Maybe it's time for me to update what some of us i.e. Ying Ting, Yin How, Mei Sheng and I have been doing. We were organising coaching programmes for upper primary and lower secondary school kids!
Yep. We were coach, to coach the children so that they can better understand the study skills introduced during the lessons better.
But who taught them the study skills? It was the coaches, who are us.
So who drew up the syllabus for the coaching programme? Again, it was the coaches.
Four of us started planning for the ASEAN Coaching Programme(ACP) in April. Initially it was meant to be only for lower sec children. But we encountered tonnes of problems as we didn't have 'connection' to sec sch, since all of us left after pri sch. So after a few setbacks, we decided to modify the programme into a pri-sch-friendly programme, called the Zhuang4yuan2 Ji1li4 ban1. We introduced the programme to our own alma mater, and in the end Yin How's and Mei Sheng's schools agreed to let us carry out the programme in their schools. At both schools we had more students than what was intended.:D
At the same time, one parent called us up to express her daughter's interest in ACP. So we decided to let ACP go on as well.
After that was a series of madness preparation and presentation. We fought hard to attract the attention of every child, make the lessons interesting and digestable. It was encouraging to see the primary school kids being so enthusiastic and fought hard to answer our questions (Of course, that was partly because we were giving out prizes). And it was encouraging also to see teachers and PIBG representatives getting themselves involved when we were teaching the kids how to do progressive muscular relaxation.
ACP posed a greater challenge to us. Form 1 and 2 is the age when the kids are kids in the more mature age group. So while they are not much different from the primary school kids in adults (like us) eyes, they pride themselves to be more mature and cool. So some of them snided at our attempt to get them interested, and some of them were basically more interested in BGR and stuff ( One sec 2 boy had 9 girlfriends in just this year!). Some of them attended the course to be released (One boy asked us when's lunch at the beginning of the course, when's tea time after lunch, and what time can they go home after tea @.@)
And we got a little bored after doing the same demonstrations for ample times, saying the same thing, and watching the same movie.
But there were also those who were genuinely interested in how to improve their studies, time management and stuff. And these were the ones, who motivated us to continue to speak well, despite the attitude of other participants.
Yep. Then everything ended.
So suddenly. Like now.
But this relatively short experience has taught us a lot. Not only have we learnt how to coach, but also about public relations, financial matters, packaging, editing (we composed their course books), meals catering, but also about study skills. As this was a programme that contains a relatively comprehensive guide to how to study effectively and efficiently using information gathered from books as well as from the experience of four of us, we managed to learn a lot from each other too.
Here's something that I like a lot. Let me just share it here.
Don't look at failure as a failure. Look at it as a detour. Learn from the failure and fall forward, not backward. Let it guide you towards success, not away from it.
I guess this would be a very useful way to counsel ourselves in the future. When we get depressed and demotivated (if there's such a word) by the huger and greater challenges we face later in life.
And finally, my own favourite quote for now: Life is 10% what happened to us and 90% how we deal with it.
