9 August 2018
Newsletter Articles
Principal’s Report
Evidence based strategies for the home classroom
Last newsletter we shared the strategies placed ninth and tenth in learning effectiveness as drawn from the evidence focused research by the educationist John Hattie. This newsletter we look at the strategies placed seventh and eighth.
Number 8 – Reciprocal Teaching:
This strategy was initially developed to teach students cognitive (i.e thinking) strategies to support improved outcomes initially in reading; it can be used in all subjects. The emphasis is on building a student’s capability in thinking skills (e.g. summarising, questioning, clarifying and predicting) through dialogue between the teacher and student. Students take turns at being the teacher – checking their own understanding of the material/topic by generating questions and summarising. It is essential for the teacher/tutor to scaffold the process as the student moves from spectator to performer after repeated modelling by the tutor/teacher.
This strategy is most effective when the cognitive strategies are explicitly taught to students before being used in subject based content.
Tutors may need to move ‘out of the papers’ for a short while to explicitly teach the strategies of summarising, questioning, clarifying and predicting.
Number 7 – Teach Clarity
Teacher clarity means the teacher/tutor clearly communicates the intention of the lesson and the notions of what success means. It is not hidden in general statements nor difficult to understand terms – the tutor/teacher clearly in easily understood language states what the purpose of the lesson is and what the student is expected to do at the end of that lesson.
Mr John Clark
Principal
Library News
Premier’s Reading Challenge
Reminder that all record sheets have to be handed into Mrs Currin (Librarian) by Monday 20th August at 1pm at the latest.
Charters Towers Show
Winners
We did extremely well again at the Charters Towers Show in the primary school competitions this year!!!!!
Congratulations to all who participated!
These students are our successful place-getters…
Posters...
Prep:
Isla 1st, Harris 2nd
Year 1:
Addalyn 1st, Khloe 2nd
Year 2:
Josie 1st, Louise 2nd
Year 3:
Joseph 1st
Year 4:
Cormack 1st & Show Champion, Ella 2nd
Year 5:
Ingrid 1st, Stella 2nd
Year 6:
Amelia 1st, Chloe 2nd
Winners Displayed at SDE
Handwriting…
Year 2:
Chelsea 1st & Show Champion, Josie 1st (Tie for 1st)
Year 3:
Madison 1st
Year 4:
Lochie 1st
Year 5:
Stella 1st, Ingrid 2nd
Year 6:
Maddison 1st, Chloe 2nd
These winning entries will be proudly displayed in the Administration glass cabinets for all to see.
This will just be till end of term and they will be returned to our winners!
All entries without placings are being returned in the mail straight away.
Mrs Simatis
Primary Teacher
Language Team
Welcome!
Stephen Smith
My name is Stephen Smith. Before coming to CTSDE I spent fourteen years living and teaching languages in Osaka Japan. Osaka is where I met my wife and where my two children, Tommy and Lilly, where born, hence it will always remain a special city for me. Having said that coming here to teach at Charters Towers is like winning the lottery, because I can now teach a subject that I have a real passion for and my children can grow up in rural Australia enjoying the out-door life style. This is a far cry from the maddening streets of downtown Kansai.
For a language teacher I am quite the historian, I am currently working on the disappearance of 12 British paratroopers six hours prior to the D-Day landings. My research to date saw the Merville Gun Battery in Normandy, France formally inaugurated as a war grave missing from the historical record for seventy years in 2014. I am hoping, that I can prove where nine of the missing men are buried and this will be enough for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to conduct DNA testing. Perhaps I can finish a search started by my grandmother in 1944 for her husband Corporal Thomas W. Smith 9th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment MIA 6th of June 1944.
Having already received a lot of warm and welcoming support from many teachers and staff alike, I look forward to adding something of value to your professional endeavours in due course. I am a passionate teacher and nothing pleases me more than inspiring people to become the navigators of their own studies.
Above is a picture of me being photo-bombed by a member of the royal family in Normandy 2014.
Mr Smith
Language Teacher
Inter-School Athletics
Well Done!
A very big congratulations goes to one of our very own Prep Students James for winning Age Champion at the Etheridge Shire last week.
James at Etheridge Shire Inter-School Athletics Winning Age Champion
Year 4
Year 4 have had a busy start to the Term. In English they have already completed Unit 5 which looked at historical recounts. To conclude this unit the students wrote and shared amazing historical recounts from the perspective of a convict child. Now they are exploring a Quest novel and how the author “paints a picture” of the main character in the readers mind. In Math the students will be exploring money, number and place value and also fractions and decimals. Our science Unit explores the properties of materials and how this suits them to what they are used for. In Week 4 some students came into Clermont for 3 jam packed days of school and fun activities. What a busy start to Term 3!
Mrs McLauchlan
Year 4 Teacher
Year 6
The 2018 Clermont Show
by Amelia
This year was the 150th anniversary of our local Clermont show and we wanted to help the community celebrate by attending the show and putting in lots of art work for display. We decided to put in five entries each to be fair and Mum would help us do a Lego entry as well. So, we snatched little bits of time during the school day to do our art entries.
Time was running out and I only had four entries and then I got the bright idea of doing a quick sculpture. I cut up some clay that had gone too hard to use and made squares, then dipped them in brown paint and rolled them in coconut. I stacked these “lamingtons” onto a paper plate with a doily for my sculpture.
Mum had to do a special drive to drop our entries into Clermont and my Grandmother had to take them up to the show and enter them properly. The lamington stack fell over during the drive.
When we arrived at the show, the first thing we saw was the Distance Ed school display, which looked really good and had won second prize. I had done a watercolour of a jetty, which I really liked, but it did not get a prize and, in fact, had been hung upside down on the wall. I thought this was pretty funny.
The next thing I noticed was that my sculpture had gotten a special sash for the most creative exhibit at the show. We all laughed as I had been so worried that the judges would not even think it was a real sculpture.
2018 Charters Towers Show
by Chloe
“We went to the show on Monday and had a great day. I placed in the cooking, poster display and handwriting. We got to see lots of animals, rides and show jumping. I went on a bungee trampoline that shot me way up high.”
- Handwriting - 2nd Place
- Chocolate Cake - 1st Place and Champion Primary Student Cooking
- Health Poster - 2nd Place
Apple Tree
By Brianna
I was inspired by Grace Cossington Smith to create this painting of an apple tree.
Year 7
One small step for man, one giant leap for Year 7 astronomers!
This term, Year 7 science students have been getting their astronomy on. We have been learning about the Earth’s orbit and our interaction with the sun and moon. We have been leading up to learning about tides, lunar and solar eclipses. Over the last fortnight, our class has been discussing the total lunar eclipse that was to take place over the weekend. Many students dragged themselves out of bed Saturday morning to stand in their backyards and observed the longest lunar eclipse of the century! In week four, we are learning the reasons behind the beautiful colour changes of the moon.
So far, no sightings of the famous ET!
Total lunar eclipse seen from Towers Hill, Charters Towers on 28th July 2018 by a freezing, tired, and slightly frightened of the dark Miss Watherston.
Miss Watherston
Year 7 Science teacher
Year 8
YR8 Students are Building a Complex Machine
This term, Year 8 Technology students received a project kit including legs, a cross-brace, feet, wedges, axles, rollers, screws (3 types), hinges, U-nails, screw-eyes, sandpaper, a drill-bit, some nylon cord, and wood glue. Their first task was to check that it was all there: performing an inventory. For the rest of Term 3, each student will be constructing a machine to lift and move heavy objects (such as a plant-pot). They’ll be combining simple machines (like the wedge, or the screw) into a more complicated tool designed to achieve a specific purpose. One lesson per week is devoted to building, and one involves exploring the world of machines –for example, we’re focusing on the design principles behind the modern space suit, and the development of machines to help us garden and farm. Students are sending in progress photos each week, and it has been sensational to see and hear about the work they’ve been doing, the fun they’re having, and the difficulties or frustrations they’re overcoming. The exact name of the machine is yet to be determined (candidates include: Movebot, Liftosaurus, Up-matic, Big Lifting Thing or BLT, Budgezilla), but we are well on our way to its successful construction.
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A progress photo of our first
step: |
Another example of hinged legs |
A progress photo of our second step: the First Fixing of the Feet. (The screws are meant to be loose!)
Mr Newman
Year 8 Technology Teacher
VET
Ag Camp
What an awesome week we had at our Agricultural Camp! We had students come in from far and wide with one keen student making an incredibly long journey of 11 hours to get here!
During the week, our students attended two of the cattle properties here in Charters Towers: Parklands and Red Bluff. The students were able to put their theory into practice with activities that included: drafting and weighing weaners; using power and hand tools; and identifying and marking livestock. If the days were not enough, they also found the time and energy to play football upon the return to home base! Our students were able to get many reports and competencies signed off and they are now that step closer to completing their Certificate II or III in Agriculture.
We were privileged to witness the student’s confidence levels increase throughout the week and watch as friendships formed. It is a testament to the parents and caregivers to witness the respect and manners that were displayed by our students throughout the week towards the teachers, guest speakers and each other.
As much fun as Ag Camp is (it really is!), there is always a lot of work that happens behind the scenes to make sure things run as smoothly as possible. A huge thank you to Mr Peckett and Mr Jenkins for giving up their valuable time to work with our students and share their vast knowledge. Also a massive heap of gratitude for letting our students descend upon your unsuspecting properties (I’m pretty sure the cows will recover some day but not so sure about the fencing standing up to the test of time…). We are extremely fortunate that we are able to use these private properties to facilitate learning for our students. Also a shout out to the teachers who gave up their comfy beds to supervise students overnight and to those teachers who accompanied our students out to the properties to supervise. We also would not have students if it were not for the parent’s willingness to drive their child to Charters Towers, so thank you to the parents as well! Ag Camp is a huge team effort, so Thank You All!
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sizzling steak |
moovin’ on out |
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problem solving on the job |
Team meeting |
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Get Behind! |
Even the littlest need a hand sometimes |
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Get Behind! |
Even the littlest need a |
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Welding the trough stand |
A morning at the saleyards |
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Welding the |
A morning at the |
Safety first!
Miss Mroz
VET Camp Coordinator