End of Attachment Week 6 ✅

Week 6 Day 1, 21st September 2015, Monday:

My day didn't start off that well for some reasons. Anyway, I reached the centre early as usual (8:40am). I was settling myself down in the K1 class when it was nearing 9am, when the principal approached me and asked if I could join the children for their outing. This is the second time I'm joining them for their outing so suddenly. I grabbed my bag and joined the children who were putting on their shoes. I had completely no idea where they were going until I asked a K2 girl and she replied: "Land Transport Gallery".

It was my first time there and I must say the gallery was very cool! They structure the gallery such that some parts of it were behind doors which opens up like the MRT door. Even though it was a children's trip, I learned so much from it too! Like how a 'rattan man' is used as a traffic light in the olden days and how bus tickets from the past looked like. (:

Week 6 Day 2, 22nd September 2015, Tuesday:

Such a long day cause I stayed till 6pm to make up 2 hours for polling day. As the teachers got the children to colour some printed template of lanterns to be hung up as decorations, I helped them cut out the templates, stick on cellophane papers and glue the different parts together to form a mini lantern. This entire process took close to 6 hours from my lunch break to about 6pm before I left..

Week 6 Day 3, 23rd September 2015, Wednesday:

Stayed till 6pm again to make up another 2 hours for polling day. Broke down in front of Teacher Christabel and I was glad she gave me that short 'counselling' session. She told me something like I shouldn't stress myself too much because of others because I'm going to be the only one suffering. Who would have thought that an 8-week attachment would give me so much stress and unhappiness?

Reflection:

This week has been a real hectic, till the extend that I broke down so many times. PMS, stress and feeling so tired of everything. I know it's inevitable to work with people with different working style, but I just find it so tiring to keep trying to work and communicate with them. A parent workshop should be a fun assignment to complete but yet I'm not even enjoying a single bit of the preparation. Seriously can't wait for FPA4 to end! No point ranting so much when I still have to face it and complete the workshop.

End of Attachment Week 5 & FPA 3 ✅

Week 5 Day 1, 14th September 2015, Monday:

Assisted Wang Yan 老师 and watched the K1 and K2s rehearse for their skit for the Mid-Autumn Festival celebration. Then, the principal asked Elena and I if the date of the parents' workshop could be pushed back to a week later on 30th September. So we had to make arrangements with Miss. Jean (our field supervisor) on date of our supervision. There was firstly the change in date, then the change in time. So much confusion and I had to contact the field supervisor to keep making changes after she has agreed to our previous date/timings. Really glad that Miss. Jean was so accommodating and she accommodated to us and we finally set on a date and time.

Week 5 Day 2, 15th September 2015, Tuesday:

Prepared the necessary documents for the staff meeting and discussed on the changes on our mooncake recipe. After attachment, I headed down to BM Central to get the ingredients for the mooncake. Omg the haze was really bad!

Week 5 Day 3, 16th September 2015, Wednesday:

 Tried making our snow skin mooncake (with purple sweet potato filling) during lunch time. After we were done, we brought the mooncakes to the different classrooms to let the teachers try and some of the teachers said it was nice (even though the skin looked/tasted like ang ku kueh's skin)! Thankful to Auntie Lian for allowing us to 'mess' up her kitchen and lending us equipment, some simple ingredients and giving us feedback on how we could have done better. :)

Week 5 Day 4, 18th September 2015, Friday:

The day of on-site supervision for FPA 3! As usual, I was slightly nervous before the staff meeting but I knew it was going to be okay cause we're being on effective communication rather than the content of the meeting. Our FPA 3 went really well with the help of the 3 teachers who responded so well during the meeting and of course a super enthusiastic field supervisor! Despite having to prepare the necessary documents, I'm glad that the meeting when well. (:

Reflection:

Cleared 3 FPA which means I'm left with just 1 more!! This week has been so hectic. Actually, these 5 weeks of attachment has never been relax. Preparing for FPA after FPA... As for the last FPA on parents' workshop, I believe that there are more to prepare on such as logistics and materials. In addition, we are still in the midst of modifying the recipe for the snow skin moon cake so that it tastes like snow skin instead of ang ku kueh ~ And since our FPA4 is pushed a week later, we have slightly more time to prepare. Hope the preparation for FPA4 this upcoming week will go well!

End of Attachment Week 4 & FPA 2 ✅

Week 4 Day 1, 7th September 2015, Monday:

Yesss! Finally done with FPA2 which is on mentoring our classmate! Generally it went quite okay thanks to a really nice and lenient field supervisor, Miss. Sylvia! ^^ She feedback that I talked more than the mentee which should not be  the case during post conference. But whatever, I still cleared FPA2!! :)

Week 4 Day 2, 8th September 2015, Tuesday:

Helped Wang Yan 老师 with one of her learning corner activity which requires the wrapping of used boxes to be used as a support to make the different mode of transport 'stand'. I'm pretty good at wrapping actually, 包到很美! *proud*

And this was our lunch! First time eating bread with soup for a meal, really nice! :)

After lunch, we at in for the centre's staff meeting on reviewing the centre's curriculum and the Principal also informed the other teachers regarding the parent workshop we are conducting for our FPA4.

Week 4 Day 3, 9th September 2015, Wednesday:

During Teacher Christabel's lesson, she used instruments (bells, drums) to teach children the number of syllables in a word which was really effective in allowing children to learn! For Wang Yan 老师's class, she introduced Mid-Autumn Festival to the K1s and told them the legend (story) behind the festival as they would be role-playing out their our parent workshop for FPA4. As a teenager myself, I don't know the exact legend behind the festival. Therefore, I learnt the story with the K1s HAHA.

And as usual, a photo of my lunch cause the food provided is always nice!

Reflection:

Can't emphasis enough how time really flies and we are halfway through this torturous 8 weeks attachment! And we're also done with 2 out of 4 FPA! What's left are FPAs that are done in groups. Hopefully I'll be able to communicate and work well with my classmate and the staff meeting will go smoothly next week!

End of Attachment Week 3 & FPA 1 ✅

Week 3 Day 1, 31st August 2015, Monday:

As my FPA 1 was conducted the next day, I spent more time on assessing the centre one last time and taking down notes. After I was done with the assessment, I went back to join the K1 class. Teachers Christabel split the class into two and made me lead and teach one group of them origami folding which I was really bad at. As in I could do like simple ones with the help of video tutorials from YouTube, but I couldn't like fold origami with the help of step by step visuals and instructions. So I told the K1s that I'm also learning as well and I got Teacher Christabel to teach me once before I used what I could remember from Teacher Christabel to teach the children HAHA.

And this was what we had for lunch! It doesn't really look appetizing cause it's a porridge and the black thing is preserved olive vegetable which goes really well with the porridge!

Week 3 Day 2, 1st September 2015, Tuesday:

Day of my FPA 1! Reached the centre earlier as usual to further memorize the rationale and look through my notes once more. I was still nervous, but not as nervous as compared to field supervision for lesson implementation / learning corners. I went first because I wanted to clear it once and for all HAHA and I took approximately an hour. But we were very lucky that our field supervisor (Ms. Sylvia) was really nice and understanding.

And this was our lunch after FPA1 !! Rice with some sort of soup with popcorn chicken! (:

And we basically relaxed during the rest of our lunch because at least 1 burden is down HAHA.

Week 3 Day 3, 2nd September 2015, Wednesday: 

As usual I was with the K1s and Teacher Christabel was recapping with them the book titled 'Sharing A Shell' and at the same time reinforcing on the action words used in the book to describe how the sea creatures moved. Then we went to the studio where Teacher Christabel conducted the next part of her lesson whereby children had to do a relay in their groups through the use of actions (e.g. run like a crab) words discussed in class. It was really interesting to watch the relay! ^^

After that, the Principal came into the studio and asked me to follow the PG/N1/N2 for their outing cause they had extra tickets so ok lor, since I'm fine with anything so I just went. To be honest, it was so impromptu! Elena and I didn't even know where they where going but I just knew that they were going to watch The Magic Jungle or something. So both of us only knew the destination when the bus arrived at Esplanade. It turns out that the children were watching The Magic Jungle ~

Here are some photos taken!

And after we arrived back at the centre, it was so hectic as it was the children's nap time so they had to like quickly eat, shower, dry their hair and nap. So I helped out with the changing part during the shower time.

After that, I could finally have my lunch!! Winter melon soup with carrots, chicken and yellow beans! And the cakes were kept for us from one of the K2 girl's birthday celebration. :)

Reflection:

Time is really passing too fast and we're already done with the 3rd week of our attachment. And my 2nd FPA is scheduled to be next Monday which means I only have the weekends to finalize all the necessary documents and prepare myself before I step into the centre to conduct the routine care and 'mentor' Elena.