Memories

One person that I wish that I could have met was my Great Grandmother. She was a lady of enormous character and grace, who raised three rather wild boys, one of whom was my Grandfather. She lived through Two World Wars and The Great Depression. She lived to old age, outliving two of her young sons, who she missed very much. The photo shows my Great Grandmother on her wedding day. The veil she is wearing is the same one that I wore on my wedding day. A special memory!

The very old book was given to my Great Uncle Peter, my Grandfather's younger brother, in 1926. It was a much beloved book that shows how much it has been read and loved. It was a book that held a fascination for me when I was younger and helped me to connect with relatives who I didn't get to meet. 

Memories are an important and powerful part of our identity. They are created by remembering events and situations that involve people we know. This week we are focusing on the importance of memories as part of our cultural and personal journey in life. We looked at what memories are and whether memories are something that we should share with others.

Dreamtime - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Some of the responses that came out discussed that not all memories are ones that we want to share with others. They may be personal or they may touch a sensitive part of us that might be difficult to share. 

Memories are a powerful writing source and when shared. can influence other people's thoughts and ideas. 

What is a favourite memory that you have? 

Dreamtime stories told through Dance

One of the unique things about living in Australia is learning about the rich cultural heritage of our indigenous people. Learning about their stories of the Dreamtime, along with the traditions about the way that they are told, help to give an appreciation and understanding of their culture. 

Storytelling in many aboriginal tribes is the task of the storytellers of the tribe. It is their task to pass on the stories of the Dreamtime to the children, to teach them their ways. These stories were often told by an elder or shared in dance and music. The stories tell about creation and often bear a moral or lesson for life. 

Some examples that we looked at demonstrated theses traditional ways of a telling a story. The one thing that was noticed was that the stories were often told without words, particularly in the example shown by the dance "Brolga".

It turns out that telling a story without words can be rat here tricky! 

The students in Stage 3 were given a Dreamtime story to read in small groups. The challenge was to turn the written story into a dance. The students could use music but no words. Many of the groups researched or experimented in the way that animals move, as often the stories featured an animal. The creativity of each group was to be commended and all succeeded in creating a unique dance that told a story without using words, creating music to help tell the story.

The students were given a rubric to help them to focus on what they needed to include in the dance. The dances were presented in class and we discussed the effectiveness of each dance. It's encouraging to see when other students can comment and give positive feedback.

Dreamtime stories-rubric from Kate Todd

Genius Hour is back

Genius Hour is back!

Genius Hour is a time for students to consider projects that they would like to work on. There are many creative and interesting projects, with many students challenging themselves in learning new skills. Some of the activities are: 

Sewing Dolls Clothes

Sewing a dress...

Creating designs...

Creating Pokemon Balls out of Clay

Stop Animation...

Diorama on Wolves...

Cooking Chicken Satay...

Students can explore skills and interests in Genius Hour that they may not be able to in conventional lessons. Differentiation of learning often gets spoken about when discussing how to meet each students needs. Genius Hour allows each student to learn at their own level. 

The process requires that each student reflect on their own learning and needs to be able to discuss what they have achieved. Students set goals for each week that they need to be able to achieve. We look forward to the Students sharing what they have learned in Week 8. 

What do you like the most about Genius Hour? What do you think you will learn from having completed Genius Hour? 

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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