As requested by Coleman... =)

As requested by coleman.. i shall post a few photos of my pup n share wif u guys.. =)

The breed is Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.. His name is Rhino...

<- when i first got him.. sleepin soundly abt 2 mths old.











<- 2mths plus old.. pestering mi to play wif him..










<- again pestering mi..










<- 3 mths old.. enjoying his treat... :)

okay since im requested to post according to instructivism (or something like it :))the C i have developed the most is collaboration. It was different from the other projects that i have done so far in school. This time i was journeying with the rest on a bonding process and team work to be able to go through this project with confidence when we were needed to present to actionpreuneur and now with the on-going build-up of plans made to be mounted really soon.

Week 14: The "C" I developed most as an IEA Mentor ...

Hi Class,

I write this with mixed feelings .... on the one hand, I feel really terrible that the semester is coming to an end because I really felt that I had some serious bonding with the whole lot of you ... I think I will miss you all deeply ...

On the other hand, I am very happy to know with confidence that Coleman and I have rubbed something off to all our students and made an impact to our student's lives. Some more than others ..., but I am certain that all of you had a memorable encounter with Coleman and myself. With that I know my students will move on the rest of the NP learning journey with a difference ...

It has also been an I&E journey for me. I learnt alot more about Confidence. Not my own but having confidence in my students. To know that when you invest enough guidance, love and trust, you will be able to see them grow and for some, soar ...

Next week is my last week with all of you, I wish that you'll all come punctually so that we can have quality time together. Please give me your sharing as sincere as possible, let us have a memorable farewell as we come to the close of the module.

As for Team SDG, please identify the objectives you wish your facilitators to arrive at, no target set, you'll not arrive anywhere ... so, please use this posting and comment your objectives ...

To the rest of you whom I love dearly, see you next week.

Yours,

Max

the C ive developed the most is constructivism. yea its a little out of the 5 C we were going to pick on but i believe by this it has aptly brought out a few of the other Cs. namely being that with the demonstration of how this method of teaching worked; has given me a flashback of the things i ve learnt through the excitments and disappointments, the laughter, to have fun in all seriousness of the task at hand while experiencing it first hand. I ve discovered through their guidiance sometimes obvious and sometimes completely unaware of my own weaknesses to change into a chance or an opportunity for moulding.

Im heartened by XX's post that it was a good thing that she was the leader because she has definitely risen above the challenge that was given to her and she has so much potential to explore further. three cheers to you babe!

'C's that I'd developed

*Deep in thoughts* Felt a bit lost as to what are the Cs that I'd actually developed. Hmmm, think they're Confidence, Character and Collaboration.

Confidence: Hmmm, more or less la. Like maybe trying out new stuff, stuff that we'd never/ hardly come across in the past. N it takes much confidence to actually take ur 1st step into doing that stuff. Hmmm, take for example, event planning. Must first of all have confidence in your event, then mount it. But even if the 1st planning fails, we must boost our confidence instead of... yea. (Can't find the right words)

Character: More disciplined. Time is needed to do planning and the actual mounting of the event. So, I guess, maybe time management does improve a teeny weeny bit. But must admit that it's not much. N yep, learnt to tolerate with people more since we're all working in a group. ^^

Collaboration: Team work. Important factor in I & E rite? Yea. No team work, no gain!! Woohoo...

Week 14: No meeting this week except ...

Hi All,

You folks need NOT come to school for IEA except Team SDG and some students who has invited to a private interview with Colemn and myself.

Please be here at 2:00pm as there is another event at innoSpark till 2:00pm.

BUT, BUT, BUT, please make sure that you have given me your blog about "Which of the 5 Cs I developed most through my I&E journey".

NOTE THAT WE MUST MEET NEXT WEEK WITH YOUR LAPTOPS, ATTENDANCE IS COMPULSORY. PLEASE PRREPARE POWERPOINT TO DESCRIBE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE (SHOW ME THE PROCESS-FLOW), AND WHAT ARE YOUR I&E LEARNING AS A GROUP.

Let us have a meaningful and memorable debrief next week, be punctual OK ?

Love,
Max

Which 'C'?

Actually I'm stucked with this question for quite a while. lols. Cos it's like, all also got developed mah.. how to pick one out of all these?

But afterall I thought that it would be courage because I did things that seems impossible to me..

I remember that when i was being sabotaged to be the overall in charge for the actionpreneur project, i was like what? Beverly would be a better person cos she can speak, and organise her things and thought well. I just feel that i cannot handle this. and actually i'm kinda mad with bryan becos i remembered he was the one who said 'xian xu' the loudest.. lols..

but to think that now i have to thank him and the rest for giving me a chance to lead, and plus that i often pray, " God please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference."

i sure think that it's kinda amazing right from the start..

who knows that i could actually stand up and propose our ideas to actionpreneur and mr chew? now that u have to SELL ur idea, it's really something different from presenting ur project!

but i did it!

from me who doesn't believe myself that I can do it till I proved myself wrong. it's like, a real W0W. hahas..

i learnt that it's not important to let people see if u can do it or not.. it should be that u can feel the changes urself!

i could appear brave when i'm actually not, but not anymore. cos my groupmates, my mentors and God helped me thru this. they are the one who guided me to building up my courage most..

and i'm really glad that our paths crossed, otherwise i might still be the noob noob xx with no courage now... haha..

Thanks my lovely people! : )

Its got to be Collaboration and Character

For this whole I&E journey, I've got to say that I have developed character and collaboration.

When our initial plan did not work, we came together and brainstormed for new ideas. WE also looked into finding solutions to solve the problem of contacting an orphanage by meeting during the 2 weeks break and sourcing together for the orphanages' contacts. This time, we found 3 orphanages and tired contacting them on the spot. Although it was unsuccessful, but during the process I've learnt to press on and persevere in finding an orphanage that would collabourate with us.
During our event, which was the bazzar at JTC, there was collaboration with Cliff's other module group members and I made some new friends there as well.
Although our planned event was not carried out, but in my I&E journey, I really had a wonderful time working with the other Gummybears.

Confidence, courage, level up, yeah!

LOL, yeah, i feel that i have developed the most in these 2 aspects confidence and courage. max told us that this module hope to develop the 5c in us, Creativity, Confidence, Courage, Character and Collaboration. hmm… creativity, yes, in the development and creation of games, trying to bring the games into a higher level, trying to think hard to try think out of the box, sometimes tried too hard and do things out of the norm. hahaha. Collaboration, just look at how our team does our work.

I stepped into the class thinking that this joker (Max, haha no offence) is just trying to do things differently from the others, talking too much far fetch stuff. Developing these 5Cs, blah blah blah… hey wait that’s the thing I lack of, “confidence” speaking up to others, presenting my ideas. Let’s see what this module can do to me…

Yeah, compared to that me in the above paragraph, I think I have more confidence and courage to speak up to people, about my ideas, without keeping everything inside of me. Those ‘scary’ meetings, got the whole team (or maybe only me) tremble in fear. But we overcame them, though we may not have really strong presentation skills and powerful persuasion technique. Let’s just hope our event will turn out a success. we have reached so far, let's hope the recipents of our project did learn something out of those dominos. =) JTYS

The 'C' i develop the most..

Errr.. Confidence?

ya should be correct..

At the beginning, i feel that i won't have the confidence to speak up to something i find not right. I have the 'Just follow lor' or 'Anything lo' kind of thought. Didn't really speak my mind when i disagree with somethings. Afraid to be shot at (shoot qns hor.. not bang bang! =S), or having my ideas being rejected.
Now not so bad.. well i just say wad i feel then i'll leave it to the leader to decide on things. At least i say wad i think! hehe..

The next point is abt presentation.
Initially i was always afraid of presenting my work in front of others. Fear to be laughed at and tat pple may not like my work. Tend to keep things at low profile.. This feeling still hunts me, thought i could feel tat it's weaker than before.(well improved bit by bit is better than not improving at all) =P
so now.. er... so - so ba.. not so scared le.. Just say wad my audience need to know.. listen to wad can be improved can le.. hehe..

The C that i have developed..

hmm.. i think it should be Confidence..
having to face the Actionpreneur people during the 'scary' meeting the other time.. was like... stressful.. hahaz.. and i need to speak to them.. so.... i need to be confident in order to be able to do that well.. so.. yup.. my confidence lvl has increased..
and.. i also believe that this confidence will be greatly needed during my group mounting of the event at boon lay sec.. :)
even though leadin the students was not the first time for mi.. well.. it was in sec sch.. but.. facing a group of student leaders whom i haf nv met before.. is a weird situation..
thus, this special C that i have developed.. will be of great advantage for mi.. :)

Cs, ranked by Hui Nee

5 Cs in this module..
Creativity
Character
Confidence
Courage
Collaboration

the C that I developed most is arranged in this order I think.. so far ppl say they developed Confidence most.. but not for me. I think I developed creativity most because I've been the one who's been coming up with most of the ideas, from group name to board game to the counters for it etc. ideas that are though of need not be normal. It can be as weird as possible. Dun think of whether it can be done or not.. think of how u can get it done, n modify the idea as u go along to further improve the idea.
Just like our our group name. since all of us play maple, our group name could have been called maple! but then it din sound very nice n was sort of a normal word, hence, flip the alphabets back to front n u get a new word!
Just like the boardgame. those of u who played will noe how it's like. we had to come up with a list for the Health, Challenge n Dare, which wasn't easy cuz if we keep repeating the same things, it would be boring. there were limitations too, cuz initial ideas were to have fruits included too, but it's sort of impossible for ppl to get a whole set of fruits everytime they play the game, so everything was changed to different forms of exercises that would not require too much space.
Just like the counters(those who came for the 1st time wld have seen the wax counters). yes, it's totally made from wax. I tot of this idea cuz it was like haven seen it b4 but din really noe how to do it.. end up burning candles for the wax to melt n drip into a cone made from cardboard n placed into the freezer for fast cooling. but when I tried to remove the cardboard-paper from the cooled wax, the wax was brittle n broke easily, so I had to keep re-melting them bit by bit n re-shaping it with my hands. n hence, counters from other games are used too(also cuz lots of ppl were playing).

Hui Nee . 7788

The one about board games...

For those of you who are interested in boardgames, especially the less 'usual' ones like monopoly and risk etc, there are a few board games cafes in singapore.

The one I recommend is Pitstop Cafe (pitstopcafe.blogspot.com), which is run by 4 friends of mine. One of them was my poly project mate when we were at NP a long time ago.

You can also check out other board games cafes, like Settlers Cafe and Mind Cafe (sorry I lazy to find their webpage).

I recommend Pitstop Cafe not just because the owners are my friends, but their service is great because they put in a lot of heart into running their little cafe. Tell them you're my students, and I'm sure they'll have a lot of things to tell you about me. Nice things of course.

For ELPAM, you can ask them to show you the types of games they have, and maybe steal some ideas. You can even bring along your game for them to critique.

Also for ELPAM, take a look at "the clear water", another I&E group doing a board game...

Freaky incident today...

"Chee Hao took an orange ping pong ball from the fridge with his left hand."

Those of you who missed today's lesson, ask your classmates about why that was freaky. (Hint: it has something to do with constructivism)

the "C" that i developed the most!!!!!

sipping cofee n blogging JUZ before i go to sch...haha...hope the guest speaker not boring. hehe. time to blog.

i feel that i have developed most in my confidence level. having ideas without confidence to carry it out is no use. we had an idea of making an amazing race. Elpam had the CONFIDENCE of being able to make it a success and although the idea was a failure in the end, we knew that we tried our best and failed. if we did nt have the confidence to carry it out in the first place, we would never have known the outcome of this idea. having failed in that idea, we moved on to the other idea of making a board game. again, our confidence level was not lowered juz becuz of one failure. we were confident that this board game will definitely be a sucess. we tried our best n ta daaaaaa!!!! as u can see frm the previous post(the postwith the pictures one), many ppl enjoyed our game and gave very good feedback n ratings of our game. if we do get to plae our game todae, we hope that everyone has fun.

PS: the post had many "WE" instead of "I" as i feel that wad made mi develop my confidence level was a group effort and not just mi alone. my group has made mi brought my confidence level to greater heights. i hereby thank all Elpamers and all the wonderful ppl whu played our game!! haha...yall were great!!!!! ELPAM WAN SUI!!!! lols!!!!

Constructivist Facilitation

"CHEEEEM MAN!!!"

I bet that's what you're thinking right now.

But no worries, the words may sound cheem, but the concepts are actually very simple.

Constructivist, or constructivism, comes from the word construct, which is just another way of saying build. They call it constructivism because education "experts" like to use big words to impress us.

In education, constructivism is the opposite to instructivism (yet another big word).

In instructivism, the teacher instructs or lectures or teaches the students, standing in front of the class going yak yak yak... The knowledge travels from the teacher to the student (ideally).

For constructivism, there's no teacher - there's only the facilitator (the final big word - I promise). The facilitator is just someone who helps the group to learn on their own. The role of the facilitator is to help and guide the learners build knowledge and concepts in their own minds. This is done through activities, asking questions and so on.

This is all talk, but tomorrow, you guys will experience and learn constructivist facilitation for yourself.

See you guys tomorrow, especially our Extreme Dominoes friends!

Further reading:
Wikipedia: Facilitator
Constructivism as a Paradigm for Teaching and Learning

Week 13: Training on Facilitation

Dear Students,

We have a guest appearance this Thursday (20 Jul 2006) who will guide us through the finer points of "effective facilitation skills", those of you interested, please be at innoSpark by 1pm.

For the rest of you, please give me your blog posting entitled "Which of the 5 Cs I developed most through my I&E journey"

Cheers,
Max

[Afternote: I think it was not clear whethr must come or not to come, since we're having such a wonderful opportunity to learn something new (about facilitation), shall we all come to innoSpark at 1:00pm punctually, thanks]

Week 12: Pictures from ELPAM's Board Game Beta Test

ELPAM team with their board game


Xianxu comforts Yan Jie...


because he has to do jumping jacks


Emian struggling with push ups


Seowyin having fun


Sharmin starting to sweat a little


Having some fun

Week 12: Extreme Dominoes

for our group doing the extreme dominoes, may this video inspire you.

the rest of you check it out also - it's really crazy

Week 12: Today's plan

Not everyone of you needs to come down today - only ELPAM and a few of you specially selected ones - max will be contacting you.

For the rest of you, if you really want to come, you're definitely welcome! But don't forget to bring your lanyard (i think i lost mine) and take your temperature.

As max can't make it today, I'll be facilitating the session. Contact me at 96227481 if you need to.

Week 12: invitation from Elpam

waaa...i feel like a slacker...lols...all 3 grp member post a notice to come bak on thurs n onli mi nv post...haiyo...i slacker sia...lols. so here is MY notice. PLS come bak on thurs as we are ready to present our board game. hehe. i dun wan to go back....nid to bring thermometer...eh...max...can we NOT take tempreature n u juz gib us th I M WELL sticker...hehe...dunnoe where i chuck my thermometer leh...lols.

kk...lets have fun on thursday kk?? den while waiting maybe we plae dota or sumthin liddat coz onli 4 players at a time??...lols...i m the world's greatest slacker...lols

Week 12: Apologises for this thur from emian.

Elpam's board game is done n ready for launch..
We'll be able to present it on thu and i would like to make a request to all to come back.

I know it's kinda troublesome. The thermometer thinging, taking of temperature, landyard.. makes mi sian also.. y do schools have to organise such weird event?? *sighh*

I would like to apologise on behalf of my team(Elpam) to all of you. As i've told some of you some time ago that you all may not need to come back down on thu. I know it is kind of troublesome for some of you who lived far from sch.

Really sorry i am..
Hope to see all of ya this thursday.
=)
yimian

Week 12: Munying says ...

Elpam is ready to launch our board game this Thurs!! Yay. Hope U guys will have fun with our game. ^^ Feel our presence again this Thurs.

Sorry if u all are sian-ed n dun feel like coming for the temperature taking stuff, but hmmm, it's worth the effort to come down. Hehe. Play our game n can forget abt tt temperature thingy. We're all healthy. Our board game makes u healthy. ^^

Week 12: MEETING this Thursday 13 July 2006

oops. u cannot hear ELPAM. cuz the blog is silent.
but u can see ELPAM.
ELPAM has a request for all to come back on thursday.
i noe i noe, the lanyard n thermometer thingy is ma fan.. but we all have to follow it. -__-"
and gals, can pls dun wear skirts? thnx!

special thanks from ELPAM - Lionel, Yi Mian, Mun Ying, Hui Nee

Week 12: Not meeting this Thursday.

Dear All,
If we still do not hear from ELPALM, we can assume that we're not meeting this Thursday. But please do check your IELS to ensure that there is no outstanding submissions. See you next week instead.

Love,
Max

ps: Dear SDG, please let me and Coleman know when you require us to conduct a session on facilitation techniques for you guys ? XX, Bryan, please explain to everyone.

Week 11 Student's reflections ...

"Giving a presentation is hard. It's always good to go prepared even thought there's almost nothing to prepare. Having good ideas and confidence to sell the ideas are two different things, one cannot do without the other. Excellent idea without the guts to say it means no one will know your idea, having all the confidence in the world to show only an unpractical idea may not work out too. Image and confidence are really important in selling your idea. The strange stares from their eyes, sometimes you just have to ignore. Team is a not just a group of people that will back you up when you need them, they are the one who will make you improve by giving you comments. When you are down, the team is there, when you are driven by sudden surge of passion, they are there to share. It's always good to know there's a supportive team behind you. Together we achieve more."

A mature student ...

"I learnt to always have a back-up plan, in fact, not only one back up, should have like 2 or 3 for in case. detailed planning should also be done."

A student with strong character ...

"My group was supposed to mount on the event, xxxxx. Yet our plan failed and we decided to set our target on yyyyy. Everything went on smoothly, we sent our proposal regarding the workshop to so-and-so and she was satisfied with our proposal. We cracked our brains for new ideas and think of creative ways to perform better in mounting a new event. Our mentor, Max, gave us his opinions on what we should do and he even gave us more time for preparation. Commments and questions could be asked through our class blog and this further brings the group close together. We are not afraid to give our opinions during discussions, and I've learnt to speak up and have more confidence when presenting myself. For instance, I didn't realise that I can actually hold a conversation with the principal?!"

An attractive looking student ...

"I enjoy being in my group because they are the greatest people. We had lots of fun working together. In my group, I play my part being a finance manager, taking care of the details needed for the cash buget. I gave ideas to the team and also comments for the ideas be it good or bad. There's lot of stress because of other commitments in school, but we encouraged each other. If there are not that many other commitments, I believe that our project will be of a greater success."

A strong-silent type student ...

"I&E in action has allowed us to plan and mount an activity step by step instead of rushing through the plan like we always did in our work. However, there are also times whereby we need the help of the mentor. Some of the most common problems that we encountered are teamwork and different thinkings/ideas. In one instance, my other team members did more work than me as they have better connections with their juniors. Different ideas allow more creativity in our final product when the ideas are combined together. Initially, I feared that I wasn't up to being able to mount a proper activity for I&E. However, with the involvment of a team, such a fear is actually overcome. Besides, I also thought that my creativity will not be able to help much in the module, however, as the module progresses, creativity is slowly uncovered. My group is considered united as we discuss with every group member before implementing any ideas. Everyone is responsible on their part. I might had done better in contributing more to the group."

A highly artistic and creative student ...

Week 11 The one about supporting Gummy Bears @ JTC Summit

Beloved students ...

Please remember our date with Gummy Bears over at JTC Summit at 11am. I intend to honour my word by being there to give them my support, those of you low integrity ones can start preparing your lame excuses (busy lah, too far lah, got project lah ... *yawn* + *roll eyes* please lah ... at least gimme something creative ?!!), as for the rest of you, see there OK *sweet smile* ?

Love,
Max

Week 11 The one about the art lessons with kids ...

Week 10 Trip at childcare

The kids are so super duper cute! The sight of them having tea break makes me go ooo-ga-ga over them as well. Lol. Hope the activity that Double Dual mounted was successful. Now at least I know what actually happens in NP Childcare. N i sort of regretted not choosing Early Childhood Diploma. Haiz.

All the best to the subsequent events! ^^