It was a calm past two weeks as we continued with the second part of our lessons. Unfortunately one family has decided to withdraw their child from our programme - we are very sad to see them go! The rest has enrolled in an intensive programme designed to help their child catch up after the midterms, and they are set to retake the assessments next week.
1) What went well?
Our team spent the first two days of the week reflecting on our successes as a cohort and identifying exactly where excelled, where we failed, and where we can move forward from there. It was a nice bonding moment as we look back on the past month, seeing our accomplishments and how we have gone so far as a team. We created a mind map of the challenges we continue to face, e.g., students losing interest, (seldom) unruly classes, minor admin issues, and devise solutions to them one by one.
(TBC) Part II: Reading and writing skills, vis-a-vis two cognitive enhancement skills: Creativity & Logic and Reasoning. We plan to set our assessments during the first week of July as a 'wrap-up' for the programme.
2) What could have been done differently?
We are still working on how to make the intensive programme as suitable to the needs of each child - there are 4 that we look after, and two families have asked our teaching staff to help their child outside of school with extra 'study hours.' We are still debating over whether or not we should proceed with this, since it would create unnecessary stress on the children - after all, we do not want to replicate normal schooling - in fact, we don't believe in the way Malaysian public education teaches its pupils at all. Right now, we are keeping it to normal schooling hours.
3) What did I learn about myself when working with others?
These two weeks are all about celebrating and reflecting - looking back at our progress for the past 5 weeks, feeling incredibly proud of ourselves and what we can achieve and have achieved as a team. When we started this project in June, we felt a lot of uneasiness - are we ready to take on such a dynamic group of young minds, hungry to learn? We weren't ready for a classroom (maybe except some of us), let alone a special education one. We felt a lot of self-doubt, moments in which we feel someone can do the job better than us. But no - we powered through, and delivered real, quality results to very satisfied parents.
4) What did I learn about leadership?
Celebrating progress with your team and feeling the joy derived from your hard work is as much a part of leadership as the other 'nitty-gritty' bits of leading. We needed these moments of reflection, bonding, and celebration as a team - be it through informal chats after work, or a team outing at a great restaurant where we all enjoyed ourselves. A leader encourages and welcomes these moments, not only because it's fun, it makes the team a pleasant place to be in.
5) What do I want to develop/focus on next?
Once again, we hope to wrap up Part II and the final assessments for the programme without a hitch. As my summer project comes to an end, I'm feeling quite emotional - it's been one long journey with this phenomenal team, and I'm sure to keep in touch with all of them even after our programme ends - who knows, what if we want to do more of it in the future!