Hello students, welcome to leesclassroom for 2015. This site is an extention of our classroom. Here you will find many resources pages, useful links, homework reminders and news on what is happening in our classroom and around our school.

Importantly you will also find links to your classmate’s blogs and the blogs of other classes and their students. Through these sites you can access and communicate  with the ever expanding MPPS online community. Over the course of this year, as school leaders, many of you will be asked to assist other students and staff around the school in organising and managing their blogs. You will also have opportunities to learn new blogging skills and develop an understanding of how to incorporate other online tools and sites to help you better utilise the communication and educational possibilities  blogging offers.

Before we begin a little about myself. I’ve been a teacher for nine years and this is my seventh at our school. During my time here I’ve taught in 3/4 and 5/6. I was also fortunate to work with the older students when we had 7/8s at our school. I ran an animation class with them.

Like you I’ve just had a long holiday. For the first two weeks I visited my parents. They live in a small village called Longford which is just south of Launceston in Tasmania.

While there my sister and I bought my mum a new bike. As you can see from the picture below she was pretty happy.

I also spent time with my step dad building a garden bench totally from scratch. Again check out the picture below. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out, it took us several attempts to work out how to bring our design to life.

Over the course of the holidays I did manage to read quite a few books. While most were fiction one was non fiction. It was a history of noise. I should say is  because I haven’t finished it yet. To be honest although I’m enjoying the subject matter, what he is talking about, the way he writes puts me off at times. There is an author’s technique (which I suppose is part of his author’s voice) that just begins to annoy me after awhile and gets in the way of me focusing on the content of what he is talking about.

Finally you might be interested to know I have a daughter. Her name is Bela and she is 24. She and her friends recently returned from a holiday in Vanuatu. Bela has been there before and plans to go again.

I look forward to reading your responses to my letter and getting to know you all over the course of this year.

Regards,

Lee

Following up from our recent camp to Canberra below you’ll find some links to websites from some of the amazing places we visited.

Parliament House

• Parliamentary Education Office
• House of Representatives
• Senate

National Film and Sound Archive

• “Highlights Program” Explore over 100 years of Australia’s film, television, radio and recorded sound, through live presentations, classic film screenings, fabulous newsreel, plus more.
• Explore the NFSA Digital Learning websites and online education resources. These websites feature thousands of video and audio clips available for streaming and downloading. check out sites such as the Australian History Timeline (which can be searched under PEOPLE, PLACE or DECADE), Australian Biography (extraordinary Australian’s talk about their lives), Charles Darwin ‘The Australian Connection’ (learn more about one of the world’s most creative and influential thinkers), Aeroplane Jelly for kids (discover the secret to Aeroplane Jelly’s lasting appeal), Pacific Stories Learning (a gateway to the Pacific region), Constructing Australia or take an interactive journey by train through time and place

“Questacon” The National Science and Technology Centre

• Questacon is Australia’s leading interactive science and technology centre, with over 200 exhibits. Learn how lighning is produced, experience an earthquake, and so much more!
• Explore Science On-line at the Scislands site.

Electoral Education Centre

• Educational sessions on the federal electral system include an audiovisual presentation, an interactive display centre, as well as a classroom polling place.

Museum of Australian Democracy

• Who’s the boss? Learn about the development and practice of democracy in Australia by exploring the results of past democratic decisions in an interactive exhibition trail and discover parliamentary procedure through role play in our historic chambers.Who’s the boss program outline (MS Word, 45KB)

Australian Institute of Sport

• Look at some of the amazing experiences we had when we went to the Australian Institute of Sport.

Black Mountain Tower

• Take a scenic drive up to Black Mountain Tower open air and enclosed viewing galleries which provides a 360 degree view over Canberra and surrounding country side.

CSIRO Discovery – (Discovering Science in Society)

• Through interactive exhibits, hands-on experiments and role-play, students are provided with an understanding of actual scientific research. Even the enthralling virtual reality 3D show presents actual research.
• Try these on-line Do-it-yourself science actvities
• if you want to know more about the history of the CSIRO the ‘CSIRO 100‘ app will lead you on a walking tour of CSIRO through Canberra’s history.

National Museum of Australia – (Creating a Nation Program)

• Here you can explore Australia’s place in the global network; the cultral icons and symbols that represent our nation; the stories of 100 Australian’s; our links to the land, and indigenous cultures and history
• Learn more about Australia with these interactives from the National Museum in Canberra

Australian War Memorial – War & Technology Program

• Enjoy a guided tour, where you will be given the opportunity to see, touch and discuss items from the wars themselves.

Hi Takee and Afrah. For this week spend the first three days with the 1/2s and the last two with the Preps. Monday morning go see Senada. Michelle, Raju and Ayla will be joining you.

There is a lot of work listed below,. Take your time, I don’t expect you’ll get through all of it.  During the week  I expect you’ll also be asked to help out a bit in the classes you are in. I know Jenny might have some Prep blog work you can help with.

The following is a list of work for you for this week.

• The work sheet attached is a web quest. If some of the links are not working do some investigation. (Canberra Camp Web Quest)

• The following chapters from frameworks are on the Maths we’ve covered recently. Chapter 19 (Angles), Chapter 15 (Perimeter and Area). Work you way through them.

• Each day after some silent reading, Afrah and Takee, please help Michelle and Raj to write and edit reading reflections, based on the sheets we use in class. At the end of the week , if you get time, take them through the read like a reader or read like a writer steps to create a more detailed reflection.

• Finally, as a group, spend the week working on the design a solar cooker task from the integrated unit. (Build a Solar Cooker)

Use your learning to design, build and test your own solar cooker.

Use your learning to design, build and test your own solar cooker.

Use your learning to design, build and test your own solar cooker.

Measure and record the temperature inside the cooker at different times during the day.

Identify and investigate as many factors as you can that might affect the efficiency of your solar cooker (eg the Sun’s angle, cloud cover, wind, air temperature, size and colour of cooking pots and pans, food size, quantity and water content).

Choose a cooking project for your solar cooker. (A simple cake mix or pot of pastsa is ideal.)

Please read and follow the Build a Solar Cooker doc.

Remember the planning steps we discussed in class:

1. Define the task
2. Brainstorm some responses – what would I need of a solar cooker that I’m able to construct myself from materials I can access and tools I can use (maybe with an adults help)
3. Sketch three ides
4. Develop your assessment criteria which you will use to judge the success of your final design
5. Select your preferred design (based on your assessment criteria)
6. Plan – List of materials with a procedural text for construction
7. Build
8. Use a POE to test and record results
9. Assess using your assessment criteria
10. Present
11. Reflect on success
12. Enjoy the pasta

For today’s science lesson we were going to look at a youtube clip Solar cooking in Zanzibar. We were going to use the knowledge we’d gained from the solar cooker interactive to decide how efficient the cooker was. As we couldn’t view the clip at school could you please look at it at home and we’ll discuss it in class.