Careers and Work Pathways Is Happening!

Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to the Mordialloc Experience blog. As I type this, the group is on an excursion to RMIT (the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology), so stand by for more information and photos from that experience.

For now, if you want to see for yourself the work we have done so far (or if you are a student who has been absent and needs to catch up), click on the hyperlink below:

Careers and Work Pathways: To Date

NOTE: As this is the first time we have attempted to hyperlink a Microsoft Word file to our blog, it may only be accessible from the Mordialloc College network. If this is the case, students can also access this file from our Student Subject folder here at school. Alternatively, you can request a copy of this file by emailing Mr Jason Ellul at:

Ellul.Jason.L@edumail.vic.gov.au

First Week of Term 3 Concludes

Hello again: not a photogenic day as such, but we can bring you up to speed on what we achieved today.

Our school nurse, Jenny, came in for her drug and alcohol education session with the group, which will take place regularly on Friday mornings. Students had the opportunity to voice their opinions over their knowledge of drugs, and how widespread a problem they believe it to be.

Our Careers and Work Pathways unit commenced, with all of our students gaining themselves a qualification right off the bat - a certificate in their knowledge of the Occupational Health and Safety General Module. Not only will this be added to their resumes and cover letters when they apply for their Community Placements later on this term, but will be a qualification that they can include on their resumes when they decide to join the workforce. The other major task today was creating a collage of their dream lifestyles - what sort of wheels/houses/holiday destinations/hobbies, etc would they like to see themselves experiencing when they are older.

Next week, these tasks will lead into the work booklet for this unit, where students will learn a lot about what life is really like outside the school fence. From planning a budget, to job applications, identifying future pathways and much, much more . . . it's all waiting for them on the other side of this weekend. Stay tuned for more details of our group's progress: until then, safe weekend to you all!

Day 4 Orientation - Tenpin Bowling!

Today saw the group making their way down to Mentone Bowl for a couple of games of tenpin action, as you can see below:

The overall winner on aggregrate for the day was Mr Ellul (309 pins), and Mrs Ip wasn't too bad herself with 216 pins, but the students weren't to be outdone by any stretch of the imagination. Tim (above, second from left) sent 244 pins packing, followed by Brad (above, second from right, 223) and Ben (camera shy, 197). Of the girls, Melissa (below, second from right) and Angel (below, second from left) lead the way with 193 pins each. Well done!

After that, we had a bite to eat over the road before jumping on the train and heading back to Mordi. A bit of "School of Rock" in the afternoon, and the day was done.

Tomorrow, the Careers and Work Pathways unit begins. We also have our weekly visit from Nurse Jenny, discussing drugs and alcohol.

This term's Orientation Week program appears to have been successful, in that the students have strengthened and/or forged strong working relationships with one another, and it hasn't hurt that we've managed to have a little fun along the way as well! Until tomorrow, we might just see you on the lanes at Mentone in the near future . . .

Day 3 Action - Orientation Week

Welcome to Day 3 of Mordi Experience Orientation Week, and this term's program is gathering further momentum. First up this morning, the teachers thought that they would see just how much the students thought they knew about them, in a photo quiz (below).

The students had to match the images shown on the PowerPoint with the correct teacher. Out of the 40 pictures shown, the best result was 24 correct answers. Even so, at least they now know what footy teams they go for . . .!

So far, the students have met Mrs Ip, Mr Ellul, Mr Shanahan and Ms Birch-Marston. During Periods 2 and 3 today, they met the fifth member of the team, Ms Heino. Below, you can see her directing the students through creating their own digital portfolios.

Period 4 saw the final team challenge for this week: the cryptic clue challenge. Given 10 clues, the students were sent into the yard to identify correct locations and correct answers to cryptic questions.

Tanya and Jessica (below), along with Jayden and Claire, had the best score (9 out of 11 points).

Tomorrow, the team takes on Mentone Bowling Centre, for some fast and furious tenpin bowling action. Stay tuned!

Orientation Week - Day 2

Another day, and another series of challenges for our new team of students. First up was a Scavenger Hunt out in the schoolyard; students had to find a range of items on a list, from a brown leaf to a hair tie, a teacher's autograph to a 15-letter word, and much more.

This was followed by the ever-popular bridge building competition. For those of you new to the Mordi Experience blog, the challenge is to construct a bridge out of newspaper, masking tape and drinking straws. It is not only judged on its design (ie: it looks like a bridge!), but also on how much weight it can hold. The record weight going into this term was 200 golf balls, and one sensed that this record could fall sooner rather than later. Below, you can see the construction phase of this project.

The bridge below belonged to Lizeth, Lynette, Jamie and Simone. It scored high in design, and set a mark of 190 golf balls for the others to beat.

Chad, Daniel, Tim, Brad, Luke and Alex also built a bridge that held a substantial weight of 170 golf balls, but needed a couple of design tips along the way before this photo was taken . . .

Tayla, Paris, Emily F and Emily P weren't so fortunate with their creation, but for its size, a weight of 89 balls wasn't a bad effort.

Jayde, Abbey, Melissa, Lonni and Ashleigh set a new record for weight that a bridge could hold, with 202 golf balls. Unfortunately, we ran out of golf balls this time round; may have been some light-fingered golfers in terms gone past . . . !

While not captured on the camera, the bridge belonging to Rhys R, Matthew, Josh, Alyssa, Natalie and Felicity held 194 golf balls. Once again, some of those golf balls seemed to have gone missing: hmmm . . .

Our overall winner for design and functionality was this bridge below, belonging to Tanya, Jessica, Claire and Jayden: it held a weight of 162 golf balls. For the most part, the standard of bridge construction was outstanding, showing that as each term passes, the knowledge is being passed down and improved upon.



The final challenge for the day was the Waterbomb Drop. The challenge was to construct a device or contraption that would allow a waterbomb to be safely dropped from a height down to the ground without bursting.

The application of ideas was outstanding once again, with everyone's bombs surviving the descent from our balcony down to the ground.

Tomorrow, we test the students' teamwork skills further with a Staff Biography Quiz, some sport, and a Cryptic Clue challenge in the schoolyard. We will develop our out-of-class Code of Cooperation, and allow the students to create their very own digital portfolio. See you then!

Welcome Back to Term 3!

Another term, and another group of Year 9 students in the Mordialloc Experience! This week, as always, is Orientation Week - an opportunity for students to get to know everyone in the group; get to know their teachers; and have fun working together in a team environment.

Today, following an information PowerPoint on what the program involves, our students were then asked to create their class Code of Cooperation (above and below) - the set of values and behaviours that we, as a class, expect of one another. Some students were more shy than others . . .!

The next two tasks that students had to complete were a letter from them to one of their teachers - introducing themselves, who they are, what their interests are, and what they hope to gain from the Mordialloc Experience - and an ID tag for their Community Placement later on this term.

Final period for the day involved the first of the team challenges this week - a trivia competition. Ten categories, three questions in each - everything from literature to movies, TV to geography, and many more. Our victorious team - by one solitary point - was "Get Smart" (Natalie, Felicity, Josh, Matthew and Alyssa). Well done!

Stay tuned for more exciting tales from this week, and from the remainder of what promises to be an action-packed Term 3 of the Mordialloc Experience . . .

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.