CMIS Evaluation

It’s not too late to register your school for National Reading Day on September 3rd. This is just one of the Literacy & Numeracy Week activities. National Literacy & Numeracy Week runs from 1 -7 Sept and information and suitable activities can be accessed from the official website.

Reach for the Stars covers the numeracy angle for the week.  ‘Reach for the Stars’ activities allow students to practice ‘real-life’ mathematics.   Both the Reading and Mathematics websites have lots of practical ideas for classroom activities across all phases of development.

Along with the government initiated  week of activities,  teachers and students can also be involved with Indigenous Literacy Day which also takes place on 3rd Sept . Information about school registration, participation and activities can be found on the website.  On ILD, part of the Indigenous Literacy Project all Australians are invited to join together to raise funds to address literacy needs in remote Indigenous communities.

As part of the ILD in WA there is a morning of storytelling to be held at the State Library of Western Australia at 10.30 am on Wednesday Sep 3rd. Participants include author Sally Morgan and former Fremantle Football Club player Troy Cook.

The CMIS Evaluation Aboriginal Literacy Strategy page gives more ideas on books to use in the classroom.

All of these events are precursors to the United Nations International Literacy Day on September 8th. This year marks the middle of the UN Literacy Decade which aims to extend the use of literacy to those who do not currently have access to it.  Universal Eucation and literacy is a key aspect of the millenium Development Goals.

Staff members can become involved in a “Staff Reading” –  Perhaps a whole school assembly with different people reading a favourite book or using the school PA system.

Archery at the Wenlock Games 2008

As we head towards the end of the first week of exciting competition of the 2008 Beijing Games, do we know the true story behind the games’ evolution?

Pierre de Coubertin has long been credited with being the mastermind behind the modern Olympic movement. But where did he gain the inspiration for reviving the Olympic ideals in Athens in 1896 and subsequently bringing people together for the world’s major sports festival every four years?

In 1890 de Coubertin took a trip to the small Shropshire town of Much Wenlock, near Birmingham, UK. The local GP, William Penny Brookes, had invited him to observe the Wenlock Olympian Class, the town’s activities festival, which had been run since 1850. Brookes died a year before the first modern Olympics took place but de Coubertin always credited him with the idea which we know today.

The Much Wenlock games take place in July with events such as tennis, archery, volleyball, triathlon, pentathlon, a cycle road race and other athletic pursuits. Although international competitors occasionally take part, it is essentially a regional affair. Nowadays the games are always held in Much Wenlock but in the past they were shared around the district.  This idea was also copied by de Coubertin but at the international arena.

However, Brookes and de Coubertin were not the only people who should be recognized as rekindling the Olympic flame in the late 19^th Century. Greek philanthropist Evangelis Zappas and novelist Demetrious Vikellas can also take some measure of kudos for the emergence of the modern Olympic Games which culminated in those first presentation in Athens in 1896.

With the Olympic Games headed for London in 2012, one can assume that those humble beginnings in Much Wenlock will become more widely known in the future.

Further reading can be found on a number of websites -

• Wenlock Olympian Society
• Athens 1896
• BBC – Shropshire – William Penny Brookes
• Much Wenlock – Birthplace of the Olympic Games

The CMIS Olympic Theme page outlines resources to support Olympic related classroom activities.

National Science Week offers a variety of activities and events for students to participate in right around Australia. Projects, competitions, science quiz nights and a national tour of two international scientists who will give public presentations are some of the many exciting events available. Schools and organisations can also run their own science event.

National Science Week is coordinated by the Australian Government’s Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research in association with the Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA), the ABC, shac Partners, CSIRO Education and Coordinating Committees from each state and territory.

For local activities and events such as shopping trolley science and the brainiest town in the west quiz night, visit National Science Week 2008 Western Australia and ScienceNetwork WA which also has an events calendar. State partners in the science events include Scitech, The Science Teachers Assocation of Western Australia (STAWA), and the WA universities among others.  

After investigating the many sports and associated topics for the Beijing Olympics and learning about Beijing and Chinese culture, extend students experience through reading novels and picture books that provide an insight into the history, culture and environment of this ancient and fascinating land.

The following titles have been selected from an article entitled China and YA Reading, featured in Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers, Volume 22, 2008 Issue 2. Fiction Focus is a journal of critical fiction reviews produced by CMIS Evaluation. 

For older readers:

• Jan Wong – Beijing Confidential
• Pearl S. Buck – The Good Earth
• Liu Hong – Startling Moon 
• Yiyun Li - A Thousand Years of Good Prayers - short stories 

For early adolescence readers:

• Ying Chang Compestine - Revolution is not a dinner party: a novel
• Sally Rippin - Chenxi and the Foreigner
• Li Cunxin – Mao’s last dancer
• Geraldine McCaughrean - The Kite Rider
• Peter Ward – Dragon Horse

For middle childhood and early adolescence readers:

• Adeline Yen Mah - Chinese Cinderella: the Secret Story of an Unwanted Daughter
• Donna Jo Napoli - Bound
• Li Cunxin and Anne Spudvilas - The Peasant Prince - picture book
•  

Stories with an Olympic theme:

• Irini Savvides -  A marathon of her own : the diary of Sophia Krikonis
• Tessa Duder -
  • Alex
  • Alex in Rome
  • Alex in Winter
• Cathy Freeman -  Born to Run
• John Heffernan -  More than Gold 

For more titles search the CMIS Resource Bank using a CMIS Topic search under China Fiction and China Personal Stories, or Olympics.

WASLA (Western Australian School Library Association) is calling for nominations for the 2008 Library Officer / Library Technician of the Year.

Prize: Registration to 2009’s ASLA XXI Conference.  This will be presented at the International School Library Day Dinner 20 October 2008. 

Criteria

Applicants/Nominees should:

1. Be a Library Officer OR a Library Technician.
2. Be a personal or institutional member of WASLA.
3. Demonstrate their outstanding service to school libraries in Western Australia through their work in school libraries (their school library). 
4. Submit a nomination form and full curriculum vitae documenting details of contribution to school libraries through examples, testimonials, etc. by 30 September, 2008 to:
   The Executive Officer, WASLA, PO Box 1272, West Perth, WA 6872

Download Nomination form:  http://www.wasla.asn.au/news/LOY08Form.doc

The annual Books Alive promotion of “50 books you can’t put down” is now on. The titles are a mix of old and new, for adults and children, fiction and nonfiction. You can download the full list and promotional information from the website. Some of the children’s titles are also on this year’s Children’s Book Council Shortlists, with winners to be announced next week. Our CMIS Book Week page contains details.

The Books Alive promotion includes a number of events in WA and ends on 31 August.

It’s time again for the the National Trust of Western Australia’s  Photo and Story Competition. The competition is open to students in years 1-10 in three different age groups.  The competition closes on the last day of Term 3 and winners will be announced in Term 4.

Subjects for the students’ work do not have to be heritage listed but be of value to them and naturally the work must be original.

Entry forms and information for Teachers and parents can be found at the National Trust’s new Education and Learning website – Valuing Heritage.

This new site also explains Insurance, Excursion Management & Evacuation Procedures for their heritage sites.  There is also information about the trust’s ongoing free Professional Learning for teachers at heritage properties in WA.

Several CMIS Evaluation theme websites are related to this topic of Western Australian heritage places and can be utilised for study of this topic.

• Built Environment
• Western Australia
• Water

DET teachers can access for Time, Continuity and Change resources in the Society and Environment section of the K-10 Syllabus  through the DET Portal.

• Time Lines and Pathways to the Past
• Local History Study
• Northbridge History Project
  

Fremantle Press and ED! Magazine in The West Australian are giving primary
and secondary students the opportunity to win the complete set of Hal
Spacejock novels by Simon Haynes.

Students need to write a 150-word review of any book in the series and
send it to pat.tighe@wanews.com.au by 1 September2008.
The best entry will be published in ED!

Simon’s first book is available to students as a free online download.
For more information please use the link above to Fremantle Press
or read the next edition of ED! Magazine