• Make yourself known. Visit the school, ask for a tour, offer voluntary work to help out and show your enthusiasm.
• Present yourself in a professional manner. Dress smart!
• Talk and interact with staff while on experience rounds or voluntary work.
• Keep in contact with all the schools you visited.
• When applying to a school read KSC carefully and make your answers applicable to the schools values, their goals and their vision statement.
• Put yourself in the principles position. Who would you employ, why?. Be proactive!
• Enjoy what your doing!. Show your enthusiasm and persist.
• Remember that there are a lot of graduates all fighting for the few positions out there. Don’t stress if you don’t get a job your first year out. There is plenty of CRT work and this is a great way to experience different school environments.

Best way to present yourself in a interview

• Dress smart and professional. Wear a suit if your a guy, you want to look like your serious about the job
• Be prepared. Have a portfolio to show examples of work and to back up your answers
• Explain how you can help outside of the classroom (like leadership camps and sports days etc)
• If you don’t get the position, ask the panel on areas you can improve on.

This project was conducted over a period of three weeks. Working once a week during lunch break, a group of 20 Grade 6 students created a mosaic decorated birdbath for their school, using primarily recycled materials. The project tied in with the Integrated Study theme for the term of Sustainability.

Materials included donated, recycled and found materials such as tiles and old crockery. These were broken up for use by the students. The students worked collaboratively in drafting and selecting two simple designs for the bird bath; one for the baht and one for the stand. The process of applying the broken tiles and crockery was remarkably quick and students chatted away as they worked. Similarly with the application of the grout.

The steps involved in achieving the final product included:

• Student group discussion regarding what a mural is
• The drafting of simplified sketches by students. This was difficult for a number of students who tend to work small and in great detail. For some it was necessary to photo-enlarge the sketches, in readiness for the final imagery
• Students colouring their draft imagery using no more than 4 colours, not includung black and white. This further enhanced learning about creating simplified imagery
• The priming of the wooden panels by the supervising artist
• The transfer of the final draft imagery onto the primed panels by the students
• The painting of the panels by the students using a fixed palette of house paint mixed by the artist from primary coloured paints
• The outlining by students of the final painted imagery with black paint pens, in order to further enhance the imagery
• The fixing of the completed panels to the shelter shed by the artist and parent
• A formal opening of the mural by the school to which the Grade 6 parents were invited

The finished product now stands in the Japanese Garden at the school. For more information about this project contact Sheena Mathieson on sma53357@bigpond.net.au.

Using a combination of specially designed screens and projectors, teacher’s and students can now dynamically change the content on a board. Teachers and students can explore an active website, give presentations, take virtual field trips and play games. You simply touch the surface to select menus and icons. You can also use specially designed pens or your fingers to draw or write. No more dusty rooms or ink smudged whiteboards!

One company at the forefront of these advances is SMART technologies. They offer many interactive boards ranging in size and appearance. Their most popular board is the 600i model and sells for about $6000 - $6500. A virtual demo of the board and it’s components can be found here. The board comes with its own speakers, wall-mount bracket and all the software needed to create interactive activities.