THE WAY (Term 3 Week 9 - 14 September 2020)
School Appointments
We have pleasure in announcing the following appointments to commence 27 January 2021:
James Farr has been appointed to the position of Assistant Principal - Mission at St Joseph’s Primary School, Alstonville. James has recently moved to the area but has held positions as Principal in the Bathurst Diocese.
Nadine Slingsby has been appointed to the position of Assistant Principal at Bowraville. Nadine is currently Learning and Innovation Consultant K-12 at the Catholic Schools Office, Lismore.
Nadine Connolly has been appointed to the position of Assistant Principal - Learning and Teaching at St Mary’s Catholic College, Casino. Nadine is currently Leader of Curriculum at St John’s College, Lismore.
Dianne McGowan has been appointed to the position of Assistant Principal - Learning and Teaching at McAuley Catholic College, Grafton. Dianne is currently Teacher Accreditation and Learning Consultant with the Catholic Schools Office, Lismore.
Narelle Sherrah has been appointed to the position of Assistant Principal - Learning and Teaching at Mount St Patrick College, Murwillumbah. Narelle is currently Leader of Curriculum at Mount St Patrick College.
Annette Reen has been appointed to the position of Assistant Principal - Mission at St John’s College, Lismore. Annette is currently Leader of School Evangelisation at St John’s.
Teachers of the Stage 5 Youth Ministry classes in Parish Secondary Schools are invited to a network meeting for collegial support, resource updates and practical advice for achieving Youth Ministry outcomes during 2020. The meeting will be held via Zoom on Thursday 17 September 9.15-10.45am. Registration will be via My Learning at which time a zoom link will be sent. A half-day release is available if required: C1FB.
The Innovative Learning Environments (ILE) website is a dynamic professional learning resource for leaders and teachers who are exploring further information about teaching and learning in an ILE.
Interviews with teachers within the Diocese have recently been added to the website. In these videos, classroom teachers share their journey towards learning and teaching in an ILE. They were asked to reflect on their experiences in order to share their learnings with other teachers and leaders across the Diocese.
Thank you to Rani Tink, Kylie Kipreotis, Jeff Arkinstall, Rachael Watkins and Samantha Walters from St Peter’s Primary School, Port Macquarie and Emily Brown, April Ferguson, Morgan Daley and Meghan Haines from St James' Primary School, Yamba for sharing their journey.
The videos may be used by schools in their professional learning and discussions with staff when moving towards or reflecting on co-teaching and Innovative Learning Environments.
The videos can be accessed via the ‘Journeys’ tab under “Links” on the Innovative Learning Environments page on the Intranet.
Leaders and teachers are encouraged to check the site regularly as new articles, links and research papers are being added throughout the year.
The Stage 1 course has now been added to the Professional Learning section of the Mathematics pages on the Intranet.
These moodle courses allow teachers to revisit the learning from the Stage 1, 2 & 3 Mathematics: Planning and Assessment workshops that were held in 2019/2020. The learning supports collaborative planning and design of Mathematics learning and teaching with a focus on assessment.
As we progress towards the Term 4 testing window for the ACER PAT Assessments, please find below the revised Primary and Secondary Protocols. Please note the changes, in particular to the Secondary Protocols, regarding the test number that is sat at the beginning of the year and the Secondary Literacy Initiative Testing Timeline. These can also be found in the Learning & Teaching domain on the new intranet site.
Schools that have a current ACER PAT Assessment account are reminded that registration for free support webinars, as well as recordings of recent webinars, are available in the Help section of your school account.
Information on employment opportunities within the Diocese of Lismore are available via Positions Vacant.
SCHOOLS
- Assistant Principal – Learning & Teaching – St Ambrose Catholic Primary School, Pottsville
- Assistant Principal – Learning & Teaching – St Mary’s Primary School, Casino
- Assistant Principal – Mount St John Primary School, Dorrigo
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS OFFICE
- Executive Assistant to the Assistant Director - School Evangelisation & Catechetical Services (SEACS) - Readvertised
- Injury Management Coordinator - School Resources Services
- Learning & Innovation Consultant K-12
- Teacher Accreditation & Learning Consultant
Staff are reminded that individuals are required to register for all professional learning courses through the My Learning site. The site has the facility to recommend courses to others. This will be potentially useful for Principals and Assistant Principals who wish to recommend staff to register for particular courses.
Staff are reminded that the closing date for courses is five working days prior to the course.
To register, please visit My Learning.
EMU Specialist Teacher OPL Day 2, 2020 - 20CSO-ESTOD2
This course is Ongoing Professional Learning (OPL) for qualified EMU Specialist Teachers. Ongoing professional learning for Specialist Teachers is required to ensure continual improvement of skills and knowledge and to maintain currency. All EMU Specialist Teachers are required to participate in ongoing professional learning to maintain accreditation. The course is ONLINE and Specialist Teachers will access the learning from their own school sites.
Stage 3 and Stage 4 Mathematics Peter Sullivan workshops DAY 2 - 20CSO-S3AS4M
This is Day 2 of a 2-day course. This Professional Learning is for Stage 3 and Stage 4 teachers and will be delivered ONLINE. Teaching teams will access the learning from their own school sites. The two workshops and between-session tasks focus on Algebra and are based on Peter's research: 'Encouraging Persistence Maintaining Challenge' - Motivating students and developing persistence through challenging tasks. Effective teaching using effective tasks.
Creating a Virtual Tour with Google Tour Creator VR 2020 - 20CSO-CAVTWG
To continue supporting educators and their development of technology skills, the CSO has developed a series of online professional learning opportunities, beginning with Google Tour Creator. Google Tour Creator makes it easy to build immersive, 360° tours right from any internet connected computer. Viewers can watch a virtual tour on mobile, desktop or with VR viewing technology (ie Google Cardboard). Tour Creator can enrich 2D images or use 360° images and enrich them with points of interest to create a virtual tour.
Using Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented reality (AR) in the classroom 2020 - 20CSO-UVRVAA
To continue supporting educators and their development of technology skills, the CSO has developed a series of online professional learning opportunities. With Google Expeditions, classrooms have no boundaries with Virtual reality and Augmented reality. With VR and AR, teachers are no longer limited by the space of the classroom. VR lets you explore the world virtually while AR brings abstract concepts to life—allowing teachers to guide students through collections of 360° scenes and 3D objects, pointing out interesting sites and artifacts along the way.
Building student reading habits with SORA ebooks platform 2020 - 20CSO-BSRHWS
To continue supporting educators and their development of technology skills, the CSO has developed a series of online professional learning opportunities. Research has shown that students need to build reading habits to develop good literacy and academic skills. To nurture an independent reading habit, students need access to relevant high interest texts at different levels as well as reading strategies that can help them develop reading proficiency and comprehension. The SORA ebook platform provides students and teachers with access to a vast and diverse range of quality literature to motivate student reading. It includes inbuilt tools to develop deep reading skills and habits.