Community service at the primary school is almost over. When we went to the school for our second last time, everyone in the school was conveniently (note sarcasm) going on an excursion, so we get one less session with them. 
I have learnt a bit about the way people learn. One important way that I found people learn well is by saying things out loud repeatedly or hearing something being said repeatedly. This works really well when learning new words or reading hard books. For example, over the six or so weeks at community service, I’ve learnt how to say ‘Good Morning’ in Spanish by hearing Elle, the teacher, say it every morning while marking the role. I’m sure I’ll still remember how to say it for years to come.
I’ve also noticed that in the class the kids don’t have a style of learning at the moment or if they do, it hasn’t shown up yet.
I want to change my approach to leaning by making my attitude more positive. Most of the kids in the class are always smiling and willing to learn whatever gets thrown at them and I want to be like that. I want to be more positive about learning things I might find boring or hard.
Posted in Uncategorized November 28, 2009
When I think about the Options Trail, the first thing that comes to mind is getting lost on the way to our interview with Melissa from the Defence Community Organisation. Karl, Andrew and Tran all insisted on running to the next tram stop. I am very lazy, so I waited at the tram stop we were at for a tram, only when a tram came, it was too crowded so I decided to walk to the interview. When I got there, I couldn’t see the guys anywhere. There were two more minutes until the interview started until I finally saw them running towards me. Somehow I had walked to the place faster than they had tramed.
My favourite thing about the Options Trail was the freedom we got. I loved how we were able to go where ever we wanted as long as we managed to finish the work. The only bad thing about the trail was the amount of walking we had to do. I was so tired the next day.
Our team did really well working as a team, especially at the interview. Karl and I did the interview while Tran and Andrew typed up the interview, but I think we should work on the planning stage more. While we were planning the trail, I think everyone could have done a bit more work because we were a bit rushed with last minute planning.
Learn on your feet or in a classroom? I think both are important because you learn lots through both.
If I lived in Belgrave, I wouldn’t be able to do so many things. For starters, I would need to get up so much earlier in the mornings to get to school, and I also wouldn’t be able to swim in the mornings anymore. I would also be really bored because everything is so far away. In Belgrave, the only form of entertainment is the cinema which in tiny, they have a small road with a few shops in it, and that’s about it. The only good aspect of living in Belgrave is the greenness,quietness and peacefulness, but I wouldn’t give up my life for that. If Belgrave was what I originally thought it to be (big mansions, rich places with the occasional run-down house) then I might have considered moving.
Posted in Uncategorized November 28, 2009
I’m still unsure about most of the names of the kids in my community service class, but that’s alright for this task because we get to make up names.
There are two boys in the class who been in Australia for just over two months. One of them has just come from Spain and I’m not too sure about the other. I know the one who came from Spain, who I’m going to name Ted, walks to school with his mum and doesn’t live in the flats across the road from the school. That’s really all I know about him.
I don’t know a lot about the other kid who moved to Australia, but I do know that he loves Ben 10, has a younger brother, and really likes his teacher.
Most of the other students in the class all have parents who come from Africa. They are practically all neighbours and don’t get up until very late in the morning, since all they have to do to get to school is run down a flight of stairs. A few of the older boys and girls get up earlier to watch ABC kids and they all hate ‘The Night Garden’ with a passion.
I’m going to be really sad when community service finishes because it means I won’t be able to see the kids anymore.
Posted in Uncategorized November 28, 2009
This week was all about art in Melbourne and in Galileo. We went to ACCA on Monday and we did lots of interesting things. The highlight of ACCA was definitely the exhibition on houses, with the videos of a family setting fire to chairs, creating a wine glass tower, making a bed move by itself and so many other awesome things. The low light was probably the contemporary dancing we had to do. The music our dance teacher chose was good, but I really do not like dancing.
This week we were also able to add our art to the Galileo stairwell. We were given the topic ‘energy’. At first it was really hard to think up something to draw that related to energy, but once we did the brainstorm, so many ideas came all at once. The stairwell is looking really different, good different, compared to at the start of the year.
H/W I believe art is very important to the creation of a livable city because what is displayed in public areas show what type of people live here. Art also makes a place more lively. One of my favourite places in Melbourne is Federation Square. Art has impacted on this space, the glass building structures is in a way art, and the broken stone floor is also really neat.
I’m sitting on the fence with the issue of graffiti. While I think it would be nice to have a street full of colours and phrases, if it got out of hand, Melbourne would look like a mess. I think if street art could be controlled, but not completely controlled by the authorities, making it legal would be alright until everyone starts to scribble their names all over buildings.
Posted in Uncategorized November 28, 2009
The second week of Community Service was so different from the first. Instead of reading at the start, we started of with a ‘mission’. The mission was to create a paper plane that flew. The kids had an hour to create their planes before a competition was held to see which plane flew the furthest. Most of the boys made planes in an instant, but the girls had a bit more trouble.
Most girls grabbed a piece of coloured paper and stared at the boys, trying to figure out how to make a plane. They all looked so sad (it was a bit funny), so I went to help them. Together as a group, we created a variety of paper planes.
The way everyone worked as a group in my community service class was similar to the way we do at UHS. All the kids helped each other when asked, but a small group of about 3 were a bit racist to this fair skinned girl. They would always turn their noses up at her. Whenever she asked a favour from them, they either ignored her or they were really rude to her. We don’t really have that at UHS.
I had to leave before the flying competition which was a shame. Some of the planes made flew really far.
Posted in Uncategorized November 8, 2009
Week three of Galileo.
In the last sessions on Monday, we had a performer come in. He told us the story of an English convict who lived as an Aboriginal for most of his life. The Aboriginals thought he was a spirit returned from the dead and, in my opinion, that’s kind of scary; knowing someone who has died and then came back. The performance was entertaining, but too long.
This week’s skill that we had to do was all on first aid, which I found really fun. The best part of the double was definitely bandaging arms and legs. CPR was really confusing because I could not remember the ratio on the first time I did it. I think I did 30 too many presses.
Tuesday afternoon’s trail along the Birrarung (Yarra River) was not too good because it was way too hot in the afternoon. It also didn’t help that our tour guide seemed to hate us. Whenever she spoke about the white settlers, she looked accusingly at all of us. It’s was really freaky but understandable. She also told us that we have to respect the land. She told us to walk in a straight line on the grass so we would be doing minimal damage. Afterwards she said that it didn’t really matter because it was European grass, but it was good practice for when we did come to native grass.
On Wednesday afternoon we had another trail to Melbourne Cemetery. It was actually really fun looking for the different graves. The only bad thing was towards the end of the trail when we had to walk through really tall grass. So many people got allergic reactions, me included (but not too bad thankfully).
RESPECT: Respect for people is when you accept them and acknowledge them.
Surprising thing learnt: The surprising thing I learnt about the Aboriginal community is that they have a burial ground under Victoria Market. In terms of respect, I don’t think that building a market place respects either Aboriginals alive now or the dead buried there.
Improving relationships:I think that it is important to keep building our relationship with the Indigenous Australians. To do this we could start a fund for schools in rural areas. This will also help with others living in remote areas. We should also have a public holiday for the stolen generation, like we do with Remembrence Day, and just keep apologising and showing we care.
Posted in Uncategorized November 2, 2009
They aren’t actually that bad. Not that I ever thought they would be bad.
My first impression of Carlton Primary was ‘Wow it’s really small’, and then I thought ‘Where’s the entrance?’. I couldn’t see anybody from Unihigh there and so I started to get a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to make it to class on time. When I finally found a small sign with the word ‘entrance’ written on it and an arrow I sighed and started to walk in the direction the arrow was pointing, but before I got far, I heard Ja Hue call my name. Together we walked into the school where we would be expected to come every Thursday.
Nobody came out to meet us until after the bell went, and when finally they came, they didn’t show us around the school. Although that may have been because there was nothing to show. There was a middle floor which consisted of about 8-10 classrooms and then two floors of offices and staffrooms. It was a tiny school.
I got put in a grade 1/2 class, and my teacher’s name was Elle. The kids were all really shy and really quiet, especially the boys. They started the day with a roll, obviously, and I tried to put faces and names together but failed horribly. After roll, they had silent reading and I helped a girl called Julia read the little mermaid. It was a bit boring but still really fun; mainly because I ‘missed’ out on two sessions.
I also felt kind of happy because I got to spend an hour with cheery kids instead of being stuck with depressed teenagers! (jks)
Posted in Uncategorized October 25, 2009
This week was all about the history of Melbourne. We went to the museum and visited historical sites around the CBD.
On Tuesday in the morning, we went to Melbourne Museum, and did an exercise that involved making a lot of mess in a playground. We had to create something that would save the egg from cracking when dropped from the top of a playground. Our group came up with the idea of putting the egg into a cone and hoping the egg didn’t break. The plan did not work. Two out of the six or so groups succeeded. One of groups that succeeded made a parachute for the egg. It looked really good and the parachute actually slowed the eggs decent which is amazing because I didn’t think it would work.
On Wednesday, we did a race around Melbourne trail looking at old buildings. It was really really fun. Our group didn’t really plan out where we were going to go and when so we kind of ran out of time at the end. We raced from Michael to Mollie with just over 15 minutes to go until Mollie was going to go back to school. Anyway, we met her outside on the streets near the library so close shave.
On Thursday I finally got to do community service at Carlton Primary School which was really fun.
Friday saw us working on our team project assignments, and for the first time we actually had a reasonably lengthy group conversation. That was really weird. After recess, we did our first ever galileo video blog. That was really fun. At the end of our video, we had like a background fight thing and it looked good, but when we saved the video, it stuffed. So now there is no video which is really disappointing cause the end bit took about 4 times to get right.
During the week we also did the Hermann Brain activity. My highest result was Quadrant A, which means I’m logical, analytical, quantitative (try saying that) and fact-based. I am none of those, but I’m more logical than organised or holistic or interpersonal so I suppose quadrant A is the best answer.
Posted in Uncategorized October 21, 2009
We finally started Galileo and it’s nothing like I imagined. I thought we would be going on trails every other day, doing community service at schools and making a whole lot of posters about Melbourne. I was completely wrong. Especially since i missed out on the only trail this week.
On Monday after our electives, we did an activity where we had to answer questions on Galilieo. It would have been really really really boring, but towards the end of the class, we got to scrunch up the paper and chuck it at people. That was cool. I can’t imagine what Ms. King would have thought when everyone started attacking each other with scrunched up paper.
Tuesday saw us back with our own classes. The first thing Mollie asked when she saw us that day was ‘Do you like being split up?’ For some unknow reason everyone said it was nice and wasn’t that bad. I couldn’t understand why they thought being split up was good!!! jks!!! The chapmans are cool, but Brookes is better because well we’re Brookes. 
Wednesday was our first trail, but I didn’t go. Zones athletics clashed with the most exciting thing that would happen this week. Everyone said it was really good and I wish I wagged athletics to go wandering. Athletics was good though. We were outdoors and it didn’t rain. Much. The 14 year old girls relay team won, so they progress to States, as did the 16 (i think) year old boys relay team. Unfortunately I was in neither. The relay team I was in came second and we got a shiny medal. Gold would’ve been better, but we take what we get.
We finally received our laptops on Thursday, but I can’t remember what we did all that day; apart from the horrible double Latin session at the end of the day. All I did for most of the two sessions was read the fourth book of Vampire Academy “Blood Promise”, which I highly recommend!
We were split up again on Friday into two groups and I was sent to 263. For almost the whole session, Paul described two videos to us because, as with all technology at Uni High, the projector was not working when we needed it to. One of the videos Paul described to us was about two monkeys collaborating (I think that’s the word).
What happened was the two monkeys were separated by a glass wall with a hole in the middle. On one side of the wall, the monkey had a jar with nuts, and on the other side the monkey had a sharp rock. The monkey with the rock passed it through the hole and gave it to the first monkey. When the first monkey got the jar open, it gave the first nut it took out to the other monkey. I thought that was really cute. I can’t really imagine a human doing that (no offense). Humans are too selfish and would eat the first nut themselves before giving the second to the helper. Or maybe I’m just being too harsh.
Posted in Uncategorized October 12, 2009
