End of 2015

What a year!

Sawyers Valley Sharing has been super busy ever since the release of the HASS Curriculum in second semester. We are also thrilled to have been selected once again as a TDS school for HASS and Early Years for 2016 - 2017.

SHACC

This year we have had 6 sessions (3 each semester) focusing on planning, teaching and assessment. These sessions have been very relaxed and lots of focused talk on curriculum. Next year, SHACC will have a little make-over....SHACC will become!!!!!!!

Keeping in line with the new curriculum and retaining some of the fun that was SHACC.

We have also offered people that attended in the past the opportunity to host some of the session. The first session will be in Term 1 on Wednesday Week 4, 24 February 2016 at Greenmount Primary School starting at 4:00 pm. The registration for this event is online so book now! Go to Institute for Professional Learning Website.

Updated Planning Documents

To match the new WA Curriculum we have updated the multi-age planner. The changes are small but necessary to match the HASS Skills. Click on the link below.

Word Version

Links to these documents can also be found on the blog page PLANNING TOOLS

Old Schoolhouse Experience

It has been absolutely delightful hosting the schools that experienced the the Victorian Schoolhouse this year. If you are thinking of an excursion that is hands on and a  full on day, please go to Victorian Classroom Experience.

2016 New TDS Coordinator

It is with much excitement that I announce the new TDS Coordinator at Sawyers Valley  is Carey Stewart. Carey has a wealth of knowledge and experience to share as well as bringing her passion for the early years. 

I have loved being the TDS Coordinator for the last 3 years and I have really enjoyed meeting you all. I have won a fixed term position at State-wide Services as Education Officer - Teaching & Learning where I hope to see even more of you around the state. 

I would like to wish you a very happy holiday and I hope that the days are long and the relaxation is 100% effective ready to start 2016 with a bang!

That's all for 2015

Stephen Powell

TDS Coordinator

Week 5....How are you travelling?

Term 4 is always busy and everyone is madly writing reports and trying to maintain energy until the 17th of December! Here at Sawyers Valley we are just as busy and hopefully we will be able to take a few moments to relax in between.

Integrating HASS (P-6)

Next Thursday (19/11/15) 3 - 4 pm I will be running an online workshop for one hour looking at ways to integrate HASS now that the timeline for full implementation has been released by SCSA. I would love you to spend the afternoon with me online. Go to the IPL website to register. If you have any problems registering, please email me as soon as possible before Tuesday. This workshop will be repeated on the 3rd of December.

New HASS Skills

I was very fortunate to work with a super bunch of teacher leaders in the Swan Network this week and we explored the new HASS Skills and how they are set out to follow a model of inquiry. They were asked to represent how they see the inquiry model and key words/statements that need to be highlighted. Here are their wonderful inquiry representations completed on the day in their year levels. 

To find the new skills go to the SCSA website K10 Outline and click on P-10 Curriculum, Humanities and Social Sciences, download the Humanities and Social Sciences Scope and Sequence, and scroll down to page 6.

That's all for now!

Stephen Powell

TDS Coordnitator

Making Connections - Geography and Science

Integrating HASS with other learning areas will help to make teaching easier as the children can see the bigger picture rather than in isolation. Sawyers Valley Sharing has created a document that hopefully will help you see the connections between the HASS subject Geography and Science. 

This document is designed to provide suggested links for teachers looking to plan in an integrated approach where they can cover more than just one learning area at a time.
In this document teachers can see how Geography can link to two Science Understandings and Science as a Human Endeavour:

• Earth and space sciences
• Biological sciences
• Science as a Human Endeavour
• Nature and development of science
• Use and influence of science 

Click on the link below to download the PDF document.

Geography Science Connections -  Integrated Planning

That's all for now!

Stephen Powell

TDS Coordinator

Term 4 ~ Welcome Back!

If your holidays were anything like mine, I blinked and they were over! I had a great holiday and ready for another term!

History Links

I have moved all the links that relate directly to History to its own page reducing the number of links on the front page. To check out each HASS page, click on the tabs at the top of the blog.http://sawyersvalleysharing.blogspot.com.au/ 

School Curriculum and Standards Authority ~ FAQs

Make sure you check out SCSA's FAQ page about the new Western Australian Curriculum. This might be a great place if you are unsure about what is expected of the new curriculum.

Go to http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/ then click on "resources" then "FAQs".

Geography in Action!

I was visiting one of our K,P,1 classrooms and just happened to spy a display for Geography and Science. The children sorted the animals according to the species and they also looked at the habitats around the school. They have used their 5 senses to explore the school environment, they have looked at maps to explore a bird's eye view, they have also been making observations about the school's wetland and how it is a special place of beauty and biodiversity. They are currently making a wetland collage as well!

HASS Knowledge & Understandings
Pre-Primary
The representation of familiar places, such as schools, parks and lakes on a pictorial map 

Year 1
The natural, managed and constructed features of places, their location on a pictorial map, how they may change over time(e.g. erosion, revegetated areas, planted crops, new buildings) and how they can be cared for

P/1 HASS Skills
Pre-Primary
Sort and record information and/or data into simple categories (e.g. use graphic organisers, drawings)

Year 1 
Sort and record selected information and/or data (e.g. use graphic organisers, take keywords)

SABA

I have planned to have 2 more one hour Saba online sessions in term 4. They will soon be listed on the IPL website so keep a look out for:
TDS HASS - Integrating the HASS Curriculum (P-6)
With the release of the Western Australian Curriculum, teachers in all primary schools are looking at ways to cover all the curriculum in their year level. This session will provide teachers with a forum to discuss ways to integrate HASS into other areas of the curriculum. It will cover the planning, teaching and assessment cycle, which learning areas will work with HASS and the HASS skills. I will walk you through the ways in which Sawyers Valley are managing the curriculum at their Level 4 school.
The dates are:

• Thursday 19th of November 2015 (Week 6)
• Thursday 3rd of December 2015  (week 8)

I hope to see you online soon!

Planning an excursion?

Why not come up and visit the Victorian Schoolhouse at Sawyers Valley PS. We have created a hands on experience that immerses the children in the life and times of children 100 years ago. Some feedback from a recent visit:

"Fantastic experience. The students haven't stopped talking about their day. When doing our recounts today, the level of detail has been amazing! Well done to all involved, I will definitely be booking in again and telling other teachers about this experience."

Teacher: Year 4/5 Hollywood PS

“This gave the kids a great opportunity to see how people lived in the past, the changes we have made and things that have stayed the same. The children particularly enjoyed the interactive and hands on activities that were provided. The sewing and woodwork were very popular and the children enjoyed taking their work home with them.”

Teacher: Year 2/3 Gidgegannup PS

To make a booking click on the link below:

http://www.sawyersvalleyps.wa.edu.au/schoolhouse/Old_Victorian_Schoolhouse/Welcome.html 

SHACC

Our final SHACC session for 2015 will be held in week 3 Term 4 - Wednesday the 28th of October - 4-5 pm at Greenmount Primary School. Come along to finish the year and we will be looking at reporting in History and the implcations for HASS in 2016. Go to the IPL website to register.

That's all for now!
Mr Stephen Powell
TDS Coordinator

Any Western Australian Curriculum content in this resource is used with the permission of the School Curriculum and Standards Authority; this permission does not constitute Authority endorsement of the resource. The Authority accepts no liability for any errors or damages arising from reliance on its content. The Western Australian Curriculum content may be freely copied, or communicated on an intranet, for non-commercial purposes in educational institutions, provided that the Authority is acknowledged as the copyright owner. Copying or communication for any other purpose can be done only within the terms of the Copyright Act 1968 or with prior written permission of the Authority. Any Australian Curriculum content in the Western Australian Curriculum is used by the Authority under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Australia licence.

HASS Planning for Split Grades

At Sawyers Valley Primary School we have developed a tool to help us plan in HASS. We are a small school and have split grades throughout. In the past we developed a split grade tool that was used when teaching History. We have now applied the same model to the whole of the HASS curriculum. The focus must be on the HASS skills and we have noted that teachers need to consider the other knowledge and understandings (K&U) when planning in HASS. The document can be dowloaded by clicking on the PDF link below:

(PDF)

That's all for now!
Stephen Powell
TDS Coordinator

End of another term...

Blog 

With the release of the WA Curriculum Outline, I have been adding links to the other pages on the blog and will continue to do so in the next few months. I have added some links to Civics & Citizenship and also to Economics and Business. If you have discovered some brilliant web site that you have used in your classroom, please send me a link to: stephen.powell@education.wa.edu.au 

I also plan to move the links on the right hand side that link directly to History onto its own page. Web sites like Australian Screen cover all of HASS so I will leave those types of websites on the front page. So, watch this space!

Geography

Planning a PL event for Geography and not sure where to start? A great video to inspire staff on the need for Geography in the primary school.
http://viewpure.com/dDk06h7Abbw

SHACC

Our final SHACC session for 2015 will be held in week 3 Term 4 - Wednesday the 28th of October - 4-5 pm at Greenmount Primary School. Come along to finish the year and we will be looking at reporting in History and the implcations for HASS in 2016. Go to the IPL website to register.

SABA

I have planned to have 2 more one hour Saba online sessions in term 4. They will soon be listed on the IPL website so keep a look out for:
TDS HASS - Integrating the HASS Curriculum (P-6)
With the release of the Western Australian Curriculum, teachers in all primary schools are looking at ways to cover all the curriculum in their year level. This session will provide teachers with a forum to discuss ways to integrate HASS into other areas of the curriculum. It will cover the planning, teaching and assessment cycle, which learning areas will work with HASS and the HASS skills. I will walk you through the ways in which Sawyers Valley are managing the curriculum at their Level 4 school.
The dates are:

• 19th of November 2015 
• 3rd of December 2015 

I hope to see you online soon!

Have a great holiday everyone and make sure you rest and get yourself ready for the always busy, always exhausting term 4!

That's all for now!

Stephen Powell

TDS Coordinator

LSL is over, now for some HASS!

After a few weeks longs service leave, I have returned to the work place ready for more HASS. I was fortunate to travel to the United States with my son and I was able to immerse myself in some History and Geography while I was there. I went to Thomas Jefferson's home Monticello and went to the battlefields from the Civil War. I could see the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance and could see how place and space are interconnected with history in every place I visited. So much history all over the place!

SHACC
The next SHACC will be held on Wednesday the 16th of September from 4-5 pm at Greenmount Primary School. The focus will be on teaching strategies. Please register via the IPL website. Thank you.

Old Victorian Schoolhouse

Last term we were lucky to have the year 4/5 students, teachers and parents from Hollywood Primary School spend a day in Victorian times. All that attended the day really immersed themselves into the spirit of the day and had a great time. When they returned to their school they completed a Venn Diagram comparing school from today and from the 1900s. I was thrilled to receive these examples from the class that I can now share with you. So many observations were made by the students.

• Year 4 HASS Skills

Questioning and Researching

• Record selected information and/or data (e.g. use graphic organisers, develop note‐taking strategies)  

Communicating and Reflecting

• Present findings and conclusions in a range of communication forms (e.g. written, oral, visual, digital, tabular, graphic), appropriate to audience and purpose, using relevant terms.




• Year 5 HASS Skills

Questioning and Researching

• Record selected information and/or data using a variety of methods (e.g. use graphic organisers, paraphrase, summarise)

Communicating and Reflecting

• Present findings, conclusions and/or arguments, appropriate to audience and purpose, in a range of communication forms (e.g. written, oral, visual, digital, tabular, graphic, maps) and using subject‐specific terminology and concepts 

Reminder!

If your school would like to access Sawyers Valley TDS or any other TDS school, please have your administration complete a TDS request form from the website below:

http://det.wa.edu.au/curriculumsupport/detcms/navigation/professional-support/teacher-development-schools/?page=9#toc9

That's all for now!

Stephen Powell

TDS Coordinator

Copyright notice for use of Australian Curriculum material.
© Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority 2013.
This is an extract from the Australian Curriculum.
ACARA neither endorses nor verifies the accuracy of the information provided and accepts no responsibility for incomplete or inaccurate information. In particular, ACARA does not endorse or verify that:

• The content descriptions are solely for a particular year and subject;
• All the content descriptions for that year and subject have been used; and
• The author’s material aligns with the Australian Curriculum content descriptions for the relevant year and subject.

You can find the unaltered and most up to date version of this material athttp://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
This material is reproduced with the permission of ACARA.

SHACC Reminder!

A reminder that our next SHACC meeting is on Wednesday the 29th of July at 4 pm at Greenmount Primary School (Library) with our focus on planning.

Please email me if you would like to attend. 

stephen.powell@education.wa.edu.au 

That's all for now!

Stephen Powell

TDS Coordinator

End of Term 2 2015!

I don't know about you, but I am EXHAUSTED! 11 weeks is amazingly long in a small school and I am sure it is in your school as well!

SHACC

A reminder that our next SHACC meeting is on Wednesday the 29th of July at 4 pm at Greenmount Primary School (Library) with our focus on planning.
Please register your interest in attending via the IPL website! 
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/professionallearning/detcms/portal/

Victorian Schoolhouse Experience

It was wonderful to have the Year 4/5s from Hollywood Primary School spent a day in the schoolhouse. The students really enjoyed getting away from the hussle and bussle of the city to spend a day in the cool hills with the fresh country air. We are only 20 minutes from Midland, so it is closer than you think. A big thank you to the teachers and parent helpers for making the day happen!

For more information or to make a booking go to:
http://www.sawyersvalleyps.wa.edu.au/schoolhouse/Old_Victorian_Schoolhouse/Welcome.html

SABA - Online Professional Learning

In terms one and two we had a History Forum online. If you wish to go online and have a listen/playback to the term 2 forum, please click on the link below:
(DOE Teachers only)

Guest Playback URL:	http://webcollaboration.det.wa.edu.au/GP/main/00000073eec10000014daab10bd6c05b

That's all for now, have an amazing holiday and if you need support in History, please email me on:
stephen.powell@education.wa.edu.au

Have a great break!
Stephen Powell
TDS Coordinator

Today's Paper

We made it to page 9 of today's West Australian Newspaper! 30/5/2015

If you know how to vote, please do!

That's all for today!

Mr Stephen Powell

TDS Cordinator

National History Challenge

Do you want to make your historical inquiries more than a ‘google-based’ research assignment?

Do you want to teach real skills in historical inquiry by using engaging, rich tasks?

Have you ever entered your students in the National History Challenge?

Are you thinking of giving it a go this year, but don’t know where to start?

Do you wonder what the judges are looking for?

Then this is the Professional Learning experience for you!

DATE:            Saturday 13^th June, 2015

TIME:             9.00am – 11.00pm (light morning tea provided)

VENUE:         Mt Lawley SHS – Staff Room

                        Woodsome Street

                        Mount Lawley

COST:           No Charge (registration still required)

                      Registerhere or go to www.htawa.org.au

SHACC on Connect!

Greenmount TDS and Sawyers Valley TDS are pleased to announce that SHACC is now on Connect. If you can't get to a SHACC session but want to know what we are doing, this is the community for YOU! 
You can join SHACC Connect by searching for the community in Connect or you can try the link below.
SHACC Connect

That's all for now!
Stephen Powell
TDS Coordinator

Year 3/4 - Information Maps

In term 1, my Year 3/4 class commenced their journey looking at 'Days and weeks celebrated or commemorated in Australia (including Australia Day, ANZAC Day, Harmony Week, National Reconciliation Week, NAIDOC week and National Sorry Day)' and then we made the connection to 'Stories of the First Fleet'. A copy of the plan is available by clicking on the link below:

Year 3/4 Plan PDF

As the children were going to be exposed to a lot of new information, I decided to introduce information maps to support their note taking. I was very clear that this was for their use and to be a place to jot down ideas, dates, names etc... and it was to be used towards the end of the of the topic to help with our final summative task. Not all the days are necessarily commemorated in Australia however they were aware of these other days and wanted to add them to the diagrams. Here are some examples from the Year 3/4 class.

You will see they all have a poppy as a symbol of remembrance and some have chosen to add other symbols. There are spelling mistakes however the important aspect I will be watching will be the use of their maps to recall infomration to complete the final task.

If you have any great HASS examples, please let me know and I can share them with others. Please email me on stephen.powell@education.wa.edu.au stephen.powell@education.wa.edu.au

SHACC REMINDER - WEDNESDAY THE 6TH OF MAY @ GREENMOUNT PRIMARY SCHOOL 4-5 PM. The focus is on what you have been teaching (Great time to share) and what you need to move towards reports.

That's all for now!

Mr Stephen Powell

TDS Coordinator

Copyright notice for use of Australian Curriculum material.
© Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority 2013.
This is an extract from the Australian Curriculum.
ACARA neither endorses nor verifies the accuracy of the information provided and accepts no responsibility for incomplete or inaccurate information. In particular, ACARA does not endorse or verify that:

• The content descriptions are solely for a particular year and subject;
• All the content descriptions for that year and subject have been used; and
• The author’s material aligns with the Australian Curriculum content descriptions for the relevant year and subject.

You can find the unaltered and most up to date version of this material at http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
This material is reproduced with the permission of ACARA.