Quarantine life:)

I think even though the number of cases has gone down these days, there are a lot of uncertainties in terms of school assessments and just our learning in general. And as we are currently in grade 11, which is considered one of the most important year in high school, I have been doing lots of assessments like physics IA at home which I didn’t expect at all. For that reason, I didn’t have much time to take care of myself. However, I think I tried to find some time to do small things that make me happy and allow me to stay healthy both physically and mentally. For example, I do stretching during break time and try to eat healthy food. Also, I try to get decent amount of sleep. Also, I try to stay on top of my assessment and write down all the important deadlines and tasks not to forget anything and blame myself.

 

Yoga with Tampines MINDS seaon 3 interim reflection

Obviously, when we came back from our Chinese New Year holiday, Covid-19 situation got worse and we could not invite our partners to school anymore. This was a big change which I did not like at all. But since we all understood that health is more important than anything, I think we should find ways to keep in touch with our service partners. for the first few weeks in season 3, we had a huge conference where all the services talked about ways to continue service during covid crisis. And we also had discussions within our service on how to support our partners. I think we were not as motivated at that time as we knew that yoga activity won’t be able to be held online and that means we need to find something else to do through video calls which did not seemed so plausible. But we still worked together to come up with ideas like sending letters to them with pretty decorations which I think was a very sweet idea. I again realised the importance of adapting ourselves to the given situation which I think we could do as a group. I hope covid cases will decrease for us to continue our yoga sessions.

Dance showcase end of season 2(final) reflection

Until the Chinese New Year holiday, we mainly focused on learning the dances that we are going to perform. All of us had to learn the choreography  of the song “friends like me” and we divided into two groups where my group learned the jazz-style choreo and the other group learned contemporary dance. As we did not have enough time, we had to learn the dance pretty quickly and had to recall all the moves we learned before the following week during the rehearsal. I sadly forgot most of the moves we learned before CNY after I came back from the holiday, which made me worry a lot. I did not want to be a burden to my group, so I practiced really hard at home. Also, people in my dances helped me a lot and as we practiced as a group, I could memorise the dance quite well. Something challenging was that we were missing few people including one of our leaders that could not come to school due to corona virus. We had to learn formation but it was quite hard to learn it with few people missing as we also had to consider their positions. However, dance leaders uploaded diagram showing our formation on group chat and we could easily figure out formations. We started putting a lot of extra efforts and time 2 weeks before the dance showcase. We practiced during the weekends and after school. Sometimes, as group members were free at different dates and they were all busy so it was hard to come up with the slot where everyone was free. I also had to study for the tests and hoped we could practice after my test to be honest but I could actually managed to do as much work as I would have done if I did not have weekend rehearsals and through this experience, I learned that managing my time is really hard and that doing it well could enable me to do activities I like which will give me positive energy that will keep me motivated and bring some happiness into my life:)

 

 

 

String ensemble Season 3 reflection

During season 3, we faced uncertainties as we were not sure whether we could do a performance in esplanade or not. One day, we heard that our performance has been cancelled due to Covid-19 which was very dissapointing. Everyone seemed to be dissapointed and discouraged at first and I also was. I remember how me and other people complained about how this corona virus situation is affecting everything negatively and that it is totally weird situation. But after thinking about how I should respond to this unexpected change, I got to change my mind. I realised that having a concert or a large performance should not be the only purpose for practicing. I believe that just gathering during lunch and collaborating with other members means a lot by itself. And I think I am so grateful for being able to still come to school and participate in activities like string ensemble during pandemic crisis where most other countries are closing schools. Collaborating with people face to face has been harder these days in other countries. I think developing collaboration skills will be my goal during my whole life as it is so important. A lot of peolple(including me) tend to focus on what they are responsible for even when they are working as a group, and I think that is a very misleading idea as I learned from my experience in string ensemble that listening to others’ sound is as more important as hearing my cello sound. And I talk a lot about the pieces we are practicing with other cellist, especially with Shreya and Christine. I have lunch with Christine and Ayami before the rehearsal and we talk about the pieces we are playing.  We talk about what position(first,second, or third) will be better suited for specific notes and etc. I also enjoy and cherish those conversations. I really like the fact that I genuinely enjoy  going to the rehearsals so much.

Yoga with Tampines MINDS end of season2 reflection

Most of our service partners that visit us to do yoga are people with intellectual disabilities. I initially thought that doing yog could be hard for some of our clients butI now know that our service is important to clients because it not only provides with them a mental and physical benefit but the partnership and interaction with us which guide them on how to interact with others and easily integrate into society. This service also give them an opportunity to go against the stigmas and stereotypes associated with intellectual disabilities. Majority of people treat people with intellectual disabilities differently without even noticing. This makes those with intellectual disabilities isolate themselves from social groups/ society. It is important for them to realise that there is an opportunity for them to take roles in our society and to learn how to behave when interacting with people. By taking roles as a instructor that teaches yoga to our partner, we could learn how to communicate with people with intellectual disabilities and sometimes had difficulties understanding their words and gesture. Especially my partner did not even try to listen to me at first and she kept saying she wanted to go to the restroom. I did not know what to do and it was hard to communicate with her.  After manny trials and errors of my attempt to communicate,  I realised that every single partners has different level of yoga skills and communication skills  that I shouldn’t treat all of them the same as help/support they need are all different. It was also an important learning for me as when I first started the service, I had some worries such as “what if I cannot understand what our partner is saying in the middle of the yoga sessions?” However, I learnt how to persuade them to stay and as I tried my best to do so,  they started accepting my request.

String Ensemble season 2 final reflection

During season 2, we focused on practicing the pieces we were going to perform in our concert. We repeated several sections of the pieces that we were struggling with, one of which was Mozart’s piece. Actually, cello part of that song is very easy compared to fast and tricky main melody that violinists have to play. This happens quite often as the cello usually plays the base note to create harmony with the main melody. When I was in primary school orchestra in Korea, conductor used to spend a lot of time putting effort into improving violinists’ skills and I used to think that the base sound of cello is not that important and I imagined what it would feel like to play main melody. However, through practicing with such a small group like ensemble, I realised that the fact that I learned how to listen to other sounds helped me become better cellist not only as a solo player but also as part of a group pf musicians. This is something I’ve always tried to do but never succeeded. This requires me to not only  count the beats but listen to the main melody as the cello usually plays base notes and  once I could hear the main melody, it becomes so much easier to count the beats when other players are playing their instruments and we are waiting. However, I think I will need to work more on dynamics(forte and piano for example).

Orchestra Initial reflection

I was involved in orchestra last year as well and signed up for it again this year since I could learn how to listen to other players/sounds while playing my instrument which is cello.  i’m really excited to continue this activity and expect to be able to build new skills.This year, we had new students joining orchestra and I am so happy about that as I will be able to get to know more people. We also got pieces we are going to be practicing this year and one of them was my favourite carol song . I am so excited to be part of this orchestra and can’t wait to perform in Wavelength to show effort we have been putting to the crowd.

Yoga with Tampines MINDS Season 2 interim reflection

Similar as before, we had our partners coming on a regular basis. I liked how my partner always came while some other people who used to come stopped coming. I think this was a indicator that I was doing quite well. To be honest, my partner still did not want to follow some moves. To help her stretch her body and relax her body and minds, I had to tell her to participate more and be more focused on the program. But at the same time, I knew that it was not only that she did not want to do it, but I could see that her being not as flexible than others sometimes made her give up doing postures. It was rather something more like fear. I faced this internal conflict for which I had to use my moral principle wisely to solve.

I decided to make her participate more by doing what she does. When she kept staring at the wall, I did the same, waiting for her to be back to the program. I lay down on the floor when she did so. I think this trial was effective as I did not offend or hurt her by forcing her to participate but rather I waited for her to back to the yoga mode. Through this experience, I realized that I am good at reading others mind and considering the impact of my actions on them before taking actions. I think it is skill that is very important. I will continue to try my best to make my partner participate more.