Group+23

=*** Maple Axe Met** * = Ema Nymton, Sum Yunguy, John Citizen, Jane Doe

Organisation and Shared Values
** S ** upport** - H **ope** - I **nspire** - N **urture** - E **mpower http://www.shineforkids.org.au/

We originally planned to be working with Make A Wish but that didn't really work out, so we stuck to our back up plan SHINE for Kids.

The foundation that we all wanted to collaborate with is the SHINE for Kids Foundation (: We all share these same 3 values:  - Family  - Equality  - Care

=
Our aim and purpose is to make sick children's wishes come true. We also want to remind the children who are sick of what hope and joy means in their lives. We are determined to help and do whatever we can to put a smile on these children's faces. We also agreed that every child deserves to live a normal and happy childhood without any barriers to hinder their experience. SHINE for Kids has mutual values that Shooting Stars share and we are extremely passionate and determined to try our best to make a difference in their lives. We believe every child deserves to be happy because you only get to have your childhood once. We are aiming to make the kids at SHINE for kids happier since their parents are in the jail. =====

Desired Outcomes:
By the end of our out reach program we hope to have at least granted one child's wish, Although we hope to help much more kids. We want to see smiles on the children faces because see happy children makes us happy. We want to make a change and give hope to kids who are suffering a chance to have fun and also relise how lucky and fortunate we are.

Questions you need to ask and answer:
- What are some of the children's wishes that are achievable for us to make it come true? - Even though we are not 18 yet, are we able to still volunteer for your organisation with a parent's or teacher's consent? - What are the requirements to be a volunteer? - Will we be able to visit and work with the children every Tuesday? - What are some specific jobs we can do to help? - How many volunteers will you be able to take in at a time? - What are the hours for the volunteer work?

**Documents:**

Google Doc https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ewpeM0QhvlmyIB9dTOGnDEoTvKI8SAOgAgAQQVVXUNw/edit?hl=en_US

Google doc for Communication: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gea50eh3tW2pypXZXdvMy4p26ldg-2oIOtEnB7z4m-0/edit?hl=en_US

Google Docs Proposal: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ivAUh9872hAm_Y0mwS61rS0QEDqstiAwPXWZIeAvPnQ/edit?hl=en_US

Blog Starters
These question stems and sentence starters are being used in a variety of ways to have students reflect on their learning. 1. Link directly from your class blog homepage to this page and have students copy and paste question stems to their blogs. Remember to encourage variety. 2. Teachers copy and paste a question stem to their blog and have the students respond. 3. Print out the complete set and have the students glue them into a reference book to be referred to. > .......(learning/concept)...........is important because....
 * **NB** To all these questions the answers - '...because it will be in the test', 'We'll need it when we get older' or 'Mum or Dad think I should know this stuff' are all**completely WRONG!** ||||  ||
 * * Today I explored................ and found....................
 * I think it is important to know about...........because...
 * This new learning will affect me in the following ways...
 * Today I discovered.......... and.....
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">With the learning I did today I will be able to...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today I learned in (Literacy, Numeracy, Languages, Social Studies, Music, Art, Science, Drama, the playground, online, the library etc. )
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The most challenging thing I did today was...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today I found out...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I want to know more about ... and I will find out more by firstly................. then .............. and perhaps...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today I asked... and discovered...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The work we did today built on the work we did .....(insert time)..... in that it...(explain how) ..............,
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">At the end of today I am still uncertain about... I get the bit about... but need to clarify the bit about...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I smiled today when...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today I explored....... and feel........
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I believe...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My understanding of........... is...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The learning we did in ................ relates to our previous learning in the following ways...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The difference between .................& .................. is........
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I left class today knowing several things that I didn't know when I arrived this morning..........(list them)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I can now explain why ... it....
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After today's lessons I can explain how... it.....
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">When faced with not understanding a concept my classmates can do three things. They can...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I will use the the skills gained in .........................today in my everyday life (list the ways) .....
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The biggest obstacle I overcame today was......... I did this by.......................
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I think the causes of....... are.....
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(insert famous person) would say that... (insert issue/concept/learning) is .... because......
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I agree with the statement '.................' because...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I disagree with the statement '.........................' because ...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I would like answers to the following questions...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I know ..................... because...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I could use these strategies to solve the problem of...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I feel that the six most important learnings from today in order of importance were............ because...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In my opinion the following changes need to be made ...................... as .....................
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The consequence of the changes I have suggested would be...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The strengths and weaknesses of ................................................. are...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I wonder how .......?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I wish.........because...
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I feel............... because.... ||

Example Blog
6/9/11

6/9 NT (Nike) - The first thing in deal today we had worked on our outreach programs and went through what we have done in past few lessons.The General Missioner From the western bulldogs had came to talk to us about the Western Bulldogs outreach programs. He gave vital information about how to start our outreach program. He showed us Statistics on different stuff like people with no internet and different refugees from all over the western suburb. He also showed us a peace group football team of 15-16 year old Jewish and Muslim people and told us how brave they were in giving a say to others that they do fit in to our society .Then we got into big groups and did activities with the different teachers. We had worked on teamwork, tips on how write a good email, phone manners, respect when approaching other. In the teamwork group we had Mrs Saunders and we had built card houses in a group to see how good our teamwork was. Then we went to the group on tips on how to write a good email with Ms Williams, We went through stuff we should and shouldn't write in the emails. Then we went to the group where we had learnt Phone manners & Meet and greet tips with Ms Pham, Ms Jusup and Ms Elmer, in what we should to impress the person interviewing you. Last with Mr Jilbert's group, we learnt how we should approach the people who are accessible and different terms who should call them by.

6/9 PK - The first thing that we were asked to do for DEAL in the morning, was to update this blog. We were required to fill in all the information that would show which organisation we're doing. Then at around 10am, a representative from the Western Bulldogs Football Club came and talked to us about the community services they provide. They are known as the 'community team' for the AFL and are called the 'Western Bulldogs Spirit West'. He talked about what they do with the community and how they're helping other people who are a less fortunate. After that, we came back from recess and had a rotation group with each of the teachers. First off, we were with Miss.Jusup and Miss.Pham, and they were showing us how to communicate on the phone with the organisation. They showed us how to and not to talk, how we should behave and what we should and shouldn't say. Next, we went off with Mrs.Saunders and in our group, we were required to each build a house out of cards. We weren't doing so well at the start but then we all managed to co-operate with each other and worked quite well in building the house. Mr.Jilbert was next and we were given a few documents on how to act around other people who have a disability or have an illness. We were told not to treat and speak to them any differently and just treat them like how you would treat anybody else. The last rotation was with Miss.Williams. Miss.Williams taught us how to write a smart and professional email to the organisation that we would have to contact in the future. She taught us what to write and what not to write and also how to format the overall document. She told us not to over complicate things and to keep it simple and brief - The KISS (Keep it simple, stupid). After this, a few people who won the Pythagoras puzzle competition had their hot chips lunch, hehe :) I know it has no relevance to DEAL but a few of us have been waiting for this day..haha! Anyways, after lunch, we came back to class to be told to fill out a proper proposal on Google Docs to show to the organisation. It was pretty much the same as what we had to do in the morning and we worked on this until the end of the day.

6/9 JS - Today in Deal class we met Chris from the Western Bulldogs Club. He is the General in charge of the Western Bull Dogs. He talked to us about what the western bulldogs do for outreach programs. They support these events for Israelites and Palestinians kids who are less fortunate then us and they give food and sponsor for them when they play footy. Also he told us statistics about the Western Community. He told us things such as that Only 47% of the Brimbank Community has internet. After that we did a group rotation to help us with Manners, Respect, Teamwork and Emails. Ms Pham helped us with manners when were talking on the phone to a foundation. Things that we should do are : speak clearly, be confident, the only contact information we should be leaving is our school number. We learnt new things about teamwork and that one person shouldn't be doing all the work and that we should be patient when working together. Mr Jilbert taught us things about respecting other when talking to them. So stuff like we shouldn't be acting as if a disabled person is stupid we should just treat them normally and have fun with them. Lastly Ms Williams gave us some tips on how to write a letter. One thing i found very important in a letter is to keep it short and clean.

6/9 NT - For DEAL today we had to work on our DEAL project to organise how we are going to achieve our mission. To help us with our project we had The General Missioner from the Western Bulldogs come and talk to the year 9's about how his organisation works. The information he shared gave us ideas on how to start our outreach program. In our groups we rotated around and learnt skills on communicating with companies and other people (mostly to adults). These activities include teamwork, email, phone manners, meet and great and respect when approaching disability. For teamwork we had to work in our groups and create a house of cards. This activity helped the group with the skill teamwork as we reflected on what we were doing and how could we improve on the particular area. In the email activity Ms Williams gave us her tips on making a good email when sending to a company or organisation. I learnt to be straight to the point and not too make it too long. With the phone manners activity Ms Josip and Ms Pham showed us the right and wrong way to talk to an organisation/company. Ms Josip and Ms Pham also showed us how to approach the organisation/company. For our last activity we learnt how to act when meeting people. We especially focused on how to act when meeting people with disabilities or sickness. Which helped our group because the people we are working with have either sickness or disability.

6/9 KS- Today in preparation for our outreach programs we got together into our groups and starting writing ideas about what we want to do to help out the community and the organisations we have chosen. We also had a guest speaker come in today from the Western Bulldogs Football Club. He talked to us about how the Western Bulldogs help out the community and work with the different types of languages. He gave us some starting points and tips for our projects, which helped to get all of us on the right track and an idea in what do start with. We later got into groups that helped us in knowing how to communicate with each other and with others that we will be working with as well. We started off at Miss Jusip and Miss Pham's group where they role played a conversation on the phone and pointing out the dos and don'ts when talking professionally on the phone, as well as in a face to face interview. Then we headed off to Mrs Saunders's group. We had to work as a team and build a house of cards, every member in the group had to contribute to the task. We all learnt who could cooperate as a group who cannot. We then went to Mr Jilbert's group where we read some document on dealing with children with disabilities for then when we head out to hospitals or charities etc we know how to deal with things and how to approach them. After Mr Jilbert's group we headed off to the last group which was Miss Williams's group. There we learnt how to send a good email and the differences between emails and letters. We learnt how to approach this in a professional way and in a way that wouldn't seem that we were just year 9 students. I learnt K.I.S.S which stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid, you need to keep it simple and straight to the point when writing emails because you don't want bore the companies either. After lunch we came back together into our groups and worked on a google docs page were we were to fill in our groups aims and purposes and what we want to gain out of this project. We also asked some questions that we can get answers as the projects goes on.

13-9-11

13/9 NT (Nike) - Today in deal we had watched videos of a group called PlayingForChange who are a group of musicians from all over the world combining togother to do covers of songs to help raise money for their foundation. I believe this is a great way to raise money because its entertaining, the songs are meaningful and they are helping the people who are in need. After recess we had watched a movie called Pay it forward. This movie was about a 12 year old boy named Trevor who was given a task by his teacher in social studies. Trevor had came up with this idea of passing it forward, it is concept that you help 3 people and that person does it for 3 other people etc. Trevor's had 1st passed it on to a stranger on the street who was homeless and from there i just grew bigger. This film was depicted by the novel Catherine Ryan Hyde. This film has inspired many people around the world to pay it forward and there is now a a world wide foundation called Pay it Forward movement. Then we had listens to songs that help with outreach.

13/9 NT - In DEAL today we watched a few videos that tries to send a message to the world about their outreach. On one of the videos a group of people from all around the world sang the song “Stand by Me”. These videos we watched gave us students inspiration for out outreach project. Watching the video gave me the message that whoever you are and wherever you are, you can still make a difference to the world or the community. Everyone can help the society by giving items to the less fortunate or even just giving their time and effort to the disadvantage people. Everything you give of yourself is appreciated no matter how small or big it is, as long you are putting the effort to make a difference. After watching those video clips we watched a movie called “Pay it Forward”. This movie is about a 12 year old boy that was given an assignment to change the world. His idea was called the ‘pay it forward act’ which is doing a random act of kindness to someone without expecting something in return. After that random act of kindness the person that received it must pay it forward to three other people. We watched this movie to inspire us and give us the message that anyone can help the society in many different ways. This movie clearly represents what our outreach program is about, to help the community focussing mostly on the less fortunate people. After the movie the class were asked to find meaningful songs that have something to do with what we are doing. For example the class sang “We are the World” by Michael Jackson. We chose this song in particular because the message this song tries to say is that everyone is the same and everyone should be treated with respect.

13/9/11

Jon S. Today in deal there was a lot of fun and exciting things we did. At the start of the day we watched a group called PlayingForChange on youtube who are professional musicians from all over the world. The sing and do covers of songs to raise money and the songs are very meaningful towards how the world reacts and co operates. After that we watched a movie called Pay it Forward. This movie was about a 12 year old boy named Trevor who started a craze ‘ pay it forward ‘ .Instead of paying back your deeds you would pay it forward to a different person. He did this to three other people and then those three would give it to other three and it would spread like wildfire.Afterwards we had a singing sesh. Where we were just singing random songs for some reason. So then Ms Saunders thought it would be a good idea if we sang a song in front of the school for assembly but we didn’t want to but she blackmailed us into it.

20/9 NT (Nike) - Today in deal, we only had 3 people present in our group due to SACCS athletics carnival so it was only Kimberly, Pauline and I, Jon and Nathan were at Athletics.We had to fill out a survey for Ms Revelman .In the beginning we had worked in our groups and went over what had happened during last weeks lesson because Pauline and Kimberly were away because of reflection day, then we had went over what we have done overall as a group and started up our back up plan just incase we couldn’t get our desired foundation and also started writing our proposal for the Make a Wish foundation. After this we grouped up in a circle and had Soap box, each group had gave a rough idea on what we have done, how our groups are working as a team and what we are going to do next. After recess we had guest speakers come in from Crc Sydenham Bonnie, Olga and Maria to talk about community service and helped us with outreach programs. Olga was the team captain and she and talked about what she does and also what the school does to help the community. Bonnie had talked about her experienced about helping the floods in Charlton. She had went with 5 of her friends and the flood relief group to help rebuild and clean up. She had told us a story about helping a old lady because her house that she lived in for 55 years had been destroyed because of the floods and they accomplished their goal by fixing her house. Maria was the last speaker that came, she had talked about how she got into community service that she only picked community service to fill her elective spot. She had helped a lady who was from Germany and this lady is always happy to see Maria and talk to Maria when she needs someone to talk to. Then we had our meeting with Mr Jilbert and he just talked about the Pros and Cons about our sight and told us what we need to improve and what we have done really well.

20/9 PK - Today Nathan and Jon were absent due to the SACCS event, which left only Kim, Nike and myself to keep working on our project. The first thing we did in the morning was fill in a survey for Mrs. Revelman. After that, we kept working on our project and organising what we needed to do. We had a Soap Box, which meant that every group will have a representative that will talk about their progress. Kim was the one that spoke for our group and Mrs. Saunders asked everyone questions such as: “What has your group done so far?”, “Does your group work well together?”, and “What are you going to do now?” and more. So far, our group has decided which organisation we’re going to do but there’s a barrier that might hinder the process. We wanted to work with The Make A Wish Foundation but we have to be 18 or over to do so and none of us are even near that age so we might not be able to volunteer. We then thought about looking up another organisation to work with, just incase this one won’t work out. During the Soap box, we listened to how everyone is doing with their projects and what they’re up to. After the Soap box, we had recess. When we came back from recess, we had guest speakers from CRC Sydenham. 3 girls that were involved in the community services program came and talked to us about the who, what, where, how and why. Olga, the social justice captain talked about what they do and how she’s already been involved in a few organisations before being in the social justice team. 2 other girls, Bonnie and Maria talked about how they’ve changed while doing this and what they benefited from being involved in community services. Bonnie volunteered for the victims of the floods and she spoke about how she helped someone else who was in need and how good it made her feel. Maria talked about how she volunteered to work at a nearby nursing home and how that changed her perspective and views. She spoke about how much these elderly people have been through and how they’re all alone now, and it made her appreciate her family and what she has more. They all spoke about not go give up when things get hard and just keep persisting. They said that this was a good R.E. subject to take in year 12 and I think I would definitely get heaps out of this subject. It made me think deeply about others and how lucky I am to be in the position that I’m in right now. Mr. Jilbert then talked to the whole year level about the check list that he put in every group’s page which would then be assessed later on in the year. It’s kind of like the assessment rubric. After that, we had the interview with Mr. Jilbert who happens to be our mentor. We spoke about what we can do if we can’t go along with our original plan and he suggested the idea to think outside the box. He said that perhaps there are things we can do from school that can still help the foundation even if we’re not a volunteer. We recorded all this down as a source of evidence for our Google docs. We tried to get the proposal done today and also worked on a backup organisation. We haven’t quite decided anything yet since 2 members from our group are away and we need everybody to agree in order to continue. After that, we had lunch and when we came back, we worked on our blog and our proposal more. Kimberly was in charge of finding a few more backup organisation, Nike was in charge of thinking of ways we can help outside the box and I was in charge of the proposal, and we pretty much just did this for the rest of the day.

20/9 KS- Today we all got together again to work on our outreach programs. In the morning we got a chance to figure out what we we’re going to say in the soap box. Then we finally got in the soap box. In the soap box we sat in the briefing area all together as a year level and listened to each and every group explain what they were up too and what we could do to help them out. We all sat their listening and giving our peers support. After recess we came back together and we had three students from Catholic Regional College Sydenham that are a part of the social justice group. They each talked about their experiences in the group and where each of the do or did community service. They each explained how the started off in the group in and they are going now. There was a girl named Bonnie and she did a program the help out some of the Victorians that were victims of the floods. She explained how this experience affected her and how the satisfaction that she got out of it. They also gave us some ideas on how to fundraise for our organisations. We next met up with our mentor, which for our group is Mr. Jilbert. Because today only Pauline, Nike and myself were here to work on our projects it was only the three of use in our meeting. He gave us some idea on how to make our wikispace more interesting and how to give more information. He got me to record our conversation for then our group could then go back later and refer to it if we forget anything that he said to us. He told us to look on our page and to see the check list that would be able to look at and fill in as time goes by. All the things on that page are the things that our group and us as individuals will be assessed on. Then after lunch we came back and again we got in to our groups. We each took on a different role. Pauline worked on the rest of the proposal that we would send the organisation that we want to work with, which is the Make a Wish foundation. Nike was in charged of thinking outside the box. So basically he was to think of fundraising ideas to send the Make a Wish foundation for then we can help in a matter where they would be able to gain out of it. Then I was in charged of finding an other foundation or organisation that we would be able to help just in case that the Make a Wish foundation doesn’t get back to us or tell us that we can’t help because we’re not the right age. Thats pretty much the only thing we’re worried about right now. Once Pauline was finished with the proposal Nike and her went to go show Mr Jilbert and he approved. PK - This week's blog was so detailed! You included so much information and I'm sure Nathan and Jon would learn heaps from this because they were away for SACCS.

11/10 Nathan Todio - This was the first Deal class for term 4. Our group first discussed and found out that we have a long way to go according to Mr Jilbert. We had our first interview with Mr Jilbert and he gave us some suggestions and feedback was that we have to work as group more better and gave us steps to take to reach our goal. This feedback was very useful and gave as ideas on what we should do next. So the first thing we did when we got back was to plan to contact our organisation (Shine for Kids). The group decided to send our proposal through email. After that we just discussed what we will be doing when we get there. Now we are just hoping that this organisation will reply to our email and give us an opportunity to fulfil our goals.

11/10 PK - Today was the first DEAL class for term 4. We all got together and realised that we still have quite a long way to go. We had our interview with Mr.Jilbert and he said that we need to start working better together as a group and be more focused on our work because we were so behind. A few other groups are already that stage where they were able to contact people and organisations and we were kind of not near that yet. We all took that into consideration and worked better than (I think) we ever had as a group today. Kimberly and I managed to go over the email for The Make A Wish Foundation and we sent that in today. Because we might not be able to volunteer for them because of our age, we decided to work on another back up and we chose Shine For Kids. We sent a proposal for that organisation as well. After that, we worked on what Kim was going to say if we decide to call the foundation(s) while Nike, Nathan and Jon worked on ideas for what we might do when it’s actually time to go out there. There is absolutely no time to waste anymore because term 4 usually go the quickest and we need to get this done. We now have to wait for either Make A Wish or Shine For Kids to reply back to us and we’ll see how we go from there.

11/10/11 JS- Today is our first DEAL lesson for the term. It was a pretty productive day and we did a few things. We got together and recapped about all the things we have done about our project up till now. We had a interview with Mr Jilbert and he thought we needed to work a bit harder. He thought we needed to stay on task more since we have not even made contact with our Foundation ( Make a wish and Shine for Kids). Pauline and KImberly went over the email we were going to send to the foundations while the boys worked on a new email for shine for kids. After that pauline and kimberly continued to work while the boys were getting ready for camp.

11/10 KS- Today was our first DEAL session for term 4 since the holidays. We got together and started working on our outreach programs once again. We then had an interview with Mr. Jilbert to discuss what we had done so far. He told us that we should have been working on these programs a bit more and putting more effort into them. He recorded the conversation for then we can keep record of our assessments and we can also refer back to them. We then went back to keep on working and I have to say we all produced a good amount of work by the end of that period. When we came from recess Pauline and I worked on the two emails that we would send to the Make A Wish foundation and our back up plan, the SHINE for Kids. Mean while Nike, Jon and Nathan were working on were trying to come up with ideas on how to entertain the little kids if we were the visit them in the hospital or anywhere else. Once we sent the email to both of the foundations we all felt a big relief to finally say we have done something and we are trying to get back on track. We all hope to hear from them very soon for then we can figure out what we can do. I hope we can keep working like we are as a group and that we figure out if we can get somewhere with this program.

18-10-11 NT (Nike) - Today in deal we had got in our groups and worked on our outreach programs. We had received emails from make a wish and Shine for kids foundations. We have decided as a group to choose the Shine for kids foundation because they provide more opportunities for the kids. We then had a meeting with Mr jilbert and we had showed him the responses from both foundations and he liked our progress of our of group. We then gotten permission to call SHINE for kids and we had called them but the person we were looking for wasn’t in the office at the time and they said she would call us back.

18/10/11 JS - Today in deal we had got into groups and worked on the usual. Today we got lucky and got a email sent back to us. It was from the Shine For Kids foundation and we thought as a group it would be a good idea to send back a email to consider different ideas of what we could do to help out at there foundation. We then had a interview with Mr Jilbert and showed him responses from both of the foundations. He was quite pleased with the progress we have made during the week. So now we have gotten permission to call the office back and co operate what things we are going to do when we are at Shine for Kids. Sadly Kimberly who was on the phone calling Shine for Kids the lady who sent us a response (Louise) wasn’t in at the moment so we couldn’t get in contact with them. Although we were told that she would call back. After that we just brainstormed and continued updating things on our communication and wikispaces page.

18/10 PK - Today in DEAL, we all got together and Kimberly and I informed the others of the e-mails that she received last week while they were away on camp. We got a response back from both Make A Wish and Shine For Kids. Make A Wish suggested that we hold a fundraising event to help and we didn’t really want to do that because it seems boring. Shine For Kids on the other hand, seemed really interested in our project and were excited to work with us. We all 100% decided to work with Shine For Kids. Our next step was to call the foundation and organise when we can start working and visit them. Since we already figured out what she should say on the phone last week, we just copied and pasted that into the discussions page for Mr.Jilbert to look at and give us some feedback if we needed it. He gave us the ‘go’ and Kim did all the calling. The lady we wanted to talk to, Louise, wasn’t in yet so they said she will call us back when she comes in. After that during period 3 and 4, Kim had to go pack for camp so it was just Nathan, Nike, Jon and myself. We pretty much just worked on our blogs for the rest of the day and I am still waiting for the call back as I am writing this blog.

18/10 Nathan Todio - Today in DEAL I was informed that we received an email back from the Shine for the kids foundation. We sent an email to two organizations Make a Wish and Shine for Kids. Both organizations replied to our emails but it was clear that shine for kids were more excited for us to work with them with the positive feedback we received. So as a group we decided to pick Shine for Kids as we thought it would be the best decision for us. The next step was to call this organization and plan a meeting so we can discuss and start working for them. We talked to Mr Jilbert first and he helped us for what to say before we actually called them. After the meeting with Mr Jilbert he gave us the ‘okay‘ to call Shine for Kids. We chose Kimberly to call the organization. So we called Shine for Kids but the lady we wanted to talk to, Louise, wasn’t in today so they said they will call us back when she comes in. For the rest of the day we just worked on our blogs.

25/10/11 JS - Today in for deal there was a variety of things that was completed throughout the day. The first thing we did was have a house meeting for the CRCCS swimming carnival. We had the meeting because we needed people to choose there events for the carnival. I had to pick a lot of events because no one was participating for the events. Overall i was doing 10 events and thought that was pretty cool. After that we went back to the year 9 area and wrote up our term 4 goals. I thought a goal that i really had to achieve was the ‘pass all my exams goal’. Since last year i could not achieve that goal. At recess the students of year 9 prepared snacks and food for the teachers to celebrate the Universal Teachers Day. 4 of the students came up with a little speech to show our appreciation towards there hard work that they have done for us this year. It was great fun and then we went back to work on our outreach programs. Our group was trying to get in contact with Louise but it was hard because she is hardly ever in on Tuesday. So our group wrote up email and sent her details about discussing what we can do to help out and possibly meeting up with her in person.

25/10 PK - In period 1 and 2, we had the house meeting for the annual swimming carnival. We then got into our groups for Friday’s Cultural Cliques Immersion and we were told what was going to happen on that day and what was required of us. After that, we spent about 15 minutes doing our goal settings. This Friday was the World Teacher’s Day and because we have our excursion on that day, we decided to celebrate it for the teachers today. We then got into our groups and continued working with our outreach project. We called Louise again who is the in charge of the child and family section. We called the Shine For Kids office but they said that Louise wasn’t in and we also tried her cell phon e but she didn’t pick up. We decided that she will probably always be unavailable on Tuesdays, so we wrote her an email asking when we can call her and discuss about our plans and meet-ups. In the meantime, we updated our site since we’re no longer working with the Make A Wish Foundation anymore and went through the criteria checklist to see what we have and haven’t done as a group.

25/10 KS- Today we started off the day by getting into our House Groups in preparation for the house swimming carnival. That pretty much took up period 1 of today. Then in period 2 we focused on doing our goal setting for term 4 for then they can be put into our reports. We had a meeting with each of our Culture Cliques groups for then we could get information for the excursion. We also had the teacher’s morning tea this morning for Universal Teachers Day or something like that. When we came back from recess and we went into our Outreach Program groups. I tried calling back Lousie Billman the Child and Family worker for SHINE for Kids. We have been trying to get in contact with her for about two weeks now but we haven’t been able to. Then Pauline wrote an email for then we can email them. Once we sent the email to Lousie. I started to look though the assignment criteria to see if we’re on the right track.

25/10/11 NT (Nike) - Today in deal we had a lot of things to do throughout the day. The first thing we did was have a house meeting for the CRCCS swimming carnival. This meeting was to choose our events we wanted to do on the day. I chose to do 5 events most of them were novelty events as i am not a very good swimmer. When we had gotten back from the meeting we had worked on our term 4 goals and updated from the goals from term 3 and seen if we had achieved them. After goal settings we had another meeting with Ms Costantino about the cultural cliques excursion and we had to give an order to what we wanted to eat from either pasta or pizza and also went through what we were going to do through the day. Then after that we had gotten into our outreach groups and had a quick meeting. After that we had set up for national teachers day and we had collected all our food and drinks. We had then surprised the teachers as they came in after lunch, we then ate all the food. For the rest of the day we had worked on our outreach program and organised what we were going to do for future events.

8/11 PK - Today in DEAL class, we continued working on our outreach program. Kim didn’t get a reply back from Louise so we thought we’d call her and ask what’s going on. We called her and she didn’t pick up so then we called the office. The person that picked up told us that Louise was making her way to meet us and she would be here sometime soon. We didn’t know that she was coming at all so we were unprepared and we didn’t get her anything. Thank gosh Mrs.Saunders came to our rescue and gave us a pack of 5 Fererro Rochers to give to her. During the interview, she further explained to us what Shine For Kids is all about and what they do to help the children. They specialise in helping children who has parents in jail or who has some trouble with the law. She told us that the office was very excited when they received our first email. Shine For Kids thought that we could do something with music, like a battle of the bands with the schools nearby or in the CRC community. She had a step to step do list for us and we were excited with the whole idea of it. We then told Mr.Jilbert about our interview and he said we might not have the time to complete everything. I then got kind of stressed out because we only have 2-3 weeks left on this project and I really want to get this done. Kim sent in an email telling her that we might not have enough time and instead suggested the idea of volunteering for a Christmas party or event that they might be hosting. Nike, Jon and Nathan went to this thing for drama in period 5&6 so it was just Kim and myself. We just decided to fill in the assessment sheet and that was pretty much all we did this week.

8/11/11 JS - today in deal class we were hoping of getting something back from louise. We called the office and surprisingly were told that she was on her way to the school this very instant to discuss matters about our project and what might be suitable for us to do. We had a conference meeting with her and our group and she told us many things about Shine for Kids. She was also offering us an idea to have a battle of the bands. Which was quite challenging and extraordinary but our group was to in the moment to really think this through. We had little time, hardly any money and exams to worry about as well which was told to us by our awesome teacher Mr Jilbert so we decided to reconsider. Instead we were thinking our doing this Christmas event that we will host. After that i went to rehearse for my Drama Performance.

8/11 Today in DEAL we finally met up with Louise from SHINE for Kids. She come to the school around 10am today. Mr Jilbert booked the conference room for then we could go in there and talk to her. During our meeting she explained to us that the children at SHINE for Kids have parents that are in prison. She explained to us more about he organisation. Then she gave us the idea of holding a Battle of the Bands between either the CRCs or the different schools in Caroline Springs. She also gave us another idea to be able to fundraise for the organisation. We could get chocolates and sell them to the people at the school. After recess we came back into brainstorm other ideas.

8/11 Nathan Todio - Today in DEAL we had a meeting with Louise from Shine for Kids for the first time. We were all excited to meet her as she was very excited to meet us to. We met her at the office and the office lady lead us to the conference room where we can discuss what we could do to help the organization. At the start of the meeting she explained what kids we will be working with and she specifically said that we will be working with kids who's parents are in prison. We were expecting to share our ideas with her, but instead she gave us ideas herself. These ideas were having a battle of the bands with other schools of our choice. Another choice was to sell chocolates to fundraise for the Shine for Kids organization. After the meeting we told Mr Jilbert about what we have been told by Louise and we were really excited to start on the idea of battle of the bands. However, when we informed to Mr Jilbert about the battle of the bands idea he told us that we may not have enough time to create. So we went back to as a group and brainstormed ideas for the group.

8/11 NT (Nike) - Today in DEAL we had a meeting with louise from SHINE for kids to talk to us about outreach. We were all exited as this was the opportunity to gets some ideas to what we can do to help these kids and the foundation. We had a meeting in the conference room during the 1st and 2nd period. She had talked about what we could and she had suggested a battle of the bands and we agreed. After the meeting with louise we had a meeting with Mr Jilbert and discussed about our meeting. We had then relised that we didn't have enough time to organise the battle of bands. So then we had discussed what else we could do and also sent her an email what else we could do for the foundation.

15/11 PK - We realised that today was our second last lesson for DEAL and we still had quite a bit left to do, especially in regard s to our criteria sheet. We needed to get our sheet done as we don’t have that much time left. We assigned the amount of boxes to fill in equally amongst ourselves and we got straight to work. We needed to focus and pay all our attention into getting this criteria sheet done. This was our main focus for the day. We realised that we also didn’t have evidence for a lot of these parts so we made some of the evidences on that day. We worked harder than we ever had before. We realised how important this was and we figured we should’ve probably started working on this earlier. We pretty much just worked on our criteria sheet for the whole day. I managed to fill in all my boxes and Kim and Nike also finished theirs as well.

15/11/11 JS - Today was basically one of our last lessons for Deal. So today we really needed to work as hard as we could to get all the criteria done and completed. We split the criteria evenly and did 4 boxes each. We had a lot of the criteria to finish so it took a while. Mr Jilbert was thinking that we shouldn’t go along with her idea of the battle of the bands because it would take up to much time and we only have 4 weeks of school left. So we sent Louise a email about our own idea of giving in christmas gifts to the children and play games with them. She gave us a response saying that it was a pretty good idea and she would talk to her manager about it. So then we made a back up plan about our transportation of how we could get there. All of our parents are working during the day so getting a ride there wasn’t a option. We found how to get there by taking the bus and the train. Although we were more interested in finishing our actual project.

15/11/11 NT (Nike) - Today in Deal we had worked on our criteria sheet as we relised this was the second last DEAL class to work on our outreach. We still many work to do in this criteria sheet as we have not completed much. We had to provide evidence so we had checked our skype conversation, our google docs and the wiki to look for some evidence to put into our criteria.

15/11 Nathan Todio - Today in DEAL we realised that this was our second last lesson and our main goal for the day was to get everything done especially the criteria sheet, as we have not yet started. So we equally assigned boxes for each other and we got straight to work. As a group I can say we worked really well together as we figured how important this assignment really was, with the little time we had. After we finished the criteria sheet the teacher gave us a reflection sheet to complete. This reflection sheet asked us questions like what we could do to improve in future and what we thought of the outreach program.