23 August 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

The Top Ten Teaching Strategies

This edition the fifth and sixth most effective teaching strategies are shared. John Hattie and his associates conducted a large number of meta-analysis of research findings across many years to identify the strategies that have the greatest effect on student learning.

Sixth Placed Strategy:

The sixth most effective strategy was the comprehensive interventions for learning disabled students. The research appears to show that a combined direct instruction and a strategy instructions approach was an effective procedure for remediating learning disabilities. These two approaches are both somewhat independent so it, the evidence shows, is the most important to use both strategies consistently and for extended periods. The important elements include:

• Attention to sequencing of skill development and understanding
• Drill – Repetition – Practice
• Segmenting in formation into parts or smaller pieces for later synthesis
• Controlling task difficulty through the use of prompts and cues by the teacher or learning materials
• Making use of technology
• Systematically modelling problem solving steps

The research also showed that these two approaches had a high effect in learning to read when a ‘bottom-up’ was used:

• Emphasis on accurate word recognition
• Decoding
• Letter awareness

Remember these strategies were effective on ‘learning disabled’ students.

Fifth Placed Strategy:

The fifth most effective strategy was concerned with students who were regarded (by qualitative measures) to be significantly brighter than the peer cohort. The strategy is Accelerated Instruction – that is, where brighter students work with their mental peers in learning tasks that match their specific abilities. It does not mean progressing faster through full years of subjects or courses. Acceleration may occur through grade placement, enrichment and telescoping. The research showed that for the student who was measurable far ahead of their peers in basic core skills then acceleration could be beneficial with little adverse social effects. The core element in the consideration of this strategy is of course the students’ mastery of core of foundation skills.

Using school science to nurture and develop children’s wonderings about their world:

Teachers and parents can harness children’s curiosity to help the do hands-on experiments to investigate the questions they’re interested in, fostering a love of everyday science.

Mr John Clark
Principal

Deputy Principal’s Report

What you can do at home to help your child with reading:

• Give positive messages and involve them in everyday conversations and opportunities to read.
• Read aloud to your child. It helps them to learn about the language of books and will encourage them to enjoy books and reading.
• Make reading enjoyable and talk about books, magazines and computer stories that you have read together.
• Try not to let television intrude on reading time. Make a special time for reading with your child, away from interruptions.
• Listen to your child read as often as you can, every day if possible, even if only for a short time.

Listening to your child read:

• When reading together at home try to make the time relaxed, enjoyable and positive.
• Read together, read to your child and take turns or have them read to you.
• Before reading, talk about the cover, the title and the pictures, and discuss what the book may be about.
• During reading, discuss what has been read up to that point and predict what might happen next.
• After you've finished reading with your child, talk and ask questions about the story and the pictures.

Reading at home:

When your child is reading and encounters words that are difficult for them, use the Three Ps technique ‘Pause, Prompt, Praise' to support them.

• Pause: when your child comes to a word they don't know, try not to jump in straight away. Wait and give your child time to work out the word.
• Prompt: if your child successfully works out the problem word, suggest they go back to the beginning of the sentence and re-read it (to recap meaning) before reading on. If your child has not worked out the problem word, prompt them with some quick, low-key suggestions. Say things like: "Try reading on for a sentence or two, miss out the difficult word and see if that helps you to work it out." "Look at the sound the word begins with, use that clue, and think about what may make sense here? Look at the pictures." If prompts like these are not working, simply tell your child the correct word. Try not to spend too much time prompting, as your child will find it difficult to maintain the overall meaning of what they are reading.
• Praise: praise your child's reading efforts and successes

Mr Burke
Deputy Principal

Language Team

Townsville Annual Japanese Speech Contest

A student from CTSDE and a number of other schools involved in the Languages Program travelled to Townsville early this month to participate in the Townsville Japanese Speaking Competition. In total 13 students from CTSDE, Home Hill State School, Garbutt State School and Airville State School participated in the Primary Division. They spoke about themselves, their pets and their likes and dislikes in front of a large crowd of people

Congratulations to one of our Year 6 CTSDE students Chelsea who participated in the Year 6 Division and showed great effort. Chelsea is currently studying Japanese with Mrs Waerea and has been motivated and is now keen to show her Japanese skills!

CTSDE Year 6 student, Chelsea presenting her speech in front of judges

We also had a number of school based students who participated and received outstanding results:

Year 5 Division: Total 28 contenstants

5th place – Rhonda - Garbutt State School

Year 6 Division: Total 27 contenstants

2nd place – Kenneth– Home Hill State School
5th place – Tia - Garbutt State School

Thank you to the parents for taking the time to travel into Townsville, to give your students a great opportunity to showcase their growing Japanese skills.

Home Hill State School Year 6 Students with Mr Moritake

Taka Sensei
Senior Japanese Teacher

Inter-School Athletics Carnival

North Queensland Team

Congratulations also to Charlotte, Charley, Georgie and Chloe for making it into the North Queensland Athletics Team!

• 9 Years Girls Age Champion – Charlotte
• 10 Years Boys Age Champion – Charley

Our Competitors at the Inter-School Athletics in Charters Towers

2018 Primary Interschool Athletics Carnival – Charters Towers

On Friday the 3rd of August, many of our students proudly represented our school at the 2018 Interschool Athletics Carnival. This event was held at All Souls here in Charters Towers and gave students the chance to compete against the other local schools. All students showed exceptional sportsmanship and school pride. Many of the students competed in multiple events and gave it their all throughout the day.

Congratulations to all competitors for their efforts on the day, with many of them taking home ribbons and making it into the finals for different events. Students finished the day by coming together and competing in the relays against all other schools. The results recorded on the day were; Chloe 1st 800m, Charley 1st 800m and 3rd 200m, Addalyn 1st 60m, Georgie 1st High Jump, Amelia 3rd in 200m and Charlotte 1st 800m, 3rd High Jump, 2nd Long Jump, 2nd 100m and 1st 200m. Charlotte then went on to win Age Champion for the 9yrs Girls and Charley went on to win Runners up for the 10yrs Boys. Once all the events had come to an end and results had been finalised, a huge congratulations was given to Charlotte, Chloe, Charley and Georgie for qualifying to represent Charters Towers at the North Queensland Track and Field event in Townsville later this term. We wish all students the best of luck and look forward to hearing how they go at this event.

All athletes who competed should be commended for their effort and the way they represented the school. A big thank you goes out to the staff involved in the event and all the parents, guardians and siblings who made the trip to Charters Towers so their children could compete in this event and were excellent supporters of the team.

Sports Committee

Charters Towers Science Week

Some very exciting news for a couple of our CTSDE students.

Morgan won the Pride of the Towers award for his working model of an elevator. Morgan’s entry scored the most points out of all entries.

Zarah won the Primary Invention Division for her working model of a stair ramp – with the turn of the handle the stairs convert to a ramp.

Congratulations Morgan and Zarah on your wonderful achievement.

Year 9

Body Systems

Our bodies are finely tuned machines and much like cars, our body systems must work together to function properly. Our cells, organs and organ systems are constantly working to provide nutrients and oxygen, remove wastes and maintain balance in our bodies. Without this collaboration, we would not be able to survive, but what happens when these systems are compromised?

This term our Year 9 students have been looking at how our bodies maintain balance in constantly changing environments and how our bodies fight off disease. They have researched the functions of each of the systems in our bodies and their inter-relationships, the effect that changes in our environment have on our bodies and how they respond to counteract these changes as well as the defence systems in place to keep out and attack pathogens.

This knowledge will allow students to understand the reason their bodies respond to changing environments and infection by pathogens and apply this to make conscious decisions to maintain their health and develop solutions to prevent the spread of disease.

Mr Luke Rodrigues
Year 9 Science Teacher

Year 10

Dihydrogen monoxide may be in the food served at restaurants. It may be in the air you breathe, in your morning coffee, and it could even be inside you! Luckily for us, hydrogen dioxide (H2O), also known as water, is not too detrimental to our health. However, other less friendly things could certainly be residing in our foods, water, and in the world around us.

This unit, our year 10 students are delving into the world of chemistry. So far, we have been finding our footing in the essentials of the subject; using the periodic table of elements, predicting products of reactions, and balancing chemical equations. We have also had the chance to look at some interesting technology that has changed our understanding of atoms, as well as being useful in a more practical way. For example, with technologies such as flame spectrometry, we are able to save lives by identifying potentially hazardous contaminants in water and soil and intervening before it becomes detrimental to humans.

With a greater understanding of chemistry, humans can create sophisticated tools that pave the path for further understanding, which allows for more technologies, and so on. Perhaps in the future, one of our capable chemists will drive technology and understanding even further, and change the world.

Miss Chan
Senior Teacher

Senior Secondary

A note from Senior Secondary

As I sit here contemplating what to write and share with our Distance Ed family, I started thinking about the long educational journey that our students in this part of our school have travelled. Up to 10, 11 and 12 years of study, and sometimes more, have helped shape each of our students into who they are today. This means that their study of History has given them skills in empathy, understanding and curiosity. The study of Maths has given them analytical and problem solving skills. English has allowed them to explore others perspectives and develop their communication skills. The study of Geography has helped develop their sense of social responsibility. Sciences have allowed them to infer and predict, to measure, classify and observe. Each subject has sub-consciously allowed each student to develop into a person whom they should be extremely proud of. Schooling subjects offer more than knowledge. They offer skills, attitudes, perspectives and responsibilities. They offer a safe look into the wider world. They offer the chance to explore without getting (too) lost. They offer a small sample from the smorgasbord of life. They offer a chance to spread their wings while keeping the training wheels on.

We are now at the time of year that for some of our students, the prospect of removing those training wheels and flying into the great unknown is upon them. Decisions on further study, career choices and readiness are coming into view. QTAC forms, course selections, pre-requisites and QCEs become the burning discussion points. Year 10’s are considering their subject choices for next year. Year 11’s are looking at swapping subjects to ensure QCE points. Year 12’s are counting down the days until school is over (51 days to go…). Your training wheels are off but we are still below you, encouraging you, supporting you, and, occasionally, sending a gust of wind your way to help you fly that bit higher. We are here for your successes, we are here for your failures and we are here to see, and help, you try again. It is that reattempt, that never give up attitude, the try-try-again mentality that will serve you well, now and always.

So, being that time of the term, when you are feeling the stress of too many assignments, not enough sleep and too much coffee, remember, you are supported. You are important. You are safe to try. You are a valued student here at Distance Ed.

One of the highest compliments that we as teachers love to hear, is: “It is because of you, I never gave up.” Well, one of the highest compliments that we can give to you, our students is this: “It is because of you that we will never give up.”

Miss Mroz
Senior Teacher

Clermont Outreach

Brrrrr! It was a cold start to our Outreach this term! We certainly enjoyed starting the day with PE and exercises to warm us up!

Over both afternoons, we enjoyed participating in a range of activities and completed the following rotations, sand art, leather key ring stamping, science experiments – film canister pop rockets, scratch crowns, outdoor games and drawing plate/cup designs.

Some Year 1 students wrote about what they enjoyed most from these afternoon activities.

At Clermont Outreach I liked playing soccer with Jack and Kyle. Kyle saved 10 goals! I liked PE with Mr Purdie and the science experiments with Mr Purdie too.

Thomas

At Clermont Outreach I liked doing sand art and the rotations.

Halle

I liked doing sand art with Lani and Bianca. I also loved making the leather keyrings.

Rachel.

I liked doing the sand art because it was fun.

Jack

I loved the rotations. My favourite four were the crowns, the sand art, the cups and the rockets.

Addison

Earlier in the year, our school won a grant from the Charters Towers Regional Council to purchase some Bee Bots for our school. Clermont Outreach was the first time the students were able to enjoy playing with these cool robots.

The Year 1’s and 5’s worked together to estimate how long a chalk line was then used a Bee Bot ruler to measure how many “instructions” to give the Bee Bot so it could go all the way to the end. This was a great hands on maths activity that the students really enjoyed.

The year 1’s also used the Bee Bots on a special treasure map. This tied in nicely with their Geography unit. The students took turns listening to instructions and directions such as, north, south, east, and west, left, right, forwards and backwards. The students had to navigate their way around the map to a special location. They were all very excited when they found the hidden treasure!

The Preppies and Year 6’s also had lots of fun exploring with the Bee Bots using numbers and letters.

On our last day, we held a special parade for our graduating Year 6 class. We hope the year 6’s enjoyed their last Outreach at Clermont as primary school students. We wish you all the best, as you get ready to embark on the next chapter of your schooling life in 2019.

A huge thank you to all the parents, tutors and students for a fantastic Outreach.

Until next time,

The Clermont Teachers

Hughenden Outreach

Prep:

At Hughenden Outreach, the Prep students did lots of work practising their literacy and numeracy skills. Especially our sounds, writing sentences and counting. Over the three days, we practised our puppet show ‘The Three Little Pigs’. When practising and presenting our puppet show, we made sure that we had a big loud voice and that we faced the audience so that they could hear us very clearly. We had lots of fun using the puppets to present the story at the final assembly for all of our Outreach friends.

Another exciting part of the Outreach was learning about all the different forces – gravity, magnetic, push and pull in Science and Design and Technology. It was really fascinating finding out how gravity is the force that keeps us down on the Earth and how magnets can stick to different steel and metal surfaces. The highlights were definitely getting to use two magnets to push or pull our toy cars to have a race together and later on making our own cars to race and share with our Prep friends what force we used to make the car move.

Years 1, 2 and 3:

The Years 1, 2 and 3 class looked at ‘People Who Help Us’ with Ms Simatis. They learn about the different people who can help us and how they can help us, like firefighters, ambulance and police officers. We explored what is a good fire or bad fire and discussed survival plans for their properties. There was a lot of laughter at the undercover police disguises they created and why it is so important to have laws and rules that keep us safe. Saving lives was also a focus - Ambulance officers, paramedics, nurses, doctors, rescuers and lifesavers. There was also a very impressive performance of dancing and singing acts by the class at the Final Assembly. Our poem was about being a fire fighter to the tune of I’m a little teapot. Our action song was about Madi the Year 3 doctor looking after the Year 1’s and 2’s who all had Chicken Pox. Fabulous effort by all involved!

The class also practised very hard on their literacy and numeracy skills. Students practised their maths operations with chalk, di and fast fact strategies; Money with shopping for the exact price, data collecting and graphing; Sentence writing; Reading comprehension and lots more skills over the three days. Each student shared with the group what they wanted to be when they grew older and why. We heard the children wanted to be Vets, Zoo Keepers, Entertainers, Station workers and so much more. The students worked very hard and thoroughly enjoyed their time together and with their Outreach.

Year 5 and 6:

This week, the Year 5 and 6 students from the Hughenden district attended the Hughenden Outreach at the Diggers Centre with Miss Heath. We started off each morning with assembly and completed warm up activities to get our day started. Our favourite was the yoga and meditation we did in the afternoon with our class.

In our Maths session, we all were very excited to be playing Multiplication Bingo. We all were very competitive but Miranda won in the end. Our other Math task was orienteering where we devised a course for our fellow classmates to locate markers with our compasses. We found this tricky to start with but soon enough found it quite enjoyable and were able to independently complete the task.

The science work we completed was looking at periscopes and Ms Heath informed us on the history of periscopes. As well as that, we created our own periscopes to spy on the parents and other people in the hall.

We also wrote poetry, as it is currently the Year 5 English unit. Here is a poem we would like to share:

Written by,
Miranda, William, and Campbell
Year 5 and 6 Students

Afternoon Activities:

On Tuesday and Wednesday, students had a wonderful time learning to play the ukulele with Mrs D. Students learnt the different strings and ways to pluck or strum the ukulele. There were also lots of rhythm games and singing to help us learn the ukulele. The other activity was top secret business, with the students creating an array of goodies for a present for their Dad on Father’s Day. As Father’s Day has not yet arrived, we will be keeping this information top secret and no photos will be shown.

As a reward for working so hard over the three days, students got the special treat of getting to see a shearing exhibition. We learnt about the different clippers, saw how the shearer shears the sheep’s wool, feel how soft (and oily) the sheep’s wool is and even got to help sort out the wool. Overall, the students, teachers and parents all had a wonderful time at Outreach.

Thank you to all the students and parents for making the Outreach absolutely fantastic!

Mrs Price, Ms Heath and Ms Simatis
Year 5 Teacher

Literacy Links

Reading Strategies Using word-attack strategies to decode words.

Word-attack strategies help students sound out, say and understand unfamiliar words. They help students attack words piece by piece. The following ideas can be used to help your child to decode words.

Use Picture Clues (Eagle Eyes)

• Look at the picture.
• Are there people, objects, or actions in the picture that might make sense in the sentence?

Sound Out the Word (Stretchy Snake)

• Start with the first letter, and say each letter-sound out loud.
• Blend the sounds together and try to say the word. Does the word make sense in the sentence?

Look for Chunks in the Word (Chunky Monkey)

• Look for familiar letter chunks. They may be sound/symbols, prefixes, suffixes, endings, whole words or base words.

• Read each chunk by itself. Then blend the chunks together and blend the word. Does that word make sense in the sentence?

Connect to a Word You Know

• Think of a word that looks like the unfamiliar word.
• Compare the familiar word to the unfamiliar word. Decide if the familiar word is a chunk or form of the unfamiliar word.
• Use the known word in the sentence to see if it makes sense. If so, the meanings of the two words are close enough for understanding.

Reread the Sentence (Tryin’ Lion)

• Read the sentence more than once.
• Think about what word might make sense in the sentence. Try the word and see if the sentence makes sense.
• Keep Reading (Skippy Frog)
• Read past the unfamiliar word and look for clues.
• If the word is repeated, compare the second sentence to the first. What word might make sense in both?

Use Prior Knowledge

• Think about what you know about the subject of the book, paragraph, or sentence.
• Do you know anything that might make sense in the sentence? Read the sentence with the word to see if it makes sense.

Ms Luxton
Senior Teacher

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