January Update After the Event- DHOD was a success!

This event has been a success! :) I don't know the exact number now, but we had over 300 or at least close to 400 domestic helpers on the day. The day went by pretty smoothly with not a lot of hiccups. Most volunteers did as they were supposed to, but a couple didn't show up or had to leave before due to illness. That is understandable, but is always better to have all hands on deck when needed. I arrived 2 hours before the actual event stated, and had to run up and down asking Hong Yip to have the supplies and tables ready in all locations. We were missing a couple of chairs, and so Hong Yip delivered them soon. I had to confirm some final details with Mrs. Wible about the lucky draw. I also helped a bit with the clothing drive, but Eun Hee had a good grip on what was going on for that, so that was good. The rotations for the different events worked at first but it fell through as helpers began to leave. Overall, it was a very successful event, and we received very positive feedback from the helpers on our facebook page. It was amazing blessing them.

January Update

The two weeks before the event in January, I had to figure out the nit-picky details of the event, like the order of how offering will be collected on Fri/Sat shows, if we're going to talk on stage about the rotations, when the NGOs are introduced, who will be doing what on the day, etc. It was a little stressful and nervewracking to think about all those details sometimes. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and like things to go as they're planned, so I like to have everything covered and ready before the day. I made a volunteer sign-up sheet for Fri/Sat/Sunday where students from the various service-related clubs signed up to help. There were some people who signed up and then said they couldn't go, so that was a little headache. At least they gave advanced notice, or I would be stressing out on the day. The PA graciously supported our event and gave us supermarket vouchers for the lucky draw. Thos were bought in January too. I sent out a final reminder email to the teachers who were doing the workshops and provided them with a schedule of the day and the room they're going to be in. The NGO details were finalized, and Melanie from Helpwise helped to organize them. Oh and during several days afterschool and during the weekend, I helped to sort clothing for the clothing drive. We received A LOT of clothing, which is absolutely amazing. We had all sorts of clothes - baby clothes, children, woman, men, toys, shoes, bags, scarves, etc. Anyways, I just made sure that all the little details were good during these two weeks before the event.

December (and January-ish) Update

This month was the busiest. Details had to be mostly finalised before the break, and most of the communication things were done this month, due to timing. If we advertised back in Sept/Oct, it would probably be too early and the DH would forget about the event. So, advertising one month in advance would be better. (However, we actually ended up advertising a little late - during late december and early January - it still turned out well and we had a good amount of people coming). Regarding the communications things, I put up several posters around school to advertise to the DHs at school. I also spent several days afterschool (in January) and passed out flyers to the domestic helpers directly. Also, during Christmas break, I went out to pass out flyers on the street. My helper was amazing and helped me give some of the flyers to her friends too. Regarding logistics, I made the facilities spreadsheet and volunteer information during the break, so I wouldn't be as swamped during the two weeks back at school before the event. We had Mrs. Nollan post about the event on schoology, but I felt that it didn't receive much feedback. I confirmed details regarding the loctations/scheduling/budgeting with Mrs. Chan, who has been a great help for this event.

November Update

During this month, I sent out emails to teachers who volunteered to help with the various workshops and booths for DHOD. I included information regarding the day and asked them if they needed any student volunteers or materials. Charis and I also began to contact the NGOs, and we received emails back saying that they were interested, and that they were figuring out the manpower. We have monthly meetings about DHOD, where we talk about how communications can spread the word about the event, the logistics, etc. Also, because there was a slight mistake on our 1000 flyers, we had detention students edit each one of them.

October Update

The Domestic Helper Open Day planning has been going well! We're going to begin to contact churches early and mid November, and the logistics of the event are mostly confirmed. There are teachers who volunteered for various workshops, so that has been going well too. We have the design ready and we ordered 1000 flyers and a pull up banner for publicity. We have meetings 1-2 times a month.

MAD Brainstorming - September

Senior year is going to be pretty busy, and I want to do something meaningful during my last year for my mad project. I canceled out the other three ideas I originally had because they weren't as do-able or it didn't fit my schedule. I talked with the service learning office and they said that volunteering at orphanages are hard to work with in Hong Kong. For the library-related and music-related services, I can't do those because I'm busy 3-4 days afterschool, so timing is an issue.

That left me with one. I've been on the committee since last year, so I really enjoyed it. As I have a domestic helper myself, the issue of domestic helpers really speaks to me. So, I've decided to do the domestic helper open day as my mad project. I might switch mad groups because three other people in another mad group are doing the same one. If I can still switch, I'll switch over, but if not, I can still plan/work with them during other times.

12th Grade MAD Brainstorming - August

I'm part of the Domestic Helper Open Day Committee, and I'm one of the heads. I might want to do this as my MAD project, but I'm also interested in doing something outside of school. I know that Hong Kong has a couple of orphanages, and it seems pretty interesting to volunteer at one of those, but I'm not sure how I will be able to arrange that sort of thing. I've never heled out at one before, so I think it'll be a worthwhile experience. There's a list of service opportunities in school that are available, and a couple of those stick out to me. I'm also interested in the library work because I like to be organized, and I think that my skills will go along nicely with those kind of projects. I also saw some opportunities related to music, and I think I can also use my musical knowledge/skills to serve those who are interested in learning. Music plays a large part in my life, and I hope that those being served will be able to share my joy in music.

So, so far my MAD project ideas have been narrowed down to these four:
1) Domestic Helper Open Day
2) Volunteer at an orphanage
3) Help the ES/HS library
4) Music-related services

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.