Sunday, June 8, 2008

To the Student Instructors of TPSS Sec 2 Camp, 2-4th June 2008

(SIs please read and comment. Pass it ard such that all Power Ranger SIs get to read. Power Rangers, if your SIs dunno about this, tell them to come read. Thx)
Hey, sorry for the late post.
It's been great working with you guys. Hope we gave you the guidance you needed to become a better leader.
It's been a few days after that camp, hope you guys have already let you thoughts settle and have done some reflections.
You guys are welcome to post your reflections and thoughts both before and after reading this post in the "comments".
Generally, Zedong and I felt that you guys did quite a good job as we did not have to step in much to control and lead the group. *clapclapclap*
I'm sure all of you have experienced first hand the "pain" of a leader when trying to get the team to bond and work together; and also the pleasure and sense of accomplishment when you finally see the team bond and achieve something together.
Think I'll address you one by one.
Zedong will add on what ever I missed out in comments.

Syarm:
You were appointed the OIC of the group because you were the most active and outspoken from the start. Generally a good job done, even though you broke down half-way through the campfire prep. I totally understand how you felt, learn form the experience--what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger." You were lucky to have a good team with you, remember you, even though you are the leader, you are not alone, remember how your group ICs continue to lead the group in the CFP?
Especially at your age, maybe this might be too heavy a load to rest on your shoulders, but there are people capable of it. Do you want to be one of them? Are you one of them?
Remember what I told you about what a leader should have? Persistance. At the most trying times, the leader has to fight on, fight on strong, your team needs you(in this case, your team of group ICs--the other 4 SIs). Imagine what happens if they broke down with you.
Maybe I'm sounding a bit harsh? I'm not scolding or saying that you're not good. We're all learning and trying to become better. So am I. Again, learn form our mistakes.

Safetypin:
You really excceeded my expectations. Good job. At first when I saw you I thought you were the very slack and unmotivated kind. LOLs... Sorry, cos you looked half asleep and had a frown all the time. But of course, I had to give you the benefit ofthe doubt and see how you perform first. I was thinking," If this guy is really what he looks like, I'll make sure he change." Thanks alot for proving me wrong! The persistance and patience you showed when leading the campfire prep was really impressive. Some instructors might not even have that kind of patience and determination. Keep it up.

Sebestian:
I need to really know what you felt about the camp and what was going through your mind during the camp. You did improve through the camp and became sligthly more outspoken, but as a leader, it's not enough. You need to be more proactive and outspoken. I'm not sure if the position of a SI in this camp was forced onto you since you do not have a CCA. But I sincerly hope you've learnt and improved from the camp. Share you though with us.

Hakim:
You were like the "silent-killer", didn't hear you addressing the group in front or hear you shouting at them much. But we can see that you were working. You lowered youselves to the camper's level and spoke to them individually and asked them to start doing things by doing it youselves. Leading by example is good, in fact it's what I always preach, but do be careful ofthe balance, leading by example doesn't mean you do everything and the team watch. Be a good leader, not a good worker. Don't worry, as far as what I have observed form this camp, you're handling the balance quite well.

Bobo:
Generally a good job done...but..
I need to see more of you! Haha...
I can see that you have been observing the group from the way you are able to debrief them during our nightly debrief. But play a more active role during the day. Like what you did during rafting?
I understand it's probably because there's already people like Safetypin and Syarm standing infront leading the group, but there are other things you can do. You're a team, when someone is talking, the others can help to ensure the campers are listening or somethign like that? You know what I mean right?
Or, you guys can always take turns to address the group. It's quite tiring for 1 person to lead all the way.


To end this off,
THANK YOU SIs for the help during the camp. Hope you've learnt form the camp and REMEMBER the lessons.
Remember what I've told you guys about the difference between an Effective Leader and a Good Leader.
No one likes to be shouted at all the time.
No one likes to live under a tyrant.
Leadership is all about balance.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Born Loser

There was a western traveler who travel around the world to learn new things about different cultures. And as he travels around the world, he collects souvenirs along the way. One day he arrived at China. Now we all know that Chinese tattoos are really different from western tattoos. The traveler decided that he should get a Chinese tattoo as a souvenir.

He arrived at a tattoo shop of a wise old tattooist and waited for his turn.
When the big macho guy in front of him came out form the studio, the traveler realized something, he tattooed the words "BORN LOSER" on his arm.

The traveler was thought, "Why would anyone want to label themselves a born loser?"

Puzzled, he went in to ask the old tattooist, "Why did he tattoo "Born Loser" on his arm?"

Pointing to the to his arm, the old tattooist said, "Before you tattoo here,"
then pointing to his head, "you tattoo here."

The morale of the story:
It is important to have the right mindset.
The big macho guy in the story has already convinced himself that he's a born loser.
So no matter how big how macho he is, he is only what his mind tells him.

I've you do not have a positive mindset and from the start, you already convinced yourselves you'll fail. You are bound to fail. Because you've already given up from the start and you will not be putting in the effort to fight for what you want.

Believe in yourselves. Fight and work for what you desire. Fight hard, work hard.
Even if you fail in the end, you fail with no regrets because you know you did your best.
Aim for the sky, even if you fall, you'll fall on the clouds.

Friday, June 6, 2008

My Blog My World -- 5th June 2008 9.30 pm Channel U

I missed the first 10 to 15 mins of this episode but guess I've still watched enough to be able to write something about it. Hope I don't miss anything....

Self-mutilation/self-torture.

Parents quarreling everyday....
Not doing well in school but cannot find the help she needs....
Not able to find friends to talk to....
Feeling that she's nobody and no one cares...
Boyfriend problem....

Some girls in her class have already started cutting themselves, they asked her to try it, saying, "it helps you know." Rachel rejected them initially.

As time passed, things got worst....
Father started staying out at nights....
Boyfriend's resentment in her and drifting away from her...

Desperate....Rachel finally turned to cutting herself...
For a moment, she felt relived...
As if the physical pain filled her empty heart and the bleeding bled away her pain....
Her classmates who were cutting themselves saw it and "took her in" as part of them...
She though she finally found friends.
Teachers saw her cuts and asked her what happened...
She thought, finally she's being noticed.
She finally felt there's a meaning in life.

The "happiness" was shot-lived as Rachel and her new found friends soon discovered.
Her friend's parents finally got divorced and she suddenly realized....cutting herself didn't change anything...
"everything is over...
but these scars, they'll never go away.
they are ugly...."

Rachel suddenly saw the cruel truth.
To make things worst, her boyfriends finally broke up with her.
Her world suddenly collapsed.
She broke down....clashed her wrist repeatedly....
"why is the pain still here....
make my pain go away..."
Cutting herself no longer helps....

Then her dad found out....
dressed her wounds....
talked to her...
she finally realised her dad does care...
she promised never to hurt herself again....


It's stupid to hurt yourselves.
It's not going to solve any problem.
For all readers our there, please please please do not resort to hurting yourselves.
I understand how it feels. I was a teen before too.
I too have felt as if the world was against me and no one cared before.
I, too have thought of hurting myself. Luckily I did not.
Like I've said in my post for the previous episode,
"when you're thinking that the world has built a wall around it to keep you out.
think again. have you built a wall around yourselves?"

If anyone of you readers out there have problem of your own and are thinking of hurting yourselves....or readers who are already hurting yourselves....
Please, there are better ways out...

Pray, for those who believe in the High Presence. Be it Christianity, Buddhism, Islam or any religion. You may not be religious but praying does help, talk to the Higher Presence.

Keep yourselves occupied. Play a sport. Sweat it out or indulge yourselves in music. People with active lives, playing sports or indulge in music or arts usually have less problem with managing emotions and sadness. Through these activities you can also make more friends and find more people to talk to.

You can even start blogging. It's a good way to express yourselves.

To my campers(my little monkeys) and all readers, if there really isn't any other way to express yourselves, you can leave a tag on the blog or a comment some where. I can't promise I'll be able to solve the problem for you. But I'll listen.

2nd-4th June 2008, Tampines Sec 2 Camp

Ok...
Finally got the energy to finish this....
Seriously, it was STUPID to do camps when you're already sick.
BUT, I didn't regret doing this one.
This camp, unlike others I've done, has a special meaning, and it's flooded my instructors.
It's Chief Andrew's last camp. Everyone wanted to share these last moment with him.
I haven't know Andrew for very long and as a matter of fact, this is actually the first camp I'm doing under him. But because I know him and I've never done his camps before, this is my last chance. Even if I'm sick, even if 3 instructors will be sharing 2 pay. I had to do it. And I DON'T REGRET. This'll take a while to finish writing....to much mixed feelings....
And sorry...the post most probably going to be quite disorganised....I'm still a bit blur...
(need to get well soon...next camp on monday!)

The camp didn't start very smoothly actually, because there where so many instructors and so many people trying to give different instructions at the same time and so many different styles, there where some clashes. Clashes not as in disagreement between instructors, but clashing of instructions. This is a classic example of having too many leaders in a group--When too many people are trying to lead at the same time, the team cannot progress because they do not have a common direction. Time was wasted due to wrong instruction or to multiple change of instructions.
However, like we always tell campers, COMMUNICATE, we gathered to a few times address the problems. Learnt each others style and started adapting. After a not so smooth running Day 1, things went smoothly from Day 2 onwards.

Day 1:
Like many camps, many campers didn't start out very excited about the camp. Many were not very motivated and not very "high".
This camp, we were supposed to push the Student Instructors(SI) with our groups to take on the leadership position. Day 1 mostly involved briefing them of what's expected of them and giving them tips on leading.

Nature Rumble on the first day was changed to Rafting. Which, I really saw the group working together to complete the raft. The SI also went in to help to lead the campers to complete the raft. There were at least one or two campers who took up the active role of planning and building the raft. Maybe I'll see them next year as SIs? haha...And unlike some camps where many will do doing nothing while the rest of the the team built the raft, almost everyone in the team was doing something. Probably due to the small number of students in a group, but still very encouraging.

The night activity, Kidnapped, went on well too. I purposely picked Chong Teng out as the victim because he was one of the most active campers in Group 2 during Rafting. Wanted to make the team work without him, and tested the SIs' capabilities. They proved the could do it. Though we came back 2nd last, theteam did not give up and were really motivated to finish the race. Keep it up guys.

Day 2:
The first activity was Nature Rumble. I'd Like to call it, Mud Spa. Lol... Everything went ok even though the original route was blocked by a fallen tree....until, Zedong and I tried to clear the path and I suddenly got stung by Wasps. There was a Wasps nest on the fallen tree and it's now in the way. Luckily none of the campers got stung. It was painful for my ear though. (Think I'll have to recce a new route for Nature Rumble) Also, "pimples" started appearing on Zedong and some campers' legs hours after the trip. That the first time I'm seeing this.

Campfire prep, again like in many other camps, campers didn't feel the sense of urgency in the begining and did not cooperate with the SIs that where tasked to lead the campfire prep. Discussion did go on in a small group but many were just talking amongst themselves. As a result, by the end of our allocated CFP slot, we were still not done with the campfire item.
Despite all these, there's still something positive I've noted, many the group, especially those that are actively participating in the discussion, are not afraid to step out in front of the class to lead/ teach the group the dance steps. Luckily, at the end everyone finally felt the sense of urgency and start cooperating and we finally finished the campfire item on time. Power Rangers, I hope you guys learnt through this that there are times to be seriously about work and there are times to play. Though we manage to pull of the performance, in the end, but think about it, if we all started cooperating earlier, the dance might have been longer and better rehersed and the cheer could have been more solid. Right? Power Rangers, remember this lesson--Don't wait till the last minute then start panicing and rushing.

Day 3:
For Zedong and I, Power Rangers, you guys really impressed us the most on the last day during area cleaning. Both the girls and the guys, though there were a handful that started "slacking" outside the toilet after a while but you guys did help a bit(But hey, in future, HELP MORE! lol...make urself useful. I know there a lack of equipment but, IMPROVISE, I saw some girls sweeping out water with their slippers. haha...nice. Or at least ask me what to do.)
We really saw everyone working! All or more of you did not need us to keep pushing to finish the cleaning. Though the cleaning couldn't be finished on time and other instructors had to come to finish up the drying, but it was already a very good job by you guys(Don't worry, they finished drying up the toilet soon after you guys got seated in the hall). look at the condition of the toilet before and after your cleaning?
We've had toilets that are not that dirty at the beginning but instructors still had to stay behind to finish the cleaning.
The cleaning was just GREAT. What more can I say. GO GO POWER RANGERS!!

The feeling I had was quite weird by the end of the campfire. At first I didn't expect myself to have too much feeling for this camp. Both Zedong and I didn't want to step in too much to interfer as we wanted to SI to learn to lead on their own. Which in the end, they did.(SIs, think I'll write a seperate post for you guys since we din get to debrief you guys) At first, the performance of the campers were quite disappointing. Not cooperative and many, not motivated right till before campfire. But during the last minute campfire prep, the campfire and the working spirit we saw during area cleaning, suddenly we saw the change in the campers. Suddenly all the trouble we went through was worth it. All the sleepless nights, all the shouting and wrecking of brains to get you guys to bond and work together.....everything was worth it. SIs, I'm sure you guys feel the same. At the end of the campfire, I felt like crying too. There was an unexplain attachment...a feeling of sadness...but we all have to move on. Everythign is but a passing phase in life, we learn form each episode, keep memories with us, and then move on.

Power Rangers, I hope the camp have really helped you guys bond better, help you know yourselves and your friends more and help you guys become a better person.
Hope you guys had fun.
GO GO POWER RANGERS!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

ROARS replied

ruby: lol...play game ma...

marisa: Hi.

Ultraman: oops....sorry la... ur nick dun remind me of ultraman ma....

syarm: lol....no problem...

yu hua: i love my super MONKEY pose too...wonder who has the pohtos.... I WAN.

shihao: i write wrong meh? sorry la...5 am in the morning lay...never sleep write de...shag till blur liao.

zedong: start blogging too. lol..

shag can.....had to wake up early this morning to give tuition....just got home...
think i going to go nap again...
before going to pre-camp-brief for the next camp..

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Back from camp!

Finally back form camp!
Another tiered but meaning full camp...
SHAG....
haha...guess i'll post about the camp tonight...if i wake up...or tml...
too shag le....never sleep last night...

ok.... taggie replies....

Terrence: lol...really...hmm.... just tired ba... yap, i did.

Asyraf: oops...sorry, ur from with sch??? sorry, really bad with names.

Racy: lol.... izzit? I had lunch with the other instructors at bedok KFC just now lay. and, thanks. ^_^

Guo Wei: sorry la...that time i haven start blogging ma. look at when i started the blog...lol..

evelina: eh? sure abt wad? sorry, went camp, come back lost track of stuff le.

akmal: hi? lol.

Ruby: how can i forget u. lol...u slap my tight so hard. bit of the mark still there now.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Camp again tml!

Woot...
Just got back from pre-camp brief and some slacking at Suntec City.
Heard from Alex, aka Instructor Potato that he was spotted by some netball girls form East Spring Sec while reading on the MRT. LOL....
Tml got came agian!
Need to reach Bedok by 7.30.
....I live in Choa Chu Kang....T_T
well....gotta go.
need sleep.