Other Services

• Tung Wah Cafe (summer)
• English oral practice (summer)
• English activities Days at ICS (before school started)
• English phonics course with GIN (august)
• Taught English on another Saturday with GIN (november)
• and more GIN - GIN852 volunteering (november) - I helped with the finance, was a Gang assistant, and fair booth assistant.

(pictures later)

English Oral Practice

I went to a service center in Shatin Wai and helped people around my age with their oral English. We used a variety of means to help them learn - articles, movies, skits, stories, etc. It was an enjoyable experience. I went every Friday for 8 weeks.

Domestic Helper Open Day

I'm also helping with the Domestic Helper Open Day in January.

I'm mostly helping with the art gallery display, booths, and clothing drive.

11th Grade MAD Update

Here are a couple of pictures of the previous services our service team went on:

Mid Autumn Festival:

We held a booth in the mid autumn festival the Shek Mun Estate hosted. We had beanbag games and tattoos.

Animal Shelter:

We helped out at an animal shelter and helped to clean cages, bowls, etc. We also had a chance to play with some dogs.

Dog Biscuits for Charity

 
We made dog biscuits for an organization that would use the funds to help the dogs in their shelter.

Board Game Service:

We had a day where we learned skills on how to use board games to help families communicate better.

Games at Shek Mun Estate:

We helped lead games for kids at the Shek Mun estate. We gave them prizes and overall had a lot of fun.
Passing out meal boxes to the homeless:

We passed out dinner to the homeless in Sham Shui Po. It was the first time I've done something of this sort, so it was a great experience.

During Christmas, we'll be hosting a Christmas fun day for children at ICS.

MAD Update

For this year's MAD project, I ended up deciding to do a project with Rachel Mok. Our MAD project is a service team. This service team started last year, where we also participated in a variety of services, some of which includes helping the mentally disable, helping low-income families, hosting fun days for children, and others.

Link to our MAD proposal:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17Y0v4_C1dOX4wdiwX6GNoiLyddOMlQ70IbzbCZKhzrE/edit?usp=sharing

This year, in addition to participating in servics, we also to lead and plan them.

So far, we've attended around five services - a mid autumn festival fun day with children, two services regarding pets, organizing games with children, and passing out meal boxes to the homeless.

So far, it's been pretty smooth, but the commitment levels of the people on the team vary. Some have last minute things going on and as a result are unable to attend the service.

MAD Update (March 25, 2015)

The last time we helped Mrs. Wilson was two weeks ago. Yesterday, she was sick, so we were unable to help her. Two weeks ago, Victoria and I helped Mrs. Wilson grade papers and input the grades into the gradebook. We entered scores for worksheets, quizzes, reflections, and tests. We had some problem figuring out where to put the extra credit, but we figured it out in the end.

Our group is starting to write reflection papers and prepare the presentation.

MAD Update (March 10, 2015)

Today, for my MAD project, Rachel, Victoria, and I helped Mrs. Wilson to make a pi bulletin board. From now on, every one will help Mrs. Wilson on Tuesday because only one person can make it on Monday. Tiffany was absent, so she couldn't attend. Anyways, we came up with a design to make a tree and have the numbers of pi emerging out of it, spreading across the length of the board. I mainly constructed the tree. Rachel came up with the idea to use pins and string to make the tree. You put pins on the outline of the shape you want, and then you use string to wrap around, over, or under the pins to form a shape. (pictures will be put on soon). I helped to cut out a few cartoons Mrs. Wilson printed out.

As we are nearing the end of our MAD project, it made me think about helping teachers. This MAD project has allowed me to greater understand and appreciate what teachers in ICS do. They put in a lot of effort to help us learn through interesting ways. Mrs. Wilson changes her bulletin board every unit to keep the students interested in math. I really admire that about her. Applying this to my life, I should continue to do the best in whatever task I am given, whether it regard teaching, projects, etc.

Wednesday Tutoring (March 4, 2015)

Today, I helped to tutor a guy in 8th grade. He knows some Cantonese, but has some difficult speaking reading pinyin. First, I helped him with his worksheet. He needed to write down the locations of various rooms. Then, I helped him with his typing. He didn't know the pinyin to some of the words, so I helped him with that. Lastly, he needed to write an essay about his dream school. The worksheet and typing exercise helped him, and he was able to write the essay more independently.

MAD Update (March 4, 2015)

This Tuesday, I helped Mrs. Wilson with two main things - grading papers and making garbage bag costumes for Trash and Fashion.

We graded a class's papers. Some of the questions were difficult to grade, because there were multiple parts to it.

Rachel cut the letters that made the word "trash and fashion" out, and I helped to tape them onto rubbish bags. The students will cut holes into it and wear it.

Helping Mrs. Wilson has allowed me to have a greater appreciation of the teachers in ICS. They work really hard to provide the best learning opportunity for us.

Tai Po Organic Farm (Feb. 7, 2015)

On that Saturday, I went with a couple of other students to an organic farm, the same organic farm I have been going to for a couple of times.

First, we went into the plant nursery and planted corn. We poked holes into the soil, put one kernel of corn into each hole, and swept extra dirt in the end to fill up the hole.

Afterwards, we transplanted a mixed variety of vegetables from their trays onto a larger plot of soil.

Lastly, we dug up sweet potatoes and removed leaves from the plot.

MAD Update (February 3, 2015)

Today, I went with another student to help Mrs. Wilson. This time, I helped her grade a few "pre-tests" and sorted the students based on what they knew about the unit already. Mrs. Wilson told me to sort it by "those who know nothing", "those who know a little", and "those who know a lot". Afterwards, I helped to cut and mount cartoons about systems of equations and absolute values onto a bulletin board. I took down the old cartoons from the previous unit and replaced them with the new ones that Victoria and I searched for before. I helped to organize one of her tables a bit.

SWD Meetings Afterschool (January 26 & February 2)

For the past two Mondays, I attended SWD Meetings. We talked about our upcoming service and planned activities for it. Here is a summary.

Wednesday Tutoring (Jan. 28, 2015)

Last Wednesday, I tutored a different middle schooler. This sixth grader was absent for a few classes and needed to make up her unit test. So, I helped her review for her test. We mainly focused on vocabulary and sentence structure. I would write the pinyin or chinese word and she would write the definition and the pinyin/chinese word.

Show Choir Domestic Helper Open Day - January 18, 2015

This has been one of the most meaningful and enjoyable services I have ever participated in. I heard that a domestic helper received a new phone in a lucky draw, and it was her birthday! :)  I originally signed up to help at the "vintage shop". But in the end, I ended up doing many different roles. I was also a food server, an usher, and I helped at other booths too. It didn't matter. When the "vintage shop" was open (basically a free clothes station), all the domestic helpers rushed in and took the clothing. In 10-15 minutes, 95% of the clothing was gone. I helped to advertise the card-making booth and passed out free cards. I gave directions and help to those who needed it. When the event was over, I was part of the "tear-down crew" and removed posters and decorations.

I loved serving the domestic helpers. Domestic helpers sacrifice a lot to come to Hong Kong to serve us, so serving them was a nice change. It brought warmth to my heart when I saw the joy in their faces.

SWD Meeting (Reflection) - December 31

We had a meeting to reflect on our service and to discuss what we wanted to do next.

MAD Update (January 27, 2015)

So yesterday, I continued to help Mrs. Wilson for my MAD project. This time, I helped her organize links, mainly videos, into the correct folder on Schoology. I helped to organize around 4-5 mathematics chapters. Personally, I love to order things and make sure that things are neat and orderly. I enjoyed doing this kind of service.

Tutoring Every Wednesday

Every Wednesday for one hour, I help to tutor a middle schooler with her Chinese. I mostly work with her on vocabulary and sentence structure. As she practices her vocabulary, I am able to see improvement.

before

after

MAD Update (January 19, 2015)

Today, Victoria and I had our first real MAD service. We helped Mrs. Wilson do two main things - enter grades into the grade book and find pictures or cartoons about the future math units they will be doing. I would read the grades out loud, and Victoria will type it into the computer. It was more difficult if the names were not in order. When that happened, we had to search for the name. We found cartoons about absolute values, inequalities, and systems of equations. I found some quite interesting cartoons.

I could tell that Mrs. Wilson was glad that we helped her. She said that she had a lot of grading to do, and that we helped remove hours of work for her. Overall, it was a great first service. I look forward to the next one. :)

MAD Update (January 16, 2015)

We intended to start our MAD service project on Tuesday. Rachel and I went to help Mrs. Hunter on Tuesday. However, we didn't know that another MAD group was helping Mrs. Hunter too. So, I went to help Mrs. Wilson instead to even out the number of helpers per teacher. But, we had a few miscommunications and Mrs. WIlson forgot that we were helping on Tuesday. So, we weren't able to help that day.

We're making some changes to our plan. Starting next week, we're helping only Mrs. Wilson every week on Mondays and Tuesdays afterschool. So, two people will be going on Monday and two on Tuesday. We haven't really decided who will go on which day because it depends on who is available.

To improve what we are currently doing, we should communicate better with Mrs. WIlson.

Food Angel - December 30

I went with a few other students to help at a Food Angel in Sham Shui Po. I was under 16, so I couldn't help in the kitchen. I was fine with it because that meant that I could interact with the elderly more. Before the elderly came for lunch, we had to do some preparation work. Some people generously donated numerous boxes of kiwis. We sorted the kiwis and thew away the bad or moldy ones. When the elderly came, I helped them get their name tags and helped them to find a seat. Before we served them their food, another student and I walked around and chatted with the elderly. I could tell that a lot of them were pleased that we came. After we were introduced, we began to serve them. I served them tea or water, depending on their request. I passed out plates of food. Some of the elderly had specific requests for their food, such as having less rice and more vegetables. So, I had to remember those requests and relayed the message to the cooks. I also helped pass out refills to those who wanted it. When I didn't have much to do, I would walk around and chat with the elderly. They are really kind and welcoming.

Overall, this service took around 2 hours. However, time flew by as I served them. I was serving them, but in the end, they were the ones that served me too. They gave me joy and satisfaction. The other students and I even thought about staying and helping with the dinner shift. I would love to come here to serve the elderly again.

(Pictures will be up soon)

Christmas Fun Day at Heng On Community Center - December 13

On December 13, I went with other people from the GIN Education for All group and helped host a fun Christmas day for members of the Heng On community. In total, we had two booths with games. One of the games was to pick up marbles using chopsticks. The other game was to sort candies by their color. It was difficult to find games that would fit young children and elderly. The participants had to meet a requirement in order to receive a stamp from us. When they received all six stamps from the different booths, they could receive a prize.

I was warned that the event would be chaotic, but I didn't expect it to be that chaotic. Once the doors were opened, families rushed in and started line up for our booths. I was in charge of the "sort the candies by their color" booth. Originally, I had set the time for 45 seconds. However, the line was moving too slowly, so we opened another line and lowered the time and expectations for the participants. I timed them as they played and gave almost everyone a stamp. This went on for around 1 and a half hours.

After this entire event, I was exhausted from the people and the noises. But, I enjoyed serving the Heng On Community and knowing that I brought joy to the families. Christmas is a time for giving. This service embodied Christmas's meaning.