Primary School Resources for teachers at the State Library of Queensland

On Monday 18 October the Queensland History Teachers' Association Inc and the State Library of Queensland presented a Primary History Curriculum Professional Development Day at the State Library.

Speakers on years 4-7 included Dr Brian Hoepper on Using the New History Curriculum to Plan Engaging Classroom Learning, Sue Burvill-Shaw from St Aidan's Girls' School on What is Historical Inquiry? Dr Olivia Clark from Education Services Australia exploring two new comprehensive free resources for teaching Australian history in the primary years. These resources 'bound for Botany Bay' and 'My Place' are made freely available to all schools and include ways of integrating digital curriculum resources and other ICT into classroom practice.

Speakers on Prep to year 3 included Karen Madden from St Aidan's Girls' School on History in the Early Years, Judith Gardner on "Unpacking" the National History Curriculum, and Elizabeth Kable from the Queensland Studies Authority on REAL history: Rich, Active, Engaged Learning with the ACARA History curriculum.

Librarians Karen Hind from the John Oxley Library and Jenny Freeman from the State Reference Library spoke about Resources for the New Australian History Curriculum available at the State Library of Queensland for primary school teachers.

This was a terrific opportunity for primary teachers to gain practical ideas for the classroom and to learn about the rich array of history resources accessible at the State Library.

The QHTA's state conference will be held at the State Library of Queensland on 6 December 2010.