Registrations have closed for on-campus sessions of the University's Year Ten Information Evening, and both sessions are full. 

However, you can register to receive a podcast of the session once it is available: register here

Future Students' annual information evenings are designed to help year 10 students and their parents choose subjects for the HSC and navigate through the process of applying to uni. 

Topics include:

• ATAR, scaling and assumed knowledge
• subject selections
• career pathways
• university transition

Many of our high schools have already or will soon be having their new Year 11 Scholarships workshops for 2012.  In these sessions, students are informed about scholarshiop opportunities in higher education and reminded of the importance of preparing for the application process and focusing on their personal development. 

The University of Sydney's Scholarships Office will be holding a Scholarships Information Evening on campus on Tuesday 19 June. This is an opportunity for Year 11 & 12 students and their parents to hear more about how to create a competitive application.  As with the recent Year Ten event, the University is offering podcast access to those parents and students who can't come in to campus. 

See below for information on podcasting:You should be able to play your podcast on any mp3 player or computer that has iTunes or another mp3 player installed.  You will receive an email giving you access via link to the mp3 once you register. 

For parents, students, and teachers who are less familiar with podcasting, this YouTube video on Podcasting in Plain English might be a useful introduction. 

This workshop on Teacher Creativity at the Intersection of Cognition, Content and Interactive Digital Media will be held on Monday July 2nd at the University of Sydney. It will provide hands-on instruction in the creation of interactive digital media. The workshop will provide software and tablet computers and furnish instruction in producing videos for use in classrooms. It will explore potential long-term media collaborations between teachers and students in Australia, Africa and the USA.

Depending on interests, additional instructional workshops may be held at individual schools during the week of 3 July. Secondary school students, with parent permission, are welcome both on 2 July and at any workshops later in the week at their own schools.

Equipment will be furnished for the workshop; teachers bringing laptop computers will be furnished with professional video editing software for use during and after the workshop. There is no cost for participating.


This is the first part of a two-part workshop. You do not need to attend both sessions. The first session, on Monday afternoon, July 2, will involve a hands-on process of engaging student-teacher teams in the creation of interactive digital media. The workshop will provide software and tablet computers and furnish instruction in producing videos for use in classrooms.

High school student-teacher teams and other practitioners, especially from Sydney area schools are invited without cost to this portion of the workshop. ICLS researchers are welcome to register, observe and/or to participate in this portion of the workshop.

The second session, which builds on this first part, is an official part of theICLS program, and those attending must also register for the conference and pay a fee. (The first 8 people to register will recieve free places, please contact coco@sydney.edu.au for more details.) Time: 10.00am - 4.30pm Location: Room 230, Education Building A35
Cost: Free
Contact: Eric Hamilton
Email: eric.hamilton@pepperdine.edu
More info: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/IISMI-Pepperdine-Lesotho-July2012 

Saturday 16 June 2012 | 10am–1.30pm | Homebush West Public School, Exeter Rd, Homebush West
Presented by the Office of Professional Learning in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney.
This half-day conference will provide participants with opportunities to connect with other early-career graduates. A range of workshops will be provided, including:

• authentic assessment
  
  
• visual literacy
  
  
• working with parents
  
  
• accreditation.
  
  

Speakers will include Professor Robyn Ewing, Associate Professor Alyson Simpson, Dr Jon Callow, Kathy Rushton, Kate Smyth, Associate Professor Janette Bobis, Dr Jennifer Way and Bill Spence.

One-hour workshops
Participants will undertake two one-hour workshops from a range of topics. Options include:

• Supporting reluctant writers – Bill Spence – in any class there are always some students who need extra support with writing, whether for ideas to write about or just motivation to write. This workshop will look at practical ideas for supporting reluctant writers through innovating on existing texts and using paper engineering strategies for publishing student work.
  
  
• Switching kids on to mathematics – Associate Professor Janette Bobis and/or Dr Jennifer Way – this workshop is designed to deepen teachers' understanding of what motivates and engages students in mathematics. It will explore aspects of students' behaviour, thoughts and emotions that can be harnessed to address disengagement and promote intention to learn mathematics.
  
  
• Teaching talking and listening – Kathy Rushton – we talk every day with students, but planning and programming for the explicit teaching of talking and listening can be challenging. In this workshop we will look at strategies for developing talking and listening K–6 and how to program for talking and listening across the Key Learning Areas.
  
  
• "I see it now": pedagogy and visual literacy revisited – Dr Jon Callow – looking at a selection of visual texts (work done by children, as well as published texts), this workshop will revisit key ideas related to visual texts and viewing, including assessment and how to plan engaging lessons.
  
  

Oct 17, 24, 31 & Nov 7, 14, 21
Conversations about literary texts – module 1   Blended mode – 12 hours face-to-face at Homebush Boys High School + 8 hours reading/online activities
NSWIT Course Code C08360. 

• Teaching grammar in primary school and middle years.
• The teaching of literary texts as the context in which grammar is taught to support meaning. 
• Details and dates TBA

Reading and writing for the middle years – module 1 
10 hours face-to-face at Belmore South Public School Weeks 3–7 
Day TBA 4–6pm
+ 10 hours reading/online activities
NSWIT Course Code TBA.
This module will enable teachers to:

• Articulate the reading and writing skills and understandings required by students to access content and achieve syllabus outcomes in their subject areas
• Expand and enhance the teaching of the reading and writing required for learning in their subject areas, and
• Use a range of strategies to support and develop students' reading and writing skills.

 TERM 2
Children's Literature Module 1
10 hours face-to-face at hub school + 10 hours reading/online activities
NSWIT Course Code TBA.

This module examines the critical role that literature can and should play in the lives and imaginations of young children and adolescents (K–12); the importance of children's personal, aesthetic and socially critical responses to literary texts; and the role of literary texts in developing particular kinds of literacy practices. In this module we will explore a range of questions including:

• What are the characteristics of quality literary texts?
• What are the practical and theoretical issues surrounding the use of literary texts (picture books, novels, short stories, poetry) for children and adolescents in today's primary and secondary classrooms?
• How does new media impact on narrative?

This module will involve discussion of participants' wide and close reading of a range of children's literature and of the recent theory and research relating the characteristics of such texts to the classroom practicalities of literacy pedagogy. 

Blended mode in-school session outline
Session 1: The role of the arts in learning and literature as an art form
Session 2: Choosing quality literary texts for the classroom
Session 3: Responding to literature
Session 4: Literature and the Australian Curriculum
Session 5: Exploring visual literacy through picture books

Mentoring - Module 1
Available all Term 4 2011 – Opens Week 1
NSWIT Course Code C08579

This course is designed to meet the needs of teachers who are involved in mentoring and all teachers interested in professional development related to mentoring, teacher induction and teacher accreditation issues.

The course will include:

• a critical overview of the research in the areas of professional development, mentoring and teacher induction
• a study of key issues related to the concept of mentoring and teacher induction identified through the review of literature
• analysis of the current developments around standards of professional practice
• opportunities for individuals to discuss and investigate specific mentoring issues and develop mentoring skill.

1 – 2 November

Dr Michael Ungar, ‘Resilience in the Middle Years’
Michael Ungar is a University Research Professor and Professor at the School of Social Work at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. As the Director of the Resilience Research Centre, he currently leads a number of studies of resilience involving researchers from more than a dozen countries on six continents.He is also the author of eight books including:

• Strengths-Based Counseling with At-Risk Youth
• We Generation: Raising Socially Responsible Kids
• Playing at Being Bad: The Hidden Resilience of Troubled Teens, and
• Too Safe for Their Own Good: How Risk and Responsibility Help Teens Thrive.

See future Compass Directions for more information.