The QDE Courier September 2016

to our new students………

Jayden Madeline Breana Eli Bennett Lucas

CALENDER OF EVENTS 2016 Please go to………….

http://www.our.community.com.au/calendar

Current Staff

Eloise Dews Gillian Gamble

Michelle Hill Ryan Kearns

Natalie Tolmie Erin Casey

Dionne Bryant Max Dews

Vickie Fowlie Tricia Chivers

Our Aussie Adventures Everyone talks about living the great

Australian dream! But one could then

ask...what is the great Australian dream?

There are many answers to that same

question and for this family we believe

we have just lived part of ours!

So in a nutshell....5 people, 11 months,

39 426kms across 5 states and 1

territory living in a small caravan! Sound

like fun? The answer is yes and no! It’s

not all rainbows and unicorns. Living in

a space the size of the average bedroom

is extremely restricting! Leaving behind

family and friends for an extended period

is also an adjustment. Losing your own

bathroom and having to share it with

strangers - well I’m sure this speaks for

itself! I didn’t get much fun out of sharing

my bed with ants and frogs either.

However, it’s not all bad! Once you are

gone and on the road, the freedom of

living on the road is a little overwhelming

at first. There is no work and no time to

be at school or dance lessons or cricket

training or swimming etc etc. It’s just the

family, all together as one, spending time

together exploring, sharing and living

without the restrictions of everyday life.

We learned that there are so many

places to see in our beautiful country

and that there are so many wonderful

people who are also living their own

journey similar to ours, sharing their own

experiences and travels with fellow

travellers so that nobody misses out on

something amazing.

Deciding to take a year off work was

easy....who doesn’t want that right? But

educating the kids was still a priority.

We chose distance education over home

schooling so that all the work was

provided for us and we just needed to

supervise and teach the kids the work

given to us from the centre. Also having

the added support of someone being on

the other end of the phone if we needed

it, was a great help. This was fantastic

for covering the basics of schooling. We

got to choose when and for how long

each day we would work so we could still

enjoy the day. We found some days we

would work a lot and others very little.

It’s great being able to choose when

things work for you. Learning didn’t stop

here though. The amount you learn just

by travelling to places in the country is

amazing! The history, climate, ever

changing landscape and sheer size of

Australia is a learning experience in

itself. Deserts, forests, rocks and

gorges, rugged coastline and an

incredible amount of birds and other

wildlife from large camels to small

crawling insects! I could go on and on

about the incredible things we have

done and seen, but there is only one

way to really get a feel about what it is

like to experience travelling life and that

is to live it yourself!

You may ask, now that we have

returned, has anything really changed?

And again the answer is yes and no! Life

around us as we once knew it hasn’t

really changed. Our friends are still

here, work is still here and is still the

same and school is still here starting and

finishing at the same time. However, we

have changed! We have a new found

desire for travel, a deeper respect of the

environment that we live in and a deeper

appreciation of the importance of quality

family time! We have learnt that life isn’t

about being restricted. Everyone has

the chance to make a choice about their

life direction. Perhaps more of us need

to make the choice to work to live and

not live to work!

Ten cybersafety tips every parent should know

Keeping your kids safe online is easy with a few simple precautions.

1. Nothing replaces parental supervision

and education for kids about

cybersafety.

2. Set a technology curfew.

3. Remind your child to never give out

identifying information such as your

home address, school name or

telephone number in a public message

such as chat or newsgroups.

4. If your child posts photos online, use

privacy settings to limit access to

people they know well.

5. Remind your child that people don't

always tell the truth online, and they

can't take anything at face value.

6. Reassure your child that they can tell

you anything, without fear of losing the

laptop or internet access.

7. If they get a message or email that's

threatening or rude, they should

'STOP, BLOCK, TELL'. First step is to

tell your child to stop responding to

the abuse and then block those

people sending threatening or rude

messages if they continue. Let your

child know that if they are being

bullied, or know someone else who is,

they should tell a trusted adult.

8. Never click on any links that are

contained in emails from people they

don't know. As well as sexual content,

they could contain a computer virus.

9. If you suspect your child has been

contacted by a predator, try to save a

copy of the chat log (or whatever form

the contact takes) for evidence. Call

Crime Stoppers 24-hour line 1800 333

000 to make a formal complaint.

10. Your child will be using computers and

the technology for the rest of their lives

– you're in the great position of being

able to get them off to a safe, positive

start.

It’s Yearbook time right now!!

All students have the Yearbook page set for

them as their writing and composing task in

Set 1 of next term or before. The template

and information pages have been delivered to

you electronically or are about to be delivered

to you that way. The template page is also

below. It is to be completed electronically. Your student has a whole page to tell their

story and include any details they wish.

Please remember to resize digital images so

they are not massive, see information page

sent to you by your teacher. At the end of Set

1, please email the page back to your

teacher. Be sure to feature in the yearbook by

emailing your electronic page on time with the

first set of returns in term 4.

How t o make friend s Andrew Fuller

One way to be happier is to increase the quality of our friendships. Whether you are a sociable person or a loner, friendships are important. One of the easiest ways to remain engaged and interested at school, at work or in life is to enjoy the company of the people that we are with. Let’s talk about how to build friendships (without turning into some sort of gushy, over the top, Ned Flanders type character).

Look people in the eye Gaining brief eye contact with people communicates interest and trust. One simple way to do this is to mentally remind yourself to notice the colour of other people’s eyes as you say hello to them.

Smile and say hello While the minimalist “hi” accompanied by a shrug may seem cool, it can also come across as disinterested and uncaring. Smile genuinely when you meet people and let them know you are glad to see them.

Call people by their name - a lot Most people feel liked and reassured when someone calls them by their name. Try to use their name at least twice in a convers- ation, once when you meet them and once when you say goodbye.

Be where you are One of the easy ways to stand out as a good friend is to be with people when you are with them. This means rather than checking messages, or scrolling through social media or sending texts you actually stop, talk, look at and listen to the people you are with.

Feel lucky to know them One of the really simple ways to be a

good friend to someone is to decide that you are lucky to know them.

Ask people what they think One way of getting past the awkward stage in conversations is to not just ask people what they have been doing but also what they think about something. Seeking their ideas shows that you value them.

Get to know a lot of people Not everyone you meet will be a close friend. The more people you get to know even a little bit, the more likely you will be able to find friends. It can also be good in life to know some people as good acquaintances as well as having close friends.

Get to know people who are different One of the ways to live an interesting life is to talk to people who are different than you. Getting to know people from different countries and backgrounds will enrich your life and stretch your ideas.

What young people want in a friend. I asked over 1,000 young people last year what they looked for in a friend. They said: humour honesty kindness and caring trustworthy non-judgemental happiness

Say hello to people you don't know All of your friends were strangers once. Maybe it is time to start saying hello to some people you would like to be friends with but don’t know yet. The best way to lose an enemy is to make them into a friend- Abraham Lincoln

How to be happy • Happiness is something we can all learn

and practice.

• No one is happy 100% of the time.

• Life has its ups and downs.

• Even so there are some sure fire ways to increase your happiness.

Don’t wait to see if you are having a good time. Instead of going to places and seeing if it is fun decide in advance to have fun regardless of the circumstances. Enjoy the day regardless of the weather.

Go outside and play. Go for walks, throw a dog a stick, skip, sing loudly or imagine yourself to be a spy passing through enemy territory whatever does it for you. Play more!

Develop deep friendships. Your friends are your true wealth. Value them and see them regularly. Let them know how important they are to you. Most people only have two close friends so don’t fool yourself into believing you are less popular than most people.

Increase the closeness of extended family. Keeping in close contact with your family gives you a support base for difficult times and also

strengthens your sense of where you come from. Feeling you belong in a family is a powerful way of being happy.

Play to your strengths. Have a good long hard look at yourself. What are you good at? Make a commitment to develop your skills, talents and abilities as much as you can. If you don’t develop your own unique talents the world misses out.

Seek out groups that most strongly value what you have to offer. Finding the niche where your abilities are valued is the basis of success.

Avoid social groups where your unique attributes are not valued. Not everyone is going to like you or think you could amount to much. Get used to it. Accept that it is so, and then get on with it.

Live in the dreamtime. Find and follow your passions. Dream big dreams and make a promise to yourself to live a wonderful life.

Laugh a lot more. Find people, shows, books, films and situations that make you laugh and surround yourself with them.

Have something bigger than yourself to believe in. Think about the contribution you can make while you are on this planet and do it.

Love as much as you can- and then love some more.

Copyright Andrew Fuller www.andrewfuller.com.au

How to use open-ended questions to get children

talking

If you want to have interesting conversations

with your children ask open-ended questions.

Start this practice at the dinner table when

your children are young to get your children

communicating.

Closed questions require a one or two-word

response or even as little as a nod of the

head. They are the type of question that elicit

right or wrong answers making children feel

as if they're being quizzed.

Examples of closed questions

• What's your favourite colour?

• Is that your toy?

• Are you hungry?

Open-ended questions invite children to

imagine, elaborate, and tell stories. You'll get

more information and get to know your child

better when you ask open-ended questions.

They let children think and solve problems.

Here are some examples:

• What do you think will happen now?

• If you were the cook, what would you

fix us for dinner?

• If you were the mayor of our city, what

would you do first?

Open-ended questions allow children to

express whatever they're thinking. They don't

demand a response but leave space for the

child to answer thoughtfully. They encourage

creative thinking, problem solving and

imagination. When you take the time to listen

to a longer answer you are sending a strong

non-verbal message, that you value your

child and their thoughts and ideas.

Here are some common ways to start an open-ended question:

• What would happen if... • I wonder... • What do you think about... • In what way... • Tell me about... • What would you do… • How can we... • How did you...

Not only will this technique help you forge a

great relationship with your children but it's

also teaching them how to communicate

effectively with others. Open-ended questions

enable you to bond and teach at the same

time.

Open-ended questions encourage children to

recall what they've done and practice talking

about it. This helps their language

development and supports them in learning

outcomes.

Engaging in meaningful conversation with our

children is a wonderful reason to become

adept at asking open-ended questions.

Invite your children to imagine, elaborate, and tell stories.

Our school rules

Happy talking; not hurtful talking

Treat others respectfully; not disrespectfully

Include new people; especially if they look lonely

Be birds together

Attendance and engagement at school in DE Students working on a distance education program are expected to attend school every day in the same way as students in a face to face classroom. Supervisors are able to organise the school day to fit in with the particular needs of their student. The regular return of completed work demonstrates students have been in attendance at school. Supervisors are asked to indicate on the summary sheet any days absent due to illness or other reasons why the programmed work has not been completed. Engagement is determined by the quality and quantity of the completed work. Where a pack of work has been returned incomplete and no explanation has been offered the teacher is presented with a situation where outcomes or indicators cannot be assessed and cannot be reported upon. In these circumstances a student may be considered not to have engaged with the program of work and will be marked as absent. It is important for all students to engage with their program and complete all programmed work.

EDUCATIONAL NEGLECT All of the QDEC staff attended staff development days at the beginning of 2016. One of the recurring topics discussed at the staff development day was that of educational neglect. Many parents are unaware that when their children and young people don’t attend school regularly, it is a form of child neglect. Examples of educational neglect include constant lateness for school, irregular or inconsistent attendance at school, continually missing school with or without explanations, increasing truancy, developing a dislike for school and a reluctance to attend, with inadequate parent follow up and excessive absences inappropriately attributed to illness or disability. In cases of educational neglect a referral may be made to the Child Wellbeing Unit or the Department of Communities Services. In the Distance mode this translates to student work not being returned fortnightly on a regular basis or being incomplete, and irregular contact or replies to teacher phone messages or emails by the supervisor. We refer parents/supervisors to our attendance information to ensure you are meeting your obligations in regards to your child’s education. Contacting Teachers The Centre's staff can be contacted between 8:30 AM to 3.00 PM Monday to Friday. Outside of these hours teachers can be contacted using either the phone and answering machine or the email address supplied by the Department of Education and Communities. All teachers have made this email address known to their students. The Centre’s email address: queanbeyp-d.school@det.nsw.edu.au can be found on the Centre's website http://www.queanbeyp-d.schools.nsw.edu.au/ and also on the contact page.

REMINDER: Please send back your French Knitting and French Knitting tool for the Yarn Bombing.

Believe it or not…..

But teachers love watching ABC 3 TV http://www.abc.net.au/tveducation/programs/

There are some great programs for kids and adults alike. They are educational, enjoyable and

inspiring so consider ‘the box’ (even though it isn’t really that shape anymore!) as a tool for

teaching and learning. And kids - Go there and have a look as there are more active links than I

can even count.

These are but a few of the hundreds of lovely TV viewings available from

which kids can learn and enjoy. Your DE teacher would really love to hear

from you if you would like to have anything from here, there, or somewhere

else programmed for each term. It’s a good idea to plan ahead a little so you

can be off to a good and fruitful learning adventure of your own.

Everyone in Stages 2 and 3 will benefit from watching this program. You choose and talk with your teacher so you can do some personalised learning of your very own.

There are some fab topics here to choose. Have a look! Talk with your teacher. Get started.

You decide with your teacher about what it is you want to learn

August Gathering 2016

Bug Detectives at Jerrabomberra Wetlands

What do you get when you cross a turtle with an echidna? ……. A slow poke!!

As soon as we walked into the bug detective centre the children’s attention went straight to the baby turtle in the tank. Comments such as “Ooohhh look how cute,” and “Will he bite if I put my finger in there,” were thrown around a lot. What a great way to gain their attention (a bit like my joke above).

The children were super excited to get their hands on any little creatures they could but before this, they needed to learn about the different bugs and animals they would be

seeing during their excursion. After listening to their guide and brainstorming some ideas, the children were able to handle some artefacts lizards, bee hives, a turtle and a nest just to name a few. The

children’s attention however, always went back to that baby turtle in its big wide tank.

Off we all went outside to explore the ecosystem around the wetlands. Some children were so excited they took off ahead in a heartbeat and some stayed with the guide to listen to all the information she had.

They used binoculars to look for any movement and thought it was pretty awesome. We learnt about the habitat of all different bugs and animals and most importantly, their poo. Yes, that’s right, poo!

The children had a sheet of paper they carried around with different pictures of poo and they were then able to match this to what they found on the ground to determine which animal it came from. It’s easy to say that when we arrived we were ‘bug detectives’ and then walking around the ecosystem we became ‘poo detectives’. This amused children, teachers and parents alike.

Back inside, the children once again became bug detectives, this time being able to have hands on experience with some water bugs. The guide had two big buckets of wetlands water. The children had

to carefully scoop this water into a white bowl, so they could actually see all the water bugs, and then use a syringe to suck up the bugs to put on their petri dish to look under the microscope. Some children found water fleas,

others small snails and even one tiny little red worm which wriggled around clearly under the zoom of the microscope. The guide said you can tell how clean the water is due

to the types of bugs in the water. The bugs detected in the water buckets the children were exploring were an indicator that the water was apparently not that clean. Some children said “Yuck”. The guide would always answer a comment like this with “There is no such thing as yuck in an ecosystem”. The children were so engaged in this activity that time flew past and we had to leave with a few sighs and “Oh, do we have to”.

AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL

Our visit to the Australian War Memorial

During the August Gathering, students visited the Australian War Memorial. Their visit fell into two parts. Firstly, guides from the education section conducted a tour which was very beneficial to student understanding. Such important WW1 topics as the Gallipoli landing, the Lone Pine battle and the very difficult and dangerous conditions were observed and discussed. The second part involved visiting the Pool of Reflection where each student made a small donation. We then walked to the Hall of Memory where the significance of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was explained. As a mark of respect, everyone placed a red poppy on the grave. All students were congratulated on their excellent behaviour and enthusiasm. They asked many questions and joined in discussions which will result in a greater depth of understanding of the significance of the Australian War Memorial. Who can remember what the gargoyles stood for?

MAKING MUSIC What a fabulous time we all had at the Term 3 Gathering! It has been such a wonderful opportunity to see the children learning and growing together as a group. I was lucky enough to be invited to host a music lesson during this time. The children learnt about

keeping beat to the music by playing clapping games and using hand chimes. They then got creative and designed their own musical notation to show them when to play their instruments. Finally, the children formed groups and created a piece of music to

perform for all of us. They did an amazing job working and practising together as a team and their compositions showed that they were thinking about the beat as they played. Well done everyone.

Where your student has online learning programmed for them, it is expected that it will be completed.

It isn’t an optional extra unless otherwise stated by your child’s teacher. It constitutes learning for your child. If you are unable to access the online databases for any reason, please negotiate change with your DE teacher.

Mark the Maths and Spelling every day

After each daily session of maths and spelling, supervisors are expected to

mark the work with the student. Immediate correction of work is necessary so that a problem can be identified before proceeding to any further learning. Answers are provided to supervisors for this purpose. In maths students are encouraged to show their working out at all times. Pack your work up properly!! No more ‘throw it in the bag’ – upside-down, screwed up, pages without names and all mixed in together! It’s a bit of a nightmare sometimes. Take time to organise it with care. When returning work to school please do it respectfully. The program/task sheet is to be returned at the front with the corresponding, set work. Place it in the plastic bag provided or with the rubber band around it. This is important and helps delineate where more than one student’s work is returned in the same parcel. Please only complete the work in the set for the fortnight and return on time.

USBs are sent so you can use these to upload student work, recordings and news. They are to be returned with each set.

QDE eNEWS If you haven’t already – Please take a moment to download our new app or sign up for email notifications.

This is the easiest and fastest way to receive essential information from Queanbeyan Distance Education.

Once you sign up or download the app, all of our newsletters and notifications will be sent to you automatically. Signing up is quick and easy. Follow this link to register by email: Notes and Newsletters Or Download the QDE app from the App store or Google Play Download the QDE App (or search: Queanbeyan Distance) School Enews Download our free school app to receive instant alerts! iPhone and Android: Press the App Store or Play Store icon on your device, search for “Queanbeyan Distance”. Windows phone/Windows: press the Windows Store icon on your device, search for “School Enews” Download app, open and search for “Queanbeyan Distance”. Parents can also subscribe to the “Newsletters” list and also the relevant “Year” list(s) based on the student(s) year to receive updates on their email account.

All students should be accessing the student portal Every student in a NSW public school has access to their very own portal and email. They should be encouraged to use it to contact teachers if they are able to do so. Students can also request library books from our own QDE collection. Each student’s portal page has tabs and links to many areas of curriculum which is age appropriate and very engaging and can lead to students taking a greater role in deciding what they would like to learn. You should have your login details. If not, please contact your teacher.

Here is your student portal page. Login with your own details. There is so much to see, play and learn about.

Why not request your choice of library books from our own QDE collection? Here is our QDE Library page. You can browse and then request your own books.

THE POWER OF MAKING MISTAKES

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS EDUCATION – JO BOALER

https://www.youcubed.org/think-it-up/mistakes-grow-brain/

Making mistakes is a great thing, they are opportunities for learning and for brains to

grow

“the brain sparks and grows when we make a mistake, even if we are not aware of it, because it is a time of struggle; the brain is challenged and the challenge results in growth’