Reflective Journal 5

Time flies, but the memories collected along the way can never be replaced. The day has arrived where I may not get to seethe bunch of kids often anymore and Miss Sharon as well as the study environment here. It had been five challenging and fun week for me teaching them English and I believe that they manage to learn something from the games.

Since Miss Sharon had not arrived yet, the group responsible begun by “Hanging over” and“Music and mystery box” games. Everyone was overly excited until we had difficulty to pause when Miss Sharon walked in. Miss Sharon purposely contacted all students to join today’s Pace activity. Without her effort, the turnout rate today will be lesser which will affect our activity and food prepared. Besides that, people are always impressed by her hilarious yet funny character while teaching. I truly appreciate teacher like Miss Sharon, to end today with unforgettable memories created for both mentors and mentees.

After completing the exercise given by Miss Sharon, we proceed to the next activity which was short farewell speech by Ms Sharon and Ms Kelly. The overwhelming feeling ruin us as all of us knew that today is our final day. My favorite mentees, Kanna and Nuaisyah glance at me sadly and I act like crying which made them laugh. But deep in my heart, there is truly lots of unwillingness to leave them. If I ever have the time or chances, I will stay to teach them willingly with hope they can improve in their weak subjects.  After the speech, the students gave us a small handmade key chain as an appreciation token and in return I gave my mentees a small gift to motivate her study hard. After the exchange gift session, we continue with the “Music and mystery box” games. Kanna and Nuaisyah dragged each of my hand asking me to join their group to play the first game. This appreciated feeling definitely send adrenaline to me. Unfortunately, I had to assist my mentees, Nuaisyah in playing the game. Arishah who absents for weeks did turnout today as well and in the same group with Nuaisyah. She was naughty as she really rude sometimes, but still she is one of the mentees that I had been assist and I do have fun with her. None of us get bored, we had a lot of fun throughout the games.

It’s time to party! All of us proceed to Canteen to have our farewell meal! Food of the day is Subway and I can see everyone is enjoying the foods. Instead of standing aside, initiatively I helped to arrange the food and coordinate the mentees when taking group photo as the situation was messy. Mentees were shy to take the foods prepared and I distributed out for them and make sure they had enough of it. We had a good time during the farewell party. Not to mention that photo booth session is everywhere ever since the speech ended!

It’s hard to say goodbye. Everyone slowed down while chatting with their respective mentees. I am pleased to be here for them every Thursday and this was an amazing journey. My journey with them has ended and I would like to end with a quote of friendship. “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which value to survival” (Lewis, 2002). All of them create value in my life which I will never forget of. There never be a boundaries when come to friendship although we may have different religions, different languages, different skin coloured, difference education level but we all belong to one human race and I never prejudice against he/she age when making friends. All in all, I believe that strong friendship is built along the PACE activity and it kind of waken me that do not prohibit my friends from projects merely because they are in younger ages. They might somehow have the knowledge that you lack of and respect the ideas and opinion of others.

We start the class by "Hanging over " Game.

Next, "Music and Mystery box" Game.

Short farewell speech by Miss Sharon, it meant a lot to us.
Thanks to  her hard-work and contribution for  making this PACE activity successful.

Token Appreciation for Miss Sharon.

Farewell Speech by Miss Kelly is ongoing.
Specially thanked to Miss Kelly who helped us throughout the program.
Although we drive her up the wall, she still forgive us willingly.
Indeed, she is truly a very kind teacher and carries a smile everyday that definitely brighten up your day!

Token Appreciation for Miss Kelly. Three of them looking good in this picture. :)

Second Round Music and mystery box games.

Photo session.

Mentees and Mentors , me, Arisyah, Nuaisyah and Welsey.

Awesome teacher, Miss Sharon. 

Another group photo :)

Helping out in arranging the farewell party.

Food of the day, subway !

Everyone in the photo, I going to miss you all badly. 

The favourite photo of mine with my mentees, Nuaisyah and Welsey.

"The town was paper, but memories are not. " - John Green.
Preserved memories of mine.

Reference:

Lewis, C.S. (2002) Quotes. Available from: http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1069006.C_S_Lewis [Accessed 14 May 2014]

Reflective Journal Four

Getting the chance to meet the bunch of happy kids again this week is always exciting!Miss Sharon begun the class by telling us a good news that the posters created previous week caught the crowd’s attention and they manage to earn up to two thousand revenue. Definitely indeed a good new! Lesson learned : Built off each others ideas, appreciate that music often comes from disharmonies in keys. (Flickety et al, n.d.). The effort and idea of everyone put together on the poster successfully helps the students in opening a bank account by profit earned which definitely means a lot to them now till then.

Due to the midterm exam, most of them didn’t turn up at the beginning of the class. Miss Sharon started the class by teaching them summary.  Kana requested me to teach her summary and without hesitation I went over since my mentor has not arrived. In the mid of teaching, Nuraishah suddenly approach me which was a total surprise because I assume she won’t be coming. Without further delay, I work with Mandy and Min Sui to guide her on the summary writing. She was so weak that we needed to explain sentence by sentence for her to understand. Min Sui was really a good mentor! I was inspired the way she explained to student and classify thing, I learning something from her definitely. On the other hands, Nuraishah made me realise that how weak she is in English subject and with this two hours PACE activity every week, it was never sufficient for her to learn and improve. I hope the school can have more tuition for them as they really need helps a lot. 

The group who took charge for today was well prepared with materials. Besides that, what made them different comparing other groups was they prepared stationary for mentee instead of snack (unhealthy food).  For the first game “spot the mistake”, I took the initiative to be the mentor holding the paper because I wanted to observe the class interaction. This game reminds me greatly of my primary school time where all the unforgettable memories were created such as playing games together with friends, even just by watching the mentees following what their friend do confusedly without understanding makes me recall some childhood memories. Throughout the game, I realize that mentor are more initiative compared to few weeks ago, they approach the student confidently and started to guide them along the game.

             The second game which also the last game made me realizes the weakness of mentee in doing past tense as well as myself. I’m not that good in grammar therefore I took the opportunity to polish my grammar by learning together with them which definitely meant something to me. Although the game ended fast and we did not manage to finish the puzzle but still I had manage to refresh my English language. From these activity, I aware of the giving and receiving process. I, myself willing to accept from those who have and share with those who do not. I never feel shame of my English level but yet I feel like it's a life learning process. When you ask for what you need and receive what people and the world have to give, it reduce the stress and gain energy by Amanda Owen (2010). Thus, at the end of activity, I inspire my mentee by telling her the story of my learning process and encourage her never be afraid to ask as the more you ask the more you gain.

Next week will be the last week of us going to this joyful place. How I wish time can return more often. However, time does not wait for us. Thus, we are going to make it a memorable one. We will be having small farewell party next week with them! Looking forward for it!


Reference :
Flickety et al. (n.d) How To Be Friends with Someone Younger Than You. Available from : http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Friends-with-Someone-Younger-Than-You  [Accessed on 8 May 2014]

Owen, A. (2010) The power of receiving quote. Available from: http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/14535604-the-power-of-receiving-a-revolutionary-approach-to-giving-yourself-the [Accessed on 8 May 2014]