summary: The program included snorkelling, archery, orienteering, and a camping trip to Rottnest Island. My aims for this elective were to participate in events outside of my comfort zone and choose a course that required more physical activity and hands-on learning.
ORIENTEERING- effective communication/ collaboration : orienteering is the sport of effective communication and working together as a team to get from point A to B with the fastest time. This course was the first time I had ever tried orienteering, I had always had low expectations for it and thought I wouldn’t enjoy the sport as much at the start, but as the lessons went on my opinions changed. During the orienteering program, we started of small and went around the school using our newly learnt skills with a compass. After a few more lessons we started heading up to the local park. When we started at the park, we soon realised there is was way more ground to cover and also the location was foreign to us. This is when my group began realising the importance of having effective communication and collaborating better. We effectively communicated and collaborated on ideas to make us as a team more efficient and fast. We decided to split up into a pair and single, we sent of the single with the map and compass while the duo memorised certain areas and went to search for the numbers/letters, after we would meet up at the decided location and repeat the process all over again. Doing this really benefited our group because we soon became faster and more accurate as a group. In the end this really increased my communication skills and ability to collaborate ideas with my peers better. Overall this part of the program really opened my eyes to orienteering and made me appreciate the sport much more.
ARCHERY- effective communication: Archery was one of the things on the program which I was really excited for, I had already had some previous experience on archery but never focused on it much like we did during Muir. We had this lady named Mary from Archery2u come in and help us. During our first lesson I underestimated the difficulty of archery and thought I could easily get a bullseye. I soon realised I could not and also that it was very easy to hurt your forearm. As the lessons went on I gradually got better since I effectively communicated with Mary when I needed help/ tips to make my precision better. I ended up enjoying it very much and got 3 bullseyes by the end of the program. Towards the end we did cloud shooting, which was way harder than normal Archery, we had to blindly aim up into the sky and shoot, I did not excel in cloud shooting. Overall my experience with Archery was very fun and id love to do it again!
SNORKLLING- Resilience: Snorkelling was the main reason why I picked this program, I always enjoyed going to the beach and swimming, when I learnt that we were going to snorkel at Coogee and Rottnest I was ecstatic. I just had one thing that held me back from entering the water and swimming with my fullest abilities. It was my irrational fear of seaweed or pretty much anything in the water besides sand. We first began learning how to use our snorkel in our school pool and slowly progressed to swimming in Coogee. Coogee was my first time snorkelling in proper conditions outside of our school pool. The weather was quite bad and dark for our three swims, I remember when we had to swim over the shipwreck I was internally screaming since all I saw was masses of black under my feet. I had to show resilience and pull through and swim over, also since I knew I had more to overcome at Rottnest. The day of snorkelling at Rottnest came we were sent to Little Parakeet bay, it was quite hot and sunny which i was happy about and the water was cool and calm. Getting into the water I was excited and ready to explore, but i finally saw all the coral and seaweed and wanted to get out as soon as possible. I pulled through and forced myself to swim forward, there were times were I had to swim through tight corners or coral that would touch me, without fail I screamed every time and swallowed huge amounts of water. Soon after I was with my buddy Joy and we were both just floating together and admiring the seaweed, while looking I realised how pretty it actually was and that it wont do anything to me, also since it was pretty deep down. After this we got out and got ready for our second snorkel session. The second one was my favourite, I really took time to admire the sea life around me and look at the coral. It was really fun, Joy and I would communicate with out hands indicating to each other if we saw a small fish or a large one. The next day was sadly the worst, I was really looking forward to swimming at the Basin, but my fear of coral and seaweed had come back when a massive wave took me over and scraped me over coral, it was a long and hard swim, I tried to admire the sea life in the moment which I did. The swim back really made me tired and I constantly felt like giving up, but I knew I had to try my best and finish it. In the end I did and joy and I sat in the shallow bits of the pool and ate candy. Overall even with some bas experiences I really did enjoy snorkelling, it made me see the ocean in a new different perspective.
CAMP- Camp started of with a 3km walk, which was enjoyable with my friends. We walked to Little Parakeet bay and snorkelled there, which was quite enjoyable. After our first session my friends and I climbed some rocks and ate our lunch enjoying the view of the Bay. We went back in for our second session and swam again, we saw more sea life this time. Once all the groups had finished with their rotations we began our walk back to base and set up. After we set up we were given the task of the amazing race, at the start my group and I were determined to finish it. Soon after we got distracted and visited the locals and got candy. Once we came back we changed and began playing chasey on the oval. Soon after dinner was prepared and we ate. We finished of the day with a talk about our day, down at the beach. The second day we packed up and got ready for the second day of snorkelling. We swam at the Basin, Joy and I only did the first round and sat out. Soon after we did our walk back to the main part of Rottnest. My friends and I got lunch at the bakery and finished with ice cream. The ferry ride was very fun, we all went up to the roof and looked out and enjoyed the wind. Overall the experience was a 10/10 and I enjoyed it a lot.
PHOTOS : no photos available yet for me.
CAPBILITIES-