adora Svitak is considered a junior literary genius, having written over 400 short stories and published Flying Fingers and Dancing Fingers. Adora has been teaching writing workshops since she published her first book at age seven. She has been featured on Oprah, CNN’s Young People Who Rock, NBC Nightly News, and countless other programs. Very popular on the speaker’s circuit, she recently wowed them at TED 2010.
Learn more:
Adora’s blog
YouTube TED appearance
Adora Svitak
Her Twitter site
Adora Lily Svitak Wikipedia
Is Adora Svitak the cleverest child in the world?