‘The People vs the School System’: At Broughton we have certainly made many changes to the old ‘system’ but there is still food for thought in this clip.
The Book Fair has arrived!
Book Week 2016 – Australia: Story Country
Junior School (Years K-6): On Monday morning the Junior School celebrated Book Week with a Grand Parade of Australian Stories. Every class recited a poem they had learned, dressed for the occasion and also decorated the hall with art work to illustrate their recitation.
A ‘Shelfie’ competition is taking place this week in the IRC for the Senior School (Years 7-12). Students and teachers have to guess which teacher belongs to which ‘Shelfie’. Next week all will be revealed with the teachers’ ‘Selfies’ that were taken in front of their bookshelves.
National Simultaneous Storytime 2016
Year One came to the IRC to officially take part in the National Simultaneous Storytime event for 2016. The students all came appropriately dressed with hats representing many things – from Vikings to sportsmen. 
After some activities involving hats the students listened to the book version of I got this hat by Jol and Kate Temple, they then watched a few renditions online from the NSS site. We also really enjoyed the illustrated Auslan version in sign language.
These faces tell it all:
Guided Inquiry Democracy Unit – student evaluation
Year 5 completed their Guided Inquiry ‘Democracy’ unit with one day to spare before the Christmas holidays! Last week parents came for a presentation of their StopMotion videos and a question/answer time that took the form of a Game Show. The ‘surprise’ host was one of the parents dressed as Cleisthenes!
Today was the final evaluation of the unit and took the form of a colour/symbol/image response to the Hardest Part and the Best Part. Data has also been collected via a Survey Monkey questionnaire for our ongoing Action Research into using Guided Inquiry as pedagogy. Students accessed this from a link in their Edmodo learning group for this unit.
Response to the “Easy Part”
Response to the “Hard Part”
Anti-bullying animated movie
Daisy Chain is a short animated movie made by Australian film-maker Galvin Scott Davis and narrated by Kate Winslet. It is has an anti-bullying theme and an App is also available. Amanda Meade reviewed it recently in The Guardian
K-12 Horizon Report 2015
This report looks at the trends in Global education and predicts what lies ahead in teaching and learning. A summary is in the clip below or the whole report can be seen at http://www.nmc.org/publication/nmc-horizon-report-2015-k-12-edition/.
Year 3 Guided Inquiry ‘Voki’ reports
Year 3 are finishing their unit of work on ‘Minibeasts’ this week and their final report summaries were made using Voki software. These have been published in the Guided Inquiry tab above. Unfortunately Voki cannot be viewed on iPads. We hope this software will be upgraded soon.
The IRC place and space for Year 3 Guided Inquiry
Year 3 are all studying Minibeasts – having selected their favourite minibeast they have constructed some ‘wondering’ questions and are finding answers. The IRC space means they can work…
Students are only using library books and all work in in workbooks with scaffolds pasted in before they began. The teachers are now experienced in Guided Inquiry and students are very focussed and excited about learning. Reading and Writing are integrated with Science for this unit of work.
Learning shifts bring change
Change is certainly happening as we implement Guided Inquiry and Visible thinking in our school. As thinking – ideas and questions – become the focus pedagogy also changes. Place and communication can become very important.
ANZAC Day at BAC
In Australia, on 25 April each year, we commemorate our country’s service in the First World War . At this time we also acknowledge all who have died in defending our country since then and those currently deployed.
This year is the 100 year anniversary and the Gallipoli campaign is remembered in particular as the place where our ‘true nationhood’ was born. The troops from Australia and New Zealand fought this battle for the British and are now known as the ANZACS (Australia New Zealand Army Corps)
Our display in the IRC was useful this week for classes to have reading time in the library and reminded students of the wonderful collection of relevant print materials we have on this topic for K-12.
Today a service was also held in the Sports Centre for the whole school.
Libraries keep pace with information changes
The role and function of libraries and school libraries has been changing to keep pace with new technologies and information storage. This video clip explains it all. During the school Easter holidays be sure to visit the Public Library nearest you!
Grandparents’ Day in the IRC
We had an amazing response from grandparents to our “Donate a Book to the IRC Collection” activity. As the following photos illustrate, it was a ‘sellout’! Each book had been especially selected as one that we wanted for our collection and they were very reasonably priced. As soon as the books are processed they will be borrowed out to the grandchildren to take home to read – as the first “borrower” of our new books.
Quiet spots were well used and special memories made.
Projects versus Learning through Projects
Terry Heick‘s visual comparison of traditional projects versus how current projects can assist in deeper learning is helpful for understanding the changes to pedagogy in our schools today. 
Completing ‘Projects’ and using the Guided Inquiry Design Process do have similarities but Guided Inquiry has built in scaffolding for support throughout the process of personalised inquiry. It also takes into account the affective domain of students at various stages of an inquiry.
Where Maths meets English
Our school celebrates Pi Day on 14 March and our interest in Mathematics is encouraged so here is a poem by a man who excels in English and loves Mathematics!
Performance poet (and math student) Harry Baker spins a love poem about his favorite kind of numbers — the lonely, love-lorn prime.