Blog 6 Service learning programme

Last week, I took part in the workshop of Service Learning Programme which taught us how to transform the ideas into action in serving and learning in communities. Today, I would like to share with you the useful knowledge I have learned in this course.

Generally speaking, Service-learning involves direct and indirect action. Direct service means we directly respond to a community need, for example, some of us have taken part in the Give programme in which we interact with the students who are in need of our help. However, indirect service allows students to build infrastructure or capacity to respond to the community need, in other words, we impact the service recipients in an indirect way.

There are five stages of service learning. The first stage is investigation, which requires us to probe into the need of the community and to have a clear idea about our abilities. The most impressive part for me was to match our capability as much as possible to the community need, which suddenly reminded me that we could make a big difference to the society based on what we had learned. The second stage is preparation and planning. In this section, we chose the project which could transform our knowledge into practice to a great extent. In our group, we decided to help the autistic children. By drawing a table on a big poster, we also managed to work out the schedule for our programme. The third stage, which is the most important part, is action. Although we have not reached this part yet, we are working hard to figure out the most effective way to carry it out, for it is not easy to communicate with children with autism. Furthermore, we are willing to learn more about this special group of people throughout the whole process. After finishing the action part, here comes the fourth section, called reflection. Obviously, it is of vital importance for us to reflect on the service-learning journey, since it can evaluate how the experience, knowledge, and skills we are acquiring relate to our own lives as well as the community. Ultimately, we need to step in the last stage to demonstrate our achievements and in the meantime, celebrate for the sake of our successful work. On account of this, we also need to submit a report at the end of our service-learning programme, to show our influence and accomplishments.

In conclusion, I am really excited to have the opportunity to join in the service-learning programme, for not only can I contribute to the society by direct service, but also have the chance to be involved in the process of designing the whole project. From my perspective, only by engaging in the activity we are willing to do sincerely, can we make a big difference. I am looking forward to participating in the programme in the following weeks and I hope I can serve and learn as much as possible in this programme.

Blog 6 My Bridging Course Study

Recently, I participate in a research whose topic is the evaluation of our bridging course. Having stayed in Singapore for nearly four months, I have gone through one half of my bridging course and I have been accustomed to the new study habits. I suppose this is the time to review my school life in Singapore. So, before surveying others, let me just interview myself about my opinions.

First, I want to talk about my English. Before I came here, my greatest goal is to improve my oral English. However, until now, I am still struggling on it, which is not surprised, honestly. I never have the extravagant hope to speak like a local speaker. It is really hard for Chinese students to improve their speaking, when they live and study together. Although we have done some assignments, they seem not effective. Maybe some compulsory measures can bring some improvement afterwards. Anyway, I feel pleased to have lessons given in English every day. And I have recognized the English level of local students. I still have a long way to go to reach the standard.
With respect to writing, I believe we Chinese students received professional training here. I reckon the three different writing assignments are all necessary. No wonder the academic essay writing is most useful in future, but I like writing blogs better, which gives me a relaxed feeling. However, I find some negative things. Many of us try to use high-level words to improve the quality of their essays. It is common for us to check a Chinese English dictionary when we write. In this way, many words are misused and the essays become difficult to understand. Many sentences are made like translation from Chinese. This problem needs to be resolved.
Except English, we also study mathematics and C Programming for only two hours every Friday. In fact, our math material is rather explicit so that we can study by ourselves. I have some difficulty adapting to the programming. In general, we have a good professor, whose classes are very interesting. And I think we have enough time to master these two significant skills, Calculus and C Programming. I merely hope that we can learn these two courses formally and get effective credits like SM2 scholars.

Finally, I'm glad that we spend this semester meaningfully. I'm sure we will get accustomed to the university life in NUS soon.

Blog 6: It’s time for me to make a change

How time flies! It has been almost one year since the college entrance exam.  Today, I am going to look back over the past year and do self-examination.  Both of my parents graduated from famous universities (my father from Shanghai Jiaotong and my mother from Dalian University).  Fortunately, I inherited their not very low IQ.   While, it only gave me an excuse not to work hard from primary school to senior high school and I still regret nowadays. I think I am a person lacking self-control since I was easily addicted to some interesting things such as computer games. I used to sleep merely three hours every day playing Online cellphone games in a summer vocation. After coming here, I also addicted to some computer games such as SanGuoSha and Starcraft2, which not only did harm to my study but also to my health. As a consequence, I had difficulty in understanding math and C language one time. As you know, I talked a lot about my girlfriends in oral reports. In fact, I did not like to share those private experiences with you. The reason is that I was busy playing games at that time so I did not have times to prepare for oral reports and I also hated to recite something mechanically.

There are many temptations in such a modern world. People must learn how to resist those temptations, otherwise he or she will finally accomplish nothing. I suffered a lot when I was in junior high and senior high schools. In order not to suffer again in college, I make a decision: I will not play or look at any computer or cellphones games any more in my bridging course. I will also try my best to be your reliable friend and be more mature. I really admire those hard working classmates around me so I will be more modest and try to learn as much as I can from them. I know it may seem a little naive and funny to write this kind of thing, but I think it is time to take my study more seriously and it actually give me a motivation to work harder.

 My father's birthday is coming on 14th, April. Dad, happy birthday! Best wishes to you and my mum. And the same to Ms. Lee. We all miss you.

Blog 6: April Fool`s Day

The April Fool`s Day is just passing. Did you have fun on that day? Are your tricks only restricte to put toothpaste on biscuits and share it with your friends or tell your friends that the teacher want to see him. Please refer to some classical tricks on April Fool`s Day to get inspired.

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest

Spaghetti harvest 1957, the respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a grand harvest celebration. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewsers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how to grow their own spaghetti trees. To this, the BBC diplomatically replied that place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.

Nixon for President

In 1992, National Public Radio`s Talk of the Nation program announced that Richard Nixon were running for President again. His new campaign slogan was that I didn`t do anything wrong, and I won`t do it again. There were audio clips of Nixon delivering his candidacy speech companying this announcement. Listener responded viscerally to the announcement, flooding the show with calls expressing shock and rage. Only during the second half of the show did the the host reveal that the announcement was a practical joke. Nixon`s voice was imatited by comedian Rich Little.

The vanishment of Gravity

The British astronomer Patrick Moore announce on BBC Radio that at 9:47 AM in 1947, a antronomial event was going occur that listeners could experience in their own homes. The planet Pluto would pass hehind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteractand lessen the Earth`s own gravity. Also Moore told that if they jumped in air at the exact moment, they would experience a strange floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC began to receive hundreds of calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their chairs and floating around the room.

What funny jokes they are. Hope you learn a lot from the jokes. At last, let me wish you a belated happy Fool`s Day.

a interesting evening

                   Friday was an interesting and impressive evening for me.  On Friday, all the boarders in RV Hostel were holding a big party called “ an hour on earth”.  The event was to remind us of energy saving and encourage us to do something that we can do to protect our earth.  On that evening, we boarders responded to the appeal to turn off the lights for an hour and we went down to the dinning hall to participate in the party.  In the party, we enjoyed ourself during the hour.  The whole party includes the only one event, that is , the singing part.  During the hour the hoster gave us some famous lyrics which was divided in two parts.  And the boys and girls held ecah part.  Thus, we need to combine ourselves to complete the whole song and the first five group can get some gifts.  After that, each group needed to sing the whole song to the audience on the stage.  That was very amusing and impressive.  We enjoyed ourselves at that moment.  Through the event, we can also recognise the simple way we can do to protect our earth.

service learning programme

      Having wakened after the alarm went off in today’s early morning, I went to attend a special programme which was really a novel programme for me.  The first novel thing was that this programme was held in the Singapore zoological park where there was a large auditorium. Another novel thing was service programme surprisingly has arranged a learning programme for all of us.  Before the programme begun, I was really curious about which we could learn from this programme.

     After several hours’ programme, I finally realised the importance of this learning programme.  Although, as we all know, action is the essence of service, a service should not only include only these one phase.  Investigation, planning and preparation and reflection, demonstration and celebration are also crucial in the whole process.  If student do not participate in these all phases, we do not get as much out of the precious experience.  Due to the limited time, our group only have finished discussing and deciding the first two phases- investigation and planning and preparation.  We decided our targets we need to and are willing to meet that are helping the children who have the autism to communicate with others and giving happiness to them.  Since it is quite a challenging work, we have to design a survey, conduct interviews, use varied media including books and the Internet, and draw from personal experience and observation.  There are lots of works we need to do before the service.

     By the way, we had a short tour in the Singapore zoological park today for free!

Blog 5:A scar slanted across my memory

I’m not scared of failure, but I either cannot tolerate it.  Recently, to be honest, I encountered one of my biggest waterloos in my studying aspect.  I have been depressed for a moment, but now I am not only fine, but even more decisive.  I want to write it down as a SM3 blog, because I want a scar to warn me that I have lost something important and I must fight my way out of this situation.

I failed in all tests we had recently.  When I failed at the first time, I though it was just a slip.  As the times constantly increasing, I finally found that there was something wrong for sure.

In China, I had not force myself to strengthen my English vocabulary and other aspects for almost 2 years. The first reason was that my knowledge of English at that time could easily handle this subject.  Secondly, my experience in the U.S. Completely doused my motivation to learn English, because it was so smooth and successful that I could easily communicate with locals there and made many friends, thus at that time,I did not think that I should push myself too hard to learn English further. Therefore, my English almost stagnated  though I could still get high scores in our high school English exams, which were much easier than the exams in other provinces. Even worse, my stock of vocabulary even started to get less and less.  When I came to Singapore, I was still unaware of my dangerous situation.Such a Jing Di Zhi Wa. 

After these days, finally I have realized that I was not good in English anymore compared with my classmates--I have lost all my advantages.  Since thing has already happened, I have to accept it, analyse it and try my best to keep up with them. 

Complains are never useful, but scars.  I like the words that the captain in the movie Avatar said,’I like my scar, because it remind me of the dangerous world Pandora. ’  I wrote this blog today as a record, recording my foolish past.  I need to wake up from now on or I will absolutely get in big trouble in my college life.

By the way, cheer up, Tian Ye!  We are and will always be here with you!