This was my first year participating in Culturama and it was an incredibly rewarding and exhilarating experience. (LO1) I knew I wasn’t the most coordinated dancer, but felt if I practiced long enough I would be able to pull off the audition. (LO2) When it came down to the dress rehearsals leading up to the performance date, the pressure to eradicate mistakes grew larger. During our first dress rehearsal I had forgotten a bit of the dance and had also shown up late, coming from a volleyball game and having to perform in my jersey. When on stage, I felt a constant stream of anxiety of messing up, the dance required precise synchronization therefore even the smallest mistakes were prominently seen. Initially I would laugh as part of me felt embarrassed and stupid, then to be told my laughing was unprofessional and obvious. Being in this highly tense dancing environment was a new climate to me, and took me a while to understand the importance of focus and the idea that the frustrations the choreographer were experiencing was not directed at me and my character, but my focus and synchronisation, which were skills I could easily improve on. (LO5) The final shows were smooth and incredibly fun as once I understood the dance more, I was able to relax and enjoy the moment.
Volleyball season has always been a peak point of my school year, the warm sense of family you receive from team sports is often hard to replicate elsewhere. Entering this years team, it is quite obscure to see so many new faces as more than half of our previous members have recently graduated. Nonetheless I am incredibly excited. Personally I believe volleyball is an incredibly complex sport, and is much more than just physical activity. It has engrained a myriad of lessons that have proved greatly beneficial to my character on and off the court: Communication, Quick and strategic thinking, tenacity and commitment being a few of them.
(LO1) This year I hope to help shape a team that is constantly energetic and motivated. Personally, the importance of team spirit cannot be stressed enough. Although one team may be more skilled than another, I believe spirit is the driving force of a groups success. It is that flare and determination within each player on the team that pushes them to strive for success, and sets them apart from other teams. This idea closely relates to the theory of GRIT. Grit is defined as the sustained and continued effort over long period of time and is the skill that I believe makes an individual or a team ‘successful’. It is a skill that volleyball has helped me refine, and benefits me greatly as it transcends outside of the court and into every aspect of my life; academic, social and personal. Regarding my personal goals for this season, I will push to improve on my hitting and defensive skills on court. Furthermore I would like to develop and continue to refine my leadership skills. I could do this through subtle advances of taking initiative to lead warmup, or simple remembering to support and encourage other team mates.
Our first game against Dover: Entering this game there was a unified sense of dread, with glimpses of optimism. UWC Dover have always been our biggest rivals, in most sports I believe the competition runs deep. Last year we had won most of our games except for games against dover, beating dover has always been the last tier on the ladder that we haven’t reached. Last year in Dragons Invitational we had beaten them. It was a glorious moment with the whole bleachers crowded in East supporters cheering triumphantly with every win. This year Dover was the second game we’d play as a new team and although we had won our first game, as team members we wear still settling into the flow of our team. During the game I felt an incredible sense of responsibility, I felt driven to prove that our team could put up a fight. We won the first set, lost the next two sets, won the fourth set and battled vigorously to win the fifth set 17-15. So many moments in the game we were dead tied, or the score would fluctuate between loss and win. Winning the game was incredibly redeeming and motivating, especially since our seasac endeavours led to relegation. It proved to us that even though we have a new team, we have incredible spirit and potential.
With every member’s identity poster sprawled across the floor, we spent one whole session simply reading them. It was an incredible hour and a half as I was amazed by the stories, memories and characters this relatively small group held. It was incredibly eye opening as it showed me how easily I had overlooked the sheer uniqueness of each individual, and how I had began to stop trying to make new friends, and meet new people as I’d grown comfortable in my bubble of familiarity and safety. It is incredibly easy for one to drown under the rigorous IB workload and the noise and bustle of such large school. Even though I’ve only attended IFP for a few sessions, I believe the value in it is already greatly evident. (LO4) IFP requires quite a lot of commitment, as its scheduled at 4:30-6 on a tuesday afternoon, it’s often easy to fall into the habit of skipping sessions in order to complete the mounds of work we receive. (LO2) And though I found it extremely challenging to be transparent and open when discussing issues of personal conflict and struggle, the outcome is much more rewarding once I did, as I’d often find commonalities with others which in turn made the experience of sharing a vulnerable aspect of oneself much easier.
(LO1)The first session began with us discussing our experience with yoga, and why we joined this service in particular. I have had a year or two of Yoga experience, often doing Hot Yoga with my mum. Therefore I believe my past knowledge and interest in Yoga, especially the importance of breathing and focus, can help the group. My main focus with this service was to aim to decrease the stigmatization of individuals with physical and intellectual disabilities (ID). Being enrolled in UWC for nearly 8 years, I have had a lot of exposure and experience in service, especially working with individuals with intellectual disability. Previously I had worked with the organisation: Christian Outreach to the Handicapped. Though compared to the other members in my team I felt quite confident and relaxed about the working with individuals with ID, I was still new and nervous with the physicality of the one on one yoga session, afraid and unaware of the level of physical interaction I could carry out.
Research Process
As a team we researched and brainstormed possible questions but also got familiar with some of the conditions our clients are faced with. This was we have a solid foundation of knowledge by collecting secondary and primary data through the internet and first hand interview with the representatives of Tampines Minds. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OLe1BgnDeFsxsovR5Icado8dZ9_lhXcScKOLTTxnykI/edit
(LO6) After the meeting with the two representatives of MINDS Tampines, it became clear to me that this service is much more than yoga or the chance for our clients to enhance their physical wellbeing. Although that is a large focus, I now understood that this service is an opportunity for our clients to interact more with other people to encourage social inclusion by bettering their social skills and practice what is accepted in everyday society. Little shifts in habit, like opting for a handshake instead of a hug, can make their integration into society a smoother process.
Brainstorming potential questions for the interview with MINDS
The first hand interview with our client at MINDS proved extremely useful as we were taught key information we we missed out on in the initial research step we did the session before. We were introduced to one major mindset we should avoid: the encouragement of Learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is a mental state in which an individual will belief that one is incapable of accomplishing the task at hand. In the context of Yoga with MINDS, learned helplessness can arise if us students help too much. E.g lifting their arms for them instead of allowing them to take the time to carry out the task on their own. Overtime the individual will learn to not try. To avoid this we follow these steps when carrying out the Yoga session.
Demonstrate
Observe reaction
Take appropriate measure of support for example guide their hands
Slowly lesson support to encourage independence
(LO2) A large obstacle for me was figuring out how to communicate with and support individuals who are Non-verbal. I then found that those individuals still like to be supported by verbal communication even though they do not respond and that because they may not adequately communicate it verbally we can gage their comfort level or thoughts by reading their facial and gestural expressions.
Often I wonder to what extent are we held responsible for caring for and making progress towards the integration of people with ID. This highlights the ethical implications (LO7) of working with individuals with ID as one must be well trained an informed to not provoke negative impacts. Therefore we underwent 2 sessions of yoga training specific towards supporting people with ID to create the best possible environment for our clients.
