
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 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)