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Reflections

Each student will build their own page for the purposes of Reflection. This is because when two students are using the same page at the same time the page will not save properly.

Each week for 10 weeks you will need to make a reflection about your experiences. Each reflection is expected to at least 200 words in length.

The topic or questions you are asked to reflect on at listed below. Copy these questions to your individual reflection page.

** My experience at the Salvation Army ** Over the two week period I and Stephen worked at the Salvation Army Thrift shop, I have picked up new skills such as working the cash register and interacting with customers. The experience was enjoyable for me because I got to experience work for the first time. I hope to continue working there as a volunteer. I enjoyed the hour to an hour and a half lunch breaks and going to McDonalds. Some of the people that Stephen and I served where really poor and some of them where creepy. Most of the people where quite old but where relatively nice. For the first week I worked at the back sorting coat hangers and pricing cloths before hanging them up. Most of the days were very quite. Not many things to do apart from cleaning up the shop. Everyone who worked there was extremely nice and patient. A lot of the work was easy and fun. Some of the time it was boring and there was nothing to do. This may be because they had enough staff to occupy all the jobs and tasks. Most of the people that worked at the Salvation Army where volunteers apart from the manager. The second week was a little more outgoing. I worked mostly as the cashier at the register. I picked up my role as the cashier quit easily for most of the time it was attending to the needs of the costumers. I found the second week was better than the first because it was more independent and that made it easy to know what to do if you finished with your previous task. I enjoyed catching the public bus to the Salvation Army everyday. It was new and I never used to use public transport. The whole experience was thrilling.

Week 1
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

The best piece of advice that I have ever received is not to go overboard with a joke. What is a joke to some is not to others and can be constituted as bullying is the joke is offensive in any way. Everyone has a different sense of humor which can affect how certain types of people take a joke. People of other genders and races can take offence to jokes that you may find funny. Also there is a time and place for a joke. One example of this is in the middle of a conference or a serious meeting, if someone started to make jokes the other members in the meeting will believe that you are no taking the meeting seriously. I have taken that advice on as much as I could since grade 5. Knowing when to stop a joke is a valuable thing for a joke can also get out of hand. Jokes are funny in small quantities. Too much of a joke can make it not funny and in some cases it can bully someone. A lot of trouble can be caused from a simple joke. People can also perceive a joke wrongly such as lying in some cases.

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 I fear it would impact on the environment around me. If everyone did I believe that lots of animals would die and the environment would be destroyed. Some of the animal habitats would be destroyed and some animals could be extinct. The impact could be far less intense if it was just me littering but if everyone did it, it would make the area in which we littered very messy. Germs and infections could spread rapidly and could result in human deaths as well as animal deaths. The pollution would eventually become unlivable. I think that us as a race has to be smart and innovative with our rubbish for it could quickly become out of control. What we are doing currently to sustain the environment by burning the rubbish is making the environment worse. New ideas such as recycling have made rubbish a sustainable form of pollution. I it was just one person like me for example that threw a piece of rubbish on the ground the impact and effects could include; an animal dieing, a habitat being destroyed, a place looking in a poor state and people could get a disease from the bacteria that would grow on it.

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 in a test or assessment I would report it and confront the friend to tell him to think about what he is doing and that there are only cheating themselves. I would do that because I think that nobody should cheat. Its pointless and they learn nothing by copying from others work. If somebody cheats there not only not learning anything but they also don’t ask for help and there for wouldn’t know what to do. Some people that cheat don’t see what is wrong with it because their friends let them do it so much that they think that its normal.

- I thing courage means for someone to do something brave that not a lot of other people would do. to be courageous means to think out side the box. This might include if someone where to be the first to rock climb because the others were scared.

- What I think makes a good friend is somebody that always has your back and supports your decisions. A good friend wouldn’t bully or harass you in anyway. Good friends would help you with work and also listen to what you have to say. Good friends usually have the same interests.

Week 4
What is your most indispensable possession and why?

My most indispensable possession is my iPod because every time that I have nothing to do I usually use my iPod for entertainment. It holds all my favorite songs so when I am in the car on a long flight I plug in my ear phones a listen to my music. I also helps me when I want to quickly look up something on the internet but don’t want to have to log onto the computer and wait half an hour before I can search something. I chose my iPod before everything else because it is one of the things before I had it was what I really wanted. Sometimes when I cant sleep I use it to watch videos and its also what I use for a camera. Without my iPod I would be bored quite easily. I use my iPod for downloading applications and songs which I don’t have. This is very useful because it is a hassle to get these things from the computer because you would have to use your credit card but with my iPod I can use my prepaid iTunes account to instantly pay for it. For these reasons I have chosen my iPod to be my most indispensable possession.

** Week 5 **
What do you think about people polluting the environment?

I think it is an issues that more and more people need to look at as it is becoming a big issue and it needs to be dealt with. More and more people are not doing anything about it. Julia Gillard has clamed to reduce the affects of pollution but introducing a carbon tax. In my opinion the carbon tax is going to do nothing but give the government a lot of money in witch that they will do nothing with. I believe that pollution can not be avoided and is not likely that somebody will find a solution for it, although that may be the case I still believe that we can reduce out foot print. By this I mean we can leave a less of an impact on the world, pollution wise. Currently the worlds leaders are finding new and improved ways to improve how we impact on the earth. I think if we as a race can think together and band our ideas as one that we can achieve less carbon and non carbon pollution. Such things that could improve in our society is that all people should change cars to something that has a less impact such as an electric car or grease fueled cars. This is because cars have one of the most devastating effects because they are driven in very large numbers.

Week **6**
How do you feel when you do something wrong?

How do you feel when you do something that is very good?

I feel really bad when I have done something wrong. I feel like I have let people down and that I shouldn’t have done what ever I did that was wrong. On the other hand we can all learn from our mistakes. When I do something wrong I get a guilty conscience and that makes me feel bad. I don’t usually like to do things that are considered wrong. I generally like to do things that are good because I feel proud of myself. When I have done something very good I feel on top of the world. I feel like I have achieved something very spectacular. It is always a good feeling for me to do something very good because I always have a buzz, meaning that I feel like I could do anything and that I would be amazing at whatever I have done that was very good. When I do bad things I feel that I have to do more then one good thing to redeem myself as being good in the first place. The feeling of being good is a brilliant feeling that is something that I would defiantly rather than the feeling that I would have after doing something very bad.

Week 7
I wish there was a law that said... This would be a good law because...

I wish there was a law that said no harming or verbal abuse towards children, and if you fail to do so there should be a large penalty. This would be good because children do not deserve some of the punishment that some unfortunate children get just for making some little mistakes. Also some children are too young and most do not know better. Adults should not touch their children in any way deemed harmful otherwise penalties such as jail time or a big fine should apply. I think that if this rule were to apply there would be less child abuse. These things such as child abuse often happen at home. In result the child could end up being distracted in class and also could be come shy. This could effect his social abilities and the way the child would interact with someone. The parent should also not only have the child taken away but should also be given 5-6 years jail time. This implement in my opinion would greatly reduce child verbal abuse in Australia. This would be a good law because the penalty for just normal child abuse is not an example for the rest to follow. Abuse such as cursing and tormenting a child would fall under this category.

Week 8
When you are angry, how do you look? When are you happiest? When have you felt lonely? When do you feel proud?

I get angry when I am ignored. The feeling for being ignored by your friends is a terrible feeling and should not be done on purpose to annoy another person. I look angry by scrunching my face and becoming silent. If I was getting ignored I would make it more obvious that I was there. I do this by talking really close to them or moving them to they realise I am there. I am most happiest when I am at home because that is where I relax and I am comfortable. It is also better when there is nobody there because it is quite. I used to feel lonely when I was home alone but now I like it. Being at home is for me relaxing and enjoyable. I feel most proud of myself when I have finished a big task. These tasks could include assessment tasks and tests that I have done well in. I am even more proud of myself when I have tried really hard to go beyond the required expectations. Some results I am most proud of is 98% in ICT for making an original game. Getting high scores for tasks makes me feel proud because I feel like I have deserved it.

Week 9
Which quality do you dislike most about yourself - laziness, selfishness, childishness - and why?

I dislike about my self is that I am extremely lazy and childish because that is a huge draw back from my personality I like to be funny but I adapt to other peoples humor so I find something they find funny and act like that around them. Some of the personalities I adapt to is immature and childish. These personalities I don’t really care for. I don’t dislike them nor do I like them. I only like to make people laugh and enjoy themselves which can also distract my concentration and stop how I work in the classroom. I am not that good around a lot of people because there are too many personalities to adapt to. I also dislike how I am lazy because it stops me from doing a lot of things and I don’t like to miss out on an experience. Laziness stops me from being fit. It’s a struggle to go for a run and for me to complete work like assessment tasks and tests. This is why I don’t achieve the marks I aim for. These qualities are the hardest qualities to live with for me because they distract me from a lot of things and good marks.

Week 10
Why do you think prejudice exists in the world?

I think prejudice exists because people have be born with insecurities. They don’t know haw to go about their own problems to they find others and use it against them. They do this by not letting them get a job because of the way they look or even as small as the way they move. I think that prejudice exists in the world because people are born like that and have nothing else better to do. Prejudice to me shouldn’t exist in the world because they can make people feel more insecure about themselves and they feel that they have done something wrong and attempt to improve but they are improving on nothing, its just that some people have problems such as prejudice who judge people by something that they can not help or change because they were born like that. If I could remove some of the things in the world one of the things would be prejudice people. They are very insecure about themselves. This maybe because the person cant help that they are prejudice or they have unresolved issues that they should have dealt with from their childhood or recently.

Melbourne experience For Melbourne experience we were put into groups of three and given a two tours to go on for one day. There where two days in which we were at Melbourne. All up there was four tours and we did two tours a day. The tours included a walk in the park, a walk near the water front, a tour around the Queen Victoria Market and Arcades and lanes. On these tours we learnt a lot about poverty and homelessness that affects Melbourne. Some of the values we learnt at Melbourne experience where very valuable.

Day 1 On day one Stephen, Carl and I went on the walk in the park tour. I was real easy and interesting to be left alone with no teachers to help. After the walk in the park we went to the tour called Queen Victoria Market. This is where we were able to buy things from the stores set up by the people.

Day 2 On day two the group and I went firstly to Arcades and Lanes where we walked around the hart of Melbourne and went into every little shop we found. The last tour we did for Melbourne Experience was called On the Waterfront. On this tour our group went to Crown Casino where we played a game of laser tag.

Finished. :D