Wednesday, June 30, 2010

- sarpino's le individual :D -

Hi Readers,

It’s been a long time since I’ve made a blog post on this RE blog and it kind of died during the holidays because I was really busy with shooting camp and other whatnots. Anyway, I’m stuck with boarding now with no internet whatsoever so this post actually originated from a word document, which may explain the more formalized typing.

Before the holidays I think I mentioned something about planning a camp for the GOS Choir Members? We spent some time during the June Holidays planning it too and after that we executed the plan which was good on many accounts, as this blog post will seek to recount.

I hope our team blog has already been updated. If I’m not wrong I made the post there which was why I totally forgot about my personal blog because I sort of remembered that I blogged for this before.

After some planning and a little bit of miscommunication and a little confusion amidst our group members, we finally got a proposal submitted to Ms Phoon and Ms Kwan who were really receptive to our ideas for the camp. We fined-tuned the activities together, and on the 16th of June 2010, all our efforts in planning had to be converted into execution.

For finer details of the day’s proceedings please refer to our team blog, more information is there and the blog post is also by me.

So, what have I learnt when I went for the camp? A few things and here goes nothing:

Communication (or lack thereof);
Vital in almost every aspect of any project and our RES-L project was never excluded from the common characteristic. When the first plan for the camp came out, which was churned out by the admin-based group members, myself and Benedict, Wenye had a little problems with the plan because it wasn’t what he wanted exactly. Initially, Wenye had wanted us to allocate time for National Day songs, but the plan was focused on teaching the students the elementary skill of the Canon. There was a little conflict here and there but after using our ultimate goal of a National Day performance, we went along with the Canon, since the National Day performance consists of a medley that requires, most fundamentally, the skill of Canon.

The lack of communication had somewhat pushed the team apart but even so, after the camp was carried out, we were, of course, patched back together. Yet, we must still learn from this as an important lesson because communication is always the big problem no matter what project anyone undergoes. This is a never-ending lesson that constantly needs improvement, especially in our technologically-reliant age.

Clear and detailed planning is important;
In planning for the camp, our proposal had been very detailed and every minute was actually accounted for. In doing this, the execution on the day was very smooth because there was enough buffer time and adequate time allocated for each activity. It occurs to me that the camp was well planned and in fact well executed, and this actually highlighted the importance of planning detailed-ly, since the execution of the camp was followed extremely closely to the detailed plan in the proposal. Thankfully, thanks to this, we managed to pull off a great camp.

Better choir lessons;
The first part of the camp was dedicated to Ms Chan, who is a hired conductor for the morning choir, but on camp day she was down to coach those who were supposed to be at Opening Ceremony. We went there at 10am, which was the start of her session, and wanting to improve our lessons further, we had to observe her lessons. It occurred to me how well thought out her lessons were. There were barely any breaks and things moved really fast-paced. Not saying that the fast-pace was bad, in fact, it was really effective because the choir members were kept alert and moving and it helped along in keeping their attention level up. Also, in the short time when she was here, she has seemed to have picked out the strengths and weaknesses of each student in the classroom, and she could cater her lessons to all of them. To me, this is really respectable. She also does things in such a way that there is individual assessment, which means that time is used up to “test” (but really, in fact, it is a short one-to-one coaching” the students, but then again, I noticed that this was really effective. She had her way of convincing the students to break out of their shells because they weren’t really shy at all, frankly. After observing her lessons, I guess it’s time to change what our own choir lessons are like, and try to make things better for the students.

The meaning of being happy;
Throughout the camp we spent quite a fair bit of time interacting with the students, and they have really thought me the meaning of being happy. Although it may sound childish, but these choir members, despite themselves, are able to stay cheerful no matter what. I’m glad that our team had brought some of their smiles, but most of the time, it was their smiles that brought smiles to our own faces. They seem contented at the smallest things, they are ever-cheerful and it’s always a good experience to be with them. Being happy doesn’t need to involve money or tangible object, it can always simply involve the people that are around you and the experiences we gain with every special day.

More friendship;
With this camp, we have also forged bonds with the morning session choir as the camp was a session for both the morning and afternoon session choir. There are more personalities to deal with, but all the same, they are all friendly and always smiling. Throughout the camp, they were making my day an awesome one. I noticed that the morning session choir consisted of more mature students that seemed to be around our age, and these people were those I could really relate more with. I think it’s time for me to try and hang out more with the afternoon session (younger) choir members for they are the ones I interact most with.

The meaning of friendship and care;
As I have mentioned before, the morning session choir consisted of more mature students that were more responsive and attentive. However, what struck me about these students is the care and concern that they actually showed to the younger counterparts. They are actually my role model. Time and time again I have problems communicating with the choir, but when I see the seniors actually being there for the juniors, it actually made me realize how much these students actually care for each other. They may be less fortunate than we are, but they are those kind of friends that you can actually put trust in and believe in.

Leadership;
From time to time during the camp it was necessary to take up a leadership role when things started straying away. We all had our ways and means of doing it, but perhaps during this camp we were exposed to a different form of leadership because the camp was completely (or almost) under our care, and we were responsible for every activity during the camp. Unknowingly, this experience had actually inculcated a sense of leadership into our hearts and minds, and perhaps it is an experience difficult to forget.
Success;
When we finished the camp, we received a resounding “yes” to the question “did you enjoy yourselves?” during the debrief. At this point of time, the satisfaction and happiness inside me was indescribable. At the very least, even at the expanse of our mental and physical energy, we had given the students an enjoyable time in bonding, learning and playing. I’m very glad to say that we’ve pulled of the camp very well and I’m very proud of myself and the team for doing such a good job in this event.

It’s lights out already and I’m more or less done with this post. I think after doing this post it finally occurred to me how significant the camp was. I’m reminded that my visitor tag is still with me since the camp (we left in a great hurry because they were closing the school for the day), so I’ll have to return it this Friday.

Looking forward to meeting the choristers once again this Friday and I hope, as always, we can bring joy to them as much as they have brought joy to us.

Till then,
Benjamin

Benjamin took a walk down memory lane at 1:38 PM

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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

- update on the past two lessons -

Hey readers,

It’s been quite a while since I last posted, so posting today before tomorrow’s RE and the upcoming revision week would be a good choice, or so I think.

Right, so I haven’t posted in about two weeks, so I have two weeks to track. Basically, in this post I will cover two lessons, one on 16 April, and another on 23 April.

A few things to note, the 16^th April session was chaired by yours truly, and the most recent on 23^rd April was conducted by Wenye. In many ways, the 16^th April session was more effectively than the 23^rd April session, but it wasn’t just related to the teacher.

I’d like to start of with the 16^th April session, since I conducted it. Lots of impressions made, and a first for me.

The lesson started off quite easy, because the students did not have to listen too much of my voice. Warm ups were centered around breathing, so everyone could do it without me helping. As for the “Hello, how are you?” and the “Laughing is contagious” warm ups, I could cope because it was easy to reach and within range, and Isaac was already there to help me out, so it was okay.

I introduced something new during the lesson as well. Apart from jumping on the spot to get the students hyped for the warm up, I used a reaction game to help them wake up and be alert, at the same time loosen up. I’ve affectionately called this game “clap clap jump”. It’s quite simple. Basically when I say clap, they clap, and when I say jump, they jump. So I’d say something simple like “clap jump” at the start, then it progresses into “jump clap jump” or “jump jump jump clap” etc. It tests their reaction and helps them open up and laugh along as well.

I brought in the concept of volume using a curve, instead of the more than (>) and less than (<) sign. We did this the previous week with Grace Orchard School Song, but I thought before we put words into it we try out with an “ahhhh”.

It was rather effective because I can control my loudness pretty well. While explaining to them I said something along the lines of “you need to control when to be LOUDER and softer” and some of them jumped when I raised my voice while saying “louder”. They got the hang of the concept quite well, some of them tried to attract attention by varying pitch even though I told them not to, but on a whole, response was good.

I brought in vocal range as well. Using a curve, this time they had to follow the curve and vary their pitch. They grasped the one going downwards pretty well, and I believe it has to do with the connection of cartoons when the character falls from the sky and goes like “pewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww” and the key gets lower and lower. When they tried the upwards curve it was difficult, but ultimately they still managed to grasp the concept, which was a good thing.

Of course through the lesson we had the repetitive stuff, including solfege, bugles’ calling and the school song, which is rather repetitive, so I’d give it a skip in this post.

Moving on to the 23^rd April session. This session was particularly tough, because there was poor coordination on our part and the students were a bit high and restless, so we were having a lot of problems keeping them on task.

We recapped whatever we did last week, but I personally believe Wenye was a bit ill informed about what we did in the previous week despite Benedict’s 2000+ words report on team blog. So the order was pretty much messy, and we were all struggling, and at times I couldn’t help but intervene in the lesson because the students were veering off course, Wenye didn’t know what to do, I had ideas and more.

It was pretty disappointing to see how we didn’t manage to stretch our students, and we failed to keep many of them under control. Ms Phoon says it could be due to the appearance of the morning session choir in the first 10 minutes of the afternoon choir, and says that they may be disturbed and troubled by what they saw and want to attract attention. Even so, I don’t really see why the reaction was so bad. In my observation I realized there was some kind of conflict in class, which was a reason why things couldn’t move on pretty well.

Nevertheless, we moved through the lesson and it was quite messy and we tried using different methods to get back on track, but it was quite difficult. All of us were tired at the end of the lesson from the struggling we faced, and more significantly, the dejection we faced that we barely completed anything in the lesson.

That would conclude the recap, moving on to reflections, even though some of it has been incorporated in the recap above.

In my first teaching lesson, I found a new opening for myself. I realized that, hey, teaching isn’t very difficult after all, at least in this context. I have a passion for music, and for the past few lessons I’ve been listening intently to how people sing, and I think I might have very well gotten the drift of it. It’s quite fun to teach, and lucky for me I had an audience that paid full attention, and because it was my first lesson I was fully prepared for it.

I think the first time teaching was a refreshing experience. For once I made myself useful in the team after many weeks of manning the computer, updating blogs and preparing the powerpoints. The teaching left me with a dry throat, but a happy feeling that I’ve tried something new that I feel I’m grasping quite well.

Right, I guess perhaps I should stop here right now. Half my classmates are pestering each other about physics that we never understand, and I need to settle lots of other non-academic admin stuff with RIPB and my class.

Will post again when I have time. Either way we’re not going down this week because it’s a holiday for them, and I have little intention to go down because CTs are coming up. We’ll see.

if we ever meet again, i'll never be the same~

Benjamin

Benjamin took a walk down memory lane at 9:47 PM

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Sunday, April 11, 2010

- Lesson: 9 April (Reflections) -

Hi readers,

Had 2 cups of Mocha at Seoul Garden just now, which explains why I'm doing the post right now (about 12.20am)

I've just edited the team blog. Once again, the link is to your left, in the links tab.

I'm very satisfied as to how the previous lesson went, and in this blog post I will share the happenings of the lesson.

Basically, we went through our normal routine: warm ups, bugles' calling and school song, but this week we had the addition of the teaching of solfege and the use of a powerpoint.

I finally feel much better this week after doing the powerpoint, which appears to me to be an effective teaching tool. I'll talk about this later, but it's nice to see the students appreciating the powerpoint. Also, at least this time I get to really be there to help out with the lesson, providing visual aids to the students etc.

Okay, so maybe I'll talk about the powerpoint now because I did it and I should reflect on its effectiveness. On a whole, I think it was useful because it saved us the time for writing on the whiteboard on the spot, and also this week, it was lucky that we had the laptop, because the whiteboard was filled with stuff we were not allowed to erase, so we were left with the significantly smaller easel, which was an excellent teaching tool next to the powerpoint. For next week, I'm trying to think of ways to reduce the glare of the projector from the whiteboard to the students, especially when we roll the screen up when we want to write on the board, so that the writings will be on the powerpoint and they can see what we mean. Right now the presentation may not be as friendly because my laptop is not a tablet pc, so the writing gets very difficult and messy. If we can combine the whiteboard and laptop (sadly we do not have access to the smartboard in that classroom), it'll be good. I'm thinking of requesting Ms Tay to loan us a tablet. Not sure if the school can provide this service, but it'll be worth asking.

This week's lesson was really structured, apart from the occasional slip-up of Benedict on the keyboard and me accidently moving on to the next slide, and the students getting a glimpse of what's next and going oooh and all that. I think the structure is good, it means that we have a backbone for every lesson, and the structure would benefit the autistic kids because they know what to expect, and it suits their condition well.

I knocked out yesterday at 8pm and only woke up at 11.30am this morning. It's not a very good thing, but lugging my laptop plus my files and PE kit to Grace Orchard in Jurong and then back home in Serangoon isnt a very comfortable thing, plus with a travelling time of almost 2hrs home in the rush hour conditions is not very comfortable either, and neither is it doing much justice to my back.

Next week, Wenye is taking the week off, and Isaac has just spoken to me about how he might have trouble attending the sessions, so I might take on the role of teacher, which is both refreshing but scary, because I dont have teaching or choir experience, but I really want to teach, because many times in between the lesson I have lots to say and lots to tell wenye/isaac while they are teaching, but I always have to leave them till transition and breaks, during which they arent very applicable any more.

I'll bring them up during Wednesday's meeting, and we'll see how things work out.

That's all for today.

If I have anything else to add, it'll either be a new post or edits, so watch this space in case there's something new. And on Wednesday too, if I have the time.

Benjamin

Benjamin took a walk down memory lane at 12:22 AM

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

- RE Period Post -

Hi readers,

Taking some time off RE to do this blog post so that I can go home to mug bio. Summative tomorrow, don’t wish to mess it up.

Oh well, today’s RE was quite simple. Finished my part of the lit review last night, or rather this early morning, and Benedict is adding his stuff in and editing whatever I wrote last night. I have 5 articles, Benedict might or might not add more, while Isaac and Wenye will focus on the teaching and choir aspect. Benedict and I are working on Mild Intellectual Disability and Autism, which are the conditions our students are mainly facing.

Meanwhile, I’ve done up my portfolio, added my own content page, made a hardcopy of both team and personal blogs, formalized the blog hardcopies for report submission, reviewed the proposals, had them printed, and documented our lessons plans for the first (previous) lesson, and also the next, which will be happening this Friday.

Speaking of which, we’ll be back to our old routine again this Friday, when we’ll travel to the School via MRT and all that, do our bit of teaching, facilitating and etc. We’ll be trying out powerpoint this Friday, and I’ll spend the rest of the 2^nd RE period doing it.

Rights, there’s nothing much to reflect about, or perhaps how on task we are as compared to the other group sharing the same class room (no offence hehe), but that’s not important. I’ve just taken a look at our timeline, we’re still on task, so it’s a good thing.

That’s all for today.

I’m worried about bio, but that’s not related to RE.

Benjamin

Benjamin took a walk down memory lane at 2:15 PM

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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

- Lesson #01 | 5 March -

Hi readers,

I know this blog post came pretty late, so please forgive me for it. I know I shouldn't be spamming posts consecutively, but since I have the time, I might as well spend it well.

Ohkay on to today's agenda. Quite simple. On the 5th of March, 2010, 4 lone warriors rode a giant metallic snake to coach their disciples, hidden among the trees along Jurong West Street.

Okay that was lame. To keep things simple, 5 March 2010, all four of us went to GOS to teach the students for the first time, after a month of observation.

Maybe if you read up on the previous few posts you would have gained a sense of what the lesson was like, so this post is gonna be kept as short as possible.

Clearly this session was an enjoyable one, since it was our first time teaching, so there was a lot of room for exploration. We still took the safer path though, we more or less stuck to the routine the teachers had set up for us, partly because we wanted to play safe on the first lesson, and keep things familiar while the teachers change, so that the students can adjust.

I think I rambled quite a lot about how i was pretty much useless there, apart from giving morale support and participating amidst the audience and failing at an attempted canon, which caught me off guard. But I did notice how important our presence was in the room. The students like to know they are being regarded and paid attention to. So when you go up to them and ask them, do you have any questions, or encourage them to sing louder, it actually acts as a morale boost for them and gives them a small confidence boost, enough to make them slowly break out of their shells.

The session went fairly smoothly, with a few hiccups here and there because we mixed up the order of the warm ups which posed a problem for both the teachers (us) and the students. But in the end we still spent quite a fruitful session there, and there was positive feedback from Ms Kwan and Ms Phoon, which was a recognition of our efforts and a good start. I hope things can improve from here, and surely there'd be more to look forward to for the next 2 terms or so.

For the next session we might be looking into using new medium to get our teaching across, and also new warm ups to provide "fresh air" for the students. After all, we've been doing the same warm ups for 3 months thereabouts already, so it's only right for a little bit of change.

It will be another week before we get to meet the students at GOS because of Good Friday, so it's another readjustment after a long long break. Oh well, if life wishes to get in our way, we can only take it in our stride. Perhaps, we can make use of the holidays to make an effective session for the students, and that could open up new possibilities for us and the students.

As promised, this post would be short because I've been covering the same things over and over again with different examples, but in the end, it is Service Learning, so we'd learn as we serve, so do stay tuned for more updates in both this blog and the team blog.

There's RE tomorrow, and holidays after that, so there might be a post coming up tomorrow or over the holiday weekend. In any case, portfolio/blog check is coming up, I hope this blog is up to expectations!

Till then,

Benjamin

Benjamin took a walk down memory lane at 10:26 PM

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- reflections from a different perspective -

Hi readers,

Double posting this week because I realised work is coming in in waves, so today I'm pretty much all-clear because the next pulse is probably coming tomorrow before the long weekends.

I've checked out my hardcopy portfolio and realised how much more valuable this blog is. The portfolio barely gives any room for whatever I've done in this blog.

Anyway, I came across this section while flipping through my RE notes, which guides me along with reflections. All along I have been worrying about not covering certain stuff in my blog posts, so maybe i'll repackage the reflections here. Of course, it might not be an entire repackaging, as this new post might reveal new stuff worthy of your time.

*flips open RE file to refer to guidelines*

Here we go. This might be a little bit rigid, but I'll try to loosen things up as we go along.

Now now, we'll start the ball rolling with a few facts.

When we first entered GOS, it appeared to us like any other school. You could almost feel the energy in the air, after all it was their recess/break when we visited them many Fridays ago. Every day since them, whenever we paid the students and school a visit, the same feeling was always there.

During each visit, the course of events is quite clear. For each lesson's minutes, process and progress, you might want to refer to our main team blog which has lots of details you might be looking for -- and the link is found in well, the links section of this blog, to your left. Back to the point about the course of events. Basically each time we make our way there after a long ride from Bishan to Lakeside, we sign in to the school as volunteers, make our way up and wait for the students. Then it's warm ups, songs, breaks, then dismissal. From time to time we meet the mentors before and after that. Apart from the physical visits our weekly routine is the planning of itinerary on Wednesday during our RE periods, following which we will send to our mentors for vetting and suggestions, then we make our way to GOS on Friday and execute the plans. Pretty simple sounding, but quite a daunting task :\

The people we meet are (man, always have problems phrasing this properly without being insensitive, but of course, no harm/offense intended) less fortunate than we are, in a sense that they unfortunately have a lower IQ. But that doesn't make them any bit different from us. Frankly speaking, they are so full of energy, smiles and happiness that it becomes contagious, and the feeling is good when we're at the place teaching.

Oh well, now we move on to place. I like the room, small but cosy, has a piano, interactive whiteboard (which reminds me, we can use powerpoint :D), whiteboard, screen, mirrors, chairs and aircon. Very condusive environment for the choir, and it's a nice place to be in.

Logistically speaking, we made use of the whiteboard (and markers) plus the piano through the whole lesson. There wasn't much that we used, but much that we did from the two/three stuff that we used.

I shan't name five things that remained in my mind like the guideline states, but maybe I'd mention about their energy (yes, again. sorry. it's what strikes me most about them). You see, they may not be able to grasp things quickly but they are very, very enthusiastic. Even though they might be off-key, not singing correctly or whatnot, they are proud of their CCA, their abilities and dare to sing their hearts out. The sheer volume of this is quite nice, and you know, we gain energy when our audience responds.

Lots of facts here, already spent 20 minutes on the above part. Before my own enthusiasm is killed by fatigue, I'd better move on.

I'll be skipping a few questions from the guideline if you happen to be referring to it. Anyway, I'll probably be talking about their reactions to us, and I must say, I feel very welcomed and at home when I'm with them.

You see, what strikes me about the students we interact with is their happiness and energy. They do not specifically avoid us, and they interact very well with us when we teach, or at least, from what we observe on lesson one. which reminds me, I havent done reflections for lesson one yet. Maybe it's because I did the team post about lesson one on our main blog.

Back to where we were, I feel very welcome by the students because they are receptive to us. They don't shut off when we teach, and in fact there is a positive response. I might have not been the one teaching, but i could feel the energy flowing. It will be good if this is kept up, and I have a feeling~ it will.

When we first got there and left, frankly speaking when we first got there I had completely no idea what to expect, and I was actually expecting the worst. Forgive me, but it was my first time reacting with the students, so I had no idea what could happen or what to expect. Of course things changed when we left, because through interaction we have gotten to know the students more, and later even through teaching, we know the true meaning of energy, and what teachers mean when they say something like "if you all don't respond i won't have the energy to teach," or something along those lines and concept.

I've touched on most of the parts in the guideline in my previous post as well. To avoid repeating too much and doing an overkill, I'd skip the repetitive bits.

Yep, I realised that I covered much of the stuff in the guidelines, which is a good thing. Looks like I didn't really miss out much after all. Anyway, we need to start working on a tighter schedule, seeing how many lessons we are losing. And, we should fully make use of the facilities there. I'm particularly interested in the interactive whiteboard. Might be interesting to use, but we need to trial it first.

I will be doing a more specific post after this, but I'll take a "facebook" and "RIPB" break to settle some admin stuff, then I'll be back for more.

Thanks for reading :D

Benjamin

Benjamin took a walk down memory lane at 10:00 PM

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Sunday, March 28, 2010

- Main Team Blog -

Hi readers,

The main team blog has been up and kicking for a long time. almost since the time we started this project. Contains lots of information posted by members of the group, and tracks our content and coverage of the project.

While this individual portfolio will track items like reflections, please refer to our main site for the admin and technical stuff.

The link can be found in the link tab on your left :D

Till then,

Benjamin

Benjamin took a walk down memory lane at 6:12 PM

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- End-March Reflections -

Hi readers,

So sorry it's online the second post of this blog but I think the first post was pretty good already. Yeah this post will cover most of March, which has been a real hectic term because the first two weeks of March were pretty much the last two weeks of term, which meant tests and lots of wrapping up, then the holidays which weren't holidays and then term 2 week 1.

So yeah, let me track the progress of March.

March effectively marked the beginning of us teaching. Our first lesson was on 5 March, and it has been our only lesson since. How weird, I thought we only went back sometime recently but it's already almost been one whole month. That's how time flies ._.

In any case, the first lesson had been a real eye opener for me. For one we could really see and feel in the form of teachers, and I had personally enjoyed the first lesson, although I had some real problems with myself.

Basically, I feel really useless in the team. I can't play the piano, neither can I sing really well, or read notes or whatsoever, so I'm effectively the least-useful in the team. I've been trying to help out with admin as much as I can, and I guess when it comes to the report later I should do more work then. The only way I can feel useful is when I be part of the students, that way, while I learn from my teammates themselves (i'm not sure if i wrote it in the previous blog post, but I'm better at singing by ear, i dont read notes or whatsoever) I can let the students know, hey, I'm here and learning with you guys, so let's make the most out of this. Or something. I recall during the first lesson I felt pretty useless with Wenye and Isaac teaching and Benedict on the piano, so the most I could do was take down what we did, what teachers said, take photographs and move about in the audience to facilitate and make sure they were listening.

Apart from complaining about all that in the previous paragraph maybe I should move on to something more interesting and optimistic, which is actually the energy of the students. It is quite heartening to witness the fact that our students are actually super enthusiastic and like, even with all our fatigue from school and the travelling we still have energy to move on, all because the students give us the energy by giving us their fullest support and listening to us, and we are spurred on to do more for them.

Right now we havent met the choir for almost a month since 5 March because 12 March was a holiday for Grace Orchard School, 19 March was the March holidays and 26 March was our compulsory Cross Country school run (of which i completed successfully without dying ^^). This friday is the 2nd of April, which happens to be Good Friday, which means we're not meeting them again. That works out to more than a month, and if we were to think about it, the students have to readjust to us again when we come back because we've been missing in action for >1 month.

Then if we look at our very first document on objectives and trying to get the recording of the school song by June Holidays, we might be running on a very tight schedule, not forgetting CTs coming up in 6 weeks.

I think we should start sourcing for recording studios or modes of recording, while we try and teach the students their school song. I think our progress in teaching them the school song has been quite fast so far, just that all the events interrupting our travels there might have gotten a little bit in the way.

I'm looking forward to meeting the students again. They spring surprises each time we see them. Seeing our schedule we'd better plan carefully as well. Maybe we can get started on a national day song. Home? Sounds like a good song to start with. We've got two hours to do our planning this Wednesday, plus the whole 4 day long weekend to do it too. Maybe if we get things sorted out quickly and effectively our trips to Grace Orchard would be much better and effective as well.

Oh yes it appears that I have not talked about the volunteer workshop on 18 March, which was a real eye opener as well because we saw so many teams working with GOS, and also learnt quite a number of things from the workshop. Too bad the weather wasnt on our side, but we did pick up a few tips as to how to handle the students more effectively, and what to do and what not to do. It actually occurred to me how much thought the teachers and school and other teams were putting into this project. On the part of the teachers, they spent one full day preparing (for) us and hosting us (with the awesome venue and catering food), just to make sure we'd have no problem with the time spent in the school, and also to make sure we'd spend better and quality time there. On the part of the other teams, it's quite cool to see the number of people helping out within one school itself, which is actually a heartening sight.

For one, so many parties actually working together to help the less fortunate is a good sign. I mean, while we embark on this project to fulfill various criteria like project works or RE, the fact that we make this choice means that we are all committed to the same cause of helping the less fortunate. Who says teenagers nowadays are less feeling? I don't think so. Everyone is indeed doing their best to help those who are in need.

Maybe things would be better if I were a little bit more helpful. Maybe I'd have to look at the more technical and admin-ish bits of the project than the practicals, then maybe things would be better. Yeah, so the next post will be when we pay another visit to GOS or when a topic worthy of discussion pops up.

In the meantime, let us hope that this whole RES-L process will be a fun, fulfilling and memorable one, just like everyone wants it to be and work together to achieve this goal.

Looking forward,

Benjamin

Benjamin took a walk down memory lane at 5:32 PM

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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

- Post-Observation Reflections (Session 2 of 3) -

Hi readers,

This is my first post.

I'll skip the introduction. You can find the epic long profile under the section "me", which you can navigate to by clicking on, well, the "me" link on the left.

If you followed closely to my old World Scholars' Cup blog (benheartswsc.blogspot.com), you will realise that for this year's RES-L project, I am adopting the same approach to building up a reflections/personal portfolio.

It's the same template and same formatting. I am even using the same chatbox. Last post was in 2009, let's see who revives the Cbox first.

Since this is my first post, it will be most appropriate to settle some basics first.

This is a blog, so I will just "verbal diarrhea" (Mr Janus Lim) what I feel, what I did, what I know and other relevant stuff. Of course, this is a blog, so I will adopt a more informal approach. I'll still go for the content (ie reflections etc), but the language used will be different. Slightly broken and informal here and there, characteristic of a blog.

Yup, so let me begin.

This post is about Post-Observation Reflections (February period).

Basically, I've been going to Grace Orchard School (in Jurong, by the way) with my teammates Isaac, Benedict and Wenye for a few weeks now. To be more specific, for two weeks. We're adopting relatively well, and the students there are really receptive to us. :D

This observation period is meant for us to look at how the teachers cope, how to students act, and thereby attempt to craft a relevant course for the students to fulfill our goals. We're planning to record their school song and teach them a few national day songs for their National Day Celebrations. Quite a challenge, considering our tight timeline. Back to where this paragraph started, the observation period will help us access the students so that we can pace our lessons well. We don't want to drone on without them understanding.

From 2 weeks of observing, I have noticed a few things.

The students' personalities differ, almost from one end of the spectrum to the other. We have the really vocal ones (in a sense that they keep voicing their thoughts), and we have the really quiet ones. We have the open ones, and we have the more introverted individuals.

From my view, we might have it a little rough when we start out. I still have no idea how they would react when we take over their lessons in March. These students are so unpredictable. Luckily, we have the assurance of Ms Phoon that the teachers will be around to assist with any behavioral problems.

We not only observe the students, but we also observe the teaching and the teachers. There is this need to change subject every ten to fifteen minutes, or some breaks in between, because the attention span of the students is quite short, so they tend to lose focus very quickly.

There seems to be some conflict in class between certain individuals. I have also personally identified a few individuals that we "have to pay more attention to". However, to respect these individuals, I will not mention names.

Seems to me that the journey ahead could be a tough one. I don't know. Currently I'm struggling with the stress of Prefects' Investiture coming up (it's exactly one week away! ._.), and the influx of tests (chem formative is less than 12 hours away) and projects (is SS due this Monday? I'm dead if it is).

BUT But but I survived WSC last year. I will survive RES-L this year.

After all, I have seen the cheerful faces of those at Grace Orchard. (I don't mean any offense in the next few statements) As much as they are less intellectually-able than I am (or for that matter, we are), there is this something about them that makes me treasure what I have. They may be intellectually less-able, but as it is, they still lead happy lives. So why should I be depressed when I have slept at 2am everyday since the start of February? We lead only one life in our lifetime, might as well use it to the fullest. Be happy, be cheerful and be open. That's what I've gathered from the students at GOS so far.

It's 11.17pm. There's RE tomorrow, there's a lecture for Period 5. We'll see what happens during Period 6.

I might not be able to make it this Friday. Just received an email that I'm rostered down for Match Support for the Badminton players this Friday from 12.15pm onwards.

I'm bracing myself for the weeks ahead, especially these few days. Rehearsals from 7pm to 9pm might just kill me.

Nevertheless, I'll stay happy. We'll see what's there to share in the next post.

In the meantime, I hope you give us our fullest support in this RES-L project. I hope it will be as satisfying as I think it will be.

Thanks for reading!

Benjamin

Benjamin took a walk down memory lane at 11:21 PM

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