The Squeaky Hammer Day

The meeting started with presenting our hopes and fears about Proj SMILE. CG stole his (poor) niece's squeaky hammer as a prop for this activity.....

Myanmar lesson time!
Everyone had to reach under their chairs for a "secret" piece of paper (aka jigsaw piece) and find their team-mates to assemble the jigsaw together to form a picture.

whaaa, this activity looks engaging eh!

This is the one of the pictures -- traditional costumes of the Burmese. Different races have very subtle differences in their longyi (sarong) and eingyi (blouse/shirt).

Last but not least, embarking on the looooonggg train ride home! yay!

Please select which logo u like .next meeting we vote

mike

LOGO . E

LOGO . D

LOGO . C

LOGO . B

LOGO .A

Collection Drive Appeal

Collection Drive for Myanmar Teachers and Students

Dear NIE community,

Project SMILE – Singapore-Myanmar Igniting Love for Education is a 17-day overseas service-learning project by the NIE Service Learning Club comprising 16 student teachers and NTU Myanmar students. We will be going to Myanmar from 7-23 December 2009 for an educational and cultural project with Myanmar teachers and students.

We will be servicing a village that was affected by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008 - Kayin Chaung Village in Twantay for our main educational and cultural project. Kayin Chaung village is at the heart of a cluster of 6 villages along the river and its sub-high school serves about 1000 students from the cluster. In the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, Singapore donated a hospital to the village and SM Goh Chok Tong officiated the opening of the hospital during his visit to Myanmar in June 2009.

Project Scope and Objectives

1. To seed fund the village community library, refurbish the existing library of Kayin Chaung Sub High School with furniture, English and Myanmar books and train student librarians.

2. To further build up the resource bank for the teachers that was set up in 2008. The bank will comprise of visual learning aids such as large picture books, craft books, magazines with many photographs, posters, flash cards, models, maps, learning toys and art materials.

3. To help students gain interest and acquire a better mastery of English through English workshops focused on Reading, Speaking and Writing skills (Phonics, Dialogue, Drama, Storytelling and Postcard) organized by our team with the Myanmar teachers.

4. To conduct Science, Art and Craft, Social Studies enrichment workshops and organize a Learning Festival with the teachers and students in Kayin Chaung Sub High School. The Learning Festival comprises of a cultural concert, games booths and learning booths where students will demonstrate what they have learnt in the workshops to their peers.

5. To conduct Teachers Sharing Sessions between NIE student teachers and Myanmar teachers to exchange ideas and teaching experiences.

Appeal for Sponsorship and Visual Learning Aids
Project SMILE needs your help! We hope that you can contribute in the following ways:

1. Help us seed fund the village community library and refurbish the school library

We aim to raise SGD4000 to seed fund the building of a village community library and build tables and chairs, bookshelves, buy Myanmar and English books and train student librarians for the school library. Please contact us if you wish to be a sponsor.

2. Contribute Visual Learning Aids for the Teachers Resource Bank

We have set up a collection box at Level 1 in the Student Hub (UiD) for the following items from 26 October to 26 November 2009 or you can contact us and we will collect from you directly.

§ Flash cards, Maps and Posters

§ Large Picture books and Magazines with Large Photographs

§ Art, Science books, Picture Dictionaries

§ Learning toys and Board Games, Globes and Models

§ Art Materials (Paper, markers, paints, brushes), Stationery

§ White tops and Green Bottoms/Skirts (Standard Uniform in Myanmar)

For more information, please contact Li Jun at 9151 9406 / Siew Kuang 9239 5993 or email us at nieprojectsmile@gmail.com. You can also visit our website nieprojectsmile.blogspot.com

Yours Sincerely,

Teo Siew Kuang

Project Leader

Project SMILE 2009

Minutes of 08/10/09

MINUTES OF PROJECT SMILE TEAM MEETING HELD ON 081009 AT1915 HOURS

Present:

Chin Guan

Siew Kuang

Liz

Kay Khine Win

Ain

Serene

Yong Yan

Adrian

Kyaw

Li Jun

June

Darren

Leong Hwee

Absent:

Lisa

Wan Ting

Mike

Ei Kyaing Soe

1 Commencement of meeting

The meeting was commenced by Siew Kuang at 1915 hrs. Briefing of agenda.

2 Myanmar Lesson

New words for the day. Practice with partner.

0- thoun-ya

1- tic

2- nit

3- thoun

4- ley

5- nga

6- chao

7- kun-nit

8- shit

9- ko

10- se (tic-se)

1s- ku

10s- se

100s- ya

1000s- tao

10 000s- thaung

100 000s- thein

How much?: bei laut lei

how much is this?: da bei laut lei

money: kyat

no: mer ho bu

yes/ok: hote

can lower the price?: neh neh shou ba

teacher (girl): sayama

teacher (man): saya

3 Sub-Committees Update

SK

Myanmar Air International (MAI) will give us $100 discount, so we only have to pay $250 for airtickets. Excess baggage allowance of 60-80 kg per person. They will also help in airport clearance. For our part, we will have to help them in corporate social responsibility and publicity. Projectsmile will be featured in their flight magazine and we will have to raise awareness of MAI to Singaporeans. SK will need to confirm tickets and the main team will depart from singapore one day earlier (6th dec) to buy misc stuffs. The rest (tentatively June, YY, Serene) will join them on the 7th dec. NB: For those who wants to stay in Myanmar longer, they will need to confirm with SK whether to apply for the 1 month ticket.

CG

Brief logistics committee to lias with Phyllis/Shantini. (Coordinator in charge of SLC). Aloha changi chalet will be an alternative team retreat because P.Ubin might be booked or YEP leadership training.

Local Project

Serene and YY has finished the proposal and fixed the date on 31st Oct (Sat) 3pm-5pm with Tampines CDAC. There will be 18-20 children and we will need 4 volunteers. They are going to introduce Myanmar (culture, language) to the children an there will be a card making session. It will take about 1hr 20mins and we will provide materials for the children. NB: Other members can try to ask if we can execute this project in other schools by this Sun 11/10/09. (We need about 4 schools)

Programme

Thinking of using of songs and drama to teach english to the students. If any other members have suggestions, do let the programme team know. (:

Fundraising and Sponsorship

There will be a bazaar on the last week of Oct in NIE. (26th, 27th, 28th Oct) Projectsmile will try to call as many vendors as possible as we will also have a booth to collection drive. Roster duty will be plan for these 3 days. NB:Members please send your timetable to google docs so that they can plan the roster. Li Jun has called 4 external organizations for sponsorship. SK will send them a record sheet template to record the donations and for future documentation. NB: If any members have any contacts to other external organizations, do let the fundraising comm know.

Secretrial/Welfare

Blog is up and still work-in-progress. Do feel free to post anything. (If not it will just be dull minutes of meeting). The contact list is consolidated and will be uploaded in google doc.

4 Facilitation Exercise

Members to think through these questions and we will do this activity for the next meeting. 1. What are your hopes for the outcome of this project? 2. What are your project fears? Name 3 personal hopes and fears and 5 things as group)

5 End of meeting

Meeting ended at 9pm

Important Announcement:

1. There will be no meeting next week 15/10/09 due to the crazy assignment deadlines and markings. We will see you on 22/10/09. Have a good break!

2. Do note down all the dates and NBs. (in bold)

Minutes of 01/10/09

Mingalabar! I took the liberty to change the template because the orange was abit too bold and loud. Boomz colour, you know? I will "beautify" this webpage soon. Need some help on this from the experts. So anyway, here is the minutes of meeting for 01/10/09.

MINUTES OF PROJECT SMILE TEAM MEETING HELD ON 011009 AT1915 HOURS

Present:

Chin Guan

Siew Kuang

Liz

Kay Khine Win

Lisa

Wan Ting

Serene

Yong Yan

Adrian

Mike

Kyaw

Li Jun

June

Darren

Leong Hwee

Absent:

Ain

Ei Kyaing Soe

1 Commencement of meeting

The meeting was commenced by Siew Kuang at 1915 hrs.

2 Introduction

The meeting started off with a self introduction (again) and sharing of the “Burma” experience from Robert. He recommended the book “River of the Lost Footsteps” to find out more about the Burmese life/people.

3 Myanmar Lesson

Recap of previous lesson and new words for the day. Practice with partner.

Hello: Mingalabar

My name is --: Jiak ma/Je naw namae ---- ba

Please to meet you: Tway ya da wan dab a tae.

How are you? Nay kaung la?

I’m good: Kaung ba tae

Not so good: Ma kaung babu

What is your name? Nanmae belou kor der leh?

Have you eaten? Ta min sar (eat) pi bi la (la is like a question)

I have eaten: Sar pi bi

I have not eaten: Ma sar ya thay bu

How old are you? A thet ber lout (how) shi p lae

How much? Ber lout lae

Want to eat? Sar bae

Thank you: Kyei (jay) zu tin ba deh/ kyei zu bae

4 Journaling

Each member is advised to have a little journal book for reflection, thoughts, notes etc. It will be a ‘diary of their memories’ in Myanmar too.

5 Committee Update

Secretary/welfare/culture combined due to Josephine’s withdrawal. (Kay, June and Lisa ) They have to do maintain and decorate the blog (tagboard etc). Upload minutes and other docs to the blog. There will be two blogs: ProjectNIE is a locked blog to be passed on. ProjectNIESMILE is an archive to be publicized.

6 Sharing of last year ProjectSmile by Siew Kuang

SK went through the objectives of the project to get members familiarize of what we are doing. The PowerPoint slides for last year can be downloaded in the Google docs. This year’s fundraising money will be for the refurnishing of the library. SK briefed through the idea of collection drive of books, toys, science and sports equipment. She also shared what she has presented to her school today. (Idea of gift voucher)

Interval

Chin Guan to the rescue! Pizza dinner!!

7 Retreat Venue & Date

Proposed Date: 27^th, 28^th, 29^th Nov. P.Ubin Fri 11am- Sun 12pm

8 Sub-Committees Update

Chin Guan has submitted proposal to Myanmar embassy and YEP. Members have to download medical form from their emails and to seek their doctors for medical examination. The project proposal will be uploaded to Google docs for reference. Welfare and Culture: They need suggestions on local traditional tibits to bring over when the time comes. Brainstorm on the performance by NIE students. Select Myanmar songs to perform.

Treasurer: Wan Ting has set up an account for ProjectSmile 2009. She will get the claim form template from SK.

Programme: Liz talked about introducing the concept of cooperative learning. Exact details to work out later.

Fundraising and Sponsorship and Grants: Li Jun and Leong Hwee need to contact NLB or other bookshops for donation of books. They can also write in to schools for big books or science equipments. The corporate sponsorship template will be uploaded to the Google docs. They will have to keep a database for those who have donated. Chin Guan will upload Letter of Endorsement on Google docs for fundraising proposal.

Local Project: YY and Serene has proposed about going to schools on the first week of November. There will be a cultural experience from Myanmar. Students can write a letter or card to the Myanmar children.

Logistic: Darren and Adrian will have to work out on transportation and storage space for collection drive.

9 Action Summary

Secretary has to sort out the admin stuffs (filing the docs in order etc). The blog has to be updated and decorated. Treasurer to have an accounting file. Kay and Mike to prepare the next Myanmar lesson. Each member to bring journal for facilitation next week.

10 End of meeting

Meeting ended at 915pm

Mingalabar! Jer-ma nan-meh Wan Ting ba..
Here is the bank account to which you would transfer the necessary funds to: POSB savings 038-84811-9.

There will be 3 types of accounts - Shopping, Donations, Group.
The Shopping account will contain all the money we are going to spend during the trip for entertainment purposes. As a guide, you may want to transfer S$50 - S$100, whereby S$1 = 780 Kyats (estimated). (P/S: Myanmar uses USD-Kyat currency exchange rate.)
The Donations account will contain all the donations that we've gathered.
The Group account will contain the S$600.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL RECEIPTS PERTAINING TO THIS YEP ARE TO BE PASTED ONTO THE RECEIPT FORM AND ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SUBMITTED TO WAN TING. The purposes of the money used must also be stated.

Below is the picture of the book that Liz was passing around on Thursday, just in case you all want to see it again..

Mingalabar!

Welcome to Project SMILE 2009!