Let’s Play Ball!

Written by: Nadia Lye (CCPE, Yuying Secondary)
Contributed by: Mohammad Shaifudin (GM, Bossaball Singapore)

Event: BossaBall Bonanza @ Yuying Olympic Gala 2008
Date: 4 – 8 August 2008
Venue: Yuying Secondary


Last month marked the 3rd year of Olympic Education Week in Yuying Secondary School.

Preparations for the event started only in mid-May. Why? …because the PE department is short-handed. In spite of that, we unanimously agreed to make this year’s event more refreshing and different from previous years.

‘If you aren't going all the way, why go at all?’- Joe Namath

Thus, began our intense research on an ‘elusive’ new sport that has not been introduced to the school. We were still clueless! Undaunted, we called Bossaball Singapore to gather more information. After much thought, discussions, numerous phone calls, negotiations and meetings, we decided to bring in Bossaball for Yuying’s Olympic Gala.

Weeks before the official opening, a site inspection was conducted by the Bossaball Team and it was decided that the bossaball activities be held in the school hall. Even though the school hall would be perfect for the unpredictable weather, we were worried that the ball would hit and ruin the false-ceiling installed in the school hall. That too, did not stop us from moving forward with our plans!

Ultimately, it boiled down to the event day; the Olympic madness came too soon!

The opening ceremony, held on 4th August, began with a captivating and motivating talk by former Olympian sprinter, Professor C. Kunalan who shared his truly inspirational Olympic journey. Right after that, Bossaball Singapore Team worked their magic. They set up the inflatable court within 2 hours and we were all geared up to start.

The Sepak Takraw C Division boys, student ambassadors for Bossaball Singapore, made their first demonstration to the entire school. It was soon followed by class participation, where they were briefed on how to play the sport and the rules of the game by Bossaball Singapore instructors.

…And The Fun Begins!

We started off with a Bossaball Inter-Class Competition.The students went crazy with excitement!,They tried to find the best players they could in their class so that they could win the match.

The educators didn’t want to miss out on all the excitement too. Teachers who signed up for the sport were scheduled to play on 5th August, with a tryout session followed by a friendly game with Yuying Secondary Alumni. In that same afternoon, invited students and teachers from Bedok View Secondary participated in a bossaball sports clinic.

The day ended with a friendly competition between the teams from Bedok View Secondary School, followed by a prize presentation ceremony. After an intense workout, the students went home feeling exhilarated and satisfied.

Where Sports Meet Music

On the last day of Yuying Olympic Gala, we went to Bishan Park for a Jog-a-thon and yes, we brought Bossaball along with us! The energy level at Bishan Park was higher than it was in school; thanks to the Samba music during the finals, courtesy of the school concert band.

Samba and Bossaball really go well together! We felt the essence of Bossaball - a cross-road where sports meet music!

And that was it.

A whole week of Bossaball in Yuying Secondary. A whole week of mad rushes for the people involved and a whole week of endless fun for the students who could not stop asking for more. Indeed, it was a successful event!

Even the students have become a crazy bunch of Bossaball-ers!

LIVING OUR VALUES

I am sure all of you are aware of our values which are built around our acronym ASPIRE!

• Attitude - In all that we do, we will do our best.
• Service Excellence - We strive to deliver quality and timely service for our customers all the time. We are always prepared to go the extra mile.
• Professionalism - We value the spirit of professionalism. We have a clear sense of commitment, perspective and direction. We have the knowledge, skills and training to do our job well.
• Innovation - We are a learning community. We are continually finding ways of doing new things or doing the same things better.
• Reliability - Our customers trust our capability to support them well and to their satisfaction.
• Ethics - We are honest, and we act with integrity in all that we do .
  

Values are not just words. They are our guideposts that lead us to our goals. To be effective we must live our values on a day-by-day basis. I am sure many of you are doing this, some without even being aware of it.

I would like to take this opportunity to share with you an outstanding example of how one of our CCPEs, Chow Yeow Teck from Pasir Ris Secondary School lived the values in an event that he experienced.

Yeow Teck has been a CCPE for only a few months. On Thursday 7 Aug 08, he accompanied some students for golf practice. One of the students was hit at the back of her head by a golf club during the practice. Yeow Teck contacted her mother immediately after the accident. Subsequently he updated the mother on her daughter’s condition and assured her she was well taken care of. She was not seriously hurt and only complained of slight pain due to a bump on her head.

Upon returning to school Yeow Teck sent the student home by taxi and accompanied her to the lift. Yeow Teck contacted the mother a few times and reminded her to take her daughter to the doctor. The family doctor examined her and confirmed she was well. The next day Yeow Teck spoke to the student’s father enquiring on her condition.

Both parents were very touched by Yeow Teck’s gesture and they really appreciated the help from the school. .The mother wrote a letter of appreciation to the school. Much of the information here is extracted from that letter.

The above incident and Yeow Teck’s response showed clearly the living out of our values of Attitude, Service Excellence, Professionalism and Reliability. Well done Yeow Teck. Keep the ASPIRE! flag flying high in your school.

I am sure that Yeow Teck is not the only CCPE who has lived out the ASPIRE! values in school. If you have, and would like to share the experience with others, please do so. Tell us how you felt and how your response to a particular incident helped you to grow as a person.

Victor Pinto

Team Building Game: Minefield

By Terry Abriel Poh - (CCPE) Anglican High


Group Size: 4-50
Age Range: Primary – adult
Intensity: Mental=3, Physical=2
Time: 10-25 minutes
Space: Minimal – Medium - Lots
Set Up Time: 90 seconds
Props: chairs, paper, hoopla hoops, etc

Objective:

Using your communication skill, you have to get your partner through to the other side of the minefield.

Set Up / Preparation

You (the facilitator) create a "minefield" (obstacle course) using whatever supplies you have on hand. You can also use chairs, paper, hoopla hoops, etc. to create your minefield.

Activity

Participants partner up and everyone stands at one end of the minefield. One partner closes her eyes and steps into the minefield. The other partner uses her voice to guide the person inside the minefield, helping her NOT to touch any of the items in the minefield. Then the fun begins...
There are variations to this teambuilding game including picking up puzzle pieces as you travel through the minefield, avoiding mousetrap, and more.

Rock Climbing @ River Valley Primary!

Rise and shine! - 26th July 2008, Saturday

Saturday mornings usually means no working day, but today I had to go back to school. The event that I have been looking forward to is finally here! Today I’m going to get my Level 1 in sports climbing.

I am an outdoors fan; be it land or sea, although I’ve yet to try anything in the air! I’ve been climbing irregularly at campsites for the past years, but I know it takes more than that to be licensed. I was ready - equipped with long pants and loose-fitting clothes, a water bottle and face towel and set off for my 2nd home, River Valley Primary School.

Upon reaching, the CCPEs headed to the AVA room for a short introduction by our instructor, Wei Zhong. He showed us a couple of important climbing tools, gears and footwear before proceeding to the rock climbing wall for a practical session.

Some of the basic things that climbers need to have to start climbing are as follows:

• A dynamic rope
• A belay device with carabineer
• Climbing harnesses for belay-er and climber
• A helmet (recommended)
• Climbing Shoes and chalk are normally used, although not technically necessary
• And of course a climbing wall ;)

As we proceeded to the rock wall, we learnt how to wear the harness correctly. Though it might not be comfortable at first, you’ll definitely get use to it after a while! Wei Zhong showed us the figure-of-eight loop, tie-in technique, which is to be tied to the climbers’ harness.

After a scrumptious lunch, we practised tying the loop and the went through the belaying techniques before taking turns to climb the wall. Up, up we go!

It was a challenge for me as I had prior minor injuries on my arms. Nevertheless, it was exhilarating, especially when we competed against one another! After much photo-taking and videos, the session soon came to an end.

I would like to thank Amy for organizing this one day course for the CCPEs. A big thank to Wei Zhong too, for sharing his knowledge and for being really patient with us!

It was a indeed a great opportunity for everyone who attended to learn and understand more about sports climbing, as it’s a growing sport among youths not just in Singapore but all over South East Asia. For those who attended - Syazadinah, Fadli, Zhen Ling, Muhammad, Diana, and Joycelyn- we sure had a crazy time together. It’s definitely an awesome bonding session too. I didn’t know that sports climbing requires us to fly ;)

Till our next climbing session. *hint hint*

Signing off,
Wana Zainal

ASPIRE! EDUSERVICES IS ASPIRING FOR THE SINGAPORE QUALITY CLASS (SQC)

Last year Aspire! EduServices achieved ISO status. This year we are going for the SQC (Singapore Quality Class), a certification from Spring Singapore.

SQC is the certification for overall business excellence standard. Based on the internationally benchmarked business excellence framework, the SQC provides organisations with a holistic model for managing a business for excellence. It has 7 categories, namely, Leadership, Planning, Information, People, Processes, Customers and Results.

We hope to achieve SQC certification by November 2008. Right now our Managers and Asst Managers are working hard preparing for the SQC certification. The process is one where we look at our current situation and compare it with the international standards under the Business Excellence Model, and then we chart our action plans to close the gap between where we are now and where we hope to reach.

Besides the management team and staff from the Capstone Group, a few CCPEs are also involved in the planning team. They include Gregory Francis and Norlisham. Thanks guys!

If you would like to find out more about SQC please go to this Spring Singapore’s website http://www.spring.gov.sg/.

Meanwhile we will keep everyone updated on our progress in the SQC journey, and if you would like to join us in this journey, do let us know,

Victor Pinto

Essentials of Team Building

By Terry Abriel Poh - (CCPE) Anglican High

Helping people become respectful competitors, cooperative team members and community leaders is a goal that educators, coaches and recreation and community leaders alike deem worthwhile.

Team building provides individuals and teams physical, social and emotional challenges. Moreover, team building is the conduit by which people achieve these challenges. Specifically, team building is the strategy of facilitating the creation of a team through a series of purposeful activities and then assigning the team carefully constructed physical challenges to overcome. The people on the team must work together to develop and implement a strategy for achieving their objective. Team building allows participants to find out for themselves that the process of achieving a goal is what’s important and that the outcome follows the process. This is an extremely valuable lesson. In addition, team building provides an environment that helps participants understand that failure is only temporary. When one fails, he or she needs to reorganize and try again and in doing so travel a much sweeter path to success.

Team building addresses several specific skills:

Problem Solving
Appropriate risk taking
Building working relationships
Cooperation
Leadership and communication
Creative thinking
Building trust
Making decisions
Setting goals
Developing physical skills


The purpose of me writing this topic is to get CCPEs to share Team Building Challenges on this blog so that all can benefits by using is in their school.


Let me start of by sharing this challenge:

Communication Activities
Title: Group Construction

Setup:
Team members sit in a semicircle with their backs to the center of the circle. They should not be able to see other group members’ toothpicks as they build their designs on the floor.
One team member designated as the construction manager sits with his or her back to the rest of the team on the opposite side of the semicircle. The construction manager places his or her toothpicks on the floor one at a time and attempts to build a design of some kind. After placing each toothpick on the floor, the construction manager orally guides the rest of the team to place their toothpicks in the same position. The construction manager tries to get all the builders to construct the same design that he or she is building.

Rules and Sacrifices:
The construction manager is the only one who can speak.
The construction manager must give directions one toothpick at a time.
No one may look at the construction manager’s design or at any other builder’s design before completion.
The construction manager may not look at the builders’ design before completion.

After the construction manager gives the direction for the last toothpick, the builders and the construction manager look at each other’s designs. How many designs exactly matched the construction manager’s design?

Equipment:
Ten toothpicks for each team member.


P.S. Follow the same guideline when posting your challenges.

CCPE Experience: The Send-Off

By Syaza Dinah

Event: Janice Ding’s Send-Off to Disneyland, HK
Date: 12th July 2008 @ 0645 hours
Venue: Changi Airport,Terminal 3

As part of the CCPE 2nd Anniversary: Ohana Retreat celebrations, Aspire! granted the wish of 11-year-old Janice, through Make A Wish Foundation (MAW). Janice’s dream is to visit Disneyland and meet her favourite Disney Princesses.

Aspire! wasted no time in raising money and a team was formed to organize a rousing send-off for Janice to Disneyland, Hongkong. Led by Zhen Ling, CCPE of Coral Secondary School, the team coordinated and planned a delightfully pink send-off for Janice in the early morning of 12 July. The team, most of whom were in pink (Janice’s favourite colour) presented Janice with a Princess-themed banner, a Disney necklace and sang her a song before her maiden flight. Janice’s wide smile says it all; she was touched by the celebrations.

Needless to say, the send-off party was a success thanks to the hardworking and passionate team of CCPEs. Channel CCPE managed to catch up with Zhen Ling on her experience leading the team.

Channel-CCPE (CC) : Being a new CCPE, how does it feel being put as in-charge of ‘Janice’s Send-Off’?
Zhen Ling (ZL) : Being new, I was naturally a little worried that I would miss out some details but I was really looking forward to the event, and was hoping it would turn out well and memorable for Janice.

CC : What made you want to take up this event?
ZL : I accepted this task as I wanted to give event planning and I felt that this event is really special.

CC : What were the obstacles that you faced while doing the event?
ZL : The management and MAW were very supportive and enthusiastic of our ideas. However, due to the odd-hour of her flight, the send-off was to be held very early in the morning and as such, responses from CCPEs were not as good as we hoped.

CC : Why was the theme song, "You'll Be in My Heart" chosen?
ZL : We wanted to sing to Janice a meaningful Disney song as she is an avid Disney fan and when we asked for suggestions from CCPEs, this song was simply the ‘hot’ favourite.

CC : What are the learning points that you obtained from managing this event?
ZL : This event is very different from the usual events; it is very meaningful because we should not forget to put ourselves in their shoes and consider their feelings in our plans.

CC : How has this event enriched you?
ZL : This event has made me realized that a simple wish that most of us may overlook can be actually very valuable to others and we should never take certain things forgranted.

CC : What advice would you give to future CCPEs if they were to plan an event?
ZL : Do not hesitate to ask seniors for advice. The seniors are always there to guide us.

Thanks once again to Zhen Ling, CCPE of Coral Secondary for sharing her experience with Channel CCPE.