Group+7



hi =AIM & PURPOSE -=

To help the animals.
=LINKS -=

http://www.edgarsmission.org.au/



https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tQlQa5-aELlOgOG9-rf9mfEZJHkdUZ6vm96KESVYwrM/edit




 * - 01/05/12 -**


 * N.G ~ **

Today in DEAL half of our year level left to go on various excursions and the other half, such as myself, were left behind in the hands of Miss Elmer and Miss Williams. In the first two periods we were introduced to the formal part of the Outreach program and were given tips on how to complete the paperwork (proposals), run meetings, etc, which will most definitely benefit us as we complete the Outreach course. In period 3 and 4 we took a test in order to find out our temperament and we were then given tips, which will help understand how to communicate and work with one another in our Outreach groups. In period 5 and 6 we finished off the day by watching the movie ‘Pay it Forward’. We watched this in the hopes that this will inspire us to change the world, which is what the whole Outreach program as well as our project in RE ‘Dream Big’ is about.


 * - 8/05/12 -**


 * J.D ~ **

Today in DEAL, half of the year level went on excursions, while the other half stayed behind. We sorted out the paperwork for the Outreach program, and then we filled out a form so that we could find out what temperament we were. There were various temperaments between the table I was working at. I found out that my temperament was blue. During our last four periods we watched the movie "Pay It Forward", which was very inspirational, as we learnt that it didn't matter how old you have to be to make a difference in the world.


 * D.L ~ **

In today's lesson, while the other people went on different excursions, those who stayed behind learnt about our different temperaments, and we watched a movie called Pay It Forward. Pay It Forward is a simple concept of one person doing a task for three people, then those people pass it along to three others and it goes on and on. This movie was related to our Outreach program because of the little boy helping others or reaching out for others. This lesson was a good lesson to see the different possibilities for our Outreach task.




 * - 15/05/12 -**


 * N.G ~ **

We had NAPLAN today so our DEAL time was cut short. In period 2 we did activities that were designed to strengthen our teamwork. We did activities such as a maze race, which we won and we also completed a list on what we thought was most important in space, which we had also won. In period 4 we had our first ever meeting for Outreach and was given an agenda to complete. The teachers had set this task for us so that we would get the gist and feel of an Outreach meeting. This meeting also prepared us for ‘The Voice’ which was in period 5 and 6. In these last two periods we were to present ourselves to the Year 9 team, one of which will end up being our mentor for the rest of the year. We wrote a corny speech which depicted our groups temperaments, values, goals as well as intentions. With this speech we were able to win over five out of the six teachers and in the end as a team we decided to work with Mr Jilbert, because we thought he’d guide our team best.

‘Gems are rare but life is priceless, so treat it like an ice-cream and make a difference before it melts'


 * J.D ~ **

Today, during DEAL, I got sorted into the group 'Raising Hope' by one of the teachers. At first, it was difficult for our group to settle down, as we all have very different personalities and opinions on the matter of which direction we wanted to go in for our Outreach meeting. We still aren't 100% sure on what direction we're headed towards, but we've started to research various organisations, and deciding which ones we are able to work with. Hopefully, during our next meeting, we'll all set aside our differences, and be able to co-operate with each other.


 * A.C ~ **

Today during DEAL we finally decided on a name for our group; we are called Raising Hope. In period 4 we had our fist Outreach meeting and during this meeting we were preparing ourselves for the activity ‘The Voice’, which the teachers had prepared for us in periods 5 and 6. In the last 2 periods we had to present ourselves to the Year 9 Team and then we'd have to choose one of the teachers that liked our presentation, to be our mentor for the rest of the year. After we had said our speech to the teachers, we were able to get 5 out of 6 teachers that wanted us, and in the end we chose Mr Jilbert to be our mentor.


 * D.J ~ **

Today during DEAL we all had to join together to work on our Outreach group name, which we decided would be Raising Hope. During the next session we were required to work on our resumé type interview scenario. We went up to the teachers and presented ourselves, then gave a list of reasons why we should get a good teacher to help us with our work. In the end, we chose Mr. Jilbert, who was more enthusiastic about working with us than I was about working at all. We chose Mr. Jilbert above all of the other teachers that wanted to work with us because we felt that he would put the most effort into aiding us in achieving our goals.


 * H.B ~ **

Today during DEAL Outreach groups we have decided on what our groups name is and we came to the decision of Raising Hope. During period 4 we had our first meeting where we did our 'The Voice' styled auditions to choose who our mentor would be. Everyone turned around besides one of them, and we chose Mr Jilbert as our mentor. We chose Mr Jilbert because we have no one on our team that is a planner type person. We do have two greens however, Danyon and I focus more on the logical part of the green side.


 * D.L ~ **

Today's DEAL class was interrupted due to NAPLAN but we still managed to do a lot. In today's class, we took part in a few group activities including a "Go, go, stop!" maze challenge and a priority list if we got stuck on the moon miles from the place we need to be. Today we also chose our mentor and this was a good task because we had to come up with an audition based on the Blind Auditions from 'The Voice'. We came up with an awesome audition and we ended up getting everyone except Ms Elmer to say they wanted us; we ended up choosing Mr Jilbert. Today was a good lesson and I hope we have fun lessons like today's in the future.


 * - 29/05/12 -**


 * N.G ~ **

We were supposed to have Rock and Water today but one of the teacher's were absent so we were given the whole day to work on our Outreach project. In period 1 & 2 we worked on our Outreach page. In period 3 & 4, we began researching possible organisations we could work with while Tyrelle was in the Master's Class, learning how to use Google Docs. Last lesson we had briefly discussed want we wanted to do and had drawn to a conclusion of Animals, which would be extremely difficult to do because of age restrictions, only one person in our whole group was 15 years of age. So we began to search for another option and was thinking of working with a Youth Group just down in Taylor's Hill, but we then changed our minds once more and wanted to work with Children and visit them in hospitals. We worked on this idea for a while until we realised that many of the other Outreach groups wanted to work with children so the options will be extremely narrow and we also wanted to be unique. We then changed our minds and decided to work with old people, by then we were getting a little tired of changing. Once we began researching this, the idea began to sit in our minds and we slowly grew excited. We managed to find 2 rest homes we could possibly go to and both of them were just in Sydenham and we Google Mapped it's location it was only a 5-10 minute drive from our school. We then settled on the concept of going to a Rest Home to simply keep the old people company by reading them books, playing games etc. In period 5 & 6 we worked on our group poster, which was going to be displayed all over the year 9 area, and it turned out quite alright. We then worked on our agenda for the next DEAL lesson and decided that we are going to try and contact the rest homes we wanted to work with.

// 'When the world says give up, hope whispers, try one more time' //


 * - 05/06/12 - **


 * N.G ~ **

Today in DEAL we worked on our Outreach project. We hadn't achieved much because we couldn't settle on what we actually wanted to do. In the previous lesson we had chosen to branch out to the elderly through a vote and the majority had won but we still had trouble bringing everyone aboard this decision. With the help of our mentor, Mr Jilbert, we were able to resolve our issues and progress further. While this was happening we documented the little work we had done on Google Docs and communicated through Skype, which was not a very good idea since we were all sitting on one table, but at least our conversation was recorded. We also began drafting an email that we could send to a rest home, which we have not exactly chosen yet. We had originally wanted to work with Arcare but we found out that another group had beat us to it and had already sent them an email, but we are still going to send them an email but will have other back up rest homes.


 * H.B ~ **

Today we got no-where, we were still arguing about what we are going to do because Danyon and I didn't want to go to help the old people. We did however come to a conclusion eventually that Danyon and I would stay and just do the administration work so that the people that actually wanted to go could. However then we had the other teachers come up to us and tell us that we couldn't do that because we had to 'reach out'. Me and Danyon were supposed to just find 7 back up places before next deal lesson however we are being told to do something else and now I am just confused... I am currently not sure what we are supposed to do and today we have gotten absolutely no where.

**D.J** ~

We finally managed to agree upon a plan for DEAL today. Most of our group will be directly working with the elderly, whilst Hayden and I had decided to focus our time on the administrative parts of the work. We had been given the idea initially by Mr, Jilbert although there seems to be a direct conflict of interest amongst several of the other teachers which might create some problems for the future. We had been initially invited to do the administrative work, but our plans may have to change for the future as this doesn't tie in with the whole "Outreach" for the group ideal. We have already found a couple of nursing homes near our school and have a few of our members working on making it sound good. The only immediate problems we face are getting into the facility as it has already been contacted by other groups who may get the preference of the company.


 * J.D ~ **

Our Outreach meeting today was a total disaster in the beginning. Everyone was arguing over the organisations that they wanted to go with, and it wasn't getting us anywhere at all. By the time Mr Jilbert came around to us, we were still arguing, and no one was communicating face-to-face, instead choosing to argue over the internet. Mr Jilbert helped us sort out the situation we were in, and slowly, we started to all talk and agree with the direction we were headed in. In the end, we chose Arcare as our organisation, and Nina and I were put with the task of drafting the email we wanted to send over to Arcare. Alanah, Dylan and Tyrelle had to come up with a brainstorm of the different activities that we wanted to do if we were able to go to Arcare. Danyon and Hayden will probably not be going to the actual place, and will be staying behind to complete any administrative work. Today they were put with the task of finding seven other nursing homes or retirement villages that could be used for back-up in case we're not able to work with Arcare.


 * D.L ~ **

In todays deal lesson we didn't really get anywhere, this was because we couldn't decide what to do and this was causing a lot of tention in the group, most of the group had decided to take part in elderly but their were a few people who were reluctant to agree with us, but in the end we ended up compromising extremely well thanks to Mr Jilbert. After this stage we slowly started to work together and show signs that we were going to do what we wanted, we ended up choosing Arcare as a organization and we were determine to do volunteer work for the elderly and Arcare was the best for our group, we even ended up sending a email to Arcare. Even if we didn't get Arcare we had Hayden and Danyon work on back up plans so we were ready for all possible situations. over all today wasn't the best day because we started extremely slow but in the end we were all working on our parts and it ended up being one of the most productive days we have taken part in today.




 * - 12/06/12 - **


 * J.D ~ **

We only had DEAL for two periods, because earlier today we had exams. It was mostly spent trying to contact Arcare and see what they thought about our email. They hadn't replied to the email we sent a week ago, so we sent another one, just in case. We also decided to call them to see if they had received the email, but the woman on the phone said that someone was still checking it over, and that they'd get back to us. We discussed what would happen if they gave us a 'no', and we looked at the different back-up plans and options we had. Then we brainstormed what would happen if they gave us a 'yes', and we thought of different activities we could do with the elderly if we were able to go.


 * N.G ~ **

Today we had exams so we only had DEAL in period 5 and 6. We had sent our email to Arcare last DEAL lesson but they still have not replied so we decided to give them a call. We called them and the lady who had picked up said that the email had been sent to their head office and will then be sent to the co-ordinator and she will hopefully get back to us. For the rest of the lesson we prepared for the ‘yes’. We planned on what we were going to when we actually got there (as in the activities we were going to do with the old people) and we also tried to figure out a bus route and time to the Arcare rest home in Sydenham. We also planned what days we were going to go there and decided only on tuesdays because we were all unavailable after school and any other days. We also figured out more back up plans and options and decided to wait for another week for them to reply and if they do not we are going to move on to one of the back up plans Danyon and Hayden organised.


 * D.L ~ **

Today we had exams so the only work we done for outreach was in period five and six. In these two periods we tried our best to do as much work as possible. We were mostly trying to contact Arcare for answers because we had sent the email to them the week prior.We made our first phone call to the Arcare head offices and we were that they would get back to us. we discussed what would happen if we got a 'no' and Hayden and Danyon created a list of several different back up plans around our area. overall having only the double period we managed to do a lot of work but sadly their wasn't much progression in our task to get out and help the elderly.


 * - 21/06/12 - **

**J.D ~**

There was a Student Free Day on Tuesday, because teachers were writing reports which is why DEAL today is on a Thursday. We still haven't heard back from Arcare - Overton Lea, so we don't think that they are willing on letting us volunteer at their rest home. For the first part of Outreach, we had our fourth meeting, where we discussed the other different places we were going to call. Nina wrote up a script so that we knew what we'd say once we contacted the other organisations. We considered what they would ask, and what we had to ask them. Mr Jilbert also told us that this would help us in case we actually needed to go to the place and speak to them face to face. We first called up Arcare - Delbridge, which was also in Sydenham like Overton Lea. Dylan asked for the volunteer worker, but they could not contact their co-ordinator so they said that they would call us back. We then tried contacting Arcare - Westwood in Burnside, and we were able to get the volunteer worker to listen to what we had to say, instead of shutting us down instantly. She sounded hopeful in helping us out. She asked Dylan a couple of questions that we had written down on our mock script, and he answered them all. She then said that she would try and get in touch with us tomorrow, so we gave her Mr Jilbert's contact number. For the other half of DEAL in the afternoon, we worked on our Year 9 Outreach Proposal and the Activity Submission form we'd need to fill out to be able to go out of school during school hours. We looked at the transportation prices it would take for us to be able to go to various places. There are many bus routes we could take, and we're trying to find the route that would take the least amount of time and that would cost the least amount of money.


 * N.G ~ **

Today in DEAL we had an Outreach meeting first to sort out what we were going to do. Since they did not reply to the email we had sent to the Arcare organisation like they said they would on the phone call we made to them last DEAL lesson, we decided to call one of their branches instead of the whole organisation. We wrote a telephone script to guide us on the phone conversation so we won’t get lost and laugh like the last time and we also wrote possible questions they could ask us along with some answers so that we were prepared and won’t get under pressure when they fire us with questions on the phone, as well as some possible questions we can ask them if they give us the opportunity. This was quite a big help, since most of the questions we had prepared for had been asked by them so all we had too do was read out the already written answer. Dylan stepped in to do the talking since none of us wanted to, especially myself because I had laughed the last time which was partly due to nervousness. Dylan first called the Arcare in Delbridge but the volunteer leader wasn’t available so he then called the Arcare in Westwood and they had picked up and he said the prepared speech. The people there then asked for our contact details and promised to call us back tomorrow, which is a hopeful sign for us. Since we already did all the preparation for the ‘yes’ we then relaxed until lunch time since there was only a couple of minutes left. In period 5 and 6 we began to do the paper work such as the proposal and the activity and submission form, which must be completed when we get the ‘yes’. These forms talked about our group and what we wanted to do as well as how we were going to get there and how much it will cost, that and many other things. We also figured out our transportation, which is public transport, as in a bus, and we found a shorter route that we could take, because the last lesson we had did find a route, but it was to the Arcare in Sydenham. Now all that is left to do it is to wait for the ‘yes’ and the call otherwise all this work would be quite a waste.


 * T.J ~ **

Today in DEAL, we finally made a brake through! We got through to a company and they said that they will call us back. It's not much of a milestone, but at least our group is making progress. We called Arcare in Westwood drive. The bus ride would take about 30 minutes to get there from our school, and also 30 minutes back. The place where we might be going is in Burnside Heights. We are currently figuring


 * D.L~ **

Today in deal we got the furthest we have ever been. In todays outreach periods we made our first phone call that actually looked like it was going to get us somewhere. We called Arcare in Burnside and the lady I was talking to sounded extremely exited at the fact we wanted to take part in volunteering at their nursing home, the lady said that she would call back so hopefully this gets us to doing what we want. Since we already did quite a bit of preparation for the yes and the no we didnt have much to do so we took a break for a short time of the period. but then in period 5 and 6 we started on some paperwork that would get us out of the school if Arcare said yes. overall today was a extremely productive day and todays lesson could of set us up for the rest of the outreach project.


 * - 26/06/2012 -**


 * D.L~ **

Today in deal we were extremely disappointed when we heard the news that Arcare Burnside didn't call back but we got over it and then called Arcare Burnside back and but we got put through to the Head Arcare Coordinator and that went know where. After this happened we immediatly started looking for a new orgenisation to work with.


 * N.G ~ **

Today during Outreach we did not get any calls back from the organisations we contacted last tuesday so we decided to give up waiting for them, seeing as it was wasting too much of our time and since we had THOUGHT (thought being the keyword) we were thinking of steering our whole group down a different path. We then looked for childcare facilities we could volunteer at and gained a couple of numbers which we could call, but Mr Jilbert then convince us otherwise. He asked us if we had contacted all of the local rest homes, which we thought we had but after a quick search, Mr Jilbert found a couple more rest homes we had not come across. So we broadened our search and found a lot more rest homes, that we had not contacted earlier. I don’t really understand how we couldn’t find them, it was probably because we were targeting the top results and kept getting rejected by them that we got lazy and a little bit sick of getting rejected all the time. So once we jotted down a couple of numbers we could call, we then of course, gave them a call, delivering the speech we had prepared earlier. We were extremely desperate (which was why, as I mentioned earlier, we were thinking of changing our path) since it was the last DEAL lesson of the term and every other group had an organisation at this time, it was a compulsory stage we had to reach seeing as we would actually start going out next term, we really wanted to find a rest home or organisation we could work with. This was not fulfilled with the first few rest homes we called (we accidentally called a real estate agent once) but the last number we had, which was the last strand of hope we had left, we were finally accepted! This was a rest home named Grantham Greens and I had spoken to the person in charge who said we were allowed to help out during August (which was perfect, since this was the time allotted for us by the teachers to go out), we would be helping out by doing arts and crafts with the elderly, but we had to supply our own equipment, only four people were also permitted to go which was another downside but we could just create a routine to figure who goes when, it would be easy to solve this dilemma. We were so happy that we forgot to ask for the important details such as the person in charge’s name (which we then found out later was Kamya), her contact details amongst other important things, so we then called them back to ask to only find a completely different person pick up! This was extremely frustrating because we were so happy of our achievements, only to have them knocked back once more. The person who picked up stated that no one had called earlier asking to volunteer, even though we had just called literally 2 minutes ago. So we then tried to call the same number just in case we dialed it wrong (which I most likely didn’t, I made sure I dialed the correct number before I called) and this time it was the person we talked to earlier! We never felt so relieved in our life and we got all the required details! This was extremely last minute (seeing as we only organised this 10 minutes before home time) but it had to be the most productive lesson this term! What I learnt is to not wait for too long for someone to reply back and just move on, because you waste a lot of time planning and looking forward to something that won’t even happen. So now that we have found a rest home we will be looking to buy art equipment as well as other things we could bring along with us when we go there. We finally have something to be proud of! Yay!


 * - 31/07/12 -**


 * N.G ~ **

Today was been a little devastating and really great at the same time, not only for my group, but for our whole year level. Last term we had been stressing over what organisation or rest home we would be working with, seeing as we were pretty much the only group left out of all twenty four without an organisation to work with, but we managed to solve this ever growing problem and found a rest home called ‘Grantham Greens’ in the last 20 minutes or so before the day ended. This was great but what we were told today made our plans crash and burn. The teachers had told us that due to the law changes made by the Government we are no longer permitted to leave school grounds, which essentially meant that we would no longer be able to do the Outreach program! But the teachers were quick to act and had found a solution to this, which may have benefited others, but not our group. Their solution was an “Outreach Festival Day”. During this day each group would have a stall of their own and in this stall they would be promoting the organisation they have chosen to work with. They would do this in various ways such as raising money or getting people to donate clothes or any other ideas. Seeing as we had not chosen an actual organisation, just a normal rest home, we decided to start again, from the very beginning. You can’t exactly fundraise for a rest home. We gave Grantham Greens a call and explained to them our situation and profusely apologised, but they understood. Once we explained this to them we got back to the drawing board. Seeing as we would be staying at school, there weren’t as much limitations as there was before. At the beginning of Outreach we all wanted to work with animals but age was a problem amongst other things (one that is no longer, seeing as we will be staying at school) so we decided to return to the idea of promoting an organisation which worked to benefit animals. Once we got this idea going, we quickly got over the initial disappointment and started working with what we already had, as in looking for organisations we could possibly work with. Not after long Dylan found an organisation called “Edgar’s Mission” which worked to look after rescued animals. We obtained their number from their website and we gave them a call. We explained what we would be doing to help them (which was to promote them during our Outreach Festival) and they instantly said yes! For the first time ever we got a ‘yes’ on the first go! The person I had talked to over the phone promised to mail us some brochures, flyers and posters we could put up or give out on the day. Now that we had an organisation, all we needed to do was to find out how we could promote them, not only give out posters and such, we needed to think of a creative way to engage people with out organisation and raise awareness! This was very exciting and essentially brought us one step closer to our goals and on day one too!


 * - 7/8/2012 - **


 * H.B ~ **

Today we started on our new campaign for edgar's mission which helps animals we have emailed them a few times and they are going to be working with us.


 * N.G ~ **

I hate to admit but today’s DEAL lesson was a bit of a bludge. We had found the organisation we wanted to work with last lesson which was “Edgar’s Mission” but have still yet to figure out want we actually want to do to fundraise for them. We were thinking of baking cupcakes, but the teacher’s had banned any food form of fundraising since another group was already doing a sausage sizzle, meaning everyone would be spending their money there. Since people would be spending their money on buying sausages this also kind of rules out any other form of money fundraising. We then began coming up with random and a tad outrageous ideas such as a raffle, sponge toss and a lot of other things we quickly dismissed. We then stuck to the idea of buying an animal costume of Ebay that someone would wear while walking around the school handing out things or getting people to go to our stall, but after a lot of argument we dropped this idea also because a costume is way to expensive and we don’t exactly have the money to pay for something that will only be used once, besides if they lead people to our stall, we don’t exactly have anything there to engage them with other then the posters and flyers we are still yet to receive from our organisation. Once we scrapped this idea we didn’t have anything else to run on, so we just left it there for the day. But during this brainstorming time we had called various Petstock’s to see if they were able to donate anything to us which we would then donate to our own organisation, but they had all declined and said they didn’t know or couldn’t. All in all today was all over the place, people leaving for their VET/VCE interviews, phone calling and brainstorming. We didn’t achieve much but we do hope to next lesson, at least we know what we can’t do which will essentially guide us towards what we would do, if that makes any sense whatsoever..


 * - 14/8/12 - **

**20th Man Fund -**


 * H.B ~ **

Today we sat on very uncomfortable chairs for about 2 hours. during this time we got lectured by people about our youth groups and how young people are unintelligent. We also got told about people who became successful after dropping out of school and failing grades. On a more positive note we were told about how they are trying to help young people to have better futures and trying to advise children to stay in school and out of gangs and to have their pathways open in case their first career doesn’t work out. They also told us about how if things were not going okay we could seek help. Pretty much the whole message was that we could be pro-active and help people stay out of jail


 * D.J ~ **

Today we sat through a presentation about the youth of Melbourne and how education affects the way they behave in society. We heard several different people talk about the ways in which the youth could use education to their benefit and the ways that this could be accomplished. We were shown a variety of ways to outreach for the rest of our term, with different events and ideas. The 20th man fund told us about the harshness of the education system and the need to be proactive in our response to youth crime.


 * N.G ~ **

The first half of the day was spent at the youth summit which involved various speakers from the “20th Man Fund” organised by the Miracle Workers. During this we listened to different people who had different messages and experiences to inspire us all. I couldn’t hear very well and I got a little bored, but I was able to take away quite a bit from this experience. The thing that stuck to me the most was the story about the starfish. The main message behind the story was that even making a difference one person/thing counts, it is important. The was a police officer who talked about gangs, Les Twentyman himself who talked about his experiences in this particular field, an ex-netball player, a footy player who talked about how he had to give up particular things (such as a social life) to get far in his chosen career and how the choices you make today can affect you in the future. There was also a speaker from New Zealand and another speaker working with Les Twentyman who came from overseas. They all had different, but at the same time, inspiring messages that we could all apply to real life situations. Thank you to the Miracle Workers who gave us this valuable opportunity.

During the second half of the day we were given time to do our Outreach project. We received the things from “Edgar’s Mission” which they had promised us a while ago but the wait was worthwhile. We received posters, flyers, which we decided to hand out as well as display at our stall. We also received these really cool miniature animal cutouts of a sheep named “Timmy” which has basic information of the organisation. We decided that we would be handing these out to everyone because they look really cute and at the same time informative. We only got a few though so we emailed them asking for more because we wanted enough to hand out to the entire school. Not only had we received the long awaited mail from the organisation, we also finally came up with an idea to promote the organisation, one we quickly agreed on. This idea of course, was animal face painting. This was good because, let’s put it simply here, who doesn’t love face painting? Oh and don’t forget to mention, it’s free! We were thinking of a gold coin donation but it would just lose it’s appeal, meaning people would not come to our stall to get it since they would much rather spend it on the sausage sizzle. So instead we are doing animal face paint to raise awareness for animals. We came up with a couple of animal designs, which we would practice on Jammee. We were thinking of having six different styles to choose from, we will paint them onto Jammee’s face, take a picture of it and display it on our stall for people to choose from. We were also thinking of making animal ear headbands for the people who cannot get face paint (like the people with sensitive skin) out of paper, like for example, bunny ears. We also chose our location during this session, our stall will be placed in front of the year ten lockers, in front of the sausage sizzle which often attracts people, so the people waiting in the line will see our stall, so we are kind of borrowing the people they attract.. This has got to be one of the most productive lessons this term and another plus side is that Mr Jilbert will try to get the school to supply the face paint for us, so money won’t be a problem in this case, thankfully. And for the first time ever we have managed to put our group a little ahead of the others, an achievement I never deemed possible!

**- 21/8/12 -**


 * D.J ~ **

Today in DEAL we received our list of required work that shows what we have to do, and can be used to help us get our work in order. This will give our group a chance to quickly and effectively complete all of the work we haven’t done yet. We also got our rubric that tells us exactly where we need to be, which I feel will be incredibly useful in the weeks to come. Also, we got around our problems of what to do for the stall (well, we’re pretty sure about what to do) and I think we’ll work our way through it all. We also got a lot more things from Edgar’s Mission which we then photocopied and made more of.


 * N.G ~ **

Today we did quite a bit of work. We were introduced to quite a bit of paperwork called the “Evidence Guide” which must display certain things in our blog, good docs, Skype conversations, etc. We completed all the areas we could and became aware of the things we must do to create this evidence. We also received more of the “Timmy” cutouts in the mail from our organisation alongside some more cutouts of a really cute, but at the same time, informative pig. Since these are really cool we decided that we would like to display these on our stall as well, but since they are smaller then probably half the size of your hand it would be a problem. We went down to the library and Mrs Hamill (the head librarian) helped solve this. She helped us blow up the cutouts into bigger size ones which we will hang at our stall. We also thought of the idea of printing out animal footprints which will be sticking up all around the school and if you followed these footprints it would essentially lead to our stall. For the face painting idea we also decided to paint the letters: “E.M.” on their foreheads, which stands for “Edgar’s Mission”. This is another way of promoting our organisation, people would not know what “E.M.” meant so they would have to ask and people would answer “Edgar’s Mission” then someone would say, “What’s that?” And so on and so forth. We cutout the enlarged versions of the small cutouts but we still need to cut out the animal footprints and there are about one hundred of them so we have quite a bit to do, but at least for once we know what we’re doing and what direction we are going in, which is great!

**- 28/8/12 -**


 * J.D. ~ **

Today in DEAL we got to work on our stall for the Outreach Festival. Nina, Alanah and Tyrelle went down to the library and were able to get a bunch of papers that we’d need to make our banner for the stall. The librarian will also let us laminate the papers. Mr Jilbert told us that each of the groups needed to come up with a way of advertising to everyone our stall, each in a different way. We came up with the idea of hanging a banner of our stall at the front gate of the school. We then worked on the banner, and came up with a way of how we can present it. Currently, we are aiming to buy face paint for our face painting idea, and paint for our banners. As soon as we can get this done, the less amount of work we can deal with. I worked on our Evidence Guide that we need to hand in to our mentor at the end of the Outreach Program. We hope that everything will be ready in time for the Festival.


 * N.G ~ **

Today we worked on various areas for our Outreach project. We were given three different parts to complete such as; publicity, evidence guide and the actual stall. For the evidence guide we simply added on to what we already had, which wasn’t much. As for our actual stall, we practiced face painting on Jammee, without the paint, just with paintbrushes, just to understand and know what it felt like to paint on someone’s face. We didn’t do much for our stall, seeing as Jammee had taken the footprints home and cut them all out and we already had an idea of what we wanted to do for our face paint and we also already had all the posters, flyers and cutouts we needed for our stall. But we received bad news which set us back a bit. Mr Jilbert informed us that we had to get our own equipment (as in all the different paints we need). To fix this problem Jammee volunteered to buy the face paint as well as the normal paints with her own money from the Reject Shop but we will all chip in to pay her back. We are getting our things from the Reject Shop because it is cheaper and besides we’re doing the actual face painting for free so you can’t really expect much from us. So by next lesson we will hopefully have all the equipment we need. As for advertising we are not permitted to have the same form of advertising as the other groups and we worked on this area the most, pretty much our whole group did since we didn’t have anything else to do. At first we wanted to be in the bulletin but someone had already taken that. Then we wanted to have an announcement on the school intercom, but that was taken too, then we wanted posters, taken, speak in assembly, taken, put flyers in homeroom tubs, taken, pretty much all of our first ideas were already taken by other groups. After, probably the tenth time, we finally came up with an advertising idea no other group had taken. We decided to make a huge banner which we will hang up at the school gates where everyone can see it. We were going to make it out of cardboard but we didn’t have any, so we decided to make it out of a lot of paper stuck together, which we will paint then get laminated with help from the library, yet again. We came up with a design and stuck all the paper together. We had paint brushes and everything but we didn’t have what we needed most, paint. We were thinking of asking the Art people for some but Mr Jilbert advised us not to so had to oblige. We didn’t have any other choice but to by it ourselves (we were going to ask someone to donate but the process would take much too long which will effect our progress), but we couldn’t exactly buy the paint right that very minute so alongside the face paint, Jammee will be buying this from the Reject Shop too. Not only did we make our advertising banner, we also made the sign for our stall, which still needs painting. We finished this all pretty early in the day so we wasted the rest of the day just sitting around pretty much doing nothing, we didn’t complete as much as I hoped we would, which damaged our progress seeing as we must do A LOT of things next lesson to catch up because the Outreach Festival is approaching, FAST.

Our aim for next DEAL lesson is to finish off painting our banner and our stall sign (which may be unlikely because we have to paint the whole thing black and to paint over this it has to be dry, which may take a while depending on the weather and the amount of time we have, it has to be the first thing we do on that day) as well as have the head shots of Jammee modeling the face paint, which we can do while we wait for our things to dry.

J.D ~

Today in DEAL, we worked on finishing all of the things that needed to be done, ready for the Outreach Festival that will take place next Tuesday. In our previous lesson, we had decided to paper mache and collage our stall sign, in rainbow colours. We finished that today, along with putting up the letters that needed to be on the sign. We had a bit of trouble when we found out that we were no longer allowed to laminate the big banner that we were going to pin up at the front of the school gates. We brainstormed ideas on what we could do to advertise, since it was no longer an option for us to laminate any of our banners. We decided to not throw away the big black banner we had, because we didn't want to waste any papers. Nina and Alanah found cardboard from around the school, and we decided to stick that to the back of the banner to make it more stable. We finished both of our banners today, and hung up the one that needed to be hung, inside the library window, as we don't know what the weather conditions will be like. We got more done today, than we had hoped for. All that's left to be done, is the paperwork, the face-paint, and sticking the pawprints to the ground, for students to follow. Hb~ Today we did our festival and it went very well, we did free face paint and tried to raise awareness for our groups we mainly just did whiskers but we were willing to do anything on request. I think today was the most successful day in outreach for us and probably the only one that I actually enjoyed so far. We did run in to a few minor problems but they were just solved quickly and efficiently.

**J.D ~**

Today we had the DEAL Outreach Festival. We got everything set up in Periods 1 and 2, and our stall was ready by recess, when everyone came out to look at it, We had it running by the time the year 7's were out of their classrooms. Many of the year 7's got their face painted, for free. It was harder convincing the year 8's, but we didn't really get any year 10's who were willing to get their face painted. Alanah and I handed out little farm animals to people, but no one took any fliers and pamphlets from our table besides the teachers. It started raining halfway through lunchtime, so we had to stop what we were doing and pack up our stall. It was a very fun day, there were only a few problems that we had, but we got through them.

** - 9/10/12 - ** ** J.D. ~ ** Today in DEAL we worked on getting our evidence guide updated and ready for us to show our mentor. We had already completed half of the list, so we needed to get the other half finished, and we need to show the evidence of where we got our proof from. We worked on writing a letter to thank our organisation for letting us work with them and explaining what happened on the actual day of the festival, and how we worked on raising awareness for Edgar's Mission. We showed Mr Jilbert the letter for him to proofread and once it was finished, we sent it to him via email. We also made a certificate for Edgar's Mission, and once Mr Jilbert had approved of it, we sent it off to him too. We fixed up any other