The explore/Hatch Award will be presented to the filmmaker whose short film shows a group or individual hero striving for a better world through selfless acts. If you or anyone you know has created a film highlighting a cause that inspires others to make a difference, submissions are now open. The winner will receive a full expense paid trip to HATCHFest in Asheville, North Carolina (April 15th - 18th) where they will have the chance to meet with prominent mentors as well as receive a prize from the explore.org co-founder, Charles Annenberg Weingarten! Submissions are due on March 25th.

The videos are each handpicked by our team in order to find the best films in terms of content, length and entertainment value. Each video is organized by its subject matter and categorized, making it easy to find quality films fast.

Be sure to also check out the recently launched “How-To” category, which features fun, instructional videos that teach various skills including How to Levitate.

We The Teachers - We The Teachers (WTT) is a social site for teachers who want to network, share lesson plans, and discuss education-related topics online. Site members can try out WTT alone or join groups of like-minded teachers.

LearnCentral - LearnCentral is a social learning network for educators who want to network with colleagues and collaborate on a global level. Teachers who sign up for a free membership are given their own virtual meeting room with two-way VoIP, an interactive whiteboard, and application sharing capacity.

Edutagger - Edutagger is a new social bookmarking site for K-12 teachers. It works a lot like Delicious and other bookmarking sites but focuses exclusively on education-related content.

Engrade - Engrade is the perfect online tool for teachers who want to create a secure, online classroom community. It can be used to track and store assignments, grades, class attendance, and much more.

Edmodo - This free social platform is an excellent resource for teachers who want to be able to share assignments, files, and other content with their students over the web. Edmodo can also be used to create an online group or class.

TeachStreet - This site provides an array of tools to help educators grow their teaching business. Teachers can TeachStreet to network with other teachers, list events, promote classes, and collect online payments from students.

Eduslide - Eduslide makes it easy for teachers to create and deliver their own presentations, slide shows, and courses online. Teachers can make Eduslide content publicly available to anyone who wants to see it or restrict access to a specific group of people.

TeacherTube - TeacherTube is an online community for teachers who want to share instructional videos. Videos can be aimed at students or other educators.

Teacher Lingo - This online community is for blogging teachers who want to share their content and ideas with other educators. The site has a blog feed, message board, and a space to share lesson plans.

Vyew - Vyew is a collaborative tool for teachers who want to host webinars, presentations, and meetings online. The site can also be used to create and upload course content for real-time instruction. The free version of Vyew allows up to ten real-time participants.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online college classes for OnlineClasses.org.

ATutor - Similar to Moodle, ATutor is an open source web-based learning content management system (LCMS/LMS). It provides students with a social learning network and allows teachers to conduct courses online.

SugarLabs - SugarLabs offers an award-winning learning platform for children. The free platform allows children to collaborate, communicate, write, and make music together in a safe environment. SugarLabs’ software is available in 25 languages and is used by more than one million students around the world.

MediaWiki - Originally written for use on Wikipedia, this free wiki software works well for classroom wikis. The software includes full installation instructions and allows users to restrict anonymous editing, reading, and account registration.

Elgg - This open source program can be used to create social networks for education and other school-related projects. Elgg provides everything needed to build a site or application from the ground up and offers frequently updated patches, plugins, and themes.

Anki - Anki is a free and open source spaced repetition system (SRS) that can be used to create smart flashcards and scheduled study periods. The software works online, on computers, on cell phones, and with several different portable devices.

Pauker - Pauker is an open source learning application that is available in multiple languages, including English, Esperanto, Dutch, German, French, Polish, Spanish, Slovak, and Vietnamese. The application is flashcard-based and meant to help people memorize everything from abbreviations to state capitals.

StarDict - StarDict is a free international dictionary and translator that works across multiple platforms. You can use the online version or download the StarDict software to your computer for free.

Tux Paint - Designed for children age three and up, this award-winning open source drawing program offers a friendly user interface and a wide range of drawing tools. Children can get creative with a paint brush, line tools, shape tools, text and label tools, rubber stamps, and many other easy-to-use special effects.

VoiceThread - VoiceThread is a web-based application that allows multiple people to collaborate on a slide show presentation. Users can comment together on images, documents, and videos. Several versions of VoiceThread are available; the free version allows unlimited voice threads and 2GB of storage.

Google Wave - Google Wave is a new Google tool that can be used to communicate and collaborate online in real-time. The software isn’t freely available yet, but you can request a special invitation to try out Google Wave with students or colleagues.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online degree programs for OnlineDegreePrograms.org.

Excerpts from “‘Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman!’ Adventures of a Curious Character” by Richard Feynman, Bantam Books: New York, 1986

I don’t believe I can really do without teaching. The reason is, I have to have something so that when I don’t have any ideas and I’m not getting anywhere I can say to myself, “At least I’m living; at least I’m doing something; I am making some contribution” — it’s just psychological.

When I was at Princeton in the 1940s I could see what happened to those great minds at the Institute for Advanced Study, who had been specially selected for their tremendous brains and were now given this opportunity to sit in this lovely house by the woods there, with no classes to teach, with no obligations whatsoever. These poor bastards could now sit and think clearly all by themselves, OK? So they don’t get any ideas for a while: They have every opportunity to do something, and they are not getting any ideas. I believe that in a situation like this a kind of guilt or depression worms inside of you, and you begin to worry about not getting any ideas. And nothing happens. Still no ideas come.

Nothing happens because there’s not enough real activity and challenge: You’re not in contact with the experimental guys. You don’t have to think how to answer questions from the students. Nothing!

In any thinking process there are moments when everything is going good and you’ve got wonderful ideas. Teaching is an interruption, and so it’s the greatest pain in the neck in the world. And then there are the longer period of time when not much is coming to you. You’re not getting any ideas, and if you’re doing nothing at all, it drives you nuts! You can’t even say “I’m teaching my class.”

If you’re teaching a class, you can think about the elementary things that you know very well. These things are kind of fun and delightful. It doesn’t do any harm to think them over again. Is there a better way to present them? The elementary things are easy to think about; if you can’t think of a new thought, no harm done; what you thought about it before is good enough for the class. If you do think of something new, you’re rather pleased that you have a new way of looking at it.

The questions of the students are often the source of new research. They often ask profound questions that I’ve thought about at times and then given up on, so to speak, for a while. It wouldn’t do me any harm to think about them again and see if I can go any further now. The students may not be able to see the thing I want to answer, or the subtleties I want to think about, but they remind me of a problem by asking questions in the neighborhood of that problem. It’s not so easy to remind yourself of these things.

So I find that teaching and the students keep life going, and I would never accept any position in which somebody has invented a happy situation for me where I don’t have to teach. Never.

Online Books Page - The Online Books Page was founded by a University of Pennsylvania researcher. The site lists more than 35,000 books that are freely available over the web. Other features include a blog, banned book lists, and book recommendations.

Daily Lit - DailyLit is the perfect site for booklovers who don’t have a whole lot of time to read. The site sends free books in short installments via email. A new installment is sent daily (or more often if you prefer) and takes less than five minutes to read.

LibriVox - LibriVox provides free audio books from the public domain. You can listen to the books or volunteer to record chapters for the site.

PaperBackSwap - This free book club provides more than one million hardcover books, paperback books, audio books, and textbooks that can be traded for free online. Users can post books they no longer want and request books they would like to read.

BookMooch - BookMooch is an online community for readers who want to exchange used books. Every time you give a book away, you can get a book you want from someone else on BookMooch.

Amazon - Amazon is an excellent forum for people who like to read. The site offers editorial reviews, user reviews, book recommendations, online discussions, and heavy discounts on new and used books.

Bibliomania - This site offers more than 2,000 free classic books and poems in addition to literature notes, book summaries, and author biographies.

Shmoop - Shmoop is a fun, new site with easy-to-read study guides and book summaries. The site focus is on poetry and literature, but Shmoop delves into history and writing as well.

Litsum - Litsum is a wonderful place for readers to further explore the books they love. The site offers literature summaries, quotes, character analysis, discussion topics, and many other fun resources.

BookBrowse - This online book guide provides more than 20,000 literature reviews to help readers choose their next book. Other site features include author interviews and bios, book club resources, book news, and online giveaways.

Booksprouts - Booksprouts is a free online community for book clubs and reading groups. You can use it to find books, join a club, or start your own club.

Oprah’s Book Club - Millions of people around the world have joined Oprah’s Book Club. The club frequently recommends books and provides a lively discussion forum for members.

Shelfari - Shelfari is a social media site for booklovers. Users can discover new books, create a virtual shelf to show off their own books, and discuss books online.

BookMuse - Designed for readers of all ages, BookMuse provides book recommendations, book discussion topics, author bios, and other free literature-related resources.

Bookreporter.com - Part of the Book Report Network, Bookreporter.com tries to introduce readers to great books through book reviews, regular features, author interviews, and book excerpts.

BookPage - BookPage is a place for readers to discover new books. The site recommends recently published selections each month and frequently gives books away for free.

BookCrossing - Nearly one million people in more than 130 countries have joined BookCrossing to share their love of books with other people. This unique club asks members to share books by leaving them on a park bench, at the gym, or other places where they can be found. Books can then be tracked to see where they end up.

What Should I Read Next - This free app helps you choose books by analyzing titles you like and suggesting similar books from a larger reader database.

BooksWellRead - BooksWellRead is a free online book journal that can be used to record reviews and notes about books you like (and don’t like.) Journals can be kept private, shared with other people, or made public.

Bestseller Lists - This list displays the bestselling books of the last century according to Publisher’s Weekly’s lists of bestselling hardcover books.

Guest post from education writer and author Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online colleges for OnlineCollege.org.

How can you convince others to accept your point of view on an issue? Writing persuasively can be a powerful method for influencing the opinions of others. As well as essays, there are many other forms of persuasive writing: letters to the editor, editorials, letters of suggestion or complaint, advertisements and so on.

Writing persuasively involves knowing what you are going to say - that is, forming a claer point of view that is supported by well-researched reasons and relevant persuasive techniques, such as facts and evidence, expert opinion, positive or negative language. Essentially, you must know your subject. Writing persuasively also involves deciding how you are going to organise and express your point of view.

Whether you are writing a persuasive letter, editorial or an essay, there is a basic and effective organisational structure that is commonly adopted. This is explained below.

Paragraph One - Introduction:

Present your point of view (opinion) on the issue, including brief, relevant background information and definitions.

Paragraph Two - Supporting Reason:

Present the main reason for your point of view in the opening sentence (topic sentence). Expand this by giving a range of evidence, definitions and references to experts. Use positive or negative language to express your point of view on the issue.

Paragraph Three - Supporting Reason 2:

Present another key supporting reason for your point of view in the opening sentence. As with the first one, expand this by giving a range of evidence, definitions and references to experts. Use positive or negative language to express your point of view on the issue.

Paragraph Four - Opposing Views:

Briefly state the opposing views and why you do not support them. Your reasons need to be logical and backed up where appropriate with reliable evidence or facts. It is not sufficient to simply say “I do not agree with this point of view.”

Paragraph Five - Conclusion:

Conclusions can take many forms. They may be a summary of your point of view and key supporting reasons, a recommendation for future action on the issue, or a warning of what could happen if nothing is done about the issue.

REMEMBER:

Effective pieces of persuasive writing:

· uses language and ideas that are calm and reasonable

· includes reasons and cites specific examples

· avoids exaggerations and words that show strong emotions, bias, anger and insults

FEATURES:

· clear introduction

· audience - often a sense of talking directly to the reader

· polite, formal, concerned, expect reader to respond similarly

· list of points relevant to topic - all the facts

· points can be emotional

· consideration of opposing points in order to refute

· clear conclusion - with request

LANGUAGE:

· asking rhetorical questions

· personal pronoun - “I” and “the majority”

· linking words used a lot - firstly, secondly, another, however

· citing authorities

· appeal to intellect - “it is clear”, “facts show that”

· “beneficial to many” argument

· using selective figures to back up argument

· short sentences for emphatic points, longer sentences for back up information

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS:

· clear idea of what you want

· arguments for and against

· check audience and decide form - letter is common

· organise material - introduction, points to be made, conclusion

· points to be made - which first, use of linking words, personal tone, politeness, priorities for points, perhaps end on a strong point

· research backup material

· proof reading to ensure a quality final product

AVOID USING THE FOLLOWING ‘PROPAGANDA’ TECHNIQUES:

· Testimonial - persuasive statements made by people who claim to have personal experience with the issue

· Bandwagon - statements intended to make the reader believe that everyone is doing or believing what the author is writing about

· Name calling - representing alternative viewpoints in a negative light

· Facts left out - ignoring pieces of information that may influence the reader away from the author’s viewpoint

· Opinions as facts - representing the opinions of the author as factual information

· Use of numbers and statistics - author uses numbers to give the subject the appearance of greater importance

· Quoting out of context - quoting the source of information without providing all the details

· Red herring - a piece of information intended to mislead the reader

THE TASK:

You need to choose a topic about which you hold strong views. A scan of newspapers, TV or the radio may give you some ideas about current issues, if something does not readily spring to mind. Spend time researching and thinking about your topic so that you have the facts to back up your opinion. You will be expected to present information for both sides of the argument.

Choose one of the following ways in which to present your opinion:

· Write an editorial or two letters to the editor. One letter is to be in support of the views expressed in the editorial, the other in opposition.
OR

· Write a feature article for a magazine. You will need to provide both points of view although it should be clear where you stand on the issue.

CRITERIA FOR ASSESSMENT:

1. Style of language and format appropriate to the task

2. Opinion of the issue is clear

3. Provided information for both sides of the argument

4. Minimum 500 words (total for all pieces)

5. Evidence of planning and drafting (submit a rough draft)

6. Evidence of careful editing with appropriate spelling, punctuation and paragraphing

State whether each of the following statements would generally be considered to be a fact or an opinion?

1. Today is Monday. ________________________

2. The most common language spoken in Australia is English. ________________________

3. The capital city of South Australia is Adelaide. ________________________

4. Basketball is the best sport to play. ________________________

5. “Birds of Tokyo” are the best band in Australia at the moment. ________________________

6. Wine is one of Australia’s top 10 export products. ________________________

7. Beer is a better drink than wine. ________________________

8. Most young people work hard at school. ________________________

9. Some students have part time jobs. ________________________

10. The population of Australia is over 18 million people. ________________________

11. Rove McManus is the funniest guy on television. ________________________

12. The Adelaide Crows are the greatest sporting team in the world. ________________________

13. School uniforms are an important in developing school pride. ________________________

14. Adelaide is the best city in Australia. ________________________

15. Apple’s iPhone is the best mobile phone ever developed. ________________________

Write down 3 facts about yourself, and 3 opinions that you have about any issues in our community.

1. I am/have/like…

1. _______________________________________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________________________________________

2. I think that…/In my opinion…

1. _______________________________________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________________________________________

Purpose of writing:
To prepare a piece of work that details your beliefs, covering a variety of topics such as life after death, religion, our government, war, the environment, poverty, justice and law, moral/ethical dilemmas, or anything else that you would like to discuss about what you believe in. You don’t have to cover all or any of these topics - they are just ideas/suggestions to get you started.

Your task:
Produce a piece of continuous prose about your beliefs, minimum 500 words. This piece is being assessed on your ability to demonstrate effective use of the English language to explain your beliefs in detail and provide a justification for your beliefs. This piece should reflect who you are, so it is important that your personal voice shines through.