Day 3

270208

The four group members first made their way to the library to make last minute preparations for the trip to SSVH, then..

:O Yiwen, Charles, Jia Jie and Jing Yuan made their way down to SSVH today! (We had to wait for Mister Yiwen to eat his lunch first, of course/:) The four group members had to go to SSVH by themselves today because Mrs. Lim was unavailable. Charles called Ms. Juwita to inform her that we were going to the school before leaving RI.

Yiwen expounds the benefits of his ”Pang’s-Seh-ciety” versus the “黑社会” (inside joke), but to no avail as the other members are already in the “黑社会”. (Disclaimer: 黑社会 does not mean underground gang involving gangsters and dealing with less-than-appropriate matters. It’s just..a name.) The four make their way to the bus stop and wait for bus 156 while Jing Yuan coerces (forces) Jia Jie to consult “IRIS”, the one stop sms to all your bus-waiting needs. (It tells you how much time it takes for the next bus to arrive.) We ascertain that seven minutes have to be waited out as Yiwen continues explaining to us about his ”Pang’s-Seh-ciety”.

The bus ride is short, and we are soon at the School for the Visually Handicapped.  After finding Ms. Juwita, she assigns us to a boardgame and tells us that she wants to convert the boardgame to a visually handicapped-friendly boardgame by using string to line the borders of the squares and using the braille typewriter and plastic stickers to paste braille words on the respective squares. Charles thinks that typing braille seems easy because Ms. Juwita’s colleague types braille as if she’s typing on a normal keyboard. It’s so quick it’s scary.

When the four begin, work is delegated out. Yiwen, in his boredom, has learnt how to recognise most of the braille letters, which is a great advantage to the rest of the group members and he is delegated to type on the braille typewriter which consists of six keys numbered 1-6 respectively for each of the six dots that make up a braille letter. Jing Yuan will help Ms. Juwita with the final sticking of stickers on another boardgame while Charles and Jia Jie work together to measure and cut up the string and paste it onto the borders of the square to demarcate them.

Yiwen makes several mistakes and wastes much sticker paper, however, he has done a commendable job since it is no doubt his first time at braille typewriting. (Wasting stuff = harming the environment = Mrs. Lim unhappy) Jia Jie and Charles’ job seems easy at first, however, it is a tedious and terribly sticky process. Jing Yuan’s job is..routine.

The quad leave at around 3.15PM after working for slightly more than two hours and are satisfied with their contributions to the visually handicapped. The quad also managed to see some of the visually handicapped children today due to their early arrival at SSVH and needless to say, the visually handicapped are not really handicapped at all, just delayed in education, I would say.

So I guess that’s all for now folks. Tune in next time for more of Charles’ regular posting on SSVH08.wordpress.com!

Comments from Mrs Lim

Dear all,

Great job! I am glad to see entries updated on the same day of your visit. Thank you Yiwen and Charles for your detailed entries. Really useful to refer to the photos and the entries captured the discussion. Jia Jie and Jingyuan , please reflect and comment too!

Yiwen, it is wonderful that you volunteered to help update their website. Remember how Mr Koh was so happy and speechless! What you guys will be embarking on is of crucial necessity in helping them build resources for their students. The nature of the project may not be very “big-scale” or “happening” but nevertheless, I don’t want you all to think that such projects are hence less worthy! Imagine your contribution staying on in the school and being used by generations of teachers and students.

 Mrs Albar and myself felt that both groups can come together to co-organise a fun session of BBQ or games during school holidays on top of your project. The teachers may like to idea since you guys will be organising the activity.

Anyway, Charles, can you pass me the file that Mr Koh gave us? I like to make copies for the other group.

Meanwhile, read through the materials Mr Koh gave us and seek to understand SSVH and the visually-impaired/challenged people. 

Lastly, please enter some of the questions that we asked yesterday and the responses from Mr Koh and Miss Juwita. This serves as a learning point for us all.

 Good job, guys!!

First visit to SSVH

Date: 20022008

Time: 1410 to 1530

Members Present: Charles, Jia Jie, Yi Wen, Mrs Lim Yoke Tong

Today was the first time we visited the SSVH (Singapore School for the Visually Handicapped).

At there, we received more insight about what our project was about, from the principal, Mr Koh himself. We had also received a tour of the school by a kind Ms Juwita. Without further ado, I shall start on the tour.

  After a short bus ride and walk, we finally nearing the school.

 Soon we arrived at the entrance of the school

After a short interview with the principal, we proceeded to take a tour of the school.

Here is the computer lab. It is meant for students with better eyesight, they use a magnifier tool to read the words on the screen.

Oh, and the students use these to get around the school…

Next would be the library, with a small collection of books for the students’ use.

Look at the books!

 
And here is a large print book..

Here is a book written in braille.

This marks the end of the short tour by Yi Wen, sorry if there are too few pictures, we do have more. Thats all for today.

 Bye!

Yi Wen

Day 2

Wednesday, 200208

Yi Wen, Charles and Jia Jie visited the Singapore School for the Visually Handicapped (SSVH) today to meet the school’s Principal, Mr. Koh, and also to visit the school and know more about the facilities provided and what specifically we would need to do. Charles took the role of leader for this part of the project.

Before the trip to SSVH, all four group members met in the library to brainstorm for interview questions to ask Mr. Koh, with the help of Mrs. Lim. Nine questions were formulated. (and needless to say, our questions were a weeny bit more specific/focused than the other group of Secondary Threes. Heh.) Jing Yuan, Charles, Yi Wen and Jia Jie believe that the questions are very professsional (or at least they answer our most pressing questions) Jing Yuan leaves at 1.20PM for his Hockey match after accompanying the other three for lunch. Mrs. Lim rushes the three remaining group members to the bus stop so as not to miss the prearranged interview.

After waiting for some time, our bus, number 156, arrives. However, we are mislead into thinking that we have chosen the wrong bus to board and the bus conductor, and another helpful boy show us the way out of the bus. As soon as we alight from 156, we realise that we have been duped and prepare for another wait for the next 156. Mrs. Lim calls up SSVH to tell them that we will be late.

After a short bus ride, Charles, Yi Wen and Jia Jie, along with Mrs. Lim and the five other SecThrees make a tough hike up Toa Payoh Rise to SSVH. We meet up with Mrs. Noorizan Albar and then commence with our interview session with Mr. Koh.

During the meeting, the Secondary Fours ask most of the questions, along with the teachers while the SecThrees deem their questions inadequate and..keep quiet after two questions. We learn much about the SSVH and are introduced to Ms. Juvinta, who is part of the Braille Production Unit, which in Mr. Koh’s point-of-view, is the most important department in the whole school. They produce all the materials required of the visually challenged students to use so that they might get ready for the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) and have basic skills before being promoted to the resource centers at Ahmad Ibrahim and Bedok North Secondary.

We are taken on a brief but informative tour of the school premises and are shown their library facilities and IT resources. We are also shown to the Braille Production Unit, where the legendary Braille Embossing Machine is located. We might be using this machine in the process of our project. We are shown various examples of diagrams we will have to help create, and they seem like masterpieces of creativity and handicraft by Ms. Juvinta and her colleague, who have to personally create each piece by hand using sandpaper and other cardboard strips to form the shapes and textures for their template, which will then be processed by manual operation into a pressing machine to create multiple copies for the students. We will be doing that.

Yi Wen offers his expertise and Jing Yuan’s expertise in refurbishing the SSVH’s website, to great welcome. We will need to update the site’s details, besides the content. Ms. Juvinta would also like us to help create teaching aids for the students at the SSVH.

Alrighty then, that’s all for Day 2 of our RESL project, brought to you by your correspondent, Charlsiebub AKA Charles(:

YI WEN joins the blog

Hi

Yay, Im now officially in this blog.

Look forward to contributing to it!

YI WEN

A good start to RES-L!

Nice to know you all and I hope your group will achieve much this year. Eventually if your project can make a difference in the lives of the students and teachers at SSVH, then you all would have accomplished something very meaningful !

This is just an initial round of preliminary research and hence i don’t expect much today, especially when we are still waiting for future instructions. What you can do is to perhaps update the entry with some websites that you have visited as a form of reference.

Day 01

13022008

Jing Yuan, Jia Jie, Charles and Yiwen meet as an RE group for the first time. Much time is spent playing Finger Jig games but sufficient work is done to call it a day. For example, this blog was created. WOOT.

Jing Yuan, Jia Jie and Yiwen attempt to learn the Braille alphabet but experiment is halfway successful without the use of a real touch board thingy (to learn Braille properly). Charles does..research. Yiwen is ecstatic that he has learnt the letters A to M :O

We are not yet sure of what our project entails but Mrs. Lim Yoke Tong (our mentor) promises to lend her expertise and give us more information the next time we meet.

Sian man..