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Last week we held the official opening for ‘Meg’s Haven’, a dedicated reading space in the Library inspired by a much-loved
and respected Teacher-Aide of ASHS, Meg Cook. Meg was a cherished member of staff who believed in the importance of
reading - and supporting students to both be able to read and enjoy it! Unfortunately Meg passed away in 2011, however
her remembrance plaque and passion for reading continues to grace the Library. The new reading area is a safe, comfortable
and quiet area that is solely dedicated to the love of reading– novels, magazines, picture books, graphic novels and non-
fiction texts. We thank Meg’s daughter Nionie and her family for their participation in the opening of the area.
Chris’ Weekly Spot
What’s the go with #@$%!...... swearing? It seems to be commonplace and almost part of
everyday conversations among young people of today. Well, for want of a better definition, a word
to qualify as a swear word must seemingly have the potential to offend. Swear words are considered
to be taboo. They usually relate to taboo subjects such as things like excrement (yuk!) and dare I say
it……sex and sexual organs. If this is the case, is there ever a time when swearing is considered ok?
Experiments have shown that swearing increases the body’s ability to endure pain. In one study when
participants repeated a swear word, they were able to hold their hand in ice-cold water for, on
average, 40 seconds longer than when they repeated a non-swear word. In addition, participants in
the same experiment reported reduced perceived pain when repeating a swear word. How come?
Well as far as your brain is concerned swear words aren’t even words — they are concentrated
lumps of emotion. They are even stored in a completely different part of the brain from every other
word you know! They are stored in the limbic system which is our emotional centre. Within the
limbic system is the amygdala, an almond-shaped group of neurons that can trigger our fight-or-
flight response whereby our heart rate increases and, as a coping mechanism, we become less
sensitive to pain.
In several studies heart rates of participants rose when they swore, a fact that suggests that the
amygdala is activated. So, more swearing equals less pain!!! There is a catch though. The more we
swear, the less emotionally potent the words become. So, if someone swears a lot then swearing loses
its emotional potency for that individual. And without emotion there is no amygdala activation and
therefore no pain desensitisation.
What about among friends? Swearing among friends may even play a social function. Breaking those
societal taboos by swearing quite casually and jokingly can bond groups together. These ‘friendly’
expletives can be regarded as terms of endearment in a close knit group of friends. Why swear
though? Aren’t terms like ‘buddy’ or ‘mate’ endearing enough?
Well like antibiotics, swear words can lose their power with overuse. TV, movies and video games
liberally douse people young and old with a barrage of expletives. As consumers of these mediums our
tolerance levels increase through regular exposure. Hearing such swear words becomes more
normalised, particularly among young people who have grown up in such an environment full of
repeated exposure.
TEACHER FEATURE—John Pitt
Why you choose teaching as a career:
Teaching career:
Favourite aspect of teaching:
Challenge/s facing teachers today:
Favourite thing to teach:
Hobbies:
Favourite holiday destination:
Favourite movie:
Favourite books to read:
DUNGEONS &
DRAGONS CLUB
STUDY CENTRAL—EXTENDED STUDY HOURS FOR SENIORS
VISITING AUTHOR—FIONA BELL—Waterhole
ASHS was really fortunate this week to have Mrs Fiona Bell in our school—author
of the newly published young, adult novel ‘Waterhole’. Mrs Bell is the English
Head of Department at Smithfield SHS, mother of four and now an acclaimed au-
thor. Waterhole is an evocative narrative set in Far North Queensland which fo-
cuses on the teenage protagonist Sunny as she traverses the emotional wasteland
of her emotions after her mother’s tragic death. The mystery of young Dylan’s
disappearance, a distant step-father and the ghostly visits by her mother compli-
cate her life no end.
Mrs Bell spent Recess 1 supporting the opening of
the dedicated reading area in the library—Meg’s
Haven. She then spent a lesson with 8E English
who are currently studying her novel for their unit
this term. She was able to answer the many ques-
tions posed by the students, gave suggestions for
narrative gaps and shared some of her writing strategies. Mrs Bell then
spent Recess 2 with our fabulous Creative Writing Club students where
she discussed strategies for enhancing plot lines and character flaw de-
velopment for different genres, as well as how strategies like ‘killing
your darlings’ and the ‘ARID’ method of description. We thank Mrs Bell
for taking leave from her school to spend the day in ours, providing
some wonderful experiences for our students.
POETRY IN ACTION COMES TO OUR STAGE
Poetry in Action is a Australian theatre company dedicated to bringing poetry to life through performance. The enthusiastic performances and excited responses are evidence of just how important it is for all young people to have the opportunity to experience live performance and the richness of poetry first hand.
Poetry in Action is one of Australia’s most widely travelled and innovative theatre companies, having performed in hundreds of communities to hundreds of thousands of young people. Last Thursday, our year 7, 8 and 11s, and some lucky year 10s, were invited to enjoy poetry performances about war, hero quests and representations of truth in the media.
The feedback from our students and teachers has been overwhelmingly positive and affirmative in support for this program. Thank you to all the students who attended and represented our school with respectful and welcoming behavior to the performers. Thank you as well to our teachers for their support, encouragement and genuine interest.
If you would like to enter the poetry competition that Poetry in Action told you about, you can find out more details here at their web page: https://www.poetryinaction.com.au/poetry-competition/
