For the past two weeks, we prepped our students for our 'midterm' examinations. We do not believe in numerical grades and competition goes against our philosophy of encouraging learning for all, especially in an environment like special eds education, so the 'exams' were more like short pass/fail tests designed to evaluate whether students were able to complete a set of basic tasks. Our cohort of 60 students, under the instruction of 4 teachers - 15 students per class - completed all their 'exams' and I am very proud to announce that the passing rate for our midterm reviews is 92%!
1) What went well?
We managed to get several Chromebooks refurbished and sent to our school classrooms by generous donors in Kuala Lumpur, and we also used some of our funds to purchase Chromebooks from second-hand hardware stores. It was a bit of a hefty cost, but we were glad to have equipped all our classrooms with computers capable of running Windows 10 and above to teach students practical IT skills - after all, what us is teaching Windows 8/10/11 to students who can only practice their skills on PCs running Windows XP? This was a rather long process, coordinating between suppliers and going to meet donors in person to pitch our project idea to them.
We designed the midterm reviews around practicality - all of our students were evaluated based on whether or not they successfully met the goals of each programme.
(DONE) Part I: Using money (task 1), using public transportation (task 2), and cooking (task 3)
(TBC) Part II: Reading and writing skills, vis-a-vis two cognitive enhancement skills: Creativity & Logic and Reasoning
For the first part, we accompanied the students as they walked around town in Selangor and completed tasks with our partnered merchants/vendors. For task 1, we gave each children MYR 50 (~USD 10) and a shopping list to hit the grocery stores and markets. They were tasked with getting everything within 30-45 minutes and have to spend the money. We achieved a 100% passing rate here. For task 2, the children had to take the bus back to school from the grocery store/markets, accompanied by our teachers. We achieved a 88% passing rate here. For task 3, the children had to prepare Malaysian staples or classic dishes from their cultures with the ingredients they purchased. They were then free to enjoy their creations! The passing rate is 87.77% here. On average, we achieved a 92% pass rate, which was amazing!
2) What could have been done differently?
Task 2 was very rowdy - getting 60 children across busy public transport was no easy task, and we had some complaints from locals who phoned in later about bus routes getting held up and delayed by our students. In addition, we faced many troubles with donors and suppliers who asked for payment after agreeing verbally to donate their electronics, which was way out of our budget, meaning we had to scrap many deals and look for new ones.
3) What did I learn about myself when working with others?
'Everyday is school day' - I can never, nor will I never, stop learning from my wonderful colleagues and volunteers who are so much more experienced in working with special eds children than I am. As I emphasised, teaching is an inherently collaborative activity, and it can only work when our team believes in each other to work towards a common goal.
4) What did I learn about leadership?
In Week 3, I learned a great deal about confronting my fears and stepping beyond my non-confrontational nature to take on difficult tasks. Reverse the stakeholders and now I am applying the same lessons towards children and their parents, with me meeting the parents of those who did not pass our reviews and having to deliver the news that their child has to repeat the programme, or have the option of dropping out. This week, I learned the power of empathy and sensitivity as a leader - your words, actions, appearances matter to not only the team, but the work you are doing so much.
5) What do I want to develop/focus on next?
Moving forward, we hope to finish Part II without a hitch and to continue discussing the way forward with the families of children who failed our review sessions. I also have some major catching up work to do on the administrative side, so I need to complete them as soon as possible. It has been a hectic 16 days, and as our project move towards its end, I can't wait to see what the future holds for our cohort!