Blogging Task #4

chris hope

This blogging task is all for a good cause. If you’re anything like me there’ll be a number of issues in the world that cause you to get a little frustrated. Amongst the many that concern me are: climate change, deforestation, animal extinction, equal rights, plastic pollution, whale hunting, renewable energy, puppy farms, child labour, poverty, slave labour, girls’ rights, freedom of speech… I could actually go on and on and on! These are, in my opinion, just a few of the most important issues of our time and are well worth fighting for. It’s a great thing to get behind a good cause, it gives a people a sense of purpose and meaning in life, not to mention the satisfaction of knowing they’re trying to achieve some good in the world.

Do you have a cause that you’d like to be part of? Is there something happening in the world that makes you frustrated? Is there something you’d like saved? Is there something you’d like stopped? Use your blog to shout out for a good cause or a big issue.

Parliament House

chris hope

Last week the school leaders were invited to Parliament House by our local state member Paul Miles. The students had a fabulous day, looking around the historic building and learning some new facts about our democratic history. We had a sumptuous three course lunch with a fabulous starter, a delicious main course and a sweet and tasty dessert, which left us all feeling like we were ready to burst. We met the state premier and got filmed by the television cameras. All up, it was a wonderful day to remember.

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New Term/Girls Soccer

chris hope

Term 2 is up and running and we’ve had a great start. On the first day alone we restarted our My Place series, investigated square numbers and square roots, explored water colours with the amazing Ms Sveinbjornsson and researched some peace symbols with a view to creating our own. A very busy start!

Day 2 was very different. Whilst some students stayed at school, I took 26 girls with Mr “Awesome” Jones to play in a local soccer tournament. Nearly all the girls had never played soccer and they were up against some experienced teams. The lack of experience showed, especially during the first game when they were all fairly static, almost rooted to the spot. Some of the girls were netball players and they weren’t sure where they were allowed to go. However, as the day progressed and the girls experience grew they started to understand the game much better. By the end the defence were moving smoothly as a unit up and down the pitch; the midfield players were racing up and down to support the strikers and the defence; and the strikers were using their skill to attack the opposition. The girls worked together to mark the opposing players and to create space for themselves to pass the ball. After 5 games in hot weather on full size pitches the girls hd run themselves selflessly into the ground. Our school had two teams and while neither won the tournament (although both won games) they thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

The most amazing part of the day for me was to witness how a group of girls with little or no idea about the game worked together and developed their skills. By the end of the day they had become confident and skilled players, positioning themselves, harrying the opposition and working together as a team. It was truly inspirational and everyone was rightfully proud of them. Well done, girls!

Brooke calls for the ball.

Brooke calls for the ball.

 

 

Geography

chris hope

In Geography we looked at how planning decisions taken when designing a new suburb can affect the natural environment. Prior to this we learnt about the benefits of retaining trees in our built environment, that they can not only beautify an area, but they offer shade and natural climate control, they provide a windbreak, prevent erosion and bring wildlife into a suburb. We brainstormed our learning direction, decided on our focus and dived right in. We used Google Maps to “drive” around some local suburbs and graded them on a number of issues. We then had a walk around our local area and took photos of the streets. We finally collaborated in groups using Google Drive to create presentations of our new learning. Take a look at the one below by Samantha, Lily, Indianna and Bianca. Click on the image to view fullscreen.

Holidays

chris hope

We’re on holiday and we totally deserve it! Term 1 was an amazing term, the amount of work we got through and the number of new skills we learnt was quite incredible. We developed ICT skills with Google Drive, Connect and our awesome blogs and put these skills to great use. The students collaborated on Drive to produce presentations which demonstrated their growing understanding of how new suburbs are planned and developed and how such planning affects our environment. They delved into 20th century Australian history and discovered topics such as The Stolen Generation, the Vietnam War, 80s fashions and great Australian muscle cars. Whilst learning about history, they developed their reading, viewing, writing, speaking and listening skills by watching DVDs, completing research, writing posts on their blogs, producing podcasts and completing set tasks. The students also developed their skills with fractions, decimals, 2D and 3D shapes, prime numbers, factors and mean, mode, median and range. On top of this we created great works of art using photographs on the iPads. Also, none of the things I’ve mentioned even talk about the specialist subjects of Music, Art, Science and Phys.Ed (with our successes at cricket and basketball). When I consider that term 1 was only 9 weeks and we lost the first week due to the classroom swaps our achievements become even greater; we did all this (and more) in just eight weeks! Like I said, we totally deserve our holiday!

ANZAC Display

chris hope

In preparation for ANZAC day our fabulous library officer, Ms Higgs, has created an awesome display in the library. To help with this some of the staff also brought in items of their own that have some military significance, or are mementoes of their relatives who have fought in war. I lent some photos of one of my ancestors (John William Terry from my mother’s side) and his death plaque from World War 1. Check out the photos below and click on them for a larger version.

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Blogs Of The Week

chris hope

I don’t often do this, but occasionally I like to give a little “shout-out” regarding a student, or students,  who have been posting regularly on their blogs. This time I have a few worthy of a special mention. First up is Jayden, who not only posts frequently, but has such a varied range of topics his blog is super interesting. Next is Lily, who posts regularly and also managed to post her very first podcast. Finally we have Savannah, who isn’t as prolific as the others, but who managed to persuade her mum to write a “special guest” post on her blog for our Parent Task. These blogs are all well worth a visit. Well done to you all.

Parent Task #1

chris hope

This new blogging task isn’t for the students, it’s for the parents! This is a great way for parents to have a look at and get involved with their child’s online life. Although, having introduced it as a “parent task” I’d be more than happy for any close, concerned relative of the students to get involved with our blogs. Parents (grandparents, aunts, uncles…), you can either write a post or comment on your child’s blog (I’m sure they won’t mind if you ask them nicely) or leave a comment on this one. The post could be about yourselves, your work, about your own school life, an event from your past, a hobby, pastime or skill, in fact anything you like. It could even be to do with a news story, something which may spark some thoughts for the students. A comment on this blog would also be welcome. Before you start, however, make sure you first ask your child about our strict safety and commenting rules. Good luck and have fun!

Podcasts

chris hope

This term the students have learnt about the Stolen Generation during their studies in History. In order to present our newly learned information we created podcasts. By creating podcasts we were able to show what we had learnt and also practice our formal speaking skills – we also had some fun too.

In order to make the podcasts a little more interesting we first created our own theme tunes on Garage Band, before recording ourselves speaking and putting the finished product together on Audacity. This was the first attempt for most of the students, but they managed to create a great finished product. Check out Lily’s and Chloe’s podcast below.

 

iPad Art

chris hope

During our in-class Art activities we looked at the way light can be used to create great images. The students took their photos and converted them using Pixir, an app attached to their Google Drive accounts. They then downloaded them from their Drive folders to use on the iPads. Part of our learning was to develop an understanding of the use of layers in image manipulation applications. The students created layers and worked on them, rather than the photo itself. As I’m sure you’ll agree, the results were amazing.

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Lily

Indi

Indi

 

Jess

Jess

Leo

Leo