Green shoots of interest?
I emailed several of my friends to get help at the Family Service Centre while the regular student volunteers were away for exams. I got a terrific response. A couple of them will be staying on to volunteer every other week. Yay! And thank you!
We also had a group from a JC come in to speak about and demo traditional games like chaptek, sepak takraw, and gasing (a spinny, top-like thing like playing with a yo-yo on the ground.) The kids weren't so keen on the powerpoint lecture - but they were more than happy to play the games out on the void deck.
The routine for the past three weeks has been like this: we start with some kind of word game followed by reading - all on the same subject matter. Last week it was The Pharaohs - from a really cool, colourful, history/ activity book aimed at kids. Then the kids write 5-10 sentences about something related to the subject. A couple of the kids wrote about being soldiers or wanting to be soldiers. One of the kids made himself a Pharaoh: King Nashruddin anyone? Ambition is always good.
So, at the end of the session, I asked the kids what they wanted to read about next. "Soccer" was the overwhelming winner. Medieval history didn't quite make it. Wonder why.
Cheryl, one of two social workers there, told me later that one of the boys, who'd never shown interest in books before, took a book on soccer from the bookshelf and asked if he could borrow it to read over the week. She was surprised - and happy.
Last Saturday, the younger kids (ages 6-8) who gave a mini-performance and a bunch of the older (9-12) ones watched. There were rhymes, some singing - one of the songs was Old MacDonald- where the kids would spell out the animal. At one point in the performance, the kids were singing "and on his farm he had a d-u-c-k". And the 9-year-old sitting next to me turns to me and says "Teacher, I know F- *-*-*"
An hour later, as the kids are getting ready to go home, I turn around to see one of older boys, WJ, doing an imitation of a lion tamer, holding out a chair and glaring at someone. Only he wasn't pretending or fooling around. There'd been some sort of argument and on of the volunteers was holding on to him while another volunteer was restraining another boy.
In another room, another boy, S, was staying back doing homework having asked a volunteer for help with geometry, and out in the main area, an 8-year-old was doing the same with English. A contrast.
I wonder about what help they get at home (or not). I wonder what it would take to get boys like WJ interested - and have WJ focus and engaged instead of disruptive. A male volunteer who'll give him some one-on-one time on a subject matter he enjoys? A long term mentor? I'm still thinking. Would love to hear your ideas.
Musings on working as a volunteer at a weekly learning program with kids in the Whampoa neighbourhood in Singapore
Monday, August 24, 2009
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Busted!
Saturday at the Family Service Centre, the kids in my group played Monopoly - loudly and enthusiastically - and in Singlish, especially when it came to collecting rent. As in "you never pay me my $600," or "you go to jail where got take rent."
So, I'd say to them, "Can you say that again in proper English? I know you can." And mostly, they could.
And after that they read Red Dot, a newspaper for kids. Lots of graphics and maps and big print. There was a global round-up - what happened where this week. So they each picked a country, and discussed current events, and then the kids looked up the country in the Disney Atlas for kids (I kid you not - it exists) and discussed population, capitals...
When it came time to write about what they learned that day, one of the kids wrote:
"I learned not to be a spendthrift" (He was buying lots of property during the Monopoly game and hit a credit crunch)
"I learned that English matters a lot in life."
"This tuition was FUN." (OK, so it's not meant to be tuition, but fine)
"Next week I want to learn about history."
And when the kids were writing, he kept looking at what the boy next to him was writing and telling him to capitalise this, or change that.
So I told him "Focus on your own work and stop kay-pohing him."
And he looked up at me, grinned, and said "That's not English! You said to speak good English."
Busted.
PS. We're looking for volunteers to help out b/t 10am and noon for the next 3 Saturdays: Aug 8, 15, 22. A whole bunch of the regular volunteers, from Ngee Ann Poly, need to take a break to study for exams. Interested? Questions? Please let me know.
Saturday at the Family Service Centre, the kids in my group played Monopoly - loudly and enthusiastically - and in Singlish, especially when it came to collecting rent. As in "you never pay me my $600," or "you go to jail where got take rent."
So, I'd say to them, "Can you say that again in proper English? I know you can." And mostly, they could.
And after that they read Red Dot, a newspaper for kids. Lots of graphics and maps and big print. There was a global round-up - what happened where this week. So they each picked a country, and discussed current events, and then the kids looked up the country in the Disney Atlas for kids (I kid you not - it exists) and discussed population, capitals...
When it came time to write about what they learned that day, one of the kids wrote:
"I learned not to be a spendthrift" (He was buying lots of property during the Monopoly game and hit a credit crunch)
"I learned that English matters a lot in life."
"This tuition was FUN." (OK, so it's not meant to be tuition, but fine)
"Next week I want to learn about history."
And when the kids were writing, he kept looking at what the boy next to him was writing and telling him to capitalise this, or change that.
So I told him "Focus on your own work and stop kay-pohing him."
And he looked up at me, grinned, and said "That's not English! You said to speak good English."
Busted.
PS. We're looking for volunteers to help out b/t 10am and noon for the next 3 Saturdays: Aug 8, 15, 22. A whole bunch of the regular volunteers, from Ngee Ann Poly, need to take a break to study for exams. Interested? Questions? Please let me know.
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