Week 7 Reflection

I am pretty confident about my immediate future, more specifically my options trail. I was away on Friday when we had a double session to work on team project so I’m not 100% sure where we stand at the moment but as of our team project session before Friday, all we had to do was finalise our interview questions and start working on our survey questions. I believe that we are all pulling our weight and the workload is even.

The biggest a-ha moment this week was resume writing, even though I missed half of the double because of guitar. Resume writing was one of my learning goals and I think that I have definitely improved. Now I have a pretty good understanding of what to include and how to express my information whereas previously, I had no idea where to start. I think that it had the most to do with my own self-awareness and growth as I improved on one of my skills. It could be linked to what is going to happen in the future though because I will apply for jobs in the future and use my resume writing skills to complete my resume.

Week 6 Critical Question- The Subjects We Learn in the Classroom Effectively Prepare Us for Life After We Finish High School – Agree or Disagree?

The subjects we learn in school effectively prepare us for life after we finish high school academically but we still need to learn life skills somehow. The subjects are designed to give each individual student the best possible chance for their future career but do not focus on life skills which are more important in some aspects. Life skills such as compromise and team work can be taught outside of school through sports or other means but skills such as surveying may be harder to develop. Thus, the subjects we learn in school do leave some gaps.

There is a wide range of subjects taught in schools. According to VCAA (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority), there are 144 subjects available for study in VCE. This is a real figure however, not all of these 144 subjects are available for study at all schools. In fact, around a third of them are languages which are more commonly learnt outside of school. What people fail to realise is that despite Victorian students having all these options, fifty of them are languages and out of the 94 remaining subjects, not all of them are offered to every student in every school. Besides not having access to all of the subjects, this is still a wide range which is able to cater for the many different interests and talents of students and by having so many choices, it can often be difficult to focus on around six subjects. These subjects will prepare students for life after high school by teaching vital knowledge and skills which can be carried into universities and workplaces. Traditional classroom schooling is very effective as students can use their initiative and look at other resources to help prepare them for tests, exams or provide them with some extra knowledge if need be. The academic subjects help students get qualifications and jobs in the future. However, there are some gaps in the curriculum.

Life skills are often hard to learn in school as many are developed through experiences which are uncommon in schools. Some skills, such as team work and collaboration, are explained and developed in schools through sport or group projects or even through friendships. One of the skills needed in the workplace is public speaking. Public speaking cannot be taught and is a skill developed over time. Secondary schools assist their students with their public speaking skills by setting tasks and encouraging more involvement in class. If the student chooses to take advantage of the opportunity, however, is up to them. A personal quality that many students do not develop during their time at school is independence. This can sometime become a challenge once they leave school because they are unsure of themselves and have no one to follow. This is evident even in the young children at The University of Melbourne’s Childcare on Queensberry Street. There is often one leader of the group and the other children just follow him or her around and do what the leader tells them to. Of course, some children will grow out of their obsession to follow another, but some will continue to practice this habit right through school and even in universities and workplaces. Another skill which is rarely taught in schools is personal sustainability. It was obvious on camp that we needed to be able to sustain ourselves and pack wisely. Some students may not have had experience with that before and they found it challenging without having the proper equipment or too much of it. Some other inner-city schools may not even have a camp similar to ours and the students there may never learn or gain experience to help them be personally sustainable. In more rural schools, it might be commonplace that they know all this already, and if not, they are taught. But do we all need to learn the same things?

Traditional schooling in the eyes of many is the normal way of life. For others, they wonder why they have to learn skills and information that they are never going to use anyway. Why should we be forced into doing music if we want to be an athlete? Why should we be forced into art if we want to be a mechanical engineer? These are both valid questions and should be asked. Many teachers and experts argue that students do not know what they want to do with their life and therefore should do a wide variety of subjects. But why not let students choose all their subjects in year seven? Or even earlier? With the right guidance, such as students having to cover at least four domains, this should not be a problem. In fact, it could be a solution. Just because someone likes drawing, which is an art, does not necessarily mean that they like creating things out of wood, which is also an art. Furthermore, by having specific subjects, it will assist students to learn in areas they are interested in. By allowing students to choose their subjects, there will be fewer holes in the curriculum because the course will service the needs of each student. Also, some parents put too much pressure on the schooling system to teach their children all they need to know, including life skills, when in fact, many skills should be developed at home. With the right support from parents, skills such as respect, punctuality and keeping promises can be developed at home, lessening again the number of holes in the education system.

In conclusion, traditional schooling works and opens doors but there are some gaps in what is taught. The academic side of schooling works amazingly well but the intrapersonal development area needs some more thought put into it, as do the concepts covered in subjects. After all, why study biology if you want to be a geographer?

Bibliography:

www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/pages/vce/studies/index.aspx

Week 6 Reflection

I found it quite easy to settle back into the rhythm of school after camp. I like the fact that we have toilets at school; we didn’t have proper toilets for most of camp. I think that I am definitely closer to some people from 9C2, mainly the ones in my cooking group or walking group. I also strengthened my relationships with the people in 9C1 on my walking group, just by talking to them on the bus and the hike. I feel more comfortable around some people, not that I wasn’t comfortable before, but I feel like I know what I can talk to them about and there won’t really be many awkward silences.

The highpoint of my week was Wednesday’s trail when I went to the Japanese Embassy and HSBC. I won a lucky dog at the embassy for being the last one standing in a quiz, as well as a chocolate. At HSBC we also had two quizzes and I was in a team with Lucy, Milly and Patrick. We didn’t win but it was heaps of fun! They also had a really nice assortment of biscuits for us at HSBC. I must have been having a lucky day because at a tram stop, I found an unused $30 gift voucher for food. It would be hard to pick one highpoint of my week so I would say that Wednesday as a whole was my highpoint.

I feel like I have learnt a bit that I didn’t know before but I feel like I could have just as easily accessed them in a classroom. Most of the things I learnt were from quizzes so the information would have been easy to get in a classroom, provided that it was related to the subject. I did, however, listen to a couple of very inspirational speeches which I wouldn’t have heard usually, from one of the men at HSBC. His speeches were mainly about life and waking up and realising your potential.

My hopes for the remainder of the term are that we get to go the State Library more often because we have only been once so far and I happened to be sick on that day. I also would be interested in spending more time in the CBD than around it because one of my areas of knowledge is related to Melbourne’s streets. I would like my knowledge to be more on the CBD than in a suburb which I would hardly ever visit.

I think that a skill I have improved on already is public speaking. At the start of the term, I found it more difficult than I find it now and I frequently find myself in situations where I am talking to a stranger for surveying or on the phone, which has definitely helped. My child skills have improved as well because of my placement at The University of Melbourne’s childcare for community service. A skill that I have not made any progress with is resume writing. We haven’t had any practice and I am hopeful that it will come. My knowledge of Melbourne’s streets is expanding but I would like to continue to work on it for the rest of the term. My knowledge of public transport is also growing but as with my knowledge of Melbourne’s streets, I would to work on it some more. An area of knowledge I think I have achieved is sustainable buildings. I think I achieved this back in sustainability week when sustainable buildings were one of the main focuses. I have developed my self-esteem but as with most of my goals, it still has room to grow. I don’t think that I will be too focused on it though because I am happy with where it’s at. My ability to collaborate was strengthened on camp. I realised that I am happy with the level it is at when we had the quizzes at HSBC and we worked as a team to come up with an answer. Believing in success still needs work because there haven’t really been too many assessments and I haven’t had time to doubt myself because of this. I am still working on many of my learning goals and hope to improve each and every one of them.

Week 5 Reflection

One of my personal quality learning goals is collaboration. I believe that I really improved on my collaboration skills while on camp, especially while setting up the tent. I had to communicate clearly and work with Isy and Anna, who were also in my tent group, to get the tent set up as quickly as possible so we could do other things. A skill I improved on was caving. I had never been caving before so I definitely improved and learnt how to cave properly and safely. An area of knowledge I developed was map reading. I already knew how to read a map and use a compass but I think I improved and now I have a better understanding of how to orient yourself and find yourself on a map. Surprisingly, I only developed one of my learning goals, collaboration. Outdoor skills was not an objective of mine because I had other priorities, but if it would have been, my other more developed areas would be linked to that.

A challenge I overcame was setting up a tent with frozen fingers. That probably won’t come in handy very often but hiking might. The 12km hike was one of my highlights and I enjoyed it very much, apart from getting whipped by ferns in the face. Walking through the mud was hard work because it was hard to know where to step but standing on solid ground looking back at the mud, I felt good because I did it. A challenge I overcame that might come in handy in the future was carrying a heavy pack on my back for hours. My schoolbag is often heavy and I carry a lot of things on my back so by hiking with a heavy pack, I hopefully strengthened my back.

My view of the Yarra previous to camp was brown and narrow. Seeing the Yarra before it reached Melbourne made me realise the city and the people living there are the ones to blame for all the pollution in the river, not just people in general. I think that our relationship with the Yarra is good out in the country but the city-Yarra relationship needs to be improved and we need to look after our water more. The Yarra in Warburton was very blue and crystal clear whereas the Yarra in Melbourne’s CBD is brown and yucky. This is proof that we need to do more in the CBD to help the beautiful river. My message for people to help look after the Yarra more would be put all your rubbish in the bin and try to use vehicles that don’t have oils that can pollute the Yarra and use bikes or trams or trains instead.

Week 4 Critical Question- Is Melbourne Fair?

Melbourne is both a fair and unfair place. But what does ‘fair’ mean? According to the Heinemann Australian Student Dictionary, fair simply means to be honest or in accordance with the rules. Based on that definition, it is reasonable to say that Melbourne is a fair place. However, to the poorer and richer people, these rules are mostly unfair. There are some concessions for poorer people, as seen on our trail on Friday but hardly any for the rich or middle-class. The Magistrate’s Court does alter sentencing, depending if people are dependent on the accused. One man stole some clothing and got fired from his job as a security guard. He was supporting his family and got off with a good behaviour bond because the people he was supporting needed him to help them survive.

Melbourne is unfair to the less-fortunate people of the city. On Wednesday’s trail, we visited Frontyard Youth Services which provides ‘integrated services to address the physical, social and emotional needs of young people aged 12-25 who spend time in Melbourne’s CBD’, basically meaning it provides assistance to young homeless people. We discovered that although Melbourne has many provisions in place to help the poorer people, there are hardly enough for the growing population of poorer people. Centrelink payments to young homeless people are only $201 a week, making it difficult to survive. In addition to that, the cost of staying in a hostel per night is around $188. This data came from Frontyard, a service run by Melbourne City Mission, which should be a reliable source. The amounts may be different from real life amounts to help promote the need for assistance in the area of youth homelessness but the information should be mostly truthful. In the last decade, the number of young homeless people has more than doubled and now stands close to 10,000, proving that Melbourne needs to help the less fortunate people more.

Some might argue that the poorer people should work to make their own money so that they can afford a home but many do work and it is often very complicated. People do not become homeless because they want to, there are usually many factors contributing to them becoming homeless. In order to sustain themselves, they need to have an income and when they begin searching for employment, an obstacle they must overcome is competing against smarter people with higher qualifications for the same job. This often proves difficult and it can be extremely hard for people who do not have an extensive education to get a job. And even if they manage to become employed, it is exceptionally difficult to maintain the job. According to Melbourne City Mission, only 51% of homeless youths stay in the Victorian School System. This number seems about right as many would not have the means to pay for school or the transport to get there, but the number may actually be higher because no one can count the exact number of homeless youths or the number of them still attending school. What should be happening is finding out why more people are becoming homeless and try to stop them from sleeping rough, not focusing all the attention on getting people out of the situation.

Our city is also unfair to the rich. It makes sense that the rich should give money to the poor but how much is too much? The rich people worked very hard to get to where they are now and, more often than not, are deserving of their high wages. They should be able to use more of the money that they worked for and not have to pay so much in taxes. According to the Australian Taxation Office website, an Australian resident who earns more than $180,000 (July 2014-15) has to give more than 30% away in taxes. This 30% starts from $54,547 and only increases with the increase in wage. The money taken away could be better used to buy an apartment or a car or be donated to charity. Instead, it is instead going to the government, and what they choose to use it for may not be going towards what you want. The Australian Taxation Office website is reliable as many people go on it to find out how much they will be taxed. It is true that without the taxes, society would not be able to function and the poor people would only get poorer without the assistance from the government, but is excessively taxing the rich the way to solve the problem?

Melbourne is a fair place if you have a reasonable amount of money. As soon as you only have a bit or have too much, the city makes you pay in its own way. Some poor people end up homeless and the rich people have to give so much money away in taxes it does not matter that they have a high income. Melbourne is fair to most, but for some, Melbourne is an imbalanced city.

 

Sources

melbournecitymission.org.au/services/homelessness/young-people-25-years/frontyard-youth-services

https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/income-and-deductions/how-much-income-tax-you-pay/individual-income-tax-rates/

http://www.melbournecitymission.org.au/docs/default-source/Fact-sheets/youth-homelessness-fact-sheets.pdf?sfvrsn=0

Week 4 Reflection

My understanding of the justice system is now more complete and I have a better understanding of how the convictions work. The trip to the court was very educational, and I got to see real people get convicted. One new thing I learnt was that every case goes through the magistrate’s court in one form or another.

Melbourne is not fair for everyone but I don’t believe that much can be done about it. It isn’t fair for the very rich or very poor but is fair for the middle-class people. The way to spread wealth would be to tax the rich people more and give it to the poor but then the rich people won’t have the money that they worked hard for and then people may stop working hard. I believe that finding the right balance is an ongoing battle and will be for a long time.

I am very proud of my group’s mini trail presentation. I am happy with the score we achieved, especially since there were only two people present at the time. I am also happy with the quality of the work I got done while researching for the presentation. Hopefully our group stays consistent and we can do well in the final presentation.

I have learnt that teamwork is very important. I was in charge of the Popplet and it was sometimes difficult to get members of my group to email me their research as they wouldn’t reply to texts and seemed to be ignoring me. I think that I contribute my ideas to my group pretty well and keep everyone on track but our group doesn’t have an uneven workload.

Ethical Dilemma

An ethical dilemma I faced was I saw someone writing on their hand so that they could look at their notes during a test. I didn’t know if I should say something or not. I didn’t say anything about it to anyone, and one of the reasons I didn’t say anything was that others had seen the person in question writing on their hand but they didn’t say anything. I guess that the belief that underpinned my decision was that I didn’t want to be the one who told on the person as other people were watching them too. I think the principle that stopped me from saying anything is I don’t like being the odd one out. Another reason I didn’t say anything was because if they cheated, they were only cheating themselves and making it harder for themselves in the future by not actually learning anything. If I got to relive the situation, I don’t think I would act differently. As I said above, they were only cheating themselves which may make it easier for them in the test but in the long term, it will be harder because they won’t be able to cheat and they haven’t actually learnt anything.

Week 3 Reflection

My standout experience this week would have to be the session on the ethics of sport. I enjoyed the more practical side of it when we went to the park more than the actual presentation. At the park I enjoyed playing keepings-off against the guys even though it started unintentionally as both the guys and the girls wanted the ball. I am proud to admit that the girls won, even though there were only four of us, as we finished with the ball.

I believe that I do have a new insight into the nature of ethics. Before last week, I didn’t really think about the ethical side of things but more about what I thought was best- that was sometimes the ethically right thing to do and sometimes it wasn’t. Although I have a new insight into the nature of ethics, my personal code of conduct is still the same and I wouldn’t change anything. I believe that I am a fair person and take into account the consequences of my actions.

Mini trail was great! After leaving school nearly 15 minutes behind schedule, we left our first location, The Royal Children’s Hospital, on time. We did some surveying which will hopefully provide some answers to the questions that we set out with. It started raining when we were at St. Vincent’s Hospital so we left a little early so we could get out of the rain as soon as possible.

I was happy with the quality of information we collected as we surveyed both medical professionals and members of the general public. I believe that this would have shown the contrasts between the medics’ opinions and people working in other fields’ opinions as we also asked the people what their profession is. Altogether, we surveyed around 20 people, which is a great effort considering we are a group of four.

Our teamwork was very good and the vibe wasn’t all that different from the city-grid trail. I believe that on the city-grid trail, we were a bit more focused than on our mini trail, even though the mini trail had more riding on it. This could be because we are becoming more friendly and learning about each other more so it feels more casual as opposed to feeling awkward.