26 July 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

The role of a tutor in the daily learning life of a student within a distance education context is vital. Tutors are the linchpin of a successful learning program; they need to be active in supporting the enthusiasm for learning, delivering direct instruction, monitoring learning activities and completion of work, and communicating with teachers.

Where tutors actively do all of these, it is visible as the student demonstrates greater engagement in learning, has academic success and even enhances their self-esteem and resilience. It is clear to teachers where active tutoring is occurring. The majority of tutors take this important responsibility seriously.

There is often a misunderstanding or (in stronger terms) a delusion that all young people can learn independently, so the role of a tutor disappears somewhere in middle primary year levels. I would suggest that a small number of students may be able to do some work independently at that time but they still require active tutoring, monitoring and motivation from tutors on a daily basis.

It really is only in the early stages of senior secondary years (e.g. Year 10) that some students become truly independent in their learning, and even then many young people require and benefit from tutor monitoring and assistance in work planning.

As tutors, never under-estimate the impact you have on the learning and academic achievement of the young people you work with. It is hard, often disappointing and frustrating, but the outcomes for the young people from your hard work and diligence are immense.

What has impact on the student’s learning?

There are hundreds if not thousands of strategies and approaches that teachers and tutors may use in their teaching episodes/lessons. Which ones work? Which ones are ‘feel good’, traditional or ‘fad’, but achieve little?

In the past few years there has been a wealth of research into what strategies are most effective in promoting students learning. Perhaps one of the best known researchers in this area is John Hattie. His work Visible Learning, reports on a meta-analysis of thousands of research programs to identify and scale, in order of learning effectiveness, teaching strategies. Our teachers are using this evidence based work to reflect on and enhance their lessons and teaching approaches.

Tutors can also consider their findings and in simple ways apply these evidence based principles in their own home classroom. Over this term, DIRT will present the ‘Top Ten’ approaches that impact on student learning; this week we start at the ninth and tenth factors. This work is interesting and often challenging in terms of our own prejudices and ‘cardiac’ (‘from the heart’) belief in ways to teach. I strongly recommend reading and reflecting on these evidence based approaches.

Survive with joy your home learning journey.

Top Ten Influences on Student Achievement

Note: a zone of desired affects is positive between 0.4 and 1.2; the higher the figure the greater effect on student learning.

Number 10: Teacher – Student Relationships

Desired effect rating: 0.72 (High)

Studies have clearly shown that when person-centred relationships are developed student outcomes (i.e. achievement and attitudes) rise. The traditional argument that the major influences on achievement were related to a function of the child’s home, school working conditions, student attitude provide a false picture that learning does not occur because somehow the child is deficient.

Where positive relationships between student and teacher occurs – based on teaching tutor skills such as listening, empathy, caring, positive regard for others and providing time for relationship building – then there are higher achievement outcomes.

Number 9: Feedback

Desired effect rating: 0.73 (High)

Feedback is a two way highway. We often think that it is something provided by teachers and tutors to students; yes that is one lane! Feedback’s often and more powerful lane, is when students provide feedback to tutors and teachers. As Hattie states:

“When teachers (and tutors) seek, or at least are open to, feedback from students as to what students know, what they understand, where they make errors, when they have misconceptions, when they are not engaged – then teaching and learning can be synchronised and powerful.”

Feedback (and encouraging this through questioning about the lesson and the teaching) from students to tutors helps make the learning visible to both parties.

Mr Clark
Principal

Deputy Principal’s Report

Welcome back to Term 3. Congratulations to all the athletes that competed during our annual two-day inter-house athletics carnival held during the Wednesday and Thursday of the last week in Term 2. Great weather and organisation along with wonderful sportsmanship and individual performances made for a terrific two days of training and competition. At the end of the two-day event, victory went to Shelton House, winning with a total of 767.50 points. A particularly big thank you to all those who travelled to compete and to the teachers tasked with the organisation of both the athletics and early year’s carnival. From my perspective, you are all to be commended for an excellent job.

This term sees the distribution of the 2018 school opinion surveys. The School Opinion Survey is undertaken each year to obtain the opinions of a random selection of parents/caregivers and students about important aspects of schooling. More detailed information for parents, caregivers and students will be provided via email with specific instructions and timelines.

Mr Burke
Deputy Principal

Lesley Griffin – Parent Liaison Officer

Charters Towers Science Contest

The Charters Towers Science Contest encourages independent self-motivated project work amongst students of science and gives students the opportunity to communicate their achievements to a wide audience with recognition of effort and achievement in a scientific enterprise.

The aim of this contest is to promote the direct involvement of the Charters Towers community in the processes of science and its communication. It also gives the Charters Towers community an opportunity to see the quality or work being achieved in science by local students.

Year 3

What a year we have had so far! As we begin Term 3, we look forward to our last round of Outreaches.

Last term Year 3 delighted us with their musical talents and produced creative adaptations of ‘Botany Bay’ or ‘Click Goes the Shears’. Check out some of their creations below.

Haley’s Song

When I first got my horse on Monday,
He made me smile and he was so nice,
Everyone has loved him from then on,
Forever we could be best friends,
I will not get so sad anymore,
And I could have a best friend at last,
I feel so happy when I ride him,
Because he is so nice and caring.

Christmas Time

Christmas time is so very fantastic,
We have it at Nanny and Pop’s,
We always go in the pool swimming,
And have heaps of fun with our cousins.
Oh Christmas time is so fantastic,
We all love it at Nanny and Pop’s,
We all eat to much food and have heaps of fun.
By Tayla

Click Goes the Gear Stick

Out on his bike, the young rider stands,
Grasping the clutch in his young, handsome hands,

Fixed is his gaze on a run a-way cow,
Glory if he gets her won’t he make his father proud!
Click goes the gear stick, click, click, click!
Wide is his turn and his bike moves quick,
The cow kicks in the air, run-ning back to the mob,
The cat-tle are all in the yard and he’s done the job!
By Joseph

Henry’s Song

Up at the crack of dawn we were awake,
Heading into Nebo for our big sports day.
Running in a race for a blue ribbon yeah,
Wishing I had my big brown mare.
Kick uo the dust boys run, quick, quick,
Pace yourself boys so you don’t get sick.
The winner looks around with a grin on his face,
And just as he does he falls on his face.

During NAPLAN week, we learnt about other cultures and customs. The children really enjoyed participating in a traditional Japanese drum circle. We learnt about the meaning of lanterns in different cultures. A particular highlight of the week was the creation of their own Japanese lanterns. Some of our lanterns will be on display this weekend at the Charters Towers show.

As we enter the second half of Year 3, the students begin to transition into the middle years of their schooling. It is at this time the teachers and parents begin to see students develop a more independent and mature attitude towards their education. This is when we expect to see students taking charge of their own learning and relying less on their tutors. Like any change, our students will need support and encouragement along the way.

Enjoy Term 3!

Miss Nelson and Miss Ralph
Year 3 Teachers

Year 5

Welcome to Year 5

This term 3, we are focusing on ‘Poetry’ for Unit 5 and Unit 6 English. Students will learn that there are different styles of Poetry and how to analyse the text to understand what the Poet is expressing. Unit 5 is already underway, with students discovering the meaning of precise vocabulary and language features that are used in the selected poems. Students are exploring a variety of Poets’ text structures and by the end of Unit 6, our students will be able to write their own Narrative Poem. We might even have some up and rising star Poets, amongst our Year 5’s this year.

In Maths we will be using a range of computation strategies to solve money problems and create and calculate simple budget plans. We also will be exploring maps using coordinates along with revising Maths strategies. In Science we will be exploring light, shadows, reflection and refraction. If you are attending outreach, we will be exploring these concepts by building periscopes.

Distance is no Barrier
By Georgie Spurdle

Beside a gully in a town built on gold,

Stands a school supportive, bright and bold,

A library, oval and mailroom too,

A place where learning is the thing to do.

 

Through drought, fire, flood and rain,

Our school has stood to take the strain,

To build strong youth of body and mind,

To be thoughtful caring, clever and kind.

 

Distance is no barrier for this place of education,

The students that leave will build a great nation,

Staff are friendly, they guide and support,

And the students are always keen to be taught.

 

At interschool sports we always strive,

To keep the memories of past champions alive,

Rewards for efforts both work and play,

Are always presented on Celebration Day.

Miss Heath & Mrs Larson
Year 5 Teachers

Tom’s Double Technology Experience

‘Double the Robot’ arrived with his developer, Mr Yoshioka. When Double was set up I was surprised with how tall he was. I did Maths with Ms Heath. I discovered the potential of these robots because they can highly assist the teachers with keeping their students on task. As I completed my maths lesson Ms Heath could see my answers straight away. It was just like a normal classroom because the teacher could look over my shoulder. It was interesting how smoothly Double could roll around the classroom, even though Ms Heath almost landed Double into in my lap! (She could steer Double from her end.) Double is a great robot and I believe that in the future he will help educate many students and assist students with face to face interaction with their teachers.

Double and Junya’s visit with Tom and his sister Lana.

NBN goes rural

In week 1 of term 3 some people from the NBN network came. They came to video us doing school, and see us do cattle work. They had amazing cameras, and a drone! It was slightly tedious, redoing things over and over again, but it was awesome. They had us jumping on the trampoline, riding our bikes, mustering cattle and lots of other things. It will help people with bad internet get it a lot better! I hope it will help a lot of people.

Zarah Moller – Year 5 Student

Athletics Carnival

On Wednesday the 27th and Thursday the 28th of June, many of our students made the trip to Charters Towers to compete in the annual Athletics Carnival. Students from both Shelton and Traeger turned up dressed in an assortment of green and red clothing to represent their house.

The carnival started with Miss Chan’s enthusiastic warm up followed by students proudly chanting their team’s war cries. Students were then ready to sprint into action and start collecting points for their teams. Everyone waited eagerly for point updates during the day as it was down to single digits on deciding who would take out the win. The day consisted of a variety of track events, followed by field rotations. Congratulations to all students for trying their best and for displaying great sportsmanship throughout the day.

It was excellent to see so many students, teachers and parents dressed in red and green to support their house. This lead to a new tradition as Student Council decided to hand out prizes to the best dressed.

After a day full of fierce competition and endless cheering, the Carnival resulted in Shelton taking out the win with 767.50 points.

Winners

Congratulations to all students who received Age Champion or Runners up. You should all be very proud of your achievements.

Age Champions and Runners Up

Miss O’Brien and Miss Ralph
Sports Committee

Literacy Links

Building Descriptive Language in Children

Using descriptive language is often difficult for children with language delays and disorders. Understanding descriptive language helps with comprehension of both spoken language and written information. Using descriptive language well helps with giving clear and specific instructions and with writing more interesting stories and more precise non-fiction texts. Descriptive writing uses adjectives (which describe nouns) and adverbs (which describe verbs).

Student Council

This instalment of ‘Meet the Leaders’ focusses on our Primary School Captains, Isabelle and Sophia. Both students have been extremely active in fundraising for their end of year gift.

Our school is very lucky to have such dedicated leaders. If you think you would be interested in joining our Student Council next year, keep an eye out later this term for application forms.

Name: Izabelle Appleton

Role on student council: School Captain

Why you wanted to be a leader: I applied for School Captain, as it is a great opportunity to be a part of the student council. In addition, I wanted to help and be a part of organising things for different events.

Goals for the future: I would like to be on the student council at the Cathedral school in Townsville where I will be going to boarding school next year.

Name: Sophia Lyons

Role: School Captain

Why you want to be a leader: When I was young, I used to look up to people on student council and want to be like them. I would like to be able to do the same for more kids. My brother was also on student council at one point so I got a bit of an insight into what it was about and loved it!

Goals for the future: I would like to go to university and become a Speech therapist. When employers see my resume and see that I was voted for School Captain it will show them that I am responsible and mature therefore it may boost my chance of being employed.

Language Team

Language Team – New Teacher

大(dà)家(jiā) 好(hǎo)(Hello)! My name is Gawai Cheng.

I am an ABC (Australian Born Chinese) who was raised in Brisbane. I am a new graduate teacher who studied the Bachelor of Primary Education at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, St Lucia.

There are four people in my family including my mother, father, my younger sister and myself. My mother is from Guangdong (China) and my father is from Hong Kong (China). At home, I speak Cantonese (Chinese) with my family. When I was younger, I attended a Chinese school on Saturdays to learn Mandarin (Chinese) for a couple of years. Saturday school was external to my general primary school, so I attended school 6 days per week!

When I was in Year 6, I moved to a different primary school, where they taught Japanese. I had a passionate Japanese teacher who was always excited to share his knowledge and experiences about Japanese culture. His passion peaked my interest in the Japanese language, culture, etiquettes, mannerism and everything, which leads me to continue my studies in Japanese into high school and university. To this day, I’m still studying. There are just so much to learn about!

My hobbies are all related to learning languages. These include watching Japanese animations, Chinese variety shows, Chinese drama series, Korean dramas, Korean variety shows and listening to music.

In November last year, I was given the opportunity to work in the Languages Department at CTSDE and now enjoy teaching both Chinese and Japanese this year.

みなさん(minasan)、　どうぞよろしく(douzoyoroshiku)　おねがいします(onegaishimasu)！ (Nice to meet you everyone!)

Ms Cheng
Language Teacher

Cooking Lessons Successful

Mr Akira Goto had a ball teaching his Yr 9 students how to cook chicken teriyaki with rice and okonomiyaki.

Here is Tom cooking chicken teriyaki and okonomiyaki:

Here is Lily’s vegetarian cooking:

Here is Cleo’s cooking:

NRI Farewell

Our school had a blast trialling the devices brought to us by the Japanese technology company, Nomura Research Institute. They have finished up their four week research and The School of Distance Education would like to extend our sincere gratitude for giving our school the opportunity to work with world-class technology.

FLIQ

Students making leaps and bounds into their future…

A student disengaged from school due to absenteeism started in the program at the beginning of the school year. This student maintained consistent attendance at the centre and completed Year 10 in less than 12 months. He has now gained full-time employment on a farm.

Another student came to the centre from a secondary school because of his behaviour. In the short time the student was at the centre, he became a positive role model who led other students into making better decisions. Academically, he is a very capable young man who only missed one day of school during this time. The student had a strong work ethic and held down two part time jobs whilst attending the centre. He finished with the centre on a Wednesday and the following Monday he started a Certificate II in landscaping at a youth agency in his local area. The youth agency are now working with the student to secure a full time apprenticeship.

A number of students have also excelled with their participation in community events such as a Food and Wine Festival, community market days and a number of cultural celebrations. Students often give up their own time to prepare and be involved in running market stalls, cooking, distributing wristbands and being the coolest clean-up crew ever! Other students have outdone themselves as guest speakers in the public arena, including presenting to a university audience.

This is just a snapshot of success stories but based on the hard work and dedication occurring, there will be more ‘good news stories’ ahead.

FLIQ Team

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