SAIL Program

Newsletter 10

June 2002

CAMPS

The dates for the camps these holidays will be – 1 – 5 July, and 8 –12 July. Noah is currently planning the camps, and as more about them becomes concrete, we will let you know, so you can have a better idea of what to expect. Could any tutors already interested in coming on the camps please send an email detailing their availability to , or call and let Anna Grace know – 9489 5939, 0438 895 144. As tutor positions on the camps will be limited, preference will be given to those tutors who have been longtime SAILors. There will be another camp in September, so anyone who misses out this time will still have an opportunity to go. We hope everyone understands this.

LIABILITY QUERIES

At the forum two tutors raised concerns about the safety of the students in tutors cars and with regard to the road outside the church. The council have been unable to provide a sign for the latter problem for regulatory reasons- so it seems that until a fence can be built we will all have to take responsibility for this safety concern. Both queries require a far more detailed response than a newsletter allows for however, a good source for those concerned about our legal rights and responsibilities is a book published by the Law Foundation of Victoria entitled Teachers, Students and the Law.[1]

FIRST AID

The First Aid kit is in the library, in a white plastic rectangular case on the high shelf above the Dollshouse. Remember that if anyone is bleeding, you should wear gloves when cleaning/dressing the wound, even if it’s only small.

NOW THERE’S NOTHING BETTER THAN A DIRTY NAPPY

There is now a baby change-mat kept in the library, and disposable nappies and wipes. Tutors of adults with babies may want to find and locate these, and point them out to their students. If a sibling or parent is unavailable, and the tutor feels simply unable to complete the nappy changing challenge, they can give the offending child to Anna Grace who will do the honours.

WELCOME STRANGER EVENT

On World Refugee Day , the Refugee Council of Australia is hosting a star-studded affair - an evening of music, performance and entertainment. Several SAILors have been invited to take part - Tolien, Dalia and Tina will be reading a statement on refugees by Kofi Annan, and Poly (SAIL tutor and parent of Ronald and Lawrence) will be performing his poem, 'Sad Departure', for which he received much acclaim at a recent Actors for Refugees event. The evening, titled Welcome Stranger, will be atChapel Off Chapel, 12 Little Chapel Street, Prahran onWednesday 19th June from7.30pm.

UPCOMING VISITORS

Thanks to Jacqui and Min for their terrific Integrated Learning suggestions. We hope that next term Jacqui's Indonesian drumming and martial arts group will pay us a visit, as will Min's friend who is one of the best magicians around! If anyone else knows of a performer, group or activity that they would like to see visit or become a part of SAIL, please let us know.

Forum success

Two weeks ago we were privileged to receive some words of wisdom on working with special needs students from the Honorable Tim Burch, SAIL tutor, special educator and all-round genius. His handout is included in this newsletter. He urged tutors to focus on the ABCDE of tutoring – to be Aware, Brave, Caring, Dedicated and Enthusiastic. His advice can be applied to both adult and child students. A few key points raised by Tim were:

PRAISING – Always be warm, encouraging, supportive and praise our students. It is wholly possible to praise effusively without sounding condescending, so it works for adults and teenagers too. Almost without exception, the students lack confidence in their ability to read, write and/or speak English (although a lot of them mask this by acting cocky or like they ‘don’t care’!), and will benefit enormously from receiving reassurance from us that they are doing well. We need to understand that they might be embarrassed about their level of English, so support all their efforts and improvements no matter how minor. If we are feeling unenthusiastic about a particular activity, but we feel like our students need encouragement in the area, Tim says – smile and fake it!

PLANNING AND VARYING – Churning through 10 worksheets a week is going to get old fairly fast. Tim gave us the rather scary statistic that a child’s attention span is roughly their age x 2. So, prepare enough activities to be changing as often as is necessary in the hour and half we tutor for (Tim said the expression on the faces of the tutors with five or six year olds was rather amusing at this point). Of course, we don’t have to stick to this exactly, but it gives some indication of what we can expect from a child student. There is a list of activities on the sheet attached. Tim is happy to answer specific queries or suggest a few activities, and Matthew and Anna Grace can always be asked (or emailed/called if things are hectic!) and have plenty of good ideas for things to do with students.

DEALING with DISTRACTIONS– If our student is easily distracted, unsettled or upset by others, we should make sure we tutor away from them. If they become distressed or anxious when they are too far from family or friends, we should try to stay near people who make them feel comfortable. Work away from noise and rowdier students if necessary ie. in the church or the rooms at the back of the church. Change activities to keep things fresh, but not so much that they are scarily unusual. Be patient, remind them to focus and keep on task. Set realistic goals – eg. it might be impossible to read a whole book, so read half each, or read short poems or rhymes.

HAVING FUN – don’t be afraid to make an idiot of yourself. Find interesting, unusual and exciting ways to learn. If you feel like you are struggling to make any kind of connection with your student, take the time to play with them or get to know them as a friend/buddy. Once they like and trust you, it will be easier to begin learning together as a team.

Keep warm, keep healthy and keep coming.

Please accept our ongoing thanks for SAILing with us!

[1] For the record the author, Andrew Hopkins is AG’s father and the researcher, Matthew Albert is some uni bum who wanted the experience. Please note that this is the first footnote in a newsletter. There will be an anniversary celebration of this event in about a year!