The CommSkills Chronicle

Hello and welcome!

For an introduction to this blog, please go to the Welcome page. 

The most recent post (item of news) appears as the next item on this page.

Cheers!

• Image credit:  The Entrepreneurial Mind

Telling stories by ways other than text

Examples of non-text ways of gaining information and knowledge

Australian aboriginal storytelling

Country song

An Australian Aboriginal elder looks at the way that his ancestors gave information to each other, and contrasts it to the "whitefella" way. (3 minutes 3 seconds)

Aboriginal Music Didgeridoo Dreaming "The Spirit of ULURU"

Didgeridoo music with landscape photos, modern graphics and traditional Aboriginal art.  (7:17)

1

Telugu Folk song with English translation subtitles

Sample folk song created to promote literacy and language learning in Andhra Pradesh, India. (3:37)

2

Lead Belly (1888-1449) - Pick a Bale of Cotton (1945)

A sample of a work song. Work songs relieved boredom and their rhythms helped synchronise physical actions of a work gang. (1:35)

3

Work song performed by harmonica

Work songs were often written for simple and transportable instruments. (1:35)

4

Harmonica - The Work Song
Uploaded by alliax. - Explore more music videos.

Portsmouth - performed by Mike Oldfield

An example of a work song - played to help keep sailors keep time in doing their shipboard tasks - being made famous!

5

Mike Oldfield - Portsmouth (Live)
Uploaded by STARDUST72. - See the latest featured music videos.

Morris dancing

A form of medieval folk dancing from England. (2:31)

6

There is also a good amateur video of morris dancing here.

Maypole dancing

Another form of folk dancing from England, perforemd to greet the spring season.  The children don't look very happy!  How do you think their appreciation of this might be improved? (1:49)

7

Maypole dancing 2008
Uploaded by vallyskaya. - Videos of family and friends from around the world.

Riverdance - excerpt

An example of folk dancing (this time, from Ireland) being raised to the level of popular entertainment.  What stories do you think this dancing is telling? (3:54)

8

Illness stops 11am class on Friday 2nd October

Please check back on this page for updates.

Unfortunately due to ongoing illness I am unable to run today's 11am communication class at Granville. 

Sorry folks!

I have re-written today's activities. They appear on the post below this post as soon as possible during the day of Friday 2nd October.

If you have any enquiries, please contact me:

• via one of the routes mentioned under HOW TO CONTACT JOHN in the column on the right-hand side of this page (SMS or email preferred)
• OR
• by clicking on the COMMENTS link at the foot of this post

Peter's 9am class on Friday 2nd October will run normally.

TAFE has a 2-week vacation starting next week.  Our course re-starts on Tuesday 20th October.

Cheers!  And have a good vacation!

John

• Image credit: From the blog G2 Weather Intelligence

Job placement exercises

Today we were due to do the following:

Activity # 1

Identify specific possible places for you to do your work experience placement.

Activity # 2

Draft an email / letter of introduction to possible places for you to do your work experience placement.

Activity # 2 is written in your words.  It is in addition to the official letter from TAFE that I will provide to introduce you as well.

Unfortunately, I am unwell today and cannot attend class.  But you can make a start on this yourself, and then we can talk about this on Friday.

To make a start, just do the following:

Step # 1

Think back to our recent discussion about what your preferences for possible work experience placements are.

Your choices were based on:

• Your interests in type of work
• Your geographical preferences

Now I’d like you to apply these choices in looking at the following sources of information:

• Yellow Pages Australia

• White Pages Australia

• Community directories for

• Auburn
• Holroyd (Merrylands / Wentworthville area)
• Parramatta

Using these sources, see if you can locate 3 possible places for work experience.

Step # 2

Now have a go at drafting a letter / email of introduction.

The purpose of this is to introduce yourself to a possible place for work experience.

In this email / letter, you should write:

• your name

• the name of your TAFE course, and the fact that you are a student in this course

• the  fact that you are looking for a 1-week (minimum 20 hours) work placement

• why you think that you would be useful to the business / service you have chosen

• mention that you are going to attach your CV to the email / letter.  (This is the CV we have been working on over the last few weeks.)

Please do not send these emails / letters yet.  We will check them on Friday before sending them with the official TAFE letters.

Cheers!  See you Friday.

John

Pictures of today's field trip

My pictures from today's field trip to

• the State Library of New South Wales

• Parliament House

are now available for view.

To view these pictures:

• click on the Flickr icon in the column on the right-hand side of this page

• or

• just follow this link

• The image shows Heena speaking at the main table of the Legislative Assembly chamber of the Parliament of New South Wales.  Tripathi waits her turn to speak.

Telling a story by words and images

Today we will be looking at a number of books to have a talk about how people tell stories by

• words
• images

Sometimes they use a combination of these 2 elements.

Sometimes they concentrate on one but not the other.

Sometimes they deliberately use unusual combinations of these 2 elements, with interesting results!

The books are listed under BOOKS I USE IN THIS UNIT in the column on the right-hand side of this page.

Cheers

John

Careers counselling - 18th August

On 18th August we will be visiting the College's Counselling Section to hear from a Careers Counsellor.

The purpose of the visit is to:

• Learn about the Career Counselling Service at TAFE

• Get some ideas about choosing a career or training pathway (which is what we are looking at on our Friday classes t the moment)

• Learn about the other Counselling services of TAFE

And of course, as you are an enrolled student, these services are available to you at no extra charge.

The visit will take place during our regular class on Tuesday 18th August,  between 10am and 12 noon.

Please bring your Skills Audit (with the picture of that nice Mr Obama) - the self-assessment quiz we have been using to help choose a career / training path for you.

A copy of the audit may be found at the following link:  Download YOUR SKILLS AUDIT

Image credit:  Foothill College's careers Center Job Board

New time for the 2nd Friday class

As you requested, I have been able to move our Friday 12:30 - 2:30pm class to a slightly earlier time.

This class will now be held on Fridays from 11am to 1pm.

It will be held in the usual room for this class (not published here to safeguard your personal security). 

This will be imemdiately after Peter's computer class from 9am to 11am.

If you have any questions of problems, please let me know.

Cheers

John

Mentor interviews

As part of this course, TAFE staff would like to interview you to make sure that:

• You are going OK with the course
• You are aware of TAFE's services and facilities that might assist you
• You are clear about what we are doing, especially with getting you to think about your career pathway (Tuesday class 10am to noon)
• You can raise any questions or issues that you wish

To this end, I have scheduled a series of individual interviews as listed below.  They al take place in the usual classroom (not published here to protect your personal security, but sent to you via SMS).

The interviews are all on Tuesday 11th August:

• 11:15am:  Su Mei
• 11:30am:  Iris
• 11:45am:  Heena
• 12 noon:  Vicki
• 12:15pm Alice
• From 12:30 to 2:30 pm you have your usual class with Yvonne
• 2:30pm:  Marcela
• 2:45pm:  Shekeli

If you have any questions &c, please let me know in clss or phone / text me on the phone number I have given you.

If you are running late or canot come on the day, please let me know (by SMS if possible).

Cheers!

John

• These interviews are part of your assessment activities for the unit NSWTINT202A:  Work with a mentor

Image credit: 

• Top of post: from the blog ConversationAgent
• Bottom of post:  from the blog JT & Dale Talk Jobs
  

Welcome, Iris!

A new student starts today!  Her name is Iris.  She starts with John's class at 10am.

Welcome, Iris!

Your new career path: your Skills Audit

We will be starting this segment of your course by reviewing:

• what your attributes are
• What your existing skills are

...and then applying these to a potential new career by identifying

• Where you can adapt these attributes and existing skills
• What new skills you need and where to seek training for these skills

We will be using this Skills Audit: Download YOUR SKILLS AUDIT

We  will be referring back to this Audit over the next few weeks.