REFLEKSI - AISHAH

At first, we had our first briefing regarding our Social Engagement course few months ago and during time, we were clueless  about what we are about to experience. Everything was blurry and we were not close enough to each other although we are from the same faculty. Through many discussions among members and under Dr. Zalfa’s supervision, we decided to go to two places to complete our course; Zoo Negara and Tadika UM. We allocated 3 days for our trip, 2 days at Zoo Negara and 1 day at Tadika UM.

We reached the zoo early in the morning as we were told.  Both of the days, we had to gather with other groups who were doing volunteer jobs there too. We were divided to group of 5 members for a specified task. We experienced cleaning animals’ shelters, feeding and also customer service. Besides getting close to the animals, we also get to interact with the zoo visitors and assisted them when they needed any help.   

Our visit to the Zoo Negara actually raised the awareness regarding animals and how they are important to the society. The endangered species need to be protected for the sake of our future generations. This activity also taught us how cleanliness of our surroundings affect the health of the community. Zoo Negara is located in the middle of the city. Without proper cleaning routines, the zoo could cause harm to the visitors and the neighbourhood nearby.

Besides that, even though we didn't get enough interactions with the community, the time we spent with the group members actually make us closer. We came across many obstacles to plan for the activities and struggled to make it happen. As full time students, we could hardly find free time without a good time management. Nevertheless, everyone learnt about importance of teamwork and a task won't be fulfilled by one person's commitment.

Our final destination for the course is Tadika UM.  Our visit to Tadika UM was the highlight of our social engagement. It was such an interesting experience for us. As we grow up, we always busy with our studies and endless assignments. We rarely had the chance to meet big groups of toddlers every day. We were assigned group of 4,5,6 years old and became their teachers on that day. We did coloring competition, storytelling, and singing sessions with the children. We had prepared some gifts and food to enlighten them. Other than that, we assisted the teachers such as organizing and supervise the children during their meal time.

                               
                                       

   Even though our day felt really long, we learnt so much from these children. Most of them were very friendly although some of them was quite mischievous and difficult to handle. They are so pure and they actually heavily influenced by adults. On thay day, one of the children came to me and said she wants to be a teacher when she grows up because she likes us. These children also were taught not to say bad words, recite prayers before and after their meals, and how to greet adults properly. I realized that as an adult, we really need to show them good examples. We were so busy growing up until we forgot basic values in life that were taught by our teachers and parents when we were young too.

                                    

Meeting these children made us go back to our childhood time. Made us remember how our teachers used to sacrifice to put up with us as a child. They were also delighted by small things in life and very cheerful  every day. At some point, I felt like going back to those times because life was so simple and carefree.

As conclusion, we would like to thank the university for giving us the chance to such a memorable moments in our lives together with the communities. We also would like to thank Dr. Zalfa for guiding us throughout this course. Thank you for all your consent and time for us and not to forget the communities who gave us cooperation to fulfill our tasks.

Volunteer experience!! (Zoo Negara + Tadikum ) - Zhi Lun

Volunteer experience!! (Zoo Negara + Tadikum )

On the day that announcing all the first year students should complete a course called “Social Engagement”, most of us will think that “Oh My God!! It is going to sacrifice my time and my holiday to do volunteer jobs! Oh no!!” or “Aiya, cincailah, just simply do to fulfill the credit hour enough la.” At the beginning, I am belong to these group of people too! But, after all the activities that we have done, some sweet and interesting memory had been planted in my brain. Actually, being a volunteer is not that difficult and time consuming as most people would think. This course, Social Engagement is actually a good programme that can help undergraduates to engage with the community and build their characters within themselves and let them know the current environment wants those who are not only know how to follow, but to lead the society next time.

             To be engaged with the social, we decided to plan some activities with it, which is also part of our social – animals. We often forget animals are our parts of social too. Hence, we wish to take this opportunity to take care of those animals and we decided to participate in a volunteer program at Zoo Negara Malaysia in Ampang. We managed to take care deer, porcupine and goats on the first week on at Zoo Negara while reptiles like tortoise on the following Friday in Zoo Negara.

We did the activities that we never do before like cleaning the feces of the animals, feeding them and also help to scrub the tortoise’s shell too! For the early morning of first day in cleaning the feces, actually I was really not able to withstand the smell. And this make me realize that what the zookeepers does is not only jobs like playing with the animal and feeding them only, instead its beyond that. From here, I was able to understand that each jobs have their difficulty. As I put myself in their position I realize that I should respect all the jobs in this world.

            Actually there are lots of fun and interesting activities for us to do as volunteer in Zoo Negara. But, do you actually know what is the value behind when we do these activities? Probably, you would say that we only enage with the animals instead of the community. Actually, from Zoo Negara, it helps to instil our love toward the animals, make us appreciate what the Mother Earth had gave us and caring the environments which belongs to our social too. For your information, social is not only refers to the humans, but also refers to all living organisms as applied to populations of the animals too! Hence, we learnt to remember and take care of animals which are parts of our social.

For the next activities after the Zoo Negara is going to be the kindergarten in Universiti Malaya, which named Tadikum. We decided to go to kindergarten because all of us love children! Haha! Perhaps all of us can be good father and mother ya! LOL! So, I was given the task on handling 6-years-old children. 6 years old, let me count, 21-6 is 15. Woah... throw back to 15 years ago, what have I done? Okay, seem like I am out of the topic already. So, for these 6-years-old kids, I work together with Aishah and Sivanes to plan the activities with them. We did story telling session, colouring contest and also word search. 

          This is the first time handling so many kids, it is very exciting! As I was the storyteller for these children with the topic of “Dinosaur and Big Fish”, it make me realized that the tones and expression are important to capture the children’s attention. Otherwise they will just ignore you. All of us manage to solve the problems that we encountered, such as when a kids sulks ( merajuk ), when they are not feeling well and etc. All these problems actually train our patience and at the same time allow us to find an equilibrium point between taking care of them instead of following their “instruction”. Hence, the one day activity we spent in Tadikum managed to train us on how to communicate with children and think of how to make the lessons and activities become more interesting.

So, everyone out there, volunteer works is not that difficult and time consuming like you think. It can actually benefits us and help us to become a well-rounded person. Before I end this, I would like to say : Everything that you do depends on your heart and how you want to make it to be, the more you give, the more you gain!

Best regards,

Zhi Lun’15

Memories in TADIKUM (Nabilla)

TADIKUM…..

I let the picture speak on my behalf

That time, when sleeping is more important than tae kwan do class. Haha kiddo, I love seeing you  guys.

  I asked for the name, this girl with the pink hair band told me her name was  “baby”. So why not took a selfie with “baby” and the friend? Four years old kids, I could eat them all because they were too cute (some). I monitored them, during their break time. Man, it was so lovely seeing them eating politely and when they wants more, they’ll have to say ‘’excuse me teacher, I want more please” or something like that and I gotta feed them more. I had a one fine day with the kiddos.

I get <3 from this kid, and I couldn’t ask for more. This was in six years old classroom, and I was knowned as “Teacher Bella”, thanks to Teacher Aishah (lol). I spent most of the times with this kiddos from colouring competition, to story-telling and lastly to word-search competition. It was so hard to entertain them, even harder to make them listen to you. My friend, Aishah, saved me few times. Haha.

                                      I’ve found the new me, thanks to them ;)    

Third Day at TADIKUM (Khar Ching)

Third Day Of Social Engagement (Khar Ching)

            

            Times really flies, it was the last day of our volunteer activities for Social Engagement. This time, we spent our time with the children at the Tadika Universiti Malaya (TADIKUM). It was nerve-wrecking for me as I have no experience with children. I cannot escape the reality as I had to face this challenge.

            

           That day, we walked to TADIKUM and we spent about 15 minutes walking there. Once we reach there, we were welcomed by the teachers that were teaching over there. They greeted us with a bright smile. While waiting for the children to arrive, we make some preparations.

            

            After preparation, we spent our time accompanying and teach the children. I was in the same group with Chiau Yen and Yee Lin who were in charge to take care of the four years old children. Now is the most nerve-wrecking moment! When we went into the classroom of the four years old children, I was scared as I had nothing to say to them and I felt so embarrassing when I talked in front of them =.=. Well, I just faced it bravely.

            Firstly, we taught them drawing. Some of them were very shy to approach me until I held their hand. After finished drawing, I asked them to color the pictures that they completed by connecting the line. There was one naughty boy that did not want to give the pictures to the others to color. I advised him until he cooperated. It was so funny because the animal picture they colored was so colorful. After drawing and coloring session, we took a break while waiting the children to finish their tea time.

After their tea time, we had an Origami session with the kids. We taught them the ways to fold the Origami. After completing the Origami, I gave the children each and let them play with it. This really tested my patience and limits as the children were really loud and noisy. Here is the picture during the Origami session:

After Origami session, we had our lunch break. After we finished our lunch, we went back to TADIKUM and we help the children wear the Taekwondo shirt as they had to practice Taekwondo after their nap. They were so adorable when they wore the Taekwondo shirt! When they were doing the Taekwondo practice, we had to help the teachers to organize things.

After that, it was time for us to say goodbye with the children and the teachers over there. Before we left, we had a final photo session together to cherish the memory of us doing the volunteering jobs there. We also gave the souvenirs to the children to make them happy and as ‘thank you’ sign for giving us their cooperation when we were teaching them. Our final picture:

Goodbye, Tadika Universiti Malaya (TADIKUM)! J

Thank you for talking with me, children, you made me brave and confident when facing all of you. J

Surprising Day in UM Tadika (TADIKUM) - Yee Lin

Surprising day in tadikum

Here comes the last destination of our volunteering, Tadika in University Malaya (UM). It can be a challenge since I am a person that totally does not have any idea how to deal with those small kids that aged range from 4 years old till 6 years old. I was in the same group with Chiau Yen and Khar Ching and we took care of the 4 years old kids. Coloring and doing origami are the examples of the activities that we planned for those little devils. The origami that we taught them was a bird. After teaching and helping them, we asked the kids to bring them back to show their parents in the hope that their parents would praise them.

The kids nowadays are totally different compared to those during our time. How old are you? Do teacher have a boyfriend? Are teacher married?  These are some of the examples of questions that the kids will ask. This really surprised me because I don’t think I will dare to ask my teacher such question during my kindergarten time.

We did help the teachers to organize things while the kids are resting. While helping out, I found out that the teaching tools nowadays are very cute and attractive. I really envy those children because I still remembered my teachers will only draw out what he or she wants to explain on the blackboard by using a chalk. So all the drawings are black and white colour and we have to picture those drawings base on our imagination.

I don’t want teacher to go!! Teacher, can you stay with us? That’s the moment that I am not willing to go through. The kids are hugging each and every one of us and begging us not to leave. We also brought them some sweets and biscuits as a small gift for them. It was just sweets for us but you can actually feel their happiness when they received it.

I will definitely tell my juniors and advise them to really enjoy this Social Engagement. There is no such thing as wasting time and energy. I really enjoyed myself while doing these activities since it allows me to learn lots of things that we can’t during lectures. Thousand thanks goes to Dr Zalfa Laili for the advice and opinions in guiding us to complete all of these. I also appreciate all the contribution and the role my group members play so that we can contribute back what we get from this society.

Reflection at Tadikum (Day 3) - Siva

Day 3 at Tadika Universiti Malaya (TADIKUM)

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•     This tadikum is located near the Economic Faculty in Um. Thus we departed from our residential colleges around 7.30a.m.
•          We reached there by 8a.m
•          It was so delightful to look at the kids at that early in the morning
•          There were 4, 5 and 6 years old kids
•          We were separate into mini groups where at least 3 or 4 in a group took charge of each class
•         I was in charged in 6 years old class
•         It gave me lots of sweet memories with kids
•         We helped the teachers to take care of the kids that whole day
•         We arranged many activities according to the age group
•      My group, we did coloring competitions, word search competition and also a   story telling section
•         After the competition, we choose the best and gave them some gifts.
•        The kids were so happy and we make sure all the kids got some gifts.
•         After the break we help the teachers with arranging books in shelf and sharpen all their pencils and color pencils.
•        We also help the kids to wear their Taekwondo costume because they were having the Taekwondo class in the afternoon
•         After done with the classes the kids have their tea time
•          We went back to college around 6p.m.
•  It was hard to control the kids however it gave me so much of great moments to cherish.

The Inordinary Experiences (Day 3) – Zi Huey

The Inordinary Experiences (Day 3) – Zi Huey

Day 3 – Tadika UM (22/5/2015)

            

After spending 2 days at Zoo Negara, our group has decided to do something different after the discussion with our supervisor Dr Zalfa. We had found a kindergarten which is just located in the compound of University of Malaya. I was surprised with its location because I have never thought that University Malaya has its own kindergarten and we could just reach our destination within walking distance.

            We were given the opportunity to spend our time from 8pm to 6pm to interact with the children at Tadika UM. We had prepared some interesting activities to be carried out with the children and we also helped the kindergarten teachers to look after the children when the children were having their break time. 

A group picture before we started our activities.

We reached Tadika UM at 8am and they were having their morning exercise!
So much of cuteness! 

I did have the experience on dealing with primary school kids and I thought dealing with kindergarten’s children would just be something similar. However, it was proven that it wasn’t that easy as I thought. We need to handle the kids with more attention and care, to guide them with more patience because there is a lot of things that they do not know and they are still in the process of learning.

            I was in-charge of handling the 5 years old children with Jiah Yee, Catherine and Enrick. We have planned 3 interesting activities to be done with them and our first activity was the Ice Breaking Game. Our purpose was to introduce ourselves to the children and for us to get to know them faster by letting the children to introduce their names to us. It was quite challenging to calm them down and to explain the game rules to them because they were very active. We asked the little kids to gather themselves into a circle and gave them a colorful highlighter as the object to pass on when the music is played. And when the music stopped, the child who was holding the highlighter would need to introduce him or herself to us. Some of them were really shy and we need to put more attention on them because they could get emotional easily. However, we were glad that the children were very friendly and they started to get closer to us after the ice breaking game.

            

         After knowing each of them, we had a drawing session with the 5 years old kids. We set a theme for them and they were free to draw anything that is related to the theme. And we promised to .reward the winner who has the best drawing with the presents we had prepared. All of them were very excited and it seemed that they really enjoyed the whole process. We managed to get closer to the kids when we taught them how to draw a particular object.

The theme we set is the Birthday theme. Some of them have very good drawing skills indeed!

            

            Our last planned activity was to teach them the famous Japanese art of paper folding, Origami. We taught them how to fold some simple objects, such as butterflies and ships. This activity has brought us a lot of satisfaction, as we managed to teach the children something that they never learnt before. 

It was their lunch time! And we got to help the teachers to prepare their lunch. =)

            

             It was their napping time after the children had their lunch. Our main jobs in the evening were to help the teachers to clean up the playing area and the surroundings of the kindergarten, and also to do some paper work. We even got the chance to help the children to put on their taekwando outfits and watch them performing the martial art’s moves. I was so impressed of their flexibility and cuteness! 

The kids with their “just woke up” faces. 

They are so adorable!

            

          After all our activities had done, that marked the end of our social engagement activities. It was an interesting experience to spend our day with the little children. From this trip to the kindergarten, I realized that it is important for the children to receive the best education and also have a well-balanced childhood, not just focusing on study but playing around is also a very good learning process. It is our responsibilities to be the role models to the children as they were just like a “blank paper”, waiting for us to fill them with colors, to guide them what is right or wrong, to show them the black and white of the world. The young generations are the future leaders of our country, we should to cultivate them by teaching them how to love and how to give help to others without hoping for a reward. I guess those are the lessons I learnt during the whole process of completing the social engagement’s activities. Even though we have completed our 30 hours of social activities, it just marked a beginning and also a platform for us to start our responsibilities to contribute to the society. Thanks again for giving me this opportunity to gain priceless experiences on contributing to the society and to learn lessons that we could not simply just get from the books. 

Hope to see you all again in the near future! =)