Ashikin's - POST-REFLECTION

Though there are some lacking here and there during the camp, the extraordinary teamwork spirit shown made me feel relieved. Since it was my first time to work under protocol, I was very concern whether or not I was doing it right. So far, none of the problems involved facilitators and the organizer team. Only a few technical problems showed up but the facilitators manage to attend to it very well (yay to all of you!) However, teachers’ presence in the groups made the students even more shy and demotivated because they were afraid to make mistake (in grammar, I assume). This is because teachers have full authority towards students while facilitators will act more like brothers or sisters; hence the students were rather more comfortable with us.

I hope I helped them well throughout the camp and the camp can be considered as a great success since I can see some changes in the students’ confidence. I manage to take over the group after the ‘Tandem Writing’ activity and helped them out for the skit. (My group was the one with the fish headgear.) They were still struggling with the voice projection but I told them to just speak out whatever you understand and be confident. I guess that was what they did. I was more than happy to see them walked up front and acted out because they were very shy at first. Congratulations to all facilitators for their hard work!

Language Camp B (Post) by Afiqah Hani Bt Baharom

From the language camp, I realised that it is hard to make the students participate in the program. Most of them chose to be passive participants instead of using all the chances to enhance their proficiency in English. Other than that, I think I should sharpen my skills especially when I need to be friendly and communicate according to their age. I mean, they have different ways of thinking and I started to feel old.

Few days after the program ended, we had a post mortem session with Mr Ghazali by pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of the program. Some of the things that have been discussed are good time management, good corporations between the teachers and facilitators also the facilitators show good team works between them despite of having emergency during the program. While the negative feedback of the program are the problems of the venue, the food and some problems with the ice breaking sessions.

All in all, I feel really glad to participate in the language camp. It is one of the interactive way not only for the students to be able to learn English in fun ways, but as a facilitators, I could also apply or practice all the things that I have learnt in the class for the program. That is all from me. Thanks for your time! 

Language Camp B (During) by Afiqah Hani Bt Baharom

On 11^th Oct 2014, the day started when we gathered on 7.00pm at D05. Then, we ride a bus to SK Masai 2. The program was held at the Dewan Besar SK Kota Masai 2. As soon as we arrived, we set up the place according to the plan. Even though we faced some difficulties such as failure in PA system and also lack of accommodation at the school. Alhamdulillah we could overcome the problem and came up with Plan B. For the whole day, I became as a facilitator for Minion group. I got 8 students in my group. They were from different schools around Pasir Gudang area.

We did our activities together and I must say I had a great time with them. Even though initially, most of them were shy to speak up and use English, but as the time passed by, they started to use more English in the discussions or communications especially in completing the tasks of each and every game. The most interested parts are Tandem Story and The Skit. During Tandem Story, as a future teacher I realized that some of the students from were actually could write the complete sentences. However, it is such a relieved when I could still understand what they’re trying to say. For the Skit, they gave full corporations and enthusiasms and we won the skit as a whole.

The program ended earlier than what have been planned. At around 4.00 pm the students back to their home and we cleaned the place and packed things up and went back to UTM.  

Language Camp B (Pre) by Afiqah Hani Bt Baharom

Assalamualaikum and good day! I want to share my experiences gained from the Language Camp B. A week before the language camp B was conducted, the committee members were chosen. Few meetings have been held in order to assign the facilitators according to the activities such as Ice Breaking, Cheer and Logo, Charade, Win, Lose and Draw, Tandem Writing and last but not least The Skit also some discussions about the program for examples materials, tentative, prizes etc. My friends and I were assigned to be master game for Charade game. We collected the vocabulary lists and make the paper strips for the game. There were a lot of issues and solutions that have been discussed during the meetings to make sure that the program could be done smoothly. The corporation between the group members is highly appreciated. 

After Language Camp B by Yuanyi Tan

   I was truly exhausted after the camp. Hence a good excuse to skip a day’s work and just rest properly :P

 There are 10 things that I wish to say about the camp:

1. To the director, I understand that it is never easy to be a leader. Thus, I respect your willingness to take up the job and deliver it the best you can, despite the difficulties and hassles. I once heard from somewhere that we would only be regretful of what we have not done, but never of the things that we have, be it volunteered or being forced, chosen to do. I am pretty sure that every member in the team is proud of you =) So please be proud of yourself too. Thank you for the extra time and efforts spent.

2. To the girls who have been my forever assignment teammates (for this camp particularly, the game master mates). I am aware that I could be such a picky sore at times. I apologize. Deep down my heart, I only wished to get things done ASAP.  As unfriendly as I could be when I am anxious, I could have missed many beautiful sceneries along the road, but hopefully not the beautiful friendship we share. Thank you for having me.

3. To the ones who combined their groups with mine during the first two games, thank you for bearing with me and backing me up for the activities. I did a mistake to have forgotten to bring along my phone. The activities wouldn’t go as smooth without your generosity to let me use yours for time-recording, and I wouldn’t have memories with my group to keep if it wasn’t you who helped me take pictures. Sometimes, misfortune is a blessing in disguise. I was touched when one of you said every educator has a helpful heart per se. Maybe it’s also because of this belief I have with myself, despite all the mischief I have done lolol, that brought me this far to where I am today.

4. To everyone who has been the em-cees for this camp (even only for a short activity), truthfully-speaking, the first strength of the camp that came to my mind is you. You are so natural, attention-grabbing, not awkward, cheerful and just so impressive. I seldom enjoy listening to emcees, but I enjoyed listening to you. Your speaking grammar is almost flawless, that’s the thing I wish (struggle) to acquire most. I think because of you, UTM TESLians have generally left a good impression in outsiders’ eyes, in terms of language proficiency at least. Thank you for the great performance.

5. To every committee member who visited my group, cheered up the atmosphere and contributed ideas, thank you for the kind gestures that has made me and my group better and happier =)

6. To the girl who fetched us to D06, thank you for the kind offer & the comfortable ride :D

7 To every other in the group who has ever answered my qualms and doubts about the camp, who has chit-chatted with me over non-sense or sense-making things before and in between the camp, whom I have taken selfies with after the camp, thank you for the pure kindness and loveliness.

8. To Language Camp A members, the pioneer of this project, thank you for being so generous in sharing with us the things that we should look after, training documents for us to refer to, and so on. Quoting No.3 again, you are true educators (to-be).

9. To our lecturer, thank you for the one-of-a-kind sharing, guidance and understanding all the way.

10.Some said that imperfection is also a kind of beauty. I think our weaknesses are not rubbish, but rather meaningful footprints, of which includes the little defeats encountered in breakfast preparation, students’ discipline management, students’ confidence boosting during drama performance, technical problems, dinner give-way and global-warming (lol). Experience is the best teacher. I believe we can do better in coming good days =) 

During Language Camp B by Yuanyi Tan

       So, here it came the very day. We set off early in the morning, everyone was on the dot (a round of applause for our punctuality ^^). After arriving at our destination, all of us helped to carry the materials and prizes needed to the hall.

       Firstly, my friends who were in charge of registration and ice-breaking informed all the facilitators about their group names. Each of us was assigned to represent a superhero. Surprisingly, I got Ultraman, who has been missed for ages :P  After that, we were asked to stand in front and hold our group cards high so that students could go to respective facilitator accordingly. The first student I met was a helpful boy named D. D kindly offered to be the card holder as he is taller than me. I was of course more than willing to let him do it, with gratitude. It was always good to see students take charge of their own learning even if it’s just a simple gesture. It’s like instead of giving them fish, the better approach would be letting them to touch the fishing net, giving them chances to slowly figure out how to catch fish, and at best, develop a liking for fishing at the end of the day. Opps I think I have gone too far xD 

Going back to the square one, having gathered all the superhero apprentice, we proceeded with ice-breaking activities. To be frank, I am not a person who is good at creating warm conversations with strangers. But I had this sense of mission to talk to them and get them talk because if the facilitator didn’t do it, who else will? Thus, I tried my best to bring up relevant topics that they are familiar with and would be able to respond to, such as school lives, hobbies and even favorite hang-out places in JB. The students were still quite shy, but at least they did talk a bit in English.

We then worked together on our group logo and cheers. I didn’t help the students much with the logo design because I think it’s better not to restrain their very own aesthetical creativity, at the precious age of 13. So they drew an Ultraman head and some cute-looking monsters around the Ultraman collaboratively. As for group cheer, they didn’t have enough confidence and related experience (perhaps) to come up with one. I didn’t blame them because I reckoned 13-year-old me probably can’t think of one also. I coached them a bit regarding what a group cheer is and taught them one that consists of rhythm and simple adjectives. Hopefully by the next time they join another language camp, they would have been equipped with better ideas on how to construct a group cheer on their own.

Right after breakfast, we had our first game which was Charade. I combined with the group sitting next to mine. My students were rather shy to speak out the answers loud at first, but they got better and more engaged gradually. Speaking about vocabulary acquisition of this game, the words used were mostly what they already know thus it didn’t contribute to this point. However, they did learn some mispronounced words. At the same time, this game was a baby step for them to be brave in expressing themselves and voicing out their thoughts. Sometimes a language camp isn’t just all about English, the inculcation of generic skills is an important part too. The same held true to the second game, Win, Lose or Draw. I personally had a whole lot of fun watching their lovely drawings and the humorous contrasts between pictures and their real meanings. Seeing the cheerful faces shown by the students, I believed they felt the same way.

The third game was Tandem Writing. I felt so touched to see a student who wouldn’t stop writing even when time was up (and she told me that Tandem Writing is her favourite game at the end of the language camp). That’s the spirit ! She has been a strong proof of how Tandem Writing can trigger students’ interest and motivate them to write with ego-involvement. She really tried to write as long as she can in a logical and meaningful manner. Although there were grammatical mistakes, I am always convinced that writing at young age without fearing mistakes is the best experimental platform for one to learn and improve by leaps and bounds over time, for this was my own learning experience. Apart from that particular inspiring student, the rest performed quite well too. Their stories were all coherent and interesting. But it was an unfortunate thing that I didn’t have adequate time to go through the language parts of their stories in details. What I could manage was only to re-read their stories in a grammatical manner (without telling what’s wrong explicitly)with hope that they could realize some of their mistakes.

Following that, we had to choose the best story from Tandem Writing section and acted it out. I helped the students with role-delegation as it was required that all the group members must be involved. Then, they started creating their props. I suggested them to build a grave with mahjong paper (my group was under ghost story) because I think that would be the opportunity to give some language input (as in normally what is written on a grave?).At first they tried to write themselves, I corrected them afterwards. Having done the props, we began the rehearsal. I facilitated them quite a lot at this phase to teach them what to say and how to say it correctly and with suitable intonation. When time was up, we were formed into three zones according to theme and kicked start the drama competition. My students’ voice were still too soft to be heard even though I had reminded them repeatedly that they need to speak louder. I guess this is my weakness as a facilitator, I couldn’t make them comfortable with the entire situation that they were nervous to speak out.

All in all, it has been a golden experience to be involved in Language Camp B. It has made me reflect quite a lot on my past experience as a student, as in how I used to hope my teacher to be and what are the things that I wish to get from the teacher (compliments, patient guidance, smiles, some cheering jokes, etc). I am really passionate about helping students with their language development , but I need to improve more on the teacher-student interaction part.

Before Language Camp B by Yuanyi Tan

      It was actually not my first time getting involved in a language camp, but it was absolutely a new experience to get my hands dirty helping in organizing one. Also, before this, I was only assigned to facilitate either primary students or tertiary students (ELCW camp). Dealing with secondary students in a language camp was something that I had no practical idea about. Prior to Language Camp B, I actually imagined the possibility of having to handle a bunch of teenagers who are in their rebellious phase. What if they refuse to cooperate and think whatever I am doing is a waste of time or worse, childish? But luckily, that doesn’t happen at all.

       As far as I can recall, we had our first meeting right after Mr. Ghazali’s class where he informed us the particulars of the language camp that we are going to be in charge of. In that meeting, we discussed and appointed the committee members for the sake of systematic task delegation. From that point onwards, I was aware that I would be playing the role as a facilitator, of which I was happy about. After that, our director created a Facebook group to keep everyone updated with the camp’s progress and whatnots.

       Not long later, we met for the second time. In that meeting, we elected the game masters for every game. Three friends of mine and I volunteered to look after Tandem Writing. After dismissal, we straight away discussed the details of the game and quickly decided that we would only need around 200 A4 papers for the game. The materials were prepared by Language Academy but to play safe, we agreed on bringing 40 extra papers (10 for each) on the actual day. When it came to document preparation, we realized that the previous group provided themes for students to conduct this writing game. We mutually reckoned that would the better way of doing it as it would provide constructive directions for students on what to write. Therefore, we similarly fixed 3 themes which include love story, ghost story and animal story (a new theme). After confirming all the details, I was responsible for typing and printing the facilitator’s game note (consisting of Tandem Writing’s procedures and time allocation) for everyone.

        In our last meeting, all the game masters gave briefing about the rules, regulations and variations of respective games. Through the meeting, we managed to grasp the overall idea of the camp more confidently because those games had then been steadily stored in our pockets.

         A Chinese idiom has its say that “one minute of performance on stage needs ten years of practice off stage “. To a certain extent, it does reflect the efforts that we have made in a week’s time to succeed a one-day language camp. I have learnt that rigorous, careful and no-hard-feeling teamwork is crucial towards building victory in every attempt that we are making.