Due to COVID we were not able to prepare for a large conference overseas or locally. We were creative though and managed to organise an opportunity to run activities with the G5 cohort who were doing a Peace Unit and worked with the Head of Grade and High School Vice Principal to get time during the G11 Orientation to run a workshop. I would go on to run the entirety of the online session with assistance from a range of different people.
I was excited to have this opportunity and gave us a real chance to introduce the concepts of peace, conflict and peacebuilding into many student’s lives and inspire them to pursue their own journeys of understanding. It might even help in reducing potential areas of conflict in future, building a more constructive and inclusive school environment.
The initial round of ideas for the activities we planned on running went well. We as an activity split into a number of groups, each tasked with developing an entire programme including a topic, an activity and a conclusion. The final execution also went well, at least on my end, but the lead up to the event was a little uncertain. Due to the changing nature of COVID restrictions we didn’t know the number of students in each classroom or whether we’d even be in person. It was a little distressing, but we pushed through and came together in the final moments to deliver a smooth and hopefully impactful workshop.
The workshop itself consisted of a series of concepts delivered through an activity and discussion. This follows the basic principles of IFP which aims not to teach, but facilitate learning and create a space for self exploration and each individual developing their own understanding of the concepts being presented.
We were subdivided into groups of about 5 and each team was tasked with finding a concept to teach the G11s and designing an activity that helped illustrate the concept or work as a foundation for discussion. In the end each concept was similar to each other, but from different angles and so the workshop as a whole meshed well together and built a comprehensive journey around the themes of conflict and communication.
The workshop worked by a member or 2 from each team delivering their activity and then rotating with another team after a set time. The first team also delivered the ice breaker and intro to the workshop and the last team presented the conclusion and thank you to whichever class they were in. There was a rotation of 3 activities between intro and conclusion.
Through this experience I’ve learnt more about dealing with uncertainty. Throughout the planning process not much was known about how we were to deliver the content or precisely when. Until we gathered together a week before the event did we learn the sizes of the groups as well as that we wouldn’t present as a whole group but as pairs or threes. COVID has presented a challenge in all aspects of life, and being directly part of planning an event has really taught me to appreciate the way our school has been able to be so dynamic even when managing over 2000 students.
I helped to organise and run the online session, which meant designing ‘breakout rooms’ for each participants to use. The school used a version of Google Meet which does not have this feature in built, so I designed a spreadsheet to organise the groups and provide links to separate video calls to join. This allows the quite large number of online students (~25-30) to break into smaller groups for the discussion like activities. I then floated between the different meet calls to check everyone was ok and created a Google Chat group for any other questions or issues that came up so I could reply easily without them having to search for me among the different calls. This has shown me just how much I enjoy doing logistical work and hosting events in a technical capacity.
LO3
I helped plan an introductory workshop to peace and conflict in the context of communication presented to all G11s at the start of year orientation day. I was part of one subgroup that planned one of the 3 activities and also later took responsibility for planning the logistics for the online students participating.
The outcome was successfully facilitating a peacebuilding workshop, hopefully communicating basic concepts of peace and conflict and how they can easily arise when communicating on the most basic of subjects. Using the measure that the students enjoying the workshop and having insightful conversations, then the workshop was a success. I was able to watch many of the students engage in deep debate in some of the activities and even spoke to some when I saw them in school and they applauded the energetic and fun way I had run the workshop.
We begin by first simply designing activities and concepts related to peace. We then had to adapt this to the group size restrictions and weren’t able to simply do whole group tasks. Even later in the planning process we learnt some students would not be able to attend in person and so I took over and worked with a teacher to organise the system to facilitate the online students as well as adapting all the activities to work online.
During the event itself I faced many challenges both technical and statistical. The first issue was managing the presentation as well as multiple communication streams. I tried to use as few different apps as possible and organise the schedule and groups as clearly as possible in one document. The other major issue was the uncertainty in which students would join. Some were in different time zones, others were in person and a handful didn’t turn up. I managed this by simply reorganising groups on the fly and telling people which calls to join if there were only two or three of them. Also having a central Group Chat helped to message everyone at once or have people ask questions whether technical or relating to the activities and concepts.
For the major decisions such as venue, group sizes and in person or online I very much went with the flow. Due to the scale of the pandemic there is not much we can do and we have to be flexible enough to deal with the changes occuring in school and the wider Singapore context.
I hope that in future I will respond in a similar fashion. I like to believe I helped refocus the group from worrying too unnecessarily on aspects we couldn’t control and focusing instead on core and shared parts of the project that wouldn’t change regardless of the which uncertain choice was made. I think I’d do this because of the analytical way I approach problems and the big picture view I sometimes take which allows me to see how everyone falls into nitpicking details that don’t need to be worried about just yet (but I still acknowledge the impact and importance of those issues).
LO5
I collaborated with the entire IfP team to organise the workshop. The teachers included. We also split into smaller groups to plan the specific activities to be run.
Knowing the people from my group from other classes or activities made collaborating easier as I felt comfortable sharing ideas or sharing critique and there was a positive friendly atmosphere. We also had all learnt the same concepts and could therefore communicate ideas using the same language.
One of the biggest challenges is having a clear vision and direction when choosing the specific activities and overall theme of the workshop. Interestingly enough there was a lack of ideas when coming up with the overall theme and so the teachers had to help us use brainstormed words and ideas into a coherent statement.
This then helped guide our activities more clearly. Some challenges couldn’t be solved because of the uncertainty of the situation and so questions like how big we should plan the group sizes to be were left to be determined later and we had to design in flexibility and plans for what to do with smaller or larger group sizes.
I doubt anyone could achieve the variety and quality of the workshop in the space of time we had alone. It was essential that we had the numbers to plan so many activities in such detail and the teachers played a vital role in securing times and logistics as well as helping to organise materials.
I think being more vocal about new ideas could help spark conversation, particularly when no one else is offering ideas. This isn’t to say my idea would be accepted, but hopefully I can help break the ice, so to speak, in future.
Evidence
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jXHteEqS69shZB81RbaA0yIn5Lj0u2J0JZInq5WS9nw/edit?usp=sharing
