DA R E TO DR E A M , M Y F RI EN DS A ND I NICARE TYPE OF PROGRAMME PGDE(PRI) July 2011 Intake
GESL Project Report
Updated on 7th February 2012
DARE TO DREAM, MY FRIENDS AND I PROJECT PRELIMINARIES PROJECT TITLE: DARE TO DREAM, MY FRIENDS AND I GESL GROUP NAME: NICARE TYPE OF PROGRAMME & GROUP NUMBER: PGDE (PRI), GROUP 23 INTAKE: JULY 2010 GROUP MEMBERS: ANGELINA BOH WAN TING, AW BI XI CHARLOTTE, CHNG KOK HUI, FELICA ADRIANNE, FOO CHUN KIAT BRYAN, HO YANLIN, KHO YEN LING, LEE XIAO TIAN, LEONG YEW MENG, LEUNG PAK KIN, MUHAMED NAZRUL ZAIN, NUR HAMIZAH BINTE ROSIDIN, R PRASAD, SEAH JIA FEN, TAN JAC SEE, TAN JIAN LIANG, TEE MEI SHAN, WANG YIN XIA, WEE HUI LIN MICHELLE
BENEFICIARY: GOOD SHEPHERD STUDENTCARE CENTRE (GSSC) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: CENTRE CO-ORDINATOR, MDM CHAUNG LU LU & OUR MENTOR, MS LINDA HANINGTON
PROJECT OVERVIEW We organized a two- day programme for 30-40 students at GSSC to help them develop better problem solving skills, communication skills and team work skills. Aged between 7 and 12, these girls came from backgrounds that were inadequate in certain ways such as financially, socially or emotionally. GSSC focuses on social and self help skill training as well as value formation and we used this to identify our key learning points of our project. We conceived of our two-day programme to motivate the girls to realize their potential and the importance of working together with others to solve problems effectively. The first day involved Centre-based activities with a Finding Nemo theme that promoted teamwork and effective communication. The second day involved an amazing race held at Woodlands Waterfront Centre that emphasized the learning points from day one. We conceived of this programme as a learning journey for both ourselves as the organisers and beneficiaries. Planning for this event has helped our GESL group members to further develop skills for working collaboratively and taking on leadership roles in a variety of situations. GESL Project Report
Updated on 7th February 2012
PROJECT DESCRIPTION For the first day, the girls were spilt into the upper and lower primary blocks. Activities that lasted for about 1.5 hours were conducted for each block. Through a video extract from the animated movie “Finding Nemo” that showed how the fishes worked together and helped Nemo escape from the dental clinic, we explained the meaning of teamwork, communication and self-confidence to the children. Students were then tasked to participate in “Find Me”. Group members were to guide a blindfolded member to pick up the correct puzzle pieces from a tray with many items to form a picture. Students then got to play “Pictionary”. Group members were to describe a given picture to the member who was selected to draw. Everyone was given a chance to draw. The importance of teamwork and communication were illustrated clearly through the activities on Day One and students’ confidence was also built. For the second day, we organized an Amazing Race at Woodlands Waterfront Centre. The activities were planned in such a way that there was continuity to the learning objectives of Day One’s activities. All the girls were divided into different groups. We mixed up the girls as we felt that both the upper and lower primary girls could benefit from this arrangement. The upper primary girls were able to make use of their leadership skills by guiding the lower primary girls to complete the activities. The lower primary girls were also more willing to try the activities when guidance and encouragement were given. Besides being able to learn from one another, this arrangement also even out the abilities of the girls in every group. The girls had to put together a kite given some materials and to decorate their kite with their group identity. They were also tasked to come up with their own group cheer. Each group started at a different activity station and the objective of the Race was for the girls to complete all the activities at each station and to get as many points as possible. The group with the highest number of points wins. The ‘Minesweeper’ game at Station 1 involved the girls finding the correct path of a grid of 6 by 6 squares to walk from one end of the grid to another, avoiding the squares containing the ‘bombs’ in the shortest time possible. The ‘Guiding Nemo’ game at Station 2 involved the girls holding a pipe each and joining the pipes together to form one long continuous pipe. They then had to put marbles through the pipe and transfer each marble successfully from one end of the pipe to the next. The ‘Relay The Bags’ activity at Station 3 involved each pair of students holding a trash bag, lining up in a straight line with some distance between the pairs, and pass a bag of beans from the first pair to the last pair by flipping their trash bags. The ‘Hopscotch’ Activity at Station 4 involved the girls pairing up and hopping across a hopscotch grid in different patterns. Lastly, a puzzle was given to the groups at every station when they completed the required task successfully. These puzzle pieces contained meaningful phrases about friendships. A wet weather programme was also planned. The amazing race would be conducted on NIE campus if it rained on the actual day.
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PROJECT OUTCOMES, DELIVERABLES From the activities conducted on both days, the girls learned the importance of cooperation among team members (teamwork) and drawing on their team members’ strengths to complete the activities more effectively. Through the activities, it was clear to them that without cooperation within the team, it was very difficult to complete the activities as everyone will be doing things that have no positive contributions to the group. They had also improved their communication skills and were more aware of the importance of listening and giving clear instructions to their team members. The older members in the groups also learned facilitating and leadership skills when they were given additional responsibilities of guiding the younger members of the group. The activities also helped to build the girls’ confidence and they had learned to seek help and raise question when in doubt. There were some girls who did not cooperate or did not wish to participate in the activities on both days of our programme. We got to know more about these children by talking to their teachers and asking how they would usually handle such situations. By using words of encouragement and exercising patience, we tried to convince the girls to join their friends. At the same time, we were also not swayed by the children’s emotions and we stayed firm to the rule that everyone should participate in the activities because we strongly believed that every child has potential and can learn and contribute to the group regardless of how small or big the contributions were. In addition, most of the girls were receptive of us and talked to us about the different happenings in their lives. We lent a listening ear and the girls were comforted by the fact that we did not ignore them. The project had also provided the girls with a stress free learning environment that enable them to learn skills not normally learnt in a classroom context. The girls enjoyed themselves very much and the stress of schoolwork and academic learning was temporarily lifted from them.
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SIGNIFICANT LEARNING, OTHER OUTCOMES Basically from this whole learning experience, we have been enriched by the values, skills and knowledge of the NIE Teacher Education V3SK Model. We have learned to work together in a big group and to function well as a group and in a group. It was not easy to work together as everyone had different ideas and perspectives but we managed to hone our interpersonal and communication skills such as the ability to resolve conflicts, communicate effectively with one another and to execute plans. We learned to be more receptive to each other’s ideas and to work with people who had different working styles. Collaborative learning was essential to our project as everyone contributed their ideas or experience and we reflected as a group on the possibilities of the ideas. In addition, practising good time management was also necessary when we planned and discussed the project. Given different roles to play in this project, we had learned different valuable skills ranging from leadership skills, people management skills, administrative and management skills and self-management skills. We tapped on the strengths of everyone to ensure the successful delivery of the project.
During the execution of the project, we have made use of our facilitative skills to guide the girls through the activities. We have also made use of our personal social and emotional intelligence when we communicated with some of the girls who were not so receptive. This project also increased our exposure to community and student issues. We understood some of the challenges that children faced in the social and emotional aspects. We also learned to deal with a diverse group of students and got to experience first-hand some of the students that we might encounter in the real school context. We also believed that all children can learn and that every girl was given a chance to contribute to the activities. One of the most important reflections we had after the completion of the project was the importance of environment awareness and its effect on the girls and our alertness on the behaviour of the girls. Towards the end of Day 2 activities, one of the girls fainted from heat stroke and it strike us strongly that even though we had taken precautions against heat stroke, we could have pay more attention on the behaviours of the girls to notice tell-tale signs on their physical states.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION (AS NECESSARY) Contact name, phone number, and email address of partner organization / beneficiary. Mdm Chaung Lu Lu, 62500877, goodshepherdsc@marymountctr.org.sg Other project information you would like to include in the report.
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