Buy New or Recycle?

Freecycle is a network of communities all around the world, where you can give away stuff or ask for stuff. Recycling is a great way to tackle the problem of consuming, polluting and that most topical of all environmental issues at the moment – reducing our carbon footprint. Why not sign up to the local group?  There maybe something you will never use again, which you can offer. The only thing you can’t recycle is someone else’s intellectual property – even songs. Try making your own music as a backing track to your next multimedia presentation – use this easy online music lab to compose a tune.

Recycling is the concept behind the Home Ec and Man Arts Departments’ creative new project for the library – recovering our old office chairs.  Here is the very first chair and its owner. Great job Talitha. The first chairs are on display but we are looking forward to the trendy look created by the patchwork chairs when they are all completed. Thanks to Ms Estrom, Mr Colgrove and Ms Andersen for the innovative thinking.

Chair1

There are other ways to be creative. Why not write your own comic with this online comic generator. It’s a great tool for writer’s block. It can help you plot a story or compose some dialogue. Our museum displays epitomize recycling. Some of this stuff is really old. The new display, “Animal Homes” is a fascinating look at where certain insects and crustacians hang out.

Animal homes

That doesn’t mean we can’t buy something new. The changes in the library are of necessity happening very slowly but already our new LCD TV is providing us with inspirational messages about the habits of mind.

LCD TV

One thing that is making a comeback is the Sunday sermon. These secular Sunday sermons, if you are ‘into’ philosophy, as are our senior academy students, can be viewed at The School of Life.

June at a Glance

Change

The first things to change in the RC in June were the printers and we had a fair bit of confusion choosing the right printer in the beginning.  To print in black & white you have to choose R42  and to print in colour you need to choose RC42.  Print smarter by only sending those pages you need in colour to the colour printer (RC42). Send the rest of the document to the B&W printer. Why?  The cost difference per page is 40 cents and your print credit balance will disappear pretty quickly  if you print every page in the document in colour!

Reader’s Cup 2011

The Readers Cup Tournament took place on Friday the 10th of June in Malanda.  The SSHS team  had to read 6 books and then answer 10 questions for each of the books. Nicole Haack ( Yr 9), Monty Haack ( Yr 8), Kate Brunger ( Yr 8 ) and Maddy Barclay ( Yr 8 ) represented Smithfeild State High School in this tournament. They had an excellent day, full of laughter and fun.  Thanks to Mrs Robins for training with the team and to Mrs Sheppard for escorting the team to Malanda.  Good job readers!  (Written by Kate Brunger)

Reader's Cup Team

Reader's Cup Team

Refugee Week

To celebrate Refugee Week during the last week of term, we screened a documentary about refugees in Australia and served a lovely Chinese Dumpling Soup in our “soup kitchen”. A big thanks to Judy Andersen, the chef, who shares her yummy recipe below.  Watching Anh Do and his brother Khoa talk about their lives went down better with warm broth & chop sticks. Anh is of course a famous comedian and actor and Khoa, Young Australian of the Year 2oo5, is the director of such award winning films as Mother Fish. No wonder Anh entitled his autobiography, “The Happiest Refugee”.  8) Visit the Australian Dictionary of Biography to check the 12,000 entries about Australians from all walks of life.

Refugee Week Soup Kitchen

Refugee Week Soup Kitchen

Chinese Dumpling Soup Recipe

Ingredients:  2 tablsp vegetable oil, 2 cloves garlic crushed, 1 tablesp grated fresh ginger, 1 medium red capsicum chopped, 6 cups chicken stock, 2 tablesp sweet chilli sauce, 2 tablesp soy sauce, 250g pk frozen mini dim sims, 1 cup baby spinach leaves, 250gms snow peas sliced thinly, 4 green onions sliced thinly, 6 slices white bread, 20g butter, 2 tablsp sesame seeds.

Method:  1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over moderate heat. Cook and stir garlic, ginger and capsicum for 2mins. Stir in stock, chilli sauce and soy sauce. Bring to boil. Reduce heat, add dim sims; simmer for 5 mins or until dim sims are cooked.

2. Stir in spinach. Cook for 1 min more. Remove from heat. Stir in snow peas and onions.

3. Meanwhile, preheat an oven-grill to high. Blace bread on baking tray. Grill for 1 min. Turn; brush butter evenly over bread. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Grill for 1 min more until sesame seeds are golden brown. Cut bread into triangles.

4. Ladle soup into serving bowls. Serve with sesame toast.