President Obama highlights the importance of skills to effectively navigate the Information Age. President Obama – Licensed in google for free commercial reuse The president issued a statement proclaiming October 2009 as National Information Literacy Awareness Month and called “upon the people of the United States to recognize the important role information plays in our daily [...]

 First personalised newspaper Two Germans have presented what they describe as a European first: a newspaper tailored to readers’ individual interests and delivered before 8am. Customers choose what topics they want to read – be it sport, politics, fashion etc – and receive news only on their chosen subjects, delivered like any other paper http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26207945-23109,00.html [...]

Online and Library services can make life much easier if students know how to use them, or if they ask for help. Year 12 students will shortly embark on an assignment on inspirational people. The Library catalogue is a good place to begin. Students can use the search terms “inspirational people” or “role models.” As [...]

On Wednesday afternoon, Michael Bauer shared some wonderful ideas about writing with students in Claver Theatre. The students were able to ask a myriad of questions, and also learnt how life experiences can be the seeds of great stories. The students were delighted to hear that there will be a sequel to the Don’t Call [...]

    Last Tuesday night was the inaugural Book Odyssey reading event for Year 8 and 9 students and parents. The photos show author, Pat Flynn, organising students to perform a section from one of his novels, and students in groups discussing books they enjoy reading. The Head of Library, discussed research by well known educationalist, [...]

 Reading Events  Tonight, the Year 8 and 9 Book Odyssey for parents and students will be held … 6.30-8.30pm. Reading is very important for academic success, so we look forward to sharing this evening with Year 8 and 9 parents. Please see here a map from Google Earth showing the halls that will be used. [...]

Year 8 and 9 parents and students, a reminder to please RSVP for our reading event – the Book Odyssey on August 25th , 6.30-8.30 pm Please note that parents are invited too.  Book trailers The Middle School and Secondary Libraries have been teaching how to create book trailers. Book trailers are like movie trailers; [...]

 New Novel The first lines of Pamela Rushby’s When the Hipchicks Went to War, published 2009, reveal how the “chicklit” genre is utilised to contrast the naivety of a sixteen year old girl to the horror of war. When I went to Vietnam, I packed a suitcase full of satin bikinis trimmed with fringes. A [...]

 Library staff are promoting information literacy and reading through various activities.  Information Literacy In the last week of term, all Year 8 and 9 students will be presented with referencing in Word 2007 during English classes and new features of the Library catalogue. Year 11 Religion students worked on referencing and research skills, and this will [...]

 Good Books For Teens AND Adults  Reading to children starts when they are very young, but what about when they get older? As adolescents move into young adult titles, the reading bond can be reestablished. So what books are likely to appeal to both teenagers and the adults in their lives? Your daughters may have [...]

Readers Cup  On the morning of May 25th, students will again compete in the Year 8 and 9 Readers’ Cup Competition, organised by the Children’s Book Council of Australia, Queensland Branch. It will be held at Brisbane Grammar School and we have 2 teams entered, with other students helping with coaching and support. Eighteen teams [...]

 Moodle login Many school resources for parents, including assessment planners for secondary students, are on our Moodle site. Any parents or carers who do not have a Moodle login and password should contact the office, or ICT helpdesk directly. Assessment planners can be found on the Moodle main page, on the Main Menu located lower [...]

   Students who have read Twilight are still requesting more romance titles. Donna Freitas, Assistant Professor of Religion at Boston University, says that most young people today do not want to read explicit novels; they want narrative models that show how to make simple, romantic gestures – like Twilight. So here are some of Donna’s [...]

Moving to APA Referencing The Library Website has now moved to Moodle, as shown on the left. The upgrade of this site is still underway, but the Referencing section has new particularly useful features.  After this term, the school will change to APA for referencing, and will not be using AGPS Harvard or Citation 5. [...]

Many teen texts, including the Twilight series, feature a main character attaining happiness by gaining a boyfriend.  In other texts, the main character is beautiful, conveying a message that happiness is related to appearance… So, it might be a good time to steer girls who love Twilight for the romance, towards books with more empowering [...]

Last year the pros and cons of Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling vampire quartet, The Twilight Saga, were discussed in the newsletter, and again we look at ways to maintain the reading momentum.  The popularity of the series has escalated with the recent release of the movie.  The series is currently sitting at the top of most [...]

  The 2009 school year has had an exciting start. The Library entrance is partially obstructed by the scaffolding for the Aquinas building project.  One of the benefits of this project, in addition to new Science labs, will be lift access to the Library.   Thank you to all secondary students who collected textbooks from [...]

 Who On Earth Cares? http://www.whoonearthcares.com/woec/map.action?postcode=4000   Go to this site and click on the “Say, I care” button, to tell the world how you care about the environment. Enter your postcode and see on a map of your local area, who else is interested in reducing carbon emissions, what they are doing and the equivalency of [...]

 Time to borrow for holiday reading! Below are the most popular books borrowed at All Hallows’ in 2008.  The pattern of interest has remained similar to other years, with students mainly enjoying reading books about other teenagers. They also like humour and/or sadness.  There are many books about war, reflecting curriculum units.  Also, the high [...]

This week we look at 2 important topics, punctuation and sharing of student productions.  Punctuation – is essential and will gain increasing prominence in the new English syllabus, along with grammar -try this game – http://eatsshootsandleaves.com/ESLquiz.html  Sharing Student Productions Students create some wonderful presentations, but they need to be produced with due regard to safety, [...]

 Parents of Year 12 girls, in particular, are asked to assist with ensuring Library resources are returned as soon as possible.  Arrangements should be made now with the Library for payment, if items cannot be located.  If lost items are later found, monies paid will be reimbursed.  Downloading music 1 in 3 school aged kids [...]

This week, we look at the ACF site, amongst others. The issue of Global Warming will particularly interest Year 10 students this semester, as they study this in English, through opinionative writing, and the mechanics of climate change in Science. Your chance to become a Climate Project Connector! http://www.acfonline.org.au/emailer/emailer_view.asp?eid=2495321&cid=854 Working alone, people can do some [...]

 This week focuses on some great sites, especially for understanding statistics.  Really cool graphs Who do you think uses the most oil in the world?  Click on http://www.gapminder.org/world/blog/ scroll down a little to the blog by Claes dated August 15 and click on who has the oil and who uses it. Hover over the circles [...]