Learning Resource Centre: Home

September 2020 | Melissa Keil

This week we were lucky enough to have Melissa Keil drop in to give the students a virtual author talk. Melissa’s talk was thoroughly engaging and covered areas such as channelling creativity, getting published and dealing with editorial criticism.
    Her advice included taking part in challenges like NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) as a way of blocking out negative self-talk and simply getting words on the page. She said that her first novel Life In Outer Space started this way, and that part of her journey has been learning that not every sentence has to be perfect.
    There can be a kernel of a good idea surrounded by terrible stuff, she said, and if we stick with our ideas whilst they are still in a rough form we will eventually get them to the point where the are of publishable quality. Melissa’s honest advice to students was refreshing and her message of perseverance was one that we can all relate to. We have one last author talk planned for the year, Rebecca Lim, who will record a talk for us in Term 4.    

September 2020 | Mark Smith  
On the 25^th of September Mark Smith gave a virtual author talk to secondary schools around Victoria. Mark is the author of The Winter Trilogy, a post-apocalyptic survival series set in coastal Australia. His talk was very engaging and he gave a lot of good advice for those wishing to become writers themselves. The most interesting part of Mark’s talk was learning that as a secondary school student he had no interest in reading or writing, being a lover of the outdoors, but following a freak horse riding accident he had when he was 15 he found himself bedridden for months with nothing much else to do except read. This led to a love of literature, and he eventually became an English teacher and then a novelist. If you missed Mark’s talk, you can catch it on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS0UwwCoKdw&feature=youtu.be   

September 2020 | Lili Wilkinson
In August we had the pleasure of a virtual visit from young adult author Lili Wilkinson. Lili is one of our school’s most successful alumni, having published 14 books and established the Inside A Dog website and the INKY awards. Her newest book The Erasure Initiative is a psychological thriller in the style of the TV show Black Mirror. 
In the talk, which was hosted via Google meet and recorded for students to watch afterwards, Lili talked about how she got started as a writer. The first books she wrote were historical novels that were commissioned by the publisher Black Dog Books. From there she started writing high school romance books, including the very popular novel Pink, which was loosely based on her time at Mac.Rob where she was involved in theatre productions with Melbourne High School. More recently she has been writing psychological thrillers and one day would like to try her hand at writing a Fantasy novel. The virtual author talk was fantastic and it was great to be able to connect students with someone as creative and inspiring as Lili. 

August 2020 | Books are portals 
This quote, by Margarite Engle, feels super relevant now. We may not be able to travel more than 5km away from home, but we still have books and books are portals that can take us into all manner of different worlds and are full of loveable characters we can spend time with and learn from. 
August 2020 | Lili Wilkinson Virtual Author Talk

Join our Google chat next Tuesday lunchtime with Lili Wilkinson!

July 2020 | Social Distancing In the Library
You may have noticed some crosses "X" across the library, on the study tables and by the photocopiers. These have been placed to maintain social distancing so please ensure you don't sit at an X and maintain social distancing when lining up for the printer/photocopier. This is just one of a number of safety measures we've introduced to make the library as safe a place as possible to work during the COVID crisis. 

July 2020 | Black Lives Matter

Given the Black Lives Matters protests occuring in the U.S.A and Australia, we thought it would be helpful to put together a display of work by African American and Aboriginal Australians that might provide context and insight into the issue of racial discrimination. There are lots of great books on the library in this topic. To find out what we have available, follow this link: https://www.accessitsoftware.com.au/MCR00/?serviceId=ExternalEvent&rlSn=70&rlKey=551652500

May 2020 | Welcome Back Mac.Rob
After six weeks of closure, today the school re-opens to Year 11 and 12 students. The LRC is also open to students, albeit in a limited capacity. We will be open from period 2 to period 4 each day and will be trialling a form of student initiated checkout. Welcome back Mac.Rob! 
May 2020 | Puzzles on the Study Free Table

Another 1000 piece puzzle complete!

April 2020 | Atar EdUnlimited​
In order to assist with online learning, the LRC is providing Mac.Rob students with access to ATAR Notes EdUnlimited. These E-Books can be accessed on a number of devices and are a great resource for students doing VCE subjects. 

March 2020 | Premiers Reading Challenge
The Premiers Reading Challenge for 2020 is underway. Year 9s, stay tuned for how to record your reading on the PRC Website.
March 2020 | Puzzles on the Study Free Table
Well done Mac.Rob. 750 Piece Puzzle completed in two days!

February 2020 | Creating Collages & Crisp Classics
  
This month we have a Creating Collages activity on the study free table and a Crisp Classics display on the spinner.
February 2020 | New Checkpoints

The Cambridge Checkpoints for 2020 have arrived!
February 2020| Information Literacy Classes 

There are 300 new Year 9s in the school this year, making up 12 form groups. Mr. Gurciullo has been inducting each new Year 9 group one by one and introducing to the concepts of information literacy and effective research. It's been great to meet the new year 9s and we hope this sets them up to effectively use the library over the four years of their time here. 

November 2019 | New Books

Some great new books have just arrived in the library. Top of my reading list is Find Me, Andre Aciman's sequel to LGBTIQ heartbreaker Call Me By Your Name. Another big new release is Christos Tsiolkas's historical novel Damascus. There's also a whole suite of pristine classics such as David Copperfield and Middlemarch for you to get reaquainted with. 

November 2019 | Readings Teen Advisory Board 

Need a good book recommendation? See these reviews, written by our very own Carolyn Zhang (12C) and Chenuli Halgamuge (11G) for the Readings Teen Advisory Board. Links: 'Angel Maze', 'It Sounded Better In My Head' and 'The Suprising Power of a Good Dumpling'.