Check out the national day!

Learn About Australia's History

"This is the Story of Australia - the story of an extraordinary nation. The Story begins 60,000 years ago. New chapters are written every day. On Australia Day, we reflect on our history, its highs and its lows. We respect the stories of others. And we celebrate our nation, its achievements and most of all, its people." 

-Australia Day Website

Check-In - 5 Minutes

What did you have for dinner last night? What changes or upgrades have you made to your work space to make it safer?

Show and Share (5-10 min)

Have you ever taken part in a civic observance or taken part in an advocacy day? Share your story or photos from the event or date.

Tomorrow's Show and Share

We often feel stressed out when we don't have control or information about how our time will be spent. Can you share a time when you felt stressed out because someone else was deciding everything and you didn't have a say? 

Thematic Activity 02 (10-15 min)

There are many public calendars that help us participate in our communities. Did you know that your city council has a calendar of public meetings? Your local community center also has a calendar. So does your library and the parks department. 

PRESENTERS: chose 1-3 items as a group and share screen to demonstrate the process of an internet search. Then navigate to the calendar and look at what is coming up. Note that during Covid the calendars are sparse or things have moved online.

Choose one or more of the following calendars to look up. Anyone who is good at using the internet can help presenters find community calendars. Can you identify any important discussions or community decisions that are listed in the calendars? 

• City Council public meetings
• Local college events
• Library
• Community Center
• Theatre
• Parks Department

Skills Focus (5-10 min)

Changing an inspiration into an action requires planning. Read about the following situation and figure out a good plan for Jodi. Keeping our  commitments in a planner gives us the control to make changes when it's important. It also helps us give others more notice, which is polite. 

Jodi uses a wheelchair. While watching the local news they heard that the city council is going to vote on a whether to let businesses put wheelchair ramps far away in the backs of buildings because it saves money. Jodi is upset because the handicapped parking spaces are all in the front of the buildings and it would be very tiring to have to wheel the chair all the way around  buildings just to get inside. 

The city council is having two public meetings to hear what people think. One of them is during Jodi's work day. The other one is at the same time as their music lesson. 

1. What kind of planning does Jodi need to do to be able to go to that city council meeting and give their opinion?
2. What might Jodi need to cancel or reschedule to go to that important meeting?
3. Why is it important that Jodi go to that meeting?
4. Can you share a recent time you had to reschedule or when someone had to reschedule on you? How did that feel? Was it hard or easy? 

What did we learn today?

What are we doing this afternoon?