Gaming the Lesson Plan

Last week, we had a volunteer with 20 years experience in working with Special Needs Children do a workshop with us in Classroom Management. At the end of the workshop, she gave us a BRAND NEW Monopoly set and told us that ANYTHING can be taught using boardgames. "Just replace the Comm Chest and Chance cards w/ your own."

Since she gave us Singapore Monopoly, we used a passage on Singapore from the Kids Encyclopedia Britannica to introduce new vocab and concepts like Economy, Terrain, Undulating, Monsoon, Thriving, Metropolis etc. The volunteers did a great job engaging the kids, age 9-11, to draw them into discussion - including bringing out a huge atlas and have kids find the equator, peninsulas, explaining monsoons, making sure the quieter ones (girls) got a chance to talk.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

A friend donated a P6 curriculum from a really cool US program called Pathways to Character. The program intertwines academic content, like math and English, with concepts like respect, sharing, family, tolerance. Couple of weeks ago, we used one of their lessons on "respect".

The lesson plan had us find a passage from literature where there was conflict. I took a scene from the first chapter of  Lord of the Flies. I read out the conversation between Piggy and Ralph where Ralph is crushingly patronising and rude to Piggy.

The kids made a hand puppet from a paper bag, and I put a jar of marbles on the table. Every time any of the characters said a disrepectful word the kids dropped a marble into the bag. After a couple of  minutes the bags had about 8 or 9 marbles. Noisy bag.

Then, we explained that when you're disrespectful or use disrespectful words, people hear only the disrespectful stuff  - the noise - and disregard the rest.

Everyday Heroes

So, the kids had a really really cool children's party organised for them by a team at PSA. The games were engaging, the kids were constantly moving, doing stuff, running and laughing - 80% of the kids were terrific, polite, well-behaved.

Three of the kids were being a real pain - esp. on the way back, on the bus. They were rude, one of them had allegedly hit another kid with an empty plastic water bottle, and another one was mouthing off loudly - most of that seemed to be aimed at me as I was sitting right in front of him trying to get him to sit the heck down in the moving bus.

I honestly thought we'd made more progress than that. So, dejected and distressed, I texted the social worker I work with on the program, questioning the effectiveness and purpose of what we were doing. And she emailed me a note I'll refer to every time I'm losing the faith. (Names of kids have been changed)

"I know they still have a long way to go, but they’re slowly moving in the right direction yeah. And honestly, sometimes the work that we do, it’s like if we can save 1 out of every 20, that’s already a success. But that’s the jaded social worker speaking

Tiny Steps in Winning the Education Battle

Woke up this morning to two really cool education stories – one in the NY Times about how big dsn’t mean bad. Very VERY gratified to see that it was teachers who wanted to make the change that drove the change. So much for the excuse that the system’s too big for individuals to make a diff.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/education/28school.html?src=me&ref=homepage

Then another one on Mashable on USING Social Media to teach. Beats trying to do a lock down and preventing kids from going online – kids are gonna do what they’re gonna do. And they’re smarter than adults about technology and twice as determined. So there. As a Portland teacher, Elizabeth Delmatoff said, “Don’t fight the losing battle.”

http://mashable.com/2010/09/29/social-media-in-school/

Personally I’d rather go with the winners and have the kids learn something.

Learning a Thing or Two About Friendship
Followed the Whampoa kids on Beyond Social Services' Fundraiser Streetwise Run early July, and I learned a thing or two about friendship and determination.

There was the pre-run prep, where kids who showed up a the bus pick-up point early then walked to their friends' flats to make sure they were up and would be ready to leave on time. There were the older kids who were holding the younger kids' hand on the 5k walk - kids that I wouldn't have dreamed would even think of looking after other kids.

Things I'm Learning from People I'm Meeting


Funny how things in my work and personal life converge - or maybe they're converging because one's feeding off the other.

Here's what's taking up my time now:
- I'm working on building my own business, LINEA, in communications consulting and training. And meeting some really cool, independent businesspeople.
- I'm taking a REALLY great Travel Photography class with Eyes On Asia, and discovering that there are things to shoot in Singapore, and shooting with some really cool people,
- I'm working with volunteers to beef up the learning program at the Whampoa Family Service Centre and learning that diversity=different points of view=a stronger program.

I actually started off wanting to focus on PR for Very Small Businesses and Small/ Medium Businesses. But I quickly realised that businesses that small don't care about putting marketing disciplines in silos - they don't have the time or resources. They want everything linked together - something some larger companies see as a theoretical thing called Integrated Marketing. So I'm quickly finding other independent partners to work with to meet VSB needs.

A Step Forward!

The Saturday volunteers continue doing a FANTASTIC job at Whampoa's LIFE program. They're so energising and engaging they make everything fun.

The classes I took at the British Council help a great deal in lesson- planning, and we're building trust and learning about the kids as individuals. Yes, it gets tiring, hot, and humid, and we're getting real life lessons in classroom management and chaos, but it's worth it.

Now that I've left Lenovo, I've been helping out with Whampoa's after school program once or twice a week. Volunteers from SJI and CHIJ come in as part of their CCAs to help out.

Today, one of the 12-year-olds, (not the kid in the photo) who a year ago pretty much wouldn't give us the time of day or even come near us, sat down for two hours and did an English assessment paper including a composition. Then he played a grammar game on the BBC education website on my old work ThinkPad that I bought over and now bring to Whampoa with me. His progress has been a gradual process - thanks to the work of a whole slew of people, from social workers to volunteers.

Because he was so focused and engaged, I lent him my iPhone to play pinball in between doing his work. That seemed to work as reward and a break. So I guess I'll be downloading more games tonight. He's a really bright kid, but I'm worried about his PSLE's since three of his four subjects are in English. A teacher I met told me that with six months to go before his exams, it's "drill baby drill." It's now all about test-taking and not about building a foundation.

For all you teachers/ parents out there - what do you think? Can the two be combined? I'm not a big fan of drills, but if it has to be done, it has to be done.

Two Steps Back
After-school program at Whampoa program. Had the four boys. H, one of the boys I usually work with, was at school doing his fitness test but dropped by to say hi just before 5.

Did a writing exercise - correction - attempted to do a writing exercise using a Cartier-Bresson image of a group of boys playing near an abandoned building. Thought I'd try out the cool pre-writing collaboration exercises I learned in class.

They were outta control and we were all over the place. Did I pick the wrong content? Have bad classroom management? It wasn't even a classroom - just four boys. They finally settled down to do their mind-map with one-on-one attention from the other volunteers as well. Learning: plan the group work more carefully.

Later Li, a girl who's really good at Chinese, came over to get help researching content for English homework around advantages and disadvantages of the Internet. Of course, the first article that popped up, the P word appeared under Disadvantages. She asked "Should I include this? My teacher is a girl."

She also wanted to know how to score better in Comprehension, which seems to be a common weakness. Kids can process the stuff they read, but drawing inferences is another matter entirely. Will work on that in the next couple of weeks. See if I can put what I learned at the British Council to good, practical use.

Light!











We had one of our best Saturday sessions at Whampao last weekend.
As volunteers, we're finally getting to know the kids (it's taken us a year!), understand what floats their boats, realise that they have very different home, and probably school, environments than we ever did.

Most importantly, Saturday was the most engaged they've ever been. They're starting to trust us, and maybe realise that we care, and that learning isn't a drag.

We've started dividing the two hours into several sections:
- a warmer, to cater for the kids that are on time and to get them into it as they come in
- a lead-in, to get the kids to guess the topic and get into it and get them engaged
- puzzles, word searches, crosswords, mindmaps, in which the answers relate back to the topic. Sometime its more hands on, like making stuff. The kids get one-on-one attention from the volunteers here.
- a gameshow style quiz in which the answers come from the topic. The quiz REALLY gets their competitive spirit going.

Help Wanted, Help Given

Here's a post from Gerard Ee, the executive director of Beyond Social Services. (The FSC I'm helping out at, Whampoa, is part of this network)

This evening, 6 secondary 2 students will be receiving tuition from some volunteers at a Residents’ Committee Centre. Nothing unusual but over the past month, these students started to ‘repay’ their volunteers with an hour of dance lessons after tuition ends at 8.30 pm. It was not something the volunteers had asked for but it was something these students knew that they could give.

For the past 6 months, these students have been dancing in the street near where they live and sharing their moves with children and others who cared join them.  Their energy and enthusiasm have added a vibrant vibe to their neighbourhood which is much appreciated.

Next month, as a gesture of appreciation to the Residents’ Committee for allowing them to use their premises for tuition, these students will be performing at an RC event. I wonder if they will eventually get the volunteers to be a part of their performance too.

"Don't Underestimate Kids"


Couple of weeks ago I downloaded a TED Conference speech by 12-year-old Adora Svitak. (Yes! She's 12, and she spoke at TED). It was for an exercise at the Whampoa Family Service Centre in which the kids would have to:

- do a word search puzzle based on the vocab in the speech (thank you free puzzle websites)
- discuss the meaning of the words and form sentences using them
- watch the speech, listen, and hopefully follow along with the transcript
- do an exercise in which they built an argument for, or against, a topic.

As context - Adora Svitak, an American who got her first book published at 7, talked about What Adults Can Learn from Kids. I wanted the kids to be inspired by someone their own age. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/adora_svitak.html.

Some of the volunteers, myself included, were worried at first. These were 9-12 year olds - most with a not-so-great command of English. Would the kids get it? Would they be bored? Lost? Start running around?

Musical Spaces



A 10-year-old said to me: "(tea)Cherrr! Today chaos har?"

It had to be true chaos if even the kids from the centre says it's chaotic. It was birthday cake day again (every last Saturday - cake donated by Classic Cakes). And we'd just blown the candles and this time I'd taken it into the staff room to cut and then distribute. The kids were outside clamouring for cake while the monthly awards were given out. Every month we also give out personalised notes written by the social workers and volunteers to the kids.

We were short of volunteers Saturday: 1 in Seramban, another 2 in school, one out sick. So the boys were having a field day with vols Simeon and Ben who, to their credit, did a terrific job. Quite honestly, I was glad to leave them to it, hopping over only when the boys were getting too rowdy.

Magpies and Metros
First time I've been at the centre that the kids didn't fight.

Carrie donated her time and materials for b/t 20-30 bracelets. We did a crossword puzzle on words associated with jewellery, had the kids read a piece about the history of jewellery (tx Hui E for simplifying it and adding images), and then Carrie talked to the kids about what she does and what to do with beads and wires.

She also had them write about their product and "pitch" them to the volunteers. One on one - group presentations way too ambitious. And she had them calculate their cost and profit.

The kids were really focused. OK mostly focused. The boys had chosen to paint T shirts but came over later anyway and made bracelets for their girlfriends and mothers. I never thought I'd see the day. Even the really rough, really ready to fight ones. Making jewellery.

Apart from one kid who said he wanted to put te F word on his T - there was no real drama. He wasn't really going to do it. In any case I'd responded by offering stencils. Nash claimed the extra T shirts and painted them for his younger brothers. (But not his sister, who was making a bracelet and ended up losing it.)

So, the session stretched on for slightly longer than normal, but it was worth it.

I'm still scratching my head on how to make the kids read for a longer period of time and enjoy it.

Hot Volcanoes and Cool Volunteers

Yesterday's session at the centre was great. We split the kids up somewhat so the boys were in a group with two guy volunteers and less disruptive.Does it send the wrong message when we split up the boys and girls? I don't know but there were no skirmishes to break up yesterday when normally there'd be at least a couple.

Couple of cool things: The pair of 20something volunteers that have been with us for three weeks teamed up with the three teenage volunteers to make a plasticine, baking soda and vinegar volcano as we were doing plate tectonics with the kids. Great demo after the crossword, hangman and reading.

We had a group of new volunteers.

“I Want To Be the Strongest”

The photo on this post is badly lit, mis-composed, and has no technical merit whatsoever. But of all the images I’ve taken in the past 12 months: from Russia, Turkey, Paris, Provence, this one, from beautiful downtown Whampoa, is the one I’m proudest of.

The “study” theme at the Family Service Centre last Saturday was the Olympics. I brought in an Olympic torch from the office (yes, the real McCoy. Lenovo designed the Torch at the Beijing Olympics after all), had them play some Olympics-themed word games, got a TINY bit of reading done, and then the kids had a choice of making a torch, complete with paper napkin flames, Olympic Medal, or the Olympic flag.

It was a bit of pandemonium

More on Whampao: froma fellow volunteer

It's been nearly a year since I've started working with the kids at Whampao, and every Saturday, the place runs thanks to some very very dedicated volunteers.

Here's a post from my friend Koh Joh Ju, who works with the K through P2 kids, and always reminds me that kids need patience and care from us more than they do discipline.

A story about positive reinforcement

On Saturday, we had a group of really sweet n kind young volunteers, eager to please and help. Completely fresh of the boat. Naturally, the kids were on to them and we had a tough time getting the 4-8 year olds sticking to do any reading, writing & speaking.

Some 15mins to closing time, i managed to get a 5 year old to write 'colouring' into his activity file and i wrote in the remarks column GOOD JOB! i showed that to him and read out the words. Then i went to the next kid with this sample. And another kid. I ended up with 3 kids who wrote without coaxing.

(Very unlike Jan 23rd when every kid wld say 'u write for me' or 'i dunno how to write'.)

So, I know of 3 kids who can write COLOURING, GOOD and JOB. woohoo!

You know, this 'positive reinforcement' thingy is quite infectious. i was so positively reinforced by this tiny milestone that i've started work on a series of worksheets for the young ones. (as in, i created 1 worksheet. will need to crank out a few more before the next class hits!)

Note to Self: Don't Write off "Disruptive" Kids

OK - I have to admit. I was annoyed as hell. It was the second Saturday back at the Family Service Centre, the kids were restless, and the younger of the "L" brothers was running around and being disruptive.

I was really quite glad when he left the group to do his own thing. I had enough kids to work with.

After the morning's session, when all the kids had trooped off home with their Milo and sweets, I went to one of the student volunteers who spent time with L and gave him a sympathetic "you had to look after L huh? How was it?"

"Actually, pretty good," he said, throwing me for a loop. "We took him outside to the void deck. Found out he likes playing Chinese chess. So he's obviously intellectually bright. He just needs the individual attention so he's not bored."

Hmm. So much for snap judgements. Even with kids.

Not Your Typical Provence Photo

In Avignon now, where it'll a high of 3 degrees C today.

It's been a great week. (Although cold. Cold, cold, COLD! By my tropical standards anyway)
Love the little markets. Great cheese, proscuitto, baguette, fresh fruit and veg! NY Eve dinner in Avignon. Subtle use of truffle. Great service.

So many small towns and so much great food, friendly people. Cute buildings and castles. It's like walking in a page from a fairytale. This was shot at a winery earlier this week. Lotsa fog and tons of atmosphere. Although it warmed up to the teens later in the afternoon.

You wouldn't believe how many "Provence in the winter? Why?????" questions we got. But hey - having a great time anyway. No crowds, lots of parking, no queues for restaurants, and no need to elbow other tourists and their cameras out of the way.

So, maybe sometimes the road less travelled, in the off season, is not so bad. Now - I'm going to find a sweater and bundle up.