ASPIRE

During remote learning our Year 7 Aspire class went on a virtual excursion to the zoo for Science with Mrs Raven. Let’s hear what Matilda and Cooper had to say about the experience! 

Animals, what fascinating living things in nature! But have you ever looked closely at their behaviour and their features Last Tuesday 7A, Mrs Raven and I participated in a zoo excursion as part of what we are learning this term; adaptations of animals and classifying living things. However, this wasn’t your typical zoo excursion, it was virtual due to the pandemic. 

In this zoo excursion, we learnt a lot about adaptations of animals, in particular Snow Leopards. First, we played a little bit of a guessing game where the host (one of the zookeepers) gave us clues about an animal and we had to try to make an educated guess of what animal it could be. Next, we looked at the skull of a Snow Leopard and listed all of the features we could see. Lastly, we watched a video of a Snow Leopard and its behaviours and listed all of its adaptations. 

Overall, it was a great experience, it was very interesting, and I had lots of fun learning about the adaptations of animals.

By Matilda Sleeman 7A

A few weeks ago, as part of our Science studies, my class 7A went on a virtual excursion to the Melbourne Zoo. Although we couldn’t go in person it was still good to be able to do something different to break up our remote learning day and have it via Zoom. While we were there, the focus was on animal classification. We looked at how snow leopards survive in the wild and their adaptations to fit to their habitat. Did you know that over time they have grown a thick fur coat that helps them to survive in cold weather? In a video we got to see snow leopards in their natural habitat, they could jump very high and were very sneaky around their prey. We then also looked at the skull of a tiger. We saw that it had big teeth, so we classified it as a carnivore. It also had a big head, so we knew that it was a relatively big animal. It was then time to look at endangered animals. One of the endangered animals we looked at were stick insects. It was interesting to learn that at one point in time the Melbourne Zoo had the only two stick insects left in the world. They then went on to breed and now there are over tens of thousands living in the wild. So, it just goes to show that zoos aren’t there just to showcase the animals, but they are also help them survive and later thrive. When coming to the end of the session people were able to ask questions to the zookeepers. One of the questions I asked was “what is your favourite part about working at the zoo?”. One of the presenters responded with “that I get to spend time and make connections with all of the animals at the zoo.” Overall, the virtual excursion was a great way to begin learning about animal classification and I really enjoyed being a part of it.  

Cooper King 7A

Student Interventions at Mooroolbark College 

Have you heard about the amazing support and enrichment opportunities available at Mooroolbark College?

This term our school has been supporting our students in the following ways: 

• Running a virtual Club 3/4 which is attended by staff from a variety of areas. 
• Our Literacy and Numeracy tutors have been attending classes, working with small groups and running extra help sessions online (more detail about the Tutor Learning Initiative below!) 
• Our MYLNS (Middle Years Literacy and Numeracy Support) team have been working hard to support students, both in their scheduled class times and in extra help sessions. 
• The QuickSmart team have been working with students to continue developing their literacy skills, offering plenty of help outside of class time. 
• The Victorian High Ability Program ran again in Term 3 with students logging on to the sessions from home and completing the challenging English and Maths work provided. 
• The Year 7 Aspire class and selected students participated in a Victorian Challenge and Enrichment Series event called “Fractured Fairy Tales” and recently attended an online excursion to the zoo. 

Tutor Learning Initiative  

The Mooroolbark Tutor Learning Initiative team have been actively engaged in a range of student improvement work and continue to adapt to the opportunities and challenges presented by the transition to remote and flexible learning. 
 
To provide students further support during remote learning, additional classes are being held by our literacy tutors. The sessions, open to all Year 8 and 9 students, are intended to reinforce classroom instruction, outside of regularly scheduled classes.  
 
The sessions provide an environment in which differentiated and targeted interventions reinforce the classroom teacher’s instruction, while the tutors provide further scaffolding tailored to each student’s point of learning need. 
 
If you would like to participate in these additional tutoring sessions, please contact Mrs Salmon, Mrs Roberts or Mrs Williams. 
 
“The workshops have helped me understand how to structure my essay using TEEL. Thank you so much for putting time and effort in to help us” – Georgia Hogan 

“Participating in the Literacy workshops has helped improve my confidence when it comes to essay writing. The program helped me to understand the essay writing structure we call TEEL and how to incorporate that structure with my ideas”. – Rhianna Gray 

If you would like more information about any of these programs please don’t hesitate to contact me at Kara.Salmon@mooroolbarkcollege.vic.edu.au 

Kara Salmon 
Student Achievement Leader