Tang Yuan Bo

Service Learning Project

   This is a capture of the Community Involvement Program that has been done by students from 3I.During this project towards the old from the All Saint's Home, we did two mean subjects. Firstly,we had the Flag Day. Students were separated and sent to every part of Singapore to collect donation from the citizens. Secondly, we held a performance for the old. The performance lasted a few hours.

    From this project, I learned that the old should be taken good care of. Some old people feel very lonely if they don't have their sons or daughters with them. Hence, it's very important for we the youths to help this lonely old people, bring joy and happiness to them.Also, this was a perfect chance for the students to show their talents. Those students who was good at musical instruments could go onto the stage and play songs for the old. Hence, this program was a chance for all the students to learn and performance.This service learning benefits all of the students.

I have learned from this project that I should take care of the old well. I am supposed to show my love to the old in my family. Only with love and care from the young, they can feel the happiness of life. By asking donation for them, by performing for them, I feel so great seeing them simile happily. When they praised my job, I got the feeling that what I had done was the most respectable work in the world.

I hope that there will be more projects like this, so that students can learn more about life without sitting in class. We need to learn to care and love the people around us, and this CIP is a very good chance for us to achieve this. So I hope that we can have more projects like this.

-------Tang Yuanbo, 3I

Su Jin Hao

Service Learning Reflection

This is a photo for our CIP activity at All Saint's Home. At there we played

 guitar, flute, Malay drums and sang together to entertain the old folks.

It was very successful that as seen in the picture, all the old folks were

 happy and paid full attention to our show. There are some successful things,

first is we had both Chinese and English MCs, therefore the old folks can

understand better. Our performance included pop music, folk music and

classical music, all the old folks who have different preferences could enjoy

 the performance. One thing I think we need to improve at is to have a more

 variable performances including other events besides music. We can perform

 some ethical dances and tell stories to them. Through this activity I realized

that there are many people who need help, it can be so easy as a group of

 secondary boys doing music show. In the future I will actively participate

in this kind of activities because it makes me feel the need to help others

while I am able to. When I get old, I might be just like one of them, I can

 imagine how sad I would be being alone in an old folks home. I really hope

 people can know the situation that these poor old folks are in and help them.

With everyone helping one another, our society will become a strong and kind one.

Shao Qi SL reflection

During the course of the service learning project, I believe that every Singaporean has the responsibility to give back to the society. One instance that we managed to achieve as a class was the performance and flag day for the All Saints Home. Giving back to the society is not always easy, and under the heat and much rejection of the public, we still braced through. Sometimes we may grumble for the large amounts of homework given by our teachers, but little did we realise that it is actually nothing compared to the unfortunate who do not even have the basic necessities to support themselves. Through this service learning activity I've come to realise how fortunate we are, and that we should not take any of the things around us for granted. Even though it was merely a few hours of performance and effort in completing one flag day event, it is through such actions that one may learn to build our own character and morals. One thing that we could have improved on was undoubtedly the amount of hours clocked, I believe we could have given in more effort for the elderly in the home. I am grateful for such an experience and if given the extra time, I would really make a point to commit myself to such activities during the holidays again.

 "We went to the All Saint's Home for our service learning project to help out and raise money for the elderly, as well as put up a spactacular performance. The trip to All Saint's Home was really a meaningful one. We went to the All Saint's Home for a total of two times. The first time was to do Flag Day and raise money for the elderly there. My group was assigned to a market at Eunos and we went around asking people for donations. There were many kind people who donated money to us. On the second visit, we put up a performance for the elderly people there. There were songs, musical pieces played and the elderly enjoyed it a lot. In my opinion, I think it is a meaningful event as we should care more for those who needs help on the society and offer them the best we could do. So before we think how unfortunate we are next time, look around and feel for those who are worse than us and we should be glad."

Xiao Han

Brandon Adam Joseph (4)

What aspects of the project were well done?

1. The duration of the program was just right and the audience was comfortable with it.

2. The performances were well-prepared for and it could be seen that everyone had put in a great amount of effort.

3. There was good teamwork and everyone worked together to make this possible.

What will we do differently next time?

1. We could practice more as i felt we could have done even better.

2. We could plan the activity on a day which everyone could attend so that everyone participates in the project.

3. We could have a greater variety of performances as it seems that most, if not all, of the performances were musical.

4. We could go to more crowded areas to collect money during a fundraising.

What was the feedback gathered from:

a) The community served: The performances were enjoyable and I loved singing along.

b) The teachers/mentors: The project was well done but more effort could have been put in for some performances.

c) Others who may have helped us: NIL

What have I/we learnt from this project?

I have learnt that I have to give back to the community and that it is good to serve the people in our community.

How can I/we serve and learn even more next time?

I can help the less fortunate by donating food products or other useful items to them, and organise activities for the elderly living in retirement homes to help keep them happy. I could learn more by asking them how they felt about the activities and listening to their opinions.

Royston Long (28) SL reflection‏

The service learning project was an overall success. Some of the aspects, inclusive of the packaging of the gifts for the elderly, were well thought out. These gifts were filled with goods that the elderly there would not receive on a daily basis, and as such we had hoped that they had enjoyed that temporary commodity. The Flag Day also saw great success as the class worked considerably hard to accumulate such a large sum of money for the sole benefit for the old folk’s home. The class performance was indeed breathtaking and saw tremendous accomplishment, as our classmates reveal their innate talents within the realms of music. It not only provided the elderly, the main audiences for the performance, with a spectacularly wide range and variety of musical performances, but it even ended up fostering a closer bond between classmates as we get to learn more about each other’s personality. However, one critical flaw was that the class was not allocated sufficient practice time for the performance, which resulted in a lack of proper planning and scheduling. Our finale, which consisted of performing a group singing, was largely an extemporaneous act as most of us were not aware of such a routine. Needless to say, despite the initial confusion from the group singing, we managed to demonstrate substantial class spirit, as we began accruing interest, joy, and excitement from the experiences.

I have picked up several key points from the service learning project, one of which was to learn about how we, as ordinary citizens, can step up to the cause and help those who are in greater need. There exist a myriad of options for us to help these needy citizens, and it certainly proves beneficial if we, at a young age, got to experience some of these options first hand, and thus can do the same in the future with greater expertise, and maybe even encourage such joint activities to future associates. The other point I have learnt is the importance of teamwork. The service learning project gave the students a chance to seize the opportunity for planning out the events. This allows the students to gain a sense of responsibility, improve problem solving skills, ease the process of communication with others and in our case, build confidence by performing in front of an audience. All these benefits add on to the overall development of student wellbeing, for we learn how to work together to achieve a common goal.

The service learning project which my class undertook was very focused towards the ability for us to gain a thorough understanding of social awareness. Social awareness is the enlightenment of knowing what kind of problems the society has to endure, especially those on a considerably lower financial scale of the hoi polloi. By immersing ourselves with the project, we are able to mutually comprehend the plight which they encounter on a daily basis, enabling ourselves to better serve the community by understanding what they have to go through.

In culmination of my reflections, the project did serve a vital role in helping us gain experience with the importance of not taking people and objects in our lives for granted.
However, I personally felt that the project was too centered towards a specific group of people, rather than on a larger scale. While these people are too in need to help, I think it would be of greater contribution if we were to instead help those who are not in the care of the old folk’s home. While the elderly in the old folk’s home certainly do require just as much help, they are under constant supervision from the volunteers and workers there. Conversely, the disparity compared to those living alone holds a stark difference, where the elderly often have little to no one to rely on for moral as well as financial support. Thus, it could have proven to be more of an amelioration should we have chosen a broader spectrum of people for us to aid. Nevertheless, it was a thrilling experience to be able to assist such an immense multitude of the impecunious.

Amir Syafiq (2)

A few weeks ago our class ,3I, made a visit to All Saints Home, a nursing home located in Tampines . Our class has organized a few performances to enlighten the mood and bring a little colour to the lives of the elderly there. We were broken up into groups, each to come up with one performance. After much discussion, my friends and I reached  a consensus on having a kompang performance. Kompang  is a traditional malay instrument and since most of us were from the Malay Cultural Society, we had some basic knowledge  on how to play the instrument. We met once or twice a week during the June holidays to practice our pieces  and worked on our performance. Due to our lack of practice,  our coordination wasn't very good. Nevertheless, I think that we gave a good and unique performance that entertained the elderly who were smiling and clapping. Other performances by our classmates include a classical Chinese instrument piece, a guitar piece and a piano piece.Lastly, for the finale of the performance , we came together as a class and sang "payphone" and "Fall for you". Overall, i feel that this service learning project not only allowed us to contribute to society in a fun and enriching way but also bonded us as a class. Seeing the bright smiles on their faces during their performance, definitely left an impact on me and i would not hesitate to do it again.

Ri Il Ryong

We successfully carried out our service learning project by going to All Saints Home and performing various kinds of entertaining activities. Our performances included playing piano, guitars and singing as a class and so on. Although the period was quite short, it was obvious that the elderlys enjoyed our performances as we could see smiles on their faces. By carrying out this project, we became more mature and learned new experiences.

Wong Wei Xuan

From this service learning project, I have learnt many things. Firstly, I have gained much knowledge about how to be more socially aware of the things that are happening around us. For example, when we visited the old folks home, there were many people that were less fortunate than me. The old folks there were abandoned hy their family members and some even had terminal diseases. Besides that, I have also learnt to be filial to my parents. 

  There are both advantages and disadvantages to this service learning project. An advantage is that we can learn many values and help to build up our character, shaping who we are and will be. Through the performances for the old folks, we have also learnt to build up our self-confidence to go up on stage.

  However, the disadvantages of this service learning project is that some of us may not be able to fully contribute to the performance for example, going up on stage to perform.

  In conclusion, I feel that I have gained many good experiences and values, and thus making me a better person as a whole.

Alvinn (1)

For our Service Learning project, we decided to visit All Saints Home which is an old folks home. There were two parts to our service learning. The first part required us to go on a Flag Day. Sadly, some of us, including me, were not able to make it as we had a Malay workshop at the same time. This could have been better improved by having the Flag Day on a certain day where the entire class is free.  However from what I have heard from the experiences of my friends, I realized that they enjoyed it thoroughly. This is due to the fact that they were able to play their part in helping the old folks. I find this very meaningful. Some of my classmates are able to get more than they expected while others barely reached the target. However, it is not the amount of coins collected which is important but the unique experience that we obtained from it and the amount of effort that each one of us had put in. This is the most significant and meaningful part of the Flag Day.

The second part of our service learning is the visit to All Saints Home where we performed for the old folks. I volunteered to perform a song on the piano called “You don’t have to say you love me” by Dusty Springfield. However, my performance was not very well done as there were some mistakes. This was due to the fact that I was nervous as I had never performed for such a huge group of audience. I also feel that we were not given enough time to practice our performances. I would have played much better if more time was given for us to practice as I was not free during the whole month of June. Regardless of this, I still managed to play my song to the end. There were other performances such as the kompang performance by the Malay boys ( Kompang is one of the various Malay traditional instruments), the guitar performances of Canon in D by the China scholars, the chinese flute performance by Wei Xuan and Royston and last but not the least, the choir performance where the whole class sang two songs. The two songs were “Payphone” and “Fall for You”. We sang our hearts out as a class. Personally, I feel that the performances that were put up were heart-warming and enjoyable. The old folks were exhilarated and thoroughly enjoyed our performances as they were clapping their hands and their faces were lit up too.

Sembian

There are certain aspects of the project which are well done. They are preparation, teamwork and presentation. Our class was very motivated to being well-prepared for our performance. We prepared with every spare second we had for our various performances. The teamwork we had was also excellent. We helped each other out in any way we could so that we could make our performance the best. Finally, the presentation was extraordinary. The months of hard work paid off as we put up a mind blowing performance. The one thing we would do differently would be to do a show in collaboration with another class so that we would have higher manpower and more spectacular performances. The feedback gathered was also great. The old folks, who were the audience, swayed in time with our musical performances and not a single ounce of boredom was visible upon their faces. The teachers also said that our dedication and teamwork was very apparent from our performances. I have learnt from this project that anybody, even students, can do their part to the community to make a positive impact.

Tham Yeow Wai (33)

Service Learning Project

The service learning project was indeed a meaningful and memorable experience for most of us. It provided us with opportunities to give back to society, such as Flag Day, where we went to different placescollecting donations for a good cause and performing for the elderly at All Saints Home. Following the performance, we then handed them some daily necessities. Although some of the elderly may not be able to express their gratitude clearly, I am sure it touched their hearts.Nevertheless, there are always room for improvements. For instance, if we had more practice singing the song, we would feel more confident on the stage. Still, it was a commendable effort, considering that everyone played their part to make it a success. Hopefully, this performance would let the elderly know that people out there still care for them. The success was a reflection of everybody’s hard work and effort. Without them, the result may have proved otherwise.

Tian Cheng (26) SL reflection

Service Learning Reflection

by :Qin Tian Cheng(26) 3I

I did not attend the service learning with the class but I made up for it by going to all saints home during the holidays and serving as a volunteer. This is my reflection.

PRE REFLECTION

Prior to the visit, I was nervous of course. It being the first time I ever went to an Old Folks, I was not sure what to expect. A large part of my anxiety came from thinking about how to communicate with the old folks. Language was definitely one issue, especially since quite a number of the elderly spoke in their dialects. Another issue that loomed large on my mind was the contrast in mindsets we would have to deal with. We were after all ,generations apart, and common topics were not easy to be found. I hoped that our visit would not just be a superficial one, where we simply went there to go through the motions, for the sake of CIP hours. After all, if you were there already, why not give it your best shot? All in all, I was not in a very positive frame of mind, but I hoped that things would turn out fine. 

POST REFLECTION
On the whole, I felt that the visit was a bit of a letdown. The management of the Home seemed more inclined to using me as a manual worker, as they made me run up and down the home, carrying and labelling boxes. Apparently, their flag day was coming up, and thus they needed us to assist them. I was assigned to a group  with 3 students from Dunman secondary, and I had to work with them for the afternoon. I was  not given any opportunity to communicate with the elderly there, and I felt that this was the biggest disappointment of all. Who goes to an Old Folks home and not have a chance to talk to the old folks there? It defeats the purpose of the whole excursion. However, when we inquired, the management’s reply was that they needed more people for the organization of their flag day. I left the home with a sore feeling. 6 easily earned CIP hours, fair enough, but surely is this what Community Involvement is about?

Joshua Teo (11) SL reflection

For our service learning project, we performed for the old folks in the All Saints Home, and raised funds for them on Flag Day. It was my first time raising funds on Flag Day and it was a good experience as I was able to interact with people and get out of my comfort zone by approaching strangers and asking for donations. The raising of funds for the All Saints Home was rather well done except that there were many absentees so I feel that if another day was chosen, it would have made the project more successful. For our performance, we entertained the old folks with a guitar performance by the Chinese scholars, a kompang performance from the Malays, a piano performance by Alvinn, while Royston and Wei Xuan played the Chinese flute and lastly, a choir presentation by almost everyone in the class. After this, we gave gifts to the elderly. This activity was well done, as it was rather organised, and the best part about it was our team spirit, where we all went up together to sing some songs to the old folks. Most importantly, we made the Old Folks happy and let them know that many people care about them. However I feel that it would have been better if the performance was longer and there were more varieties of performances as we were only able to entertain the old folks for an hour.

Muhammad Firhan Bin Azhar (21) SL Reflection

The project have been organised well despite the lack of experience honestly. When deciding to embark on this project earlier in the year, I thought that it would be a complete failure. That was in the earlier stages where the performances were yet to be confirmed. However much later, everything just seemed to fall into place. The performances are starting to come together, people are co-operating to get their performance ready. I believe that our class has the ability to accomplish things together as one. Although we have different background and views, there is a workable chemistry among us. I had no idea that 3I had the enthusiasm to carry out this project. I give credit to everyone who has done their part. MCs, performers, bloggers, gift wrappers and the photographer (ahem). The time we spent rehearsing was quite little, but we managed to pull it off in the end. 

There are some areas where we can improve should we carry out a project similar to this one. We need to have more interaction with the old folks. We should get to know more about their lifestyle and the problems they face. We can widen our understanding from this and look for ways to improve their life. Not everybody is as fortunate as us. Therefore we should reach out to these people and help them in any way we can. However I feel that it wasn't entirely our fault we didn't get to interact with the elderly because they had to leave quickly. We did all we could. At least for that day.

In conclusion, I've learnt that we should not neglect the elderly. They have experiences we don't. Especially our parents - I wouldn't want my parents to end up there. I'm sure many will feel the same way. But we cannot judge those that have allowed their parents to end up in the home. They could have personal reasons we do not know of. All in all, I feel that the project was a success. 

Nawfal Marican (23) SL reflection

For our Service Learning project, we had carried out a Flag Day for  All Saints Home and we also put up a performance for the old folks staying there. Although I was unable to attend the Flag Day, I have experienced such a thing before and I understand the hard work and patience that has to be put into it. Most may find it an easy task, but standing at one spot for a few hours can prove challenging, both physically and mentally. As for the performance, the Malay students of the class played two musical pieces using the traditional cultural Malay percussion instrument, the Kompang. The other students had a week or two of preparations while I only had a few days. Despite the time restrictions posed before me, I suppose that my contribution was of what you would expect with the given time range. However, as a whole, I felt that we could have been more prepared as we only practiced our pieces a few times. On the actual day, our performance was not as good as we had hoped, but nevertheless, it was still an enriching experience. The priceless pleasure and glee emanating from the old folks after the entire performance was definitely something hard to forget, and these memories are surely those that I will remember.

Jason Wong (9) SL reflection

For our Service Learning project, we helped out in All Saints Home, by performing for the olds folks there.  We performed a few items in the one hour we were given, including the malay drums (kompang) performance, the chinese flute performance and a choir performance.

I feel that the project was well done as the old folks enjoyed the performances that we put up. At the end of the visit, we presented gifts to them, thus we were able to entertain and cheer them up.

However, there were places where we could improve on. An example is to prepare more performances so we could entertain the elderly for a longer period of time. Also, we could have practised more on our performances to make them better as we only practised them once as a class. Lastly we could have prepared better performances that would suit the elderly better instead of modern pieces that we chose.

Overall, I feel it was a job well done since we managed to entertain the old folks. I also learnt many things from this project, for example lending a hand to the less fortunate.

Chia Shang Rong (6) SL reflection

Our class did two activities for the service learning project this year. The first one is a flag day activity, where we went around Singapore asking for donations for All saints home, the beneficiaries of this project. It was fun and enriching, as we learnt that many Singaporeans are very gracious towards the senior citizens in our community. After our tins were nearly filled to the brim, we headed back to the home, feeling jubilant and satisfied after having served our community and the senior citizens. This project was very successful, except that the attendance was horrible and it could have been improved by picking another day when more people are available.  

For the second activity, we went to all saints home and put up a performance for them. The performance showcased the many talents in our class. The performances put  up were very diverse, from a guitar performance by the china scholars, the flute by the Chinese orchestra and the kompang (malay drums) performance by the Malays in our class. The senior citizens were very elated by our performances as they were seen clapping along and had a wide grin on their faces. We ended the performance with the entire class on stage singing along to songs. While singing, the class bonded together and we built up the class spirit. Finally, we gave the senior citizens some daily necessities and got to know more about their lives. We then received praises from our form teachers and took a class photo. I think that this could have been improved by extending the duration of the performance and having more people perform as the performance ended very quickly.

Joel Lee (14) SL reflection

For our Service Learning project, we helped out in the All Saints Home. This was separated into two parts. Firstly, we helped them raise money through the Flag Day. As I had never went around with a donation tin before, it was a new experience for me. It was very hot and humid that day at Geylang Serai Market where I collected donations but it was a great experience not only collecting donations for the elderly but also interacting with the people.

Our second part was harder. We had to perform in front of the elderly. It took a lot of planning and in the end we had many varied performances. There was a guitar performance by our Chinese scholars. The Malays did a kompang performance. Wei Xuan and Royston, from CO played the Chinese flute and lastly the whole class came together to sing for the elderly. After that we passed out gifts for the elderly. The smiles on their faces were apparent.

I had done many other Service Projects before in my church and although we didn’t interact much with the elderly for this project, it was really great to be able to entertain them. The All Saints Home has plenty of volunteers, what difference would we make? While this project benefits the elderly, it benefits us much more. We learned how to lend a helping hand to those in need. We learn that we its not our impact on them that matters, it’s the very act of helping them that makes the difference..

Enoch Chong SL reflection

After the service learning project we did, i felt that some of the aspects that were well done were our cooperation and teamwork. We worked together as a class to accomplish a good performance. If there were to be a next time our school decided to hold another service learning project, i would have a few changes to our performance. This time, we performed only a few performances so if there will be a next tine, we would add more items in the performances to entertain the old folks. Also we can be given more time to prepare for the performances and practice till perfect before performing for the old folks as we do not want to disappoint them. Another thing we could have done was to have more interaction with the old folks, for example play a game of chess with them or just talk to them. After this project, here are some of the feedback we got from various departments. The old folks home told us that they were really glad that we could entertain those old folks and told us that the old folks had a lot of fun singing and clapping along with us. Our teachers also told us that we did fairly well although improvements can be made. This project taught me something, is that the elderly and maybe even other people out there needs our help so we, the fortunate one, should do something to help them and not just let them die. Next time if we were to do this project again, i would suggest doing charity donations as we can help a larger group of people.

Zhang Jia Jun SL reflection

On 27/6, we went to the All Saints Home to show the old folks what Victorians stands for by coming up with an hour’s performance that took us weeks of practice. As an emcee, my job was simple enough: 1)write a script. 2)go on stage and show yourself.

I felt that I could have done a better job (after all there are always rooms for improvement), such as come up with a more alluring speech and perhaps could have rehearsed so that I would not stumble on my words.

The old folks seemed to have enjoyed themselves very well (one of them actually clapped along). If the old folks had been ‘younger’, I bet they would have showed much emotion on their faces, as they knew that they were not forgotten by the society. If there is another opportunity to go to a old folks home, I would want to try to perform something so that I could actually feel what I had done benefited the elderly.

Overall, I would say it was a job well done!

Mohammed Faiq (19) SL reflection

 A few weeks back, we did a Service Learning project at the All Saint’s Home. It required students to perform in front of the old folks and entertain them and also give them supplies. There were certain aspects of it which I thought was well done.

   I felt that there were enough performances and acts to make the overall stay long enough and that the students put in a lot of effort to practice their acts. Thirdly, I believed that the event was well organized and there were different types of performances that entertained them. For example, our acts ranged from singing to playing instruments.

   If I were given another chance to visit them, I would like to take the time to interact with the old folks and just sit around with them. Alternatively, we could also cook food for them and get them involved in simple activities like simple games.

   The feedback received from the community showed that they were happy that we took time to entertain them. The teachers also felt that we put in effort to perform and other people were also glad to give back to society in one way or another.

   I’ve learned through this project that there are members of the community who need our help and it is our job as able-bodied citizens to help them. The next time, I hope we can do something else like do a beach clean-up or spend a day opening a car wash, and all money earned from the car wash would be given to the Red Cross or another non-profit organization. This way, I believe the students would enjoy what they do and hence perform the task more willingly. I hope we can do a car-wash or a beach clean-up the next time

  

Benton Yick (36) SL reflection

For the service learning project, our class decided on the idea of going to the All Saints Home to perform for the elderly. Overall it was a success as we managed to cheer the elderly up relatively well and bond as a class. There was adequate preparation done before hand and hence the performances put up were spectacular and displayed the talents in our class. For instance, Wei Xuan blew the minds of the elderly with a melodious tune played by him. His fingers running across the flute deftly proved his expertise and dedication put in. At the end, our class sang two songs for the elderly and it showed our class spirit. Hopefully we would be able to maintain such a strong bond all the way till next year when we sit for o levels together. If we had a chance to do the service learning project again, I think we should include other performances such as simple skits so that more people can be involved and more people can understand the joy of making others happy. I also hope that there would be more interaction time with the elderly personally as I would like to get to know more about them and how do they find life in the home. I think it is very interesting to find out how they feel as we never know one day we may end up in a home too. I like to observe life and they way people react to things. Anyway, the feedback or response gathered was that the elderly were mostly happy and satisfied with the performances as well as the gifts we gave out. The heart felt thanks I received when giving out the gift pack touched me emotionally. I could tell the old woman was not English speaking but she thanked me in English. Her frail, weak hands stretched out to receive the gift pack. I wished I could give her some life through some strange osmosis at that very instant. I have learnt several valuable lessons through this trip, though I have already made trips to old folks homes in primary school. Apart from helping others and caring for the needy in the society, I have came to realize that happiness can be shared and spread to others. It may be a smile, a gift, or a performance, but whether the old folks truly understand what we sing, or appreciate what we perform, as long as they feel happy, we have truly done our part in service learning. I hope people see doing charity as something meaningful and not so much of a burden. All in all, this service learning project is a success and I look forward to doing more with the class in the future.

Joel Casey ( 10 ) SL reflection

Our class Service Learning Project was to hold a performance at the All Saint's Home for the elderlies there. Well, our class spent quite some time before finalizing this to be our SLP but in the end, it did turn out rather well. Having spent much time preparing and rehersing our items, our hard work sure did pay off. The Malay boys performed by playing the Kompang, the Chinese Orchestra boys blew the flutes, some boys played the piano, our scholars played the guitar and finally, our class did the mass singing performace and all of them was spectacular ! The elderlies were totally imersed with the perfomance and many of them were impressed. Though the performance wasn't very long, I felt that we did the best we could in that short limited time frame and we are all very proud of it ! The teachers were too impressed and happy with it ! I hope that we could do such an activity again, perhaps not at the same place but somewhere else so that we can share and spread the care and love to the less-fortunate, allowing them to feel that they are not neglected by the society.

Muhammad Ariff (20) SL reflection

SL Reflection

Our class service learning was done at the All Saints’ Home in Tampines, where we performed and entertained the old folks there. We had spent a lot of time training and thinking of a suitable performance that could entertain and excite the old folks, to maybe add some colour to their lives. After much deliberation, my group and I decided to have a performance where we would play the kompang, a Malay traditional instrument that is made of wood and lamb’s skin. We already had the basics as we were part of the Malay Cultural Society, and we were confident of delivering a successful performance.

On the actual day, I feel that we managed to deliver a creditable performance, although we were capable of doing much better. Nevertheless, after our performance, the class made a spontaneous decision to go up together during the singing performance, where we sang songs such as ‘Payphone’ and ‘Fall for You’. I felt that we displayed great class spirit when singing the song, as seen by our loud singing and putting our arms around each other. However, we could have sung a song that the old folks would be familiar with, so that they could sing along. Our project was quite well organized and prepared, and we didn’t really have many problems on the actual performance day. The audience seemed quite happy and they appreciated our presence, while our teachers in charge claimed that it was a job well done and were impressed with the class spirit and performances. I learnt that we should always be grateful of the privileges that we have as there are many people out there who would love to be in our situation. When we are unwell, we always have someone to take care of us, but they have to be sent to a home to be taken care of. Next time, I think we can teach primary school kids and provide them with tuition so that we can ensure that our contribution to the community does not just cover the elderly, but also the young.

Loh Zhi Hao SL reflection

After the service learning, I experienced and learned many new things. I learned to appreciate my life more. I realize I take things I have for granted for example some of the elderly come from broken families, whereas I have a perfect one. Singing for the elderly has been a very wonderful experience. Looking at their happy faces as they watched our performance makes me feel that all the time I have spent to prepare for that moment have been all worth it. Through this experience, it has also taught me to be more appreciative of what I have and not take things for granted. I am very happy to be able to do my part for society by performing for the old folks and if they are similar opportunities in the future, I would definitely go for it too!

Xue Bin SL reflection

This is the time where we went to All Saints Home and performed for the elderly there. It was a pretty new experience for me as it was the first time that I performed for a group of elderly. I was quite nervous as we did not have much practice before it and we don’t really know if they had enjoyed the song we selected. On the day itself, everyone was nervous yet excited as after the performance, it will be the end of the SLP. Everyone put in their best during the performance and after that we gave the elderly a small goodie bag each, packed by the Malay students. It was a rather new experience for me as I have never went to an old folks home and performed for them before, I think next time, I will be better if we just do something else except for performing, I got stage frght!

Qi Jin (25) SL Reflection

Last month I experienced my first Community service in Singapore. For a scholar who came from China and has rarely got such an opportunity, I did my best and helped the class to put up an excellent show for the old folks in the All Saints Home.

Generally speaking the project was well done. There are various programs covering a large spectrum including a lot of different music performances. I think next time we will try to make the programs even better by spending more time on them.

It is not only the unique experience that excited me, but also the knowledge that I gain from it. It’s not something that solid like science or language, but more intellectual, deeper in heart. Some says that next time we shouldn’t add so much “art” flavor since the old folks are either too silly to comprehend, or too noisy to keep the program going. But I reject this. Yes,they didn’t clapped their hands, Yes, they didn’t show their patience.However, deep in their soul, they can feel it, they will enjoy it------and isn’t that make all the point which make us standing in front of them?

Life is precious. And somehow, you can increase its value by helping others to enjoy their lives better. The project benefits me a lot. From the preparing stage, I learnt how to collaborate and plan and design and so on. By putting our work up stage, I learnt how to empathize, how to make a conversation that can never translated Into language, but something more.

By: Qi Jin

Ong Wei Yao (24) SL Reflection

 For my service learning project, my class and I collected money for flag day. That day, was a hot day. And after 3 hours of collecting money in a wet market, my back drenched in sweat, I felt that I had collected a huge amount of money as my tin was extremely heavy. I felt a sense of achievement as I did my part for the community to collect money for the elderly and it was a 3hours well spent.

  For the next part of our service learning project, we went to the all saint old folks home to do some performances for them. After much practise in the June holidays, we arrived at the home. When I entered the hall, the first thing that i noticed was 2 lines of elderly sitting in their wheelchair. After seeing this, I was determined to put on a good show for them! The first to perform was the guitar playing which was played by my class china scholars. Next, was piano playing and after was the playing of the Chinese flute by our very own CO guys. Finally, it was my time to shine, accompanied with my entire class. It was then we realise we didn’t have the media equipment to play our song. But to our aid was my classmate’s phone which saved the day and we managed to sing our first song, payphone, with ease. Lastly, we sang our final song, Fall for you, we sang our hearts out. After that, it was the end of our performance and we gave each elderly a goodie bag containing snacks for them to enjoy. This service learning project was indeed a success!

By: Wei Yao

Andronicus Tan (38) SL Reflection

Some aspects of the Service Learning project which I personally felt was well done was the packaging of gifts, the performances, the class teamwork, as well as volunteering ourselves for Flag Day. During the Flag Day, our class managed to raise lots of money for the home. The gifts were filled with things that the elderly of the All Saints Home wouldn’t normally receive and being presented such gifts cheered their spirits. The class performances were original and well-rehearsed, although the finale as an impromptu for the whole class to sing together, showing our class spirit. If we were to repeat our Service Learning again in the future, I feel that we should have longer preparation time and include more performances as a variety. Considering how much we did, it was quite surprising to receive very positive feedback from the staff and the elderly at old folks’ home. The elderly were especially pleased with the items we put up, and the joy on their faces made me feel that I’ve done a good deed to society.

One thing I have learnt from this Service Learning project is that there are others who may not be as fortunate and privileged as us, and we as the current generation ought to be grateful and not take things for granted. As young adolescents, we may find it hard to communicate with our family members, especially our parents. However, as much as we may dislike our parents, they are the ones who raised us up and pampered us with modern-day privileges. Seeing that old folks in the home led me to realize, do we want our parents to end up like them? Abandoned by their loved ones and being treated as a hindrance to their children? We should not take such seemingly minor things for granted, as we may never know when our parents will still be around. Hence it is best to cherish everything we have; our family, friends, housing, clothing and money.  

Personally, I think that in the future, we should expand and serve on wider scale. Doing something that would have a more direct impact onto the community would also enable us to learn and gain new knowledge and experiences, broadening our minds and visions. 

Lee Chuan (3) SL reflection

As part of our CIP Service Learning project, our class went to a residential nursing home, All Saints Home, to perform and entertain the elderly there. Everyone participated with enthusiasm during the performance after having practicing during the June holdays. Some of the examples include a guitar trio, malay drums. As for me, I participated in the last item - the singing performance. As the rest of the class went onto the stage to sing, I played the piano which accompanied together with the audio track.

From this servivce learning project, I learnt the importance of giving back to society. As members of the community, we have a responsibility to help the elderly population who once did the same. Also from this, our class was able to bond and work together, working in groups and meeting up during the holidays in order to make this performance a success. We managed to overcome obstacles together - when we realised we needed to find a proper audio track for the singing performance, we had to ask around and eventually found a suitible track. Overall, I felt the SL experience was a great and memorial one although it could have been better if we met up more during the holidays to practice the item to ensure our performance was more prepared.

Hao Jen (13) SL reflection

This service learning experience has truly been beneficial to us as it taught us a whole lot of values and morals that apply to daily life. From this service learning we were able to understand that not all elderly were that fortunate to have children or to have filial children. This emphasized especially on the importance of filial piety and the kind hearts of volunteers who played the children’s role, taking care of them patiently and with a true heart.
During the donations, we were told we were doing this for a cause, to help the elderly to afford better care and services, simply put, to make their lives better and I think that really motivated us a lot. At the end of the day , most of all of our donation tins were either a third full or fully filled and for that we were proud of ourselves. This also taught us the importance of motivation and teamwork when collecting donations.
Before the group performance, many preparations were made by our class to rehearse and practice. Even if one of us did not have musical talents , we managed to get them to participate in the sing along session. This rehearsals and practice sessions helped improve teamwork and tighten bonds in our class at the same time. Also it displayed the many unseen talents our classmates had. For example most of us never knew Alvinn could play the piano and no one knew that Brandon could play the guitar!
In conclusion, this of course could not have been possible without the help of our class committee and Choir members who helped us so much in preparation and Administration matters, and of course our teachers who were so encouraging and helpful ! Overall the service learning had been extremely fun and engaging as it is the 1st time for most of us.
However good we may be, there should be improvements made of course. I guess as we had a alack of practice, the performance did not go too well for some, so I think more preparation need to be made in order for everything to be carried out smoothly. Also I hope the class could be more enthusiastic about the service learning activity.

By : Lam Hao Jen (13)

Tavis Lee (32) SL Reflection

The service learning project that we did was that we went to All Saints' Home where we did performances for the old folks'. There were different types of performances that we did ranging from playing the flute to playing the piano and even the Malay students playing their kompang. Each performer spent time practicing at home and we even got together in school to practice just to make sure that everything went well.

During the day of the performance, everyone put in their best effort in what they performed and the old folks' enjoyed the performances very much. It was the teamwork that made the performance a successful one and it was a fun-filled and enjoyable experience. From this service learning project, I learnt that bringing smiles to the old folks' is a joyous thing and we should serve the community. By interacting with the old folks' ,it really tells me that all they need is someone to talk to and someone to look after them. I really sympathise the old folks' as their children have brutally chose to put them there and it must have been a painful thing for them. Our parents have have bought us up from young and they are the ones that have looked after us fed us. We must always remember that we would not have existed if it weren't for our parents. We must definitely repay our parents when we grow up and learn to have filial piety.

Chew Ngee Yan (5) SL Reflection

  Our class, 3I have chosen to help out at an Old Folks' Home as part of our Service Learning Project. Our Service Learning Project consists of both Flag Day and a Performance. As I am a part of VS Choir and we had to go for a competition in Slovakia, we had to miss the Flag Day as it was compulsory to go for practice. Thus, we were assigned to do the Blog instead.
  There were several sessions of brainstorming on what to do for the performance. In the end, we decided to go with a Trio Guitar performance, Kompang (Malay Drum) performance, a Piano Solo, 2 Flute Solos and a Singing performance by almost the whole class. I was part of the Singing performance as I was part of the choir. We were supposed to meet up in the holidays for practice but we couldn't as most of us had different commitments and the Choir had to go to Slovakia and NDP Recording.
  Though I didn't spend as much time with the class on the Service Learning Project like the others, I've gained a lot from the Project. I learnt that nothing is impossible as while preparing for the performance, we met with many obstacles like what songs to sing. On the very day itself, there was a sudden change of songs and we needed the song itself as a background. Finally, we managed to get the performance going and we had a wonderful time. I am sure many others like myself were able to bond with one another ! 

By: Ngee Yan

Muhd Nuradam Shah (22) SL Reflection

As part of our service learning project, the class organised a performance for the old folks at All Saints Home (ASH). I was part of the Malay Cultural Group and we did a short performance using traditional Malay drums called Kompang.

We came to the decision to play the drums for our performance as we were already going to play the drums for our ‘Speech Day’ performance. Hence, we decided to kill two birds with one stone and play the drums for our performance. Moreover, we have an instructor to teach us how to play the drum as part of practice for the ‘Speech Day’ performance.

During the preparations phase, we met at least once a week to practice for the performance. Usually, this practice was also in conjunction with the practice for ‘Speech Day’ performance. Despite the lack of practices, I still felt that we managed to pull off a reasonable performance although I felt that we could have done better. J   I could also sense that the old folks at the home enjoyed the performance as they were seen clapping along.

Surely, after all the preparations and performances, I'm sure we must have learnt some valuable things along the way. If not, all the effort put into this service learning would just go up in smoke, right? As for me, I learnt 3 different things along the way. Firstly, I learnt to play the traditional Malay drums, Kompang. This way, I feel that I am contributing to the continuing existence of our culture in one way or another. Secondly, I learnt that serving the community is not as bad as I expected it to be. In fact, I really liked the community service by our class as we get to bring smiles to the old folk’s faces and interact with them after the performance. Thirdly, I learnt to cherish my elders and not to leave them at any old folk’s home even when I am busy due to my working life in the future. When we are young, they are the ones who took care of us, fed us, wash us etc. Now, it’s our time to repay their deeds by taking care of them when they grow old and not chuck them to one side when they need us the most.

By Muhd Nuradam Shah (22)