Tag Archives: films

Valentines Anyone?

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The library’s first lunch time activities for 2013 were in celebration of Valentine’s Day.  About ten risk-takes took part in Speed dating with a Book and thoroughly enjoyed it.  We spent 2 mins getting to know our dates before the alarm sounded and we moved to the next table to start the process all over again. Prizes for good evaluations were awarded. Congratulations to our best speed-daters: Harrison Seal Yr 8, Claire McGarrie Yr 9, Mikayla Radlof Yr 11 and Mani Norris Yr 11.

Responses were very positive: “Shadow Girl“ was just peaceful to read – Very funny – “Siggy & Amber“ was Awesome – It looked funny – I reckon this is awesome – It was interesting – “Unlocked” was weird, it has guns – “Headgames” was interesting, people can relate to it –  Nick & Norah sounds amazing, I think it’s my type of book – “Another Fine Mess” was funny and interesting – “Unlocked” had an interesting beginning, it was great – “Conspiracy 365″  was action-packed.  More than one book went home on a date with new borrowers and a good time was had by all.  Let’s have one every term?

30 “all time greatest” romance films were highlighted on our LCD screen for students to guess. Congratulations to India Hopkinson and Julia Denman,  Yr 11 for guessing more than anybody else.

Valentine’s Day Movie(s)

‘The Paperman’ and ‘Adelaide’ were all we had time for. Most moviegoers prefered the annimation. So if you want to watch some creative and original short films, just go to Short of the Week and search for films in various categories.

Quiditch  in Cairns

Matthew Morris is the organizer of the newest Quiditch team in the Australian Quiditch Association.  The Cairns United Quiditch Club (CUQC)  is looking for members. If you would like to join, contact CUQC.  JCU inaugurated the sport here in Cairns with the CUQC recently becoming the second team in the area. Matthew is pictured below  in the player’s jersey and holding a book about Harry Potter, which provided the inspiration for the Muggle version of the sport. Of course this version must be played on the ground and therefore the rules have been modified. Contact champions@northqueenslandquidditch.com  for more information.

Competition Time

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Horror Movies

Congratulations to our resident horror movie aficianado Tyson Beable for winning our interactive Halloween Horror Film Quiz. Runner up was Ashley Smith. Nice to see students in all grades participating and taking a risk. It paid off for two seniors.  There were a couple of tricky classic titles that stumped everyone.  Here are the answers in order: Alien, An American Werewolf in London , Twilight, The Shining, Blair Witch Project, Bride of Frankenstein, True Blood, Dexter, The Ring, Chucky, dracula, The Exorcist, The Birds, Dawn of the Dead, Friday the 13th, Gremlins, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Let Me In, The Silence of the Lambs, House of 1000 Corpses, Scream, It, Saw, Rosemary’s Baby, Nightmare on Elm Street, Nosferatu, The Lost Boys, Psycho, Leprechaun.

Wellbeing Award

Sometimes you don’t have to put your hand up to win, you just have to be a competent, helpful, nice person and the Gods will smile on you. For instance, Judy Andersen was nominated by peers and scored the School Wellbeing Award. Judy is pictured below receiving the award from Caz Dagleish. It is important to note that our library cleaners Colleen and Mike are also very competent and the cobwebs pictured are actually part of our Halloween display!  Which brings me to my next point – things are rarely what they seem.  So if you stand around waiting for the Gods to smile on you, then you are missing out on lots of opportunities – look for them and “Have a go”.

Reading Olympics Winners Breakfast

8E were really appreciative of their cooked breakfast, largely made possible by Smithfield McDonalds. Students enjoyed juice and Milo to help them wash down 25 bacon and egg muffins. Thank you to McDonalds for sponsoring our Term 3 reading Olympics and for being a source of employment for Smithfield students. The No 1 Reader for the Reading Olympics was Ben Weller and both Ben and McDonalds were given a certificate of appreciation. At the breakfast,  Ms Harris & Ms Robins were pictured with 8E, who brought their own “thank you” to present to library staff.

RSL Memorial Fund Award

Grants and awards are like competitions. You need to nominate or apply for them, and like a competition, you need to “be in it, to win it”. Although sometimes competitions involve more luck than skill, successful grants require you to demonstrate your skills, knowledge and vision.  We were pleased to learn that Nathan Norris (Yr 12) was the recipient of an individual grant from the RSL, which will help Nathan participate in an international Scouting event in New Zealand in the near future. Achieving is largely a question of motivation, and so life is like entering a competition – having a go, taking a risk and not being afraid to fail. Get into the habit of seizing the day and the opportunities and you may be pleasantly surprised.

 

 

 

Twenty Twelve

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Welcome back to the resource centre. We hope you like our redecorating. Hang onto your hats because there is more to come, but it will take time. As they say in Africa…”Slowly , slowly catchee monkey”!  Over half the library has been recarpeted over the holidays and we redecorated a little to celebrate.  Seniors now have their own space/place to study. Mr  Shenton is pictured below standing  beside our new plants, which we hope will not only oxygenate the library but will make the place more attractive.   

This year is the National Year of Reading and our first theme in the library will centre around all the books being made into movies  this year.  I’m looking forward to The Life of Pi (Yann Martel) and The Hunger Games (Susanne Collins)  in particular. It’s important that we read fiction – at least one novel a month, starting in Year 8 and for the rest of our lives!  Try to read a journal/magazine each month too. It could be any periodical  but most adults read the journal(s) that relate to their chosen profession to be life-long learners and grow in their understanding of their jobs. We’re reading for pleasure, knowledge, interesting facts and insights about all kinds of people and places, which will in turn make us more interesting. But  research has shown that people who read widely have better social skills and they perform best on unseen tests LIKE the core skills test…OR the Naplan tests. Author,  Yann Martel ,shares his ideas about reading in this short clip.

We’re making a Reading Taipan this year. We’re asking everyone staff and students to write their favourite quotes from literature on our paper snake to see how long it can grow.  If you’d rather do it online, we’ve got an online BOOK WALL  where you can stick a post it. Try to cite the title and author of the book at least and if you’re keen, a quote or a comment – and your name too!  We’re also going to feature celebrity readers, so call in and swap your books often to find out who is the latest celebrity reader.   Everyone is encouraged  to use the National Year of Reading logo in your signature file  to spread the word.(Edit your signature file in  MS Outlook – File – Options – Mail – Signatures)

Our new Library management software (V-library) upgrade  is even more interactive.  Investigate our hyperlink “Using the Library” at the top of this blog or just ask staff how you can view films from the library catalogue and also “log in” to check the status of your loans and reserve books that are unavailable. The Library OPAC icon is located on your desktop but you may also use our handy little netbook computer, located on the last bay-end in Non Fiction to search for books anytime.  

If you enjoy using the Web 2.0 tool  “Linoit” to write quotes on our BOOK WALL , then you may also enjoy these similar tools.  Your teachers may use some of these from time to time for an activity called a “Backchannel”. This means that you can express your opinions and ask questions silently on the projected wall, so that all the class can see them and so the teacher can respond.

Here’s a national year of reading blog with a big ambition . The owner is going to post an Australian poem on this blog every single day this year!  Pretty neat, maybe you can check it every day and by the end of the year, you will have read over 300 poems. We featured some Australian texts in our first book display of the year.  Watch for upcoming changes to our Resource Centre webpages to guide you through the Noosphere!

Documentary Sites

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This is our first blog post for nearly a term. We’ve  featured some funky library displays while the school website was under repair.   The centrepiece of our Extreme Sports display was a canoe!  Lately they’ve been more low key, with some wonderful self-portraits and sculptures decorating our Mental Health Week display last week. (featured). This week is National Nutrition week.  Check whether we made the right decisions about which foods earn a healthy TICK or an unhealthy CROSS.  Browse the latest edition of New Scientist magazine for the full story about how the foods we eat have been  modifying our genes.

 

The focus of this blog post however is Documentaries.  We have bookmarked some interesting directories where you can go to watch documentaries.  Youtube may be the most popular repository of films on the net, but you will agree, not all are of any educational value.  That’s because every man and his dog can upload their home movies and mash ups. The documentary sites we link to, point to at least 5 sites where films have been selected by the site because they have educational value.

Your teachers will have shown you many films using our school based index of films – Clickview.  We update this digital collection of films every week. You are free to search “Clickview Player” and watch films that interest you or finish watching a movie you stared in class.  You can even take them home on your USB drive to watch them at home.  You do have to download and install the Clickview Player on your home computer or your new laptop first.  We have updated a pamphlet with instructions about how to do this, and copies are located at the loans desk for you to take.  Or you can view instructional tutorials by clicking on the links above.