KLA News 

This fortnight we hear from the HSIE, Praxis, RE, Mathematics and VET KLA areas. 

HSIE

Mrs Cherie Stoesell

Students in Year 9 have been learning about Australians’ involvement in armed conflict in the first half of the 20th century.  As mentioned by Mrs Healey in the Week 4 newsletter, they have been studying the two World Wars via a Wix website developed by members of the HSIE faculty.  As a way of demonstrating their understanding of propaganda, students had to design their own enlistment poster.  Here are some samples:

Some screenshots from the website are included below, but we also invite you to visit the website that your student has been learning about by clicking on the link at the end of this article.

Monty, Neve, Forest and Safal have written about this learning:

This term in HSIE, Year 9 have been working on self guided learning. We do this through a website that was put together but the O'Connor HSIE staff. The topic of this website is Australia's involvement in the World Wars. The aim of this website is to allow us kids to take control of our learning. Through this self guided journey there are opportunities to choose which path we want to go on (which determines what topics we learn) and which ones we have an interest in. There are also mastery tasks throughout the website that allow us to gather and demonstrate our knowledge and the information we have obtained through the process. 9.5 have been powering through the work with the help of our teacher (Mrs Stoessel). The website has given a fun and interactive way to move our learning forward and we have developed skills such as independence and resilience. 

Monty and Neve 9.5

This term we have been learning about War, which includes World War 1 and 2. The factors brought into this subject revolve around the ideologies based around them and all the valuable information that surrounds the most famous battles of that time. We have been progressing our way through a website our teacher Mrs Stoessel and the HSIE staff have produced for us, benefiting our learning majorly. So far this week we have been enduring some tough work that is not only a small amount difficult but very interesting. The battle for Beersheba that stretched from Gaza to the Mediterranean coast is a topic that we are currently working through on the website. It consists of when the Australians could not invade the bastion of Gaza due to lack of resources so they captured Beersheba which led to Australian and New Zealand forces to outflank Gaza. It took them 3 attacks to finally overcome Gaza's defence system and carry on with their objective.

So to face a task with such history and something that expresses what Australian men had to go through is an eye opening experience because studying the wars of the past helps us to understand the global conflicts of the present. To conclude this week's paragraph I would like to make a special thanks to Mrs Stoessel for inviting Safal and I to contribute.

Forest Warburton 

Year 10’s History focus this term is to develop an understanding of the historical inquiry process and its role in understanding the development of the Modern World and Australia through engagement with a personal interest project. The students had the learning experience of focusing on a particular task for about 8 weeks. They have embraced their Historical Research Project (HRP) with enthusiasm and curiosity. Some students have commented that it is their first time doing a task like this and have faced the challenges that come with it. Nevertheless, Year 10 students continue to soldier on and they are getting excited in showcasing their HRP in the coming weeks. Stay tuned! 

Mathematics

Mr Mark Harris

Learning and teaching has continued to progress well in the Mathematics KLA throughout this term.

Year 11 and 12 students have just completed their Formal Assessment task in Mathematics Standard, Mathematics Extension 1 and 2.

We celebrate some fantastic work here and high level submissions from the students.

Here is what the students have been working on across the junior years.

Year 7 - Operations with Fractions

Year 8 - Fractions, Decimals, Percentages

Year 9 - Trigonometry

Year 10 - Linear Relationships and Probability

Education Perfect Maths Championships

O’Connor is one of the 22893 schools competing in the Education Perfect Maths Championships. Running from Tue 14th 4pm —Tue 21st 4pm June 2022 This is open to all students at the College. 

Here are a few tips for earning points:

Complete any of the Education Perfect Maths content to earn points! You’ll earn a point for every correct answer, regardless of subject or topic. You can go back the next day to earn new points on a question if you want!

Have fun! And remember, you can’t spend more than 8 hours in one day competing.

All students who compete will receive a Certificate  All student certificates can now be automatically downloaded in the Education Perfect platform after the World Series event. 

The EP Maths Championships (EPMC) are a free event to celebrate students of all year levels and varying strengths, and the extensive range of Mathematics content. So get in and have a go!

FUN WITH SUMS: Around the maths classrooms this week.

PRAXIS

Mrs Jenny Roff

The four Year 7 PRAXIS classes paid a visit to Radio 2AD last week as part of their "Fake News" unit of work. Local broadcaster Michael Abbott (and also father of Jack in Year 7) took the students into the recording studio and demonstrated how easy it was to sensationalise the real facts and turn them into misinformation. The students also participated in a scavenger hunt around the radio station finding out lots of interesting information...did you know that Peter Raymond started at 2AD in 1979 and is still on air today, or that the station began in 1936, or that it used to be in the Armidale Town Hall? Many thanks to all of the friendly staff who made our excursion such a valuable learning experience.

VET

Mr James Healy

Construction

The College was once again fortunate to have the expertise of brick layer Steve Langford for O'Connor's counstruction course's bricklaying practical work.  Our students always get a lot out of the day and student Sam Johnson said "it was a very worthwhile experinece" with Steve noticing how keen the boys were to learn.