This will be the last post on my Blog. I will keep it active, as the reason I started was to share my collaborative learning methodology. So if someone finds anything useful that they can steal, change and adapt or be inspired to do something different, it will be a useful bit of cyber flotsam. After teaching for twenty five years at Grange Primary School I have decided it was time to hang up my chalk and pursue other interests, while also spending more time with my family. Although I dearly loved building trusting relationships with students and supporting them to be the best learners they c ..read more

I was delighted to receive some mail in the holidays from some of the armed personnel who were given our care packages. That they took the time to write back to us was very thoughtful. All were impressed to hear we were learning about the conflicts and reasons for them being away from their families. We are glad that we made their day a little brighter and spread some Christmas cheer. One from Jade from The RAAF who is currently deployed to the Middle East and missing her 4 year old daughter and Fiancee very much. Read her story. We also received this lovely Christmas card from RAAF Officer ..read more

We don’t do class parties in our room, we have shared lunches! So at this time of year, we plan a collaborative shared team lunch. Each team had to decide on their menu for Christmas lunch. Our school has a healthy eating policy and once a year we can have a red food day. However in this case they could only have one red food in their lunch. The menu needed to be healthy choices with one sweet. In their learning teams they needed to organise the food as well as the accessories such as plates napkins and utensils. Most wanted some kind of Christmas theme so decorations were up to them. It too ..read more

We have just received our medals for the Premier’s Reading Challenge. Rocco has completed the Challenge for three years and has a Silver Medal. Way to go mate. The main part of our class has been completing the Challenge for Four years, they all received a Gold Medal. How proud are they! These two Book Worms have finished the Challenge for Five Years and received a Championship Medal. Bravo Cleo and Emily. I have just sent off 21 certificates for our Principal to sign for reading achievements in Accelerated Reading too. Hs hand will be sore! I am proud of your efforts everyone. Keep up th ..read more

With December fast approaching we needed to work fast on our Advent  Calendars. I thought the children did a creative job with their themes. It was tricky deciding where to put the windows. What do you think? See you all at Carols by the Lake Sunday night ..read more

During our preparation for Remembrance Day, many discussions were had about the life and conditions of the armed forces during wars and conflicts. I shared my experiences of visiting Anzac Cove in 2006 and we talked about the battle that had taken place. I also shared with them the poem written by Ataturk and showed them a statue of soldiers helping each other out. A deeply moving poem. Headstone line the foreshore, young men who paid the supreme sacrifice. Courage, Mateship, Bravery on both sides. While discussing the past, the children were stunned to discover that in the present our ser ..read more

It’s been a little quiet for term three, you see I was on long service leave and spent a fabulous time exploring the Pacific North West of America. Initially I went there with my husband to be in the path of totality for the Great American Eclipse, but as it is such a long way, we decided to stay longer and get in some hiking. It meant being away from my class for the term, but I knew they were being looked after, so I put my energy into this adventure. Solar Eclipse August 21st 2017 For the first time in quite a while a Solar eclipse was visible across most of USA. Keen astronomers, we had kn ..read more

If you have checked out our Collaboration page, then you know about how our teams work in my classes, if not, here is a quick summary. That was a brief summary. Now for some change in practice. To begin with I am in charge of how teams are constructed and I choose the combinations of students so there is a constant mix of gender and ability. I do this for the first two terms. At the end of last term, each team member completed a personal reflection sheet on how they saw themselves with their organisation and team skills so far. They rated themselves either Never, Sometimes or Always, then ..read more

Last term we learnt about how the Moon,   the Sun and Earth spin and rotated in space. We also learnt that from all this spinning and rotating, the positions of the Sun and Earth played a big part in how we experienced day and night. Relative sizes It was important that we understand exactly how big these objects are. Now that is kind of tricky because we really can’t see Earth as we are standing on it, as for the Sun and Moon, well at a distance they can play tricks on your eyes. We are fortunate in our Solar System to have the Moon and Sun exactly where they are because they actually look ..read more

We had just the best day today. We performed a music concert for a small crowd. How good was that.   Earlier today, classes were booked into a music workshop with Jon Madin. This is him. To learn more about what he does, go to his website ( where I snuck this image) http://www.marimbamusic.com.au Jon is a  very talented musician and brought a wide variety of instruments for us to play. He told us he made these wacky instruments himself which impressed us. They were bizarre indeed. There were items that were familiar, but were a strange mix of  objects we might use for different things, such a ..read more