Every year the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has awards for some of the best books released in Australian that year. Although the winners will not be announced till next month, here are some of the titles that made the notables list that are available in our ebook collection. Remember you can download the ePlatform app for apple/android devices or access the website at http://sscl.wheelers.co . To login select Sydney Secondary College and use your DoE login.
Happy reading, Ms Fede
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As we cannot borrow or browse our physical library just yet, the iCentre has devised a way that you can immerse yourself in your favourite genre until we can. Each week during Term 2 we will feature a different fiction genre – recommending great reading (ebooks), listening (audiobooks and podcasts), watching (series and film) and play (apps and links to activities and online pages of interest). We are kicking off with Crime Week. Head over to our Crime and Mystery genre page to see what’s available for you right now. There's lots of different media withwhich to interact. We’d love you to connect with us through our Instagram page – nominate your favourite crime books, recommend one we purchase for the iCentre, talk about the best crime tv you’ve been watching or share your favourite podcast. Our Instagram page is @sscl_icentre and hastag us with #ssclvirtuallibrary #ssclcrimeweek #genreweek #ssclvirtuallibrary. Each day next week on Istagram our site will feature a recommendation in the Crime Genre from us – so to make sure you don’t miss out – follow us @sscl_icentre. Leichhardt Guides: New Leichhardt Guides added with week include:
Podcast Studio Update: I’ve been playing around with our equipment this week and I am really excited that we will be able to set this up in the iCentre very soon. If you have ideas about how you’d like to work with some friends and create a Podcast or a Podcast series, email me or drop in and see a Teacher Librarian when you are in school. Its awesome equipment with lots of bells and whistles and you’ll be guaranteed of producing something really professional. Check out our Podcast Studio page for more information. Mrs South Teacher Librarian We hope you are doing OK with your online learning this term. Week 1 flew by and we've been busy working on some Leichhardt Guides to help you navigate your learning.
New guides added last week include: Bean to Barista Paddock to Plate Philosophy: the Philosophers We'll be working on more in the coming weeks. Don't forget to be in touch via our contacts page 'ask the Cybrarian' if you are experiencing roadblock with your research. We are here to help. PODCASTING Very exciting news for podcast fans ...we've been donated a fabulous Podcasting Studio by RODE Microphones arguably one of the best providers of mics around. Through this term we'll be checking out how it works and thinking about how to set up our very own Podcast Studio in the iCentre - so if you think you have something to say .... when we all get back to normal, we'll be allowing students to book time to be creative with this equipment. In the meantime you can check out our Podcast Studio page with a lot of how to's and links to RODE's video guides. OUR ICENTRE FOR THIS TERM As you will see from Week 3 onwards, the physical iCentre has had a transformation into classroom learning spaces as required for students to get back to school for part of the week - but we are continuing to offer our services online both on this platform and our Leichhardt Guides website. Unfortunately we are not in the physical space for the forseeable future, but we are looking forward to returning to see you all at the end of this disruption. GET CREATIVE! So until we are together again, please spend some of your time each week connecting with good stories - reading them, watching them, listening to them (dont forget we have a Wheeler's ebook and audiobook subscription). And remain creative - learn a new creative skill (Check out our Leichhardt Makers pages) - think about making short films, amazing lego constructions, animations, manga drawing, painting, music, knitting and textile crafting or connect with others with likeminded interests online and share your work. Our instagram page @sscl_library wants you to tag us with your creations. #ssclcreates Stay tuned for more great information from our virtual library spaces. In the meantime stay informed and stay in touch! Mrs South and Ms Fede. It's been a while since this website was updated - we've been busy making our SSCL iCentre awesome in so many other ways.
Now that we are all working online during the COVID 19 pandemic, we've been spending the last few days updating this site as a hub for learning and creating while you are all at home. Take a bit of time to navigate the site - there are tips for research and notetaking, important information about your copyright obligations when using information and images and links to our Leichhardt Guides. You wont be hitting the books the whole time however and this website is also a hub for having some fun outside of school hours - check out our recommendations for Podcasts to listen to, ebooks and audiobooks each week as well as what's great viewing. Each week we will feature a different fiction genre with recommendations, links to great information, authors, viewing, interviews, quizzes and more. We can do a deep dive into what's fabulous in each genre each week. Watch out on our Insta posts to see which genre is coming up! (@sscl_icentre) 'The Craft Cart' and our Technology Hub have links to great websites, challenges, creative tutorials etc to keep you busy. We are aiming to produce a quick email with iCentre news each week highlighting what's been added. Until then, keep safe, keep well, happy studying and make time to enjoy the time at home by pursuing a new learning or creative goal of your own...… Mrs South and Ms Fede. Earlier this year, our Library has been given funding to create an iPad kiosk - our iBar -the purpose was to create a dynamic, useful, creative environment with these devices. The Apple Store inspired space will consist of 4 iPad Airs attached to a bar height shelf unit situated around a pillar. In keeping with our colourful library we’ve chosen lime green and red for the bar and stools. Above the bar we attached 4 notice boards to the pillar which will have a multitude of uses.
With the devices ordered, the next issue was how to secure the ipads – fix them to the desk and charge them up. There are a number of solutions and a range of prices. The table tablet mounts are available online. iLocks has a good range. The stands were fixed to our panels by our talented GA. Red Tolix replica bar stools are durable and heavy duty enough as well as providing a pop of colour. The next decision was what Apps and books would we include at the Kiosk? We already have class sets of iPads and we also have a BYOD program and many students bring their own iPads to school – so the iBar is set to have a different focus – with a couple of different purposes. Some time ago, we dismantled our reference collection and inter-mingled the dictionaries, large format books, atlases and so on into the general collection. The iPads will replace this collection with Apps such as The Barefoot Atlas , encyclopaedias, translation dictionaries and so on. The beauty of having these available at the kiosk is that the iPads will start up quickly – no logging onto a computer , the information is up to date (unlike print editions), information can be transferred by logging onto cloud storage such through Edmodo or Evernote. The next type of App that placed on the iPads were information apps of distinction. These are generally apps that are expensive to purchase in bulk. Titles such as Virtual History Roma and the The Elements and Building Titanic (National Geographic - free!) are three such apps to be included. The iBar also features a collection of iBooks. Some of these will be free iBooks (search around there are lots that are fabulous examples of creative iBook building). Disney have put out several that are movie tie ins. Maleficent and Frankenweenie have movie trailers, interviews with producers and directors, information about the characters, settings, history of the stories in sumptuous productions. Other free iBooks we’ll be starting with include: Inside the world of indigenous culture, created by Siena Catholic College Qld, and Gallipoli (created by Australian Government Department of Veterans Affairs) are a couple of good examples. Do a Free iBooks search in the iBooks store. Some titles such as Dinosaur Zoo ($2.49) by Dotnamestudios are worth the payment. Look for iBooks that fully utilise all the multimedia aspects such as galleries, video, interactive quizzes and pop-ups, some educational iBooks also include a facility to take notes, highlight and so on. In the future we will be getting into iBook creation ourselves – both by teachers and students. Free iBooks that will be great to include also will be ‘how to’ manuals on using apps, including one on iBooks author itself. (see iBooks Author the definitive guide) I'm constantly looking at titles for our e-magazine collection including tech titles, sport and teen interest and we'll consider moving some of our print subscriptions to electronic versions. This will be a work in progress and require user feedback to get it right. Creating our own e-zines is something that we are keen to do here as well. There’s good advice for e-zine publishers here http://www.pcvoyager.com/dir/ezines.html Perhaps the most exciting set of apps we will be including at our iBar will be a selection of puzzle and games apps. Criteria for inclusion are that they must be interesting, creative, challenging and beautifully designed. We’ve chosen a number already. To get started check out the award wining, The Room and The Room 2, Year Walk, Tengami, Botanicula and then explore the makers of these games and see what’s new from them. Inspired by the great work done by the Library as Incubator Project in the States, I've been tossing around a few ideas on how to make the learning spaces in the Library more interactive. After some research, talking with fellow librarians and checking out the work of the team at http://www.libraryasincubatorproject.org/, this term we are embarking on some creative activities in the iCentre. It's all dsigned to make our learning spaces more playful and inviting. In coming weeks look out for: Book Spine Poetry: Using the titles on the book spines, students and teachers will be asked to come up with a poem - its easy and fun. We'll be putting the best entries up on the website and on our twitter feed when it happens. #ssclbkspinepoetry Sketch Pad Art: A number of sketch pads will be left in a 'gallery' space in the iCentre - students will be invited to pick up a pen, pencils etc and create a design - that will hang in our gallery until its replaced by an artist on the next page. This will be a continuing and ever changing display. #ssclsketchpadart Chalk Walk: During this term we will be asking students to contribute to a floor mural outside the iCentre front door. Hopefully all our budding artists will participate and create something special - it will be transient, but sure to be amazing! #ssclchalkwalk The World's biggest crossword: (Well we think so anyway!) We'll be leaving a huge crossword display for students to fill in words through the term - let's see how many spaces we can take up - just two rules - the words need to be totally appropriate for school viewing and of course they need to be real words. Of course we are continuing with Makerspace Mondays and encourage all budding game designers to come along and work on Kodu, Scratch, Gamepress and this term we have Minecraft on the iPads as well. Now we have hit the middle of the term, research tasks are in full swing. Instagrok has been introduced to teachers and students as a one stop shop for locating, selecting and organising information found online. Instagrok is a research tool that allows users to build a concept map to which they can pin notes, websites, videos, and facts. Users can then open a journal where all 'pinned' resources with active hyperlinks are available, the fully interactive journal can be saved and shared.
Here are some of the reasons why Instagrok is so awesome:
It is only the beginning but we hope that Instagrok is changing the culture of research at SSC Leichhardt. We are encouraging students to not head straight over to Google, but use the power of the Instagrok suite of information literacy tools to complete a well crafted search for information. So far Science, Geography and Music have directed students to Instagrok to research their Term 1 assessment tasks and response by students has been positive. its becoming our go-to search engine of choice. As the dust clears from our first couple of busy weeks, I've started thinking about engaging students with technology and their own personal interests. I've established some new sections on this website to cater for and inform everyone about some new initiatives in the iCentre. Very soon we will be starting a Monday Makerspace group. This session will be facilitated by our Tech Ninjas and allow students to follow their interest in programming, coding and game design using a variety of different tools and apps. More news on this over the next few weeks. Tech Ninjas. This group of elite tech warriors will soon be assisting us at school in all things technology. They are a fantastic group of boys who have offered their time to run the Ninja Bar in the iCentre at lunch, recess and before school to assist students. They will also be keeping an eye out for tech issues around the school and helping to set up technology spaces when they are required. SSCL Geek Girls. This page is dedicated to girls in the school who are interested in technology. We may later in the year start a meet up where we can get creative with technology and work on projects that are based on our interests that might include website design and other media creation. More information on that soon. In the meantime girls interested in learning more about programming - there are a series of workshops run by Sydney University starting soon, more information can be found here http://web.it.usyd.edu.au/~gpn/ have a look at our Technology pages for more information on all of these initiatives. This week in the newly named iCentre has been hugely busy. Our new seating arrangements have been well received. The new configuration has a lounge/cafe atmosphere and during any given lesson or at lunchtime there are plenty of places for students to gather and work, play and learn. Signs and publicity about the change will begin appearing over coming weeks. The iCentre name better reflects the changing face of a traditional library to a more technology enabled, collaborative work environment and will be a place to foster 21st century skills such as - creativity - collaboration - connection and critical thinking. The spaces within the iCentre have had some name changes too - all beginning with the letter 'C'. We already had the 'Cave' and the 'Connected Classroom'. Our largest space - the main body of the library will now be known as the Collaborative Zone. Our two small seminar rooms are now Learning Cubes - Cube1 and Cube2. The gathering space around the Smartboard will be renamed the 'Campfire' and is a perfect place to kick off a learning session in the iCentre. The 'Awesome Box' was installed on Friday. This is an alternative place to return books. If a student thinks a books has been a fabulous read and wants to recommend it to other students, they should place it in this box instead. We can then publicise it as a peer recommendation. Awesome books will be showcased on this website as well as around the Library in special picture frames (an IKEA find!). On IKEA - its been the go to place to jazz up some spaces in the iCentre. The 'Cave' had a partial makeover this week- several lime green shag rugs and some colourful coffee tables, which can be placed in a variety of configurations to work with their laptops or tablets, have really enlivened the space - Friday afternoon's Yr 8 Science lesson gave the 'Cave' a big thumbs up as a learning environment. We are looking forward to this space used for iPad collaborative sessions as it is equipped with Apple TV and a large monitor. The final addition to the Cave is a huge Decal Tree to go on the wall - hopefully stimulating creative thought! Check out our Gallery for great photos of our students really making best use of their updated environment. It's been great meeting the students of SSC Leichhardt this week - especially the new Year 7 and my Moomba group. I think we are going to have lots of great experiences as we navigate and learn about information and digital literacy across the curriculum.
My first task in the physical space of the library has been to rearrange some of the furniture. Some really funky desks, chairs and ottomans (in lots of interesting shapes and colours) were around the space and in adjacent rooms, they just needed some coordination and thought. With a little creative 'putting and taking', I think we have created some very inviting collaborative learning areas. Love the wall and door colours, they really add some zing! Over the next few weeks, we'll be adding decals to the walls, doors and windows to add purpose and context. @SSCL_LIBRARY's twitter account has started recording the new spaces. Be sure to find us and follow us on Twitter! Here's a sample of how the Library looks now. |
AuthorNews @ SSC_Leichhardt Online is authored by Mrs South, Teacher Librarian and technology learner and leader OR Ms Fede Teacher Teacher Librarian. Archives
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