Thursday, 4 December 2008 13:40 - 14:30, Sydney Room

Chair

Jacqueline Y Robilliard

Disabiltiy Liaison Unit

A group of staff and students from the Victorian College for the Deaf recently arrived back from a 9 day trek in Kokoda. The presentation will include an overview of the goals of the trek and how we planned, fundraised, trained and prepared for it, as well as how the trek links into our school programs. The students will play an active role in the presentation and will share their experiences on the trek with the audience. Photos will accompany their discussion. The educational benefits of the trek were far outweighed by the personal skills the students gained; including self esteem, confidence, sharing and working with others. As teachers, we discovered what a "real" educational learning experience was. At the end of the presentation the students will perform an short performance which they did on the airstrip at Kokoda at the completion of their journey in front of a large group of Papua New Guineans who has come to the airport to see the "first ever deaf group to complete the 96km track". The performance was done as a "thank you" go the Papua New Guinean people who walked the track with us.