Stephen's+Reflection+Page

Community Links Reflection ( Salvation Army )
Day 1, Salvation Army – 1st of August We were greeted by the manager and Blake chose to work at the back. That meant that I would go outside to the front, I didn’t know what I was doing but Sue told me to go talk to Yvonne who was outside. I went outside to find Yvonne and saw she was working at the cashier in the front of the store, she told me I would be working as a cashier for today and I was pretty excited. The store was still quiet so she taught me what all the buttons did and even had a fake purchase so I could practice. The rest of the day went really quickly, I become confident using the cashier and could do it on my own easily. Day 5, Salvation Army – 8th of August After my first full week (Friday was Mackillop Day) I knew everybody in the Salvation Army and they we’re all really nice people that I got along with easy. I no longer felt like an errand boy, but like someone who actually worked there as I could do everything they asked me to do alone. I had learnt how to use Eftpos and credit cards instead of cash at the cashier. I had also worked in the back of the store where I tagged clothes with a special type of needle type gun and wrote the prices on small orange tags for the Salvation Army, I had also sorted out board games and other things to make sure they we’re all intact and had all the pieces so they could be moved to the store. Day 10, Salvation Army – 12th of August Today is my last day of work at the Salvation Army their wasn’t a lot to do today as Fridays are really quiet we we’re let out at 1:30 and said our goodbyes to everyone we know, I am really sad because I enjoyed working here and it was much better than school. I have learnt a lot about work and the people who work there as well as responsibilities when it comes to work. I had a lot of fun with my friend Blake and also meeting up with other friends like Harley, Levis, Alex, Carl, Stefan and Aiden during lunch breaks. Melbourne Experience Reflection Day 1 & 2, 8 & 9 /9/11: On the 8th and 9th of September the Year 9’s of St.Marys went on Melbourne Experience, which is where we get to experience and explore the city. We have four tours over two days which include Walk in the park, Queen Victoria Market, Arcades and Lanes and on the waterfront. To get to Melbourne we take the train, the train ride is pretty fun as you can just sit down and talk to your friends about anything without teachers interrupting you or other things happening. After we got off the train on the first day we went to Federation Square where we we’re told who would be going on the tour with us ( Teachers and other student groups ) and anything else we needed to know about the tour. The first tour we went on which was A walk in the park was my least favorite, it wasn’t too bad but compared to the other tours it was just a little boring as their weren’t a lot of shops to visit. The second tour which was Queen Victoria Market was really fun because we we’re allowed to just walk around the market for a few hours, we could chat and look at things and we were surrounded by good food and shops. After we had finished our Queen Victoria Market tour we met up at Federation Square and boarded MacKillop College buses to get back to school. On the next day we had the last two tours which were; Arcades & Lanes and on the waterfront. Arcades & Lanes was the most enjoyable tour, we went throw a lot of small alley ways with good restaurants and also went past some really interesting shops, we did get lost but after we had found the Teachers we explored for a bit and found some really good shops which we spent a while in just looking around. Our last tour was on the waterfront, which was a really short tour even though we had a long time to explore. After we had reached the checkpoint we decided that we would go to the Galactic Circus in Crown and play laser tag which was really fun, we were stopped early by Mia, Stephen and Dale who came to get us as we were going to be late if we didn’t get back to Federation Square. And that was Melbourne Experience.

Reflections
Each reflection is expected to at least 200 words in length.

Week 1
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received? The best piece of advice I have ever received is to treat others how you want to be treated. I think it is a good piece of advice because it can be used in lots of different situations. If you treat others like you hate them it is only normal for them to, either hate you back or for them to think you hate them. But if you change your attitude towards and treat them better they will hopefully treat you like you want to be treated. This piece of advice is so important because if you don't understand how you treating others effects them and how it will change how they treat you then you will lose a lot of friend and you may not be able to make new ones. It also teaches us that we have to respect others always good things will not happen to us which is really important. If I hadn't learnt this lesson I wouldn't have a lot of friends which would mean I wouldn't enjoy High School as much as I am enjoying it now. It would also change my attitude towards life as I wouldn't know why others hated me or what I should do to make them like me again.

Week 2
What would happen if you threw a piece of trash on the ground? What if everyone did? If I threw a piece of trash on the ground it wouldn't really effect anything as one piece of trash wouldn't do a lot. But if people saw me doing it and decided that they could do it, then that's when problems occur. If everyone started throwing their rubbish and trash on the floor and around them, then animals and plants would start to die slowly. Not only that but if trash was everywhere then diseases would surely start to spread and people would start to die. It starts with one person throwing trash out and it then becomes a ripple effect with everyone else deciding that bins are useless and they just start dropping trash everywhere. As more people started to do this world wide animals and plants would start to die. If livestock started to die from all the diseases spreading we would have no meat, eventually plants would all wither away and die and then we would have literally no supply of food. So if we all started to just drop trash on the floor, even though it doesn't really sound realistic we would all eventually die including animals and plants. A huge ripple effect but one that is actually real and happening.

Week 3
What would you do if you saw a friend cheating - report it, confront the friend or nothing - and why? What do you think courage means? What do you think makes a good friend? If I saw a friend cheating on my report on any one else's I wouldn't report it. Although after the test I would make sure to confront my friend about how copying answers from others including me is really bad. The reason I wouldn't confront my friend in the middle of a test is that, even though I was confronting him talking could get me referred which would mean I would fail the assignment and he might too. I wouldn't talk to a teacher because friends are friends, and I'm not one to betray a friend because he might fail the test even though he only copied one answer or something like that. Courage means standing up to others, although it is portrayed as standing up for what you believe in courage doesn't always have to be about beliefs. It can be fighting off robbers or defending the people that you love. A good friend is someone you can long amounts of time with and still enjoy their company. They have to stick by you and not just leave you randomly, you can also talk to them about anything that is on your mind because they will not think it is weird and they will also not tell anyone.

Week 4
What is your most indispensable possession and why? It thinks my most indispensable possession would have to be my laptop. I got this laptop recently and I love it, unlike the family's computer I don't have to share it wit h anyone so I can personalize it to be how I want it to be. I can customize it so it will reflect my mood which makes it a personal item, also I can bring it anywhere I go and I can do work or other things on the laptop any where in the house which gives me another level of freedom. Also whenever I get bored or just need to cool down I can come into my room and listen to some music or watch some videos on my laptop, I can also play some games if I'm really bored or just surf the web even if I don't have a topic. Also having a laptop all to me means I can use it all the time and when ever I want because no one else needs to use the laptop. My laptop is an indispensable possession because it allows me to do all the things I like doing in the privacy of my own room or where ever and when ever I want.

**Week 5**
What do you think about people polluting the environment? A lot of the people who pollute the environment don't know they are doing it. People who work at a nuclear fuel plant don't really think about the bigger picture and all the pollution they create. Their job is to control the Nuclear Fuel and that is what they do. I don't believe it is right to hate them because they help in polluting as it's their job and their way of making a living for them and their family. But for the other people who knowingly pollute the environment I look down on them. This could be people who fall asleep with their T.V on, or that don't turn their computers off when they go to sleep. It's not like they could possibly use it while they were sleeping so why should they leave it on? It's people like them who I look down on, to look down on the average Joe because his works for a power company that is polluting the environment would be wrong. Most of the times it's not even him that does the big polluting, instead its all the people who don't care about the environment and think that they are more important than anyone else so they ignore pollution and just do what ever they want. A lot of the people who pollute the environment don't know they are doing it. People who work at a nuclear fuel plant don't really think about the bigger picture and all the pollution they create. Their job is to control the Nuclear Fuel and that is what they do. I don't believe it is right to hate them because they help in polluting as it's their job and their way of making a living for them and their family. But for the other people who knowingly pollute the environment I look down on them. This could be people who fall asleep with their T.V on, or that don't turn their computers off when they go to sleep. It's not like they could possibly use it while they were sleeping so why should they leave it on? It's people like them who I look down on, to look down on the average Joe because his works for a power company that is polluting the environment would be wrong. Most of the times it's not even him that does the big polluting, instead its all the people who don't care about the environment and think that they are more important than anyone else so they ignore pollution and just do what ever they want.

Week **6**
How do you feel when you do something wrong? How do you feel when you do something that is very good? When I do something wrong I feel a bit anxious. I get butterfly's in my stomach and get a bit worried about what is going to happen, but if I do something wrong knowing that it is wrong I don't really care and just go on. When I was little I was taught good manors and things like that so when I do things wrong I expect punishments, or at least something bad to happen to me as something bad things usually do happen to me. Also when I do something bad I think I feel anxious because I am really just waiting to be yelled or for someone to be disappointed with what have/haven't done. So as I am waiting I feel anxious because I am wondering how the person or people will react to what I have done and I am also trying to figure out what's going to happen to meWhen I do something that is very god I don't generally speaking feel a sense of pride, if this makes sense I usually feel confident because when someone asks me what happened I can firmly answer them knowing that I have done nothing wrong so they can't do anything about it.

Week 7
I wish there was a law that said... This would be a good law because... I wish their was a law that allowed teenagers to get jobs at a much younger age. Even if the job didn't was just some sort of fake government program it would allow us to earn a bit of money at a younger age. It would teach us to be responsible with our own money - In introducing this law we would also be able to get a key card much earlier so we could have the money put into a card which we could draw from. Apart from teaching us about being responsible with our own money it would also allow us to have more things to put on our resume. A blank resume of working experience compared to two years at the 'Government Shop' as it would be called would give us a much better chance of securing the job. You could start the job at the age of 13 and you would earn only three dollars an hour. When you are 14 the pay would rise to five dollars an hour but it wouldn't increase, when you turn 15 you are no longer allowed to work their and have to move to getting a job outside of the store and in the real world.

Week 8
When you are angry, how do you look? When are you happiest? When have you felt lonely? When do you feel proud? When I am angry I look frustrated, but most of the time I'm just emotionless. Although a lot of people would go 'red' or do something else for me I just get a blank kind of face as if I don't care. But inside my mind is on overdrive thinking about what this person has done to me to make me so angry at him, I don't know why I choose not to show anger but I feel that showing nothing at all is more powerful than being angry. I think I am most happy when I am with good friends outside my usual environment, sure hanging around your friends at school is cool and them coming to your house is nice. But when you are in main street just walking around or if you go to a place you've never been to before it is just the best experience you could have. Sometimes I feel lonely when I am in my room just using the laptop or my iPod, I don't socialise a lot with a big group so when I'm not with my close friends I feel a bit lonely. When I feel lonely in my room it is usually because I'm not socialising with anyone so I will usually just go outside and talk or go on a website for a bit. I feel proud when I have done something good or when I backup a friend. Backing up a friend who's in a bad situation and pulling both you and your friend out of the situation makes you feel proud because you know you have done something.

Week 9
Which quality do you dislike most about yourself - laziness, selfishness, childishness - and why? The quality I dislike most about my self would have to be my laziness. In fact I hate the quality and wish I could just get rid of it. By nature I'm pretty active and I even play a sport, but when it comes to work of any sort I find myself lazy and unable to motivate myself to do the task. Even if I am not doing anything at the particular time, or am just lying down on my bed when I realise I have work to do I just ignore it and leave it till later. No matter how organized I could possibly be the thing is I never stick with my plan or organized table so being organized doesn't help me as I am to lazy to do anything in the first place. When it comes down to boiling point I do the work that is required, but I never do it earlier than it is due. Take this assessment task - Wikispaces, it is 9:20 PM on a Thursday night and I have probably working on this since 6:30 PM. It's not that I couldn't have finished the five question I had left to do in less than two hours, it's just that I couldn't motivate myself to do it so I was sidetracked and played a lot of games which distracted me. Once I start playing these games I become to lazy to lazy to restart my work and then I have to really focus to restart my work.

Week 10
Why do you think prejudice exists in the world? To be honest I have always wondered how it came into existence. Why would a human treat another human differently because they are a different race to them or even because they are a different sex to them. It's weird because the people you grow up with and around are usually caring and loving and you wonder how they could ever be prejudice towards anyone. Usually the people you grow up with aren't prejudice in any form so when you go to school you don't even know what it means yet alone think you would experience it at a safe educational place. But as you grow up you realise it is everywhere and that as a child thinking the world was perfect you were really just being naive, which is sad to say as I'm sure many people would hope that it would not just be a dream for their child. Prejudice first really came into this world a long time ago, I my self wouldn't know when or where it started and I'm guessing that no one knows when it started to the exact date. But the biggest prejudice we have seen in Australians history would definitely be our early years we're Captain Cook and his pioneers killed the Aboriginals of this land and they were stated as Flora and Fauna in the law.