SAIL Program Newsletter

The 'let us know' list
1. If any of your contact details have changed, please let us know.
2. If you have a spare seat in your car, please let us know.
3. If you are planning to have contact with your student outside of SAIL hours you must let us know first and complete the contact request form.
4. If you intend to bring a friend to SAIL please direct them to the website first and direct them to apply online or just let us know beforehand.
5. Let us know if you are going to miss a Saturday by email, phone or the "Can't Come Sheet"- now also online!
6. Please check and read your emails each week- if possible, Friday is best!
7. Please let us know before you speak publicly or publish an article about SAIL.

Important Diary Dates
(Please note that SAIL does not take school holidays or long weekends off!)
1. Tutor Talk (in service) sessions for the next few months are at 12:30pm on 10th April, 15th May, 19th June.
2. Please bring any second hand clothes for recent arrivals in the Sudanese community on the Saturday before Tutor Talk weeks. Second hand toys are always very welcome in SAIL Junior.
3. There is no SAIL Xtend on the listed dates ie no Arabic or short courses.

Cars and lifts
1. Flinders Street- there are two cars that collect tutors from Flinders Street station every week. Cars leave at 10:05am from (and return to) the post box on Flinders Street. Feel free to catch the lift!
2. Car drivers please note that, unless you are bringing non-human cargo to SAIL, we ask that you park your car in
the Mephan Street car park located on the far side of the school (at the top of May Street) or, if you are early, at the front of the church on Ballarat Road.

Ongoing offers
1. Photocopying- for any SAIL related photocopying, simply mark the pages from the books you want copied and give the book to Matthew or Anna Grace on Saturday- it will be ready for you the following week!
2. If you would like to post an ad or some other information relating to SAIL or another not-for-profit venture in which you are involved, please email it to SAIL@Melbourneemail.com to be included in the next newsletter.
3. The Tutor Resources section of the website is available at all times to provide tutors with ideas, games, work-sheets and support. We strongly suggest that if you are experiencing difficulties of any kind when working with your student, you post a request for advice on the SAIL Panel of Experts Bulletin Board (accessible from the Tutor Resources section). Tutor Resources can be accessed from the main page of the website www.SAILProgram.cjb.net or directly at http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sail/tutor.htm.


Please read this newsletter in the following week, it gives updates on SAIL past, present and future!

Warming up for Autumn!
Cold outside? Here is something to warm you up on the inside: another fun filled newsletter brimming with exciting news! We are hugely excited about all the announcements and hot gossip.

SAIL Senior happenings

New Senior co-ordinator
Poly Kiyaga, long time SAIL stalwart and cross-cultural consultant, has kindly agreed to undertake the position of SAIL Senior Coordinator. Poly’s broad experience, boundless energy, generosity and dedication to the community will make him an outstanding co-ordinator. Poly will be responsible for overseeing the SAIL Senior program and organising the placement of new students.

New computer laboratory
SAIL goes cyber-space age! Thanks to the generous donations of so many SAILors and the man and woman power from the Esso-Mobil day of caring, we now have a functioning Computer lab.

Currently the computer lab is available during normal SAIL time to our SAIL Senior students and we are in the process of organising a computer session as part of the SAIL Extend activities program. We do not yet have internet service, but if anyone knows a telecommunications magnate, please let us know.

New Beginners room
The computer room will double as the SAIL senior beginners room. The wonderful Jen Kelly will be running this room and we encourage all new arrivals, or SAIL senior students with very limited English to be directed to this room. If you see some lost SAIL senior students, Poly is the man to take them to and he’ll direct them on! Thanks to Jen for you great work setting this up, to Carmel for your support, and to Fiona for agreeing to teach in there as well. We are really excited about this much needed addition to the SAIL senior program.

Reintroducing the Panel of Experts
Got some questions about how to tailor your SAIL session or how to harness the energy of your student for the powers of good? Well the SAIL Bulletin Board has the following people to help you with a range of issues:

- Tim Burch about how to structure a SAIL session, what makes a good SAIL tutor, some Literacy and Spelling Activities suggestions and working with boys and difficult behaviour.

- Davina Lipmann about ESL teaching, activities suggestions and structuring a SAIL session.

- John Munro about literacy and how to teach it.

- Two experienced torture and trauma counsellors available to respond to your questions about anything from violent or irregular behaviour to disturbing drawings from SAIL time.

Introducing Bulletin Board Question of the Month
Question:
“I am tutoring a gorgeous girl who is extremely distracted (like many of the kids at SAIL!!!). She is 12 and her attention span is very short (anywhere between 2 and 10 minutes). I am trying to get away from worksheets because she is 'bored' by these tasks, so I have tried some other stuff (tape recording an interview, telling stories, writing rap songs etc.) Her written English is the main thing that needs to be worked on and is at about Grade 1 or 2? level at the moment. She is very confident and has heaps of friends (who aid her distractedness) but she has trouble making eye contact. Ideas, advice, etc., from anyone would be great. Tim, I would also love to hear what you have to say about behavioural stuff (re: ADD etc.)”

Answer:
“Firstly, thanks for being so detailed; the more detail, the easier it is to work out actions that can be taken.

The first thing that could be done is to move away slightly from the friendship gang. It might seem harsh to do this at first, but they really do need to have the head space to focus, and it simply isn't possible to do this in a noisy room surrounded by friends chatting all the time. If possible always work in the same quiet(ish) place to maintain consistency.

Keeping attention - it seems like you are doing some great things and coming up with some tremendous ideas to increase motivation and interest. Keep these up. However, it would be advised to always start the session with the same short activity every week. Something quiet, like word matching, alphabet words, something which she is good at and enjoys, just to get her settled.

On the same issue, linking the different activities or finding someway to get them to flow between each other is important. There needs to be a reason for each task, which needs to be explained at the instructional phase. While girls are better than boys at focusing for longer periods of time, they still need encouragement. So perhaps learning new words, then having a close activity (fill in the gaps) which uses these words, then moving onto making a new oral story with those words, each making up a sentence at a time.... etc.

Variety but with purpose. Variety is important, but structure is also of use when there needs to be focus time. Always play to strengths first up, then work on areas which can be improved. While she appears confident with her friends, her lack of eye contact could suggest that she is a little unsure of somethings. Be quite forward in encouragement and praise, even the little things. Also always point out improvements over weeks or during the session. If possible, keep a record or folder where later on you can both look back and see how far she has come. Reflection is also good, sum up the things you have covered at the end of the session new things learnt, strategies, new words etc.

As far as ADD and ADHD are concerned, in my opinion possibly the most over diagnosed disorders going around, these are quite extreme. I used to think that every distracted child had one or the other, now having seen it in full blow form, I have reassessed! However, there needs to be a recognition of each individuals problems; if they are distracted, talk to them about it, see if there is a problem at school, home or with friends (at that age there usually is!) there is nothing wrong with chatting to settle and to focus them, as you learn about them, build up trust and practising conversation skills. If there are constant problems, and no solutions work, then potentially there is a medical problem, but get other opinions on this!!

Good luck and thanks again for writing!

Tim Burch”

We encourage you to post a query on the Bulletin Board if you are experiencing difficulties of any kind when working with your student. Just a reminder that you can view the SAIL Panel of Experts Bulletin Board can be accessed from the Tutor Resources section of the website. Alternatively, you can visit the Bulletin Board directly at http://home.vicnet.au/~sail/tutor.htm.

Call for SAIL Star contributions
SAIL Star, Get your SAIL Star, here!

This month we have a mouth-watering theme of famous Australian Places.

Wait to read the latest adventure of amazing Detective Deng and Achol as their quest for the thief of Queen Latifa’s jewels takes them to Ularu in their space-time machine.

But the SAIL Star won’t write itself. We need to get contributions from your students. Please get your students to complete a SAIL Star Worksheet, or any other particularly good work/story and place this in the SAIL Star submissions box in the library. Alternately, SAIL Star submissions can be emailed to the SAIL Star at SAILStar@NewspaperEmail.com. Art work and drawings can also be submitted to the SAIL Star submissions box but should contain the student’s and tutor’s name so that we can ensure its safe return.

Arriving on Time and Car Collection
Arriving on Time
A lot of tutors and students have been arriving as late as 11am. This may be directly correlated with the colder weather and everyone’s reluctance to get out of bed….but please ….put a hideously loud alarm on the other side of the room so that you arrive on time. The later you are, the later the people you pick up are, and the less learning time there is for everyone involved. We really appreciate you making a big effort to arrive before 10.30 so that you and your students are ready to go at 10.30.

Car Collection
If part of the problem is an issue with your pick-up then be sure to send us an e.mail or write this on the can’t come sheet and we will sort it out. On the pick-up front, if you have stopped picking up students you once did, or swapped your pick-up without letting anyone know, please tell us so we can ensure all students are still being picked up.

Flinders Street
If you are using the Flinders street pick up please let us know. We currently have one car picking up. If you need a lift from Flinders street send us an e.mail and depending on demand we’ll put another car on.

Week Five Guest Speakers
As if the previous excitement isn’t exhausting enough, we also have a magnificent line-up of speakers for the next week 5 on Saturday, 15 May , 2004.

SAILors Junior, Primary, Secondary are encouraged to join us for a presentation by Liz Jackson, speech pathologist and mother of our very own Senior tutor, Kate Jackson. Liz’s talk is entitled “Learning to Speak” and will cover both development of speech and highlighting hurdles in speech. An intriguing topic and one that is so important to our younger SAILors.

SAIL Senior – Kathy Earp will be returning to undertake some tutor training for out SAIL senior tutors. This will hopefully fall under the AMES tutor training program and result in AMES accreditation certificates for those senior tutors who are able to attend all sessions, all of which will run in the week five slot. Also very relevant to Senior tutors is this weeks’ Sudanese Community Talk, read on…

Community Talk
John Mirabile from the New Hope Foundation is coming to SAIL to talk about how community members can access housing and hopefully highlighting a few of the pitfalls. It is, of course, free and translated. Please do everything and anything you can to convey the message of the session to your students, including using other students as translators as necessary!! This session will happen from 12.30pm.

SAIL Out and About
SAIL About gets funky
SAIL was recently given tickets to the hip-hop, comedy festival show, “What are yous girls doin’” performed by all girl hip-hop outfit, Sista She. The show was ‘da bomb’ and our SAILors really enjoyed the wicked moves, busty beats and meeting Sista She after the show. Our thanks go to Sista She for making such a generous donation of front row tickets and time out of their busy schedules.

"Lost Boys of Sudan" film excursion to ACMI
A troupe of keen SAILors enjoyed the powerful and moving documentary the “Lost Boys of Sudan” about the resettlement in the United States of several young men who were child refugees in Sudan. We are told that this was an outstanding film full of emotion and even humour. And as Poly described it “the must see film of 2004”.

Safety Reminder
Following on from our email last week, we ask that you ask drivers to make sure that no students are left at SAIL if they are meant to be going home. Please contact Bridgid, Will or Anna Grace to confirm this. Also if anyone sees the black convertible Mercedes near SAIL or hears about a similar car giving lifts to young girls, likewise please contact Bridgid, Anna Grace or Will.

Police checks!!
Thank you to all of you who have filled out your police check forms and returned the necessary documentation to us with the money. These have gone through for processing. We really, really need all of you to jump on the bandwagon and get your police checks in. If you need reminders as to why it is so urgent, ie. insurance etc… please come and talk to us!! Please, Please get your forms in. They can be picked up from us at the worksheets table before or after SAIL.

Whoah Baby!!
SAIL is currently assisting a 17 year old Sudanese girl who has arrived heavily pregnant from a refugee camp. Unfortunately this pregnancy is the result of an assault that occurred in the camp. We are working with the girl and her school to ensure that she is fully supported as the baby's birth draws near. Thus, we are asking anyone and everyone who might be able to help for donations of second-hand baby supplies that are no longer needed. In particular, the young girl has mentioned needing clothes (the baby will be a boy), toys, bottles and feeding equipment, baby soap, and nappies (preferably not second hand ones). Donations can be left under the coordinator's desk on
Saturdays.

We are also hoping to set her up with a home helper once the baby is born. If any SAILors, or people in SAILors networks, could help out in this capacity, we would love to hear from you!

Home Help positions available
Continuing on from above, Anna Grace currently has a number of families on the Home Help waiting list. Home Helpers usually visit a single parent household once a week for one to three hours and assist with whatever is needed. The Home Help program is very flexible, with volunteers able to self-select the time, day and extent of helping (homework, shopping, playing with babies, English support) according to their own busy life schedules! It is ideal for those who are unable, or no longer able, to attend every Saturday due to work, kids or life in general, but still want to be a part of the SAIL community. Home Helpers have access to free excursions, group meetings, debriefing and a unique SAIL experience...Here's what one helper had to say about her work:

'The pleasures are so many - getting my first hug from a rock-thrower out of the blue and watching him become the most amazing little guy - well-mannered, considerate, playful and laughing almost until he's sick every time he's on the swings. Holding hands crossing the road with 4 of the kids and the older girl saying to me "we all look like a family- you could be our mum" [to which she later added "except you're not very black"]. I feel blessed to be welcomed into this home every week, to have the trust and confidence of a family who have been here a little over a year.'

Anyone interested can contact coordinator Anna Grace directly on SAILHomeHelp@melbourneemail.com


News from Sudan
From the pen of our roving reporter in Kenya, Mr Matthew Albert: the Sudan Mirror now has a functional and very good website which has updates from South Sudan! It can be found at http://www.sudanmirror.com. Matthew is hoping to meet with representatives see if they can arrange to make the paper available in Australia, which they are keen to do it. This would be fantastic for the community!

Dambai Gig Guide
Dambai will be dancing in the streets. For those of you who saw Akon Deng Shok and his Dambai Dance Group perform at the SAIL Birthday Party know how amazing they are. So here’s your chance to see them perform in as part of “Housing Week” organised by Melbourne City Mission in Footscray. Dambai will be performing on 20th May at in the Footscray Mall at 12:00pm. This will be an amazing performance and a great opportunity to showcase their enormous talent. As Molly Meldrum once said “Do yourself a favour and catch this band before they catch you”.

We also hear rumours that Dambai will have another gig on 21 May 2004 with venue to be announced. Speak to Akon or Poly for details.

THANK YOU!
Too often we forget to thank the marvellous team of Culinary SAILors who prepare all 300+ lunches for the SAIL crew each and every Saturday. The kitchen team spend a fraught few hours on Saturday preparing the food for the 12pm deadline but they also labour throughout the week buying and preparing the food for our Saturday feast. We would like to thank Lieu, Diana, Min, Fern, Jo, the many ring-ins we get at random, and our sensational shopper Sue without whom every other SAILor would be both tired and hungry every Saturday afternoon.

Big thanks also to Mandy Li for her tireless work in front of the photocopier each week. It is undoubtedly the most mundane of jobs and you do it with such grace. We really appreciate it.

Donations
Cooking utensils
Our Extend cooking program is looking for donations of the following second hand cooking utensils, so if you have any of these items lying around unused, please bring them in to us on any Saturday:

Measuring cup
Kitchen scale
Large stainless steal mixing bowls
Sieve
Baking trays (times 2)
Rubber gloves
Large non-stick fry pan

Plastic Bags
Once again we are in need of plastic bags! So it’s time to rustle through your overfull ‘bag bags’ and your overflowing drawers and bring all extra unloved plastic bags to us at SAIL. Your bags will be well utilised to distribute the generous bread donations that SAIL receives each week and passes on to SAIL families. Donated bags should be deposited in the kitchen on any given Saturday.

Photos!!!!!!!!!
We are extremely keen to get the 2003 photo board finished but cannot do it without your help. Please bring in any photos you have of SAILors of all varieties doing fun SAIL things so we can get the photo board under way. If you want to just bring in the negative that is fine too. And if you want to help us make the board you are more than welcome!!!!!!

Keeping SAIL clean
We have had a request from members of the Church to ensure that the Church is clean when we leave. We would therefore ask all tutors to ensure that the post tutoring pack up includes picking up bit of rubbish. We would also ask tutors to ask children to eat outside if they are found eating lunch in the Church, chapel or the hall (weather permitting on the last one). And finally we have noticed half a tree of paper being left around the various tutoring area on a Saturday. Please use paper wisely, name your students work and return it to their folders. This not only reduces paper waste going into the bin because there is as yet no paper recycling at SAIL, but also encourages your students to take pride in their work and enables you to watch their development over time.

Total Trivia
Autumn has arrived with a vengeance. Saturday’s (May 1st) rain interrupted lunch unearthed a very interesting statistic: this was the first rained out SAIL lunch for 53 weeks.

Upon receipt of this information we contacted the Bureau of Meteorology and discovered that the probability of going this many Saturdays without rain is roughly equivalent to the probability of Australia granting East Timor rights over the gas fields in the Timor Gap.

Exhausted by our own enthusiasm for all the things going on around SAIL, we want to thank you once again for the energy you donate to SAIL and the Sudanese community.
Will and Bridgid.