26-28th June 2008, Jurong West Pri P5 camp.

This post should have been up long ago...
Day one was written on the end of day 1 itself.
I brought my lappy to camp.
Part of day 2 also...
But later was too tired to write, I needed the rest and energy for my camp...and also some problems lately...so...
sorry for the late late late up date....

Day 1:
The school arrived late at Sarimbun.
Ice breakers where not done.
Took my group for the first activity--rock climbing.
The kids where lively all climbed really well.
West-side school.
I live in the west too...
hmm...maybe that's where all the monkeys come from....
Was expecting a great camp ahead, as the kids seemed quite enthusiastic at this stage....
but...Murphy's law proved itself....
speaking of monkeys, to my "horror", they really behave like monkeys!
They were really playful, had short attention span, on top of that, they were not cooperative and there where many conflicts with in the group.
Most of the campers in my group, esp the boys are really self-centre.
They only wanted to have fun and have many tried of the activities themselves and never considered that the other group members hadn't try.
Activity time this 1hr 30 mins per-session because they where did not cooperative and i had to stop sooo many times to tell them off, and wait for them to gather and settle down, actually time for each activity as actually reduced to less than 1 hr.

Rock-climbing, they climb and queued up for 2nd try even b4 everyone in the group tried.

Gladiator(boys vs girls), few of the more active and aggressive boys did of the tying of the catapult and the launching.
There was a lack of communication, or rather, they did not how to communicate,
when i said that everyone should be getting a try, these few boys actually started shouting and scolding the other boys for not helping.
When it's because of their aggressive and harsh ways that they other boys felt left out.
They where complaining that they didn't get to do anything and only the few boys are having fun.
They didn't get it even after I went over and told them their problem a few times.
They continued their selfish ways.

Command and Conquer, another game with water bombs.
The same few boys wanted to do all the playing.
One even snatched the plastic bags form the girls that was tasked to do the distribution.
same thing happened again.

River challenge, the boys want go for 2nd and 3 rd tries(sending the tubing and life vest back) even when the girls haven tried.
The teacher could no longer stand it and stepped in.
She gave them a good scolding, before my debrief.
I let the girls off to shower first and kept them as punishment.
Have to make them understand the importance of sharing and that when you're living in a group, it is only fair that everyone gets a fair chance.
They need to stop being so self-centered.

Night debrief, sense of urgency was missing again and
Teachers stepped in.
This time, there were 4.
The group was separated into 4 sub groups as suggested by the teachers.
The 4 more aggressive boys, who were also the trouble makers are made the group ICs.

The teachers commented that after scanning through the students in my group, they saw that all those with attitude problem, short attention span,....etc are all in this group.
Only 2 or 3 were "ok" ones.
That explains....
After so much prep talk today...really hope they will learn and get better...

really wanna find a way to change these kids...
it's a challenge to myself...
an achievement to help them.


Day 2:
Though day one was some what demoralizing. but had to pull myself together.
Whether the campers learnt and whether they have fun during the camp depends one me.

The day started out quite well actually.
On the first actvity, nature rumble, really saw them starting to work together and looking out for each other by helping each other up and down the steep and slippery slopes.
Praised them for it, they got change into their clean shoes/ washed their shoes pretty quickly too.
They did really well for outdoor cooking too.
Listened and cooperated with the staion Ic, Yimin, who's also our groups 2IC.
So there where actually one of the few groups that got to enjoy the fruits of their labour.
Hotdog with bread stick and baked banana with chocolate.

But after lunch they seem to reverted back to their old ways.
2 of the boys fought and one of them refused to tell me what happened when questioned them.
Not wanting to hold the group back, I sent the 2 boys to the camps Ops.
For next actvity, with the 2 boys taken out from the group, I realised that the group was much more cooperative and the game went on really well.
Through 2 days of observation, actually out of the 4 boys, 3 really understood what I've been telling them and are really changing.
Only that after all, they are primary school kids and they need consant reminder.

During the last activitythey were very lower energy. Guess all of them are tired after a long day.
We still had our campfire item to practise but many of them just kept asking when is it wash-up time and kept saying their not interested in the game.
Something that happens very often in primary school camps as they generally have lower tolerence and will power to go on once they fell uncomfortable and tired.
During campfire preparation, all of them were not motivated to do things properly even though I told them there'll be time for wash-up.
But the I told them it's the last practise, do a good one then they can all go shower, suddenly they did everything nicely.
Hope they realised when they all put their hearts into doign somethign togetherr, thing cna be doen really easily.

Day 3:
As usual, last day of the camp is for area cleaning. My group had to clean the girls toilet.
After area cleaning was the final debrief. After the debrief I brought 2 of the "problem-kids" a side and spoke to them.
Could really see the change in them. It's a pity I couldn't make one of the boys "wake-up". These 2 that I brought out realised the problem too.
I challenged them to help their friend change as well. They agreed.
The most touching thing is that one of the boys actually wanted to give me Strepils before leaving on the bus because he knew they made me shout alot and I lost my voice.
He said, "Thank you for improving me."
It was really touching.

Lesson:
The importance of Ice-Breaking sessions within a group before they start working together.
On of the factors contributing to the conflicts in the group and the fact that they are unable to work well togther migth be because the school got to the campsite late and no proper ice-breakers was conducted.
Many of them did not even know each others names. And as they are only primary school students, not many of them actually made and effort to ask for wach other's names.
It's really difficult to work when you are calling each other "eh".

Also, this camp has reminded me once again. Never give up. Don't jump to conclusion.
Never give up half way. Because if you do, you'll never know what greatness is waitinf fro you at the finish line.
Many times during the camp, I was really almost at the verge of breaking down. But I kept tellign myself, I had to go on.
The kids are depending one me. Luckily I managed to push on. Seeing the happy faces o nthe kids and the improvemnet in them was really fulfilling.
All the trouble was worth it.

Of course I need to thank Baoyun, Jarred and forgot who's the other instructor.
See you all when I was conducting TP suffle was really nice.
Sort od an energizer for me.
Hahaha....



I'll reply taggies in my next post.
need to go out now...