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Our team seeks to enrich the students by improving their literacy skills through weekly tutoring sessions
This small lil website serves as the blog of our group, providing us with a platform to express our feelings in the form of a reflection.
Clarence, Daniel, Hong Jhun, Ranald, Vignes
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Tuesday, March 8, 2011 @ 9:19 PM
Reflections 1: 8 March 8, 2011 Over the last two weeks, we have embarked on our first steps of our RESL journey by meeting with our VWO twice and feverishly pondering what much we can do for the kids there at Tanglin APSN School, as well as what to research on in the process.
Regarding our initial idea of scrabble, we have realized through initial talks with our representative at the VWO Ms Jey, as well as discussions about feasibility, that we would drop it. In my perspective, I thoroughly don’t mind and look forward to the very interesting and meaningful ideas that have been generated through discussions about the VWOs expectations and our ideas. We have decided to embark on a video idea to express social situations to the kids in visual terms, such that it would be easier for them to understand and learn what is to be done in various common social situations.
Regarding my first impressions of the school, I think it is very heartwarming to see that in Singapore we have such infrastructure to cater to the needs of every member of society. I also found out at the same time the MINDS caters to a different group of students. That being said, I am looking forward to actually interacting with the kids, and hopefully teach them stuff and also learn from them. |
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@ 8:39 PM
Discussion of Proposal #1 Date: 3rd March 2011 Time: 3.30 to 5.00pm Venue: Tanglin School Agenda:
Recorded by Ranald (: |
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@ 8:25 PM
First Meeting Date: 23th February 2011 Time: 2.00pm to 3.30pm Venue: Tanglin School Agenda:
Recorded by Ranald (: |
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@ 8:21 PM
First Meeting: 23 February, 3.30pm Having no prior experience in handling special needs students, that day was my first time entering such a school. On first glance, it reminded me of my primary school. Small, cramped and lack of resources. We were supposed to meet Ms jey, the acting v. principal of the school and the mentor of our RESL project. Initially, I thought she already had plans in mind for us as she has already proposed to do video making prior to the initial meeting. Given the misconceptions that the video making will result in the group able to interact less with the students, i was not in favour of that proposal. Before the meeting, i thought ms jey might have been a strict person, in order to protect the student's interest. However, she was in fact very approachable and open to any ideas. We even got to craft our own plan and proposal from a list of possible project topics. There were also notes and reading materials given. I think that video might be a more feasible option than independent travelling skills as i think it might be rather awkward being with another person alone. Furthermore, i do not think i am mentally prepared to be able to take on the responsibility of accounting for another person. Other than that, i feel the students there look perfectly normal in their appearances, and i hope i'll get a better picture when i have the opportunity to interact with them |
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@ 8:18 PM
I would say that I was filled with apprenhension on our first meeting with Ms Jey, which was two Wednesdays ago. I wanted to see how Tanglin School would look like, and I also wanted to know the kinds of activities that we could initiate from visiting the school compound and discussing with Ms Jey, other than our preliminary idea of tutoring Scrabble. When we started the discussion, I learnt that Scrabble really was not a suitable subject and told myself to be open to other suggestions, despite feeling a tinge of disappointment that we could not carry out what we had desired. However, we learnt that there were several other more meaningful items that we could help out with, and eventually at the end of the meeting we decided that taking up the Video-making for Social Situations and Vocational Training would be most suitable for us. One thing that I regretted about this meeting was that we were unable to talk to the kids in Tanglin despite meeting them. After the discussion, we toured the school and found that they had several interesting facilities like mock workplaces that are already in place for vocational training, and they had a students' lounge known as the Sparkz Cabin, which hosted recreational facilities and allowed the kids a place to rest before CCA or while waiting for the school bus. During the second meeting, we presented some of our ideas to Ms Jey and we clarified several doubts that we had. Ms Jey also gave us some readings to extend our knowledge and understand more about the Tanglin Kids. The readings did indeed bring forth a greater understanding to myself and I believe that they will help when we first interact with our charges. To summarise, I think that both meetings were very helpful, mostly in terms of extending our knowledge about Tanglin School and consolidating our project framework. I'm looking forward to our next meeting as we might be able to meet the kids we will be working with then. Clarence :) |
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@ 8:03 PM
Previously, we visited our VWO for the first time to meet with our external mentor as well as to discuss our project and the possibile topics we could undertake. I was filled with apprehension mostly and was anxious to find out what our project would be about due to the challenges that we may face. We met Miss Jey for the first time and she discussed the different projects with us. Each project seems reasonable and feasible. However, what ran through my mind went along the lines of " We should do something really outstanding; something to stand out from the crowd". I was really quite interested in carrying out the project as most of them seemed interaction based. At that point in time, our group was thinking of creating a hybrid project. After having discussed possible topics, Miss Jey proceeded to take us on a tour around the school. We realized that the school is well-equipped with facilities necessarry for the personal growth of the students. For example, they had simulation areas, to simulate possible vocations that the students may wish to pursue. They also had certain areas for the students to relax such as a student lounge known as the Sparkz Cabin and a reading corner which also came equipped with a Fussball table and a table tennis area. I was rather impressed by the facilities as they seemed to be adequate in supporting the needs and learning of the students. We then went on a second visit, to determine one main project that we would carry out. After much discussion with Miss Jey we thought that video lessons on Vocational Studies and Social Situations seemed the best thing to do. We also came with the intent of understanding the workings of Tanglin School better and we also wished to learn about the students we would be interacting with over the 2 term project. Miss Jey was very helpful in answering our questions and even provided some references and notes to read. The material provided to us was regarding service learning, education psychology and breaking social stigma. I found the notes very useful in several instances of brainstorming on the project. |
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Friday, March 4, 2011 @ 5:55 PM
This is my first blog entry in quite a long time lol. Last Wednesday, after having contacted our external mentor, Ms Jeyashini, beforehand, we decided to visit our VWO (APSN Tanglin School) for the first time. Our main purpose was to know the school's system and students better and to understand their needs. Through a short discussion with Ms Jeyashini, we discovered that we could help the students there by creating videos for social and vocational guidance lessons, and that the students themselves would act in the skits. We were also offered side-projects such as helping to translate parents' words during Parent-Teacher meetings and other ad-hoc events which would require our assistance. After the short discussion, Ms Jey took us on a short tour around the school, and we realised that although it was quite small, there were facilities such as the gymnasium and the Sparkz cabin which catered to students who needed to kill time when they needed to stay back. There were also rooms which were set up like real life minimarts and hotel rooms to facilitate vocational training for the students. Just yesterday, we met Ms Jeyashini again at Tanglin School to share with her our plans for this project. We decided to focus on the video-making as our main project and that we would help to facilitate in any ad-hoc events. I felt that it went really well as she agreed mostly with our plans and at the same time answered the many queries that we had for her. I look forward to actually meeting and interacting the students at the start of the next term. |