We were talking the other day about recent films we had seen. The conversation then shifted, and we began discussing books that had been turned into movies. What started out as a small list has assumed gargantuan proportions and led to a library display of books that have become films.
If you have seen the film ….why not read the book (novel or play)…
In no particular order we came up with the following:
The Perfect Storm
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Gone With the Wind
To Kill a Mockingbird
A man for all Seasons
Looking for Alibrandi
Hating Alison Ashley
Holes
Catch 22
My Brother Jack
Tomorrow When the War Began
Warhorse
The Great Gatsby
48 Shades of Brown (48 Shades)
Slaughterhouse Five
Bridge to Terabithia
Grapes of Wrath
Jaws
The Godfather
Dracula
Frankenstein
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
The Birds
The Last of the Mohicans
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Journey to the Centre of the Earth
Ian Fleming’s James Bond…Goldfinger, From Russia with Love etc etc
Schindler’s Ark (Schindler’s List)
The Club
Under Milkwood
A Streetcar Named Desire
To Sir With Love
The Chronicles of Narnia
Harry Potter
Twilight
1984
Hart’s War
National Velvet
The Da Vinci Code
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Plus of course all of Shakespeare’s plays….Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth etc etc etc
Well, as I said, we could go on and on and on…
Do you have a favourite book that is now a film but is not on our list? Let us know!!
This week in the Web 2.0 Toolbox, we collated a list of websites that provide creative commons and/or copyright free images and clip art. As we said, a
(large ?) portion our students (and some teachers???) would be unaware, (or unconcerned???) that using images without permission is breaking copyright. Whilst many students/adults are aware of their responsibilites relating to the use of copyright material, there are many that shrug and use the images/audio/clipart anyway. In an extension of this attitude, this may also lead to the posting of private and personal images of friends (enemies?) onto social networking sites/blogs/websites.
As teachers, we condone this behaviour when we “turn a blind eye” and don’t ask our students to use copyright free images, and provide evidence of the source of the image or photo they have used.
Every year, the Monivae College Cadet band travels to Melbourne to take part in the ANZAC day march.
Here they are looking great despite the rain. They do a great job, and many people comment how good they look. Well done guys, you do us all proud.
I mean the truth untold,
The pity of war, the pity war distilled
Wilfren Owen (1893 – 1918)
ANZAC Day is a day of national remembrance. The dawn service commemorates the original landing at Gallipoli in 1915, but ANZAC day goes beyond this anniversary. It is the day we remember all Australians who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations.
Each year, here at school, as part of our recognition of ANZAC Day, we sell badges. The cadet band travels to Melbourne to be part of the ANZAC Day parade, and members of the school community attend the dawn service here in Hamilton.
Here in the Resource Centre we have an ANZAC Day display, with a fine selection of books from our Australian History Fund collection. The books range from tales from World War I through to the bombing of Darwin and much more. All the books are available for borrowing, so come in and have a browse.
Further information may be obtained from some of the excellent internet sites. These include:
The Australian War Memorial ANZAC – France which is the official site for ANZACS who fought on the Somme in World War I
Images of World War I and Gallipoli from the State Library of Victoria – ANZAC Spirit 1000 Poppies is a Victorian based project aimed at creating a space where students from around the world can share stories and experiences, linking the local and the global in an on-line environment and create their own response to honouring the service and sacrifice of veterans and those affected by war to express their hopes for lasting peace. Gallipoli – The First Day is an An ABC 3D documentary site about the WW1 ANZAC landing at Gallipoli, on 25 April 1915.
290,000 Australians served in Europe as part of the Australian Imperial Force during the WWI. Australians on the Western Front 1914-1918, is an Australian journey across the First World War battlefields of France and Belgium. The State Library of Victoria – Ergo has information about Australians at home and abroad during World War I.
Peter Dunn’s Australians at War website has amassed a huge amount of information about the role of Australia in different conflicts.
Designed to complement the TV documentary of the same name, Australians at War has lots of information, games and stories about Australians who have served their nation over the past 100 years.
The British Library has a number of what they call “sound maps”. These are a collection of sound recordings grouped into themes. Whilst most of the recordings relate to the British Isles, of particular interest to us are the sound maps that record survivors of the Jewish holocaust in World War II. The recordings can be accessed by anyone, and provide an excellent primary source for history students who are looking at this topic.
In the previous post, we introduced you to the Google Art Project. Since that post was written, Google has updated this project to include a number of new galleries. In particular, six Australian Art Galleries have added their collections to the project. The six Australian additions are:
The image capturing technology allows you to zoom in to see the finest details. It is not a substitute for the real deal, but if you cannot visit the gallery, then this may be the next best thing!
There are a number of good Art resources on the web for your delectation. Today we will look at just a few…
The first resource called Art Project has been created by Google.
The project allows you to:
Explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces.
There is an extensive list of museums that you can virtually visit via your computer screen. You simply select a museum from the homepage and then either choose ‘Explore the museum’ or ‘View Artwork’. Once you are in the main site use the drop-down menus or the side info bar to navigate between artworks and museums. You can also create and share your own collections online.
Some of the museums include:
The Tate Britain
The National Gallery – London
The Rijksmuseum – Amsterdam
The Frick Collection – New York
The Museum of Modern Art – New York
plus a number of others
Take a look at the following video for more information:
The National Gallery of Victoria has over 17000 images of their collected artworks already online.
You can explore different collection areas, browse pictures by artist and visit NGV stories which has three different sections contyaining artwork based on the themes of Identity, Melbourne, Landscape and the Environment.
The National Gallery of Australia is another excellent resource . It has over 100,000 items in it’s collection, many of which can be viewed via the web. The NGA website contains special focus sites with in-depth information on specific areas of the collection.
The San Francisco museum of Modern Arthas an extensive website that is well worth a visit. It contains many interactive features including podcasts and videos about art and artists.
You still have time to enter both teachers and students in the 2012 Eureka Prize for excellence in the field of Science and Mathematics.
The Australian Museum Eureka Prizes are a unique partnership between government organisations, institutions, companies and individuals committed to celebrating the vitality, originality and excellence of Australian science.
The Eureka awards were established in 1990 to reward outstanding achievements in Australian science and science promotion/ communication
In 2012, 18 prizes will be awarded in four categories – Research & Innovation, Leadership & Commercialisation, School Science and Science Communication & Journalism.
In the School Science category, there is a prize of $10000 (yes $10000) to be awarded to a secondary school science or mathematics teacher who has motivated and inspired students to become involved in student-centred investigation and whose work impacts on the science and/or mathematics participation and performance of students in their school.
There is also the “Sleek Geeks” Secondary School Science Prize sponsered by the University of Sydney that encourages students with a passion for science and for communicating ideas to tell a scientific story via a short film.
If you and your students want to enter the 2012 awards, then you need to get cracking. Key Dates for 2012 are:
Entries Open: Friday 3 February 2012
Entries Close: midnight AEST Friday 4 May 2012
Finalists Announced: Friday 27 July 2012
Winners Announced: Tuesday 28 August 2012
The 4th May will creep up very rapidly, so you have no time to lose!! For more information and help click the link to Teacher Resources
Did you know that your school library is not just a repository for dusty tomes? …… and no I don’t mean the library staff thank you very much!!!!
We actually run a number of blogs and wikis designed to assist you and your students with accessing the wonderful world of Web 2.0.
The first of these is a blog called The Web 2.0 Toolbox, which is an ever growing collection of useful Web 2.0 tools that you may like to try in your classroom. This blog is only accessible to teachers. Every week or so (not much this year, but hopefully we will start in earnest next term), a new tool is added to the Toolbox for your delight. If you have an iGoogle page, you can subscribe to our RSS feed and be informed of any updates, otherwise, we send out an email alerting you to new good stuff that has been added.
Secondly, we run a wiki accessible to both staff and students called The One Stop Shop, which contains links to lots of useful Web 2.0 tools. As with the Web 2.0 Toolbox, we are continually adding to this wiki. You don’t have to remember that favourite tool’s web address ever again. Just go to the wiki and voila!!
Access to both the One Stop Shop and The Web 2.0 Toolbox is easy!! Go to your SIMON homepage and click on the relevant link – see below….
Do you have a favourite tool that we do not know about? Let us know and we will add it to the One Stop Shop, and then let everyone else know by featuring it on the Web 2.0 Toolbox blog.
(PS If the thought of Web 2.0 makes you queasy, and you don’t know your RSS feed from your Glog…don’t despair, come down and have a chat. We can help you get started.)
Last Friday, Mrs Patience, Mrs Bell and myself went off to Melbourne to present at the School Libraries Association of Victoria 2012 conference…. and let me tell you that it was quite an adventure!!
Dr Ross Todd from the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers , the State University of New Jersey was the keynote speaker. His primary teaching and research interests focus on understanding how children learn and build new knowledge from information, to how teacher-librarians and classroom teachers can more effectively empower student learning through guided inquiry, and constructivist learning approaches.
His keynote address was an inspiring start to the conference. He is a passionate advocate of school libraries and their critical importance in encouraging students to acquire critical thinking skills and achieve deep knowledge and understanding to meet the core curriculum standards.
His research indicates that in successful schools, the school library is the central point for intellectual innovation for both students and teachers. It is in the library that the learning culture of the school has it’s roots. The library is a learning centre, not just a repository for facts.
According to Ross Todd, in successful schools, the library is a pedagogical centre where students and teachers can experiment and learn innovatively. School librarians are information specialists. But more than that, they are a knowledge source to be tapped by the whole school community, both students and teachers alike. The role of the school library is NOT just to find “stuff” – rather it is part of a critical engagement to attain knowledge.
The library acts as a “connector”
- between students, their learning and the real world,
- between teachers and their disciplines
The school librarian’s role is not to replace the classroom teacher, but to enhance and support the role of the teacher by working in collaboration with them and their students.
With Ross’ inspiring words ringing in our ears, we then gave our presentation about Monivae’s involvement in The WEE Project.
Last year, Mrs Patience’s 9 & 10 Indonesian class took part in a state wide project looking at the use of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom. Monivae was one of only 10 schools chosen to be involved. The students used a variety of Web 2.0 Tools to show “A day in the life of….”. Topics included:
A day in the life of a super hero
A day in the life of a Western District Sheep Farm
A day at the Avalon airshow
A day on a dairy farm
A day at the swimming sports
A day in the life of a year 7 student
A day out shopping
and so on….
Once this aspect of the project was completed, the students then produced a “How to…” for one of their chosen tools.
Our presentation to the conference was aimed at showcasing the work of the students as well as talking about the pitfall, problems and triumphs of the whole project.
You can check out the full WEE project at the SLAV WEE Wiki. This contains all the students’ work as well as their “How to’s” and reflections from both staff and students. In addition, it has lots of links to Web 2.0 tools and other information. If you are thinking of incorporating Web 2.0 into your classroom it is well worth a look to see what can be done, and how the library can help you.
We were talking the other day about recent films we had seen. The conversation then shifted, and we began discussing books that had been turned into movies. What started out as a small list has assumed gargantuan proportions and led to a library display of books that have become films. 
