Sunday, March 28, 2010

- 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

___________________________________________