Artist Trading Cards

It has been stated before that, when we are able to share what we have learned it helps to develop and improve our understanding. The opportunity to share our artwork has arisen through an international project called "Artist Trading Card Swap".

The idea of  Artist Trading Cards was started in 1997 in Switzerland as a Project for Artists to share their work with one another. The card is about the same size as a regular Trading Card (63mm x 89mm). The artwork can be of any subject or medium. On the back, there needs to include details about the painting, the artist and where it comes from. 

An opportunity arose to participate in a school version through a group of Art teachers. Mini Matisse, otherwise known as Mrs Hahn, has given some of her time to organise this project.  More details of the project can be seen at her website: Mini Matisse.

To first create our cards I gave the students the following criteria that they had to make each of their cards for:

• One had to monochromatic
• As many different lines as possible
• use only primary colours
• Use a letter in the design.
• featured a cow
• own choice
• use perspective

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The next group of  cards that we created, needed to include a robot in one of the designs. We also used the following template so that all of our cards were labelled. 

Artist trading cards from Kate Todd

We are really looking forward to sending them to the United States soon, so that we can exchange our Trading Cards. It will be exciting to see where the cards all come from and the many different artworks that have been created. 

What have you learned through creating Artist Trading Cards? What have you enjoyed the most about the project so far? 

Award Winners Week 2

This weeks award winners have shown the diversity and uniqueness of our students. 

Chaye received an award for the great effort he has given to his mathematics. Ashleigh had some great ideas for her artists trading cards that we have been working on. Ethan has been working very enthusiastically on his Genius Hour Proposal. 

Hayden, Ben and Cedric were wonderful representatives of our school at Cricket on Thirsday! 

  Well done to all of our award winners! 

Dreaming of the Dreamtime

The Dreaming is an important part of the Australian indigenous people's spiritual identity. The stories from this time talk about the creation of the land that we live in. Many of the stories also teach about how to be better people and the ways that are appropriate to live. The stories help to bind the people together, because they brought the community together and taught the little ones the ways of their people. They were told through dance, music and as they sat around the campfire.

Among the Aboriginal people there was often one person who was the storyteller. Their job was to remember and tell the stories of the whole tribe. The stories did not belong to one person. It was the communities memories and beliefs that were passed down.

As part of English this week, we have been focusing on these Dreamtime stories. The students were given a book to read and to discuss in pairs. They had to answer the following questions after they had read the book:

• What was the story about? Who were the main characters and what did they do?
• How do you think this story was passed down to others? 
• What was the purpose of the story? What does it teach us? 

The students then created a triorama of their story to show others what the story was about. The purpose for creating drawings in this way, gave the students an opportunity to show what they knew aside from their writing. They could explore the ways that the images were drawn, experiencing some of the ways of communicating without always using words. 

Stage 3 Cricket

Cricket 

by Noah and Hayden

Yesterday, Mrs Camilleri chose 13 students from stage 3 to represent the college at the MACC V WCCS cricket match. MACC started fielding and bowling. We had a drinks break at the 10th over. After our 20th over we batted. Hayden and Jack opened the batting followed by Charlie,Joel,Noah,Aidan,Daniel,Mathew,Cedric,Ben,Shayden. At the end of the day MACC lost but all the boys came off with a grin on their faces. The boys got SLUSHI'S on the way back so they happy in the end!

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Picasso Cow Presentation Day 2015

Picasso Cow Presentation Day

by Peter and Jack P.

At 9:30am in the morning we got on the bus to go to the RSL in Blacktown. Once we got on the bus it took about 1 hour to get there. We helped get the cow of the trailer, we got it into the RSL.  The only choice to get the cow up to the area was to get it into the elevator. It just fitted! Peter and I helped it getting it out of the elevator. Once we got the cow into its place,  we had recess. 

Then the Presentation Day started! 

The first activity was a Quiz for every school. One student from each school had to go up onto the stage so we chose Amelia to represent our school. Each school had to choose a sound as a buzzer. We gave Amelia a Cat sound. Amelia made it into the grand final but we didn't win but at least we had fun. 

We played this game where we throw the ball in the air until the music stops. Who ever had the ball when  the music stopped, had to read out what it said on the ball. Each  word on the ball was an activity. After the Quiz there was a milking challenge. Two people were needed for the activity.  They didn't actually milk a cow. They milked a teat on a bottle. It looked funny! 

 After all the milking we all did an activity together we had to make a own milkshake. We didn't win that because we forgot to put some healthy stuff in there. After that then they announced the cow that won. A school called Emu plains won the Picasso cow presentation. We were close to winning because we look a little bit like them. 

We enjoyed watching the activities and the free Yogurt and Milk they were really tasty.

What did you learn from our Picasso Cow project? What could we do to improve? 

What is a Growth Mindset?

During the holidays, I found myself engrossed in the book called "Mindset" by Carol Dweck. It discusses her findings, as a psychologist, that there are two mindsets that people have when they face challenges. She explains that the people who achieve the greatest successes exhibit a set of traits that allow them to grow through the issues that they face. She gave many different examples in the book of people who have shown both mindsets.

The benefit of reading a book like this can show each one of us a way to become the best that we can be.

In stage 3, as a way of introducing these concepts, we started with looking at the book "The Dot". It is about Vashti who is a little girl who faces a challenge which she uses to learn from.

We discussed the question: What did Vashti learn?
Some of the things that we thought she learned were:

• that anyone can draw
• She didn't know that she could do something until she tried
• small things lead to big things
• she was able to teach someone else and pass her knowledge on.
• she learnt not to give up. 

The students then wrote about a time when they faced a challenge in their life like Vashti's. An example that I gave was from when I was younger. I used to ride horses and was very competent. The area that I found difficulty with was in showjumping. I felt that I couldn't get my horse to jump the height of the jumps. The students were able to find many different examples too. Some found speaking in public, others found sporting skills were challenging. 

We discovered as we talked about these challenges that it was often the words that we spoke to ourselves were very negative such "Give up" or "This is too hard".

We then watched another short video that showed the difference between Fixed and Growth Mindset. 

The Video gives the example of the Hare and Tortoise. The Hare has a fixed Mindset and the Tortoise has a Growth Mindset. The hare feels because of his talents that he will be successful and stay successful without any effort. The tortoise however shows a growth mindset. He keeps making an effort to finish at a steady pace, while also learning about how he can improve as he runs his race. The picture below shows some of the responses that we had about the video. 

The students were then asked to consider the situation that they wrote down. Did they think their response to the situation showed a fixed mindset or a growth mindset? The students then had to discuss in a small group, how in each of the circumstances that they could have changed their mindset. 

It is important that to remember that there will be challenges that we face. When we determine that we will learn from these challenges, through setting goals, making an effort, using ours strengths and improving our weakesses, that we will overcome and grow. 

What do you know about Mindset? Is there an experience where you have been encouraged to try something new?