Antarctica 5N
This is what students from 5N worked on today as part of their Antarctica Stage 3 unit.
Mrs Newton and Mrs Booth
Oct
31
Oct
27
Little Red Riding Hood meets Goldilocks and the Three Bears
2-O have been busy writing poetry based on fairytales and Mrs O’Donnell decided to create a play inspired by her students’ work. This is the result 🙂
Here is an introductory explanation of the play by Teira and then the whole play recorded by a parent. The video runs for approximately 11 minutes.
Here is the script using “youblisher” just click on the image.
Mrs Booth, Mrs O’Donnell and 2-O
Oct
25
Generation One
Gumbaynggirr Rap
Miindala! yaam muurlay; garla-ngarraanga!
Gawbarri ngiyaa gala-gala ngalanamba!
Yirringin.gurray, warluuny, giiguybali.
Ngiyaa gani-ganigam, ngalan miimi-garri
Ngiyaa bala-balami, ngarrayngga gala-gala.
English translation:
Education is the key with courtesy and honour.
Let’s all come together and help each other.
Don’t matter your culture or your colour.
Cause we all fit together like we’re from the same mother.
Be kind, be fair…GENERATION ONE!
Our school recently submitted our entry to the Generation One CREATivE CHANGE School Competition. Through participation in this competition students are actively engaging with Indigenous issues and promoting reconciliation. Over 4000 schools nationally have entered the competition where you can win $15000 for your school. Every primary entry sing the same song but they must include an original rap. We are very fortunate that we have a wonderful school ethos and local community who were willing to jump on board and collectively we are all very proud of the final film. Michael Jarrett, from the Muurbay language centre was brilliant in helping translate and teach the rap in Gumbaynggirr.  Nick Wagland and Billy White, local HSC students and friends of Mrs Booth’s son Nathan, were fantastic in seeing the vision and interrupting their HSC studies to help film and edit. Mr Doust, a former principal, was fabulous to put aside his time to come and help us with the audio recording 🙂
From the onset students and staff were adamant that the rap lyrics be translated and sung in Gumbaynggirr and this was a great initiative as the student rap group loved it and were so proud that they could actually learn and perform the words. Our highly diverse school is adamant that race should not be a crux for disadvantage and therefore students are aware of high expectations. All our students view themselves as capable and equal and they are “strong and smart” (Chris Sarra). We want to see them embrace the opportunities education gives them to hopefully create a domino effect towards HSC completion and beyond.
Ultimately the Generation One journey was a wonderful collaboration that unified the school further and for a number of staff, family, and community members the ripple effect has been a deeply personal one as their heritage and their children’s future is honoured.
The final film cannot be shown yet as entries are still being judged. It will be uploaded on Monday, October 29 as this is when the peoples choice award opens and all entries are available for viewing on the Generation One YouTube video channel. Here are some images and film of our school journey….
CHPS Generation One Journey on PhotoPeach
Ms Holden and Mrs Booth
Oct
16
NSW PSSA Athletics Championships 2012
Joban, Frank, Mabior and Daniel will be running their fastest when they compete in the New South Wales PSSA Athletics Championships at Sydney Olympic Park. They have qualified for the 4 x 100 metre relay and Joban has also qualified for the 8 years boys 100m. The boys have a number of heats to run and if successful they will qualify for the final. A big thank you to Mrs Leeson for coaching the team 🙂 Sam Almaliki from Cricket NSW also sent a wonderful Tweet to the school.
The following is a summary of part of IAAF relay rules:
(i) Relays shall be run on a circular track (4 x 100 metres).
(ii) A team shall consist of 4 runners and a baton shall be carried in hand.
(iii) The baton shall be passed within the take-over zone. The take-over zone shall be 20m long. Members of a team other than the first athlete may commence running not more than 10 metres outside the take-over zone. A distinctive line shall be drawn to denote this extended limit.
(iv) All runners must remain in their allotted lane until all teams are clear of the take-over zone.
(v) If the baton is dropped it shall be recovered by the athlete who dropped it. If it drops out of the team’s lane the athlete may leave the lane provided they don’t lessen the distance covered and no other athlete is impeded.
(vi) Check-Marks. An athlete may place one check-mark (to assist the baton change over) on the track within his own lane, by using adhesive tape, maximum 5cm x 40cm, of a distinctive colour which cannot be confused with other permanent markings. No other check marks may be used.
Joban, Frank, Daniel, Mabior and Mrs Booth
Oct
12
Hard Fun in a Virtual World
“These rapidly changing times challenge educators to find areas of work that are hard in the right way” Seymour Papert
Mrs Booth introduce virtual world technology through Sim-on-a-Stick to two new classes yesterday a 3/4 composite and a class in the special education unit. She is also working with two grade 5 classes over Term 4. As the students engaged with the program she noticed how intuitive it seemed to be but also how these students immediately started sharing their knowledge with their computer neighbours and others. She suddenly became the observer as the students adopted the teacher role without hesitation. Research tells us how 3D worlds are highly immersive, creative and engaging but it also informs us that this technology is problematic therefore pushing the student to engage the much higher order thinking gears necessary to navigate, create and achieve success in complex situations. No wonder virtual world technology is used across the world for GATS (gifted and talented student) programmes.
Mrs Booth regularly attends professional development through the PLANE organisation and recently was introduced to the work of Seymour Papert (a great mathematician and pioneer of computers in education) and his concept of hard fun. This resonated strongly with her as he writes that work needs to be matched to the individual and relevant to the culture of their time. As educators we need to create learning projects that will connect strongly with students pushing them to use knowledge to drive through problems rather than giving up, and ultimately develop powerful skills for their future life. Virtual worlds nail this in buckets. By creating a challenging learning quest/project within the virtual environment the student is already highly engaged and motivated and can now engage deeply with the task in order to master it. As Papert writes this is work that is “hard in the right way” because the student develops self-regulation, with sim-on-a-stick almost immediately, and is self-driven to complete the work.
This is backed up by the line-up of students outside the library at lunchtime waiting to come in to use the computers to continue working on the virtual projects and quests. You cannot ask for more than that!
Mrs Booth
Oct
10
Stage 3 angles maths using FieldProtractor iPad app
Today students from 5M road tested the FieldProtractor app for iPad. Mrs Booth thinks it is an excellent app for helping students develop a deeper understanding of angles. It is only $0.99 even though Mrs Booth thought it was around $4.00 when she bought it – sorry Oriana for giving you the wrong information:) It was a beautiful day and good one to get outside and discover and explore maths concepts in the school environment. The students estimated the angle first and then needed to identify if it was an acute, obtuse or right angle. Jacob was our photographer.
Mrs Booth and 5N
Oct
5
Happy Days Preschool visits CHPS
Happy Days preschoolers paid a visit to our school on Wednesday and had a little taste of what *big school* is like. They explored the ICT that the primary students use including virtual worlds and they also had a peek at the kindergarten classrooms. It was great fun and the time went very quickly. Some of the preschooler’s will be returning next year as kindergarten students 🙂
Mrs Booth or Miss Kate for Happy Days Preschool students 🙂