my learning points after attending conference

Just want to pen down some things that i learnt after attending the conference. Well, you internalise better when you write it down rather than just think, reflect and these thoughts tend to disappear if you do not take the effort to pen it down.

1)The first keynote address was very apt. The title 'retoring the spirit of service' The speaker was good, she made us think of why we do what we are doing now. it questions my belief. As adults, we are often dictated by rewards/incentives and competition and building defences. We start to find excuses for the mistakes we made. 'The recession made me got retrenched, so i'm in a dire state, so i'm frustrated.'
Have we forgotten the spirit of giving? to give something and not expecting anything in return? because sometimes we forgot that the helper does in return get helped. you become kinder, happier and more positive.

Then as an educator, how do i teach my students about this amidst the teaching? have i forgotten to develop their character as well?

2) 2nd keynote address: the speaker is from the Phillipines. he gave his speech on Gawad Kalinga, a housing project that he started. He is very sincere. no slides, just 1 video and a lot of stories to share. a bold move I would consider. but never did i once was distracted (except for answering a sms) because his stories are real!

his housing project aims to help the citizens to learn good governance, developing character by refraining from corruption. (The project also teaches the citizens to be self-sufficient) Such simple yet strong words which i have took for granted in Singapore.

Through his project, he also aims to help restore the dignity of the poor by giving them dreams and aspirations to motivate them to work. Yet another thing that i've taken for granted. With most Singaporeans, we have basic housing needs and clean piped water, something that we have taken for granted. So what do people and the youths have as their dreams to motivate them? nothing. worse still, their motivation is the latest handphone, the latest IT gadget, the latest PSP games etc.

The video made me cry. The man in the video was so grateful that this project has given his family hope and aspirations.

3) the other keynote address, 'active participation - the key to learning'. the title says it all, meaningful engagement of students. this not only makes sense to teaching students but also to service learning. i'll just quote something which i've scribbled down during the address: 'being intrinsically motivated has to do with being wholly involved in the activity itself.'

Of course there are 4 concurrent sessions that i attended, but i thought that the time for the session was too short for me to really reflect. It's more of absorbing information and establishing contacts with the presenters.

4) the project exhibits: been to many exhibition booths to find out more about what other students, young people are doing for their service learning or experential learning. established contacts with a few of them. but 2 most thought provoking ones:
a) CIP trip to vietnam: i juz stood there to watch the video. maybe i have a soft spot for children. when the students visited the orphanage, it seems that this orphanage is for the very young children. The video shows many toddlers and babies in the orphanage. the students carried the toddlers and play with them. then i can feel my tears rolling down. so embarrassed. excused myself to the toilet.

thought provoking because how can these beautiful babies not have parents? (i do not want to dwell on the reasons) they are left to fend for themselves at such a young age.

b) student teachers CIP project at myanmar. These few young adults gave so much to the villagers and the school they visited. books, even the test tubes that they brought over. again, something that i've taken for granted, or rather our students have taken for granted. they do not have a science laboratory. The teachers-to-be showed the teachers there some simple science experiment to do with every day objects.

I was speaking to this young lady, you could sense from her sharing that these teachers in myanmar was so eager to learn. not only the teachers, the students were so eager to learn too. by day 3, they put in an effort to speak English to our Singaporean counterparts. i cannot help but to compare the myanmar students' eagerness to learn vs our singaporean students' eagerness to learn. with such good facilities in school, students sometimes take for granted and forget why they are learning and who they are studying for.

my concluding thoughts: Singapore has been prospering and our standard of living improving. With such prosperity, have we forgotten where we started? have we started to take even the simplest thing such as house for granted? have we forgotten our purpose or lose our motivation in life? how can i then teach all these to my students? i cannot simply take away their stuff and throw them back into caveman's era. there must be another way and as at now, i'm still searching.