Dear fellow volunteers, young men and women, handsome guys and pretty gals,
I think you would agree with me that our second session was equally exciting despite the unexpected additional number of children. I am sure your wonderful mentoring got the parents so excited that they shared it with their neighbours and convinced more kids to turn up. Anyways, you handled the situation extremely well and I am very encouraged by your enthusiasm, passion and determination. (*Applause!! Applause!!)
Secondly, thanks to Hani, who has contributed her ideas and thoughts in the comments section. Boy, when I saw her posting, I ‘kinda’ sympathize Mr Yong. Does he have to mark your assignments every day? (*Just kidding!) And speaking of Mr Yong, I think he doesn’t qualify to be in Malaysian Idol but I am definitely sure he will impress the producers in the kids’ educational series like Barney and Sesame Street.
Ok, let’s get serious, shall we? Just wanna share some ideas with everyone:
1) Punctuality
a. As Mr Yong has pointed out, punctuality is crucial. You can even get there early to prepare the Game and Group activities. For eg. Decorate the white board with fanciful and nice drawings and text to add more excitement to the songs that you want to teach the kids.
2) Thematic method
a. This is just suggestion. Please feel free to comment. I am thinking of using thematic style to conduct the Level 2 groups. This may help to provide a stronger structure. Let me explain. If say the theme is friendship, volunteers can work on activities based on this theme. The ice-breaking can be sharing about good friends each of us have in school or in our community. Or it could be on the topic ‘How I can be a good friend to others”. Then, when it comes to reading, you can choose stories or non-fiction articles that depict the value of friendship. Then, play some games to help the kids learn more about friendship:- For eg. draw two invisible lines. The one on the left represents characteristics that build friendship and the one on the right represents those that destroy friendship. – Give the kids words like kindness, generosity, caring, patience and humility, plus a few other ‘destructive’ ones like selfishness, proud, mean, big mouth, nosy, etc. Ask them which side does each word belong to. OK, this sounds quite boring.. Or you can paste a piece of blank paper on each one’s back. Then identify each person if she/ he is a friendship builder or destroyer. Give the kids all the above words and ask them to write them on the piece of paper which is pasted on their friends’ back.
b. Other interesting themes include:
i. My heroes
ii. Countries I like to visit
iii. Interesting jobs that people have such as comic artists or a food critic.
3) Homework helper
a. I have discussed this with Gin Kye, and we have come to a conclusion that we will not include this activity in the reading session. Instead of helping them with homework, Gin feels that it is more beneficial to instill the value of responsibility and discipline towards their school work. You can help to bring the relevance of what the kids study in school with real life. Why do they have to study mathematics, science or language? When they see the relevance, they will be more motivated to study harder and be a better student.
4) Body language
a. Did you know that when we talk, the words we say is as important as the way we say it? Hence, when you conduct the session, be aware of your body language. You may be presenting an interesting subject but if you are folding your arms, sitting crossed legged, keeping a distance from the kids, it shows that you are not open to them and that you are not as interested in the subject as you claim to be. So, practise various body language with your group or in front of the mirror. That way, you will be able to observe and improve.
5) Story telling
a. Most of you are working on some fresh new ideas for story telling, so that’s wonderful. Keep those ideas coming as this is a learning process for all of us. Create masks, costumes, props, puppets, drama or whatever it takes to make the story telling session more fun, exciting and most importantly engaging. I once watched a live performance of beauty and the beast where the actors actually invited children from the audience to participate. They were asked to do simple tasks on stage or recite easy script. It was a lot of fun for the audience as well as the kids.
6) Documenting your experiences..
a. This has been a great milestone in reaching out to the children-at risk in terms of imparting a reading culture. Hani, for example, has commented that we should inculcate the luuurve of reading, not just reading for the sake of doing it when the volunteers are there. So, we are working out a platform where you can record and archive your experiences, inspiration, concerns, progress and many more. This information will help new volunteers and the management to gauge and structure better and more efficient programs in future.
Lastly, I sincerely hope this has been a fantastic journey for each one of you. Please keep up your commitment and enthusiasm. They are really contagious!! In a good way, of course!
Cheers!
Rgds,
Tiffany Tang
Yellow House
