So today was my first time that I was Student Leader, and I think that so far I have done alright. We had the morning meeting this morning which was odd, because we don’t have contact to anyone and now we are chatting to all the Leadership schools from around Victoria. But enough about that- today’s classes were peer skills 1 and then a half day bike ride which involved us riding down to Marlo and then back.

Peer skills; we talked about the way you can see someone’s emotion by their body language and not always by the way they are acting. My class looked at the iceberg theory which means you might see the way that someone is behaving but not their thoughts, or their attitude behind it, and the feeling that has caused it. You only see the top of it and you have no idea about the rest. After watching a clip about being grateful we had to write a letter to someone that we are extremely grateful for and we have a lot of gratitude to them. I wrote to my older sister telling her all the reasons that make me smile and be so grateful that I have her as a sister and for her to look after me. We also did this window thing which told us what we know about ourselves and others don’t know, what everybody knows, what nobody has any idea about and finally what other people notice but you don’t. So in my school group I got a lot of people noticing that I am kind and cheerful, independent and wise. I wouldn’t have picked myself as some of the things I was given but it was rewarding to see what other people had chosen for me that I didn’t notice about myself.

Bike ride; after lunch we got our bikes to match us, and got all the gear we would need on and then after splitting into two groups we set off to Marlo. I wasn’t very confident from the start because I had seen these people riding before and I knew that there was no way I could match their paces. From the start we were told that we would only go as fast as our slowest person. I felt really embarrassed when I had to ask people to slow down because I couldn’t keep up. It was like I was letting down the group by making them go at my pace and not at theirs. It also took a while for me to get used to the gears because the bike I have at home isn’t a bike with gears, but after I had found the one that was the right one for me I was better with sticking with the group. Towards the end of our trip, I was enjoying myself even though I knew how much this was out of my comfort zone. At times I felt really uncomfortable with the way I was going and 3 times I just had to stop. The first time wasn’t my fault- my pants were falling down. But the other two times were going up hills and my legs just felt like jelly and I could barely peddle. From about the half way mark to Marlo, my team had started being really supportive and it was what I needed. A few of them would stick with me so they could make sure I was alright and I could keep going. Throughout the whole time I had encouragement from them and it was just really amazing. They knew I was struggling and they didn’t complain, they made sure I could do it. When we got to hills, the whole time I was hearing “You can do this” and “push though, you’re almost there.” It wasn’t much, but it was enough. When you’re the person struggling in the group you don’t feel good at all but when you know that there are the people in your team to help you- it’s what makes you push through.

Teamwork Tuesday - what have I contributed to the community this week.
In the past week, I have been on Expo so through that I was contributing to the friendliness and the support for everyone even when I was struggling. I have tried to be very open minded and today I am student leader so I am contributing to the community by helping help when needed and just trying to make the campus more aware of what they are doing and how that needs to stop.

Traffic Light Model.
What needs to stop in my team is the talking over each other, what need to start is being able to focus for a whole class and what need to continue is the support and encouragement that we have been giving each other.

Keely- Mortlake SC