PURPOSE: To work in a group of 4 representing Year 7s (facilitated by Bernadette) to help plan Graduation Year book , Graduation decorations and Graduation songs for beginning and end of ceremony.
MEETINGS will be held on Tuesdays during lunch time.
APPLICATION via an expression of interest to class GRADUATION blog post by Friday 23rd October.
SUCCESS CRITERIA
100-200 word statement
Reference to organisational , interpersonal, and time management skills.
Successful applicants will be notified by Monday 26th October.
A number of LA20 bloggers are looking for the next challenge and would appreciate the chance to interact with other students around the world. So, if that sounds like you (I know Pavlo mentioned that he would be keen) head over to the Edublogger for more details and the links to the actual challenge.
The challenge is run by a Tasmanian teacher, Sue Wyatt, and some of our regular posters would do a great job of representing themselves and LA20 in either the Better Bloggers challenge or the Better Commenters challenge. It doesn’t matter that the challenge has already started either – participation in this would also make excellent evidence for your Term 4 High Flyer in the effective use of technology. See Mr. Wegner if you are interested in participating.
For those of you who are looking to complete your High Flyer puzzle activity:
Sudoku Puzzles (Click on the one you want, download as a PDF and then print and complete. There are even some sheets to teach you if you have never done Sudoku before.)
As part of a tuning in activity, our class members had to gather some statistics from a news source (television, newspaper, web) about which countries were mentioned and how often. These results were collated into this Wordle word cloud for us to consider.
So, what does this tell us? Why do some countries feature so prominently in our news sample? Why are some countries barely mentioned or not noticed at all? What theory do you have?
Please add your theory below in the comments. It would be great to hear from another class elsewhere in the world that would be prepared to do a similar exercise and share the results.
We have been investigating this question in our inquiry unit and this post will provide you with a number of digital resources to help your understanding of the problems facing the River Murray and the Lower Lakes here in South Australia. We saw many of these issues first hand whilst on camp on Hindmarsh Island. Many concerned South Australians are pushing for action from the Federal and State Governments and have created websites and posted videos to show their point of view. Like any complex problem, the points of view vary and take quite a bit of reading and viewing to understand.
We spent most of our time on camp on Hindmarsh Island and around Goolwa so that area is familiar to those and is a good starting point. We know that the Murray River has reached record lows, that all fresh water has to be imported onto Hindmarsh Island. You may recall Andrew telling us about 2 minute showers and having to wash our dishes in the three tubs of water at mealtime – and that water was trucked onto the island while in years gone by, they could have pumped it in from the nearby Murray.
The Murray River is extremely important to South Eastern Australia. An article from The Age back in 2003 stated:
Australia has 5.6 per cent of the world’s land mass, but less than 1 per cent of its run-off. Most of that flows into the rivers of northern Australia and Tasmania. Just 6 per cent flows into the Murray-Darling system, which supplies two-thirds of the water for Australia’s irrigation farmers.
You can see where the River Murray ends up at Goolwa, and its current state has been caused by a combination of human use along the way and record drought conditions. To see how much water is taken from the Murray along the way, Water Use And Consumption page gives us a lot of detail. The following map shows where South Australians also use the Murray as a source of water for the majority of our population.
Of course, a lot of water is used in Victoria and along the Darling River in NSW, which is one of the major rivers feeding into the Murray. To find out more about the relationship between the Murray and Darling Rivers go to the Murray-Darling Basin Commission’s Basin Encyclopedia.
As the river levels have dropped, conditions around Goolwa, Hindmarsh Island and the Lower Lakes have changed considerably. There have been problems with the growth of tubeworms as the salinity levels have changed as shown in this article from the Advertiser showing a scientist standing in the same spot as some of us did on our Murray River Walk.
A Flickr user, Mundoo, has also created a photo set called Murray River Dying, which shows many photos of the region current and from a few years back that show how dramatically things have changed. You should be able to view these at home as the DECS internet filters stops a lot of images on our school computer system.
As I’ve looked around for suitable resources to explain how all of this occurred and what people propose as a solution, I found that not all concerned people favour the same solution. There are sites that want the Government to act and spend money to get more water into the river upstream by buying irrigation licences, paying out irrigators so they take less water because they are convincd that only more fresh water flowing through to the Mouth and Lower Lakes will return the environment back to normal. One site is Stop The Weir – a proposed weir at Wellington (near Murray Bridge) is one goverment solution to preserve the drinkability of the water taken from the river for Adelaide residents – but that would totally prevent fresh water from ever reaching the Lower Lakes area. This side of the debate is also concerned about the freshwater life in the Lower Lakes like turtles, which are suffering greatly from the effects of the tubeworms. The following video (viewable at home and on the school network) shows this point of view:
Another concerned group has an alternative solution that involves the dismantling of the barrages that separate the fresh water from the sea. Their position is that sea water is better than no water at all and their sites are named that way – Lakes Need Water and SeaWater Now.
So, over the next week or two, you will need to be reading and viewing these sites as well as how the Government plans to tackle the issue. We will have videos saved on the school network for you to view so that you can get the best array of information so that you can understand Why Is This Happening and what Australians can do to solve or adapt to the problems in the very near future.
This post will describe and demonstrate a task based aound the use of information from the internet and how it can be used in links to create a better understanding of a topic.
Firstly, you will be logging onto your iGoogle page and shifting your widgets around to create a column for news feeds.
Go into the Add Stuff link and click on the left hand News link to get a list of feeds from various news services. Have a look and choose two or three, making sure that one is Australian.
Add them to your page, go back to that page and edit settings so that they display 5 news items instead of the standard 3.
Have a look at what items are currently in your feeds and click through to their original source to have a read.
Eventually, you will need to choose one to focus on for a summary blog post like the one I have written below.
Economic Downturn Affecting Private School Students
We’ve been hearing in the news about the economic downturn and how it is affecting jobs and how much people earn, especially for people who own their own business or get paid according to how much work comes their way. According to The Age newspaper, in Victoria this is starting to show an effect on a number of parents who are finding it harder to keep their children in the private school of their choice. One family …
… decided to put their home of 12 years on the market, move into a more affordable house and use the money from their original home to cover school fees, which total $24,000 a year for the four children. She says the sacrifice was worthwhile.
“I would sell my house again if I had to,” Potter says.
While, some parents are finding out that government education is a quality choice that they could have made earlier before the economic downturn took its toll.
Linda Carey had no parents to back her up after her marriage ended last year and she was left struggling with school fees of $17,000 for her son.
“I agonised for months about taking Jake out of school,” the Caulfield mum says.
“But in the end, after I fell behind with fees, the school made the decision for me, insisting he leave, although it was the middle of his year 10 year.
“It was hellish for him and for me. But now he is at the local high school, where I pay about $1000 a year, and he’s absolutely thriving. I wish I had just started there in the beginning.”
The article concludes with the mention of an organisation that was much needed the last time Australia had a depression (back in the 1930s), the State School Relief Committee that will be heeding more cries for help as families find that their budgets get even tighter.
