Beliefs and Celebrations

Are you interested in different spiritual paths? Do you want a greater understanding of what others believe? Have you ever wondered what different religious festivals mean and when and why they are celebrated? If the answer is yes check out our latest library display.
I have selected a variety of resources to help explore “What we believe and celebrate” and to coincide with a number of special days.

United Nations day on October 24. http://www.un.org/events/unday/2007/ Diwali Hindu festival of Lights on Oct 28.http://home.freeuk.net/elloughton13/dday.htm
Halloween is on Oct 31. International Day for tolerance is on Nov 16.http://www.sustainableliving.com.au/events/tolerance-day/

Soul Searching

• Tips from a travelling soul-searcher - In times when materialism and competition threaten to overwhelm all that we used to hold dear Tim Costello senses a common cry. What can we do?
  
• Sacred contracts : awakening your divine potential - Caroline Myss tells us how to waken our divine Potential
• Holy cow : an Indian adventure - Sarah Macdonald travels India on a spiritual quest. She checks out Indias’ spiritual paths with humour and insight that makes for a very entertaining read.
  
• Mysteries of the ancient world - explores some ancient mysteries

Occult

• Witches : a book of magic and wisdom - the story of the witch from spiritual advisor and powerful warrior, to magician, healer and goddess,
  
• Ghosts, monsters and the unexplained - over the centuries, people have witnessed many strange events involving ghost, monsters, aliens and the supernatiural. Science has no explanation for this phenomena – this book explores many of these events
  

Festivals

• Muslim festivals through the year
  
• Jewish festivals through the year
  
• Budhist festivals throughout the year
  

This series looks at the festivals and celebrations of various religious groups that are celebrated in a year. Easy layout with lots of pictures and graphics

Household harmony

• Feng shui for your home
  
• Feng Shui : an introductory guide to the Chinese way to harmony - this practical book shows us how through following ancient Chinese wisdom of Feng Shui, we can promote our health, improve our relationshops with family, friends and colleagues and attract good fortune and prosperity.
  

Religions

• A spectator's guide to world religions : an introduction to the big five by John Dickson.
  Each of the world major religions are are presented in their best light. The book outlines the history, belief systems and spiritual practices o f Hinduism Budhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
  
• DK Encyclopedia of Religion
  
• Religion : Australia, a multicultural nation
  
• Religions in Australia – Issues in society – looks at religious beliefs and trends in Australia
  
• The Dreaming – is a collection of Aboriginal dreamtime stories on DVD and Teachers notes
  
• World Faiths Series explores the major religions of our world today. Each title looks at one persons’ experience and then looks at global issues related to the belief.
  Sikhism ;Judaism ;Christianity;Hinduism ;Islam.
  
  

Spring is Sprung

In response to the nice sunny weather, the longer balming days and the occasional howling winds, I have organised a gardening display to inspire you in the garden.

Here is the list of resources

on display. Happy gardening !!!

Water wise gardening

• Design for water : rainwater harvesting, stormwater catchment, and alternate water reuse
• Waterwise gardening
  

Sustainable gardening

• No-dig gardening : how to create an instant, low-maintenance garden
• Grow organic, cook organic : natural food from garden to table, with over 1700 photographs
• Paradise in Your Garden: smart Permaculture Design
  

Garden Design

• Australian planting design
• The room outside : designing your perfect outdoor living space
• The natural Australian Garden by Gordon ford with Gwen Ford
  

Hard slog Gardening

• Gardening down-under : a guide to healthier soils and plants
• Botany for gardeners
• The Constant gardenerFood plants of the world : an illustrated guide
• The complete book of fruit growing in Australia
• How to propagate : techniques and tips for over 1000 plants
• Fruit & vegetable gardening in Australia

We also get some great Gardening Magazines

Gardening Australia October has an article called Colour unlimited all about hibiscus

Burkes Backyard September features an article on Organic Vegies; how to get started and a Spring planting guide

Good Health October 2008 talks about how to beat Spring allergies ( so their ain't no excuse for getting out there)

If you prefer to get your plant info from the web the library quicklinks has also got some good websites you can follow up.

http://intranet.rit.tafensw.edu.au/library/quicklinks/show_topic.asp?TopicId=24#507

Jenny H

Deni Tafe Library National reading day survey 2008

Some of our students and staff show their favourite reading material.

The results of the survey can be seen in the table at the wiki
http://denitafelibrarywhatsnewfeb2008.wikispaces.com/reading+survey+September2008

There were 36 Respondents to the reading survey.
The thing most people had been reading on the day of the survey was work or study related, with an occasional novel or newspaper thrown in. I loved the fact that some people had obviously been reading story books to their kids , very important for encouraging reading. (The play on nursery rhymes book “ Each Peach Pear Plumb” is one of my all time favourites kids books). The favourite books were also a mixture with some people enjoying poetry, a special author such as Isabelle Allende , Coban, Bryce Courtney or a series. A number of the same magazines popped up. People seemed to like magazines with either a car or home themes. “Better Homes and Gardens” could be a good one to get for the library. By far the most popular newspaper was the Deniliquin Pastoral Times. Even people who said they didn’t read, read that. The Herald sun was the next most read paper but people obviously loved the local news best. The choice of Websites was also interesting, some people couldn’t decide. Some people never looked at the internet, where as others had definite favourites. Google was an obvious one. A few people liked the communication websites such as Face book and Myspace and a few loved the shopping website Ebay. I daresay many liked to talk and shop and read at the same time. Anything is possible on the net.

It certainly is interesting to see what people like to read and how much reading is part of our every day lives often without us even realising. Occasionally I would have to prompt people when they said they had read nothing that day but were at a computer checking their emails. Thanks to everyone for participating in National Reading day (http://nationalreadingday.nlnw.edu.au/). National reading day is an important reminder of what an essential survival tool in the modern world reading is. As the United nations reported when launching the Literacy decade, many people in the world today still cannot read or write.
http://www.drh-movement.org/Articel.asp?NewsID=100

Adult Learners Week 2008

I have put together a list of resources that might be inspiring for both teachers of adult learners and the learners themselves. Hopefully we can all learn something by browsing through some of these resources.

Teaching Skills

• Teachers who change lives – leading Australian educationists Andrew Metcalfe and Ann game cast new light on the processes of teaching and learning


• Inspiring active learning : a handbook for teachers – commonsense strategies to motivate students to become active learners •


• Teaching problem solving in vocational education Rebecca Sodden argues that thinking skills are most effectively developed along with vocational competencies and offers novel but practical strategies for lessons


• The Adult learner at work ( a comprehensive guide to the psychology and methods of learning for the workplace


• How to teach reading : when you're not a reading teacher - Discover ways that you can:- develop effective lessons to help your students increase academic vocabulary, comprehension skills, and fluency in your content- create a risk-free environment and increase student achievement- select fun and effective ways to engage all of your students in comprehension and vocabulary instruction- respond to your struggling readers by increasing engagement and adapting classroom practice


• Learning in adulthood : a comprehensive guide – looks at most recent research in Adult Education • Dimensions of adult learning : adult education and training in a global era


• How to teach adults in a fun and exciting way by Doug Malouf


• Becoming a Critically reflective teacher by stephen Brookfield

Learning with Technology

• Educating the net Generation: how to engage students in the 21st century•


• E-learning:m teaching and professional development with the internet•


• Blogs, wikis Podcasts and other powerful Web tools for classrooms


• Online learning and Teaching with technology
  

Education

• Fifty modern thinkers on education : from Piaget to the present

Study Skills

• Study smart : a guide to successful study at TAFE – looks at everything for effective study for tafe students from time management to taking


• Study secrets ; everything your lectures will never tell you – looks at effective study methods

Beijing Olympics 2008

The latest display in the library has a sporting theme ( you will never guess why). It has been very easy to find pictures for our notice board as the papers are full of it. You can check it all out in the Age Australian or Herald sun in your Deni TAFE library. We will also have copies of score sheets for those who want to keep a medal tally. We have have subscribed to the Age Teachers support website for the olympics. There are some great resources there if you want to do an Olympics project with a class or for yourself.There will be a prize for the first person to borrow something from my olympic display so come in and check it out !!!!!

A list of the titles on display:

A brief history of the Olympic games
Black gold : the Aboriginal and Islander sports hall of fame
Catherine : intimate portrait of a champion
Cathy Freeman
Deadly feet [videorecording]
Fun & games in Sydney 2000
Grandpa's games [videorecording]
Gymnastics
Jobs in sport
Karrie Webb ( series Australia’s Outstanding sport stars)
Legends of Australian sport: the Inside Story by Peter Meares
Sporting immigrants : sport and ethnicity in Australia
Sydney 2000 : the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, the official souvenir book
The encyclopedia of exercise, sport and health
The encyclopedia of world sports
The Olympic Games
The proud champions : Australia's Aboriginal sporting heroes
World sports encyclopedia
100 Australian sports stars of the 21st century

Reading in Central Australia

This display has been inspired by my recent Central Australian trip. Some great resources if you are heading off virtually anywhere in Australia.

Art
Aboriginal art – a survey of Aboriginal art from across Australia
Contemporary aboriginal art : a guide to the rebirth of an ancient culture
Hermannsburg potters : Aranda artists of central Australia – famous art colony near alice Springs


Biography
The Indomitable Miss Pink : a life in Anthropology by Julie Marcus
Desert queen : the many lives and loves of Daisy Bates by De Vries, Susanna - Another great easy to read biography by Devries about an infamous Australian woman
The singing line : the story of the man who strung the telegraph across Australia, and the woman who gave her name to Alice Springs
The dig tree : the story of Burke and Wills - Sarah Murgatroyd reveals new historical and scientific evidence to tell the full story of the disaster of Burke and wills

Cooking
Swinging the billy : indigenous and other styles of Australian bush cooking

Plants and Landscape
The old country : Australian landscapes, plants and people -
George Seddon looks at the history of the Australian landscape and local and European influences have shaped what we see today,
Uluru : an Aboriginal history of Ayers Rock
A guide to plants of inland Australia ( beautiful photographs and maps to help identify plants)
Sedimentary Rock ( Uluru apparently falls into this category)
Cronin's key guide : Australian trees – another great guide to help you identify tree and plants no matter where you are travelling

Stories and Writing from Central Australia and beyond.
Yarrtji : six women's stories from the Great Sandy Desert – great photos and stories which give an insight into living in the great sandy desert
Being whitefella - stories written by well known white Australians about their relationships with Aboriginal people
The Milk in the sky: writing from the Centre - and anthology of poems and short stories from people living Around Alice Springs
Inside Black australia: an anthology of Aboriginal Poetry
Live Like Water by Meme McDonald - romance set in Alice Springs

Travel
Australia : the rough guide - an ideal travelling companion for anywhere in Australia
The Australian Adventure Atlas – advice and maps for adventure holidays around Australia
Classic walks of Australia – great read if you are visiting any of Australia’s national parks
The ways of the bushwalker : on foot in Australia by Harper, Melissa - when you head out to the bush with your Dunlop volleys on you realise you are flowing in the footsteps of a long line of walkers with quite a controversial and influence history.

Outdoor Australia - Great magazine if your looking for inspiration for an active holiday around Australia


Websites
http://www.northernterritory.visitorsbureau.com.au/visitors_info.html#abor
http://www.csu.edu.au/australia/nt.html

World Refugee day

In recogniton of World Refugee Day - here is a list of library resources to give an insight into refugees and others who have come from overseas to live in Australia
http://www.oxfam.org.au/refugee/uganda/about-ugandan-camps.php
http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/refugee/

The Australian people : an encyclopedia of the nation, its people and their origins
A fantastic books which gives a historical perspective on where people come from to Australia and why they came.

Australia's refugee dilemma [videorecording]
What is a refugee? Why do people become refugees? What's People Smuggling all about? What happens to people who come to Australia, claiming to be refugees? The answers to these questions and more are given in this moving program. Includes: * UN definition of a refugee. * Where refugees come from and why? * People smugglers in Indonesia. * Australian government responses to 'boat people', past and present. * Changes to legislation made prior to 2002 election (TEPs, excised territories etc.)\

Immigration : [videorecording] the waves that shaped Australia
This program examines the role immigration has played in the settlement of Australia. It traces immigration from the days of the first fleet, throughout the period of the White Australia policy, to the present day.

Refugees and asylum seekers ( Issues in society)
Human rights ( Issues in Society)

Populate or perish [videorecording]
Populate or Perish explores the insularity and fears which motivated the twentieth
century catchcry of ‘populate or perish’. It examines why this movement has changed
today to one opposed to increasing population, on the grounds of environmental
unsustainability and cultural explosiveness
http://www.filmaust.com.au/programs/teachers_notes/3772populateorperish.pdf

The atlas of war and peace
gives a visual representation of war and its consequences from around the world
http://www.earthscan.co.uk/?tabid=231


The history of human rights : from ancient times to the globalization era
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9737001.php