This week explores a topical issue, following a presentation by Dr Brooks at a recent Schools event, that may promote discussion, and further reading or thought.  Flaunt it or Forget it!  This is a message from the Bratz Doll site.  So what else are girls learning from their toys? More is never enough – The manufacturers keep the [...]

Delicious or Rubbish??? The Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer is the most popular teenage series since Harry Potter, but many are criticizing it as sexist and shallow. Here are some comments to fuel discussion (Warning – these books may not be suitable for younger readers.) These are basically romance novels. They summon a world where [...]

 Please encourage lots of reading, and sharing of reading, over the break.   Is Google Making You Stupid? This article discusses how computers may be reprogramming our brains to be like them.  Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google SortFix  SortFix.com gives search results from Google, Yahoo and the Open Directory Project. The left-most box shows “power words” – related [...]

The Long Now Foundation http://www.longnow.org/about/ provides a counterpoint to today’s “faster/cheaper” mind set and promotes “slower/better” thinking. Civilization is revving itself into a pathologically short attention span. We see acceleration of technology, the short-horizon perspective of market-driven economics, the next-election perspective of democracies; not to mention multi-tasking. This site looks at balancing short-sightedness with long-term [...]

Who is Britain’s best-loved author? According to the Costa Book Award, it is not Shakespeare or Tolkien, or even J.K. Rowling (she came third, with Roald Dahl second), it is Enid Blyton. Yes, Enid is cool again, despite at least one generation in Britain missing out on her stories in the 1980s, as her books [...]

The Brisbane Writers’ Festival is quickly approaching.  It occurs from September 17–21.  Like last year, selected students will attend. Please see the website for the program, as there are many interesting public events. http://www.brisbanewritersfestival.com.au/   We have just had Science Week so this is a good time to visit NASA, or at least their site.  NASA [...]

Reading News The Manga section in the Library has been refurbished and a new book order sent, which includes many student requests. New fiction titles that have arrived include, Stop in the Name Of Pants by Rennison, Maximum Ride, the Final Warning; new copies of The Diary of Anne Frank, and more titles in the [...]

   The act of writing, like the act of painting, playing the piano or sculpting, brings a joy all its own to the participant, and then doubles its reward by producing something that others can appreciate—the poem, story, article or other work.” http://www.partnershipforlearning.org/article.asp?ArticleID=319  Paolini wrote Eragorn at 15, S.E. Hinton wrote The Outsiders at 16, [...]

Please keep the girls reading regularly a range of texts at home Otherwise, their vocabulary will suffer. When you read, you see how words are actually used – you see them in context.. Seeing how a word is used is just as important as learning definitions. We have all experienced seeing unfamiliar words in a [...]

  Bits from all over this week…  New Search Engine – PowerSet http://www.powerset.com/ attempts to mine meaning out of web pages — specifically, Wikipedia . This isn’t a general-purpose search engine, but it is excellent if you seek information on a subject that spans a number of Wikipedia articles, or that has a number of [...]

 Earlier in the year, I mentioned http://www.gnooks.com/trip.php , a site for finding books that are similar in style to another book.  Another great site is Library Thing, http://www.librarything.com/work/35604/recommendations  It produces excellent lists that will help a student find other new books, once they have found a book they like.  And speaking of “titles they really [...]

 As we move into a peak assignment period, it may be helpful to obtain the assessment planners available for each year level and note due dates. These can be found on a left hand menu on the Moodle home page. Students are expected to use consistent referencing in their assignments. At our school, the Harvard [...]

  We are competing in the Readers’ Cup competition again this year in Ashgrove.  The students have been studying the following books, selected for the Brisbane North, Year 8/9 competition:  Don’t Call me Ishmael! Michael Gerard Bauer 2006 The Enemy Davide Cali & Serge Bloch 2007 Ruins of Gorlan: Ranger’s Apprentice Book One Flanagan 2004 [...]

 The Federal Government Safe Schools program has been discontinued, but it is timely to reflect on these issues; both on and offline.  Internet use is booming among youth with 64 per cent of 15 to 20 year olds having a social network site, such as MySpace or Facebook according to the annual Youth Poll survey [...]

Reading, Writing and Raking It In Reading has excellent benefits for writing skills; and writing skills improve with practice. As an added incentive, students who read any of the following books, and enter a review in The Courier Mail, Young Reviewer of the Year, can win $1500 worth of books, with each of the section [...]

   Parents go to class On Thursday night, a large group of parents attended the Year 8 Support Your Daughter night.  In one session, in the computer lab, parents experienced, hands on use of Moodle, and explored many of the online resources available to students.  These parents learnt the electronic way to do bibliographies.  The [...]

Free Tutoring, Free Homework Help Brisbane City Council Libraries offer free online services for primary and secondary students, by tutors qualified in Maths, English and Science. Any QLD resident can join BCC Libraries; just take photo ID to a BCC Library. For students, school photo ID is fine. A BCC Library card number is required [...]

Hi everyone, I have decided to change the direction of this blog and use it as a diary of our school library. So, the journey begins… February 08  Inductions All Year 8 classes have now completed library inductions, and inductions were also conducted for other new students. The girls were shown important online Library services, [...]