Days/events to celebrate, particuarly in Australian schools

Many thanks to edna's Global Education newsletter for the following information.

Visit http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/news to subscribe to the newsletter or to read the latest issue online.
Global Education News is published by the Global Education website, funded by AusAID to support its Global Education Program and compiled by education.au limited.

Schools Clean Up Australia Day, 4 March

Join the thousands of school students across Australia on the Friday before the National Clean Up Day. Registration provides you with an education kit. http://www.cleanup.com.au
Read the Case study, The power of many, Waste management in Wewak, Papua New Guinea to find out about students in PNG cleaning up their environment and writing about it.
 http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/go/pid/152

National Seaweek, 6-12 March

Seaweek is the Marine Education Society of Australasia’s (MESA) major national public awareness campaign. In 2011, the theme is ‘Spotlight on Marine Science’. Through a spotlight on the work of scientists we can learn more our marine environment to understand its complex ecosystems and become better equipped to preserve it. Information and teaching resources are available at
http://www.mesa.edu.au/seaweek2011

Try the global education website’s Global Learning Quest, Prawns the global delicacy.
http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/go/pid/2556

International Women's Day, 8 March

On International Women’s Day, we can review the progress made towards equal rights, and equality of political and economic participation, for women. The UN CyberSchoolBus has accessible information on equality, discrimination, and access to education for women, and contains some useful links for the celebration of International Women’s Day.
http://www0.un.org/cyberschoolbus/womensday/index.asp
Choose activities from the global education website to help students explore the consequences of discrimination on the basis of gender and understand how the empowerment of women and girls leads to improved living conditions for all.
http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/go/pid/1886

Commonwealth Day, 9 March

The aim of commemorating Commonwealth Day is to promote understanding on global issues, international co-operation and the work of the Commonwealth to improve the lives of its 2 billion citizens. The theme for 2011 is Women as Agents of Change'
http://www.thecommonwealth.org/Internal/148532/commonwealth_day/

Harmony Day, 21 March

‘Living in Harmony’ is an Australian Government initiative designed to promote community harmony, build relationships between people and address racism where it occurs in Australia. It coincides with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and promotes the values of harmony, community, diversity, commitment, goodwill, and understanding. The theme for 2011 is ‘Everyone Belongs’. The website provides useful links to resources, classroom activities and lessons plans as well as free posters, button badges, Harmony Day temporary tattoos, stickers and balloons.
http://www.harmony.gov.au/harmony-day/

World Forestry Day, 21 March

World Forestry Day, helps us focus on the International Year of Forests. It helps us consider the benefits of forests - such as catchment protection, providing habitat for plants, areas for recreation, education and scientific study, and as a source of many products including timber and honey. World Forestry Day also aims to provide opportunities for people to learn how forests can be managed and used sustainably for these many purposes.
http://www.fao.org/forestry/en/

World Water Day 2011, 22 March

The theme for 2011, Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge, aims to focus international attention on the impact of rapid urban population growth, industrialization and uncertainties caused by climate change, conflicts and natural disasters on urban water systems.
http://www.worldwaterday.org/

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Use the calendar for more than dates

Calendars can be a great classroom resource and inspiration for research.

The Australian Schools Calendar on edna and this one from New Zealand both alert teachers and students to special days that can be "observed" in the classroom.

Student activities can be as simple as working out how old the person whose birthday is marked on the calendar "is", or looking for websites that are celebrating the day, the month or the year. Many of those sites have an educational focus and special activities for students.

Students will often get a real kick out of finding out who shares their birthday or if any significant events have happened on that calendar date. Once they have located some basic information they can research to find out more and present it to the rest of the class. Extended research could be turned into a powerpoint presentation or an e-book. They could create an online e-book at issuu.com

Another interesting source of information are the Google logos. You have probably noticed these occasionally when you use a Google search. The Google doodlers have become more adventurous over time and the logos more interesting.

For example today, Feb 8, the Google logo celebrates Jules Verne's birthday in 1828. Classroom research might start with how old he would be, but then get on to why we want to remember him. The library might have a copy of one of his books or you might find a movie based on it. If you have e-readers, then the Gutenberg Project may help you out. Around the World in 80 Days is here. You could create an e-book using ereadups.com or simply search Wikipedia or similar to find out what has been named after Jules Verne. Classroom discussion could centre around the role of visionary authors in pointing us to what might be possible.

So why not get started today? Print a calendar or two out. Festoon your classroom or your library with them, and start celebrating!

 

 

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Australian Schools Calendar 2011

  2011 Australian Schools Calendar - now available!

The Australian Schools Calendar provides a comprehensive list of events and celebration days with each date linked to additional information about the event making it easier for teachers to plan classroom activities.

Beautifully illustrated to commemorate the International Year of Forests and to raise awareness, the calendar includes month-by-month 'Be a Detective' activities to encourage students to identify how people are protecting forests and the environment.

A range of options are available for downloading the calendar including:
•    iphone and android downloads
•    iCal dates
•    PDF files of complete year and individual months.
Visit http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/schooled/calendar  to download the calendar.

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World Toilet Day is 19 November

Did you know that nearly half of the world's population don't have access to toilets or proper sanitation?

November 19th is World Toilet Day. It is a day to celebrate the importance of sanitation and raise awareness of this problem. Here in Australia we laugh about the "outback dunny" with its "long drop" but we also recognise how essential they are. Check them out on Wikipedia.

We even have them listed on a National Toilet Map.

More information about World Toilet Day is available from http://www.worldtoilet.org/wtd/

The Sanitation and Disease project at http://www.ozprojects.edu.au/course/view.php?id=19 has activities to help teachers and students understand the connection between clean water, sanitation and disease.

You can watch the Adventures of Super Toilet on the Water Aid Splash Out website and then draw one of the characters using Kerpoof Studio.

There is also an online crossword and discussion forums in which students can share their knowledge about sanitation and discuss the world water crisis.

For more information or assistance to get started in this project please email ozprojects@edna.edu.au

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