Final Reflections On Learning

Every hello ends with a goodbye.

My dearest classmates, 

This is the 6th time I would be writing on this blog and the last. It has been a good 13 weeks and now it's time for us to part.  But before I do, I would like to relate some of my thoughts, most of which I have been saving for a very long time.  

Along the long narrow pathway to our class leads to a small open window," the light at the end of the tunnel" I would often think to myself. How apt, given the fact that I had enrolled in such a class for the quest for enlightenment. I had never been one to look out of windows but there was something captivating about that window. I can't put a finger on why the window was so special , heck! I cannot even remember the outlines of the window. Was it brown or black? I guess I would never find out. Perhaps it was the way the light shone in and how it fell on the cold hard ground. I found myself falling into its gravity. Whenever I was early, before anyone came, I would stand at that very window, looking out .And as I stood there staring out, i would hear the laughter's from Dr Radhika 's earlier class punctuating the otherwise quiet hallway.

 I did a little thinking at that window. What these weeks meant and how far I've come.  I vividly remembered my first presentation(Dry Run on listening skills) and how it was a complete disaster , I clutched on to a piece of paper, nervously shaking and simply reading out what I had written . The subsequent presentation by Edwin, Ka Yan and Kristie hit the final nail on the coffin.  They were spectacular compared to our performance! My heart sank, it was only the first few weeks and they were already so good.  How am I able to catch up?

Quickly, I convinced myself that ample preparation was key, and I promised I would never let that happen to me again.

For the actual peer teaching , the preparation phase was a breeze. I had known Clarence prior to this class and Xue Hui was very accommodating to our suggestions. We prepared way in advanced and conducted rehearsals to prepare ourselves for the actual presentation.  And it showed in our peer teaching ;we were generally more confident and received positive feedback. For the first time in my life , I thought I might actually be good at this.

The proposal group was a different story. We were meshed into a whole new group with different people. I was worried about the group dynamics given that i had never worked with anyone of them before. The first discussion was quite intimidating , when all of them started taking out their notepads and laptops and starting writing/typing away at our discussion points.  But my fear was unfounded and they turned out to be amazing teammates. In my opinion, Yi Bei was like the leader of the group giving us the much needed direction and scope of discussion, you could always count on her to make the right decision at the right time. Ka Yan was always there to give her insightful analysis on the said topic. And we have Bernice who always went the extra mile(editing/compiling) to make sure everything worked out for the group.

But it wasn't always smooth sailing, I recalled an occasion when there was a conflict of ideas. We were debating on whether it would be better to target our proposal to the Ministry or to the School officials. When asked for my opinion on the matter I sat on the fence. Clearly I didn't want to offend anybody. To me the choice was irrelevant and either would have worked out the same.

A couple of weeks later Dr Radhika spoke about Submissive/Assertive/Aggressive behaviours and I quickly indentified myself deferring more towards the submissive. Like the video shown last Friday, this behaviour most certainly doesn't offend anybody, but it most certainly doesn't get anything done.   For that I am rather apologetic to my group for the times I should have been more assertive.

This has been an exhilarating journey . I believe we can all be proud of what we have done together in these short 13 weeks and how far we have come. ES2007S has been more than just a module ; for the first time in a long while it felt like I was in an actual class, with actual classmates I could put a name to a face. I have met wonderful people along the way and have made many friends from around the world.   

To my classmates, Edwin,Dinah , Andy, Xuehui , Kristie , Madhav , Akaash , Bernice , Yi bei , May-ee , Jasmine , Isabel , Xie Xin , Clarence , all the best for this semester and see you around in school.

Juan, Tobi and Ka Yan, Thank you for being with us for the last 13 weeks, and sharing with us your culture and experiences. I hope your trip to Singapore had been an enjoyable one and i wish you all the best in your future endeavours.

To Dr Radhika, Thank you for engaging us students and prompting us whenever we feel inadequate to speak out.  Thank you for your patience and understanding throughout the past 13 weeks. We really do appreciate it.

Goodbye and god bless.

Goodbye and god bless.

Goodbye and god bless.

Yours sincerely,

Yechuan. :)