Thank you Ms Campbell & Year 7 Creatives

Posted on November 23, 2017 by sshslibrary

The Information Hub of the school welcomes your donations, because we share with everyone – without fear or favour. If you are a member of our school community (parents too), you can borrow our resources. Just ask and we’ll add you to our database. Students and staff are added automatically and can access eBooks as well. If you need help to do that, visit our catalogue online, or ask the library staff.

We wish to thank Smithfield teacher, Ms Natalie Campbell for her recent donation of dozens of Young Adult and adult titles. We can always use more good books. Knowing Ms Campbell, they will be novels that are good for the soul as well as for entertainment and literacy.

Display

Having recently hosted Primary Industries and Non-Fiction November, currently our intricately made Year 7 Ancient Rome dioramas are proving a curiosity. Thank you for the display Year 7. We wish we could answer all the questions from patrons. In future, we will need to ask creators to caption their work. Our visitors want to know things like: Who made them? How the various elements were made? Where they found their information? If you own one of the dioramas please come in next week and we’ll caption your project together.

Survey

We are asking for your opinion, so check your emails. If you haven’t completed your quick library survey in the past week, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/G98JWLK

NaNoWriMo is Coming

Posted on October 17, 2017 by sshslibrary

First we started with a Banned Books display, moved to the Great Barrier Reef and next week to something really mysterious with Thylacine from the Qld Museum regional loans. Looking forward to that one.

But next month is November and you know what that means? The NaNoWriMo challenge. Only those intrepid few with true grit are signing up for the challenge of nominating a word limit and committing to write every day, without stopping, without revision, so that on the last day of November, they sit proudly in front of a whole novel (well a rough draft) of their own making. It’s not too late to sign up. We meet in the eLearning Room each Wednesday first break. We have senior writers to mentor us and to rope up with us to achieve our goals. New writers are very welcome but remember you only have until Oct 31st to sign up using our Smithfield Writer’s classroom code.

Flying Success

Posted on April 11, 2017 by sshslibrary

Skyrail staff have judged the winner of our “International Year of Sustainable Tourism and Development” competition and I congratulate Grace K by featuring her competition response below. Grace receives a return family pass aboard Skyrail for four, valued at $188.

A highly commended entry came from Sorami O, who displayed excellent desktop publishing skills as well as some thorough research about Skyrail’s activities.

Skyrail’s Flying Success

Cairns Skyrail Rainforest Cableway receives large success with numerous sustainable tourism awards.

By Grace K

Cairns Skyrail is a successful tourist destination; attracting thousands of tourists a year, who all come from afar to see Australian rainforest at its best. With multiple stops from Cairns to Kuranda, Skyrail provides nature tours and breath-taking views at every stop. Skyrail officially opened to the public in 1995, attracting lots of attention for the world’s first family-friendly and environmentally safe Australian rainforest experience.

The forests surrounding the cableway attracts many wildlife creatures, as there are many sightings of bush turkeys, tent spiders, cassowary and even the rare sighting of a Lumholtz Tree Kangaroo. Skyrail makes sure to protect these species, native to the rainforest, which are an exciting addition to the Skyrail experience.

Nature journals are kept on the website to showcase Australia’s amazing and rich nature in the rainforests, in an educational way -including facts and statistics of the flora and fauna.

What is the best time to visit the Skyrail? Though Skyrail is breathtaking and fun all year round, the wet season has the perfect temperature and rain capacity to fully bring out the peak of rainforest beauty. The clouds and fog surround the gondolas as they move further up the mountain. The views from each gondola’s windows are picture perfect quality and radiate calming and beautiful scenery.

The Skyrail Rainforest Cableway is sustainably beneficial, not only for the wildlife surrounding the area but the local community.

Skyrail purchases local produce and sustains a high rate of local-based employees, including local indigenous people. A main goal for Skyrail is to improve the understanding and appreciation for the tropical forest environment to ensure the sustainability of local flora and fauna for years to come.

2017 International Year of Sustainable Tourism Display

Posted on February 7, 2017 by sshslibrary

Welcome to Year 7 and welcome back to the library for 2017, The International Year of Sustainable Tourism and Development. What better way to mark the year than with our own mini rainforest cableway.

The Skyrail Rainforest Cableway competition is open ALL of Term 1. That gives YOU plenty of time to enter. For competition details visit our Competition page to download the competition flyer You can view the presentation or visit the Library display.

GAMES DAY

Join us in the eLearning Room every Monday first break and bring your mates. We have cards, chess, scrabble and other board games.

BLOGGERS CLUB

Do you love to write? Do you like to read? It doesn’t matter what. Join us every Wednesday first break and network with other readers and writers. Help with some of the writing about the place – blogs, competitions, newspaper articles, fiction or anything at all. We need JUNIORS to compete in Reader’s Cup. We need SENIORS to lead, coach and write book reviews for free books for the library. Like to publish your writing? Why not start a blog?

Smithfield Library in the News

Posted on September 17, 2015 by sshslibrary

We waited our turn, but eventually Paddy’s article about our super busy August 2015 hit the Cairns Post. We don’t get to showcase our Science Week and Book Week displays in the local newspaper every year. Both national networks (National Science Week & Children’s Book Council chose the theme of the International Year for their inspiration – The International Year of Light. Click on the title of the article to zoom in to read the article.

Post-Ed Article 15 Sept 2015

Unfortunately, a lovely photo of two of our three volunteers helping Mrs Robins to make an impression with eye-catching replicas of the shortlisted Book Week titles, didn’t make the newspaper. Pictured finishing off their creations are – Tenielle Burdin and Brooke Ryan.

Science & Library Partner to Sparkle

Posted on August 30, 2015 by sshslibrary

Science Week

August 14-21^st was National Science Week around Australia. Our Science department’s display entitled “Ignite your Imagination” fitting the International Year of Light theme, was stunning. Ms Field and Ms Coe erected a darkroom in the middle of the library and their various apparatus generated rainbows and light shows to delight us and ignite our appreciation of physics. A slide show, competition and videos added educational explanations to the hands-on focus.

Book Week 2015

August 21-18 is Childrens’ Book Council Book Week and with the theme, Books light up the World, we went for the “Big Pineapple” effect. Brooke Ryan, Tenielle Burdin and Sky Ashworth helped library staff to create giant replicas of the 6 young adult books shortlisted this year. Our display highlights these hard-hitting novels for teenagers and adults. Australia’s best young adult books are: Nona & Me (Clare Atkins), Intruder (Christine Bongers), Are You Seeing Me? (Darren Groth), The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl (Melissa Keil), The Minnow (Diana Sweeney), The Protected (Claire Zorn).

eBooks

The rules have changed and EQ now enable us to use our MIS ID login to download our eBooks. You will still need the short four character password generated by the library computer but this makes reading eBooks on our mobile phones and computers much easier. For instance, Bill Brown’s login is bbrow4 and his eBook password is b52j. See the library staff if you have forgotten your short eBook password or if you need help with downloading BlueFire Reader to your phone/computer. All details about how to borrow eBooks can be found in the eBooks tab on our our online catalogue. If more students and staff are downloading these books to read on their portable devices, we will purchase more items. At the moment we have about 250 eBooks.

Mrs Robins ~ Teacher Librarian

Trinity Bay Writer’s Festival Report by Logan Bradshaw 10H

On July 30^th & 31^st I was fortunate enough to attend a Writers’ Workshop at Trinity Bay High School.

It was very interesting and informative, providing plenty of useful information such as how to correctly structure a story and how to bring your reader into your mind, your world; like through things they understand or relate to (characters, events, landscape etc.).

Talks were given by professional writers such as Melaina Faranda, Richard Harland and Saffron Bryant.

I found them to be very wise with a great knowledge about what they do and the process with which they do it.

I learnt many techniques to get the story out there and how to make it come across in a clear genre (medieval, alternate timelines, present events or real past events); also what makes a story better, mainly regarding the world of your story or plot.

I found it to be of a great benefit and it encouraged me to keep my imagination and writing alive.

Logan Bradshaw 10H

Books Light up Our World

Posted on August 30, 2015 by sshslibrary

Book Week

Between the 21^st of August and the 28^th of August, Smithfield State High School on O’Brien road is hosting a book week display to celebrate the 70^th Anniversary of Childrens’ Book Council Book Week. With a theme of “Books light up Our world”, Smithfield State High seniors Brooke Ryan, Tenielle Burdin and Sky Ashworth worked hard to paint giant replicas of the si young adult books that were shortlisted in the “Younger Reader” category earlier this year. “The Protected” by Claire Zorn is centre stage because it was selected as Book of the Year. Honour books were “Nona & Me” by Clare Atkins and “Intruder”by Christine Bongers.

The Library is also holding competitions with book vouchers valued at twenty dollars each for lucky entrants in the Older Reader Quiz or for simply downloading an Ebook to our mobile phones.

Coincidently, Science week and the theme of light were so popular the week before for National Science Week August 14 – 21, it will run for two weeks by popular demand. In addition to the light spectrum apparatus, a plasma ball displays electrical energy conducting through our fingertips. “We’ve put the display together to inspire students to get excited about science, particularly physics.” said Ms Holly Field in response to questions about the Science week display put together by science staff. Whether it be for the Science displays or for the books, Smithfield students are sure to love the electrifying Smithfield High School Library.

Liam Cahill (Yr 12)

Have you seen the Neodymium?

Posted on March 6, 2015 by sshslibrary

Forces on Display

We’ve all enjoyed hands-on learning about neodymiums, forces and magnetism, courtesy of the Queensland Museum regional loans. Students found the levitating globe intriguing. Pictured are seniors Steven Hennlein and Brooke Knight, trying out some of the experiments.

Free MS- Office – 365

Many students have downloaded the MS Office suite for free to use on up to 5 computers at home. Read more about this international initiative.

February – The Month in a Glance

16,972 people used the library in the past month, that’s over 800 per day allowing for 1000 extra visitors for the month due to photos
946 items were borrowed during February
Over 50 new resources were processed. One might be waiting for you to take it home? Read the reviews on our Red Hot Reads Newsletter.

Reader’s Cup 2015 @ Cairns High

Now that the coordinator, Lyndall Sellars, took up the post of Teacher Librarian at Cairns High, our teams won’t have to travel to Malanda SHS to compete in the annual district Reader’s Cup competition. We can easily pop into Cairns High to represent Smithfield High.

Reader’s Cup is a state-wide literature competition held every year in Term 2, involving teams working together to score the most points when faced with innumerable questions about six novels. We are hoping to take two teams of Yr 7 and Yr 8 students this year. Pick up your application form in the Library if you: enjoy reading, remember details, can work as a team and can commit to a weekly meeting to study the books together.

NEWSFLASH – Your tutor hours have been extended. This incredible free online tutoring service is now available between 3pm to 10pm, Sunday to Friday. Even if you don’t borrow books from the public library, joining the public library means that you can access quality tuition through YourTutor and without leaving home. Another benefit is the power to access the subscription databases of the State Library online – for free.

Our First Year Sevens Make History

Posted on January 26, 2015 by sshslibrary

Orientation

2015 will be an exciting year for the whole school community. Our library will need to service hundreds more students and teachers as we welcome Year 7 to the “big school” for the first time in the history of our school. We promise you – and all our “Freshmen”, that it won’t be long until you get in the swing of things, like all Year 8’s and all the Year 8’s before them. We’ll be talking to you about our “ways of working” in the Library, but don’t expect to remember everything the first time. If you need any help to log in to a computer, find a resource etc. – just ask. Who? Our Library staff of course! Another strategy to learn these information skills, is to visit our Information Portal .

New Staff Member

A big welcome to our newest library staff member, Mrs Colgrave, who transferred to our faculty from Admin this year.

Australia Day

We have our usual Australia Day display running this week, mainly to highlight books to the International Students who may want to familiarize themselves further with our geography and customs. Thank you to Mr Colgrave for helping us erect the display. The Australia Day Honours List can be found here.

A welcome bit of news to we Library folk is the announcement of the Senior Australian of the Year – Childrens’ Laureate Jackie French. Overcoming dyslexia herself, French believes in the transformational power of storytelling in the lives of young Australians. Read more about Jackie here… Check out one of her books from our shelves…

“Every book a child reads creates new neurons in that child’s brain,” she told the crowd on the lawns of Parliament House on Sunday as she received her award.

“If you want intelligent children give them a book. If you want more intelligent children give them more books.” The 61-year-old from NSW has published 140 books, for both adults and children, in 32 languages and received more than 60 literary prizes. Read more..

International Year of Light and Light Technologies

Late in 2013, a resolution was passed by the UN General Assembly to make 2015 The International Year of Light. The Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon delivered his message in Jan 2015. You can read his message, which ends with “Let there be a year of Light.” and find out more by visiting the International Year of Light website.

CGBF Grant for New Lights – A Coincidence?

Last week, we were delighted to learn that our CGBF grant application to have our original energy hungry lights, fans and security replaced, was successful. Our energy footprint will be only a third of what it used to be, with more efficient systems. Over the holidays our new cabinet for housing the security system unit, photocopy paper and Book-It computer, was delivered. Thank you to Mr Robins and Mr McClelland for moving the electronics and installing our new TNLA logo. THANK YOU to our supporters who supported out application, Prof Paul Gadek (JCU), Sam O’Connor (Police), Mark Allen (TBSS), Keith Seaton (P & C) and Michael Trout (MP). Finally we acknowledge the generous Community Gambling Benefit Fund for donating over $30,000 to upgrade our facility.

Desirable Difficulty

Posted on May 4, 2014 by sshslibrary

First Lunch Break

We’re back to our usual expectations this term. First break rules are not up for negotiation. We expect only homework, research or reading at first break. Students playing games, hanging out or making noise will not be welcome.

Anzac Day Display

A huge thankyou to the RSL for lending us their military memorabilia displays for the week, so we could commemorate our most popular national day.

Farewell Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Read his BBC Obituary. We have some of his titles in Fiction, including the 1982 nobel prize winner’s most famous novel, “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, acclaimed by many to be one of the greatest novels of the Twentieth Century.

Study or Explict Learning?

We’ve renamed our study tips tab in our information portal to debunk some of our long-held beliefs about studying. For eons we’ve believed that we’ll remember what we learn by re-reading, making notes, highlighting etc. More recent research suggests that we learn best by interacting with the material via “desirable difficulty”. This is best achieved in a study group, being quizzed or quizzing someone else etc. By struggling to search memories for the answer, the difficulty can create lasting learning. That’s why the difficulty is called desirable – because knowledge acquired in this manner lasts the test of time.

To summarize: Study in small chunks every week – do not cram right before a test – Test or Quiz yourself using a quiz generator – Online Quiz Creator – Register for Class Marker – Socrative

Form a Study Group to discuss the work and quiz each other verbally – Today’s Meet – Backchat on twitter or another forum tool. Discuss information during the lesson or afterwards in forums to be interacting with the information and with others. Try using technology to help you: Padlet – Today’s Meet – Chatzy – Socrative

Book Week Shortlist

The Children’s Book Week shortlist has been announced. …And the Older Reader’s Novels are:

Smithfield High Resource Centre Blog

Smithfield State High School Library News and Links

Category Archives: Displays