Dear all,
I had a short meeting with Jasmine and Gerardine this evening regarding the "Say it out" programme. "Say it Out" will resume on 13 July, Friday, 4.30pm at CSLMCH and will be held on alternate Fridays after that.
As discussed, the new features of the programme include:
1. More games.
2. Different methods of delivery: mini-toastmasters, debates, etc.
3. Dividing the students into permanent groups for an on-going competition, with prizes to be given at the last session of this year.
4. Electing a student leader for each group.
5. An Angel & Mortal game with students and facilitators.
The purpose of this programme is to develop the student's confidence to speak up through sessions of games and discussions. Gerardine made a good point worth highlighting here. The students are facing many issues in their life at their age and we do not know what their values and guiding principles are. We should not try to assume the position of a teacher in this programme. Rather, we should take time to listen to what their views are on these issues and share with them our opinion on them as an older person who had gone through these before.
Please let me know if you are free to help out with this programme. Thanks a lot!
Regards,
Andrew Leo
Friday, June 29, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Charity Bike'n'Blade
If you can ride a bike (or blade) and want to do something for charity, this event is for you:
The Charity Bike'n'Blade, organised by Avanade Asia, aims to raise $500,000 for the Centre for Women and Girls, the Ling Kwang Youth Centre for the underprivileged and The Salvation Army’s Youth Programmes. It will be held from 7th to 9th September 2007.
Help to raise $500 and you can participate in the 40km Singapore-only leg, or raise $2000 to take part in the 400 km Malaysia-Singapore circuit.
Check out http://www.charitybnb.com/howtoparticipate.html on other ways you can participate in this event.
The Charity Bike'n'Blade, organised by Avanade Asia, aims to raise $500,000 for the Centre for Women and Girls, the Ling Kwang Youth Centre for the underprivileged and The Salvation Army’s Youth Programmes. It will be held from 7th to 9th September 2007.
Help to raise $500 and you can participate in the 40km Singapore-only leg, or raise $2000 to take part in the 400 km Malaysia-Singapore circuit.
Check out http://www.charitybnb.com/howtoparticipate.html on other ways you can participate in this event.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Friday, June 8, 2007
December Community Service Event
Dear all,
Christina, Yu Jen and I discussed the "December event" for CSLMCH briefly this evening. Here's the rough idea:
Purpose: Involve the children in community service to let them know that they are not too young to contribute to the community.
Activity: Distribute bread (or something else) to old folks living in one-room flats; do household chores for them and/ or chat with them.
Date: 28 December, Friday
Our initial idea was to have the children bake something to be distributed to the old folks, but that will be too much activity in a day. It's also quite difficult for us to bake enough for distribution. We can't guarantee that what is baked is safe for consumption too.
We are thinking of limiting participation to the "Say it Out" students, i.e. children in Primary 5 and above.
Each child should be attached to a volunteer. From our last December event, we can expect to have around 18 volunteers. So around 18 to 36 children can be involved, assuming each volunteer takes care of one or two children.
If each team of volunteer and children visits 6 old folks on that day, we can reach around 108 old folks (one HDB flat?).
What do you guys think?
Christina, Yu Jen and I discussed the "December event" for CSLMCH briefly this evening. Here's the rough idea:
Purpose: Involve the children in community service to let them know that they are not too young to contribute to the community.
Activity: Distribute bread (or something else) to old folks living in one-room flats; do household chores for them and/ or chat with them.
Date: 28 December, Friday
Our initial idea was to have the children bake something to be distributed to the old folks, but that will be too much activity in a day. It's also quite difficult for us to bake enough for distribution. We can't guarantee that what is baked is safe for consumption too.
We are thinking of limiting participation to the "Say it Out" students, i.e. children in Primary 5 and above.
Each child should be attached to a volunteer. From our last December event, we can expect to have around 18 volunteers. So around 18 to 36 children can be involved, assuming each volunteer takes care of one or two children.
If each team of volunteer and children visits 6 old folks on that day, we can reach around 108 old folks (one HDB flat?).
What do you guys think?
Revamping "Say it Out"
Dear all,
Christina, Yu Jen and I had a meeting this evening to examine why our "Say it Out" sessions didn't work out and the ways we can improve the session.
We all agreed that the fundamental purpose of the session, i.e. to develop confidence in the children to speak up, should not change. I spoke to one of the students at Movie Night and he told me that "Say it Out" is a useful session and he enjoyed it very much. That's very comforting.
We postulated the following reasons the students voted against "Say it Out" in the last session:
1) Too much teaching. They loved the games, but when the teaching gets too long, we begin to lose them.
2) No focus. We did not introduce the topic at the beginning of the lesson, but jumped straight into the activities expecting the children to know what we are trying to get across.
3) Peer pressure. We'd like to believe that not all who voted against the session really meant what they say. They could be seeing this as a challenge and wanted to display their disregard of our authority over them. Some did so because they are influenced by their friends.
Thus, instead of coming out with a entirely new programme, we think it's more practical to refine what we have now. We came up with the following points:
a) More games. One game to start the session and another to end it. We should also make known the agenda for the session at the beginning.
b) Alternate sessions of debate, lesson and "mini-toastmasters". We can experiment with different methods of delivery.
c) On-going Competition. We divide the students into two groups competing against each other in debates and "mini-toastmasters" for a group prize at the end of the year. This will give them a sense of belonging to a group and incentive to attend the programme.
d) Group Leaders. Leaders of the two groups are elected for a three-month term by popular vote. They have the responsibility of reporting attendance, leading discussion for debates, etc. This will make the programme less facilitator-imposed and more student-initiated.
e) Angel & Mortal. This is suggested by one of the students. A volunteer can act as angel to a few student-mortals, exchanging messages and small gifts with them. Participation is voluntary.
We propose to hold our next "Say it Out" session directly after the June holidays (6 July or 13 July). We'll not be giving them a lesson, but we'll be providing them with an overview of what we will do for the rest of the year. This will let them know that we value their opinion.
We can hold the election of group leaders, form the two groups and assign angels to mortals in the first session.
We appreciate any more ideas to improve our 'Say it Out" sessions. Please let us know if you have any more points to add.
Thank you!
Christina, Yu Jen and I had a meeting this evening to examine why our "Say it Out" sessions didn't work out and the ways we can improve the session.
We all agreed that the fundamental purpose of the session, i.e. to develop confidence in the children to speak up, should not change. I spoke to one of the students at Movie Night and he told me that "Say it Out" is a useful session and he enjoyed it very much. That's very comforting.
We postulated the following reasons the students voted against "Say it Out" in the last session:
1) Too much teaching. They loved the games, but when the teaching gets too long, we begin to lose them.
2) No focus. We did not introduce the topic at the beginning of the lesson, but jumped straight into the activities expecting the children to know what we are trying to get across.
3) Peer pressure. We'd like to believe that not all who voted against the session really meant what they say. They could be seeing this as a challenge and wanted to display their disregard of our authority over them. Some did so because they are influenced by their friends.
Thus, instead of coming out with a entirely new programme, we think it's more practical to refine what we have now. We came up with the following points:
a) More games. One game to start the session and another to end it. We should also make known the agenda for the session at the beginning.
b) Alternate sessions of debate, lesson and "mini-toastmasters". We can experiment with different methods of delivery.
c) On-going Competition. We divide the students into two groups competing against each other in debates and "mini-toastmasters" for a group prize at the end of the year. This will give them a sense of belonging to a group and incentive to attend the programme.
d) Group Leaders. Leaders of the two groups are elected for a three-month term by popular vote. They have the responsibility of reporting attendance, leading discussion for debates, etc. This will make the programme less facilitator-imposed and more student-initiated.
e) Angel & Mortal. This is suggested by one of the students. A volunteer can act as angel to a few student-mortals, exchanging messages and small gifts with them. Participation is voluntary.
We propose to hold our next "Say it Out" session directly after the June holidays (6 July or 13 July). We'll not be giving them a lesson, but we'll be providing them with an overview of what we will do for the rest of the year. This will let them know that we value their opinion.
We can hold the election of group leaders, form the two groups and assign angels to mortals in the first session.
We appreciate any more ideas to improve our 'Say it Out" sessions. Please let us know if you have any more points to add.
Thank you!
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