CELEBRATION WEEK

Finally after twelve, long weeks we have made it to the end of term two. At the beginning of this week it was great to catch up with everyone after the two week community placements and we pretty much just talked for the first hour of the day. The general opinion of the placements was that it was a great learning experience and that most people had a good time and got a lot out of it. Once everyone had caught up we had to prepare everything for our celebration evening when we have to show our work off to our parents. There is display boards to prepare, brochures to write and computer presentations to get ready - all with the purpose to show to anyone that comes all the fine work we have completed during our time in the Mordialloc Experience.

COMMUNITY PLACEMENTS

For the past week each student has been going to a local kindergarten, pre-school, child centre, primary school or another such community centre as a volunteer. This is to gain an understanding of what it is like to be part of a workforce and how a community centre interacts with those it serves. Each of the students were given a list of suitable community centres in week three of this term. They each had to choose a centre that appealed to them, write an application and attach a resume which was all sent off to the centre for processing. The successful students were then notified by the community centres and their placements were arranged to be carried out in weeks ten and eleven of the term.
The work carried out at the placement varies from helping to supervise children through to setting up and cleaning up the days activities. Each of the students are visited by their mordiexperience teachers every second day where they get the chance to keep in contact with what is going on back at school and also to give some feedback about their particular experiences. Each of the centres have a contact person who deals directly with the teachers back at mordiexperience HQ and they are also encouraged to give their feedback on the progress of the students and the program in general. The feedback so far from all sources is very positive
and encouraging, and everyone is enjoying the freedom and sense of maturity they are getting from being out in the big, wide world.

My Thoughts..

Right from the start of city experience i enjoyed myself! Everyone had a great time on group excursions, having the whole class around was fun. We never ran out of laughs or chances to have a good time. The best excursions were the Eureka Tower, The Courts and Queen Vic market. We witnessed the beginning of a murder trial on our first day of the city experience, it was cool as! The Eureka Tower was great, seeing the beauty of Melbourne from so high up was just amazing. The Queen Vic market was good because we were able to go and look at stuff that interested us, not having to follow the class was great (the chickens were cute as too)! Deffinately the best part of the City Experience was going on group project adventures. My group and I travelled all around the city going where we needed to go, getting countless numbers of slurpies and eating out most days. The last day going out for lunch was great. Seeing everyone in free dress, eating, chatting and smiling was fabulous. Oh and the pizza was nice. I really enjoyed the whole jouney, it was so much fun!

FINAL DAY

The last day of our city experience dawned and there was mixed feelings among us as we gathered at the morning meeting spot at the top of the super long escalators at Parliament Station. We had an exciting visit to the Museum and an all you can eat pizza extravaganza on Lygon street before us, and yet there was an air of apprehension about having to return to school tomorrow. This experience has been a real eye-opener for all of us involved and we have learnt a lot about ourselves and everyone around us over the last two weeks.
MELBOURNE MUSEUM.
It is so hard to see all the exhibits in 2 hours at the museum. There are also so many other schools visiting today that every viewing point is a competition with other interested school kids. So over-all it was an involving but somewhat frustrating visit to one of Melbourne's favorite destinations.

ALL YOU CAN EAT PIZZA
This was eagerly anticipated all fortnight and everyone was in high spirits as we took our seats and argued over what was the best toppings to have on pizza. The staff at Notturno Pizzeria were swift to bring out pizza and we all appreciated their attention to our group. The pizza was good and there was plenty of it, although there was some boys who claimed they could eat more. Drinks flowed as well and we even got a gelati as we walked out the door. This was a fitting end to the fantastic experience and something I think we will all remember as we look back on our school years.

WEDNESDAY 4TH JUNE.

The last chance to work on our group projects was a foggy day in Melbourne. It has been fresh most mornings on our trips into the city but generally the afternoons have been warmer and the sun has peeked out between the buildings. We signed out and moved off to our destinations and gathered the last of the information we needed then we returned to the Hub and began putting the finishing touches to our presentations.

OLD MELBOURNE GOAL.

This is a visit to one of the links with the past that are around in the Melbourne city block. As we stepped through the door we were transported back in time. There was a raw and sinister feel to this place and it was kind of a relief to get out of there.

The Story So Far.......

This is our second last chance to go out and gather data for our projects. Part of the presentation and the end of the project has to show the results of a survey conducted while we are in the city. Most of us have developed the questions and planned where we will go to survey the people of the city. All we have to do now is go and do it. Wish us luck.


CHINATOWN
Once we'd finished the morning surveys and regrouped back at the Hub we set off to look at one of the cultural regions of the city, a place that has drawn Chinese immigrants since the gold rush. We had to walk down Little Bourke St and check out all the features of this unique part of Melbourne's streetscape.


MONDAY JUNE 2ND
Today we had another opportunity to go out on our own and gather information for our projects.
Our group decided to go out to the harbour in the docklands where there are lots of restaurants and tourists we could survey on out topic. It was a lot of fun aproaching people we didn't know and asking thier opinion of Melbourne. Going places by ourselves was a great chance to explore where we could and couldn't go without an adult telling us and giving us direction.

After we all returned from our info gathering we all grabbed some lunch. Lunch at the Hub means different things to different people. Some of us duck over to the convenience store and buy some take-away type rolls and sandwiches, some go to Gloria Jeans and get a bun and coffee, some of us bring something from home but by far the most popular 'Hub' lunch is 2 minute noodles, soooo easy and soooo yummy.
Once lunch was over we travelled in to the State Library. A most imposing and stately place that we'll probably appreciate more if we ever go on to study at Melbourne Uni or RMIT.
FRIDAY 30TH MAY
The day started with a trip to the Queen Victoria Market where we were able to walk around and see commerce and trade in action. Those of us looking at Fashion as a topic, and those looking at Food were especially interested in the goings on because it related directly to what we had been researching. The rest of us just had fun shopping and checking out all the people that come to a place like this.





SKYDECK
This is the name given to the tourist platform at the top of the EUREKA TOWER, the highest viewing point in the Southern Hemisphere. A great place to view the sprawl of Melbourne, and to appreciate the excellent job the original planners of the city did to create such a beautiful mix of green pockets intermingled with the buildings of the CBD and inner suburbs.