Library News

CBCA Book Week - Guess the Older Reader Book of the Year competition

Congratulations to Violet Mangiavillano (Year 7), James Chen (Year 7), Xander Wieclaw (Year 7) for correctly guessing this year's Older Reader Book of the Year. This years' winner of the CBCA Older Reader Book of the Year is One Would Think The Deep by Claire Zorn

SIS Book in a Day

On Tuesday the 15th of August, Ms Mackay, myself and seven other motivated students from years 8-10 battled the morning traffic for SIS Book in a Day at St James in Bentleigh. With a 9.00am commencement and eight hours of writing and planning ahead of us, each of us was excited yet nervous for the challenge that lay ahead and with our prompts in mind we engaged in a large amount of planning and collaboration.

The task of time management was certainly a rather difficult one, with each member of our team constantly pushing back the set time for which we would share and edit. Initially, eight hours seemed like more than enough time to write and illustrate a story of 4000 to 6000 words, allowing us time to eat, joke around and chat. However, this was certainly not the case. Eight hours crept from underneath us and before we knew it, we were scrambling for last minute edits and more drawing masterpieces from Monica.

At 5:00pm, we could thankfully say that we had produced TERRA, a short story that each of us had poured our best efforts into and one that we are each immensely proud of. I couldn't have asked for a more enthusiastic and talented team and I cannot wait for next year's SIS Book in a Day and for whatever challenges await us.

Emma Xerri

As supervising teacher, I commend the eight amazing students who took part in this year’s SIS Book in a Day.

Anna Proctor

Emma Xerri

Daniel White

Angela Cremona

Ashley Arcigal

Jenny Pham

Monica Cody

David Narvaez.

I felt incredibly proud of this talented group of writers and illustrators who demonstrated wonderful creativity, excellent listening and sharing skills, mutual respect, an abundance of enthusiasm and incredible productivity under pressure. This challenge, to write a book in eight hours, is entirely student led and created, with no suggestions or prompts from teachers allowed on the day. Each student absolutely shone and was a great ambassador to our college and the English faculty in particular. There are two copies of TERRA in the library, available for students to read.

This annual competition is open to students in Years 7 – 10, so if you love writing or illustrating, keep your eye out for next year’s competition.

Ms Mish Mackay

English Teacher

Library Quiz question

What is the term for a word that a word that phonetically imitates, resembles or suggests the sound that it describes.

Be the first to give the correct answer to Mrs Dracoulas or Ms. Rogers to win a prize!

MyReading House tally

Local Branch School Library Association Meeting

On Monday August 7 after school, Nazareth College Library hosted a network meeting for the local SLAV branch. We were proud to show off the improvements that have been made to our facility and how we strive to provide the best service for our young learners and our staff. 

We showcased our MyReading program to other Teacher Librarians and demonstrated how this has improved the Reading culture at Nazareth. This is a pilot program and is still being modified in response to the feedback from our students. We hope the students will share their experience with parents and that it promotes positive  Reading conversations. 

Dr Casper Pieters presented information about his Digital Citizenship Program. This was well received and generated a great deal of interest from other schools. This is another example of the leadership provided at Nazareth in spearheading new initiatives and programs to enhance the quality and diversity  of the education offered at our College. 

Standing Desks

We have recently installed a standing computer desk next to the printers and the ICT Helpdesk. Recent studies have warned against sitting at a desk all day and information is provided about the ergonomic advantages of a standing desk in our display.  The library staff are currently trialling and modelling this concept and are happy to chat with our students about how it is going. 

We encourage students and staff to try it out and give us your feedback. 

Mrs Sue Dracoulas

Teacher Librarian