Meeting minutes 6 – 19/3/08

Research Education 2008

Service Learning

Meeting Minutes 6 

Venue: Raffles Institution HML, Singapore

Time: 19 March 2008, 1130 – 1515     

Present: Bryan Lim, Sean Yap, Yan Xiao Dong, Tan Koon Chong 

No.	Things Accomplished	Actions made
1	Discussion on literature review	We discussed as a group about our plans for our literature review
2	Research on intellectual disability	We started did some basic research on intellectual disability.
3	Updating and editing of blog	We edited our blog and made some minor improvements

    Hi all. This is our sixth group meeting of the year. This time, we were a little shorthanded as Kai Cheng was sick and Sean was meeting a teacher for quite some time. In this meeting, we basically started on our literature review. We started discussing about the topics that we should do and also how we plan to go about doing it.  

  We came up with certain parts that we would like to include in our literature review. However, for most of the parts, we had to get information through interviews with the staff of Chao Yang School and the parents of the students. The only parts that we could research on using the web were the government relationship with the intellectually challenged and about the intellectual disability itself. Hence we got started on intellectual disability – its causes, effects, the different kinds of disability and more. Besides that, we also made some minor changes to our blog to improve it. It was quite a pity later as our computer suddenly ran out of battery as some of our work was lost. That was all we did for this session. 

Bryan

Meeting minutes 5

 RESL 2008

Meeting Minutes 5   

Venue: Sean’s house, Pasir Ris, Singapore

Time: 16 March 2008, 0900 – 1600      

Present: Bryan Lim, Sean Yap, Yan Xiao Dong, Wang Kai Cheng 

No.	Things Accomplished	Actions made
1	Research on Singapore Government	Using the internet, we researched on the Singapore government and compiled relevant information that we were going include in our resource package.
2	Research on Singapore Identity	We also we researched on Singapore identity and compiled relevant information that we were going include in our resource package.
3	Brainstorming for ideas to make lessons more engaging	We discussed and brainstormed for various ideas and concepts that could possibly make the lesson more engaging and interesting for the students.

    Our group decided to meet up during the June holidays to get started on the resource package. We choose to meet up at Sean’s house on Sunday as many were not free on the other days due to various commitments such as camps, job week and music examinations.   

  In this meeting we started on our research on the topics that we will be including in the resource package. We started research on the Singapore Government and Singapore Identity so far. We compiled relevant information that we possibly would include in our resource package. However, it was not easy doing so as most of the information on the web was possibly too complicated for the children to comprehend and understand, especially about the Singapore Government, as we too weren’t too familiar about certain things as well.  

  We also discussed and brainstormed for various ideas and concepts that could possibly make the lesson more engaging and interesting for the students. This planning would help us in our future construction of the resource package. 

  Overall, this meeting was very meaningful to us as we not only managed to get started on the resource package, but we also had the opportunity to bond together working together as a group. Bryan. 

Reflections of visit to Chao Yang School (5/3/08) by Bryan

  Basically I felt that this was a very fruitful and meaningful trip for myself, as this was not only the first time that we met up with our teacher mentor, but was also the first time that we had an opportunity to interact with the students and observe lessons in progress. Interacting with the students, I could tell that most of them were very happy to see us. Even though they may have problems expressing their views clearly, I knew for sure that they are very enthusiastic and fun loving children. They really love to play games, including a board game about dinosaurs which we played together with them. There was this one particular boy who kept waving to me and Kai Cheng throughout our time spent observing the lesson. With this lesson observation, I am now really inspired to be able to help them and to make a difference in their lives with not only the resource package, but also the library.

Meeting Minutes 4 – 5/3/08

Venue: Chao Yang School, Yio Chu Kang, SingaporeTime: 5 March 2008, 1230 – 1515

       Present: Bryan Lim, Sean Yap, Yan Xiao Dong, Wang Kai Cheng

  

No.	Things Accomplished	Actions made
1	Travelling	Traveled by MRT to Chao Yang school, Singapore at 13: 00 pm, arrived at 13: 30 pm.
2	Class Observation	We went into some classrooms to observe the ongoing lessons and also had a chance to interact with the students of Chao Yang school. The purpose of this is to give us a gauge of the intellectual ability, attention spans and communication skills of the students so that we are able to plan our resource package for them.
3	Meeting with external teacher mentor	We met up with our external teacher mentor at Chao Yang School, Mrs. Rajesh for the first time. We had a discussion about our plans for the interactive as well as the backgrounds of the students. Besides that, we also discussed about our proposal to improve the library system of the school.

    Hi all. This is our fourth group meeting for the year. This time, our group was without Koon Chong because he went to support the tennis team in the finals. For this session, we went down to Chao Yang School for lesson observation and also to meet up with our teacher mentor, Mrs. Rajesh for the first time.

   We had a quick lunch and left RI at about 1300 and arrived at about 1330. There we waited for the staff to bring us to the various classrooms with ongoing lessons, with our group being split up into two and going into two different classrooms with different age groups and intellectual ability. Kai Cheng and I, Bryan, went into a classroom where a lesson on road safety was being conducted. The students were given a worksheet with various pictures, some with safe situations and some with dangerous situations. The students were tasked to identify which situations were safe and which were not. We interacted with the students and helped them with their worksheet. Many of them were very happy to see us. Also, even though the wrong answers were written on their worksheet, when we questioned them, they actually knew the correct answers. Also, they seemed to be very interested with colouring their worksheet. They were really fun and enthusiastic children. We then moved on to a board game about dinosaurs. From the excitement in their words and the smiles on their faces when they were playing the game, we could tell how much they loved the game. All of them seemed to be seasoned professionals with the game as they explained the rules to us and showed us how the game was played. Soon after, the bell rang and the students were dismissed. We then headed on to the tables outside the general office where we gathered with our other two group mates Sean and Xiao Dong who also had a fruitful time in their class.

 

  Soon after, our external mentor, Mrs. Rajesh arrived. She was a teacher at Chao Yang School. It was our first meeting with her. After greetings, we exchanged contact details and then started off the discussion about our group’s plans about the Resource package for the Interactive Whiteboard. Basically she gave us many tips and guidelines for us to follow in making the resource package. We also had a discussion with her about the backgrounds of the students – basically their attention span, ability in learning and more. Besides that we also talked about our group’s proposal to improve the library system of the school. Basically we discussed about the feasibility and our intended plans. However, she was unable to give us an answer for our proposal as she had yet to have discussions with the other teachers and staff. With that we thanked her for her time and then concluded this session.

Reflections (27 March 2008 Meeting)

The meeting was really a fun and enjoyable one, coupled with fruitful discussions that really broadened my view. The most significant question that impacted me was, whether the disabled really wanted us, the public, to view them in such a special light, giving special attention to them, treating them like abnormal people, people different from the crowd. Do they really want to be separated from the majority? Do they enjoy hearing words of sympathy from us? Do they want to be given special treatment, to be different from the crowd? For myself, I personally wouldn’t want to be treated that way. Caring and sympathizing for them is definitely good and humane, but overly caring and sympathizing would have a negative impact instead. There is no need to give them that special look whenever we see them. There is also definitely no need to point fingers at them and think about how pitiful they are. They are also humans. To be treated differently by your own species, your very environment, the people around you, is not a matter to celebrate or feel proud about.  In this case, striking a balance between caring for them and overly caring is important. The easiest method would be just to let them into our society, no need for red carpets and trumpets, but just with smiles and friendliness, like how you treat others. Just don’t over do it, or it will turn into discrimination.  Xiao DongXD

Personal Reflections

First up i would like to apologize for my overdue reflections.. kind of put it off for awhile. >.<

Personally, the thing that struck me most when we were touring the compound of the school, were the constant sniggering of the other boys and the jokes being made at the childrens’ expense. i mean things like, “eh chaoyang got dsa leh! to Woodbridge!”

this made me realise how insensitive some RI boys can be, and most importantly how much the society needs to see them for who they really are, and not think of them as “freaks of nature”. after all, we are all human beings.

Managed to find the article we discussed during the RE period on the 27th.

Four ways Govt can help the disabled Section: Home

By: LEE HUI CHIEH

Publication: The Straits Times 27/02/2008

Page: H7

No. of words: 656

BUDGET DEBATE – DAY 2

THE disabled and others with special needs “have been forgotten” in this year’s Budget, Ms Denise Phua (Jalan Besar GRC) said in Parliament yesterday.

She pointed out the lack of measures to help them, even though “the problems faced by the average citizen are magnified in the lives of those with disabilities”.

She laid out their woes:

They have problems paying for education, as programmes for special-needs children are costly;

Their health-care expenses are likely to be higher, as medical insurance schemes do not cover conditions related to their disabilities;

As adults, they find it difficult to secure jobs due to discrimination and competition from able-bodied foreigners willing to settle for lower pay.

For all these reasons, the rising costs of transport, health care and other necessities have hit the disabled harder than the able-bodied, she said.

Ms Phua has an autistic son and is the president of a voluntary group, the Autism Resource Centre.

She suggested four ways in which the Government could help the disabled.

First, relax the income criteria for subsidies in schemes such as early intervention programmes for special-needs children and day care for the disabled.

Two years ago, the Government announced that it would reduce subsidies in two programmes, targeted at disabled children, for families earning more than $2,500 a month by 2010.Families earning more than $3,500 a month will not get any subsidies by then.

Second, exempt community hospitals, day activity centres and special schools run by voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) from having to collect the goods and services tax (GST).

Now, those organisations with revenues exceeding

$1 million are required to levy GST on their services.

Ms Phua said: “There is no reason why VWOs with the vision and capability to grow their operations should have to charge their clients more due to the kick-in of GST.”

Third, give a one-time top-up to the Central Provident Fund accounts of the disabled, or to a new trust fund for the disabled to be set up in the coming months.

Fourth, cut down on the “administrative jungle” that stands in the way of the disabled who want to get help.

Ms Phua suggested that a case manager from a central aid agency – such as a community development council or family service centre – be appointed to help the disabled apply for aid.

She also proposed that all agencies providing such help use a master application form, so that those applying for aid do not have to fill up different sets of forms and go for numerous interviews.

She also responded to the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan, who said recently that more aid for the disabled might encourage more people to claim they, too, were disabled in a bid to get these benefits.

She said: “We must not let the fear of being taken advantage of prevent us from doing what is right.”

Checks, such as requiring certification by approved doctors, can be put in place to minimise abuse, she said.

Mr Edmund Wan, executive director of the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped, agreed that CPF top-ups would be a good idea, but said that these should be targeted at the disabled in need, not all disabled people.

He also asked that those who are disabled and apply for assistance be given more help than able-bodied individuals in the same financial situation.

He suggested that the Government find means other than CPF top-ups to help disabled people who do not work and do not have CPF accounts.

Hear from the MPs, log on to www.straitstimes.com for our free video news

i think this really shows how much importance the government regards the handicapped in Singapore - not much.

Sean..

Minutes of Meeting 3 : 27/02/08

Venue: Raffles Institution, SingaporeTime: 27 February 2008, 1140 – 1515

       Present: Bryan Lim, Tan Koon Chong, Sean Yap, Yan Xiao Dong, Wang Kai Cheng, Mrs. Lim

  

No.	Things Accomplished	Actions made
1	Discussion of Library proposal	We discussed about improving the library system in Chao Yang school as an expansion to our project. We wanted to expand to expand the book collection and also build a main library for the students.
2	Maintaining of blog	We did some minor editing to improve on our blog for the project.
3	Discussion of literature review	We discussed with our teacher mentor, Mrs. Lim, the possible content and also various points we may want to in our literature review.

  This is the third group meeting of the year. This time, we met in the school library. Having not much to do on our hands at the time, we started to discuss various interesting ideas for the project. After discussion, brainstorming and thinking of ideas and we soon came to discussing the library system in Chao Yang School. As time went by, the ideas turned a plan to improve the library system of Chao Yang School as an expansion to our current project which was to develop a resource package. Later we sent an email to the staff to ask them if this plan was feasible and whether we can carry it out. Besides discussion about the possible expansions, we also did some minor changes and editing to our blog to improve it.

  After our lunch break, we met up with our teacher mentor, Mrs. Lim to discuss about our literature review – the content, various interesting issues, important points to take note of. The family background of the students, information about Chao Yang School, perspectives public has about the intellectually challenged – all of these were important points in our literature review. Mrs. Lim also shared some of her heartwarming first-hand experiences with the intellectually challenged, which really touched our hearts.

  If the proposal for our expansion is accepted, then we will have a lot more responsibilities and work to do, meaning that we will have to work doubly as hard. We hope that the improvement of the Chao Yang school library will really be meaningful to the students there and can nurture their interest for reading.

Bryan