…we fax across some
ideas about what discussion the kids could have in a videoconference
and arrange it like that. But first I try to spend some
time preparing the kids for what's going to happen. In
one session we had, the kids were writing a story about
spirits, because they had read My Girragundji by
Boori Pryor. It's the whole idea of the hairy man coming
through and they wanted to tell their own stories. So
they started telling them around the table and then they
started writing their own story and then we videoconferenced
with Mildura and the kids actually shared their ideas
and discussed how the story could continue.
I just see if we're going to work with Koorie kids and
we want them to engage, then we've got to offer them something
that's a bit different to the mainstream classroom. Sometimes
they sit there and at first they say 'I'm not gonna say
it. It's really shameful.' But once they sort of warm
up to it and they've done it a few times they almost become
experts and use the equipment themselves and are really
happy to take part in it.
Students here often know kids at the other schools or
even have relatives in the other schools. So it provides
them with a broader network of Koorie students to relate
to. Most Koorie kids [in Victoria] never go to a school
where their numbers are greater than the numbers of other
kids. So I suppose I see it just as a really good way
of networking for Koori kids within a community.
