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Interactive, anti-bacterial touch screens that test air quality, kill most germs, and protect from eyestrain will provide your teachers the peace of mind they deserve post-COVID. With school health and air quality concerns at an all-time high across Australia, BenQ’s latest interactive boards are a breath of fresh air. They enable your teachers and learners to interact in a classroom space that supports healthy collaboration day-to-day, wall-to-wall, whiteboard-to-whiteboard. ‘Deep breath in, slow breath out…’ Breathing techniques to quieten chaotic classrooms are vital, but not so calming in low-quality air. Just last month, cutting edge research undertaken at UNSW Sydney’s School of Built Environment brought to light the shocking issue of poor air quality in Aussie schools. The research team found that concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in classrooms peaked significantly higher than the 850-ppm threshold prescribed by the National Construction Code and suggests that enhancing ventilation and environmental quality must be a critical consideration for schools equal to enhancing teaching materials. As children spend the vast majority of their school days learning inside classroom environments, indoor air quality should be a core concern for schools. In fact, based on government figures, we know that Australian students are couped up in …
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Toni Powell is the author of two funny-ish books. ‘What A Feeling’ is a surprising and eye-opening book on relationships and ‘The Yellow Car’ is a short and powerful true story that teaches people not to worry.
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After losing a Year 9 student to suicide, educator, Rachel Downie decided that she needed to find a way to support our young people to say something when things ‘aren’t right’. She discovered that in emergent situations, students often felt too frightened to come forward with possible life-saving information, due to their social expectations and Australia’s cultural acceptance of bullying. This led Rachel to developing Stymie – harm reporting without fear. Rachel was recognised for her work with young people at risk of harm, receiving the Queensland Australian of the Year Award in 2020 and she has an important message for educators… How can we challenge a conversation if we lack courage? It’s a powerful message given the revelations facing some schools about sexual assault and issues of consent. So how can education leaders address these issues? What role do you see schools playing in addressing concerning societal issues that play out in schools? It is extremely difficult at the moment to stand in front of students (thousands of them every week) and ask them to Say Something if they are seeing or experiencing harm, when in every corner of our society and at our highest levels of leadership, confidentiality, …
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The International Conference on Thinking (ICOT) is an internationally renowned cross-disciplinary event that connects a diverse group of trailblazers and disruptors from a range of industries and disciplines. The conference aims to help educators, academics, professors, and business professionals provoke, challenge, learn, and discuss the many forms of thinking and its application in creating new ideas and problem solving. ICOT is the world’s largest conference on the practice of thinking and is returning to Melbourne for the first time since 2005. The five-day programme runs from 4 – 8 July 2021 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, and for the first time in the conference’s history, ICOT 2021’s new hybrid model combines virtual and live elements to ensure participants can still meet, exchange knowledge, ideas and experiences and have greater connectivity across the globe. Headlined by renowned lateral thinking pioneer, Dr. Edward de Bono, ICOT 2021 participants will have the opportunity to hear from over 30 world class speakers across various disciplines in an inspiring five-day programme that includes keynotes and feature presentations, interactive workshops, challenge groups and offsite learning journeys. From machine learning to a travelling high school, to education and technology; the ICOT 2021 conference speakers span …
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The National Education Summit Brisbane is professional learning designed by Australian educators, for Australian educators. Hear from educational experts and connect with the Australian community via a series of 4 conferences and a free seminar program. All events are mapped to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers providing you with self-identified continuing PD.
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Many teachers are now looking to incorporate the latest scientific research on how to most effectively teach reading into their professional practice, to get students off to a great start on their literacy journey. Leading Australasian literacy provider, MultiLit, publishes a range of evidence-based literacy support and intervention programs for use by primary and secondary schools. As a research initiative of Macquarie University, MultiLit’s publications and associated professional development are continually informed by an ongoing program of research, led by Emeritus Professor Kevin Wheldall AM. Established 25 years ago, MultiLit’s mission is to bring about major educational change so that far fewer children are left to struggle in school with inadequate reading and related skills, the skills essential for academic success in all areas. The most recent addition to MultiLit’s suite of programs is InitiaLit, a three-year whole-class initial instruction program, for students from Foundation to Year 2. In the context of a Response to Intervention framework, InitiaLit is a Tier 1 program, and provides the essential core knowledge and strong foundations for students to become successful readers and writers. Since its release in 2017, InitiaLit has been implemented by more than 500 schools throughout Australia. In 2020, InitiaLit–Foundation, InitiaLit–1 …
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Special Report: The role of the school in resisting racist culture