Better Library Sessions

Paula and I attended a seminar for Better Library Sessions from the National Library as we have taken on the Library as one of our responsibilities. I enjoyed meeting and chatting with other teachers about their libraries. Jan gave us lots of great ideas for the library. Some ideas included: *Wacky Wednesdays, turn up to see! e.g lego days, quiz, card making etc *Caught Reading, earn tokens, win books *Open days/parents *Book Snaps: short reviews, picture: quote: comment: recommended by *Librarians: photos, blurbs about themselves, recommended books *Kahoots/scavenger hunts *Book selling: talk to classes about new books arriving in the library *Displays: artwork from classes *Recommended tags in library books Our next actions are to: *convert the small room in the library to a reading corner *work on QR codes: listening post *librarians to work on blurbs about themselves and books they recommend (tags) *displays for the library *visual pictures for the Dewey System on shelves: easier for the children to find books *order some new books

Brainwave Trust Seminar

Unravelling the mystery of the adolescent brain: a brain in transition. I found this presentation very interesting. I learnt that the adolescent brain is in transition from 10 to 25 years and that the brain matures back to front, inside to outside. I learnt about the important role building resilence has to play in counterbalancing the difficult things that happen in life. I think if we know more about what is happening inside the body during this developmental stage we can then better understand and prepare ourselves to deal with the adolescent behaviour appropriately. We can identify the risks and put in protective measures. We are already teaching the juniors growth mindset which I think will be very benificial for them as they move up through the years. We as teachers have been learning more about resilence and how we can foster this in our children.

Catholic Social Teaching Speakers

I enjoyed going along to listen to the keynote speakers. Some of their teachings challenged my thinking and others confirmed what I already thought. Father John Adams talked about Pope Francis views on God as a verb, a movement, that nothing is static about God. He said Catholic Social Teaching is living and active. It is like an oak tree: the roots are scriptures and the trunk has grown in girth throughout the centuries. Bishop Peter Cullinane talked about compassion being distinctively Catholic. I listen to the scriptures in Church and relate them to my life. I then think about how can I be like Jesus? just as we teach the children to be loving, kind, forgiving just like Jesus was. We are living the gospel values: living and active. I learnt more about how and when the Bishops decide to make statements or submissions. I also have a deeper understanding of the term social justice. One of the big things that stuck with me was the See, Judge, Act that was used as a catalyst for service learning. See: to open others eyes, become aware, Judge: judge effectively, become grounded and Act: encourage action, become responsive. We can take this back into the classroom and get the children to look at our community and see what we can do to help. Especially since we have just decided on our school values and service is one of them.