14 June 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Comment

Imagine a future where your refrigerator and other household appliances do your shopping. The shopping arrives by drone at your door.

What about a future where your car tells you it has a problem and you put on a pair of glasses and you are guided through how to fix it.

Or where artificial intelligence and augmented reality is available to assist us in almost every aspect of our lives. Where tasks that we consider mundane are replaced by robots.

Where our health is monitored by a range of sensors who inform us that things are not right and what we need to do about it before we even start to feel unwell.

Is this science fiction or science fact? The technologies already exist to do these things and what’s more, they are being used right now.

What impact will these changes have on schools of the future? I don’t rightly know but certainly there will be changes and they will, like all change throughout history, cause a shift in how we learn and how we teach.

The rate of technology change is staggering and to think that this will not change our lives is naïve at the very least. To ignore it is to our peril.

There is no doubt that the world of tomorrow is evolving. The technology that already exists today is staggering. We can reject it or accept it and work to navigate our way through the changing world.

We hear a lot about future-proofing our children through education. What an interesting term this is in a changing world?

The rate of change is significant and to think that we can future-proof students in this world is somewhat fanciful.

The best we can do is expose students to elements of the new world. Skills that exist now will not vanish just as they didn’t vanish through the industrial revolution.

Skills will change, adapt and be applied in new ways. Our children will weather this change as they have always done and emerge at the other side as we all have done.

We definitely live in a changing world. We have always lived in a changing world. The skills of tomorrow will blend with the skills of today and as always, education will navigate a way through this world.

While technology, artificial intelligence, automation and robotics are realities, we will embrace the change in new and emerging ways.

While we often look with fear and doom at this future, the reality is that schools, teachers and students will adapt.

What schooling will look like in ten, twenty or fifty years, we can only hazard a guess. What I can say is that it will change. As it always has it will adapt to new and changing circumstances and provide pathways for students just as it’s always done.

Mr Smith
Principal (Acting)

Lesley – Parent Liaison Officer

REMINDER - Athletics Carnival

The 2018 Athletics Carnival is fast approaching. The Athletics Carnival will run over the two days of the 27th and the 28th of June.

Included below is the 2018 Nomination Form and the Parent Information Sheet.

When saving the 2018 Nomination Form could you save as below:

YOURSURNAME_2018NominationForm

Please return completed forms to Miss Power (lpowe139@eq.edu.au) by no later than the 15th of June.

Mrs Griffin
Parent Liaison Officer

Language Competition

Townsville and District Annual Japanese Speech competition

Closing Date for application: Friday 22nd June
Competition Date: Monday 30th July
Venue: The Ryan Catholic College Community Centre, Townsville
Time: 9:30am-1:30pm (Morning tea10.30, lunch 12.00)
Cost: Nil
Transport: Parents / Guardian will be required to arrange their own transport to and from the venue for their child.

It is a wonderful opportunity for students to demonstrate their language skills with like-minded students. They gain confidence and experience in expressing their own ideas in Japanese in a public speaking context. There are set speeches for primary levels to prepare and practice prior to the competition. Students may refer to their notes but not reading from them during their speech. Maximum two contestants in each year level can be selected. For those who wish to nominate themselves to the competition, please contact their Japanese teacher for more information.

Mr Moritake
Language Teacher

Library News

Let’s Get Reading!

Mrs Currin
Librarian

Literacy Links

Top 10 Things to Develop Your Child’s Literacy

There are many things families can do at home to help their child be successful with literacy. You, as a parent, are the most important influence on your child’s learning. Here are some things you can do to help your child’s reading and writing skills develop. You can begin before your child starts school and continue as your child develops their skills in literacy.

Read, Read, Read!

Make a habit of reading to your child every day. Reading to your child is the one thing that has the biggest impact on your child’s ability to learn to read. When you start reading to your child at an early age, your child grows up with reading as an enjoyable part of their daily routine. Mem Fox, author and educator, believes that children need to hear 1000 books before they begin to read themselves. This is easy if you begin when your child is a baby, but much harder if you wait until they begin school.

Re-read favourites

Mem Fox suggests sharing three books with your child each day; a new one, one you have read before and an old favourite that your child has heard many, many times. Children learn through repetition. Hearing a story a number of times allows your child to understand the story, link the words to the pictures, understand the rhythm and flow of the words and predict what comes next. Prediction is a skill used by fluent readers. Help your child learn to predict by giving them a chance to fill in words as you read familiar stories.

Explore a range of texts

Stories are great but there are lots of other things to explore too, such as magazines, letters, postcards, menus, newspapers, newsletters, advertisements, signs, catalogues, notes, shopping lists, birthday and Christmas cards, recipes, diaries, instructions, maps, even bills. Share all these different reading and writing experiences with your child and talk about them together.

Talk, talk, talk!

Reading and writing are language skills so strong language skills mean it is easier to develop literacy. Talk to your child as much as you can in your daily activities together. Vocabulary (the number of words your child understands and uses) is particularly important. The biggest difference between good and poor readers is the size of their vocabulary.

Talk about books

Help your child learn about how books work. Talk about the cover, how to hold the book and turn the pages, the title and how it gives clues to what is inside. Talk about the pictures and how the words tell about the pictures. Show how you start a book on the first page and work towards the end and how you start a page, read top to bottom, and left to right. Look at lots of different books. Try making your own books. Help your child to feel confident around books.

Talk about sounds

Talk about the sounds your child hears as a part of their life. Sing songs, tell rhymes and listen to music and stories on CD. Talk about the sounds in words. Clap out syllables and count them, talk about long words and short words. Read rhyming stories and talk about how rhyming words sound the same. Have fun making up your own rhymes. Talk about the sounds in your child’s name. Talk about beginning and ending sounds in words and match things with the same sounds. Break up words into separate sounds. Play I spy.

Talk about words and letters

Look at words everywhere and talk about them. Count the letters in words and talk about long and short words. Talk about the sounds that letters make. Look at alphabet books and help your child to understand the name and the sound of the letter such as “B” is called “bee” and it makes a “buh” sound. Cut letters out of magazines and paste them. Make your own alphabet book. Find the letter your child’s name starts with anywhere you can. Look at common words and see if you can find them on the pages of a book. Show your child that a word such as “the” has the same letters each time you find it and look for it in different places.

Talk about stories

Talk about how stories have a beginning and ending and how people in stories often have a problem to solve. Talk about the way that, in stories, we need to tell who is talking by using something like “he said”. Talk about how the end of a story often has feeling words. Retell stories from pictures. Make up your own stories.

Talk about what you read

When you read together, talk to your child about what you read to develop their comprehension. Talk about what is happening, what you think about the characters, how they are feeling, what they might think, what they might do, what you would do, what might happen next.

Make reading and writing a part of your family life

Let your child see you read and write in lots of different ways. Involve them in activities such as opening the mail, writing letters, cards, and lists. Make sure your child has many chances through the day to use books, pencils, paper, drawing and writing materials. Join your local library and visit as a family. Show interest and pleasure in your child’s attempts to read, write, and put their writing and drawings on display.

Mrs Luxton
Literacy Program

FLIQ

When students complete their studies with the FLIQ program, their success is not just shown by data but is also by the feedback they provide us. Below are some examples of feedback received from students.

• I am just about to complete my Year 10 and I feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. When I first started I had some difficulties, especially in Maths. As I arrived in problematic areas of Math and challenging concepts, I could still feel the same negative emotions that I encountered through my schooling. Frustration, annoyance and a defeated mentality were the key ingredients that hindered my education.
  When I couldn’t understand a concept after the third and fourth attempt it would signal a meltdown and play-up time! I spent a lot of time outside the classroom or being reprimanded by senior staff.
  This new journey through education has been very different. I still faced the same emotional experiences but I would just relax, say a prayer and apply patience and self-control instead of just giving up. After some perseverance through math’s problems I would find the joy in the breakthrough on the other side. I arrived at a place where I enjoyed the challenge, knowing that the new concepts I was about to learn would be worth the effort.
  I have appreciated immensely the encouragement from my teachers. The feedback has always been uplifting and inspiring. I find them very special people indeed; they have made my year 10 experience a pleasure. I would like to thank them all. I look forward to further education in the future.
• Advance to a better job in the future…to give my family a better life.
• It has shown me that I can achieve the things I put my mind to, no matter how hard it seems…To explore a future in writing…I have grown as a person. You are valued and needed!
• It means I can complete things and that there are no boundaries when it comes to education.
• It proves I am capable of achieving greater things even if I did not complete school in the most conventional way. I am now undertaking a university program to gain entry into my chosen degree.
• My plans are to complete more tertiary study.
• This achievement is a necessary, but unfortunately, a long-awaited stepping-stone for an imagined future.
• It means a lot to me. I never thought I’d have what it takes to complete this but I have and it is an amazing feeling. I’m very proud.
• Thankyou for making the learning material available and for being a contributor to learning.

Mr Heard
FLIQ Head of Department

Year 4

Year 4 have been hard at work over the past few weeks fitting lots of learning around the numerous Outreaches. They have been exploring the properties of Odd and Even numbers and mapping in Maths. They are getting really good at giving and following directions, while including scale, compass points, turns and landmarks to make sure no one gets lost! Students got creative in English and wrote a folktale that explained an important message to a younger audience. Mrs McLauchlan and Miss O’Brien were taken on many adventures as students used such descriptive language! Students have also been working hard in Science on research projects to explore an endangered animal and looking at the impact humans have on it and its environment. All of Year 4 have worked exceptionally hard this term and should be looking forward to a well-deserved holiday.

Cormack’s Writing

Mrs McLauchlan and Miss O’Brien
Year 4 Teachers

Year 6

Term 2 is always a very busy term, and in Year 6 it’s no exception. For English, at the start of the term, the students analysed different advertisements before having the opportunity to create one of their own. Here are some of their designs:

Thomas’ Advertisement

Taylor’s Advertisement

Abbey’s Advertisement

Chloe’s Advertisement

The current English unit focuses on the students learning about news reports in the media and how language in news reports is used to influence an audience with a particular point of view about a topic.

In Maths, we’ve been focussing on the Order of Operations. Do you know what BOMDAS stands for? Maybe you know it as BODMAS or PEMDAS?

We use the Order of Operations rule to solve Maths sums that have multiple different symbols in them. Have a go at solving the following equation using the BOMDAS rule. We’ll give you the answer at the end.

5 + 3 x 4 – (7 + 2) / 9

Have you heard about the new solar and wind farms that are being constructed in Hughenden? Well, in Science, the Year 6s have been learning about renewable energy sources and they can tell you not only how they will generate electricity, but students can also explain the advantages and disadvantages of these energy sources.

Solar Energy

Wind Energy

On top of assessments and reporting, the term has been busy with Outreaches and Inreaches, where students have been having fun creating a range of arts and crafts projects.

How did you go with the Maths BOMDAS problem?

5 + 3 x 4 – (7 + 2) / 9

Here’s the answer and working out so you can check:

Ms Ruthenberg & Mr Purdie
Year 6 Teachers

Year 8

In Semester 1, Year 8 Art answered the question “Where Have You Been?” with creative artworks incorporating photographs, drawing, painting, and diverse materials used (with permission!) from around the house. The first collage students created reflected on a place that’s important to them, and it was great to see sandy beaches, glistening lakes, grassy paddocks, intriguing local streets, and thick bushland (to only name a few) come to life through some skilled and thoughtful photography.

The photographs students took to show the scale of their artwork also revealed some beautiful (and very well-mannered) dogs. The second collage gave students an opportunity to describe, in the form of an artistic map, a journey that sticks in their mind. Some of these journeys took students out and around their house, their property, or their town or city; some involved air travel. All made use of different objects and students’ understanding of features like line, colour, and shape to communicate what it is like for them to make that trip. This was a fantastic opportunity for me to learn more about various places in Queensland I’ve never been, and to see students combine their own originality with some influences from artists. Year 8 can be very proud of their effort and creativity: all kinds of skills, personal knowledge and experiences, and smart ideas were shared and went into their finished pieces.

Mr Newman
Year 8 Teacher

Year 10

Year 10 English are currently writing short stories that re-imagine a scene from the novel they have been studying this term – Tom Appleby: Convict Boy. This story by Australian author, Jackie French, is set across the 18th and 19th Centuries. Tom Appleby’s life takes an unfortunate turn as he finds himself indentured to a cruel master, forced to sweep the chimneys of London aristocrats. A series of events find the young boy chained beneath the hull of a ship cast off to the end of the world – Sydney Cove. Historical fiction enables readers to gain a valuable insight on the lives of ordinary people who lived before us. Even though modern values and perspectives influence the plot and characterisation, good authors can engage us with the past. From the bleak streets of Victorian London to the harsh Australian landscape, the novel displays a young boy’s determination and hard-work to survive.

With this historical backdrop, our young writers will consider the perspectives of minor characters in the novel. They will examine elements of creative writing and the stylistic features that authors use to capture our imagination and take us back in time. The year 10s not only learn some archaic language like; gallow, guinea, and gaol; but, they also have fun writing dialogue. It is, after all, the only opportunity they are permitted to use irregular spelling. ‘Mebbe with a bit ‘o hard work ’n luck’ our budding writers will producing enthralling imaginative transformations.

Ms North
Year 10A English teacher

Language Team – New Teacher

Hi everyone! My name is Nori Yamada. In English my name means “Sushi Seaweed” (No, it doesn’t!).

I am from Toyota city, Japan. The two things I love about my hometown are the company “Toyota Motor Corporation” and the nearby international racing course “Suzuka Circuit”. My family has been working for the company and enjoying every single major racing event, including Formula 1, since I was little. My hobbies are cars and talking to friends. I feel good when I see tyres rotating! I am privileged to work at CTSDE and looking forward to being an active part of the Languages team and school community.

This is where I came from

Suzuka Circuit

Mr Yamada
Language Teacher

Student Council

Meet the Mighty Shelton House Captains!

Remember to come dressed in your house colours for the ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

Name: Bonnie Spurdle
Role: Secondary House Captain for SHELTON
Why I wanted to be a leader: I chose to be a part of the student council because I wanted to set an example and be a leader for those at CTSDE.
Goals for the future: My goals for the future is to study Agricultural Science, then apply for a job in the Agriculture industry.

Name: Amelia Werner.
Role: Primary House Captain for SHELTON
Why I wanted to be a leader: I applied for the Student Council because I wanted to help raise money for the school and I wanted to help other kids at the school during sports carnivals and swimming carnivals.
Goals for the future: I would like to become a vet, so when I am older I can help Dad on the farm with animals and help other people as well.

IT Support

Computer Requirements

The minimum specifications for computing requirements for Distance Education are listed in the PDF document available below. Additional recommendations are also listed to improve your digital learning experience.

Voice Recordings

If you need to create a voice recording to be sent to the teacher or uploaded into Blackboard, you can use the free Hi-Q application. It will record your voice to a .mp3 format file which creates a good quality recording that is small enough to email as an attachment. Additional information on voice recordings will be found in the PDF document below.

Audio Setup

There are two parts to configure for your audio settings to make it work for your best learning experience. First part is setting it up in Windows and then second part is inside of Blackboard Collaborate. For the full audio set up guide, click on the PDF document below.

Internet Security

The internet will open you up to a wealth of great information and learning options, however being connected can also put your computer at risk from malicious people. You must make sure you have internet security / antivirus software installed to protect yourself. The following PDf will highlight the most suited internet protection software for your computer.

Microsoft Office 2016

While enrolled at Distance Education, you can download and install Microsoft Office 2016 on up to 5 devices (Mac or Windows) for free. Microsoft Office 2016 is the most current version and is backwards compatible, meaning it will open office files from a previous version. To find out how this is done, click on the following Microsoft Office PDF.

Outlook Webmail

While enrolled at Distance Ed you will receive an Education Queensland or EQ email address that is paired to your username. Additional information on an EQ email is found in the PDF document below.

Choose how to add this event to your calendar:

Apple Calendar iPhone, iPad, Mac - Download .ics file

Outlook Desktop Outlook - Download .ics file

Android Calendar Android devices - Download .ics file

Other Calendar Google Calendar, Yahoo, etc. - Download .ics file

Download Event