Gariwerd Program

Here are some photos of the school and dormitory building that we will be staying in.

You can also check out some other pictures of China here.

We are off to China! We’re leaving on the 8th of September and coming back in the middle of October. 6 weeks. I’m really excited that I got the opportunity to go on this trip as a staff member and I can’t wait to get there.

The things I’m really looking forward to are:

• Seeing the looks on the faces of the students when they first get to China and when they experience all sorts of different things like the food, the night markets and the Chinese students.
• Working on the projects with the students and even starting my own project. I’m not sure what that will be yet, but I’ll come up with something. I think doing some focused research while in China will be a really great way to get to know the community that we are living in. I’ve never done this sort of thing in China before so I can’t wait to see how it all works out.
• Heading out to night markets again. I love this part of China! The streets are never quiet and the best times to be out are in the evening when you can go to markets and bargain for things and just soak up the amazing atmosphere.
• Eggplant in Fish Sauce! One of my favourite dishes. 
• Being back in Nanjing and getting to know the city again. I lived there in 2001, but that was a few years ago now and I know that Nanjing has changed A LOT in that time. I have been back very very briefly since then, but I’m really keen to have a look around and go back to the Uni I lived at and rediscover some other places.

Ok, now it’s your turn. Leave a comment below letting everyone know at least one thing you are really looking forward to.

I’ve put together this slideshow of some photos I took when I was in China with Hawkesdale students in September 2006:

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When we met in Ararat, you started a reflective journal about the trip and your experiences preparing for it, taking part in it, and returning. I’m going to keep a reflective journal too, here, on this blog. On the Ning network that you should all now be part of, you can publish some of your reflections, or you can keep them in your journal. Remember though, that at some point, actually I should say, at several points, we (us staff members) will want to read some of the things you have written.

Here is a document that has some hints and prompts for writing a reflective journal.

On Monday June 16th almost all of the students who are going to China met at Ararat Secondary College for a day of getting to know each other and finding out more about the trip. We started off by playing ‘Monkey King’ and trying to learn how to say ‘What’s your name?’ and ‘My name is…’ in Chinese. The game was just a touch silly, but that was the point! At least we had a few laughs.

Peter then spoke about a few different aspects of the trip and the students asked some questions. Then, lunch with the project groups before we were all part of a focus group. Deb, who ran the discussion, asked some great questions about what the students have given up in order to go on the trip, what the most important things they think will get out of it are and a few other things.

It was really interesting to hear that gaining more independence and self confidence are what seem to be foremost on the minds of most of the students going.

Overall, the day was a great success and I am looking forward to meeting up with the group again, especially with the students from Stawell who weren’t able to be there that day.

The only bad thing about the day was the I totally forgot to take any photos or video! I won’t forget next time!

Just so you all know how hard we are working, here is a picture of Andrew, Peter and myself having a meeting about the student day at Mt Cole where I was on school camp. We talked about what we would do when we met all the students, and a few things that we wanted to do when we were in China. We had to laugh at the fact that we were talking about our coming trip and visiting places like Shanghai, whilst sitting in a little cabin with no running water or electricity on a mountain in Victoria.

If you are working on your application over the weekend, make sure you check out the Project Ideas page.  If you need to talk about your application at all, then don’t hesitate to leave a comment on this post asking for help and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

The call for teachers to apply to be part of the Gariwerd International Program is out. You can download an Expression of Interest form here, or by going to the Forms page.

Teacher Expression of Interest Form

Student Application forms have now been received by all schools involved in the program. It is up to each school to make these available to their students and to manage their own selection process. All students need to be selected by Friday May 23rd. A student meeting will then be organised for sometime in very early June.

If you need another copy of the application form, you can find it on the Forms page.

Welcome to the Gariwerd Program blog! If you’re here it means you are student who is interested in taking part in this fantastic opportunity or a teacher who will be involved. Please read the About This Program page if you haven’t already received the initial information and application forms.

On Monday May 5th teachers in all the program schools will receive via email an application form to give to interested students. Included as part of the form is a Parent/Guardian consent section. Student applications CANNOT be considered if this form has not be signed and attached to their applications.

At this stage there are places for 4 students from each of the 5 schools involved. Each school can then waitlist 1 or 2 additional students. If one school does not fill the quota of 4 students, then the remaining places will be allocated to other schools.

Teachers will then select participants from their own schools. Any remaining places will be reallocated to other schools.

There will be in information day for Program staff on April 23rd, venue TBA.