CMIS Evaluation

Those who were unable to attend the ASLA Conference this week may like to check this twitterfountain for the tweets and photos posted to flicker.

An archive of tweets from the conference attendees is also available via twapperkeeper

Thanks to Libsmatter and Pru

The Department of Education and Training web services will be unavailable between 5.00pm Friday 26 September and 7.00am Tuesday 30 September 2008 due to a planned Central Office power upgrade.

During these periods, all centrally delivered online services including email, internet portal and web access will be unavailable. Services provided by the ICT Customer Service Centre will also not be available. Readers of the CMIS blogs will be unable to access the CMIS website and Resource Bank. Blog links to resources hosted on the DET WA portal servers will not be available during the upgrade.

Times stated are for Perth, Western Australia (GMT+8). Use The World Clock – Time Converter to calculate your local time.

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.

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