Alpine School for Student Leadership 

Hello Koonung community 

We are the 6 students who were chosen to take part in the Alpine School for Student Leadership (SSL).  Our names are Poppy Taylor, Tiana North, Justin Bao, Inara Leeuwenburgh, Harry Veal and Matthew Kealy.  The Alpine SSL is a school where a limited number of students from multiple schools are selected to go away from home and school for a whole term to strengthen their leadership skills. This school is located in the Alpine mountains at Mt Hotham. Our experiences so far have been unbelievably amazing and unforgettable. The Alpine school has been treating us well, filling our stomachs and they have a packed schedule full of fun activities. So far, we have seen so much snow, covering benches and rocks. Even the snow on the ski slope reached up to our knees. It was exciting since some of us or all of us had not seen snow before. Some amazing activities that we all participated in include; LLP day where we each taught mini classes to Omeo Primary School students, community service at Mt Hotham and mountain bike riding. There is also this thing we do called DEARR (Drop Everything And Reflect/Read.) It is where everyone gathers in the dining room for half an hour and reflects on their day. It is like doing a daily journal entry. To provide everyone with a clearer idea of how we spend our time here we have attached some of our DEARR entries for everyone to read with photos attached.   

Friday 5 May - Justin Bao 

Today was like any other day here, great! I had two classes which were mountain bike riding and respectful relationships. Mountain biking was fantastic, we learnt the positions which were going to be used frequently and made me more confident in riding on dirt tracks, something I don't experience living in the city.  This lesson allowed me to go mountain bike riding in my free time with others which also helped me in reaching one of my goals of building my physical capacity and trying new sports. After two sessions of mountain bike training I was able to go with new friends to complete a track around zone 3 (a section of Dinner Plains outside of the Alpine School). It was great in many ways, no-one got hurt and the weather was beautiful. Straight after riding the whole group went on a community walk and in this time my friend and I reflected on the day and what was good about it. A moment of today which was really nice was just having bikes to ride on which I am  really grateful about and also having friends here to ride with. 

Respectful relationships class was actually quite interesting, learning what C.A.R.E (Calm, Accept, Resonate, Energy) stood for. It enhanced my knowledge of what relationships are meant to look like, feel like and sound like.  What I took away from the lesson was a lot of hot chocolate (just kidding) but rather why the acronym C.A.R.E is so important to relationships, which I think would really benefit the SSL community by just making it way more peaceful for everyone including the teachers if followed. I have started being more accepting of others in the community and communicating to more people.  

Wednesday 10 May - Poppy Taylor

Today I had my first CLP class where my group organised what we will be doing for our CLP project and then I went mountain biking where we learnt more skills and completed a track of zone 4. It was so good, I love mountain biking and I'm definitely planning on getting out on the track during free time. Going up hill on the bikes was quite challenging especially on all the melting snow. Some in my  group fell but as a group we all made sure they were okay and able to get back on their bike. In the future I would like to apply the skills that I learnt in my CLP class about teamwork and working productively with the group. 

I would also like to mention that I tried a chicken parma for the first time ever today and I was pleasantly surprised by it, it was very good and it's always very good to step outside your comfort zone and try new things.

Monday 15 May - Inara Leeuwenburgh

Today I was grateful to be emailed a video of my dog playing fetch in the backyard with my dad. I miss my dog (and my family) a lot, and I'm really excited for the visiting weekend because I'll be able to see her for the first time in four weeks. Something that made me smile was having a bunch of little kids give me hugs, and I also enjoyed giving geography trivia questions to one of the kids. 

Something  that I have learnt in my classes that I'd like to apply in the future is that I'd like to utilise people's strengths to give them roles that would most fit their skill sets. I'd like to apply this because it allows people to be more engaged in the project, because it is something they enjoy doing and are good at. This relates to the 'Learning Strategies' concept, because it helps to get work done more efficiently and to a higher quality. 

Tuesday 16 May - Matt Kealy  

Today in class we did a memory test (of some sort). We sat down and looked at the whiteboard where our teacher was presenting a powerpoint to us. He put 20 different words on the board and our challenge was to guess how many we would remember and then see how many we actually remembered. We were given 3 tries and the first try I said I would only remember 12/20 and I did get 12. The second time we talked first about different strategies that people used in the first one. I thought I would go worse because I was thinking of the first words as well (we were given a different set of words) but I did quite well and got 17/20. I didn't change my strategy but I did better. The third and final time I said I could get 17/20 because I realised that doing one beforehand doesn't affect anything. In the end I got 19/20 (so close!!). I did change my strategy this time. I made a story with all the words before they were removed from the board, resulting in my doing better than I did before. The strategy that this falls under would definitely be learning strategies because it was all about  trying new ways of doing things to see what works best for you.  

Tuesday 16 May - Harry Veal 

The most important piece of learning I did today was that I should change up the strategies in which I approach things. From the memory test I did today I discovered a method that works for me was visualisation. I was able to organise two words from one another and then visualise what they would look like paired together, this is a method that helped me remember them. Through the practice of this method I was able to slowly improve, aiming higher each time I did the tests which also made me more motivated. If you aim high you will always achieve more. I also learnt that I shouldn't worry about getting  something 100% right, in maths for example I often spend my time working really hard on one question rather than having a go at all of them in the time allocated. I think this is one of the reason that I don't score as well and is something I want to change in the future. 

Today I was grateful for the bike ride practice and especially enjoyed the end when we were on flat ground. I also did a lot  of fun things with my friends so that was really nice. What challenged me most was the bumpy trails whilst mountain biking. It was very jarring at first but I was able to persevere and felt a lot more comfortable by the end. 

I also found it challenging to keep up with the duties because people kept changing the roles throughout the day and it was frustrating, sometimes it felt like people are so quick to blame others but most of the time we need to just be more supportive. In future I would like to apply the new methods I learned for memorisation into my maths work when I return from Alpine. 

Wednesday 17 May - Tiana North 

I think the most important moment of learning for me today was doing a Health and Wellbeing class. In class we did a CPR session which I found very important because many people who are employed have to refresh their CPR training every year. Cari spoke a lot about why people learn CPR which was interesting. 

Also during morning tea, Cari showed us a short video about a young boy who barely escaped death thanks to Bondi Rescue. It was dramatic but it was good to see how CPR might be used in real life situations. The second session was more hands on as we all practiced performing CPR on a mannequin. The learning concept that related to this class was definitely 'health and wellbeing' because knowing how to perform CPR is a very useful and reassuring skill to save lives if ever placed in that situation.  

Today we all completed community service. Two groups, Loch and Tabletop, both went to Mount Hotham where we were asked to remove some rubbish signs of rubbish dumps. Some people were able to keep the signs. The task itself wasn't much fun but it did help out as it saved others from doing the work.