Reader cup win!

Congrats to the Year 8 students in the wide bay finals for the readers cup!
We are all very proud of our students. They now represent the region at the state finals in Brisbane.

Student and Parent Survey on Technology

Please complete the following survey:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/slasmail.com/spreadsheet/gform?key=t8Eddpm2v93qp1xfheTXYAw&pli=1#edit

The School's ICT Committee meet regularly to discuss ICT directions in education.
Topics of discussion include: ipads in education, school apps, wireless access for students, cyber safety for students, and more....

Great discussions...exciting times to be a student and to be an educator!

Athletics Carnival and Starting New Work

The exams are finished. The assignments are completed.
What is left this semester? Well......

This week there is:
Year 7 - Go Kart Race, new units are starting and the laptop trial continues.
Year 8 - Maths Unit on house design continues, as well as the Athletics Carnival
Year 9 - new science unit on Ecosystems, and Athletics for you too!

The Readers Cup is also on this week. Good luck to the middle school students involved in this program!
http://readerscup.cbca.org.au/documents/Readers%20Cup%20Flyer_2011.pdf
Year 6/7 teams and Year 8/9 teams are entered. Thanks Mrs Hill.

Also,
All Middle School students now have google docs and gmail access.
try it before the holidays - mail.slasmail.com - use your school login and password.

reminder about Twitter

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter - johnno2008
if you are not sure -
http://www.howcast.com/videos/149055-How-To-Use-Twitter

Middle School Conference - WOW!

WOW! WOW! WOW! Some many interesting people - so many wonderful conversations.
I have more questions than ever about Middle School education. But I thing is certain - we have an excellent source with excellent teachers who care about their students.
The main theme of the conference was online learning. I was well worth talking to academics about their view and their research regarding individual learning.
SLAS is migrating to Google for our email and our documents this term (more information to come on this) and it seems many school that are regarded as internationally cutting edge are doing the same time.
The advantages of going Google are many and varied.
The following links outline some of the advantages of going to the "cloud".

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRYRbPCHTck  (why go google for the school)
• http://electronicportfolios.com/google/UsingGoogleDocsintheclassroom.pdf (how to use google docs)
• why google docs? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRqUE6IHTEA&feature=relmfu

There will be more to come very soon in this area of education. INFORMATION NIGHT - COMING SOON!

Mrs Baren's Year 7 Swimming Letter

Mrs Baren's Year 7 Swimming Letter

Medical Form:





Swimming Information - Letter and Timetable from Mr Parsons (Year 8 to 12)

Teachers Professional Development

Recent Teacher Profession Development –

Creating Better Thinkers

Last week all of the St Luke’s teaching staff attended a workshop on Critical and Creative Thinking, presented by ITC Publications, a Queensland-based education consultancy.

The emphasis of the session was on establishing a common Thinking Skills Framework for our school and workshopping a wide range of thinking tools that we can use to develop the critical, creative and cooperative thinking capacities of our students.

The benefits of a common whole-school approach to thinking are that our students will have a common understanding of terms such as ‘analyse, ‘evaluate and ‘critical thinking’ and as a team, we can better track the thinking skills being taught throughout the school. The acquisition of these critical, creative and cooperative thinking tools will not only deliver better academic outcomes - it will also equip our students with an attitude towards life-long learning that will assist them in better decision making and problem solving.

We look forward to seeing these ideas reflected in your sons’ and daughters’ work during the year.

Week 1 - 24 to 28 January

Welcome Back to the Middle School.

There were lots of happy students and happy

teachers in classrooms during the first week

back. Thank you to all parents who have

endeavoured to get their children organised

regarding school supplies and of course,

haircuts.

Subject Selection

Every year, a couple of questions are raised at

this time regarding the Middle School timetable.

Please note in Year 8 we have an Arts rotation.

This means that every student studies the three

Arts subjects of Visual Arts, Drama and Music.

They also have two Technology electives.

Students have one Technology elective in each

semester. I endeavour to meet the student

requests regarding their subject selection

form but not all students will receive all of their

requests. This is simply due to class numbers.

In Year 9, students have both an Arts and a

Technology elective in each semester. Each

student has been given either their first or

second choice from the subject selection

information that was gathered either late last

year or early this year. The timetable has been

constructed with all student selections in mind.

Student Diary

Communication is a vital part of any school

community. I encourage all parents to take

the opportunity to use the student diary to

communicate information to your child’s

teachers. Students have the responsibility to

bring their diary to all lessons including Pastoral

Care and Roll Call.

Middle School Blog

http://slasmiddleschool.blogspot.com/

A new Middle School communication tool has

been developed this year. As more parents and

students engage with the online teaching and

learning environment, we have decided to trial

a weekly blog. The blog will include a variety of

links useful for students and parents, as well

as an update of what is happening each week

in the Middle School. All letters sent home

will also be available electronically and will be

dated to match the student diary.

The blog will contain useful ICT sites aimed to

assist student learning in the Middle School.