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!