Starlink Newsletter Issue 110 August 2014

News, Reviews & Resources || Issue 110 August 2014

Dear Reader,

We're scraping in just under the deadline for this August issue. :) Our reason (though not an excuse) is a busy month - culminating in our Adelaide workshops last week, which we very much enjoyed.

However we hope you'll be able to clip at least one useful snippet from resources in this issue, so it will prove worth the wait. :)

Cheers
Sue & Chris
BJ Seminars International

Sydney: Tuesday 18 November
Adina Apartment Hotel (next to Central Station), Sydney

Appreciative Inquiry is a strength-focused approach for stakeholder consultation, engagement and planning, whether internally or external to an organisation. It is used extensively by local governments, communities, nonprofit groups and businesses around the world.

Our Taste of Appreciative Inquiry workshop is for all those who are 'dipping their toes' in the water of AI and would like to learn the essentials of this approach. It covers key concepts fundamental to the philosophy and practice of Appreciative Inquiry.

The registration fee of $341 (incl GST) covers the workshop, morning tea, lunch and a pack of professionally produced reference cards published by Appreciating People in the UK. (These card sets are available in Australia exclusively through BJ Seminars International and provide an excellent ongoing resource and reference after the workshop.)

Register Here

As with our Chair Chi workshop (above) we offer discounts for anyone travelling from a remote region or for three or more coming from the same organisation. Contact us for details.

Brainchild of the George Lucas Education Foundation, the Edutopia website is a treasure trove of resources for educators! Though based in the United States, most of the information you'll find there is applicable world-wide! It's all about the best, most effective and most innovative approaches to teaching and learning that can help to transform schools - as well as the teachers and learners themselves.

Resources on the site cover a very wide range of topics, some of which have up to or even over 1,000 items or articles on the site! Browse the site and dip in to whatever resonates for you ... there is sure to be much that will!

Here is just a tiny selection of snippets from the thousands of resources available:

8 Tips and Tricks to Redesign Your Classroom

20 Tidbits for New Teachers

Creating "WOW-worthy" Learning Spaces

Deeper Learning: Why Cross-Curricular Teaching is Essential

Five-Minute Film Festival: Design Thinking in Schools

The Happy Eating Place: How Elementary Students Can Run Their Own Business

How to Create Social Media Guidelines for your School

Project-based learning, student teams working cooperatively, children connecting with passionate experts, and broader forms of assessment can dramatically improve student learning. New digital multimedia and telecommunications can support these practices and engage our students. And well-prepared educators are critical.

The George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF) documents and disseminates the most exciting classrooms where these innovations are taking place. By shining the spotlight on these inspiring teachers and students, we hope others will consider how their work can promote change in their own schools.

Our Foundation staff is eager to know about your work in improving schools and what you think of our site.

They encourage you to share your ideas on Edutopia.org by contributing to the comments field at the bottom of any content page, or you can email your comments.

Sydney: Monday 17 November
Adina Apartment Hotel (next to Central Station), Sydney

We're delighted to be returning to Sydney to offer our Chair Chi Training (Level One) workshop. This is for aged care professionals, carers or volunteers and is based on an innovative, gentle exercise program that Chris has been delivering in aged care centres across Melbourne for almost two years. The program teaches people how to deliver Chair Chi sessions for residents to enhance physical, psychological, social and emotional wellbeing.

The registration fee of $341 (incl GST) covers the workshop, morning tea, lunch and a comprehensive workbook as an ongoing resource and reference.

Register Here

Please Note: Discounts on the registration fee are available for those from remote regions or when three or more attend from one organisation. Should either of these options be of interest, please contact us for further details, as they are not available via our automated online registration system.

BrainLink

Toolkit: Design Thinking For Educators

Social Ventures Australia

Resilient Youth Australia

Recommended many times in Starlink previously, Connect is an independent bi-monthly publication supporting active student participation in primary and secondary schools. It is a 'practice journal' that has been published in Australia since late 1979. It had its 33rd anniversary in 2012 - very impressive!

The August 2014 issue (#208) of Connect is available as a downloadable PDF, or via an index of the contents.

Previous issues can also be accessed on the ACER website or via their own online index.

I hope you enjoy this issue and find it useful. Please pass it on to others who might be interested. Any feedback about the issue is much appreciated. I'd love to receive your contributions (stories, articles etc) to Connect. The next issue (209) will be sent out in October. Deadline for issue 209 is end of September 2014.

Roger Holdsworth

To send your feeback or to receive Connect in your inbox, please email Roger

Other than donation options on specific charity or non-profit websites, we are seeing a rising number of more 'generic' donation sites online. In other words, 'one-stop-shop' style sites where folk can donate to a range of causes, and where non-profit organisations can register to receive donations as part of their own fundraising strategies.

Below are some of the services available for fundraising efforts in Australia. We've no direct experience with any of them, so can not recommend them ourselves. They're listed here alphabetically purely as potential resources for you.

Each has its own style, set of functions, terms, quirks and modes of operation. So please read all the website information carefully and use your own discretion and due diligence in approaching any of them.

Charities Aid Foundation: Donation processing service (rather than general online donation site) linking charities with their "Workplace Giving" program

eGive: A range of services offered by this site, including donation management. Also has online conference facility.

Everyday Hero: Donors create 'supporter' pages for their preferred charity or cause. Charities register to receive donations.

Give Easy: Mobile, digital donation platform for charities. Donors use Give Easy app to donate direct from iPhone, iPad or Android devices.

Give Now: An initiative of the Our Community Foundation, this website offers lists of causes, creative ways to give, a personalised donations tracking service, and a free giving newsletter.

Go Fundraise: Popular platform with comprehensive help information on this site for donors, fundraisers and charities.

JustGiving: International fundraising platform, with head office in the UK

My Cause: Online cause funding, crowdfunding service.

Paypal: Simple "Donate" buttons that can be added to your website. (You need a Paypal account to use the service)

Shout for Good: App, website and online platform for donations - "small financial gestures that result in monumental greatness"

Simply Giving: Online toy drive facility, currently serving 18 Australian charitiesg

For charities (not for donors) using most of these services will incur fees, commissions, credit card fees and/or other charges. As above, read their FAQs and other available information carefully.

And if your organisation is considering registering with one of them, a quick cost benefit analysis would be a good idea.

If you do this, you can check expenses against the people, time and resources you would otherwise spend on a typical fundraising effort. That should tell you if the related fees and charges are a reasonable operational expense for you.

And, finally, another resource that may be useful. Third Sector in partnership with Ezidebit have produced a resource called the Essential Guide to Online Fundraising. While it (understandably) is also promoting their own services, it contains some sound advice applicable to any online fundraising approach and platform.

Transition to School is an excellent online resource for families of children with disabilities. It includes not only ideas, tips and resources for the families, but also helpful information for early childhood workers, schools and communities.

Starting school is an important milestone in any child and family’s life. For families of children with disabilities, transition to school requires additional thought, time, planning and support to make the process as smooth and positive as possible.

The website was developed by the NSW Chapter of Early Childhood Intervention Australia, and was funded the Department of Family and Community Services (also New South Wales).

Some of the resources mentioned on the site are therefore specific to that state - but most of the information and advice would be applicable anywhere.