BLOG ENTRY #8 [24/5/19]

NAME : MUHAMMAD RAHIMAN BIN ABDULMANAB 

MATRIX NUMBER : WIF180046 

Assalamualaikum and a very good Friday I wish to everyone reading!

After nearly 3 months and 7 blog entries, we've finally arrived at my last ever blog post regarding my  Social Engagement experience. Phew, time flies so damn fast. It only felt like yesterday that I went to SK Bangsar.

As I said before in my previous post, for this last written entry of mine, I'd like to elaborate on the overall reflections that I had for the past 3 months.

One of the things that I can reflect the most throughout the entirety of this course is that I get to gain a valuable experience in conducting and handling activities pertaining to social engagement or participation. I, for one, love to help make a change in society. I would try my best to cease every opportunity out there to make a difference somewhere in the world, no matter how small or minute. Knowing that whatever I do, can touch the lives of others in a positive way makes me feel happy. Hence, this course provides just the platform I needed to use my existing skills, knowledge and experience to contribute to the society in general. I was worried that the objectives of our Social Engagement programme might not be achieved at the end of the day and that we failed to contribute something positive towards the students there. In order to fully ascertain whether the students assigned to our group really enjoyed the experience we provided, I made an impromptu feedback session during our last day where the students get to write their feedbacks towards us facilitators. I'm really proud with that initiative I made, because it made it easier and clearer for us to gauge how well we did throughout the two-day programme. We were shocked that not only we got great responses overall, but also some of the feedbacks were really personal and it showed that we managed to really make some difference in the students' lives, even though it's only a two-day programme.

Moreover, I also learnt regarding teamwork and project management. For instance, I get to work with international students and people from different backgrounds as a team. Initially, when Dr. Nazean said we're allowed to choose our own teammates, I was dead set on choosing my friends. But, as I've explained during my earlier blog posts, that wasn't the case. Instead, I had to be assigned into another group consisting of people I've never met before. At first, I was rather sad that I couldn't work in a team with my friends and that now I have to deal with strangers instead. Not to mention the language barriers between me and the international students. I thought that my Social Engagement course experience is doomed from that moment. However, I'm glad that I proved myself wrong. If it wasn't for this course, I wouldn't have known Marijana, Omar and Fahad who were students from abroad along with my other teammates. We worked together really well and the element of cooperation and synergy are strong within our team. I remember us being meticulous in planning out the activities just to ensure the best experience possible for the students of SK Bangsar. We discussed on how suitable and enjoyable the activities were, or on whether they fit the age group of the target audience. Marijana was also very kind to offer us a lift to the school since she owns an Avanza. Honestly, everything from the transport, food and event planning was well-executed in our time, so I have to say, I am satisfied with the outcome! Big thanks to my team, I couldn't do it without all of you.

Furthermore, I also gained a lot of experience specifically on handling kids. For your information, I'm not exactly very good at communicating or facilitating kids. For me, the age gap is too far for us to really relate to one another. So, when Dr. Nazean informed us that we'll be going to SK Bangsar to conduct our Social Engagement programme there, I was a bit shocked and worried. Worried that I might not be able to effectively handle the kids there, despite them being Primary 6 students. Not to mention that I speak English more than I speak BM on a daily basis, so knowing myself, I might find myself having the tendency to speak in English rather than Malay, which might prove to be difficult to some of the students who are not so fluent in English. Since I was the only one in the team who had experiences in facilitating before, I was the de factor head facilitator. Nevertheless, I tried my best and even requested help from my fellow teammates in case I couldn't communicate well with the students especially my step brother, Hakimi. Thankfully, everything went smoothly throughout the activities held, and we bonded well with the students. Even though there were some hiccups (like the one where I snapped in front of the kids for misbehaving), but I'm happy with my self along with my team for successfully becoming facilitators and help make a success out of our programme.

The last thing that I can reflect on is something more personal, which is regarding my interaction with my step brother, Hakimi. This was honestly the hardest and most challenging part of the entire Social Engagement course, which is trying to maintain a consistent and mutual communication and interaction between me and my step brother. Initially, things went really well right after the iLearnAce programme. He's still got that enthusiasm and excitement. I remember how eager he was on doing the objective practices and primarily the mind maps. But, the eagerness faded away very quickly. While my teammates' kids at the very least still attempted the exercises there and continued to explore the features inside iLearnAce, Hakimi didn't bother doing so. At first, I tried to think positively and convinced myself that perhaps he's busy with something, but as weeks gone by and time goes on, I realised that he has lost the determination to do the exercises inside iLearnAce, despite my regular weekly reminders. The last time he had ever done an exercise, the last time I've received a notification from iLearnAce that Hakimi has done remotely anything on that website was a the week after our programme was held. Meaning, three months afterwards, no progress was made.I was honestly self-conflicted and frustrated with myself because of this. I didn't know how else am I able to convince him to actively use iLearnAce. If you read my other blog posts, you'll know the struggles I faced in trying to actively communicate with him and also his dad. I even resorted into asking advice from my friend-slash-teammate, Afifah. Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way mad or frustrated towards Hakimi. I understand that he's still young, and so he'll need extra care and reminder when it comes to these kinds of stuff. However, since our interactions and communications are only limited to Whatsapp, there's only so much that I can say and words can convey. It's also hard for me to converse with him as a step brother, as I've never had such experience before in my life. I'm the youngest in my family, so this was frankly my first time experience how it feels like becoming an elder brother. I've learned ways on how to properly interact with kids or those younger than me. It surely takes a lot of effort, and a lot of experience has been gained here definitely.

I guess, that wraps up my last ever blog post for this course! I'm very grateful for all the experience gained, both good and bad. To my team, I'd like to apologise if I ever did anything wrong. It was nice working with all of you. To the students of SK Bangsar, especially my kid and step brother Hakimi, good luck and all the best for UPSR and for your future endeavours!

Thank you,
Rahiman, signing out!

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BLOG ENTRY #7 [17/5/19]

NAME : MUHAMMAD RAHIMAN BIN ABDULMANAB 

MATRIX NUMBER : WIF180046 

Assalamualaikum everyone. Rahiman back again with another update here in my blog.

As this is my 7th (second last) blog post and Week 12 at time of posting, we're almost nearing the end of the semester and consequentially, my freshman year.

I already planned beforehand that for my second last blog post, I want to use this chance to wrap up or have some form of closure between Hakimi and myself. Because let's face it, after this semester ends, most likely we will not be having as frequent of a conversation as we would for the past few weeks. That's the reality

From Hakimi's perspective, he doesn't know when this project or social engagement course will end. Probably he thought that I'll be tending him pertaining to iLearnAce until he's about to sit for UPSR. So, in one way or another, I'll have to break down the news to him and inform him that starting next week, I won't be checking on him as frequently as I did before.

Last week, Hakimi told me that he's about to sit for his trial exam. Hence, in my previous blog post, I've decided to give him some room to revise and focus on his studies. Whether he used iLearnAce or not during that period of time, I'm not sure.

However, I forgot to ask him during our last conversation as to when is his last paper for his trial exam. Thankfully, Afifah told me that Hamizan (her step-brother) told her that the last exam paper is on last Tuesday.

It took me quite some time in crafting my words carefully before I decided on messaging him on Whatsapp and try to conclude things with him. Heck, I even resorted to asking for advices from my friends on how to best phrase my words. Talk about insecurity.

Once I was ready, I began the conversation by asking him about the trial exam. He replied by saying that the exam was okay and affirmed my rhetorical question that he had his last paper last Tuesday. Not sure whether he's being truthful that his exam performance was okay, but I like to think that he did fairly well in the exam.

However, it took me almost two days to reply him afterwards. This was because I was super busy with assignments which were all due the same week, Week 13.

Once I've managed to complete all my assignments on time and have time to reply him, I decided to text him again.

As you can see from the conversation snippet above, my replies were damn lengthy. First, I expressed my gratitude that he said he did okay in the trial exam, followed by my apology on replying late (it has becoming a habit of mine, sigh). Before I dived into my conclusions and the main gist of the conversation, I took this one last opportunity to remind him about iLearnAce. I told him on how Raya holiday is around the corner and if he have some extra free time (which I reckon he does), then he should try out the exercises inside iLearnAce. I even forwarded the 2 objective questions that I asked him to do last week but didn't due to the trial exam.

Then, I began on opening up about the truth and what's going to happen in the near future. I told him that the Social Engagement course/programme is about to end soon, hence I won't be constantly reminding him to do iLearnAce questions and exercises. I'm sure that he must've found my constant reminders to be annoying and troublesome, despite my best attempts to make it sound as nice and polite as possible. So, I apologised to him if my reminders ever disturbed him too much. I told him that the motive of the reminders were to ensure that he utilised iLearnAce as much as possible, given the fact that his account was fully sponsored until UPSR. Eventually, I expressed my hopes that he'll continue to use iLearnAce in the near future, even add in the little fact that his avatar in iLearnAce is crying out of care.

I also mentioned to him that despite the fact that I'm not going to frequently contact him in the future,  he can always feel free to contact him if he ever have problems or anything to talk to. Another thing that I apologised to him that I found most unfortunate was the fact that I didn't have the chance to visit him at his house. I'm reminded of the early weeks where he kept asking me about when am I going to visit him. I thought I had enough free time, but due to the unexpected packed schedule of mine alongside the issue of transport, we didn't have the chance to do just that.

I ended my reply by saying that regardless, I wished good luck and prayed that he'll be able to succeed with flying colours for UPSR.

To my delight, Hakimi replied by saying thank you. Short reply, yes. Might have not read all the replies, yes. But, I thought to myself that at the very least, he replied my long texts instead of leaving them at blue ticks. That must've been super damn awkward for me.

And that wraps up my last conversation with Hakimi until God knows when. Don't get me wrong, I'm more than open to having more conversations with him. It's just for the sake of formality that I had to be truthful to him about how the whole thing will roll out in the future.

So, that's all for my second last blog post. Stay tuned for a reflection writing for my last blog post later!

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BLOG ENTRY #6 [10/5/19]

NAME : MUHAMMAD RAHIMAN BIN ABDULMANAB 

MATRIX NUMBER : WIF180046 

Salam Ramadan Mubarak, everyone!

Can't believe we are less than a month from the end of the second semester. Time flies really fast indeed!

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), as swift as time itself, so will be your reading of this post. It is going to be a short one.

Short recap of what happened last week: I voiced my concerns to Hakimi's father for the first time about his inactivity in iLearnAce, since Hakimi didn't seem to take my direct concerns to much consideration.

So, this week was essentially a testimony on whether what I did last week actually did anything to make Hakimi use iLearnAce a bit more frequently.

I waited the whole week for any responses or email notifications from iLearnAce, signalling that Hakimi had completed a practice there, but there was none. Hence, as usual I had to Whatsapp him again to notify him not to forget to try out iLearnAce. This time, I even asked him to specifically do 2 exercises to do. But, as a sign of good gesture, I asked him initially on whether he's feeling well or not, since his father told me last week that he's been feeling under the weather.

Instead, I received two unexpected news that not only he's still feeling sick, but also that he's going to sit for his UPSR trial examination starting this Monday. Figuring that the latter in particular must have been stressful for him to prepare, I decided that it was best for me to not disturb him studying and let him do his own work and preparation. I did however advised him that he can always use iLearnAce for him to study if he wants to.

So, that's pretty much for this week. It's rather short simply because I chose not to burden him with iLearnAce practices when he's preparing for his trial examination. Even though sometimes it is my responsibility to ensure he's constantly using iLearnAce, but knowing how stressful it must be for him, with the mounting pressure and all, I've decided it's best if I give him some room.

At the very least, if he wants to study via iLearnAce, he should do so sincerely. Otherwise, it's futile.

That's all for me this week. Cheers, everyone!

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BLOG ENTRY #5 [3/5/19]

NAME : MUHAMMAD RAHIMAN BIN ABDULMANAB 

MATRIX NUMBER : WIF180046 

Hello everyone!

I'm back after 2 weeks of hiatus from my last entry for my blog. I'm just following the suggested dates that were provided my lecturer. If I remember correctly, this is my fifth out of eight total blog posts.

On my previous post, I highlighted my struggles in consistently reminding Hakimi to try out iLearnAce. I checked his account progress and he seldom used it since a few weeks ago. You saw in my previous entry how I tried my best to coerce or persuade him to use iLearnAce, even by just doing one Objective Practice.

Sadly, as of this entry post, it was to no avail. He didn't do any further exercises inside iLearnAce ever since my last conversation with.

I'm honestly at a dead end and out of ideas when it comes to persuading him further on actively using, or at the very least, use iLearnAce. I even resorted to asking my teammates' advices such as Afifah and Ajwad on what my next course of action should be. Even they had problems of lack of response and inactivity from both their stepbrothers/sisters and their parents.

That was when it occurred to me; that I haven't tried to contact Hakimi's dad for a long time.

So a big part of this rather short blog update is just me contacting his dad and voicing my concerns about Hakimi to him this time around.

The photo above is a snippet of my short conversation with Hakimi's dad. I apologised to him for my lack of contact with him lately due to my hectic schedule, with college projects and all (every single project was rushed to be completed before Ramadan arrives). I told him how despite being busy, I still managed to keep in touch actively Hakimi, despite only getting few responses from. Then, I began voicing my concerns on how Hakimi started becoming less active in using iLearnAce, and how my efforts to persuade him was to no avail. I crafted my words carefully so that I didn't sound like I'm putting too much blame on Hakimi. I was rather afraid because I sort of 'complained' to his dad that Hakimi wasn't doing much progress in iLearnAce his dad would get so mad and reprimand him for it, which is certainly not my intention.

Lastly, I told his dad on how his account was fully sponsored by our sponsors until he's going to sit for his UPSR exam this September, hence it would be a waste if he didn't utilise the app fully to his advantage.

To my surprise, his dad replied almost immediately after I sent my messages to him. He told me that Hakimi was feeling a bit unwell and he's quite busy with his school work. I expected the latter but not the former. Hakimi didn't tell me anything that he's feeling under the weather, to my sadness. His dad reassured me that he'll try his best to encourage Hakimi to use iLearnAce.

Now that I'm done informing his dad about Hakimi's latest updates, I again tried my best to message Hakimi and ask him about his iLearnAce progress.

I told him that if he's free during the weekend, he can try and explore iLearnAce a bit. It was the nicest way that I could think of in trying to persuade him. Then, I told him how I've contacted his dad to inform about his progress and how his dad informed me of him being sick. I reminded him that he can just always be honest to me if he's not feeling well so that I don't burden him too much. His responses were the same, just an 'okay'. That's better then a bluetick, I thought to myself.

And that's all I guess for this week's entry. Maybe sometime during Ramadan, Afifah and I plan to visit our respective stepbrothers as a last form of gesture before we're done with our Social Engagement course. I'll update you guys later!

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BLOG ENTRY #4 [26/4/19]

NAME : MUHAMMAD RAHIMAN BIN ABDULMANAB 

MATRIX NUMBER : WIF180046 

Salam everyone! It's me again with another update for my Social Engagement blog.

It has been roughly a month since our Kem Tekno-Belajar at SK Bangsar. A lot has changed since we first came to the school for the programme. Back then, the students were very excited when we introduced them about iLearnAce. I still remember how curious and eager they were on trying out every single feature that is present inside the online learning website. After all, their accounts were entirely sponsored by our sponsor, Rimba Bicara Sdn. Bhd. for about 6 months. Hence, they can utilise all the features and contents inside iLearnAce to their disposal until they're about to sit for their UPSR examination.

I knew and had a hunch that such excitement was only temporary. I mean, who doesn't get excited when someone sponsored you something and you get to use it for free? Not to mention that these students were, well kids. Of course they'll get super hyped. However, as I said just now, I figured that this exhilaration of theirs will only last for a short period of time. The real test for us step brothers and sisters is to try and maintain said excitement and eagerness in them on actively attempting and accessing their iLearnAce account even weeks after our programme was held.

And my prediction was correct. At least for my step brother, Hakimi.

It all began after their mid-semester break. Based on my previous post, I struck a deal with Hakimi on giving him only one exercise to do during the mid-semester break, provided that I'll be stepping up the level on giving him more weekly exercises to do once his holiday is over. I immediately Whatsapp him on Sunday. 31st of March to remind him of our deal, and inform him the list of exercises that I prepared for him to do throughout the week.

As you can see from our conversation, I took the liberty on even assigning which exercise he need to complete on which day. At that time, I informed him that he should complete said exercises given based on the day it was assigned. This is to avoid him from hastily completing all the exercises at once without studying beforehand, which defeats the purpose of instructing him to do the exercises in the first place.  As usual, he asked me yet again on when will I be free to come and visit him at his house, in which I said whenever I have free time (which, honestly, is getting scarce by the day).

The next day, I received a message from Hakimi, informing me that he couldn't complete one of the exercises by that night because he had to attend his tuition class. I was a bit perplexed because I didn't assign any of the exercises for him to do on Monday. Clearly, as I thought to myself, Hakimi didn't really pay attention to what I said the day earlier. Knowing that he didn't fully understand my initial instruction, I'd decided on cutting him some slack and letting him do the exercises whenever he wants, provided that he studied before attempting the exercises.

After granting the freedom on letting him do the exercises whenever he's free, I patiently waited on receiving notifications from my email on whether he had completely any of the exercises given. It has been 3 days since I last texted him. I remember feeling anxious and worried on whether he even began studying for the exercises as I waited for the MRT bus on my way for my Information Literacy class at the Main Library. Coincidentally, I received a message from his father, Mr. Rostam, who inquired updates from me regarding his son's progress. Of course, I took this chance to not only update him about my plans for Hakimi but also raised my concerns to him about Hakimi's presumed lack of activity and how he could assist me in ensuring that Hakimi actively uses iLearnAce. It would be a loss from his side if he didn't capitalise on the free account that was sponsored while other kids had to pay monthly subscriptions for it. He replied by saying that he'll try and do his part. He referred me by the title 'Encik' which made me a bit uncomfortable because it kind of made me feel a bit old, to be frank. Eventually, his last reply was an OK sticker. Typical parent messaging style, I thought to myself.

As the days gone by, it's already the end of the week. Spoiler alert, this was where the struggle really began.

Knowing that it's almost a week since I gave him the exercises to do, I've decided to message him and ask on the status of the exercises. I hesitated on doing this in the first place because I feared that I might annoy and stress him out a bit if I keep pressuring to do the exercises. Besides, these kids have such delicate attention and feelings that I ought to take good care of as a step brother. Wouldn't want to cross the line and made things uncomfortable between the two of us. I'm not a good consoler myself, so must evade such scenario at all costs. At the same time however, I mustn't pamper him too much. Otherwise, he wouldn't have the incentive to do any of the exercises given. Damn, such a thin line to thread.

Regardless, I sent him a reminder to complete the list of exercises. To my disappointment, he only 'seen' my messages on Whatsapp. Personally, I find it incredibly offensive if someone were to just 'seen' my texts on Whatsapp. I don't mind late replies, because realistically speaking not everyone has the free time of their lives to reply texts immediately. So honestly, I was a bit offended. But, I kept calm and convinced myself that maybe he forgot to reply my text. Hence, I sent him another reminder the following day.

This time around, he replied. Thank God that he did. Otherwise, I might resort on calling him instead. He told me that he forgot about the exercises and will try to do them as soon as possible. I let a sigh of relief. Never mind that he completed the exercises way late of schedule, as long as he did attempt them, that's fine by me.

However, two days had gone by, and I've yet to receive any notifications that would've informed me that he did in fact, attempted the exercises given. Again, I reminded him, this time with a straightforward message and a stern tone.

Another day has passed, and he didn't reply my text.



I remember venting my frustrations to my friend Afifah about Hakimi. I honestly didn't know what to do next. I mean, I could call him, but that'll be awkward. I could perhaps be slightly angry at him for not completing his exercises on time as he promised, but then again that'll risk making him sad and discouraged. I could also ask his dad to help me remind him, but to me that's last resort. So, I asked Afifah for her advice, in which she recommended that I ask him kindly on whether he has problems or not. Her advice hinted me to check his Instagram stories and see if he had shown any signs of problems. From my observation, Hakimi is the type of person who would vent his feelings on social media, specifically Instagram stories. So, I checked and to my cleverness, there was this one post where he was rather stressed and mad about thing. Something about his friends mocking him for his hobby and interest in motorcycles.

As I mentioned in my earlier posts, Hakimi has a problem on making friends. People generally don't like him, for whatever reason. From my point of view, he's a nice guy. But somehow he might've rubbed the wrong shoulders with some of his classmates and that made him got shunned by some of them, which is very unfortunate. In fact, a recap of my earlier post, Afifah's step brother Hamizan was once Hakimi's nemesis. They're both okay now, albeit a bit passive aggressive.

Knowing that Hakimi's not in a particularly stable state of mind, I've decided to follow Afifah's advice. I changed my tone of messaging and texted Hakimi on whether he has any problems that made him having issues attempting the exercises given. I carefully crafted my words so as to not offend him or show any signs of frustration or anger.

To my expectation, he replied by saying he was a bit stressed. It took me almost a week to reply him back, mainly because I was busy with college projects and being the forgetful person that I am, always forgot to reply him back. I wanted to reply but every time I had the intention to do so, I was feeling stressed. I decided that the best course of action is to wait until I'm calm for me to reply him back.

Once I'm ready, I first replied by apologising for the late reply, along with the justifiable reasons why. I gave him several advices, such as feeling free on sharing his thoughts and problems with me if he feels like he needs company or someone to listen to his problems. We've all been in that situation before, and we all know how incredibly relieving it is sometimes to have someone to listen as we vent our frustrations to. Eventually, I cut him even more slack by telling him that he can do the iLearnAce exercises whenever he's free. He apologised to me for not doing the exercises. That softened my heart a bit. I told him that it's okay and I understand his situation. What's most important is that he did the exercises given sincerely and without feeling forced or coerced by anyone.

He took note of what I said, and now I'm patiently waiting for him to complete his exercises. This post was rather special because this was the first time Hakimi had shown problems or signs of reluctance or inability to actively use iLearnAce on at least on a weekly basis. What I can reflect from this is that this had taught me on how to deal with my step brother when it comes to convincing him the right way on doing his work. As I said before, there's a delicate line that I have to thread in order to do it correctly. Otherwise, I'll risk making him feel angry or make him feel complacent. Lastly, this has also taught me a lesson about controlling my emotions and never presume anything from anyone. For instance, I assumed that Hakimi was being lazy and intentionally didn't do any of the exercises given, without considering the fact that maybe Hakimi was having problems that he had to deal with. For this, I have to credit Afifah for making me come to my senses and played my part as a step brother and be by Hakimi's side, at least by offering my assistance to him.

I guess that is all for this week's blog post. I'll update you guys again on my next one. See ya!

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BLOG ENTRY #3 [12/4/19]

NAME : MUHAMMAD RAHIMAN BIN ABDULMANAB 

MATRIX NUMBER : WIF180046 

Hello everyone! Rahiman here again with another update for my Social Engagement course. This second entry will be a recap of the week after our Techno-Study Camp (Kem Tekno-Belajar). 

After the camp was over, we had a mini post mortem at the main hall with all the facilitators. Nash, as our group leader, first briefed us on each of our respective job scopes in the future. He voluntarily offered to takeover my responsibilities as video editor as he thought I contributed a lot already in handling the game activities and facilitating the kids as a whole. Marijana meanwhile was responsible for our newspaper clipping in which CITRa will assist us in having it posted. After the short briefing, we went through some of the feedbacks the students wrote as we munched some of the leftover snacks and sweets that Marijana generously gave to the kids as gifts, and believe me, they all got us floored! We received good feedbacks and responses overall which made us extremely glad that the students thoroughly enjoyed our camp. Some, as you can see in the photo attached below, even wanted us to hold the camp for a longer period of time, and wished that we stayed a little longer. God, these kids are so adorable! 

Dr. Nazean even dropped by at our group post mortem and we told her some of the detail we got from the feedback. She was happy that everything went well for our group, and she emphasised that we do our best on writing our personal reflection blogs. Dr. Nazean, if you are reading this, I hope I’m doing well in writing mine so far! 

The night after our last day at SK Bangsar, I immediately texted Hakimi to remind him to ask his parents (particularly his dad) on whether he needs my help to create his parent’s account. I highly expected that his father will require my help hence I offered to help early on. I asked Hakimi for his father’s email so that I can set up his dad’s account as a parent in iLearnAce once I get his confirmation. 

I asked him to confirm back with his dad about needing my help to create his account. I also promised Hakimi that I’ll be sending all the photos taken by our photographer Fahad once he has compiled and uploaded everything on Google Drive. He was very eager on getting the photos as he wanted to post them on his Instagram. Speaking of Instagram, throughout the entire camp, Hakimi couldn’t stop pressing me on following his Instagram. I eventually had to concur at the very end despite my reservations. 

Once I did send the photos to him, it was not long before I received a notification from Instagram that someone tagged me in a post. As expected, it was Hakimi, who made a montage video of all the photos that I sent him. Clearly, he hasn’t moved on from our camp, understandably so. 

After receiving the email of Hakimi’s father, Mr. Rostam Arshad, I then went to create his account as a parent in iLearnAce. That was when I realised that I forgot to ask for his birthday date as well. I took the liberty to directly text Mr. Rostam on Whatsapp to not only reconfirm that he needed my assistance to create the account, but also on inquiring for his email. As expected, he requested for my help and after a few minutes, I managed to create his account for him. I messaged him the details of his account, and briefed him a bit on what he can do with it and how he use it to monitor Hakimi’s progress on iLearnAce. He then thanked me for helping him out, which was really the least I could do. 

Before the programme, I had texted his father before to remind him of the 2-day programme. So, it wasn't really that awkward for me to converse with his father this time around. 

Furthermore, knowing that I can’t put 100% reliance and trust on Hakimi on consistently doing the exercises and practices on iLearnAce all by himself, I took the initiative to outline some of the weekly exercises that I wanted him to do. 

My initial plan was that I wanted to give 3 exercises for each of the subjects offered in iLearnAce, which are Bahasa Melayu, English, Science and Mathematics. This gives a total of 12 weekly exercises that he as to complete by Sunday. To show to him that I meant business, I asked him to screenshot the results of each exercises that he did and send them to me via Whatsapp. This is technically redundant, as I registered as his parent on iLearnAce and I can directly receive emails on his progress, but this is just to show to him that I’m serious in ensuring that he actively uses iLearnAce. 

When I presented my plans to him, he was shocked to say the least. He begged to not have that many exercises to be given to him every week, and that I should cut him some slack for that particular week since he’s having his school holiday. At first, I thought I should be strict and insist on having him do all the exercises. But, I resorted on asking my friend Afifah for her thoughts, and even she was shocked that I burdened Hakimi with so much workload. I then came to a realisation that I’m putting my own standards onto Hakimi, and that I should be considerate in giving him work to do. Otherwise, he’ll lose interest and feel stressed every time he accesses iLearnAce. Jeez, being a parent is tough! 

Hence, I modified my plans and decided to only give him one exercise to do for the school holiday. I told him that he could do it at any time he wants as long as it is before Sunday. I told him that when school reopens, I will give him one exercise per subject, with a total of 4 exercises weekly, in which he said he’s fine with. He was excited, so excited that he wanted to do said exercise given straight away. Initially, I was happy that he had the enthusiasm again to do the exercise on iLearnAce, but the moment he sent me the screenshot of his result, I knew that I had mistaken his enthusiasm for “just want to get this done and over with”. I reminded him that not only if his reward points will be deducted and penalised if he gets 30% or below (meaning, you failed), but also that he should revise through the notes given inside iLearnAce before he attempts the practices. I also told him that if he ever have difficulties in his studies or is in need of help when revising, he can just Whatsapp me and I’ll try my best to help him. 

On Wednesday, 27th of March, Hakimi messaged me on Whatsapp to ask about the subjective practice section on iLearnAce. I explained to him the steps on how he can try out the practices. Unlike the objective practice section, the online system doesn’t have the capabilities to mark students’ written answers yet. In fact, this is a very difficult thing to do, which is understandable that they couldn’t provide this feature in iLearnAce. Instead, iLearnAce will provide sample answers that the students can refer to and compare to their own written answers. I even offered him to screenshot his written answers (especially English comprehension and writing ones) for me to check. Hakimi first had difficulties understanding my explanation. He then made a quip that kind of made me feel touched. He said that it would be easier if I could come and visit him at his house and help him out directly. Actually, Afifah and I did plan on visiting our kids either at school or at their respective homes. But, due to time constraints and the lack of transport, we’re not sure when will we be able to do so. 

So, that’s all for my second blog entry! Personally, what I learnt this week is on how difficult parenting can be and what a huge responsibility it is to take care of someone. Even though Hakimi is just a ‘step-brother’ for me when it comes to this course only, I perceived and treated him as if he’s my actual younger brother. I will try my best to engage more with Hakimi and ensure that he’s actively using iLearnAce, ensure that it can help improve his academic performance especially at his weakest subjects such as Mathematics and English and communicate further with his father when it comes to Hakimi’s well-being in the near future. 

Goodbye, and see you guys next week!

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BLOG ENTRY #2 [5/4/19]

NAME                     : MUHAMMAD RAHIMAN BIN ABDULMANAB

MATRIX NUMBER : WIF180046

DAY 2

For the second day, I had personally informed Afifah that she might have to take over my position as head facilitator due to myself losing my voice over yesterday. Fahad and Omar decided to go to SK Bangsar on their own, which leaves only Afifah, myself, Ajwad and Hafizul to be picked up by Marijana. It was the same routine as yesterday, except that Marijana will pick up Ajwad first from KK7 and then myself and Hafizul at KK8 and lastly Afifah at KK8. We arrived slightly earlier than yesterday.

We immediately gathered at the main hall as we wait for the rest of the facilitators and students to arrive. Most of them arrived punctually before 8:00 A.M. We distributed Gardenia breads for breakfast as Afifah told me, most of the students didn't really prefer having something heavy for breakfast, while some like Mumtaz didn't even prefer having breakfast at all. Once everyone has settled down, we sat in a circle and ate our light breakfast. Before we proceeded to our first slot, as usual I gathered all the facilitators and gave a briefing about today's tentative and plans.

Unlike yesterday, our first slot of the day is a 2-hour ilearnAce class. This particular slot is crucial we all get to dive into the Assessment feature of ilearnAce, arguably the most important feature to teach to the students. We decided to conduct this slot in an empty class on the ground floor and not at the lab so that we have a more quiet and conducive environment. For the first hour, I introduced to Hakimi some of the key components of the Assessment feature, mainly the Objective and Subject practices. I let Hakim tried out some of the tests and practices included in the site. He seemed to have a fond over English and Science, and struggled a lot when I asked him to try out some Maths practices. I took the opportunity to help teach him as well, especially in English and Maths. Relating to the monthly ranking system that I introduced to him yesterday, I encouraged him to try his best to do the exercises and evaluations in the Assessment feature so that he can gain points for the rewards section and also to gain A's which can help boost his position in the monthly ranking. Hakim's a bit of a competitive person, so I knew early on that if I mentioned about how by doing the exercises, it can help affect his ranking, I can help motivate and incentivise him to work harder.

Once he's done with all the assessments, I gave him extra time to work on his mind map. As mentioned just now, we planned to allocate the last 30 minutes of this slot for the students to present about their mind maps and showcase their creativity. While he's finalising his mind up and doing some touch ups, I conversed with him to know more about his family and his siblings. To my surprise, he suddenly said "*Hakim nak Abg Ray jadi abang angkat Hakim, boleh?*" which made me felt so honoured. I'm so glad that he felt very comfortable with me to the point where he wanted to spend more time with me.

When the preparation time is over, each students began presenting their mind maps accompanied by their facilitators. What I noticed was that despite being very hyper during game activities, the students got very shy and awkward when presenting in front. To encourage them to speak, I asked them several impromptu questions related to their topic of presentation or mind map. Weirdly enough, almost every single student presented about the same exact topic which is about microorganisms. Only Hakim, Hamizan and Aisyah presented about something entirely different.

When it was Hakim's turn, I accompanied him in front and brought along my laptop (every facilitators had to bring their laptops to the front every time the kids present as the school didn't have any room with a projector that we can use). He introduced himself and explained a bit about his mind maps. He struggled a bit when it comes to explanations but I assisted him along the way. After everyone had presented their mind maps, I gave a few comments on how it is extremely important that these students begin honing their presentation skills at an early age because as they grow up later on, a lot of assessments and evaluations depends heavily on their soft skills.

Myself accompanying Hakim on presenting his mind map!

After 2 hours of ilearnAce, we moved on to our first game activity of the second day which is "Lukisan Bisu". The students were again divided into two groups. This time around, I carefully picked each group members as I noticed that some of these students have a particular dislike or bias against Hakim and Mumtaz for reasons I couldn't figure out. I instructed each group to sit in a circle with a fair distance within one another. For this game, each group will be given one mahjong paper. The way the game works is that each group will send one representative and meet with the facilitator in charge in front. The facilitator will then inform the representative on the theme/item on what to draw. The representative will then return to the group members. In 30 seconds, the representative has to hint the rest of the group members what needs to be drawn on the mahjong paper strictly without talking and only using their actions or movements alongside their creativity. The group representative will rotate amongst the group members and there are a total of 15 rounds. This activity was fun as we got to see the students creatively trying to indicate to the other group members what needs to be drawn. It was also a very relaxing activity for us facilitators as the students were being quiet the whole time.

Lukisan Bisu

Since I had sore throat and felt a bit under the weather, Afifah helped replaced me as the one who conducted the activity.

After 15 rounds, we helped marked their drawings and see if they were correct based on the theme given. Apparently, both groups managed to obtain the same score. To break the tie, we proceed with an extra 5 rounds. Eventually, Hamizan's team won!

The next activity is called Head's Up or more commonly known as Charades. It's basically an online game application that you can download from the App/Play Store for free. It's a very popular game, where the student holding the phone at his forehead has to guess the word that pops out at the help of his/her friends. This time, you can give hints both verbally and using your actions.

This particular activity was honestly tough for us to handle, as the kids got very hyper that they literally rushed and quarrelled with each other as to who gets to be the guesser. It got pretty loud, as the students screamed their hints at the guesser. In fact, Ajwad had to use the long, 1-metre wooden, yellow ruler that acts as a barrier just to withhold them from being too close at the guesser. It was basically a scream and shout contest among the students and it was really stressful, even for me who just sat down while Afifah was the one who conducted the activity. I remembered seeing how stressed she looked. I observed how they didn't showcase any form of teamwork with each other. Remember when I told you before this that some of the students had a bias against Hakim and Mumtaz? Well, it was even more apparent in this activity as they pushed and shunned the two of them away from becoming the guesser.

Coupled with my ailment, I was rather frustrated by this and decided that I needed to give them a little bit of 'lecture', politely speaking. Once the activity was over, I gave a stern look and ordered them to line up as we're about to go for lunch at the canteen. Since they were still in the hype mood from the previous activity, they didn't focus on my instruction. Thus, I had no choice but to raise my voice a bit in order to get their attention. Everyone, including myself, didn't expect that I would 'snap' and get a bit angry. The students noticed the change in mood and immediately lined up as per instruction. I told them how I wasn't happy at their lack of teamwork and signs of selfishness shown during the previous two activities held, and warned them that I didn't want to see that happening for the last activities slot in the late afternoon. They all nodded and everyone became serious for a moment.

After that mini lecture, I instructed everyone to move to the teacher's luncheon room at the canteen for lunch. For our last day, we had Nasi Ayam Penyet for lunch. Again, it was apparent that the students weren't exactly fond of Hakim and Mumtaz, as they both sat at a separate table compared to the rest.

Second day's lunch with Nasi Ayam Penyet

While everyone is having their lunch, Afifah and I helped packed some chocolates and sweets for our mini closing ceremony. Dr. Nazean instructed each group to prepare some gifts for the kids during our closing ceremony, which will be conducted separately group by group. Our sponsors sponsored a bunch of kids book as part of their gifts, in which each of us had to wrap up ourselves using A4 papers. Marijana on the other hand generously contributed some high-end chocolates (i.e. Toblerone, Mars) for the kids' gifts along with some sweets that we bought using our own money. Being the naughty kids that there are, they peeked through the door and saw us packing. One thing about these kids is that they kept shipping Afifah and I together for no reason. Admittedly, I spent most of the time discussing with Afifah as the two of us helped planned the activities together. So, in the eyes of the kids, they thought that we had a thing for each other, in which we're not by the way, just to be clear.

After lunch, we went to the surau for our Zohor prayer. As usual, Marijana helped took care of our stuffs. I asked Hazizul to become the muazzin and announce the azan for our prayer while I volunteered to become imam.

Once everyone's ready after the prayers, we went to the same class on the 3rd floor as yesterday for our last game activity.

I warned the facilitators that this particular activity will require every facilitator to actively play their roles and help control and coordinate the students. It's called "Tanya, Je". The way the game works is that the students will yet again be divided into two groups. Each group will line up and face the opposing group. The facilitator will then give a description or situation which has two sides. For instance, an astronaut from Earth meeting an alien from Mars. Then, each group gets to pick their sides via a simple game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Once they've picked a side, each group member has to strictly ask and exchange only questions to the opposing group member. The group member who failed to do so, such as giving a statement, asking the same questions multiple times, and taking more than 5 seconds to come up with a question will lose, and the next group member in the line will take over. The group which has all their group members lost will lose the game.

Obviously, this game has a high risk of getting out of control as the students may get too hyped up and quarrel with each other over asking questions. Initially, the game progressed normally. But soon, they began to ask questions that didn't make sense to the context given, or even asked offensive or insulting questions involving one's appearance that seemed more like a personal attack than an innocent question. We facilitators had a hard time trying to control the situation, but we managed. We repeat the game for 3 rounds and eventually, Mumtaz's team won!

Tanya, Je!

Our last game is called "Salah, Benar". It's a simple, yet at the same time, a complicated game. It involves them paying attention to the instructions and try to swiftly think of their actions. First, I'll be saying an instruction consisting of either Salah (False) or Benar (True). Afterward, I'll give out a series of actions, such as move to the front, raise your right hand et cetera. If the action matches to the instruction 'True', then the student will perform the action normally. However, if the action matches with a 'False', then the student must not perform that action. Us facilitators had to demonstrate the activity multiple times as the students had difficulties trying to understand the game.

We made it a competition so that the person who failed to completely follow the instruction will lose and have to sit down. For the first round, almost half of the students lost, which shows their weaknesses in following instructions and paying ample attention. Eventually, it comes down between Daim and Mumtaz. I raised the difficulty level a bit higher by changing the rules such that when an action aligns with a 'False', the student has to perform an opposite action. At first, both of them managed. But eventually, Mumtaz emerged as the winner.

After the "Salah, Benar" activity is over, we proceeded to the next class for our last ilearnAce slot. For this slot, we introduced them the last feature, which is the Rewards section. The section consists of online games powered by the Unity engine, both single player and multiplayer that the students can play for entertainment at the expense of using their Reward points collected from completing practices and exercises from the Assessment section as currency. I guided Hakim into trying out all of the games. At first, Hakim seemed to enjoy playing all of them. However, he got bored easily and to my surprise, he requested on creating a new mind map about Mamat Khalid's collection of movies. Whatever floats his boat, I thought to myself.

While he's playing around with the mind map, I reminded him to consistently log into ilearnAce and do the exercises on a daily basis if possible. Then, he asked me a random question as to why our Techno-Study programme lasted for only 2 days. I told him that it was what our lecturer had set and again to my surprise, he told me that he wished this programme would last for like a week or so. At that time, we're almost to the end of the 2-day programme, so I was incredibly touched by his statement. I'm glad that despite the 2-day short period, I managed to have a relatively strong bonding with my little step brother and made a positive impact on him.

Hazizul taking a photo of Afifah and myself before the closing ceremony!

Before we moved to our closing ceremony, I instructed Afifah to prepare several sheets of paper for us to conduct a feedback session. Basically, the kids will be given 2 sheets of papers and they have to write what they felt about their facilitator and their feedback on the programme as a whole. I told them that they can be honest about how they felt, or how they can even criticise us if they deem us deserving of one. We plan to read out the written letters during our post mortem right after the closing ceremony.

Once we're done with the feedback session, we moved to the empty class and sat in a circle like how we did on the first day for the ice breaking session. I asked Afifah to help them settle down while I distributed the gifts to each facilitator to be given to the students. I started the closing ceremony (which wasn't even a ceremony but more like a gather to be frank) by giving a bit of a foreword before we proceeded to the prize giving. Although already knowing the existence of the gifts, the students were still happy on receiving them. Hakim in particular, was so excited that he wanted to be the first to receive, despite me insisting that I'll be the last one.

After the prize giving part, I asked all the facilitators to give their final say or speech to the students before we part ways. At this point there was a stint of sadness as everyone knew the programme was about to reach the end. After all the facilitators gave their say, it was my turn to deliver my 4-minute speech and thus concluding the closing ceremony. Simply put, I gave them several advices and apologised on behalf of the other facilitators for our mishaps and shortcomings, while also reminding them to always keep in touch with us facilitators. To conclude my speech, I stated my hope that the students will take benefit from the ilearnAce programme that was taught and prayed that it'll help change them for the better. I remember seeing one of the kids being teary eyed over hearing my speech, which gave me a relief that I managed to conclude the whole event with a happy note.

Before I wanted to wrap up and proceed for the photography session, Hamizan and Aisyah made an impromptu "Thank You" cheers together with the rest of the students, which made us all deeply touched.

Lastly, we had a group photo session using Fahad's DSLR. I even took the liberty to jump in front and take a selfie with everyone else. With that selfie, that wraps up our 2-day programme. We each hugged our own kid before they were all dismissed. I reminded Hakim that I'll be keeping in touch with him at all times via Whatsapp before he went home.

Photography session!

Once all the students had returned home, we gathered at the main hall to meet with Dr. Nazean, who congratulated us for successfully carrying out this 2-day programme with smooth sailing. Before we went home, we went through all the feedbacks and to our surprise, there was not a single bad feedback from the students. There were all very nice responses, which made us all felt very glad that the students really enjoyed participating in the programme.

In conclusion, I am very happy that our group has managed to bring about a positive impact on the students as a whole. Based on the feedbacks obtained, it was safe to say that our programme was a huge success. Despite lasting for only 2 days, we managed to develop a strong bonding between not only the facilitators and students, but also among the students themselves. I'm very thankful to all my group members for their cooperation and for always giving out their best throughout the 2-day programme! :>


That is all, thank you for reading!

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