MY CONTRIBUTIONS FOR 'ENGLISH LANGUAGE CAMP' 24TH-25TH MARCH 2007 (UTM-STARP, KULAI)

Here are some of my contributions before and during the English Language Camp.

Hello friends!!!!
Organizing a language camp is not a simple task. It requires a lot of hard work to make it successful. I was the leader for preparing the participants' booklet for the camp, together with Prema and Ruzaini. It was not as easy as I thought to prepare the booklet. It needs to be perfect because it is the most important thing for the participants to refer to during the camp. So, I went to meet Mr. G to get a few samples of booklet from previous camps. Then, I started to read the samples and made a draft. My team mates and I discussed about the camp objectives and the rules as well as the information that need to be included in the booklet. Besides that, I prepared the welcome message from the director in the booklet too. The most important thing for me was to be aware of the changes in rules of the games from the game masters. So, I collaborated with Izzati and her team who was responsible to prepare the facilitators' manual. I referred to Izzati or sometimes the game masters themselves for the latest changes in the game rules. When the final editing was done, I met Mr. G once again to show him the booklet before sending it to be photo copied. There had been a little change from him on the welcome message and the songs which I included in the booklet. So, I immediately corrected them. For the design of the first page of the booklet, I asked it from kak Nora who designed our camp T-shirt. After everything was ready, I sent the booklet to be photo copied for the camp.
Besides preparing the participants' booklet, I was in charged of the morning exercise for the camp. My counterpart was Shereena. To prepare the steps, I watched a few aerobic VCDs. I even asked my friends for ideas on simple aerobic steps. I listened to English fast songs and made a few choices of songs to be combined. Then, I edited seven songs and combined it using Soundforge software. I practiced the aerobic every evening for two weeks with my partner so that our movements will be same. A few steps were changed because we felt that it was too complex for the participants to follow. We practiced until both of us were familiar with the steps.
The day that all of us had been waiting for arrived. Once at STARP, I helped the material bureau girls to distribute the participants' files and name tags in the dining hall of the hostel. Then, as all the facilitators had been assigned to each group earlier, we went to our own headquarters with our group of participants. I was assigned to group B. There, kak Nabila, the mini director for group B divided us into smaller groups and I was the captain for 'Mission Possible' group which consist of 19 participants from form 1-5. Activities were conducted as planned on that day. The next morning, I conducted the morning exercise with Shereena. As there was no stage for the both of us to stand onto, our friend Khairi, arranged a few long benches together to form a small stage. We were very careful while doing the aerobic because the benches were not that steady. Finally, the morning exercise was successfully done.

REFLECTION FROM THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CAMP

I gained a lot of experiences through the language camp. First of all, I learned how to work as a team. This is because there were only 28 facilitators to take care of 228 participants. Team working was very important. All of us had to give cooperation and help each other in order to organize the language camp successfully. Without proper organization the whole camp would have been upside down as there were a large number of participants.
Besides that, I improved my communication skill in English as well. This is because I had done a lot of games briefing for my group. I had to deliver my instructions in English very clearly to the participants. During the briefing, I increased my self-confidence as I had to speak very loudly so that all of the participants could hear me. I created a good rapport with the participants and managed to interact with them in English.
Throughout the camp also, I learned how to deal with different kinds of characters. There were some active and quite a number of passive students, especially in my group. I had a great difficulty to make the passive students speak and join the group. They had problems in mixing around among themselves in the group as well. So, I had to sit together with them, gave ideas and encouragement to them and made them feel comfortable in the group so that they would enjoy themselves during all activities.
I really enjoyed 'Happy Melodies'. i guess all the facis, participants n Mr. G too enjoyed it very much...

That's all... Bye2...

-K.Malini-

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