Library!

This week has been so much fun, I’ve absolutely adored my time at Mandurah City Library. The staff have been so welcoming and friendly to me and the office is a really enjoyable work environment to be in. This experience has been so valuable to me as previously I had never had experience working in an office. Throughout all previous employments and volunteering opportunities, it’s always been totally different to office work. All of my knowledge towards working in an office had come from the IT Crowd and “have you tried turning it off and on again?” really does fix all technical issues.

This week was same routine to last week with art and craft activities taking place in morning at 10.30am and more activities taking place in the afternoon at 1.30pm. One of my personal favourites from this week has been a talk from Rupert Wainwright, who came in to speak about his new book: Miss Muriel Matters. Muriel was one of the famous Suffragists in London at the time and has since been forgotten about. She was an Australian born in Adelaide and moved to the UK to pursue a career in acting but became a leading woman in the fight for the right to vote. I really enjoyed this talk as it was someone who I had never heard off and it was also really beneficial to be able too talk to Rupert Wainwright, the author and gain a better understanding of Muriel Matters.

Another aspect about this placement I’ve really enjoyed is being able to build relationships with children and family members of those who have been frequently attending the workshops. The library is a really relaxed and enjoyable environment and I’ve loved being able to have a laugh with the children as they have become more and more comfortable with me over the past fortnight.

Another highlight of this week was SciTech.  Scitech is a world renowned and multi award winning not-for-profit organisation that operates the Scitech Discovery Centre, a permanent, interactive science museum which includes a planetarium, and is located in West Perth, Western Australia. However, SciTech came into the library for an interactive workshop with the children. I had great fun watching it and the children were very happy to be there. The morning workshop was aimed at children aged 5-9 was eagerly accepted by the pupils. All of the demo experiments would be fantastic to use within the classroom. The demo workshops concentrated on ‘mixing’ science, using products easily found at home in either the kitchen or bathroom.

My favourite was the home-made lamp. A lava lamp can be easily made using water, oil, food colouring and effervescent tablets. i will definitely be using this experiment and others from Scitech as the kids absolutely loved it!

Week Two!

Started at Mandurah Catholic College this week and I am thoroughly, thoroughly impressed with all of the facilities and resources at this school. As previously stated, this is my first time in both a religious and private school so it was all very new to me. Mandurah Catholic College teaches pupils from kindergarten- year 12.

Firstly, I am blown away by the amount of resources available at MCC. I have never had any experience within the private school sector and it is totally different to any Scottish school I’ve been in. Obviously this school is in Australia so looks entirely different as well. I’ve only ever seen schools like this on television so to actually be in a school like this, I feel a bit disjointed from reality although I am getting used to it.

the amount of outside resources is something I am totally blown away, especially the play areas for pre primary, kindergarten and junior school kids. The lack of wet weather means there are a lot more accessible outside areas. There is a large focus on sport at MCC although I’ve not been involved in that side of school as much as my mentor teaches music and health.

The library at MCC is amazing and a really well resourced area with lots of different areas to learn in. IT lessons take place in the library for younger kids and allows them to use 1:1 technology such as iPads to get to grips with technology. The library is also open until 7pm every night for secondary pupils to study in and use all of the resources available.

Seussical: the Musical!

 

 

 

 

 

There were two full run through rehearsals this week. Frankly I am astounded by the talent of these pupils. The drama department at MCC is just amazing, the amount of effort that has went into this production by both staff and students is astounding. I have never had any experience with any theatre groups or been in any productions so I am really excited to be involved with Seussical.

Drama is something I am nervous about teaching due to my lack of experience so I hope that by the time I am done my confidence regarding teaching drama will be vastly improved.

Shape Mandurah – Encouraging A Connected City.

I’ve been exceedingly impressed with all the effort and work that locals are putting into improving Mandurah and aiming to turn Mandurah into a more vibrant and creative community. Shape Mandurah is a community not for profit organisation that aims to engage and connect the city’s residents. Shape Mandurah are aiming to  build a network of volunteers who will help make their events better, share new ideas and host independent activities. Their vision includes pop-up galleries, community gardens, art installations etc.

Luckily I was able to attend a meeting and it was incredibly beneficial to be involved in the ‘behind-the-scenes’ discussions that I would normally never get the chance to be a part of. Although I am not living in Mandurah it was interesting to see how members of the local community are so passionate about improving and developing their local area.

Fremantle Art Centre – WA Revealed.

On Friday we attended the Western Australia Aboriginal art revealing in Fremantle. Fremantle is a city near Perth, focus on the arts and creativity within the whole city. We went to the art reveal as one of the Artists Peter Farmer, had done the YB memorial. Stretch were interested to see a fashion show that he was putting on that displayed aboriginal patterns and fabrics. Pater Farmer and his wife Miranda have worked tirelessly on their business that helps young aboriginal children have a chance in life to become models and better themselves whilst celebrating their own culture and lifestyle. Their fashion show focuses on the Aboriginal six seasons and each piece was individually created and hand painted.

The Six Seasons fashion show will be on at Stretch and it will be a fantastic opportunity for members of the Mandurah community to seee these fashion pieces and hear how the young people involved in this project have been able to improve their confidence and be proud of their native background.

Gami George was an elder of another Aboriginal community close to Fremantle and was the last native speaker of his language. He is working on creating a picture book and translation book for his native language so that new generations will be able to remember and speak his language. Ignorantly, I did not realise just how many different languages there is across Australia. There was thousands and thousands but now there is just little over 300 being actively spoken across the country. I did not know this before coming here so I am incredibly grateful to be able to listen and speak to the last remaining elder of certain native cultures.

At night there was the Aboriginal art show being unveiled and the artwork that was on display was just incredible. The various talks that had been held all day were still fresh in my mind and to then see such astounding pieces of artwork on display has created so many ideas for art lessons I could use on classes in the future.