Sr Ann Marie Learning Centre
Library news and information for Cerdon College Staff
Term 4, Nov/Dec 2015
Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy and peaceful Christmas and New Year. Enjoy the summer break and we look forward to working with you in 2016.
Nancy, Alana, Elena & Rita.
Return of books and resources: important dates
Christmas display
Students and staff will be able to borrow books for the summer holidays! (Conditions apply - see the next column). It's important to keep students reading over the long holiday break so please encourage students to visit the library and go home with a couple of books (in Week 10).
Important Dates - Students book returns
Week 9 - stocktake of fiction collection.
Week 10 - students may borrow for the Christmas holidays this year!! It's important to keep students reading for pleasure so please encourage your students to visit the library in Week 10 to borrow fiction and non-fiction books. (Note: students must have a clear library record i.e. no overdue books and no charges owing).
Important Dates - Staff returns
Beginning of Week 10 - by the beginning of Week 10, it would be greatly appreciated if teachers could return all of their library resources (ie teachers' reference, non-fiction, DVDs, other AV resources, etc).
Thurs/Fri Week 10 - staff can re-borrow teaching resources for 2016.
Cerdon Summer Reading on Padlet
Cerdon Summer Reading on Padlet - add your book recommendation
Thank you! Nancy.
Executive Director's Summer Reading Challenge
Students can read anything they like to enter the Executive Director's Summer Reading Challenge, whether it’s a comic, play, piece of poetry, book, e-book or graphic novel. This year the challenge is easier to enter by removing the minimum number of books to read and provided students with more chances of winning a prize. Encourage your students to have a go! The more they read, the more times they can enter and the more chances they then have of winning one of four iPads.
HOW TO ENTER
It’s simple! Students just need to read something they enjoy and tell us in 50 words or less why they loved it.
The more material a student reads, the more times they can enter the reading challenge and the more chances they have of winning one of four iPad minis.
Click here to enter
Entries open on 2 November 2015 and close at 5pm on 5 February 2016.
Terms and Conditions
Updated Student eBook Platform
LEX has recently updated the student ebook platform to include a significant number of new titles, as well as increasing the available copies of a number of popular existing titles. The new ebooks include:
1. CBCA award finalists in 2015, 2014 and 2013.
2. Additional copies of our most popular books from the existing collection
3. Selections from top 100 books from junior and senior categories from Wheelers.
4. Specific requests, for primary level Gospel stories, books of poems and rhymes, some specific titles, and for high interest easy reading titles
5. NSW Premiers Reading Challenge list.
In total LEX has purchased 115 new titles and additional copies of 84 existing titles. This gives students in the Parramatta Diocese access to 770 titles available for loan on the portal.
Some of the highlights are :
NSW Premiers Reading Challenge list
And
Students can easily access eBooks via the library catalogue (there's a link to Student eBooks at the top of the page) and via the app, ePlatform by Wheelers Books.
Ebooks provide another medium to access a diverse and quality range of reading material - especially handy for families who are travelling over the school holidays.
New ClickView Features
Click on the link below to sign-in and watch a short video demonstrating this new feature. The video only takes a few minutes and it's definitely worth watching to see how you can use this new feature in your lessons and to support student learning.
SBS Learn has arrived
- Curriculum-aligned Teaching Resources
- Snack-sized clips
- Animated explainers
- Quizzes and fact sheets
- Classroom posters
- Social hub
SBS Learn projects featured on the site include: Go Back To Where You Came From and The Boat (asylum seeker and refugee focused resources) and First Contact (Indigenous Australia focused resource). The curriculum-aligned material informs and expands on SBS content and is accessible to both students and teachers.
To celebrate the launch of SBS Learn, they've teamed up with the Australian Centre for Photography to create a School Selfie photography resource available to all Australian schools.
What is it?
The School Selfie classroom resource is an easy-to-follow mobile phone or tablet photography workshop encouraging students to reflect on, and celebrate their school. SBS hopes that teachers will find it a valuable, fun and creative resource as the end of the school year approaches and beyond.
Upcoming resources include an English and History lesson pack to accompany the Walkley Award-winning online documentary Cronulla Riots - The Day That Shocked the Nation.
ELES Study Skills Handbook
The website address is www.studyskillshandbook.com.au
School username: cerdoncollege
School password: achieve
Attention: Guidance Coordinators - I know that some of you have started using ELES Study Skills Handbook with your guidance classes already or have plans to work through certain units next year. You can keep track of how your students are progressing using the Administrator Password (I will give you a copy of this information in your pigeon hole. Please do not give this password to students or parents). It is very helpful to use this tracking system as you can review which quizzes students have attempted, re-attempted and see student results. Students in Year 8 have worked on the unit related to 'Bullying Issues' and from home a number of students have worked on 'Dealing with distractions'. Students in Year 7 have also worked on 'Dealing with distractions' and one student has used the 'Writing skills' module.
SpineOut Oct-Nov issue
Using EbscoHost Databases Account Passwords
You may or may not be aware that students and staff can set up their own account within the EbscoHost databases so that they can store and organise material they search/locate for their studies. Students have access to a wide variety of databases wherever they have internet access (including the Literary Reference Centre Plus, History Reference Centre, Science Reference Centre and Secondary Explora to mention a few).
If you have used personal EbscoHost account feature and or will be using it, please be aware that the requirements for password creation have been recently strengthened by Ebsco and require the following:
-Must be a minimum of 8 characters long
-Must contain a a capital letter
-Must contain a symbol (e.g @,#,*,$)
-Must contain a number
-Cannot be any of a users previous passwords
-Cannot contain your username
The useful feature of email alerts for journals or search topics require an account to be setup.
If you wish to know more about the setting up of accounts in Ebscohost and or utilising the features of the database please contact me (nsylaprany@parra.catholic.edu.au) or visit the library. I'm also happy at any time to visit any of your classes to show students how to access the databases and what's available to support their studies.
Favourite Tech Tools for Social Studies classes
More Indigenous history in the curriculum ...
The Learning Exchange (LEX) - Staff eBooks & Print Books
The Learning Exchange (LEX) at AKC provides access to a wide range of professional resources for teachers in the Parramatta Diocese. Each week LEX shares a Staff eBook and Print Book of the Week. Please browse a range of recent suggestions below. Additional staff ebooks may be browsed and borrowed via the school library catalogue (open the library catalogue through the app on your iPad and select Staff eBooks or you can also search via your computer. Click here to go to the catalogue). If you need any assistance accessing eBooks please see Nancy.
Staff eBook: Creative Teaching Mathematics
This book shows how mathematics and mathematics teaching can be creative, exciting and enjoyable. Offering teachers a dynamic and different perspective on mathematics, it enables them to see and teach in creative ways that will develop students’ mathematical thinking potential. The book:
covers both primary and early years range
includes issues for reflection, discussion
points and case studies
- addresses new teacher training modules on creativity and maths
(Recommended by the Learning Exchange LEX)
Print book Via LEX: Well Played : building mathematical thinking through number games and puzzles
Well Played shows you how to make games and puzzles an integral learning component that provides teachers with unique access to student thinking. The twenty-five games and puzzles in this book have all been field-tested in diverse classrooms, contain:
- Explanations of the mathematical importance of each game or puzzle and how it supports student learning
- Variations for each game or puzzle to address a range of learning levels and styles
- Clear step-by-step directions
- Classroom vignettes that model how best to introduce the featured game or puzzle.
The book also includes a separate chapter with suggestions for how to effectively manage games and puzzles in diverse classrooms; reproducibles that provide directions, game boards, game cards, and puzzles; assessment ideas; and suggestions for online games, puzzles, and apps. Well Played will help you tap the power of games and puzzles to engage students in sustained and productive mathematical thinking.
To borrow, please contact:
ph : 9677 4345Further reading:
LEX website: http://goo.gl/dGqWER
The Learning Exchange (LEX) Part 2
Staff eBook: The Graphic Novel Classroom
This book overcomes the challenge of keeping adolescents reading. In these pages, you will learn how to create your own graphic novel in order to inspire students and make them love reading. Create your own superhero to teach reading, writing, critical thinking, and problem solving!
Readers will learn how to incorporate graphic novels into their classrooms in order to:
Teach twenty-first-century skills such as interpretation of content and form
Improve students’ writing and visual comprehension
Captivate both struggling and proficient students in reading
Promote authentic literacy learning
Develop students’ ability to create in multiple formats
eBook link: http://goo.gl/QaLU47
(Recommended by the Learning Exchange LEX)
Print book via LEX: The Shape of Text to Come
This new resource caters for both practising educators and students alike, providing a theoretical framework for understanding and working with visual and multimodal texts. It contains a stunning collection of images; a variety of quality texts; classroom strategies; and activities that integrate appropriate ICT. This book can be utilised over many key learning areas, with links to the Australian Curriculum.
To borrow, please contact:
ph : 9677 4345Article via eResources: More than comic books
This article discusses the benefits of using graphic novels in middle school and high school education. The author states that graphic novels can be used to engage students' interests in subjects such as literature, culture, and history. In addition, he states that the close integration of text and images require similar skills necessary in reading websites and magazines as well as traditional reading skills. Information is provided on how to integrate such forms of literature into a curriculum as well as titles in subjects such as social studies, mathematics, and science.
Follow this link to a selected journal article via eResources:
Staff eBook: Reading in the Wild
Reading in the Wild, written with reading teacher Susan Kelley, describes how to truly instill lifelong "wild" reading habits in our students.
Based, in part, on survey responses from adult readers as well as students, this book offers solid advice and strategies on how to develop, encourage, and assess five key reading habits that cultivate a lifelong love of reading.
Also included are:
Strategies
Lesson plans
Management tools
Comprehensive lists of recommended books
eBook link: http://goo.gl/6LSQip
(Recommended by the Learning Exchange LEX)
Print book via LEX: Reading Under The Covers
This book explains what kids want in a book, and which books they choose. Interviews with the authors and illustrators of books that kids have chosen in Australia-wide competitions throw light on the processes involved in creating these award-winning books, and give voice to one consistent underlying message: let books be the child’s playground, where the imagination can roam free.
To borrow, please contact:
ph : 9677 4345Article via eResources: Taming the Wild Text
Article link: http://goo.gl/UAUnGi
How to grow a classroom culture that supports blended learning
Hip Hop and Science
Transmedia Storytelling
New Journals in the library
The 'Maker Movement' has a place in all disciplines
The Maker Space is Doomed
The Future of the Humanities: reading
An article exploring the pros and cons of various reading mediums over time. Read it here.
Togs, bathers or cossies?
You may have spotted this article in the SMH a few weeks ago. It's an interesting and amusing article about language. Read it here.
The Power of Conversation : a lesson from CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien
"Magical, even life-changing things can happen when you choose to enter into conversation — when you choose spontaneity over editing and efficiency. But it is paradoxically a spontaneity that one must intentionally seek and ready oneself for.
So prepare ye the way."
Read the full article here.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2
12 Apps of Christmas
There is a free online 'course' starting on December 1st, called the 'the 12 Apps of Christmas'.
From the site: "a page will be released that reviews a particular mobile app and explores it in terms of how it could help students personalise their learning. More information on what personalisation means, and how it can benefit student learning, can be found on the student information page. An information page for educators has also been included which explains what tutors and lecturers can do to create the type of environment that provides students with unique opportunities to personalise their learning."
If you have the time, it may be interesting to sign-up and follow it through for the 12 days. Register and watch a short video here.
Thanks for reading ...
Librarian
SAM Learning Centre
Sr Ann Marie Learning Centre
Email: nsylaprany@parra.catholic.edu.au
Website: https://sites.google.com/a/parra.catholic.edu.au/cerdonlibrary/
Location: Cerdon College, Merrylands
Phone: (02) 8724 7324