How Do Mozzies See - and other big questions

A really astounding morning at Whampoa today!

My friend and fellow volunteer Hui-e and I attended TEDxSingapore a couple of weeks ago and saw a video of TED Prize winner Sugata Mitra talk about his experiments with Self Organised Learning Environments and the future of learning: http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud.html

So, we tried it out at Whampoa with our 7-12 year olds. today. In a nutshell:

• Ching-Hua and Priya (both also volunteers) worked on what Mitra called the "Big" questions - aimed at piqueing kids' curiousity. The questions had to be phrased in a not too concrete manner to leave room for, well, thinking.
• We asked the kids to pick their own groups of four...one group had three because we had 11 kids today. 
• Each group selected a question from our list:
• How do mosquitoes see?
• Why's the sky blue?
• Where does petrol come from?
• Then we left them the heck alone. Kinda. Each group had a "helper" who were the only conduit to the volunteers and vice versa. So, if they had questions, the helper had to speak to an adult. If there were things the kids were unhappy with, they had to go through the helper.

I gotta tell ya - I wasn't sure where this would go. I'd been fully prepared that some kids would run around, not want to do the work, prefer to be at the playground or playing boardgames. But wow, they all got down to it.

Glowing at S-cubed. Or - fun with e.coli

Here's a Saturday with a difference.

 My friend Sierin kindly opened her lab to a small group of students. Her friend's two teenagers, my friend's teenage son, and S, a ten-year-old from the Whampao neighborhood. The agenda: show the kids how scientists make proteins fluoresce and why. She also introduced the kids to her grad students who were researching cancer. The kids could see how the fluorescent proteins acted as "tags" and how they were solving real world issues. Three hours of microscopes, pipettes, e.coli, agar, and anatomy lab time (that was where the microscope was. And the kids knocked down Mr Skeleton - but that's another story).

The older kids had already been taking biology - so, no problem there. Another friend Ching-Hua, from IBM Research, did some extra " translation" for S  - helpful for me too! We were worried that it was all too much for S - but today, a staffer at Beyond Social Services told us how on a recent outing, S told her all about what she saw and did at the lab. S is also writing about it in her personal "newsletter." 

My thought- nevermind if  S didn't get all the ins and outs of e.coli and proteins (I didn't!). She had fun, she learned, she's interested.

A related note - I came across a TED Talk by 2013 Ted Prize winner Sugata Mitra. He's been experimenting with kids self-learning in Indian villages by plonking PCs in holes in the wall and coming back to find the kids were teaching other kids to use the computers - with no adult intervention. He then upped the ante is slight dose of adult involvement aka British Grannies.

He's now experimenting with Self Organised Learning Environments in which kids, in groups of four, are armed with one computer and a "helper"go researching Big Topics like "Why are whales the largest mammals on earth." And the kids research and present. Post-its, markers - and a framework for us adults. 

Check it out at http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud.html

We're going to try this out at Whampoa. We'll let you know how it goes. 

Meanwhile...we've received feedback from parents that the kids go home saying that they played games and had fun. Parents want to know "why isn't there more rote learning?" I guess we're doing something right. Next step - convince the parents that fun+learning = more effective.

New Quarter, New Program - "ish"

Different (learning) Strokes for Different Folks

It's been an interesting first quarter at the Whampoa Learning program. We received government funding for a reading program and it came with books, lesson plans, games, worksheets, and a trained teacher.

For an entirely volunteer-run learning/ literacy program serving a community in which the kids come from families that don't speak English at home,  those resources were really welcome. Now, that 20-week program's just finished, we've learned a lot. My personal takeaway: materials are just one element of any program. It's really about the individuals: the students and the volunteers.

Having books that were adjusted to 10 or so different reading levels is fab. Having a readymade resource meant untrained volunteers like us (mostly corporate people or high school students) didn't have to go the web looking for what we thought was the right level of material.

The worksheets we were given provided a great framework - but man...which 6-12 year-old would want to spend Satruday morning doing more worksheets - black and white ones at that! The lesson plans that came with those were okay...they were kinda  - dry and academic. (They tried). Again - why come in on Saturdays to do more of the same?

The games: now THOSE were winners. They were board games/ matching games...aimed at having kids learn how words are formed, what letters sound like...and for kids who come from families who don't really speak English, those have been a lot of help and fun.

We also had a KPI that there was no way we could have met: 75% attendance. And ours is a non-compulsory program comprising a mish-mash of neighborhood kids of varying abilities and levels of interest. And believe me - academics is not an interest. Kids were free to come or not come - depending on whether their parents felt it was important, whether they woke up on time that day, whether they felt like coming, whether there was food on the table...a myriad reasons.

We had a class list of about 40 kids of which about 6-12 would show up on any given weekend. And they weren't always the same kids. Absenteeism was a huge issue. Because it meant the previous week's work couldn't be built on. And it also meant that volunteers often outnumbered kids. Or vice versa. Neither provided a good learning environment.

So, now that our 20-week program is done, we're keeping the books, the games, and we're chucking out the worksheets and the uh...regimented lesson plans. The program directors also did something really really key. They culled the kids.

Here's what was different today:

The staff of the organisation we volunteer for, which includes trained social workers and community workers, went through the list to work out which kids should be part of the program. The kids had to want to be part of the program, had to be able to work with others in groups, and we also needed their parents' support and commitment. So, from 40 kids, we now have a list of 15 - of which we're targetting a regular attendance of 10 per week.

We had 8 kids today, almost all of whom showed up on time. On previous weekends, most of them would saunter in 20 minutes late.

Today we started with "Phonics Charade" in which a pair of kids in one team would be given a letter or a pair of letters. Say "E" or "CH". The kids would need to act out a word that started with the letter/s and the team would guess what the word, letter, and sound were.

Then, we got the kids to do some debate prep. Today's motion: Exams are a neccesary part of school. Interestingly, the kids and volunteers self-selected and were pretty evenly divided. Volunteers provided discussion scaffolding to broaden the arguments beyond "Exams aren't neccesary because we don't like them." (Yeah kid, I didn't either. I feel your pain.) Next session, the kids will continue the discussion and present their points in their groups - in whatever way, shape or form. Skit, rap, collage - whatever - it doesn't matter. As long as it's communicated.

Then came reading time. Or, the kids could choose the board games. Most of them chose reading.

In all, a pretty peaceful and productive morning. The kids were the "right" kids. They wanted to be there. So, we're OK for now.

In the meantime, the Centre is working on an assessment program based on Gardner's Multiple  Intelliegences: verbal/ linguistic, logical/mathematical, spatial/ visual, bodily/ kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=SG&v=l2QtSbP4FRg&hl=en-GB.


His theory is that human beings have different ways of processing and learning information. Our current education system, especially in this country, is mostly geared toward those who do well in the verbal/linguistics and logical/ mathematical part of the spectrum. So now the centre is working on finding out what each kid's strengths are, and then building a curriculum with volunteers from within and outside educational so that the program is adapted to the kids.

After five years volunteering at the program, I'm realising that we're just at the beginning of the journey. I'm excited that a roadmap is being drawn to suit individual kids - and that individual volunteers will be able to contribute based on their strengths as well.

I'm hopeful that this program be impactful - and that impact will go beyond those who do well in the traditionally academic areas of reading, writing and 'rithmetic.

We're in the 21st century after all.

KPIs of a 14-year-old

Conversation with a 14-year-old that I'm working with at Whampoa:

Me: So, for the December holidays, would you rather continue doing mock test papers or do a project on something you really care about - like Education or Environment ...

14-year-old: I'd rather continue with the papers because that's what I get tested on at school.

Me: Don't you do projects at school? Aren't they more fun than assessments?

14-year-old: Projects are only 10% of my school grades. So I think I'll stick to assessments.

 I posted this on facebook, and one of my friends who's in marketing posted back "Same happens in corporates with high variable pay... It's my target... Therefore..."

The education system in Singapore is really, really working on changing. It's been in the media a lot in the past few months and I truly believe it's more than a PR exercise. We're working on putting play into school, building more resilient, adaptable kids. About time too - and I hope this works.

In the meantime, we've already drummed it in many young minds. These young minds will grow up. 

And I hope that one day, someone will tell them, as a teacher in highschool told me when I was 16: "Don't confuse academics with education."

Another told me that if she had to school between the two, she'd rather be wise than clever.

Me, I'm still learning.

Year Up: The ABCs of Bridging the Opportunity Divide

The other ABCs: a lightbulb moment

Went running Sunday morning listening to BBC's World Business Report podcast and heard about how American non-profit Year Up helps young school leavers skill up to get jobs. BBC World Business Report Podcast. (Oct 5, 5 minute mark)

Their pitch: over the next 10 years, American companies will face a shortage of 14 million qualitied workers. Yet, there is a slew of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds for whom the US education system hasn't adequately served. The result: they're unable to take up these jobs.. Link to Year Up's site

Year Up's mission? Skill up 5 million bright young adults from economically disvantaged backgrounds to gear them up to meet the demands of the working world. The student BBC interviewed talked about learning Outlook, Word and Excel - things you and I take for granted. She also learned technical IT skills - adding that being able to take apart a computer and put it back together again helped her gain confidence. She's now one of the 84% of Year Up's graduates who are employed or attending university full-time within four months of completing the program.

The program's website lists four pillars of focus: Support, College Credits, Job Skills and Internships.

But what really struck me was how the Year Up's spokesperson distilled the program to three key elements. He called them ABCs:

• Attitude
• Behaviour
• Collaboration

Skills are key, of course. Even in Singapore, we've got tons of kids with skills. 

What's not so easy to get across is the importance of Attitude, Behaviour and Collaboration - crucial in the workplace but invisible on a report card. You can't really test for these ABCs and I haven't certainly seen these qualities discussed or emphasised in the current debate on our education system and standardised testing. 

Maybe we've forgotten these ABCs in our rank-based, race-to-the-top, report-card based Type A school system. Maybe we owe it to our kids to help them, and ourselves, remember that these qualities are the fundamentals of a knowledge-based society - or any society for that matter. 

I have to say I'm as guilty as anyone. As a volunteer at the Beyond Social Services @ Whampoa, I keep asking about measureable KPIs in the kids' reading program we're working on. The Year Up interview has made me change my mind somewhat. Don't get me wrong, visible progress is still important to me. I feel strongly that without good English fundamentals, these kids are disadvantged in a way that middle class kids from English-speaking homes aren't.

But I'll need to keep reminding myself that the goal of spending time with the 6 to 12 year olds isn't just about helping them put together vowels and consonants. It's also to show, by example, the importance of the other ABCs.

Chilling Lessons - from Kids

Interactive Museum Exhibit. Like our classes: organised chaos

Things were going pretty well this morning. Ok - who am I kidding. The kids weren't settling down, they were running around, chattering, banging on the keys on the classroom piano. One boy in particular, let's call him Miko, was refusing to join the group when the other kids finally were starting to quiet down and the control freak in me was going slightly nuts. 

Miko ran to the bookshelf and started pulling on magazines and ... a rag.

Were we regressing? I wondered. Things seemed so much more peaceful when we had the 9-12 year olds only and we had our "one conversation at a time" rule. It had taken a long while, but we'd gotten to the point in which we didn't even need to raise our voices to get the kids' attention - just raise our hand to indicate we were about to talk.

Now we've got everyone from 6 up, proportionally fewer volunteers, and for a few long minutes, it felt like bedlam.

Better than Weekend Brunch

A core group of us have been going to the Whampoa Family Service Centre for more than two years now. Our goal - to help the kids communicate in English, build confidence, make learning fun.

The first six months were pretty confusing and scary. The kids didn't know us, we weren't sure what to expect, and none of us knew anything about working with kids or what a lesson plan even was.

It took us months to build trust. Then the kids started responding. Then they started noticing when we were travelling and when we skipped weekends. The first time a kid said to me "Why you so long never come here?" I felt a mixture of guilt and gratification - wow they remember me!

Two really cool things happened last weekend. One of the girls made us a heart shaped thank-you card for teachers day and gave it to us before class started. A totally terrific surprise.

And, halfway into the session I asked a brand new volunteer how he was doing and he said, "It's great. I'm learning to help the kids learn how to learn."

And that, I guess, is what we've been doing many many Saturdays in a row.

And it's worth it.