Cultural Experience #2

We embarked on a 12 hour tour of Victoria's top attractions.  We were able to visit a chocolate factory, winery, scenic overlook and beach full of penguin's all in a day!  Our first stop was Paddy's Amazing World of Chocolate.  Here we saw a mosaic of Dame Edna made entirely of 12,000 chocolate treats and design our own chocolate goodies.  After the sweets, we were on to more savory fare at the local vineyard and winery.  We sampled five different types of wine and a variety of breads, cheeses and fruits all native to Phillip Island.  Before going to see the penguins, we stopped off at an area known as "Nobbies," the southern-most tip of continental Australia.  We saw fur seals swimming in the frigid waters and squinted to see Antarctica in the distance.  The highlight of the tour was the penguin parade where we got to watch hundreds of little penguins waddle ashore at dusk.  This cultural experience was a highlight of our time in Australia!  

Koorie Heritage in Melbourne

Our first adventures in Melbourne took us to the Koorie Heritage Trust and Cultural Museum.  This organization aims to protect, preserve and promote the living culture of Aboriginal people of south-eastern Australia.  We learned the motto of the trust: "‘Gnokan Danna Murra Kor-ki’ which means "Give me your hand my friend."  Like us, the docents at this center believe that education is the beginning to a bridge between the cultural and socio-economic gaps in our communities.  The Trust conducts many programs in Indigenous education.  The goal is to develop an understanding of the contributions from the many culturally diverse groups that make up the Melbourne community.  Students learn about how changes to Indigenous people and environment are still occurring.  This experience reaffirmed the importance that culture plays in our own students' lives.  We see value in working to sustain the rich heritage of the families within the Clark community.  We were showered with literature and resources from our gracious hosts.  These will be so helpful when we share the research findings with our colleagues.    

Invisible Parent Researcher interview with Kate Senior

We were fortunate to speak with one of the lead researchers in the Invisible Parent Project. Dr. Kate Senior invited us to her home to speak  about her research on the involvement of parents in the school setting and it's effect on students academic growth. She stated that the conclusions from the research is that parent engagement at school had little positive impact on students academic achievement. They used research from three aboriginal schools in Australia. One of the schools she and her associate studied was Karama Primary School, a school we were fortunate enough to visit. She was very knowledgeable about the educational system in Australia and was able to answer several of our questions. We were thrilled to be able to speak with Dr. Kate Senior. Our original grant questions are leading us into many other avenues of inquiry that we had never thought about before engaging in this fact finding mission. We are very grateful that we have been given the chance to study the Australian Educational system. We are now in Melbourne continuing our quest for information on the educational system with emphasis on Indigenous Education.

Experiences in Darwin

We are having a fabulous time in Darwin between learning about literacy practices  and meeting the students we have really enjoyed ourselves! We are realizing that our worlds are more similar than we ever imagined in the field of education. It is fabulous to see the NALP in action in the classrooms. The students are fun and seemed to appreciate the attention from us as Americans. They want to share the work they are doing and have many questions for us to answer. We spent the day at Karama Primary School watching and participating in lessons in the classroom. WE are about to embark on another day with the kids today and meet with a professor from Charles Darwin University to learn more about the Invisible Parent Project. We are all looking forward to meeting with her. We have had incredible cultural experiences while here experiencing a culture that is very laid back and carefree. We have been greeted very well and people seem to really enjoy having people from the states here to entertain. WE are leaving Darwin tonight at 1:45am to continue on to our next leg of the journey Melbourne. This is an amazing experience! Debbie has handled driving on the wrong side of the road fabulously well and Traci and Lisa have navigated. We are looking forward to learning more about the educational system here and comparing the similarities and differences with our own school.

Cultural Experience #1 Blue Mountains Tour

Our day began by boarding a tour bus at 7:30 am for a day-long tour of the Sydney area.  Our first stop was Featherdale Wildlife Park.  While there, we got some awesome pictures with 'roos and koalas.  Debbie met face-to-face with an emu who tried to eat her park passport!  Thankfully, a young child on our tour was able to come to the rescue.  Traci could not be of any assistance due to her intense fear of birds.

After Featherdale, we stopped at a waterfall overlook and saw some amazing Australian scenery.  Our next adventure was at Scenic World where we were able to walk through the rainforest and ride the world's steepest railway in Katoomba at the base of the Blue Mountain region.  We took lots of pictures of the Three Sisters rock formation and learned the Aboriginal Dreamtime legend of its origin. 

We were afforded some free time in a mountain town called Leura.  We perused a local bookstore and bought some books detailing Aboriginal culture.  We can't wait to share this with our students back in Oklahoma. 

Our bus then toured Sydney's Olympic Park before taking us to a cruise ship.  We travelled back via boat up the Parramatta River to Sydney's Darling Harbour.  During our experiences, we have sampled some locale fare including kangaroo, emu, crocodile, and of course the hometown brews and wines!  :) 

We were exhausted from our day's adventures so got plenty of rest last night and are preparing for a day of shopping in the local markets today.  We are excited to explore the Aboriginal artisans work in an area of Sydney known as The Rocks.  Look for more posts soon...G'Day Mates!

Visit to Tranby College 6/9/11

We ventured out to find Tranby College in Glebe, NSW.  After getting on the city bus THE WRONG WAY we finally got our bearings straight and found the small Aboriginal college.  We met with the Director of Student Services, Blanche Lake.  Very knowledgeable and gracious with her time with us.  She shared the history and plight of the Aboriginal people and how the college was founded to enhance and empower the indigenous people.  Very impressive school.  Then we met Rowena, the college librarian who was a plethora of information as well.  Both ladies are truly committed to the indigneous people's needs and concerns.  Blanche is an indigenous person and attended Tranby as a student before becoming a fulltime employee.  We saw many parallels between this program and the issues found in our own classrooms in Tulsa.  There were several connections between the Civil Rights Movement in the US and the Reconciliation efforts in Australia.  There was even a picture and quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Tranby Library, very befitting for the mission of their work.  It was a thought-provoking day for us and we can't wait to assimilate our experiences here with our teaching practices.  Australia has a very rich history and we are truly enjoying the opportunity to learn more about it.

Sydney!!!!

We have been a little surprised and frustrated at the lack of Internet access in Sydney, so sorry to not have posted yet.  We have to take our laptop to an Internet cafe a few blocks from our hotel and pay by the minute for Web access.

We survived the 17+ hour plane ride and have made it to Sydney!  We took a quick nap yesterday afternoon and then SHOWERED and went out to dinner.  We were in bed by 9:30 local time last night and woke up refreshed and ready to head to Tranby Aboriginal College today.  We have mapped out our route using the public transportation system over here and can't wait to go explore how the Indigenous population's needs are being met at Tranby.  Tomorrow we will be taking a "cultural experience" tour from 7:15 am to 6:30 pm.  Our tour includes the wildlife park of kangaroos and koalas, a boomerang presentation, a cliff-top drive along the Jamison and Megalong Valleys, a rainforest canopy walk, and finally a cruise to Darling Harbour or Circular Quay.  Can't wait!!!!  Will post more after that experience.