Day 08: Our correspondent, Charles, is back to report

CHARLES IS REALLY ANGRY BECAUSE THE POST HE HAS BEEN WORKING ON FOR THE LAST HALF HOUR HAS DISAPPEARED AMONGST THE INTERNET DEBRIS ALL BECAUSE HE WAS TYPING “INCOMPETENT GROUP LEADER AKA JING YUAN” AND EVERYTHING GOT DELETED SOMEHOW. THEREFORE, IT CAN BE CONCLUDED THAT IT SHOULD NOW READ AS “INCOMPETENT GROUP LEADER AKA JING YUAN” WITH NO CANCELLING OUT(:

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300408

The trusty trio of Charles, Jia Jie and Yiwen meet up today to go down to SSVH. Oops. I missed out the fourth character of our story, Tan Jing Yuan. (Incompetent group leader) The meeting has been previously arranged during the last RE session on 230408 when Ms. Juwita was unable to meet us. Fortunately, she is free today, thus the four go down to SSVH. The interview questions and planning for the interview has taken place two RE sessions ago.

Charles will now recount the story that he has recounted just previously and lost it all because Ctrl + Z does not work. He will recount it in second-person POV and it will be as detailed as it can possibly be after his frustration.

So the story begins..

When the school bell rings at 11.25PM, Jing Yuan, Charles and Jia Jie are still stuck in class. The three valiant knights are being assaulted by the evil monstrosity known as the English essay but are soon about to overcome it. Sir Yiwen the Other Knight arrives promptly. Charles and Jing Yuan realise that they are running late and Jing Yuan issues a verdict: the four will cab down to SSVH although it is only a few bus stops away. Charles, ever the money-minded treasurer, accosts Jing Yuan and demands to know where the funding for such an expensive means of transport will come from, only to be met by some less-than-desirable remarks. Hurhur. The time is approximately 11.40PM.

The four brisk walk to the bus stop (No, were strolling.) and their faces contort in anguish and despair as they watch the fabled bus No. 156 slip away from their outstretched fingers, just seconds away, missing the chance to catch a quick ride to SSVH. That was an exaggeration. In actual fact, the four were crossing the overhead walkway and the bus was just leaving the bus stop but Charles has to spice up the story abit lest it become dreary.

The four reach the BUS STOP and as per Jing Yuan’s previous instructions, they were to wait for a TAXI. Charles notices the fallacy of waiting for a TAXI at a BUS STOP but decides not to unleash his overwhelming intelligence over the undiscerning trio. Due to the inability to acquire a TAXI at a BUS STOP, the four then decided to wait for the next bus No. 156, which was reported to be 10 minutes away. The time is approximately 11.51PM. The four are running VERY VERY LATE for their appointment.

At exactly 12.51PM, bus No. 156 arrives, much to the pleasure and pride of Charles at Singapore’s wonderful transport system and infrastructure. wow. The four reach SSVH’s nearest bus stop in 8 minutes. (All times are recorded as per Charles’ timekeeping device aka the phone.)

The four now brisk walk (really brisk walk now) to SSVH as they are running VERY VERY VERY LATE for their appointment . Along the short uphill trek to SSVH, Jing Yuan attempts to deceive Charles into jaywalking and “accidentally” intersecting with the path of an oncoming cement-mixer. (We suspect that this action was an attempt to remove the smartest and most handsome group member of the group, however, further research has to be done into this matter.) Charles easily overcomes this deception.

Soon enough, the four reach SSVH to meet Ms. Juwita. She tells the four that since she is not exactly a teacher, she will not be able to answer approximately half the interview questions that had been sent to her the night before by Jia Jie for her perusal as the questions pertain to the school’s curriculum. The four are disappointed and dejected; all appears lost. All of a sudden, Ms. Juwita offers to introduce the team to some of the teachers to interview them instead! The team is unbelieveably happy and ecstatic at this new development. Ms. Juwita does not seem to mind their lateness. (We regret to inform you that Jia Jie forgot to bring the interview questions but the day was saved by incompetent group leader Jing Yuan who actually brought it instead.)

Kudos to the team! Lol.

Jing Yuan and Charles ask most of the questions while Jia Jie takes minutes and Yiwen interacts with the children. Charles also takes as much recording as he can of the two interviews. (As much as his phone memory allows, of course.)

The team interview two teachers, Ms. Punitha and Mrs. Chua. Ms. Punitha is a teacher in the “Helen Life Skills Class” while Mrs. Chua is a teacher of Mathematics and Science. The team learn alot from these interviews, with Jing Yuan and Charles asking more of the questions while Jia Jie takes minutes and Yiwen interacts with the students. Charles also records as much as he can of both interviews with his phone camera, unfortunately, he is unable to record the last part of Mrs. Chua’s interview due to lack of memory space in his phone. Still a good job done team!

The team find out that these less-privileged students require more intensive care and attention from the teachers because every student is unique and special; they all have their special talents and difficulties that have to be handled individually by the teachers, thus each class is small. Ms. Punitha’s class has two teachers including herself teaching 12 students. Mrs. Chua teaches 4 students. We find that the teachers are here to teach the students because they find it a challenge and that it is extremely rewarding to teach this students, and to watch them gain something from their lessons.

However, they also lament that not many people, including the examination authorities understand the predicament of the children, furthermore, the materials for teaching are hard to procure and the children have difficulty comprehending concepts either due to their lack of vision, lower intelligence of sometimes, both. The teachers have to rely very much on their ability to improvise to let the children learn to the fullest of their capability.

The Team also learn that the students are better off learning basic skills that we take for granted, for example, brushing their teeth and feeding themselves, etc. It is better to teach them the skills they need to survive than spend their time on educational purposes. Moreover these students do not have many other job opportunities besides working in vocational camps or sheltered workshops. They also need more ways for leisure as they are currently only able to do a few things during the abundance of time they have – listening to the tv, radio or music, for example.

So then that’s all for now. I’m sure that there’s more to garner from the recording the Charles had made and taken about 600MB in his memory card. Oh, what sacrifice..

Thank You to SSVH, Mr. Juwita, Ms. Punitha and Mrs. Chua for giving us such an enlightening experience today!

(YES. CHARLES STANDS TRIUMPHANT AS HE FINISHES HIS BLOG ENTRY IN NOTEPAD AND UPLOADS IT LATER. HE HAS DEFEATED THE EVIL CREATURE KNOWN AS THE INTERNET CRASH!!!!!)

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!

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(: