Holiday Programme at SINDA STEP (Day 6 & 7)

Day 6

We complemented the theoretical aspects of the Holiday Programme with the introduction of a guest speaker, Mr Kavind, who had overcome a host of challenges in his academic and personal life to become a motivational speaker and presenter. Mr Kavind shared how he had been sacked from being a prefect and demoted from the Express stream to the Normal stream during his secondary school days. He described the difficulties in coping with his parents and how he discovered his strengths which finally enabled him to be accepted into Republic Polytechnic.

The candid and frank session was well-received by the students (many stayed back after the workshop to ask the speaker more questions) and it was clear that he was able to connect with them. We followed the speaker presentation with a reflection exercise and posed 3 open-ended questions as follows:

1. What are some of the lessons and values that you have learnt from this talk?
2. The speaker mentioned some obstacles and problems that he faced as a student. Describe some of the similar problems that you have to deal with in your life.
3. After listening to what the speaker has to share, in your opinion, what three personal values will be necessary to help achieve your goals? Please explain why you think these values are important.

The responses were extremely personal and it was observed that almost every student earnestly answered the questions. The students expressed similar difficulties with engaging parents and fighting off disappointment in their lives but were generally inspired and motivated to face their challenges and push through with their ambitions. A sample of 3 responses (click on image to see full size) are appended below:






Day 7

Taking note of the overarching issue of dealing with various pressures (i.e. peer, family, personal) in the course of being a student, we decided to complete the Holiday Programme with a workshop on Peer Pressure. We opened the session by asking the students if they were familiar with the concept of peer pressure and were asked their thoughts on the issue. This was followed by the screening of an interesting advertisement that puts the issue of succumbing to peer pressure in perspective (reproduced below).

A real life scenario was then presented to the students and they were asked to share their opinions and thoughts on how to deal with the situation. A short exchange of ideas later, what actually happened to the person recounting the scenario was presented to the students which enabled them to reflect and compare against their own suggestions.

Subsequently, we conducted a case study exercise and broke the class into 6 groups of 5 students each. Issuing issued a sheet of butcher paper (i.e. 'Mahjong Paper') to each group, the students were tasked with identifying the various elements involved in the scenario (each group received a different scenario), discussing the ways in which the situations could be managed (i.e. the positive way and the negative way), considering whether the pressure was borne out of malice or ignorance (i.e. whether it was better to resolve the problem or simply walk away), and relating 2 examples of similar situations experienced in their own lives.

Groups were allowed to present their analysis in any manner they wished to and after their work was prepared, were asked to present to the rest of the class. Being generally shy and reserved, the students had to be encouraged to come forward and share their analysis but eventually, all the groups presented their findings. In all, the students were able to identify the elements of the situation (as well as whether the pressure was implicit or direct) and offer clear positive and negative approaches to each scenario. The personal recounts were also vivid and insightful and demonstrated the fact that the batch of students attending the Holiday Programe routinely face the challenge of overcoming peer pressure (perhaps even more so than other students).

The session was closed by addressing the fact that peer pressure exists in all areas of life and the point is to manage these pressures effectively and tackle the root cause that lead to each instance of pressure. A series of tools that could be employed to manage peer pressure was also shared and explained to the students. The relevance of all the workshops were tied back together (i.e. Time Management, Goal Setting, Ambition and Peer Pressure) and the students were encouraged to give these issues further thought and consideration.

Looking back, it is safe to say that the Holiday Programme has made an impact on the students and they seem to have taken away the intended learning points without having felt burdened at attending a school workshop. Almost all the students have returned to the centre at the start of this semester and our opinion is that they are motivated to try harder in their studies.

Back to Day 1 of the Holiday Programme...

Holiday Programme at SINDA STEP (Day 3 to Day 5)

While we handled different groups of students on the first 2 days, the remainder of the Holiday Programme involved the same group of 30 students comprising of secondary school students from all levels. Building on the successful opening exercise on Day 1 and Day 2, we moved on to work on Time Management on Day 3.

Day 3

Introducing the concept of Time Management and defining its elements, the opening activity involved inviting the students as a class to estimate the time spent on various daily activities in a typical school day. Using a flash-based calculator (right: taken off the internet), the calculation led to the visual representation (via a pie-chart) that there was only precious little 'spare' time in any given school day.

This trigger activity was then followed by an individual exercise to create a pie-chart illustrative of the 24 hours spent on a typical school day for each student. As expected, many students found that there was hardly any time for studies and, interestingly, it was clear that for the majority of the students the problem was spending too much time with friends (primarily due to the inability to turn down invitations by friends to meet).

The students clearly enjoyed the activity and while they were not completely sold on the idea or purpose of the exercise, they nevertheless enjoyed preparing their unique pie-charts and comparing them with their peers and friends.

The next activity was similarly illustrative in nature and involved students each drawing 4 lines on a half-A4 sized paper to create a 3x3 grid (i.e. nine boxes - example at left). The students were asked to leave the centre box blank and fill out the remaining 8 boxes with activities they do in a typical school day that does not involve studying. Most found it quite easy to think of such things - although some did struggle (our observation was that those who were working hard on their studies found the most difficulty).

After the boxes were filled out, the students were then asked to tear away the boxes that did not contribute to their health, family or education. For example, if the activity was 'housework' (i.e. family) or 'playing soccer with friends' (i.e. health) it was not torn, but if it was 'hanging out' or 'shopping' they were torn off. There was a fair amount of uncertainty if an activity listed contributed to the 3 elements or not and students took the effort to clarify with the instructors. At the end of the tearing process, most students had only one or two boxes intact and this was related back to the fact that the amount of time they really had was extremely limited.

Having illustrated the critical nature of time - and its management, and not to mention the students primed to be more receptive, some of the tools that could be used to manage their time or prioritise were shared and students were encouraged to seek further information or approach the instructors for further assistance if they were interested. Finally, they were asked to retain their individual pie-charts as a reminder of how they are spending their time (i.e. to facilitate their continued reflection on the subject of Time Management).

Day 4

We intended to follow-up our workshop on Time Management with one on Goal Setting but decided to give the students a treat and screened an edited version of the animated movie Open Season (right). The movie's plot included embracing change and overcoming challenges and we felt the students would relate to the characters.

True enough, the students enjoyed the movie and immediately after the screening, we issued worksheets (below: click on worksheet image to see full-size) to facilitate the students in reflecting on the story and relating them to their own experiences. Essentially, the worksheet drew attention to the plans that had gone wrong, how they felt when they went wrong, how they intended to overcome those setbacks and what obstacles they are likely to face in the process.

The instructors went around to supervise the progress of the students and, again, we discovered the students facing difficulty in disappointing their friends (i.e. turning down friends' invitations in favour of focussing on studying). Perhaps this could be due to their overt experiences with rejection (i.e. they do not want to inflict such pain and sorrow unto others), coupled with their inability to prioritise well.
In any case, the purpose of the exercise was to sensitise the students to the virtues of planning ahead and accepting setbacks of executing one's plans, and this was objective was largely achieved. Finally, the students were advised to retain their worksheets as a statement of intent.

Day 5

Having briefly explored Goal Setting, we decided to introduce the elements of good goal setting and facilitate the students to draw up their own goals towards intended outcomes for their academic progress. We opened the workshop with an individual exercise - a word search comprising the five elements of the SMART goals (i.e. specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely). This was followed by the introduction and explanation of what the SMART goals are and and the points were illustrated by contrasting ambiguous examples against clear ones.

We followed this with an reverse goal setting activity (left: click on worksheet image to see full-size) and encouraged students to think about their ambitions and what steps they would need to take from their current level to accomplish them. Whilst some students were very specific in what they wished to achieve in life, the majority had only a rough idea and a few even had never thought about this (one student had a callous attitude and felt 'life would take care of itself').

Nevertheless, we guided the students through the exercise and it was encouraging to see several students actively seeking out the necessary information from the instructors in order to achieve their intended goals. We were also pleased to note that all the students managed to either map out an outline towards achieving their ambitions, or (at the very least) seriously considered the necessary qualities to achieve them. Even the aforementioned student who had a 'take it easy' outlook discovered that her interests lay in tattoo art.

The students were asked to keep this copy of their plan for future reference and encouraged to work out a more detailed version and/or build a more detailed breakdown for themselves. Most notably, the purpose of the workshop to ensure each and every student introspected on their goals and ambitions had clearly been achieved - and the students were told it was nothing something that they can ever throw away!

Day 6 & 7 of the Holiday Programme continues here...

Holiday Programme at SINDA STEP (Day 2) - Pictorial Feedback Session

On Day 2 of the Holiday Programme, we handled a group of 17 students comprising of Primary Six and Secondary One students and the responses produced by this group were more detailed and animated in comparison to the older students on Day 1 (especially so for the Primary Six students). Not only were some of the pictorials well-drawn, the feelings expressed were also more fundamental in nature. Below is a sample of 7 responses (click on each image to see in full size) produced by the Primary Six students, together with an analysis of each.

This particular student has been observed in other exercises to be creatively gifted and it was thus not surprising to see a detailed and animated pictorial. She sees herself leading an uninteresting and mundane school life with little motivation but has found herself to be more motivated through her participation in the progamme. She has gained a better grasp of her school work and has also been able to overcome the perception that school is boring, thereby creating an interest in what she is being taught.

Capturing the spirit of the exercise, this student used the analogy of a basketball game and how her 'scoring' has surpassed her target because of the programme.

This student feels empowered (illustrated by the 'wings' on the students) and the bleakness of before has now become a bright and encouraging future.

This student chose to illustrate the realities of his life - the family requires financial assistance and would not be able to afford private tuition (which this student very much needs). He is therefore understandably grateful to have access to a tuition programme that also offers fee subsidies.

Using a play on the spelling of the words, this student uses the letters in the words 'before' and 'after' to illustrate how the programme has facilitated in moving from a typical fail grade to a pass grade.

Another animated illustration, this student describes the confusion and the sense of everything falling apart through the 'before' image. He also represents the general feeling that school days are long and tiresome. In the 'after' image, he illustrates how breaks seem rather long (primarily due to the arrangement of having the break between 7.00pm to 7.10pm and allowing the students to enjoy this break from 6.45pm). Also, as our centre incorporates a lot of fun into the lessons, the students (as in this case) rarely find lessons tiring.

This illustration demonstrates how confident the students have become. Usually, the students who enter the STEP programme are very unsure of themselves and would stick to simple answers and not venture beyond that. However, this student, in expressing his opinion and feelings, has dared to use more complexity (exemplified by the use of an advanced math sum) to describe how his abilities have improved - from struggling with the simplest of concepts to tackling the more challenging ones.

The information and feedback gathered over the first sessions was thus very illuminating and we were able to additionally identify a handful of students who require a different approach or some targeted attention. It was a casual and fun, yet insightful way to start of the Holiday Programme and the students seemed energised after the first session and we felt, the right tone was set (not too rigid and not too unstructured).

Day 3 to 5 of the Holiday Programme continues here...

Holiday Programme at SINDA STEP (Day 1) - Pictorial Feedback Session

It's been an eventful couple of months since my last post, with our magazine picking up momentum and lots of opportunities to conduct training coming my way. To that end, we conducted a Holiday Programme for our SINDA STEP Centre (Jurong West Secondary School premises) where we tackled several soft skills and typical issues over 7 sessions from 2 June to 16 June.

It was an eye-opening experience for the students (mostly from the Normal Academic and Normal Technical streams) who have largely never experienced alternative training methods - what with their struggles with mainstream classroom teaching. In any case, it was a 2-way experience and I learnt a lot about the students, their aspirations, their perception of life and future, and also the difficulties they faced in our education system.

We were not overly ambitious with the programme, only wishing to facilitate self-reflection in the students who comprised all levels (i.e. from Secondary One to Five). We started with a fairly easy reflective exercise where I adapted the index card creativity lesson I created for a Singapore Polytechnic student workshop to serve as a pictorial representation of their opinion of the STEP programme that they were in. On Day 1, I handled a group of 27 students comprising of Secondary Two to Five students.

The concept of analogies was explained to the students and they were then shown a series of print advertisements and invited to identify the implicit message in each. The fun class exercise was then followed by an introspective question thrown to them - how they felt about the STEP programme, after having been with the centre in for the past 4 months. The students were then asked to communicate this feeling by way of a visual analogy - much like the print advertisements they saw earlier.

As expected, some students took longer to conceptualise a visual representation than others but all of them managed to produce something unique and personally-relevant by the end of the exercise.

For the Secondary Level students, the responses were telling of their appreciation for the STEP programme and many of them saw it as enabling them to move from bad grades to good grades or from confusion to clarity. This was in line with the objectives of the STEP programme itself and validated the work the tutors do. Below is a sample 5 responses (click on each image to see in full size) with an accompanying description/analysis (students' views/intentions were casually clarified by me whilst supervising the students' work).

This student felt that she was not achieving much and not having friends either, instead wasting her time watching TV. However, after enrolling in the programme, she has found herself to be enjoying the learning process and making new friends.

This student felt that, where she had spent more time studying but achieved less, she is now able to be efficient in her studies and spends less time whilst achieving more through the assistance of the programme.

This student views the programme as potentially life-changing, having steered her away from a defeatist mindset towards more ambitious and confident goals.

Similarly, this student (as well as several others) believed that the programme has enabled them to stay clear of negative influences. Understandably, many had been implicitly forced to initially attend the STEP classes (pressure from peers, firm 'advice' from teachers, instruction by parents, etc.), but the common thread has been the perception that it has helped them avoid the more unsavoury aspects of their lives.

Interestingly, this student felt the programme has facilitated his ability to stretch himself and start to 'think outside the box'. This is not so much with regard to the creativity he employs but the outlook on his education. Where the drudgery of school life leads students in the 'Normal' stream to believe they are heading 'nowhere' and/or to a predestined eventuality, the STEP programme creates awareness of the other opportunities available and the fact that there are indeed alternatives if students only choose to pursue them.

It was evident that almost all the responses were individually relevant and anyone familiar with the particular student could identify his or her corresponding pictorial feedback. The personal ownership enabled the depth of understanding into each student's perception of the programme and how it has contributed to his or her life.

Day 2 of the Holiday Programme continues here...