Leader of Learning and Teaching
Last week, myself and Mrs Segrave were lucky enough to be invited to join Mr Marshall’s Year 10 iSTEM and Engineering Class in our new Tech Block. We were able to witness students having to use skills in mathematics, science and design to fly, steer, elevate, race and land a series of drones. After witnessing this engaging and enjoyable lesson, Mr Marshall and his class were kind enough to let us as visitors fly the drones ourselves! What a great authentic sequence of learning of students (see photos below). I thank Mr Marshall for his invitation, and we hope to visit more classes in coming weeks to witness engaging learning at MCC.
Meanwhile our HSC students completed their Trial exams this week. It is pivotal now that students take some time to rejuvenate themselves in the days following ready for the final 6 weeks of important revision. Students need to manage their time, particularly those with major projects due and keep in mind the enormous importance of attending all classes and valuing all subjects equally to ensure they are best prepared for the HSC. As such I ask our Year 12 students to use their foresight in coming weeks and ‘look at the big picture’ to keep focussed on all their subjects in preparation for their final exams.
Our staff too, continue to engage in quality professional learning. On the first day of Term 1, staff participating in five hours of NESA register professional learning focussing on extending, engaging and enriching student learning. Staff learnt about why this was important, their own learning strengths and then engaged in a series of small group sessions via rotation. Mr Keady presented a session called ‘Exploring Tangents’ looking at topics from a different angle to engage students in unique ways. Mr Lyon presented a session on Enquiry Based Learning and student driven projects, and Miss Jensen engaged staff in a session on using more complex texts for students of different abilities in the classroom.
Last Wednesday, further learning was undertaken when staff were instructed in the E3 student differentiated strategy. Here teachers are asked to create learning activities for a concept that needs to be covered, through each of the three areas to enable students with all interest and abilities to be engaged and challenged in their own ways:
Enrichment Activity - Delving deeper or intensively on an aspect of the concept
Extension Activity - Exploring the concept more the broadly and wholistically
Enhancement - Applying and relating to the concept in other subject areas or in authentic life situations
Below are some of the planning teachers have made in these sessions to create engaging learning activities for students:
Subject | Concept | Enrichment | Extension | Enhancement |
| Year 9 Science | Telescopes | How does adaptive optics in Keck telescopes improve the clarity of images taken? | Investigate what an astrophysicist does and how a person can become an astrophysicist | How has information gathered from telescopes contradicted with Christianity’s understanding of the Universe? |
| Year 7 English | Hero’s Journey | Choose a creation myth or legend to investigate. Create an infographic to describe this myth or legend across cultures. | Compare and contrast a creation myth or legend across cultures and create a 30 sec video detailing your research. | Create your own creation myth or legend that helps to solve/reduce a global issue you’re passionate about (e.g. climate change, pandemics etc) Choose a platform to share your creation myth/legend that engages and informs your audience. |
| Year 7 HSIE | Contact and Colonisation | Research and record the life and journey of Captain Cook to Australia. | Analyse the impact colonisation had on Indigenous Australians. | Research and record the lasting impacts of colonisation on indigenous groups throughout the world. |
| Year 9 Food Technology | Food Service & Catering | Research the operational requirements of the ‘Volkswurst” food truck case study | Designing your own cafe/food truck/pop-up restaurant with a defined theme/concept including menu design, restaurant design and standard recipe design. | Assess how the design could be altered to ensure maximum profitability of the business could be achieved. Looking at appearance, colour scheme, menu design, pricing, operational requirements such as staffing and surrounding environment. |
| Year 7 Religion | Pentecost | Describe what happened at the first Pentecost. | Explain the impact that speaking different languages had on the visitors in terms of sharing the good news of Jesus. Give examples. | Imaginative writing: Imagine that you are the Holy Spirit. 1) Describe how you came to be at Pentecost and what you did there that day. 2) Create a character in today’s world and explain how you have worked in their life. Give examples of the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit. |
| Year 10 PASS | Nutrition | Exploring the nutritional value of foods/meals that students commonly eat. | What concepts, aspects and circumstances do nutritionists need to consider before preparing a plan? | The link between TAS (Food Technology and PDHPE): creating and understanding how to prepare these foods in terms of the ingredients needed, quantity etc. The link between Science: Where/how do different food groups get absorbed by the digestive system? |
Following this in their fortnightly allocated PLT Time staff have been embedding activities from the strategies learnt in their programs ready to implement with students this term. I look forward to witnessing some of these engaging pedagogical practices in upcoming visits to our classrooms.
Yours in learning,
Damien Herb