REFLECTION
Problems Encountered:
1. Miscommunication
Sometimes messages that were conveyed through sms-es or emails were misunderstood. We solved the problem by calling each other if we did not understand any part of a message and increased our talk times instead of mailing or sms-ing.
2. Tight Schedule
The nature of the amount of work required for this module combined with the fact that other modules also have assignment or essays due makes meeting up hard or too short to be productive.
Lessons learnt:
1. Proper channel of communication
Call each other if a part of a message is not understand or is vague. Increase the amount of talk time instead of mailing or sms-ing.
2. Planning ahead
When we were hit by the problem of tight schedule, we decided to plan ahead instead of waiting for the week to come and try to accommodate a timing to meet.
3. Specifying the Duty of Each Different Role
Go through in detail what each role is required to do and in-charge of to avoid confusion.
Personal Work
Learning Points:
1. There is always room for improvement
Out of the 5 assignments, I redid more than half the work!
BUT, it is all worth it when I began to see the wonders of how my work turn out to be.
2. Tutors want you to excel
I am deeply impacted by how my tutors have encouraged and believed in me throughout the whole course. I would like to especially thank my personal tutor Siti for being such such a helpful tutor. We have a total of 3 consultations and countless emails to go through my work! Tiring but definitely helpful... Thanks Siti!!! =)
Thanks to Jing who is always so approachable and enthusiastic about our work. Thanks also for giving us the idea of the activity page in our Lonely Stickman Project Work. Not sure whether you remember. =)
Thanks Chris for accompanying the many students waiting to Print our portfolio at As6 computer lab last week! I was one of them.
And to whoever has helped me in one way another in this module, million thanks to you all! Wish you all the best in everything that you do... God Bless... =)
Final Project - Children Storybook
This is my awesome group mates. The breakdown of our roles are:
We first went to Clementi Big Bookshop to research on the available children storybooks that are available in the market. The Adventure of H man
The story of Helpful man. (H man) He goes around the world helping people. This is a typical “Safe the day” story. In this case, H man goes around the world and helps the different cultures in Singapore with various tasks.
Kids will understand that helping people is important and one should be selfless when helping the needy.
The cultural aspect is missing in this story as the cultures only appear as normal characters and the children would not learn anything about the different cultures.
The Lonely Stickman (Version 1)
The story of a stickman being drawn and then later comes to life. The stickman begins to feel lonely as he is the only thing being drawn. He then finds a magic pencil and attempts to draw friends. His drawings ended up to be monsters attacking him. Stickman then battles them with an eraser. Stickman tries many times before successfully draws a few friends.
The spirit of never give up is in cooperated into the story. It teaches children that there will be obstacles in the way to success and one has to persevere.
This story has youth elements but lacks culture aspects.
A Dancer Who Never Gave Up
Tommy loves to dance and watch people dance but he has 2 left feet. He can never dance properly and James tells him to give up on dancing. He even mocks Tommy. Ciara, Tommy’s best friend persuaded Tommy to be determined to continue to dance and pursue his dreams. After much training and encouragement, Tommy finally made it and became a famous dance.
The value learnt here is to not give up, however it is lacking in culture aspects as well.
A Boy who doesn’t like people
John is a boy who doesn’t like other people. His mother sends him on an errand to buy some ingredients for dinner. On the way John meets children of other races who try to befriend him but John refuses. When John reaches the supermarket, he gets lost and starts crying. At this time, the character from different cultures came to John’s aid. John realizes that one should offer help selflessly.
The children will learn to give selflessly and also learn that friends are important.
This story shows the different character from each culture but does not touch deeply into the values of each culture.
The Lonely Stickman (Version 2)
A boy draws a stickman on a paper and nothing else. The stickman comes to life and finds himself alone in his world. He decides to get out of his paper and find friends in other worlds. He first stumbles into a Chinese story book where the people are celebrating Chinese New Year. Stickman learns the culture of the Chinese ethnic group then leaves for another world. He then travels to the Malay world and Indian world. Eventually he reaches his own world and begins to feel lonely again. After a while his friends from the other worlds come visit him and the lonely stickman is lonely no more.
Children will learn that there is no place like home and the value of having friends from other cultures.
The culture value is heavy here compared to the other stories. The introduction of the different festivals exposes the child to the different cultures. It also shows the different ways each culture does to express a single thing, in this case respect.
Final Choice
We have chosen the story of The Lonely Stickman (Version 2) because it has a richer cultural value amongst the 5 stories. The story aims to teach children to accept people for who they are and be opened to the other cultures we have in Singapore.
However, I wanted to make my infography more personalised. Hence, I decided to narrow down the various measures to just those that can be done just around one’s personal home.
The message that I want to bring across is that when you create a greener home for yourself, you are actually creating a better future for everyone else.
