Book Week 2014 - Paper Bag Book Reviews

Students chose their favourite book and created a Paper Bag Book Review. Some examples of these bags were photographed and made into a collage using the Google App Loupe Collage.

Archdiocesan eLearning Network Meeting

Today I battled through the rain and flooded roads to attend the eLearning Network Meeting for the Sydney Archdiocese. What an inspirational experience!

Our presenter was George Couros who says: " I am the Division Principal for Parkland School Division and an Innovative Teaching, Learning, and Leadership consultant. I believe we need to inspire our kids to follow their passions, while letting them inspire us to do the same"                    http://georgecouros.ca/blog/

CC image by: devianART http://fav.me/d6bkchf

Here are some of the thoughts I came away with:

• eLearning is not about technology; it’s about relationships and learning. I'd always known that teaching and learning depended very much on relationships, but had not before considered technology in the same way.

• Although we can use Google and other search engines to effectively find information, it’s what we do with it that really matters.

• If you can Google the answers to the questions on a test – it's not a good test. We need go write better questions that make students think.

• Technology does not equal engagement - just because a student has a device in hand does not mean they are engaged in the task.

• The biggest shift for educators using technology is not a skill set – it is a mind set.

• Teachers need to go to the place where our students are because that is important to them.

• Kids need guidance from teachers and parents.

• The focus needs to be on learning first, technology second.

• Schools can be a place where exploration, creativity and imagination make learning exciting and where all learners (including staff) aspire to reach their dreams.

St Brigid's new school website coming soon!

Our new school website is a Google site. It is much easier to navigate and certainly much easier to manage. It looks great! 
Here's a preview of the banner...

There will be tab on the horizontal navigation bar for the school intranet where students, parents and teachers will be able to log on.

https://sites.google.com/a/syd.catholic.edu.au/stbmarrickville/

Premier's Reading Challenge 2014

Countdown to end of the 

Premier's Reading Challenge

17 reading days to go!

That's right! The Premier's Reading Challenge finishes on Friday 22nd August at 11:59 pm.Students can locate PRC books in our library by checking for the label on the spine of PRC books. The labels look like this:

Also, there are tubs containing picture books and non fiction books for those completing the 3-4 and 5-6 Challenge. Here's a link to the PRC site: https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/logon.html

CC image by Philip Martin