LANGUAGES

GOETHE INSTITUTE VISITS MCKINNON SECONDARY COLLEGE

Last Tuesday, 28 August 2018, we welcomed Rebecca Rashid from the Goethe Institut Berlin and Sonja Pluess who is the coordinator for STEM/MINT projects at the Goethe Institut Australia. Students were introduced to topics related to sustainability in German. Pollution in the ocean, plastic in our environment and recycling of products were only some of them. Many interactive matching activities were offered to help students engage with issues related to sustainable living. These included learning new German words, reading information and watching videos. Students were challenged by the tasks and worked with interest in the groups formed on the day. These activities required active participation of each student and cooperation was necessary to solve the challenging tasks.

Students reported later that: “we were learning about sustainability while we improved our German”; “it was fun and interesting. I learned a lot and I think they were very caring and supportive”, and “it was worth it because I have been interested in how much plastic is really in the ocean”.

Rebecca Rashid was visiting Australia to present the activities our students enjoyed on this day during the German National Conference in Melbourne last weekend.

UNTERNEHMEN DEUTSCH - MODULE 2

The Year 10 German class has been working on Module 2, researching a business and creating a presentation which will be submitted to the competition. As part of this module, students are visiting the business they have chosen and will collaborate with the business in Module 3, creating a service or product for this business.

Last Friday, the first two groups visited German companies. BMW and the MDS (Melbourne Design Studio) welcomed our students and they were interested in learning more about the business they had researched already online.

Two more groups will visit the Henell Brothers and Dresden on the coming Friday, followed by two more groups visiting the Cuckoo restaurant on the following Friday.

I am looking forward to the final presentations of our students which are due for submission at the end of this term.

I would like to thank all businesses for their cooperation and for offering this unique opportunity to our students.

GERMAN EXCHANGE - PRE-HOSTING MEETING

Reminder: a pre-hosting meeting for the German Exchange participants will be held on Monday 10 September, 2018 at 7:00pm in the Lecture Theatre. Our German guests (with whom their McKinnon partners have been in contact for the last eight months) arrive during the coming school holidays and will be here for four weeks. At the pre-hosting meeting students and families will learn much about the school-organised program that we have set up for our guests, as well as tips for helping the exchange partner settle into family and school life here. One of our previous exchange participants will be at the meeting to give tips from a student perspective.

STATES SCHOOLS’ PARLIAMENTARY CONVENTION

Congratulations to Mia Borowitz, Ruthie Brown, Orlando Buttie, Laura Chedra, Myles Kelemen, Alexander Khodakovski, Jack Middleton and Leeor Rose for having been selected to represent McKinnon Secondary College in the States Schools´ Parliamentary Convention in Parliament House, Melbourne on Wednesday 12 September.  

Andrea Fowler

Head of Languages