Oxford Australia Blog

Sharing our love of education, language, and books

Category: Teaching

  • What’s new in ACARA’s new Geography F-6 curriculum: World place knowledge

    There are many new approaches in the new Australian Geography curriculum (Version 5.0; May 2013), and I am thrilled to be teaching it all. Here, though, I will talk about the emphasis on place knowledge and particularly world place knowledge. The fact that by the end of the primary years of schooling students are expected…

  • Social media for educators: Joining a Twitter conversation

    Spending time with other teachers provides a great opportunity for the sharing of resources and experiences, the exchange of advice, and offers a way to discover new teaching ideas that can be used with students. However the reality is that many teachers simply don’t have the time for this type of professional development. This is where social media channels, such as Twitter,…

  • Creating inclusive literacy learning experiences

    Rudyard Kipling famously said that, “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind”. Words can heal, hurt, excite, sadden – or just help with basic, everyday tasks and communications. So much human interaction is based on words; written, spoken, signed, or even tweeted! It is little wonder then that literacy learning is…

  • Child-friendly testing for young learners

    Verissimo Toste, an Oxford teacher trainer, looks at how you can make testing a child-friendly experience for your young learners, and useful for you. “Testing young learners? Really? Seriously? Why?” That’s usually my reaction when I hear teachers talking about testing young learners. “So, how do you decide what to teach them? How do you know how to teach…

  • Using design to engage readers of different ages

    Book design is more than just putting text and image together on a page. Many people don’t realise it, but HOW text and images are put together are just as important as the content of the text and image by itself. A reader engages with content that is presented through a combination of fonts, colour palettes,…

  • Using Social Media and Smart Devices Effectively in the Classroom

    How can you use digital technology to bring course material to life in the classroom? Thomas Healy, co-author of Smart Choice Second Edition, shares his ideas on the subject. It’s an old joke that although the Internet is one of the most important inventions since the wheel, most people just use it to look at pictures of…

  • 2014 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching

    The recipients of the 2014 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science were announced at a black-tie awards dinner on Wednesday 29 October in the Great Hall of Parliament House in Canberra. Representing the nation’s finest awards for excellence in science and science teaching, the five prizes awarded in 2014 were: Prime Minister’s Prize for Science Frank…

  • Taming the roly-poly boys

    Julie Baillie, Primary Education and Professional Development Manager, reminisces about her first day of teaching and the lesson she learnt about the power of story time. I remember being a young, fresh-faced teacher (with L-plates still firmly attached) sitting nervously in front of my class of 26 brand new Reception students. It was the very first…