Wednesday 23 January 2008

Talking about Pasir Panjang Heritage

I was at a workshop for teachers last Friday at the Singapore Management University (SMU). During that session, NHB revealed the interesting heritage calendar of theirs.

I was there, supposedly to give pointers about heritage projects. However, my talk was preceeded by none other than the Pei Hwa Secondary students and teacher from the Jalan Kayu Trail. During their rehearsal I realised they were going to cover similar issues so I hastily amended my slides while watching them.

Indeed the Pei Hwa students and teacher did an excellent job of covered all the learning points the audience possibly needed to hear about. I enjoyed the presentation and could empathise very well with their experience!

By the time I went up on stage, the teachers had been listening to a lot of serious stuff since the first presentation about NHB activities. So asking them to to sit back and relax worked very well as the final element. I had decided to resort to pure story-telling about Pasir Panjang. By emphasising stories, I hope it would remind them about the core around which we build our activities.

I had actually been scratching my head right up to the moment as to the exact delivery method and point to emphasise. However, once I went up on stage, their faces provided the feedback I needed and we had fun.

The teachers responded very well and several came to say they enjoyed it. That was good to know and I thought even as they thanked me that the teachers probably knew everyone needs encouragement and positive feedback was an important thing to provide.

I also ran in to our friends from the National Archives - Stanley, Sujin and Eileen. We conspired as usual, and since I had worked out my annual plan for Toddycats, I was able to confirm the 2008 dates really early this time.

The next post will have it!

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